Executive Issues

I declared that resilience was one of my themes for the new year. And, in writing a guest post about it over at the Packard Foundation’s Organizational Effective Blog, I shared the story of the boiling frog. If a frog is dropped into cold water in a sauce pan and brought to a boil slowly,…

A seabird sanctuary founder is continuing to seek donations for his nonprofit, even after being fired and replaced by his son. Now the two generations are heading to court. Ralph Heath, 71, founded Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary in 1972 as a not-for-profit corporation. Located in Indian Shores, Fla., Suncoast hit some turbulence recently when Heath’s children…

The nonprofit foundation that runs San Diego Fleet Week is out of money, and its board has been negotiating with creditors to settle its debts, according to a report. A San Diego Union-Tribune analysis published Saturday found the San Diego Fleet Week Foundation's deepest deficits are tied to its cornerstone event, the Coronado Speed Festival,…

Staffers at Lawrence Hall spend long days working with Chicago's most troubled young people. For their efforts, they're paid not much more than a supervisor at Home Depot. "It's about $14 an hour to do the most acute work in the United States," says Kara Teeple, CEO of Lawrence Hall, a social services agency with…

The majority of philanthropic giving has always primarily come from the rich, given that they have most of the money. As inequality has risen in the U.S. over the last several decades, the share of charitable giving coming from the wealthy has grown, too, worrying some people who fear the increasing power of these big…

I know that many of us have sent out our year-end appeal letter, or are in the process of doing so. Some of us are pouring our blood, sweat and tears into these letters, sometimes literally, with the paper cuts and the occasional weeping over the hundreds or thousands of letters that need to be…

I know many of you are working on your 2017 budgets now, so rather than make you wait until mid-January to get the budget information from our 2017 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report, I’m sharing it with you today. I hope you can use this data to make the case for increasing your budget! Here’s how…

The vast majority of nonprofits may be small, but even the big guys had to start somewhere. And it’s no accident they got so big. Growth is attainable—especially if you know where to start (and you’re willing to get your hands dirty). Here are five more ideas for growing your nonprofit...

Small shop fundraising is a tough job, and its difficulty is often underestimated or ignored entirely. Is it really any wonder that the turnover rate is highest among small shop fundraisers? Far too often, an organization’s board and executive director are focused on the right here and right now. But a smart development director is focused on the long-term sustainability of the organization...

Curiosity has arguably been the catalyst for virtually every significant discovery and innovation known to man. Curiosity led one man to a new world. It was the motivation behind another man’s decision to fly a kite during an electrical storm. And it was a curiosity for typefaces that resulted in one of the most innovative…