Executive Issues

Busy is a term we’ve come to embrace in our society and have even glorified the meaning. You’re busy. I’m busy. We’re all busy. So naturally, your organization’s board chair and CEO are, no doubt, busy. But there’s one thing that simply can’t be put on the backburner if you want your organization to run…

Eighteen nonprofits located in or near Richmond, Va., have reported receiving donation offers from an alleged British philanthropist—who was actually a scam artist....

Peekskill, N.Y, Mayor Frank Catalina is pushing to establish new rules nonprofits must follow before the city selects them to distribute federal and state funds, including a ban on awarding grants to elected officials. In an email Saturday afternoon to council members, Catalina wrote that he plans to work with the city manager and city…

As customer relationship management systems (CRMs) take on a larger role in the nonprofit sector, the admin role is becoming critical for the operations of a data-driven organization. If you have recently taken on the responsibility of an admin, or if this position is in your future, you may wonder if you have what it…

Big strides recently have been made in the acknowledgment that overhead ratios are poor indicators of an organization’s impact or financial efficiency. Although the movement toward outcomes-based measurement offers a promising alternative to understanding impact, very little has been done to truly shift the sector’s understanding of what it takes—or even means—for nonprofits to be…

I was talking to a very talented major gifts officer who had a long track record of success prior to his current assignment. I could tell he was very frustrated. And he felt misunderstood. To put it plainly, he could not get management to understand that without program information he would not be successful....

The chief executive and president of Livestrong resigned Tuesday after less than a year on the job, another blow to the cancer foundation that has struggled with sharp declines in donations and revenue since founder Lance Armstrong's performance-enhancing drug-use scandal. Chandini Portteus said she wanted to focus on her family. She was brought in to…

Struggling professional sports franchises are well-known for seeking out coaches who are “turnaround specialists.” These individuals have a track record of coming into an organization and implementing a system that results in some significant level of improvement, measured in wins.

I know many of my blog readers are senior marketing and fundraising folks, and with this comes the need to be good leaders and take on leadership roles. And, as you read this, I am sure we can all come up with examples throughout our careers where we have been “less than stellar” leaders and when we have had “less than stellar leaders” in our midst....

Today we celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The man embodied many things, but perhaps among his most notable identifiers was that he was a man of remarkable vision. Vision is crucial to inspiring others to give, volunteer and participate. However, many nonprofit leaders spend countless hours writing a compelling vision statement,…