“Let everything happen to you,” said the poet Rilke. “Beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.”
One of the under-appreciated aspects of working and volunteering in the nonprofit sector is the vividness of experience we have with beauty and terror, with despair and exaltation, with fear and with urgent hope. That hope can be as global as world hunger, as intimate as one person seeking release from demons, as workaday as needing that check to come through before payroll.Â
At Blue Avocado we see ourselves as community organizers: supporting and organizing nonprofits into the self-aware, powerful force for social change that we aspire to be. This issue we have some big articles — on the importance of the Census and a First Person Nonprofit Story from a retiring activist — but first some brief queries and announcements:
- Nonprofit banking needs: please help with a new project by answering this brief survey on nonprofit banking and financial services; click here and thank you!
- For an upcoming article on unusual board terms of office (such as one board we know with sequential terms of 1, 3, and 2 years), click here so we can contact you for more information.
- Fundraising software bargain: Exceed! is making its Basic version available for just $99 to eligible Blue Avocado readers (an 80% discount) for just three days starting March 16. Look into it now, and mark your calendars so you can get it at this amazing price (and help Blue Avocado, too).
- Ever wonder about the “story behind the story” in Blue Avocado articles?
Become a Facebook “fan” of Blue Avocado by clicking here or by searching in Facebook for “blueavocado.org” and signing up as a fan (we just started this). - Deadline approaching for Just Awards nominations: Nominate a foundation for “Most Narcissistic Behavior by a Funder” or a publication/website for “Most Abominable Coverage of the Nonprofit Sector.” Do it NOW!
- Thanks to so many new members/donors to Blue Avocado! If y
ou joined at the $45 level or above, your flash drive will be on its way to you in a few days. Thank you for your patience.Â
And speaking of “everything” . . . what did the Buddhist monk say when he went up to the hot dog vendor? “Make me one with everything.” Enjoy the week. –Jan Masaoka
Thank you for the joke at the end. I needed a good laugh today! Oh, and thank you for all the great content too.
this is really interesting..!!