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nonprofit capacity

Featured Posts

Nonprofit Leaders Deserve So Much More

Nonprofit Leaders Deserve So Much More

May 6, 2020 By Nell Edgington

Perhaps one of the worst things about this pandemic is that in practicing social distancing for days on end we begin to believe that we are alone. Zoom calls, emails and conversations with the same few people you are quarantining with can only get you so far. The silence, the physical distance from staff, board, […]

Social Velocity Tools Are Back, and Now Free to Download!

Social Velocity Tools Are Back, and Now Free to Download!

January 22, 2020 By Nell Edgington

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 […]

How to Overcome the Social Change Overwhelm

How to Overcome the Social Change Overwhelm

October 28, 2019 By Nell Edgington

Last week I was talking to a nonprofit leader who was completely overwhelmed. She was exhausted, worn down, and full of self doubt. And it wasn’t the garden-variety overwhelm that comes from the normal nonprofit lack of resources. This was a deep and troubling hopelessness about the very burden she as a social change leader […]

How Board Members Can Stop Nonprofit Leader Burnout

How Board Members Can Stop Nonprofit Leader Burnout

September 9, 2019 By Nell Edgington

This summer, after much convincing, one of my clients (who was close to burnout) reluctantly took a long weekend off. She said it felt amazing. But she also felt guilty. It is insane that three very short days away felt somehow wrong to this beleaguered nonprofit leader. But, her plight, nonprofit leader burnout, is so […]

3 Things I Wish Funders Would Ask Nonprofits

3 Things I Wish Funders Would Ask Nonprofits

May 2, 2017 By Nell Edgington

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 […]

How Funders Can Help Overcome the Overhead Myth

How Funders Can Help Overcome the Overhead Myth

February 14, 2017 By Nell Edgington

Note: In April I will be moderating a panel at the Center for Effective Philanthropy Conference about what funders can do to support nonprofit sustainability. To promote that panel and the conference, the Center for Effective Philanthropy asked me to write a post for their blog, which is reprinted below. You can see the original post […]

Nonprofit Leaders Have the Power to Create Capacity Funding

Nonprofit Leaders Have the Power to Create Capacity Funding

October 13, 2016 By Nell Edgington

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, […]

A Nonprofit “Culture of Philanthropy” Is Not Enough

A Nonprofit “Culture of Philanthropy” Is Not Enough

March 3, 2016 By Nell Edgington

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 […]

What Nonprofits Don’t Get About Marketing

What Nonprofits Don’t Get About Marketing

September 8, 2015 By Nell Edgington

In the nonprofit world marketing is fairly misunderstood. “Marketing” is the act of segmenting the potential market for your products or services and then targeting the right segment(s) in order to convince them to “buy.” While in the for-profit world there is typically just one customer, in the nonprofit world there are (at least) two distinct […]

It’s Not All Up to You

April 13, 2022 By Nell Edgington Leave a Comment

I will admit that I am often the QUEEN of going it alone. I sometimes (ok, maybe more often than I’d like to admit) believe that it’s all up to me.  And I see this so often in social change leaders just like you who unknowingly suffer from the “Go it Alone” mentality. This mentality […]

plane taking off

5 Traits of a Nonprofit Ready to Take Off

March 5, 2019 By Nell Edgington 2 Comments

In consulting with a nonprofit my role is to guide the organization to the next level. Perhaps they want to dramatically grow their impact or influence, or they want to develop a truly sustainable financial model, or they want to become a national player. Whatever their aim, my role is to help them figure out […]

Creating Honest Conversations Between Nonprofits and Funders: An Interview With Eric Weinheimer

August 29, 2017 By Nell Edgington Leave a Comment

In today’s Social Velocity blog interview, I’m talking with Eric Weinheimer, President and CEO of Forefront, the only regional association that represents grantmakers, nonprofits, advisors, and social entrepreneurs. With 1,100 members in Illinois, Forefront provides education, advocacy, and research, and mobilizes its members around issues that are important to the nonprofit sector. Prior to his current […]

Planning for Nonprofit Success: An Interview With David Grant

June 29, 2017 By Nell Edgington 2 Comments

In this month’s Social Velocity interview, I’m talking with David Grant. David is the former President and CEO of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and past chair of the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers. He now consults nationally with nonprofits, foundations, and schools and is the author of The Social Profit Handbook: The Essential Guide to Setting […]

10 Great Social Innovation Reads: April 2017

May 4, 2017 By Nell Edgington Leave a Comment

April saw a debate about whether or not crowdfunding is transforming philanthropy, critiques of Harvard Business School, a report on the lack of philanthropy in the Deep South, a first-person account of the effects of founder’s syndrome, and tools to help more funders engage in advocacy. Add to that a new Supreme Court Justice, some new […]

Putting Wealth to Work for Social Value Creation: An Interview with Jen Ratay

April 18, 2017 By Nell Edgington Leave a Comment

In this month’s Social Velocity interview, I’m talking with Jen Ratay. Jen is executive director of the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund – SV2, a community of families and individuals who come together to learn about effective giving and impact investing while pooling their resources and skills to support promising social ventures. Prior to taking […]

Nonprofit Capacity Building Works: An Interview with Kathy Reich

March 21, 2017 By Nell Edgington Leave a Comment

In this month’s Social Velocity interview, I’m talking with Kathy Reich. Kathy leads the Ford Foundation’s BUILD initiative both in the United States and in 10 global regions. BUILD is an essential part of the foundation’s strategy to reduce inequality, a strategy arising from the conviction that healthy civil society organizations are essential to driving and […]

10 Great Social Innovation Reads: Feb 2017

March 2, 2017 By Nell Edgington Leave a Comment

Whew, are you as exhausted as I am? As I said last month, with the January inauguration of President Trump, it seems we moved into hyper drive. And February didn’t slow down a bit. From debates about the right political role for nonprofits, to advocacy in new areas like science, to efforts to reinvent journalism, […]

Investing in Stronger Nonprofits: An Interview with Linda Baker

December 6, 2016 By Nell Edgington 1 Comment

In this month’s Social Velocity interview, I’m talking with Linda Baker. Linda is the Director of Organizational Effectiveness at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. In this role, she leads the Organizational Effectiveness (OE) team as they invest in grantees to build their core strengths and maximize their impact. Through these investments, the OE team aims […]

10 Great Social Innovation Reads: Sept 2016

October 4, 2016 By Nell Edgington Leave a Comment

A lot of the conversation in September centered around inequality, philanthropy and data. When do data and philanthropy address inequality and when do they actually reinforce it? And if you add to that discussion about whether donors really care about impact; concern about the distracting, addicting influence of social media; and a call for philanthropists to be more supportive of nonprofit […]

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