Crutchfield

From a Lady Gaga prayer bracelet to special sushi rolls at restaurants, the disaster in Japan has led to a rash of relief efforts.

But as consumers become increasingly skeptical of cause-related marketing, celebrities, organizations and major marketers have to walk a fine line, trying to help without appearing to exploit the tragedy for profits.

The economic crisis has put nonprofit organizations in a double bind. On the one hand, social-service organizations like food banks, rescue missions and health clinics have seen demand for their services skyrocket as the unemployment rate rises and Americans see their savings, home values and retirement accounts plummet. Yet while the demand for nonprofit services is rising, in a severe economic downturn it's harder than ever to raise dollars to pay for those services.

CHICAGO, IL, April 2, 2009 — North Park University announced today that registration is now available for its 10th Annual Axelson Center Symposium, one of the largest gatherings of nonprofit professionals and volunteers in the greater Chicago area. The event, which will take place May 13 - 14 at North Park University, includes more than 30 regional and national speakers and will provide free nonprofit consulting services at various times throughout both days.

John Melia is a no-nonsense kind of guy. He’s got what seems at first to be the naïve determination of a child building sand castles at water’s edge, not quite cognizant of the fact that the surf could swoop in at any moment and wreak havoc. It’s a refreshing assessment. But it’s also wrong. At 42, the wounded Gulf War vet and founder and executive director of the Jacksonville, Fla.-based Wounded Warrior Project is far from naïve about the way nonprofit organizations have historically worked. He just cuts the crap and focuses on how they should work. And in the case of WWP, how

The U.S. has 1.5 million nonprofits that account for more than $1 trillion of the country’s economy. Over the last 15 years, nonprofits actually have grown faster than the rest of the economy and currently are the third largest industry in the U.S., behind retail and wholesale trade but ahead of banking and telecommunications.   So with the playing field getting larger and larger, something begs to be asked. What makes a great nonprofit? Which are the crème de la crème, and how did they attain such a level of success? This is the question that Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant meticulously answer