In today’s Social Velocity interview I’m talking with Pat Lawler. Pat is the CEO of Youth Villages, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping emotionally and behaviorally troubled children and their families live successfully. Youth Villages is often heralded as a model for high performing nonprofit organizations. In 2006, Lawler was recognized as one of “America’s […]
nonprofit planning
5 Ways Great Strategy Can Transform a Nonprofit
I’ve been working with several clients lately to create a strategic plan, and I love the moment when the real value of the strategic plan and the process of creating one becomes blatantly obvious. It’s the point at which board, staff, funders start to see the possibility that the plan holds for the nonprofit and […]
Financing Not Fundraising: Moving Beyond Nonprofit Startup Mode
I get a similar question a lot, “We really want to move our nonprofit out of startup mode but don’t know what the right first steps are.” Although the definition of a “startup” is an organization that has been around for only a few years, there are many nonprofits that are still in startup mode […]
Teaching Our Kids to Build the Computers of the Future
There is a new nonprofit that nicely demonstrates the challenge of identifying a social problem and then developing the right strategy for solving that problem. Code.org’s sole aim is to solve the impending shortage of computer programmers. Because we have grown increasingly dependent on technology in our everyday lives, while our schools have not adequately prepared […]
The State of the Nonprofit Sector in 2013
The Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) today released the results of their fifth annual State of the Nonprofit Sector survey. This year almost 6,000 nonprofits responded and the results point to a nonprofit sector that is shifting fundamentally, where traditional funding sources (like government dollars) are shrinking, while demand for services is increasing. Nonprofit leaders must […]