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: Emma’s Disability is Hurting Performance: Can We Fire Her?
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Five Tips for Better Board Packets
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A Board-Staff Agreement for Financial Accountability
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How Did This Happen? Part 2 of the Vanguard Foundation Story
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How to Hire a Great Accountant for Your Nonprofit
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Korean-American Nonprofit Implodes Diversity Myths
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Board Email: Reduce, Reflect, Rejoice!
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Just Awards: Follow-up to “The Nonprofit Justies”
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On Being Male in the Female-Majority Nonprofit Sector
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Ask Rita: Protecting Staff from Co-worker’s Violent Boyfriend
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What is an Advisory Board and Should We Have One?
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How Much to Pay the Executive Director?
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Decline and Fall of the Vanguard Foundation
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The Board Told Me I Had to Join Rotary
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Through the Valley of the Shadow of Failure
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Raise Money in 30 Days
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Foundations: Fleas or Elephants?
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Nonprofit Conflict of Interest: A 3-Dimensional View
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Married Co-Executive Directors of Nonprofits
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Updates on Some Sacred Cows
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Three Easy Ways for Foundations to Support Democracy
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Golden Rule of Board Resignations
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Ask Rita: Can Employees Smoke Medical Marijuana at Work?
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Bylaws Checklist
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Five Emergency “Musts” for Your Nonprofit
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Ten Things I Learned About Leadership from Women Executives of Color
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Ask Rita: Is being a surrogate mother a profession?
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Board Terms: 1 Year – 3 Years – 2 Years
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Volunteerism Public Policies Can Hurt Nonprofits
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Telecommuting and Flexible Work Arrangements: Do Them Right
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Working from Home: Sidebar on Legal Issues for Nonprofits
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Rockefeller Foundation and NY Times Win “Just Awards”
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Knitting Makes Me a Better Executive Director
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All-Volunteer Organization Resources
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Eight Strategic Mistakes with Memberships
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Attack of the Tax-Exemption Killers
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Nonprofit Business Model Statements
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Who is Responsible for the Board Doing a Good Job?
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True Stories of Grantseeking: A First-Person Nonprofit Story
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What to Do When You Really, Really Disagree with a Board Decision
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Census: Battleground for Money and Justice
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Angry Activist Gets Old & Wise: A First-Person Nonprofit Story
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Merging Nonprofit Voices into a Political Force
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Nonprofit Research that Gets to the Heart
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Ask Rita: Terminate Employee After One Year of Sick Leave?
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Nonprofit Jargon Watch
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Five Internal Controls for the Very Small Nonprofit
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Teach for America: Icon with Feet of Clay?
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Announcing the Just Awards
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Our Executive Director is Embezzling
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Nonprofit Self-Esteem Crisis
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Recruiting for Board Diversity: Part 3 in Diversity Series
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Three Nonprofit Sneezes in Health Care Reform
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Diversity & the Nonprofit Ecosystem: Part 2 in the 3-Part Diversity Series
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A Fresh Look at Diversity and Boards
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Ask Rita: When Swine Flu Hits the HR Department
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Amaze Your Friends with these Nonprofit Factoids
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Can Nonprofit Boards Vote By Email?
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From Artist to Executive Director: Not a Straight Line
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A Board Member “Contract”
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Six Ways to Know If It’s Time to Leave
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L3C: Pot of Gold or Space Invader?
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Ask Rita: Criminal Records Checks for Prospective Staff and Volunteers
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Turning the Tables on Pride
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Fundraiser Edie Boatman Shares Career-Switching Tips
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Attorney Recommends Review Instead of Audit
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An Agreed-Upon-Procedures (AUP) Success Story
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Seven Ways to Reduce Your Audit Costs
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Should Board Members Be Required to Give?
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What to Do with Board Members Who Don’t Do Anything
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Faith-Based Nonprofit Funds: Presto Change-o
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Switching Careers at the Worst Possible Time
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Ask Rita: Model Dress Code for Nonprofits
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Focus on the Destination, Not the Route (Budget)!
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Ten Quick Ways to Invigorate Board Meetings
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Ask Rita: Tattoos and Piercings… and a Model Dress Code
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Alcoholics Anonymous vs. Best Practices
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Social Innovation Fund: Where Is the Money Going?
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Top Ten Questions from Job Seekers… Answered!
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Critical Path for the Board
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A Nonprofit Dashboard and Signal Light for Boards
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Six of Our Board Members Are in Prison
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New 990 Software Release on July 20: Is It Enough?
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Alligators in the Boardroom and Urban Legends About Nonprofits
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Ask Rita: I Have a Bad Boss! Help!
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Boards Should Only Have Three Committees!
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What Are the Board’s Responsibilities for Volunteers?
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The Volunteer Who Couldn’t
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Survival Strategies for the Arts
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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
Three instant ways to improve meetings simply by what you put on the piece of paper titled “Board Agenda:”
Where are the best nonprofit job sites, both to post and look for nonprofit jobs? A review and rating of 31 sites across several criteria.
Individuals can be personally liable for unpaid wages and other remedies under the FLSA and possibly also under state law.
Analyze salaries by charting salary ranges, adding benchmark salaries, and two ways to review individual salaries.
A detailed method for your nonprofit’s nominating committee to recruit board members.
Is it worth going all-in on casino philanthropy? Only if you know when to lay the odds and when to take the odds.
By staking too much on strategic planning, nonprofits often neglect other tools for making decisions, moving organizations, or learning.
Consultant Mike Allison provides a defense of strategic planning for the nonprofit sector in rebuttal to a prior Blue Avocado article.
Ask Rita’s HR experts review Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and ADA rules.
Court-ordered volunteers perform a wide variety of roles in nonprofits. Susan Ellis discusses when to accept them, and how to do it right.
When recessions happen, many nonprofits can’t move forward on strategic plans. Jan Masaoka explores what nonprofits can do instead.
Sometimes a board needs to fire an executive director. Sometimes it’s clear, more often it’s a little fuzzier. So when and how do you do it?
The same things that motivate nonprofit workers can also create unnecessary personal and psychic suffering. For some, therapy may help.
Where everyone sits reflects organizational philosophy, and is a strong message to all about authority, participation, and the board’s role.
Many sample handbooks have policies which ban employees from dating with co-workers. Is it legally required to prohibit office relationships?
The only thing worse than not having fundraising staff is having bad fundraising staff.
Foundation affinity groups can appear to be secretive at first. Let Rick Cohen show you how to navigate them to help your nonprofit.
Questions to ask yourself before seeking a board, and then how to find the right next opportunity for making a difference.
In the age of social media, Holly Minch dares to defy the Twitter evangelists and make the case for the power of traditional print and radio.
This 21-question quiz samples from general bookkeeping knowledge as well as nonprofit bookkeeping and compliance matters. Use this assessment test as part of your hiring toolkit as well as for identifying staff training needs.
The board has some important perspectives to bring to the discussion of the budget. Here some questions that take advantage of the board’s diverse community perspectives and the finance staff’s knowledge and skill.
We asked about your experiences with romance in the nonprofit workplace, and the common thread was passion — for your work and each other.
As an executive director, what can feel like micromanagement from members of your board can be a symptom of larger problems.
Disabilities activist Mary Lester says there are simple ways to make your office and program sites more accessible without busting the bank.