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.
Recent Nonprofit Articles
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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
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A Nonprofit Leader’s Path to Becoming a Diversity and Inclusion Champion
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Ask Rita: How Do We Handle A Whistleblower?
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Sample Whistleblower Policy
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How to Cultivate Big Donors with a Small Staff
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Readers’ Thoughts: Secrets to Successful Succession
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Top 10 Nonprofit Board “Worst” Practices
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Ask Rita: How Do We Handle Harassment by an Outsider?
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Political Polarization & Nonprofits: How Can You Bridge the Divide?
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Win Back Your Lapsed Donors: 3 Effective Strategies
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NextGen Nexus: The New Face of Philanthropy, Courtesy of Young America
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Ask Rita: Health Benefits for Employees on FMLA Leave?
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Remote Team Environments: A How-To Primer
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Managing Big Change: Top Tips for New Executive Directors & CEOs
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Your IRS Form 990 Questions Answered
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3 Online Fundraising Tips for Small Nonprofits
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Community Development: Strategies That Serve
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Funding Innovation: Top Tips
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Ask Rita: Is Terminating an At-Will Employee Risk-Free?
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Finding Your Data Path to Success, Part 2: What We Learned Along the Way
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3 Keys to Mission-Based Workplace Design
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What I Learned as a Funder: Frank Tips for Nonprofits
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How We Built a Nonprofit from Our College Bedroom and What We Wish We Knew
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Ask Rita: The 2016 Federal Exempt Minimum Salary Rule—Gone, or on Pause?
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Funder’s Corner: Finding Your Data Path to Success
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Tips for Nonprofits: Surviving Government Shutdowns
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Sample eWorkplace HR Policy
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The Best Way To Put Clients First Is To Let Them Lead!
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3 Things We Know About Engaging Millennials in Your Nonprofit’s Cause
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Want Equity? Then It’s Time to Break the Rules!
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Ask Rita: When Is Work Time Too Small To Count?
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Social Enterprise & Earned Income: A Key To Revenue or a Distraction?
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You Can’t Fire Me, I’m a Volunteer!
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Empowering Next Generation Leaders through Crowdfunding
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Nonprofit Leadership Tips from the Basketball Court
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Some Say Fundraising Is Just Sales: They’re Wrong!
Planned giving professional Greg Lassonde gives us step-by-step instructions for soliciting bequests and planned gifts.
Too often, the focus on nonprofit executive transitions is about the departing executive. Here’s one such story.
There is a lot of buzz around “impact”, “outcomes” and “evidence-based practices”, but not enough about how nonprofits can achieve them.
Transgender and intersexual matters in HR. Work with your employees to make them feel welcome at work, regardless of gender identity.
Conventional fundraising advice is far more doable for the mainstream program than the one based in a community of color.
Boards and board members don’t get credit for some important work they do without even realizing they are doing it.
Cow board members donate hours at meetings and asking others to give milk debate whether or not they should give milk themselves. Moo.
Bylaws Cheat Sheet: If a copy of the by-laws is handy, it’s tedious to have to look over all the legalese for an answer to a simple question.
Major gifts aren’t the right strategy for every organization, but we can still appreciate how this fundraiser talks about her job.
How many outcomes and logic models can fit on the head of a pin? Humor columnist Vu Le enlightens us.
Nonprofit managers should know how to support a committee of volunteers: An Advisory Committee, a Board Finance Committee, or a coalition.
When an employee’s mental health behavior is negatively impacting your workplace, what can you do?
Nonprofit board members tell their tales of woe or whoa: Funny, sad, silly or gut wrenching stories.
A survey of 906 nonprofit finance professionals reveals some surprises about these crucial-but-often-overlooked staff.
The sustainability question at nonprofits: How will you sustain this program or project when funding from the So-and-So Foundation runs out?
Is it a good idea to have insurance for volunteers? I thought volunteers had immunity in both federal and state laws.
Workplace policies that describe prohibited conduct types help manage the distinction between a spurious complaints and bullying situations.
Advice to nonprofits on managing their ratings, and commentary on the impact of the raters as a whole.
Executive directors are problem solvers. But why keep it to just nonprofit problems? We would make great advice columnists!
Executive directors often say that their boards need training. The most effective way to change a board is to change the people on it.
In most states, it is legal to have board meetings by telephone if everyone can hear one another at the same time.
There is no law that mandates employers conduct performance reviews. But most employment attorneys always say, “document, document, document.”
Having 100% of board members make personal donations is a cliché. But, if you have this requirement, make it as easy as possible.
A list of 13 guidelines and practices that you can heed, if you want avoid recruiting terrible nonprofit board members.