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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Nonprofit Love
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What is Micromanagement and What Isn’t?
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Six Easy, Nearly-Free Ways to Be More Disabled-Accessible
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America’s Dirtiest Job: Nonprofit Telemarketer?
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The Easiest Way to Raise Money: Register with CFC
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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
A fast look at just four critical areas facing American society today: Poverty, race, environment, and democracy.
Pablo Eisenberg shares some reforms that speak to democracy in the United States, and that would be pretty easy for foundations to do.
The Golden Rule of Board Resignations: When you resign, do it the way you would like others to resign. Whatever your reason, resign right.
Do you need to accommodate the use of medical marijuana when making a hiring decision or for current employees?
This checklist points out the necessary elements in bylaws. It’s important to also stay compliant with applicable state and city laws.
Blue Avocado shares five “must-have” emergency supplies for nonprofit workers to keep at their desks in case of disaster.
Some valuable lessons drawn from listening, observing, and laughing with women executive directors of color over the years.
Ask Rita explores whether an employee’s work as a surrogate qualifies as a second job that is in conflict with her employer’s agency.
Blue Avocado discusses unusual board terms with Jeanetta Issa, CEO of Child Abuse Prevention in Kansas City.
Policy analyst Rick Cohen discusses the four things we should be worried about with public policy and volunteers.
Robin Erickson, Director of Finance and Administration for an environmental nonprofit, shares her organization’s approach to telecommuting.
Take these guidelines into consideration when adopting alternative work arrangements for your staff.
Rockefeller Foundation and NY Times announced as the “winners” of the first-year Just Awards for dubious contributions to nonprofit sector.
Developing a social media policy for your nonprofit organization can be difficult. These guidelines can help.
Regulating what nonprofit employees say and do on social media is a slippery slope. Here’s some guidance to help nonprofits.
Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer, Executive Director of the Queens Council on the Arts in Jamaica, New York tells what she’s learned from knitting.
All-Volunteer Organizations (AVO) are some of the most important nonprofit organizations around; here are some relevant articles for AVOs.
Eight strategic errors nonprofit organizations often make that stand in the way of “smart growth” in their membership numbers.
Rick Cohen spotlights attacks by financially starved local and state governments to squeeze extra nickels and dimes from nonprofits.
Like a mission statement, a business model statement acts as a touchstone: A reminder and guide for the organization’s focus and strategies.
Despite the importance of the nonprofit board, there’s strikingly little clarity about who is responsible for its performance.
There are three levels of exchange in the grantor-grantee relationship. Explore one of the least discussed: The one-to-one interaction.
Most of the time, nonprofit boards work through consensus. But what if you think a serious mistake is being made?
Brenda Crawford, executive director of Mental Health Consumer Concerns, shares strategies that move people to social change.