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.
-
Top Ten Questions from Job Seekers… Answered!
-
Critical Path for the Board
-
A Nonprofit Dashboard and Signal Light for Boards
-
Six of Our Board Members Are in Prison
-
New 990 Software Release on July 20: Is It Enough?
-
Alligators in the Boardroom and Urban Legends About Nonprofits
-
Ask Rita: I Have a Bad Boss! Help!
-
Boards Should Only Have Three Committees!
-
What Are the Board’s Responsibilities for Volunteers?
-
The Volunteer Who Couldn’t
-
Survival Strategies for the Arts
-
A Bigger Budget and Smaller Butt in Just 12 Weeks!
-
Fundraising Confessions of a Former Camp Fire Girl
-
Life on Planet 501c: Contest Winners
-
What’s the Point of a Nonprofit Board, Anyway?
-
A 7-Point Checklist for Responding to a Request for Family or Medical Leave
-
Ask Rita: Wading through the New Family and Medical Leave Act Regulations
-
Finance Fear Factor Ratios
-
Too Many Nonprofits? Yes – At Least Too Many AIDS Organizations
-
Health Insurance: A Bit of Good COBRA News
-
Too Many Nonprofits? Yes! Clueless in Seattle
-
Volunteer Time Financial Statement Illustrations
-
Tracking Volunteer Time to Boost Your Bottom Line: A Complete Accounting Guide
-
A Devil’s Advocate on the Board?
-
Loans From Nonprofit Board Members
-
Ask Rita: Downsizing from Employees to Independent Contractors?
-
The Car Donation Controversy and the Right Way to Donate Your Car
-
Succession Planning for Nonprofits of All Sizes
-
The 411 on Starting a Car Donation Program
-
Advice for Servicemembers and Veterans Looking at Nonprofit Jobs
-
New Thinking and Talking About Volunteers
-
A Board Leads an Organization Out of the Ashes
-
From Air Force Captain to Nonprofit Fundraiser
-
Nonprofit Layoffs and Furloughs: Do Them Right
-
When You Lose Your Health Insurance Coverage
-
Layoff Stories from Blue Avocado Readers
-
Laid Off From a Nonprofit: Me!
-
The Nonprofit Board’s Role in HR
-
Sample Layoff Letter
-
Will Obamaniacs Change Nonprofits?
-
George W. Bush’s Legacy: A Dramatic Increase in Volunteer Spirit
-
Ten Nonprofits that Shaped the Life of Martin Luther King Jr.
-
New Growth from Old Wood: Heroes & Nonprofits (and Sarbanes-Oxley)
-
Model Document Retention Policy for Nonprofits
-
Sarbanes-Oxley and Nonprofits: Bogeyman in the Boardroom?
-
A 360-Degree Look at the Organization: Seeing Ourselves as Others See Us
-
Speed Up the Board Recruitment Process!
-
Too Many Nonprofits? No — There Aren’t Enough Good Nonprofits
-
Six Things Every Board Member Should Know About the New 990
-
An Insight About Catholic Schools’ Business Model
-
Nonprofit Executive Director Assessment
-
The Secret to a High Impact Annual Report
-
Governance Committees: More and More Common
-
What Information Should Board Members Get?
-
Succeeding With (or Maybe in Spite of) Evidence-Based Practices
-
An Alcohol Problem Holds the Bookkeeping Hostage
-
Nonprofit Email Sign-Offs
-
Nonprofit Embezzlement: More Common and More Preventable Than You Think
-
A Drug and Alcohol Free Workplace Policy for Nonprofits
-
Fun at Work
-
A Steep Road Ahead for Immigration Volunteers?
-
The Board Builds Its Sense of Self: Body-Building for Nonprofit Boards
-
Ask Rita: What Happens When the Office Coffee Comes With Politics?
-
Three Steps to Effective Board Oversight of Insurance
-
A Board Member’s Guide to Nonprofit Insurance
-
If You Don’t Have Time to Save: Nonprofit Retirement Part 3
-
What Nonprofits are Saying About the Bailout: A Fast Roundup
-
Closing Down the Right Way
-
Nonprofit Retirement Part 2: How and Where to Save
-
Thinking the Unthinkable: Maybe We Should Shut Down
-
Community Nonprofits: Katrina’s Unsung Heroes Still on the Job
-
How to Take a Public Policy Stand, with Sample Criteria
-
Nonprofit Retirement: Calculating retirement Needs & Exploring Choices
-
Ask Rita: Zero Cell Phone Use While Driving Policy
-
A Family and Medical Leave Act Checklist
-
Ask Rita: Can an Employee Come and Go Using Family or Medical Leave?
-
Is It Time for an Audit?
-
Gas Rates, Volunteers, and Justice
-
Should the Board Hold Executive Sessions?
-
More Than the Olympics: Sports, Nonprofits & Community
-
Boards of All-Volunteer Organizations
-
Three-Step Immigration (IRCA) Compliance for Employers
-
Obama: the Nonprofit Sector’s Favorite Son?
-
Overtime Pay for Nonprofit Preschool Teacher?
-
The Best Way to Raise Money? Choose a Revenue Strategy
-
What Should Nonprofit Boards Know About Insurance Brokers?
-
In Search of Unicorns: Finding & Hiring Outside Grantwriters Part 2
-
Unicorns Found: Meet Two Grantwriters
-
Word on the Street from the Council on Foundations Conference
-
The Unrecognized Value of Community Nonprofits, Hiring Grantwriters, Extended Warranties, MTV
-
In Search of Unicorns: Finding & Hiring Grantwriters, Part 1
-
Nonprofit Budgets Have to Balance: False!
-
Don’t Drive, Chew Gum and Use the Phone at the Same Time
-
Meaningful Acts of Appreciation for Nonprofit Boards and Staff
-
Nonprofits and the Media
-
Pay Off My Student Loan or Pay Into a 401K?
-
Why is it called Blue Avocado?
-
Abolish Board Committees?
Should a nonprofit organization accept a personal loans from a board member? A starting point for a discussion with your board or financial advisor.
We are considering changing some of our employees into independent contractors as a cost-saving measure. What is the potential downside?
Let’s review the rules around car donations, with some tips on how to donate, and how to get great mileage from a few donations a year.
Planning for executive director transition is called succession planning: Thinking in advance about setting the stage for strong transitions.
A car donation program is a great way for a nonprofit to expand its donor base and provide new ways to involve existing donors and volunteers.
Keira Havens makes a case for nonprofits to servicemembers and veterans thinking about going to work in nonprofits.
With volunteers of all ages coming, it’s even more urgent that we change the way we talk — and think — about volunteers.
A board chair shares how their organization found itself on the precipice of bankruptcy and then was able to walk away.
Keira Havens reflects on her career change from the armed services to working in fundraising for the nonprofit sector.
Advice for nonprofit HR departments that need to correctly perform layoffs, furloughs, and temporary shutdowns.
Health care is a society-wide crisis as well as a personal, individual one, and there aren’t ready solutions on either level.
We asked Blue Avocado readers to tell us how you found out you had gotten laid off. Too often grace and consideration aren’t part of it.
While the need for nonprofit services continues even in bad economic times, workers are just as vulnerable to layoffs as any other industry.
The role of the board of directors in personnel or human resource administration is frequently a sticky issue for nonprofits.
A convenient sample letter for use in nonprofit layoff situations when/if they become necessary.
Can the “Obama movement” – with its community organizing and its newly empowered warriors for change – revitalize nonprofits?
Carol Stone applauds President George W. Bush for bringing the visibility, recognition, and importance of volunteering to new heights.
Did you know that hundreds of nonprofit organizations helped make Dr. King who he was? And do you know what they’re up to today?
Heroes don’t act alone: Nonprofits support heroes, and heroes understand nonprofits are impactful platforms for evolving social movements.
A model document retention policy designed to help nonprofits adapt to changing laws around statutes of limitation.
Although Sarbanes-Oxley wasn’t aimed at nonprofits, some saw the law’s passage as a wake-up call for nonprofits.
The 360-Degree Look helps compensate for the board’s limited view of how well the organization is functioning by seeking other viewpoints.
Three easy ways to accelerate the nonprofit board recruitment process by pre-qualifying prospective candidates.
A vibrant, rough-and-tumble ecosystem of nonprofits serves our society best — rather than bemoan its complexity, we should treasure it.