Executive Issues

Financial problems are forcing the closure of NC New Schools/Breakthrough Learning, a champion of specialty and early-college high schools, the nonprofit announced Thursday. The organization had expanded rapidly, said Jeffrey Corbett, president of its board of directors, and the expansion outpaced its funding. "We ran into cash-flow problems that were directly related to growth and…

Presidents of large, private foundations get paid too much. How much? At foundations with budgets greater than $2 billion, the median CEO salary is more than $610,000 a year, not counting some very generous benefits and bonuses, according to the 2015 salary report from the Council on Foundations. That’s very generous. Too generous. I don’t say that…

This week I was visiting with a great mentor—an incredible philanthropist, board member and fundraiser. We are both fans of a friend who recently left a university where the president did not allow anyone else to engage with its top donors and prospective donors...

A really effective executive can make a nonprofit successful. But, a really ineffective or even incompetent executive (e.g., rising to your highest level of incompetence but a really good practitioner) can destroy a nonprofit. And, while there is a modicum of literature about what makes a great executive, there is little literature that describes the…

Rarely in matters related to race can the issues be boiled down to contrasts between black and white. Typically, there are shades of gray that add nuance as to why situations are as they are and we find ourselves debating in those blurred lines. That blurriness is about to gain clarity with a new report…

Like many of us in the nonprofit industry, long ago, I had the misfortune to work as a development associate for a charity rife with dysfunction. For the sake of this article, let’s just refer to it as a nonprofit serving young people. I’m not in the business…

"Act the way you'd like to be and soon you'll be the way you'd like to act," Bob Dylan said. Frequently I hear mentors providing valuable coaching, challenging their mentees to dress, perform and behave like they had the job they aspire to have...

Is there some deep, dark secret lurking in the trenches of nonprofit fundraising, one that is nearly as bleak as the abysmal donor retention rates, one that holds organizations back from realizing their true potential? Yes. The bizarre lengths nonprofit organizations will go to in their endless pursuits of “free” is a bone-deep problem that afflicts organizations of all sizes...

The Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy at Plymouth University has changed its name after receiving a $1 million donation to expand its work. The center has become the Hartsook Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy after receiving the donation from the U.S.-based fundraising consultancy Hartsook. The center said in a statement that it planned to use the funds…

I’m angry. Recently, a major gift officer (MGO) reached out to us at Veritus desperate to understand her problem. "I feel like I’m doing everything wrong," she said. "I read your blog posts about major gifts and that feels right to me, but my boss is saying I have to ask people for money who I’ve never even met or know and, in many cases, have never given before....