Leading Beyond the Blizzard, Andy Crouch, Kurt Keilhacker, and Dave Blanchard. If you’re a leader in an organization, it is time to rewrite your vision deck — that presentation so many organizations have that summarizes who you are, whom you serve, why you serve them, and what you do and how you do it. In this essay the authors argue why they think that for most organizations — businesses, nonprofits, and even churches — this is a time to urgently redesign our work in light of what they believe is not just a weeks-long “blizzard,” not even just a months-long “winter,” but something closer climate change.
Latest Nonprofit Trends, Jarrett O’Brien and Katharine Bierce. The authors found that nonprofits want to develop more effective ways to grow their programs, connect with donors, create better constituent experiences, and engage their partners. Two key findings: the vast majority (85%) of nonprofits surveyed said technology is the key to the success of their organizations, less than one quarter (23%) actually had a long-term strategy and vision for how technology would be used in their organization.
Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses, Nonprofit Finance Fund. Core areas of nonprofit finance assessment tool. Organizations that can clearly and accurately articulate their financial story and resource needs are better positioned to make a strong case for for investment and support.
Three Things Nonprofits Should Prioritize in the Wake of COVID-19, Amy Celep, Megan Coolidge, Lori Bartczak. Nonprofit sustainability, or the ability to continue delivering relevant social impact over the long term, has always been important to nonprofit leaders. But as the spread of COVID-19 causes upheaval in just about every aspect of society and highlights the deep social inequities many nonprofits are working to address, sustainability is becoming even more of a top priority.
Five For-Profit Practices That Philanthropy Should Avoid By Judy Park & Kavya Shankar Aug. 5, 2020. For-profit principles have benefited philanthropy. Recent interviews pose the question, are some investors applying certain for-profit principles from the Silicon Valley startup world to doing good in the not-for-profit environment. Five practices that this article calls into question.
Purpose Driven Board Leadership. Anne Wallestad is president and CEO at BoardSource, The Four Principles of Purpose-Driven Board Leadership. In the face of increasingly pressing systemic inequities, nonprofit boards must change the traditional ways they have worked and instead prioritize an organization’s purpose, show respect for the ecosystem in which they operate, commit to equity, and recognize that power must be authorized by the people they’re aiming to help.
Top 20 Reasons Nonprofits Register for Charitable Solicitation. State charitable solicitation requirements affect nearly every charity that fundraises in at least some way. Simply being recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) organization does not mean that a charity can fundraise limitlessly. Most states also regulate charitable solicitation. 41 states require charities to register to solicit funds. Charities must pay close attention to state solicitation requirements in order to be compliant, avoid penalties, and maintain credibility with their donors.
What You Need to Know about Nonprofit Executive Compensation Prepared by GuideStar. Like religion, politics, and sports, nonprofit executive compensation often evokes strong emotion. Donors, journalists, state officials, and members of Congress frequently express outrage at the salaries nonprofit CEOs receive, especially if the organizations they head are public charities that rely on donations from the public.
Social Media Fact Sheet. Today around seven-in-ten Americans use social media to connect with one another, engage with news content, share information and entertain themselves. Explore the patterns and trends shaping the social media landscape over the past decade.
Older Americans Stockpiled A Record $35 Trillion. The Time Has Come To Give It Away. The greatest wealth transfer in modern history has begun.
Deep Listening. Developing active listening techniques is essential to creating understanding and the authentic relationships.
Understanding and Engaging High Net Worth Donors of Color. This analysis looks at the giving patterns and priorities of high net worth (HNW) people of color.
Mail Innovations. Despite the sharp increase in digital communications in recent years, mail still elicits a strong connection with recipients.
Fundraising Effectiveness Project (Reports). The groundbreaking annual Fundraising Effectiveness Survey, a project of the AFP Foundation for Philanthropy, was piloted in November 2006 and collects fundraising data from nonprofit organizations beginning with data for 2004-2005. The Fundraising Effectiveness Survey enables participating groups to measure and compare their fundraising gain and loss ratios to those of similar organizations.
Participants can use this industry data, which AFP offers free, to make better-informed, growth-oriented budget decisions to boost donor revenue.
Why I Stopped Donating to Your Organization “I have given initial donations of $1,000 to $5,000 to see how organizations respond. I expect them to promptly acknowledge my gift, then explain how it’s being used but I have been surprised and disappointed by their responses — or lack thereof. With new data from Giving USA showing a historic drop in donations to charities, I believe more nonprofits need to listen to what individual donors like me say they need.”
Customer Surveys. For decades, social organizations have struggled to gather meaningful data to prove programs work. Yet a simple and often overlooked measurement solution exists beyond evaluation and monitoring: directly asking constituents for their feedback.