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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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
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Ask Rita: Wading through the New Family and Medical Leave Act Regulations
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Finance Fear Factor Ratios
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Too Many Nonprofits? Yes – At Least Too Many AIDS Organizations
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Health Insurance: A Bit of Good COBRA News
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Too Many Nonprofits? Yes! Clueless in Seattle
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Volunteer Time Financial Statement Illustrations
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Tracking Volunteer Time to Boost Your Bottom Line: A Complete Accounting Guide
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A Devil’s Advocate on the Board?
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Loans From Nonprofit Board Members
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Ask Rita: Downsizing from Employees to Independent Contractors?
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The Car Donation Controversy and the Right Way to Donate Your Car
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Succession Planning for Nonprofits of All Sizes
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The 411 on Starting a Car Donation Program
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Advice for Servicemembers and Veterans Looking at Nonprofit Jobs
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New Thinking and Talking About Volunteers
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A Board Leads an Organization Out of the Ashes
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From Air Force Captain to Nonprofit Fundraiser
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Nonprofit Layoffs and Furloughs: Do Them Right
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When You Lose Your Health Insurance Coverage
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Layoff Stories from Blue Avocado Readers
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Laid Off From a Nonprofit: Me!
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The Nonprofit Board’s Role in HR
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Sample Layoff Letter
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Will Obamaniacs Change Nonprofits?
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George W. Bush’s Legacy: A Dramatic Increase in Volunteer Spirit
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Ten Nonprofits that Shaped the Life of Martin Luther King Jr.
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New Growth from Old Wood: Heroes & Nonprofits (and Sarbanes-Oxley)
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Model Document Retention Policy for Nonprofits
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Sarbanes-Oxley and Nonprofits: Bogeyman in the Boardroom?
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A 360-Degree Look at the Organization: Seeing Ourselves as Others See Us
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Speed Up the Board Recruitment Process!
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Too Many Nonprofits? No — There Aren’t Enough Good Nonprofits
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Six Things Every Board Member Should Know About the New 990
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An Insight About Catholic Schools’ Business Model
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Nonprofit Executive Director Assessment
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The Secret to a High Impact Annual Report
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Governance Committees: More and More Common
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What Information Should Board Members Get?
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Succeeding With (or Maybe in Spite of) Evidence-Based Practices
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An Alcohol Problem Holds the Bookkeeping Hostage
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Nonprofit Email Sign-Offs
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Nonprofit Embezzlement: More Common and More Preventable Than You Think
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A Drug and Alcohol Free Workplace Policy for Nonprofits
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Fun at Work
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A Steep Road Ahead for Immigration Volunteers?
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The Board Builds Its Sense of Self: Body-Building for Nonprofit Boards
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Ask Rita: What Happens When the Office Coffee Comes With Politics?
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Three Steps to Effective Board Oversight of Insurance
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A Board Member’s Guide to Nonprofit Insurance
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If You Don’t Have Time to Save: Nonprofit Retirement Part 3
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What Nonprofits are Saying About the Bailout: A Fast Roundup
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Closing Down the Right Way
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Nonprofit Retirement Part 2: How and Where to Save
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Thinking the Unthinkable: Maybe We Should Shut Down
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Community Nonprofits: Katrina’s Unsung Heroes Still on the Job
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How to Take a Public Policy Stand, with Sample Criteria
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Nonprofit Retirement: Calculating retirement Needs & Exploring Choices
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Ask Rita: Zero Cell Phone Use While Driving Policy
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A Family and Medical Leave Act Checklist
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Ask Rita: Can an Employee Come and Go Using Family or Medical Leave?
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Is It Time for an Audit?
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Gas Rates, Volunteers, and Justice
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Should the Board Hold Executive Sessions?
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More Than the Olympics: Sports, Nonprofits & Community
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Boards of All-Volunteer Organizations
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Three-Step Immigration (IRCA) Compliance for Employers
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Obama: the Nonprofit Sector’s Favorite Son?
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Overtime Pay for Nonprofit Preschool Teacher?
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The Best Way to Raise Money? Choose a Revenue Strategy
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What Should Nonprofit Boards Know About Insurance Brokers?
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In Search of Unicorns: Finding & Hiring Outside Grantwriters Part 2
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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?
Standard elements of a drug and alcohol free workplace program for nonprofits. Includes a sample drug- and alcohol-free workplace policy.
Sadly, fun at work sounds like an oxymoron to lots of people. Blue Avocado contributor Janice Clark offers some ideas to lighten things up.
Immigration rights groups are prepping the way for legislative reform, which they say is critical to addressing the issue over the long-term.
Perhaps the single most important attribute of an effective board is also its most intangible: An independent sense of itself.
With the elections coming up, a nonprofit’s staff is buzzing with political talk. Ask Rita shares how to avoid this creating a minefield.
Be sure that your nonprofit is getting the most value out of your relationship with your broker, and with your insurance companies.
Many nonprofit board members don’t think about the organization’s insurance until something adverse happens. Here’s the low-down on liability.
Blue Avocado explores the plight of people in the nonprofit sector who find themselves close to retirement without enough savings.
A quick roundup of just a few of the most compelling and informative nonprofit commentaries around recent financial developments.
Blue Avocado shares steps for how a nonprofit organization can shut down its operations and ride into the sunset gracefully.
Exploring different ways nonprofit employees can plan and save for retirement — and which ways are better suited than others.
For nonprofits, it’s hard not to think that closing down is the ultimate disaster. But sometimes a lack of money or energy forces the issue.
After Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi community nonprofits used the region’s recovery as a stepping stone to lasting social change.
Would it support your cause if your organization took a stand on a public policy issue? Is it legal to do so? And how would you go about it?
Part one in this three-part series on nonprofit retirement looks at calculating retirement needs and using that information to explore choices
Ask Rita provides policies nonprofit organizations should consider when adding a policy forbidding cell phone use while driving.
A quick checklist for Family and Medical Leave Act requests as a way of making sure you’ve remembered all the key points.
Ask Rita explores whether or not a nonprofit organization’s employee can come and go using Family or Medical Leave?
Many people don’t realize that on their personal tax returns volunteers can deduct mileage expenses incurred as part of volunteering.
Is an audit worth the expense for a nonprofit’s board of directors in these tough economic times?
Executive sessions can help nonprofits have frank discussions about staff performance, and help the board develop a sense of itself.
Don’t forget how nonprofits have helped create America’s awe-inspiring performers and communities at the Olympics.
All-volunteer organizations (AVOs) are a major social and economic force, but are seldom given credit for their work.
The best protection for employers seeking to comply with immigration laws is to keep accurate records showing your efforts at compliance.