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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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?
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.
We in nonprofits are good at taking on myths and sacred cows. But perhaps the least examined of these myths is the one about going to scale.
Sick of people telling you a hundred things your nonprofit should be doing with social media? Kaitlyn Trigger provides some dos and don’ts.
Should social workers be classified as exempt or nonexempt employees when it comes to overtime considerations?
Much of the confusion about board responsibilities is confusion between what the board does (as a body) and what individual board members should do.
Audits are expensive in terms of money, staff time, and board attention. CPA Dennis Walsh tells us how to wring the most value from them.
If kids are among your clients or constituents, then getting them involved is a natural. But you’ll want to be sure you’ve got basic protections in place first.
In the nonprofit sector we throw around tax opinions, but here’s a chance to learn something from a 17-question quiz.
How foundations say they hire is often different from how they approach the hiring process. We asked foundation staffers how they got hired.