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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A Bigger Budget and Smaller Butt in Just 12 Weeks!
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Fundraising Confessions of a Former Camp Fire Girl
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Life on Planet 501c: Contest Winners
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What’s the Point of a Nonprofit Board, Anyway?
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A 7-Point Checklist for Responding to a Request for Family or Medical Leave
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Ask Rita: Wading through the New Family and Medical Leave Act Regulations
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Finance Fear Factor Ratios
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Too Many Nonprofits? Yes – At Least Too Many AIDS Organizations
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Health Insurance: A Bit of Good COBRA News
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Too Many Nonprofits? Yes! Clueless in Seattle
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Volunteer Time Financial Statement Illustrations
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Tracking Volunteer Time to Boost Your Bottom Line: A Complete Accounting Guide
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A Devil’s Advocate on the Board?
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Loans From Nonprofit Board Members
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Ask Rita: Downsizing from Employees to Independent Contractors?
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The Car Donation Controversy and the Right Way to Donate Your Car
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Succession Planning for Nonprofits of All Sizes
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The 411 on Starting a Car Donation Program
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Advice for Servicemembers and Veterans Looking at Nonprofit Jobs
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New Thinking and Talking About Volunteers
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A Board Leads an Organization Out of the Ashes
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From Air Force Captain to Nonprofit Fundraiser
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Nonprofit Layoffs and Furloughs: Do Them Right
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When You Lose Your Health Insurance Coverage
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Layoff Stories from Blue Avocado Readers
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Laid Off From a Nonprofit: Me!
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The Nonprofit Board’s Role in HR
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Sample Layoff Letter
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Will Obamaniacs Change Nonprofits?
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George W. Bush’s Legacy: A Dramatic Increase in Volunteer Spirit
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Ten Nonprofits that Shaped the Life of Martin Luther King Jr.
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New Growth from Old Wood: Heroes & Nonprofits (and Sarbanes-Oxley)
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Model Document Retention Policy for Nonprofits
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Sarbanes-Oxley and Nonprofits: Bogeyman in the Boardroom?
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A 360-Degree Look at the Organization: Seeing Ourselves as Others See Us
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Speed Up the Board Recruitment Process!
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Too Many Nonprofits? No — There Aren’t Enough Good Nonprofits
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Six Things Every Board Member Should Know About the New 990
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An Insight About Catholic Schools’ Business Model
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Nonprofit Executive Director Assessment
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The Secret to a High Impact Annual Report
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Governance Committees: More and More Common
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What Information Should Board Members Get?
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Succeeding With (or Maybe in Spite of) Evidence-Based Practices
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An Alcohol Problem Holds the Bookkeeping Hostage
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Nonprofit Email Sign-Offs
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Nonprofit Embezzlement: More Common and More Preventable Than You Think
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A Drug and Alcohol Free Workplace Policy for Nonprofits
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Fun at Work
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A Steep Road Ahead for Immigration Volunteers?
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The Board Builds Its Sense of Self: Body-Building for Nonprofit Boards
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Ask Rita: What Happens When the Office Coffee Comes With Politics?
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Three Steps to Effective Board Oversight of Insurance
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A Board Member’s Guide to Nonprofit Insurance
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If You Don’t Have Time to Save: Nonprofit Retirement Part 3
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What Nonprofits are Saying About the Bailout: A Fast Roundup
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Closing Down the Right Way
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Nonprofit Retirement Part 2: How and Where to Save
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Thinking the Unthinkable: Maybe We Should Shut Down
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Community Nonprofits: Katrina’s Unsung Heroes Still on the Job
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How to Take a Public Policy Stand, with Sample Criteria
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Nonprofit Retirement: Calculating retirement Needs & Exploring Choices
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Ask Rita: Zero Cell Phone Use While Driving Policy
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A Family and Medical Leave Act Checklist
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Ask Rita: Can an Employee Come and Go Using Family or Medical Leave?
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Is It Time for an Audit?
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Gas Rates, Volunteers, and Justice
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Should the Board Hold Executive Sessions?
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More Than the Olympics: Sports, Nonprofits & Community
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Boards of All-Volunteer Organizations
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Three-Step Immigration (IRCA) Compliance for Employers
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Obama: the Nonprofit Sector’s Favorite Son?
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Overtime Pay for Nonprofit Preschool Teacher?
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The Best Way to Raise Money? Choose a Revenue Strategy
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What Should Nonprofit Boards Know About Insurance Brokers?
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In Search of Unicorns: Finding & Hiring Outside Grantwriters Part 2
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Unicorns Found: Meet Two Grantwriters
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Word on the Street from the Council on Foundations Conference
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The Unrecognized Value of Community Nonprofits, Hiring Grantwriters, Extended Warranties, MTV
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In Search of Unicorns: Finding & Hiring Grantwriters, Part 1
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Nonprofit Budgets Have to Balance: False!
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Don’t Drive, Chew Gum and Use the Phone at the Same Time
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Meaningful Acts of Appreciation for Nonprofit Boards and Staff
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Nonprofits and the Media
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Pay Off My Student Loan or Pay Into a 401K?
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Why is it called Blue Avocado?
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Abolish Board Committees?
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Reasons to Have (& Not to Have) an Attorney on a Nonprofit Board
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Can We Require An Employee To Take Her Meds?
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Promises, Promises: Rural Advocates vs. Big Philanthropy
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Five Ways to Let Government Money Run You Over
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Good Management vs. Good Leadership
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What Do I Say to a Donor or Funder?
Board composition matrices focus our attention on what people are, rather than on what the organization needs board members to do.
A brief introduction to donor-advised funds (DAFs). A DAF typically affords the advantages of two kinds of anonymity for a donor.
An employee with a disability requests intermittent leave as an accommodation. But coming to work is an essential function of the job.
Everybody has an opinion about nonprofit executives’ salaries, but almost nobody has any real data outside their own experiences.
Board meeting time is precious time, and the fulcrum of board-staff opportunity or disappointment. Let’s be smarter about how we use it.
An overlooked but crucial element in strategic planning is the attitude or stance that the executive director takes to the process.
Kim Klein declares the that she is a Christian, calling for all who are religious to stand against the war on women and people of color.
A sample job description you may consider using or modifying to fit your nonprofit’s open board support positions.
The single most common question asked of experts on nonprofit boards: What’s the right number of people to have on the board?
Evaluators explain a type of program evaluation — and how to make it work for your nonprofit.
Increasingly, nonprofits are finding scrip to be a comparatively easy way to raise funds. How does scrip fundraising work, anyway?
Think more broadly (and effectively) about how board members can support the key aspects of your nonprofit revenue strategy.
Doug Plank of MobileCause explains the benefits of using text messaging to reach people for nonprofit outreach.
Spend a few minutes ahead of time thinking about what to ask prospective board members to get a better idea if it’s a good match.
Rick Cohen provides thoughts about the fall of the Vanguard Foundation and the impact on the nonprofit sector.
The true life story of an environmental organization’s audit, how they survived, and their tips for the rest of us.
A tongue-in-cheek version of the familiar Salary Calculator model to comment trenchantly on the indiscriminate — and not so indiscriminate — differences in how nonprofit staff get paid.
A process and an evaluation instrument for executive director evaluation surveys. Includes survey in Word format for easy modification.
An update on Vanguard CEO Hari Dillon and major donors involved with businessman Mouli Cohen and a series of get-rich-quick schemes.
Rather than supporting nonprofits, foundations and consultants are increasingly telling nonprofits what they should be doing.
Can nonprofit employees get fired for posting negative comments about their employer on their private social media accounts?
Board evaluations of ED performance are radically different from any other type of performance review and must be approached differently.
“When you start with the needs of the community, and you’re opening to listening, you realize that doing one or two things isn’t enough.”
“Nonprofit staff don’t vote.” The Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits tested this. Here’s what they found.