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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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?
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.
An overview of how to manage your organization’s personnel files and a checklist of documents to include in a personnel file.
Between foundations and nonprofits, sharing values, connections, and other support is good — but the relationship should be focused on funds.
Should board members have contact with staff independent of the executive director? Opinion is sharply divided.
Some easy and important ways for board members to help a new executive get started quickly and on the right foot.
A board member shares a story about the difficult process of firing a nonprofit founder when money just wasn’t coming in.
A drug-free workplace policy with sample language to consider including in your nonprofit’s employee handbook.
What to do about an employee that appears to be under the influence, but isn’t drinking on the job and it doesn’t seem to affect performance?
Deepak Bhargava of the Center for Community Change channels the Force to call nonprofits to action, drawing parallels to Star Wars.
Rethinking what defines art and how the less mainstream types can be protected and encouraged.
Ten of the most common myths about nonprofit boards, and the reality of the situation for each item.
Outsourced accounting — having the accounting done by an outside person or firm — isn’t new, but it is getting a second look as nonprofits search for ways to cut office costs.
7×7 board briefings are when each board member makes a 7 minute presentation, followed by 7 minutes of questions, answers & responses.
A nonprofit founder provides a first-person account of what it’s like to be fired from her organization — by a board that she had put together.
All our organizations stand on the shoulders of movements. Are you strengthening the movements that provide the nutrients for your org?
When times are tough, funders start to think that mergers are a good idea for nonprofits. And sometimes nonprofits themselves agree.
Dozens of nonprofits contemplate many aspects of your beautiful turkey long before it lands on your table for Thanksgiving.