As much as we might like to deny it, nonprofits exist in a market economy, which means that nonprofits, like everything else, must compete for customers and resources. Therefore it is critical that you understand where your nonprofit fits in the market. While a business has one customer, a nonprofit has at least two distinct customer groups: […]
nonprofit board of directors
A Summer To Do List for Nonprofit Leaders
Memorial Day is almost here, and in my mind that means so is the beginning of summer. While work surely carries on over the summer months, for many of us there tends to be more space to reflect, recharge, and reconnect with your core. But you have to make time for it. Sometimes nonprofit leaders […]
Do You Know Your Nonprofit’s Target?
When I work with nonprofit leaders to create a strategic plan, one of the first things we do together is create a Theory of Change. A Theory of Change is an articulation of why your nonprofit exists — what you ultimately hope to accomplish. The Theory of Change is the culmination of answers to a set of 5 […]
When Individual Donor Fundraising Goes Well
This week the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund released the second in their series of reports about fundraising. Their Fundraising Bright Spots report, by Kim Klein from Klein & Roth Consulting and Jeanne Bell from CompassPoint, joins their Beyond Fundraising report, released last month. These two reports are part of the Haas, Jr. Fund’s larger “Resetting Development” effort […]
Why Some Nonprofits Aren’t Ready for a Strategic Plan (Yet)
Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge believer in strategy. I talk about it All. The. Time. I firmly believe that every nonprofit should have a long-term strategy with a corresponding financial model. But sometimes a nonprofit is not quite ready to create that long-term strategy because they don’t know what they don’t know. When a […]