Executive Issues

If you have been trained correctly as a development professional you are taught to be donor-centered, provide outstanding customer-service and essentially strive to say “yes” to donors. I mean, just about every blog post that Richard and I write emphasizes in some way how to best serve your donors. We say it over and over again because, as industry professionals, you still don’t have putting donors first ingrained enough in your DNA. You’re getting better, but we still have work to do.

Small town. The center of culture lives here at this library. And the building is a jewel in the town. Historic. Small staff. Small local board. Not a lot of money for board education. Actually, no money. Also, not a lot of role clarity. In fact, two staff members are also board members. Messy. It’s…

Severance pay should be considered whenever an employee is laid off, is terminated with or without cause, or resigns from employment. Termination can result from a variety of circumstances, some of which may involve contentious people or situations, and difficult issues. Thus, severance pay may be a good risk-management tool for avoiding potential 
litigation, adverse publicity and other claims against a nonprofit employer...

Twice in the past month I visited with a CEO who had the sinking feeling that it was time to replace the nonprofit's chief development officer. The reason in both instances: a failure to connect with people. Both explained that unless pushed, their chief development officers would go to events and prefer to sit at their tables and not connect with the guests...

When it comes to fundraising, far too many nonprofit organizations are wedded to “magic bullet” thinking, mistakenly believing that a miracle solution will arrive and answer their prayers. The problem is, that method of thinking falls into the category of distractions, ultimately wasting your time and diverting your focus from what truly matters. And it is costing you...

Let’s discuss the right way and the wrong way to build a leadership team. A while back I coached a very smart and ambitious young woman who, for the sake of privacy, I’ll call Meg. Meg recently had been promoted to run the communications department of a mid-sized nonprofit. She had never held a senior…

Earlier this year, a series of bad press rocked the popular veterans organization Wounded Warrior Project (WWP). The New York Times' investigation found that while the organization raised an impressive $372 million in donations each year, a big chunk of that money wasn't going to veterans. Instead, the top executives were shelling out nearly 40…

Kevin Spacey said, "If you have done well in whatever business you are in, it is your duty to send the elevator back down and try to help bring up the next generation of undiscovered talent.” I’m not sure when Spacey’s iconic role in "The Usual Suspects" became the go-to for life advice, but I surely agree with the sentiment...

When you work at a small nonprofit or a nonprofit with a very small development staff, life feels very rushed all the time. Who posts on social media? You do. Who updates the website? You do. Who writes the appeals? You do. And maybe you don’t even have a development staff—it’s just you, the executive…

It’s not often that a nonprofit organization provides an object lesson in leadership, financial management, culture and governance all at once. But the grim, at times horrifying, tale of Healing Arts Initiative (HAI) is a special case. HAI is—or, it appears, was—a New York nonprofit that supported the area needy and elderly through arts performances.…