NonProfit Pro

Corporate growth is almost always a good thing. It can augment the bottom line, create new jobs and open new business opportunities. Yet, expansion can sometimes create unforeseen human resource issues, especially in small organizations. In a rush to fill the personnel gap growth creates, companies often accelerate staffing actions without first assuring structures are in place to maintain organizational identity.

Announcing the winners of the 2015 Nonprofit Professionals of the Year Awards. Category: Unsung Heroes of the Year.

People on the move in the nonprofit world for May 2015.

The best nonprofit points-of-contact with volunteers generally, or volunteer fundraisers specifically, reinforce the idea in that person that they are good. If successful, we help our targets self-identify as being good to the point that they work for free for our nonprofits, donate to our nonprofits and fundraise for our nonprofits.

The National Football League is giving up its controversial tax-exempt status, according to the New York Times.

With both Commissioner Roger Goodell and Houston Texans owner Robert McNair calling it a "distraction," Goodell said in a letter to team owners that "the league office and its management council will file tax returns as taxable entities for the 2015 fiscal year." The commissioner made the switch after team owners gave the league's finance committee and management council the authority to change the tax status at meetings in March.

According to Bloomberg News, Goodell's memorandum said the NFL's tax-exempt status had...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a Florida rule that said that candidates for judicial office could not personally solicit funds while they are candidates.

"Judges are not politicians, even when they come to the bench by way of the ballot," Chief Justice John Roberts in an opinion joined by the liberals on the bench. "A State may assure its people that judges will apply the law without fear or favor—and without having personally asked anyone for money."

Thirty-nine states use elections to select some of their judges, and 30 of those limit the ways that judicial candidates...

Over the past couple of months a number of nonprofit executives have reached out to me regarding their fundraising events. You'd be right—and wrong. What I'm really focused upon is getting clarity in your fundraising program objectives and then choosing the vehicles that will achieve those objectives.

The St. Louis Cardinals are suing a nonprofit for fraud, alleging that it scalped thousands of choice game tickets for profit that were supposed to be used to support youth baseball.

The Leagues of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which according to the suit runs the Lewis & Clark Baseball League, was allotted 3,500 tickets last year at a discounted price through the team's Ticket Consignment Contracts program, the suit says. The program provides cash grants and discounted tickets to youth-focused charities.

The tickets were supposed to be used for fundraising efforts to support youth participation in amateur baseball, according to the suit.

The practice of fundraising is constantly changing to take advantage of new technologies, shifts in donors' preferences, lower-cost options, and so much more that affects the way we do business as fundraisers. Each time I teach a course in fundraising, I am reminded of the very thin line between what I can teach from years and years of solid experience—and what I teach based heavily on what I have read, heard and to a lesser degree, done.

Recent tweets from folks you should follow.