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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? …
How to Unite Your Nonprofit Workforce—and Keep It United Through Misperceptions
Our teams work from different operational levels and knowledge bases than we do. As leaders, we want to consider all these perspectives and areas: research, operations, programming, etc. If we start to focus on our “slice” of the work and our knowledge …
Download Spreadsheet: Forecasting Nonprofit Finances & Pivoting Programs in a Crisis
Though many people see finance as nothing but a collection of terrifying spreadsheets, I see it as the central branch of nonprofit philosophy. When the pandemic hit, our nonprofit changed everything about the way we work—overnight—and spent the …
How to Be a Great Supervisor: Insights Learned from 20 Years of Managing
People are experiencing a level of stress never seen or imagined in the past. We call on employees more than ever to effectively balance their work life with increasing economic, health & safety, family, cultural, and political challenges. How can …
The Power of Shared Power: Co-Directing Nonprofits Through Compassion
We have found that qualitatively, compassion is often perceived as weak, soft, and forgiveness-focused. But compassion is as much about discussion, truth telling, and the hard work of moving forward together. We discovered that many people have a cultu …
A Discussion of The Four Principles of Purpose-Driven Board Leadership– Live Q&A
Thursday, November 4, 2021, 11 a.m PT, 2 p.m. ET (60 minutes) In response to our society’s deep and systemic inequities, BoardSource has evaluated the current state of nonprofit boards. What needs to change to equip boards to govern social secto …
To Solve the Problem, Focus on the Desired Outcome: A Formula for Nonprofits
The gala attendance for your nonprofit is down, year over year. So, you ask, How can we fix our gala attendance? Naturally, this leads to ideas to make the gala snazzier. However, that doesn’t actually solve the shrinking attendance problem. …
[DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE] How to Found and Run a Nonprofit Remotely
Are you founding a nonprofit remotely? Download the free template here. A note from the author to Blue Avocado readers: A few years ago, I was stranded in Malta, a small island country and, with two friends, started to reach out to refuge …
The Worst Way to Share an Idea is to Say, “I Have an Idea.”
How nonprofit employees can help ideas be heard and embraced Bryan has an idea for something he thinks might help his nonprofit. His supervisor, Wanda, already has a lot on her plate at the moment. When Bryan says, “Here’s my idea,” it feels lik …
How to Plan and Execute an Emergency Succession
COVID-19 has had most of us asking generative questions at some point. What is the real purpose of our organization? If we can only do one thing, what should it be? If our leaders become caregivers, sick themselves, or even die, how will the organizati …
