Executive Issues

In the nonprofit arena, especially the fundraising profession, leaders are often called upon to be change agents.

When leaders manage charitable organizations with clear visions, realistic expectations and sound budgets, that overhead spend tends much closer to the public’s ideal of 23 cents per dollar. The key is finding a balance between the costs of overhead support for the mission and the mission itself, and the answer is often found in the realm of business...

A new report produced by Imperative and Anna Tavis, an adjunct professor at the School of Professional Studies at NYU, says that “purpose-driven workers” are more valuable to employers than workers more motivated by other things. According to the study, only 28 percent of the population is purpose-driven, but—no surprise—nonprofits have more than their share…

Today, I’m asking you to consider becoming a mentor to someone in our profession. As you know, major gift fundraising a tough job. It’s incredibly emotionally draining. There is a lot of second-guessing and wondering if you’re doing the right thing. This is where you come in. Unless you are absolutely new to major gift fundraising, you have experiences, mistakes and successes to help guide someone who desperately needs it...

The Arizona attorney general's office says it shut down a veterans-charity scam that bilked about $750,000 from seniors across the U.S. suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and other memory-related disorders. Attorney General Mark Brnovich and his office terminated three Phoenix telemarketing companies owned by Robert Foster—Happy Hands LLC, Standing Tree LLC and Action Point LLC—as part…

Back in July, Joan Weill, the wife of Citigroup billionaire Sandy Weill, announced she and her husband would donate $20 million to a small, cash-strapped school called Paul Smith's College in New York's Adirondack Mountains with one big string attached: She insisted that the school would have to be renamed in her honor, to forever be…

Groups that solicit and manage donor-advised funds continue to crowd into the upper ranks of America’s biggest charities, according to new Chronicle of Philanthropy data. The United Way hangs on to the No. 1 spot in the Chronicle’s latest Philanthropy 400, the annual list of the U.S. nonprofits that raise the most in private support.…

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson is suing the man who organized this year’s “LoziLu” mud races as fundraisers to fight cancer, saying he has violated charity and consumer protection laws. The action targets Frederick Bradley Kellogg and a Minnesota company called Fresh New Taste LLC that were running women-only obstacle mud races around the country.…

A week after donating $10,000 to a group opposing HERO ordinance, the Houston Texans owner wants his money back. In a tersely worded statement, Texans owner Bob McNair recently asked the Campaign for Houston to return his donation. McNair claims the group attributed statements and beliefs to him without his authorization. The donation was first…

NPQ has written many times about the fact that embezzlement thrives in informal situations, which is a good description of many small nonprofits. But in such organizations, the damage done to internal culture and external reputation may prove hard to heal. Nonprofits that take the issue on with transparency may avoid some of that damage;…