NonProfit Pro

"Unfortunately, boards of directors have no clear model to follow when it comes to developing the strategic roles that is best suited to the (organization) they oversee. ... More importantly, the board must play a role that matches the strategic needs of the (nonprofit) and the state of its (mission's) sector." For both nonprofits and for-profits the strategic plan needs to be updated or revised every three to five years in a 21st century environment.

Three Strategic Dimensions

1. Nonprofits define strategies in many different ways. A great deal depends on whether or not the board has several directors...

Big changes have happened at Google, and whether your website is mobile or not is going to affect how they serve up search results. Pay attention!

Ned Breslin, CEO of Water for People, is stepping down after nine years to become executive vice president for partnership and strategic investment at the Wounded Warrior Project.

"I'm really proud of what we've done," Mr. Breslin said of his tenure at Water for People, an international development organization. "We have great results in the field, more money than we ever had, and created a great reserve fund. Starting at the end of last year, I started to sit back and say, 'I need a new challenge.'"

For that challenge, he decided to consider a cause other than...

Merkle announced the launch of its new Data Management Cloud bundled solution. The Data Management Cloud, the foundation of Merkle's connected customer platform, provides marketers across industries with an integrated, layered set of components that enable meaningful customer experiences.

I often run into fundraisers who somehow get it in their head that their donors only support their organization. Now, I know if they were being honest and really thought about it they would admit this is not true, but emotionally they act like their donors couldn't possibly support other causes. This is a problem. It's the monopoly mentality.

If you want to create a corporate culture that embraces millennials (and you should), take a close look at the six-month research update to the 2014 Millennial Impact Report, the latest update to a five-year study conducted by Achieve, the research arm of Forte Interactive, and sponsored by The Case Foundation.

How do you engage millennials in corporate volunteering and giving programs? And how does this sort of cause engagement relate to accepting a job and employee satisfaction? As I have written about previously, different generations approach volunteering differently, so cause engagement is not a one-size-fits-all proposition.

In Pinellas County, Florida, drama on the board of Pinellas County Homeless Leadership Board is playing out in full view, apparently over just what kind of leadership to utilize to shift to a "housing first" policy to underwrite its grantmaking.

Three members of the board believe that they will have to force their grantees to follow the "housing first" policy, and twelve others thought that point of view was just wrong. The three outliers, however, include the local sheriff, the county commissioner and the local public defender.

"If we don't have some type of clout, we're not going to...

Continuing my follow-up to the NonProfit PRO webinar David Gunn from Salsa Labs and I presented, here are my answers to some of the questions people submitted. As I said last week, often what one person is asking is the unvoiced question of others.

UCLA's graduate management school will receive $100 million from the widow of its namesake, businessman John Anderson, officials are announcing Thursday.

Marion Anderson made the donation as the UCLA business school has become mainly self-supporting; it no longer receives state funds for master's degree programs and relies more heavily on donors.

The gift will be split: $60 million will establish an endowment for financial aid, faculty stipends and research, and the remaining $40 million will go toward about half the cost of a new building projected to be built next door to the current complex.

Collecting data meaningful to gaining better results is within our grasp. GuideStar understands that donors need a way to evaluate their gifts. But they also understand that the data has larger meaning and potential.