Recent Posts
Navigating the nonprofit world can be challenging. Blue Avocado offers expert guidance on a range of topics — from building strong boards to maximizing your fundraising impact. Explore our latest posts for practical tips, strategies, and solutions to common issues facing nonprofit organizations today.
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The Worst Way to Share an Idea is to Say, “I Have an Idea”
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Still Publishing Donor Names? Ditch the List
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Practical Guide to How Nonprofits Can Create Equity in Organizations and Community
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Workplace Discrimination Investigations: Do We Need to Hire an External Professional?
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BEYOND JDEI: Advancing Racial Equity in Organizations – Live Q&A
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Ask Rita: FFCRA Paid Leaves 2021—Help!
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Alleviate Accounting Systems & Staff Training Chokepoints to Power Nonprofit Missions: Part 2
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How to Plan and Execute an Emergency Succession
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How Nonprofits Can Return to In-Person Board Meetings and Retreats
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The Employee Retention Credit: What Nonprofits Need to Know
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Ask Rita: Recording Conversations in the Workplace — Do I Have to Put Up with This?
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Alleviate Accounting Systems & Staff Training Chokepoints to Power Nonprofit Missions: Part 1
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Running Your Nonprofit’s Accounting Department During COVID-19 and After
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Making Nonprofit Strategic Planning (Relatively) Painless
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Re-Opening After Covid-19: What Nonprofits Need to Know about Reasonable Accommodation of Employees with Disabilities
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Creating a More Robust Volunteer Development Program
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Ask Rita: We Can Require Employees to Receive the Covid-19 Vaccine—But Should We?
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New York Nonprofit Employees Get Additional Paid Sick and Safe Leave Rights, Part 2
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New York Nonprofit Employees Get Additional Paid Sick and Safe Leave Rights, Part 1
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How to Use Asset-Framing to Strengthen Nonprofit Work
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How Partnerships Help Nonprofits Stand Out in the Race for Funding
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Ask Rita: Can Our Paid Employees Also Do Volunteer Work for Us?
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How to Build a Compassionate Workplace
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Emotional Labor and Othering: Understanding Terms to Create Equity and Inclusion in the Nonprofit Workplace
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A Primer on Nonprofit Contributions and Revenue from Contracts with Customers
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Ask Rita: What Is a Hostile Work Environment?
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Five Examples of Gen Z Innovators Tackling Social Isolation
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Against the Current: Rudy Espinoza’s Request to President-elect Biden
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Strategic Planning 101 for Nonprofits: Strengthen a Nonprofit’s Board-Executive Director Relationship
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Ask Rita: How Can We Help Our Employee Care for Family During COVID-19?
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Ask Rita: I’m Confused Over EXEMPT vs. NONEXEMPT and SALARIED vs. HOURLY Employees
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How to Give Feedback to Your Funders—Especially When It’s Hard
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A Primer on Financial Audits for Nonprofits – Live Q&A
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Best Tactics for Finding Government Grants Suitable for Your Nonprofit
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Against the Current: Matt Jorgensen
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Against the Current: Mitch Gruber
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Ask Rita: How Does the Americans with Disabilities Act Impact Our Efforts to Keep Employees Safe During the Covid-19 Pandemic?
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Are Your Nonprofit Organization’s Stories Dishonoring the Families You Serve?
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Hiring People with Disabilities Is Not a Charity: Here’s Why and How to Stop Paying Subminimum Wage
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Against the Current: Regina Anderson
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Ask Rita: U.S. Supreme Court Granted New Protection for LGBTQ+ Employees—What Do We Need to Know?
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Resiliency in the New Normal: Nonprofit Colleagues Share Their Experiences
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Creating a Roadmap to Synchronize the Board to Your Nonprofit Mission
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Assessing Financial Health in the Time of COVID-19
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Aligning Nonprofit Management Teams and Boards During a Crisis Live Q&A
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Investing in Relationships with Donors: 5 Phases of Securing a Major Gift
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Against the Current: Nihal Satyadev
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Seeking Sustainability: How Can Nonprofits Survive the Pandemic?
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Ask Rita: For What Work-Related Expenses Must I Reimburse Remote Employees?
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The Truth, Even When Unpleasant, Can Always Be Explained: Nonprofit Pointers for Conduct in Court
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Against the Current: Jose “Che” Ramirez
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How Can We Help the Board Address Problematic Behavior from the President?
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In the Shadow of the Pandemic, Nonprofits Form Partnerships to Expand the Meaning of Healthcare
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IRS Tax Form 990 [Deadline Extended]: How to File It, When to File It, and Why It’s So Important
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Against the Current: Eunice Lin Nichols
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Ask Rita: During Covid-19, Do We Furlough or Layoff Staff?
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How to Do Legislative Advocacy—and WIN
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Nonprofits on Families First Coronavirus Response Act, Workers’ Comp, Property & Casualty Insurance – Live Q&A
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Communicating with Donors During a Maelstrom: Practical Wisdom on When, What, Who, How, and How Often
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2020 California Employment Law Update #2: Compensation
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2020 California Employment Law Update #3: Fair Employment
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2020 California Employment Law Update #4: Time Off
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2020 California Employment Law Update #1: Arbitration in the Workplace
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What Nonprofits Need to Know About Audits
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Navigating the New Families First Coronavirus Response Act
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Against the Current: Mando Rayo
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Make the Move! Tips for Migrating Your In-Person Event Online
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Ask Rita: Interns Who Lose Their Academic Connections with Your Nonprofit—Are They Really Interns?
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4 Tips for Sustaining and Managing Donors
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Ask Rita: How Do We Stop Bullying Behavior?
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Donor-Centric Budgeting & Reporting: Top 6 Tips
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The Pitfalls of Running a Mentoring Program
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Developing a Successful Intern Program
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Moving Beyond Awareness
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Embracing Unlikely Allies: Sleeping with the Enemy
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Is Your Fundraising in Compliance with State Laws?
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No Budget, No Mission: A Guide to Basic Nonprofit Budgeting
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Against the Current: Rachel Sumekh
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The Effect of the 2018 Tax Overall on Nonprofit Donations and the Rise of DAFs
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Election Year Messages Nonprofits Can Use
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Time to Fold: Keys to Gracefully Winding Down a Nonprofit
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Nonprofit Tales From the US-Mexico Border
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Ask Rita: Are My Independent Contractors Actually Employees?
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Are We Heading Towards Another Nonprofit Insurance Crisis?
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Marketing Automation for Nonprofits and Churches
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Why Earned Income Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be
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3 Tips & Tools for Better Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
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How to Cure Founder’s Syndrome
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Successfully Navigating an Executive Director Transition
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Reducing Unconscious Bias in Recruiting
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Ask Rita: What Are My Obligations to an Employee Receiving Infertility Treatments?
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Funder’s Corner: The Grateful Donor
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A Peek Inside the Millennial Mind
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Lobbying & Advocacy: Five Reasons to Get Off the Sidelines
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How to Hire Great Nonprofit Leaders
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Engaging Board Members: AAA Then and Now
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Creating A Board That Works
Blue Avocado readers share thoughts on how the current political landscape will affect your organization’s funding.
Asked to join a nonprofit board? Here’s what to look for in your due diligence process – before you sign on the dotted line.
How U/X and user-centered design methods can better communicate visual stories in a way that advances the mission of your organization.
When a nonprofit leader moves on, the process isn’t always easy. Questions about nonprofit ownership can be organizational life-or-death.
Nonprofits are always looking for creative ways to raise funds, but requiring employees to make financial donations is unlawful.
“You need to have an insatiable tenacity to learn, and willingness to understand how things come together.”
Four recommendations that will radically improve the strategic planning process at nonprofit organizations.
Arguments for & against legislation that prohibits churches & other charitable organizations from direct or indirect political campaigning.
When information is part of the board directive as a whole, organizations reinforce the importance of shared responsibility and governance.
When searching for how new members fit in, look at your strategic plan. Does the board reflect the skill set you need to get there?
“Take every opportunity that’s offered and consistent with your mission and let the artists lead the way.”
Advocates for nonprofits tout the importance of diverse communities and social safety nets. A new study suggests it’s also good for business.
There is so much potential out there to dramatically move the needle on social issues and drive impact, no matter the external environment.
Kevin Davis explains how nonprofit journalism organizations are working to gain donors’ trust by being community-powered.
Alice Rossignol puts her pen to paper about a big professional first. She decided to leap – or maybe she got pushed.
How to help your banker to give your nonprofit organization as much credit as possible.
Results of a survey of 500 nonprofits on their organization’s financial outlook in 2017.
What does it take to be entrepreneurial? Anika Stephens talks about young leaders who have already made a positive social or economic impact.
Ron Kratofil shares tips and resources for nonprofit mergers. Mergers are a lot like dating, relationships and marriage.
The story of a nonprofit board member going through the turmoil of divorce. How divorce made it difficult to serve on the board.
Robert Egger on advice to young nonprofit leaders, how the sector has changed, and why it’s more important than ever that we take risks.
A drug-free workplace policy can specify that the term “drugs” includes marijuana (and its derivatives and all related cannabinoids).
Some of the hardest moments we face happen during nonprofit leadership transitions. Nothing is ever as neat as it looks on the surface.
Is your nonprofit considering raising funds and investing in building or renovating a piece of property? Save time, money, and headaches.