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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How to Give Feedback to Your Funders—Especially When It’s Hard
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A Primer on Financial Audits for Nonprofits – Live Q&A
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Best Tactics for Finding Government Grants Suitable for Your Nonprofit
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Against the Current: Matt Jorgensen
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Against the Current: Mitch Gruber
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Ask Rita: How Does the Americans with Disabilities Act Impact Our Efforts to Keep Employees Safe During the Covid-19 Pandemic?
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Are Your Nonprofit Organization’s Stories Dishonoring the Families You Serve?
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Hiring People with Disabilities Is Not a Charity: Here’s Why and How to Stop Paying Subminimum Wage
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Against the Current: Regina Anderson
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Ask Rita: U.S. Supreme Court Granted New Protection for LGBTQ+ Employees—What Do We Need to Know?
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Resiliency in the New Normal: Nonprofit Colleagues Share Their Experiences
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Creating a Roadmap to Synchronize the Board to Your Nonprofit Mission
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Assessing Financial Health in the Time of COVID-19
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Aligning Nonprofit Management Teams and Boards During a Crisis Live Q&A
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Investing in Relationships with Donors: 5 Phases of Securing a Major Gift
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Against the Current: Nihal Satyadev
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Seeking Sustainability: How Can Nonprofits Survive the Pandemic?
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Ask Rita: For What Work-Related Expenses Must I Reimburse Remote Employees?
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The Truth, Even When Unpleasant, Can Always Be Explained: Nonprofit Pointers for Conduct in Court
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Against the Current: Jose “Che” Ramirez
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How Can We Help the Board Address Problematic Behavior from the President?
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In the Shadow of the Pandemic, Nonprofits Form Partnerships to Expand the Meaning of Healthcare
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IRS Tax Form 990 [Deadline Extended]: How to File It, When to File It, and Why It’s So Important
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Against the Current: Eunice Lin Nichols
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Ask Rita: During Covid-19, Do We Furlough or Layoff Staff?
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How to Do Legislative Advocacy—and WIN
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Nonprofits on Families First Coronavirus Response Act, Workers’ Comp, Property & Casualty Insurance – Live Q&A
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Communicating with Donors During a Maelstrom: Practical Wisdom on When, What, Who, How, and How Often
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2020 California Employment Law Update #2: Compensation
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2020 California Employment Law Update #3: Fair Employment
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2020 California Employment Law Update #4: Time Off
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2020 California Employment Law Update #1: Arbitration in the Workplace
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What Nonprofits Need to Know About Audits
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Navigating the New Families First Coronavirus Response Act
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Against the Current: Mando Rayo
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Make the Move! Tips for Migrating Your In-Person Event Online
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Ask Rita: Interns Who Lose Their Academic Connections with Your Nonprofit—Are They Really Interns?
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4 Tips for Sustaining and Managing Donors
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Ask Rita: How Do We Stop Bullying Behavior?
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Donor-Centric Budgeting & Reporting: Top 6 Tips
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The Pitfalls of Running a Mentoring Program
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Developing a Successful Intern Program
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Moving Beyond Awareness
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Embracing Unlikely Allies: Sleeping with the Enemy
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Is Your Fundraising in Compliance with State Laws?
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No Budget, No Mission: A Guide to Basic Nonprofit Budgeting
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Against the Current: Rachel Sumekh
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The Effect of the 2018 Tax Overall on Nonprofit Donations and the Rise of DAFs
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Election Year Messages Nonprofits Can Use
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Time to Fold: Keys to Gracefully Winding Down a Nonprofit
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Nonprofit Tales From the US-Mexico Border
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Ask Rita: Are My Independent Contractors Actually Employees?
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Are We Heading Towards Another Nonprofit Insurance Crisis?
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Marketing Automation for Nonprofits and Churches
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Why Earned Income Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be
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3 Tips & Tools for Better Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
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How to Cure Founder’s Syndrome
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Successfully Navigating an Executive Director Transition
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Reducing Unconscious Bias in Recruiting
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Ask Rita: What Are My Obligations to an Employee Receiving Infertility Treatments?
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Funder’s Corner: The Grateful Donor
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A Peek Inside the Millennial Mind
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Lobbying & Advocacy: Five Reasons to Get Off the Sidelines
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How to Hire Great Nonprofit Leaders
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Engaging Board Members: AAA Then and Now
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Creating A Board That Works
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A Nonprofit Leader’s Path to Becoming a Diversity and Inclusion Champion
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Ask Rita: How Do We Handle A Whistleblower?
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Sample Whistleblower Policy
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How to Cultivate Big Donors with a Small Staff
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Readers’ Thoughts: Secrets to Successful Succession
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Top 10 Nonprofit Board “Worst” Practices
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Ask Rita: How Do We Handle Harassment by an Outsider?
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Political Polarization & Nonprofits: How Can You Bridge the Divide?
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Win Back Your Lapsed Donors: 3 Effective Strategies
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NextGen Nexus: The New Face of Philanthropy, Courtesy of Young America
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Ask Rita: Health Benefits for Employees on FMLA Leave?
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Remote Team Environments: A How-To Primer
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Managing Big Change: Top Tips for New Executive Directors & CEOs
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Your IRS Form 990 Questions Answered
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3 Online Fundraising Tips for Small Nonprofits
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Community Development: Strategies That Serve
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Funding Innovation: Top Tips
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Ask Rita: Is Terminating an At-Will Employee Risk-Free?
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Finding Your Data Path to Success, Part 2: What We Learned Along the Way
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3 Keys to Mission-Based Workplace Design
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What I Learned as a Funder: Frank Tips for Nonprofits
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How We Built a Nonprofit from Our College Bedroom and What We Wish We Knew
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Ask Rita: The 2016 Federal Exempt Minimum Salary Rule—Gone, or on Pause?
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Funder’s Corner: Finding Your Data Path to Success
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Tips for Nonprofits: Surviving Government Shutdowns
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Sample eWorkplace HR Policy
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The Best Way To Put Clients First Is To Let Them Lead!
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3 Things We Know About Engaging Millennials in Your Nonprofit’s Cause
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Want Equity? Then It’s Time to Break the Rules!
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Ask Rita: When Is Work Time Too Small To Count?
Barack Obama began his career as an organizer and antipoverty advocate for a nonprofit. Michelle is a former nonprofit executive director.
Some employers think that paying an employee a salary or designating an employee a “teacher” exempts that employee from the overtime rules.
What’s the best way to raise money for a nonprofit? Start by figuring out who are the best potential supporters of our work and why.
With nonprofit insurance, a key part to getting the lowest costs and the best coverage is getting the right insurance broker.
How to find grantwriters, select them, how much to pay them and what kinds of payment arrangements to choose.
Grantwriters are elusive, seldom-seen miraculous creatures, possibly mythical. Here you have a chance to meet two of them.
There is a difference between community nonprofits on one hand, and universities and hospitals on the other, and it isn’t just size.
A long-time grant seeker and nonprofit staff person offers his impressions of a Council on Foundations conference.
Almost everyone in community nonprofits thinks it would be great to have a grantwriter. It’s rare to find and work with this rare creature. Why?
There are some good reasons why nonprofits sometimes have deficit budgets, that should be left that way. Find out why.
Some nonprofit employees are expected to be available for mobile calls. Can they refuse to take work-related calls while driving?
It often seems that efforts between board and staff of appreciation feel trivial at best, and even hypocritical or enraging at worst.
Examining the intertwined relationship between nonprofits and the media.
At student working for a nonprofit has $2,000 saved up and wonders if she should pay off her student loan, or pay into a 401K at work.
An employee posts unflattering comments about your nonprofit workplace. What can you do? Here are some ideas.
You may find that task forces with a specific purpose may provide better results than ongoing low-performing board committees.
It’s an unusual title! Where did it come from? Find out here where this well-known nonprofit publication got its name.
Because a nonprofit board’s success depends upon its gestalt as much as the traits of its individual members, boards should think a bit about the contributions an attorney might make.
Can a nonprofit require an employee/former client to take her psychiatric medications as a condition of continued employment?
Community advocates are still picking up the pieces after a disastrous encounter that led to a unique lawsuit. How did it all come about?
Strategic ways nonprofits can benefit from government funding but not become overly reliant on it.
In this economic climate, the old adage is even more relevant: Management is doing things right, while leadership is doing the right things.
What to say to if you run into someone who has made a donation or a grant to the organization on whose board you serve.