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Passion Meets Professionalism: Transitioning from Volunteer Leaders to Paid Staff
Imagine executives from the six largest school meal programs in the country, sitting around a table discussing how, together, they could make a difference in school food. By leveraging their buying power, they can change the industry. They decide to be …
The Growth Paradox for Nonprofit Organizations
We have been talking about the Overhead Myth and the Nonprofit Starvation Cycle for many years, but there has been only modest progress on donor demands that result in underinvestment in nonprofit infrastructure, and malnourished organizations. But if …
Does Your Nonprofit Receive Donations of Services, Supplies or Equipment? Changes are Coming!
Changes to How Nonprofit Organizations Report In-kind Contributions of Nonfinancial Assets It is common for nonprofits to receive donations and contributions of nonfinancial assets, more commonly known as in-kind contributions. Typical examples of in-k …
Blue Avocado: What it Takes to Run a Nonprofit
Leann Malone, the Executive Director of Lancaster County First Steps, talks to Blue Avocado about strong business acumen, retaining qualified staff, and keeping the eye on the bottom line. BA: What advice do you have for a young person considering work …
Ask Rita: An Employee Isn’t Holding Up Their End of the ADA Interactive Process—What Do I Do?
Dear Rita, Thank you for your recent answers to my questions about when I am supposed to initiate the ADA interactive process with my employee who was having performance and productions process. Now, I have some questions about the other end of the pro …
Transition Tips for Chief Executives and Boards of Directors
The stronger the relationship between the board and chief executive, the better they work together for a planned transition. I’d love for the board of directors to be my close friends. Who wouldn’t? They are thoughtful, funny, interesting people. Yet i …
How to Improve Nonprofit Culture Through Mission and Values Realignment
We’ve all seen cultural problems: low morale, burnout, turnover, lackluster results, low client satisfaction, and donor attrition. We hire new staff, we hold team-building events, we might even bring in a consultant to determine the causes. But there i …
Role of the Nonprofit CFO in Executive Management: The Watchdog Responsibility
Standing before the board to report executive fraud or unethical behavior—that’s an image that no CFO likes to contemplate. The board expects the Executive Director (ED) and CFO to work in partnership to further the mission, but most boards also expect …
Role of the Nonprofit CFO in Executive Management: The CFO-ED Relationship
In the capacity of CFO for the past 25 years, I have partnered with seven executive directors in four different nonprofits. I have worked with an athletic director, an artist, and a number of social workers, and I have found nothing more satisfying tha …
Why Social Movements Require Entrepreneurial Values
When the news broke a few months back about my nonprofit Swipe Out Hunger acquiring the College and University Food Bank Alliance (CUFBA), we received an overwhelming positive response alongside a dose of skepticism about the term “acquire.” “Acquire? …
