Executive Issues

Separating mission work from fundraising work is a deeply rooted practice in nonprofit. I challenge that. I challenge the idea that there is any scenario where a complete separation is necessary or more productive than collaboration. Here is a good illustration of what could be....

Fundraising is hard, and it's only getting harder. That's according to the latest "Nonprofit Pulse," a survey from accounting firm Marks Paneth. Of the 114 CEOs, executive directors and other high-ranking officers at major nonprofits surveyed, 47 percent said that donor demand for better impact reporting (or social return on investment) has made it "challenging" or "extremely challenging" to raise funds...

Fundraising is difficult, no matter how you slice it. Your fundraising team is hard at work, finding prospects, writing letters and grants, “following up” countless times—you know the story. So why hamstring yourself further by ignoring state charitable solicitation requirements? You could be losing crucial gifts and credibility with donors without even knowing it...

He was driving around for almost half an hour. He was lost. He had no idea where he was. Even his GPS was no help. There was no way he was going to get to his destination. There was no source of information he could tap into. Does this scenario sound familiar? Have you ever been with someone who was lost who keeps driving around saying things like, “Seriously, I think it’s right up this street,” or, “We’re pretty close,” but he or she will not stop and ask someone for directions?...

Goodwill Industries of Toronto, Eastern, Central and Northern Ontario (TECNO) has had a tough 2016 so far. The nonprofit abruptly closed all of its locations Jan. 17, lost its affiliation with Goodwill Industries International (GII) Feb. 5 and filed for bankruptcy Feb. 8....

A scam targeting nonprofits in Virginia that we reported last week appears to have spread across the country. Authorities in Seattle called the scam “an old con,” but indicated they believe nonprofits are being targeted in Washington and Oregon....

Eric is the development officer for a youth-related charity in the Southeast. Eric, his executive-director boss and I had a very productive 30-minute phone call a couple of weeks ago. Eric wants to be perfect. So does his boss. Wouldn’t we all?

If you are a leader in any way, shape or form, mushrooms can roll uphill on you. It doesn’t matter whether you are leading your event income department, your 10-year-old in doing homework, your Boy Scout troop or your company—if you lead, the mushroom can roll uphill on you. The worst of it is—if the mushroom is rolling uphill on you, it is because you let it, even unwittingly asked for it.

I remember when, decades ago, a community foundation in the Northeast decided to study the outcome of a grants initiative to build fundraising capacity at local nonprofits. Many of those grants were targeted to seed the funding of a development director under the assumption that the position would pay for itself many times over in subsequent…

The nonprofit sector is changing, and you need to be ready. So, NonProfit PRO reached out to some of the sector’s brightest minds and biggest innovators for predictions on what’s in store for the 
coming year. In all, we received 80 trends from 44 leaders at 34 nonprofits, agencies and consulting groups, covering everything from leadership issues to giving trends to big ideas...