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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.

Recent Nonprofit Articles

Latest Articles

To Solve the Problem, Focus on the Desired Outcome: A Formula for Nonprofits

Solving challenges is ultimately about creating the outcomes we want. By asking goal-oriented questions, you’ll come up with better outcomes.

What a Finance Committee Can Do for Your Board of Directors

Implementing a finance committee of the board of directors was one of the best things our organization ever did. Here’s why.

Ask Rita: How Do I Navigate Requests for Religious Exemptions from a Requirement to Receive the Covid-19 Vaccine?

It is important to work with that employee to understand the basis for the request and to determine whether it is appropriate.

Risk Management for Nonprofits: Copyright

When web designers have an email from another nonprofit saying they don’t mind if you use one of their images, are you ok to use the image?

Don’t Let Internal Controls Slip at Your Nonprofit Organization!

Internal controls are more important than ever to have in place and operating effectively in order to prevent wrongdoing and malfeasance.

How to Found and Run a Nonprofit Remotely: Free Template

A free, fill-in-the-blanks template for those wishing to found a nonprofit, from someone who founded a nonprofit while stranded in Malta.

Functional Expenses Decreased During Covid-19? How to Prepare for Conversations with Funders

It’s important to be open and honest in communications with funders. Nonprofits should articulate why the metrics may have changed.

Ask Rita: We Have Decided on an In-House Investigation—Now, How Do We Do It?

Approaching investigations in a way that the process is fair, objective, and thorough, as the law requires, can be formidable for a beginner.

The Worst Way to Share an Idea is to Say, “I Have an Idea”

Saying “I have an idea” can cause issues because of the implied ownership. It’s important for us to offer ideas in the right way.

Still Publishing Donor Names? Ditch the List

Six reasons to abandon the stale practice of including a donor list in your nonprofit’s annual report.

Practical Guide to How Nonprofits Can Create Equity in Organizations and Community

It’s important to shift attention towards structural racism and come up with viable, long-lasting solutions to systemic racism.

Workplace Discrimination Investigations: Do We Need to Hire an External Professional?

Whether you handle investigations internally or bring in an independent outside investigator depends on several considerations.

Ask Rita: FFCRA Paid Leaves 2021—Help!

Simplifying paid-leave laws. The best way to understand what the new leave laws provide is to take a quick look back into the past.

How to Plan and Execute an Emergency Succession

Succession planning gets a bad rap. But in a pandemic, especially in the early days, an emergency succession plan becomes essential to a nonprofit.

How Nonprofits Can Return to In-Person Board Meetings and Retreats

Explore these tips to have a safe and productive first in-person meeting with your board as the pandemic winds down.

The Employee Retention Credit: What Nonprofits Need to Know

Originally enacted as part of the CARES Act in March 2020, and subsequently voted into law last December, the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) may now be claimed by eligible employers — and that includes tax-exempt nonprofit organizations — that previously received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan. Since most eligible employers opted for a PPP

Ask Rita: Recording Conversations in the Workplace — Do I Have to Put Up with This?

We want to discipline an employee for an unauthorized recording of our conversations. What are our options?

Running Your Nonprofit’s Accounting Department During COVID-19 and After

A professional accountant discusses how to make your nonprofit’s accounting more virtual.

Making Nonprofit Strategic Planning (Relatively) Painless

A nonprofit talks about how they accomplished a successful strategic planning process with as little pain — and as much gain — as possible.

Re-Opening After Covid-19: What Nonprofits Need to Know about Reasonable Accommodation of Employees with Disabilities

Nonprofit employers must navigate a multitude of workplace laws and risks, including employees with underlying medical conditions.