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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Nonprofits: How to Have a Board Meeting By Telephone
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Ask Rita in HR: Do we really have to do performance evaluations?
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Getting to 100% Board Giving
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How to Recruit Terrible Nonprofit Board Members
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Charity Rater Reviews: Charting the Bad and the Bad
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Matrix Map Part Two: The Strategic Imperatives
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How to Keep the Board Under Your Thumb
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The Matrix Map Approach Part One: How to Create the Matrix Map
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What Are My Nonprofit’s Obligations Under the Affordable Healthcare Act?
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Nonprofit Funding: Buying a Cake and Restricting it Too
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The Founding Fathers Write a Grant Proposal
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Ten Biggest Mistakes Boards and Executives Make
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Kirk Kramer: An Uncomplicated Path for Developing Leaders
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In the Swirling Dust of Change, Life Still Goes On for an ED
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Conflict of Interest… or Conflict of Loyalty?
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How to Schedule a Nonprofit Meeting: Point of Vu
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Hiring Job Candidates with Criminal Convictions: Unlock the Possibilities
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New Sitcom: Nonprofit Life
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Dress for Nonprofit Success?
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Deconstructing Nonprofit Sustainability
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A Board Member Crosses the Line
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A Gay Activist is Conflicted about the Marriage Equality Campaign
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Collective Impact: Resistance is Futile
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Citizens United Unfair to One Million Corporations
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Stuck Between a Financial Crisis Wrought by the Founder and a Hard Place
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Twelve Ways to Get a New Executive Director Off on the Right Foot
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All Hands on Board: The Board of Directors in All-Volunteer Organizations
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Donor-Advised Funds: Non-Transparent Tax Shelters for Good
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Ditch Your Board Composition Matrix
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Donor-Advised Funds Background
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Is Coming to Work Required to Keep My Job?
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High Pay for Nonprofit Execs? Analysis of 100,000 Salaries
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And Now for a Different Type of Board Agenda
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Stance: The ED’s Role and Attitude in Strategic Planning
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Coming Out as a Christian
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Board Support Position: Sample Job Description
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What’s the Right Size for the Board?
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Getting Real About Real-Time Evaluation
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Take A Fresh Look at Scrip Fundraising
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Organizing the Board to Support Nonprofit Revenue Strategy
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How To Use Text Messaging for Nonprofit Outreach
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Questions to Ask Prospective Board Members
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Vanguard Foundation Update: With Leader Pleading Guilty, “Truth and Reconciliation”?
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Nonprofits: How to Survive an IRS Audit
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The Automatic Nonprofit Salary Calculator
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Executive Director Evaluation Survey Form
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Vanguard Foundation Update
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The Philanthropic-Consultant Industrial Complex
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Evaluating the Executive Director
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Contract Wizardry: Conjuring Impact from Government Contracts
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Nonprofit Staff Don’t Vote in Elections? False!
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Only Bad Restaurants Go to Scale
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Social Media for Nonprofits: 6 Do’s and Don’ts
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Are Social Workers Exempt or Nonexempt? Help!
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The Governance/Support Model for Nonprofit Boards
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Get the Most Value from Your Audit
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When Kids Volunteer: Liability Basics
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Nonprofit Tax Quiz
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How to Get a Job at a Foundation
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Nonprofit Personnel Files — A Guide from Ask Rita
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Foundation-Nonprofit “Partnerships” — Fact or Fiction?
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Should Staff Contact with the Board Be Restricted?
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12 Ways for New Nonprofit Executive Directors to Succeed
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Firing My Friend, the Founder
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Sample Drug-Free Nonprofit Workplace Policy
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Can We Fire Someone Who Comes to Work Drunk?
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Nonprofit Lessons from Star Wars
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Regrets of a Former Arts Funder
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Ten Myths About Nonprofit Boards
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Outsource Your Bookkeeping!
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The 7 x 7 Board Member Briefing
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The Board Just Fired Me …and I’m the Founder!
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Four Ways to Remove a Board Member
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Standing on the Shoulders of Movements
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Should You Be Considering a Nonprofit Merger?
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The Trouble with Turkey
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Board Insurance: Do You Really Need It?
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Endorsing Candidates. Illegal. How to Do It.
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Three Instant Improvements for Board Agendas and Accountability
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Nonprofit Job Sites Reviewed and Rated
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Can I Be Held Personally Liable for Misclassifying an Employee as Exempt?
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Benchmarking and Analyzing Salaries: A Fast How-To
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Blue Ribbon Nominating Committee for Your Board
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Lucky 7: The Casino Industry and Philanthropy
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Alternatives to Strategic Planning at Nonprofits
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In Defense of Strategic Planning: A Rebuttal
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Ask Rita: Can We Discriminate in Favor of People with Disabilities?
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Court-Ordered Community Service: Volunteers or Prison Labor?
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Strategic Planning: Failures and Alternatives
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Firing the Executive Director
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Get Thy Nonprofit Self Into Therapy!
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Where Should the Board Chair, the ED, the Staff Sit?
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Ask Rita: The HR of Nonprofit Romance
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How to Hire Your First Development Director
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Grantseeker’s Guide to Foundation Affinity Groups
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Finding the Right Nonprofit Board to Join
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Nonprofit Bookkeeping Test
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Meaningful Budget Work by the Board
A blueprint for how using strategic inquiry can help your nonprofit better understand your community’s needs and provide key insights with the potential to help you innovate and better serve those who count on you.
Measuring the dual bottom lines of sustainability and impact can help you determine if the time has come for your nonprofit to conclude your mission — or pivot to a new one.
Does your nonprofit consistently reach the same group? It may be time to consider expanding your marketing efforts to reach a wider audience.
Many nonprofits overlook the opportunity to partner with existing organizations in favor of creating their own programs and solutions.
A trauma-informed culture enhances your nonprofit’s organizational sustainability, employee well-being, and overall productivity.
Is your organization’s CFO ready to put together a grant proposal budget that will make an impact with potential funders?
Learn how balancing creativity with structure can help your nonprofit foster innovation — without compromising your mission and goals.
Highlighting the personal and professional benefits of serving on your nonprofit’s board can help you make the role more appealing to younger candidates.
Expanding what “return on investment” means to your nonprofit — beyond just money — can help provide a clearer idea of how you’re helping your community and serving your mission goals.
Raising funds for your nonprofit doesn’t have to be stressful. Learn how one California nonprofit proved that, when designed thoughtfully and collaboratively, fundraising can be successful and enjoyable.
If you want to make your organization a healthy space for all and overcome biases and prejudices, you have to do the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work. It’s that simple.
A sudden leadership transition can leave a nonprofit scrambling to survive. Don’t leave your mission to chance — plan for the future today.
In today’s changing world, adding organizational values into the Matrix Map is crucial for nonprofits to demonstrate the impact of funding.
Remote work is the new normal. Be sure your nonprofit’s managers and executives are equipped to successfully lead remote and hybrid work teams.
Getting feedback from those that you serve — and not assuming you know what they need — can help your nonprofit serve your community.
Adopting collective leadership can help your nonprofit create a more inclusive, efficient, and flexible organizational structure.
Six core principles, drawn from STEM education, can help new nonprofits assemble a diverse team, raise funds successfully, and learn to use the gathered resources for strategic growth.
With endowments, let’s rethink ‘forever’ and explore new, flexible ways to ensure your nonprofit organization’s longevity and effectiveness.
How nonprofits can overcome the complex legislative landscape to effectively lobby and pass laws that serve their communities.
To fight the battle against hunger, nonprofits can advocate for meaningful change in our societal structures.
One board member’s personal trials and triumphs of serving on a board, including invaluable lessons that every board member can benefit from.
A tale of transformation and innovative thinking from Motley Zoo Animal Rescue, which shares the lessons they’ve learned and how they overcame obstacles to create a sustainable, community-focused animal rescue system.
Why nonprofits, particularly those supporting marginalized communities, must become active players in the landscape of advocacy.
Why nonprofits that embrace a consensus-based decision model can enhance services, adapt to change, and make a lasting impact.