NonProfit Pro

Texas is taking over management of the Alamo, ending the Daughters of the Texas Republic's 110-year management of the site, according to a joint statement issued Thursday. In the statement, Land Commissioner George P. Bush said the General Land Office was taking over the day-to-day management of the downtown San Antonio mission-turned-fortress. The management of the Alamo will transition to office over the next four months.

The largest nonprofit contractor working for the U.S. Agency for International Development during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan billed the government $1.1 million for staff parties and pricey retreats. International Relief and Development collected hundreds of millions of dollars to work in the war zones and help impoverished nations around the world. At the same time—between 2007 and 2010—its executives were using IRD’s government overhead account to fund the parties and retreats, according to financial records provided by IRD to The Washington Post.

What if we are making the world a better place by simply trying to raise money? In our quest to get people to raise more money, we might be making them nicer people. This is the latest social science treasure that the Turnkey resident neuropsychologist, Otis Fulton, noted to me (yelled from the kitchen).

At NTEN’s 2015 Nonprofit Technology Conference, M+R Strategies’ Madeline Stanionis and Marc Reuben held a session that shared some upcoming metrics from the 2015 Benchmark Study. This year, M+R Strategic Services studied 84 participating nonprofits, and this was the first year the benchmark study also looked at cultural organizations.

Some noteworthy trends in online giving: Overall email list growth is increasing, but growth is much slower. Online revenue from email is down. Fundraising open rates increased.

I believe you can teach old dogs new major gifts tricks if you are focused and willing to learn. Use every opportunity for growth, and continually practice your craft. In today's world of fundraising, status quo is not an option!

Recent tweets on nonprofits (#nonprofits).

To get a handle on what’s in store for 2015, NonProfit PRO rounded up some of the nonprofit industry’s finest, who were kind enough to share their nonprofit trends for 2015. Here are four trends on nonprofit messaging.

Nationwide, donor retention has dropped to just under 40 percent for one-year renewals. Compare that to 95-plus percent for commercial firms. Sense a disconnect?

To get a handle on what’s in store for 2015, NonProfit PRO rounded up some of the nonprofit industry’s finest, who were kind enough to share their nonprofit trends for 2015. Here are eight trends on nonprofit leadership and boards of directors.

In an exclusive interview with Fortune, Apple’s human resources chief Denise Young Smith said the company is partnering with several nonprofit organizations on a multiyear, multimillion-dollar effort to increase the pipeline of women, minorities and veterans in the technology industry—and, of course, at Apple.