Creating more strategic, financially savvy, and confident nonprofit leaders and organizations.
I was talking to a nonprofit leader earlier this week who was unknowingly torturing herself. One part of her had a big vision for growing her nonprofit to reach more people and create change to a broken system. But another part of her felt stuck because she lacked so many things to make that big […]
I have been a little absent from the blog in the past couple of months, but I have a good reason. I’ve been working on something I’m pretty excited about. I am in the process of writing a book about how we create more effective, sustainable social change. Rather than depressed by the chaos seemingly […]
Let’s be honest (or obvious) for a second. A feeling of lack often pervades the nonprofit sector. And it can take many forms: “We lack enough money” “We lack access to decision-makers” “We lack permission to move forward” “We lack the right or enough staff” “We lack influential or effective board members” The list of […]
Scarcity thinking is incredibly pervasive in the nonprofit sector. And it makes sense that it would be. Nonprofit leaders have been told for so long that they must scrape by, are not worthy of real investment, and deserve only the leftovers. No wonder the belief that resources are scarce is baked into their DNA. This […]
You know the Nonprofit Savior Complex, I know you do. It’s when a nonprofit leader begins to believe that she (and only she) cares enough, knows enough, or is enough to fix the massive problem she cares so deeply about. The positive side to the Savior Complex is it compels people who see an injustice […]
I think we can all agree that most philanthropists truly want to be helpful to the nonprofit recipients of their dollars. However, because of the inherent power imbalance, it is often challenging, if not impossible, for a funder and a grantee to have a candid conversation about what it will really take to achieve the social change that they […]
I was in a meeting with a group of nonprofit leaders the other day, and one of them voiced an often-heard complaint: “There just aren’t many foundations funding nonprofit capacity building.” I was instantly reminded of my mother’s admonishment when I would come home from school with complaints about a classroom rule or a frustrating teacher. She would say, “Well, […]
The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, a foundation on the forefront of investing in nonprofit capacity and one of the few foundations funding nonprofit leadership development, released a new report this week Beyond Fundraising: What Does It Mean to Build a Culture of Philanthropy?. While I applaud the Haas Fund for taking a pioneering interest in, as […]
In the nonprofit world there is often a disconnect between funders of nonprofits and their understanding of the fundraising activity necessary to secure their gifts. Funders (and board members) rarely understand how critical fundraising is, how it works, and what’s required to do it well. But in the hope that greater understanding leads to better actions, I’d like to offer […]
In a previous article on About.com, I discussed the idea of capacity capital, an incredibly exciting new funding vehicle for nonprofit organizations. Capacity capital is the money that nonprofits so desperately need to build strong, effective, sustainable organizations that can create more social change. It is a one-time investment of money to add new technology, […]
So often in the nonprofit sector scarcity manifests as a lack of money — nonprofit leaders constantly bemoan the (perceived) fact that there just isn’t enough money to go around. But if we dig a little deeper, money is just a means to an end. Likely the first thing you would buy if an abundance […]
There was a really interesting report in the Chronicle of Philanthropy last week about how nonprofits are losing top talent because they aren’t paying enough. Shocking news, I know. But let’s talk for a minute about what is underlying this and how we might move beyond it. The problem, in my mind, is that nonprofit […]
Before a nonprofit can achieve financial sustainability, the nonprofit leader has to figure out how to staff their money raising function effectively. When I conduct a Financial Model Assessment for a client, one of the sections of my final report is always focused on the nonprofit’s staffing structure and how that contributes to or detracts from the nonprofit’s […]
I’m excited to be heading to Pennsylvania next month to speak at the 2016 Nonprofit Day Conference. My keynote address for the conference will be “The Future of the Nonprofit Sector.” I wanted to share an abbreviated version of the speech with you here via the Social Velocity Slideshare library. In my mind, there are some fundamental […]
Lest you think we’ve made headway on overcoming the Overhead Myth (the false notion that nonprofits must keep their fundraising and administrative costs cripplingly low) you need only look as far as a recent Forbes article, “5 Nonprofit Leaders Share How to Keep Overhead Costs to a Minimum.” And this is perhaps even worse because it is nonprofit leaders themselves, […]
Fundraising is such a misunderstood enterprise. And it’s not just misunderstood by nonprofit leaders in the trenches. I was talking to a normally very savvy foundation program officer the other day who wondered if one of his struggling grantees should think about launching a new gala event to raise some additional money. I swallowed my […]
As I mentioned earlier, it is so important to take time away to rejuvenate and reconnect with your passions, family and friends. So I am taking my own advice and taking some time off later this summer to connect with the world outside of social change. And so for the second summer in a row […]
There was a great post on the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog last week that clearly articulates a dysfunction in the nonprofit sector and when recognized by nonprofit leaders and their funders could reshape the sector. Just like the Overhead Myth and other myths that hold the nonprofit sector back, the historic sexism the sector operates under is […]
Earlier this month I participated in a podcast conversation with Joed Lopez of Panvisio as part of their on-going Q2 Podcast series with social sector leaders. We talked about: How broken fundraising is A more effective financing approach Nonprofit fear of money The passion of nonprofit leaders The need to articulate a nonprofit’s message Capacity capital […]
Building and keeping a highly effective nonprofit staff is really tricky. The recently released 2015 Nonprofit Employment Practices Survey from NonprofitHR found that 50% of nonprofits surveyed plan to add new positions in 2015, compared to 36% of private companies. But, staff recruitment and retention are still significant hurdles for nonprofit leaders, with 52% of nonprofits lacking a recruitment strategy […]
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