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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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?
Every organization is made up of cat people and dog people. This framework can help with equity and inclusion in decision-making processes.
Recovering from a disaster is not a quick process. Here’s how philanthropy must help local communities rebuild.
Specialized volunteers can come from organizations that recruit those seeking opportunities for organizations in need of specialized help.
Guiding principles for organizations that want to create a binding, board-approved JDEI policy with values, action plans, and accountability.
To be successful, transitions from volunteer leaders to paid staff must be planned, deliberate, and done in an orderly fashion.
Often nonprofits can have unchecked appetites for growth, which combine with structural factors that make such growth haphazard.
A new accounting standard will bring clarity and consistency to how in-kind contributions of nonfinancial assets are reported for nonprofits.
Leann Malone, Executive Director of Lancaster County First Steps, on strong business acumen, retaining qualified staff, and the bottom line.
The ADA interactive process is a two-way street. What should employers do when employees aren’t interacting in good faith?
The stronger the relationship between the board and chief executive, the better they work together for a planned transition.
We hire new staff, we hold team-building events, we might even bring in a consultant to determine the causes. But there is one area that is often overlooked when trying to fix problems: the culture of the organization and its connection to mission and values.
The board expects the Executive Director (ED) and CFO to work in partnership to further the mission, but most boards also expect the CFO to perform a “watchdog” function. If the ED is the engine of the bus, the CFO is the insurance, the maintenance, and yes, sometimes the brakes.
The efforts you make to meet the ED’s needs and assert your needs will pay off for both the ED, the CFO and the community.
While more and more in our sector push for real systems change, here are three practices that could advance nonprofit justice work.
When to engage in an interactive process with employees to determine if a disability limits their ability to perform essential job functions.
Is your nonprofit’s team unbalanced? To correct the balance, there’s some unbiased actions that need to happen.
When we embark upon what’s known in the nonprofit world as “donation season,” chances are that your organization thinks about putting together a fundraising video or other media that demonstrates the impact of your work.
How to evaluate an employee’s request for a religious accommodation and when to appropriately provide such accommodations.
Every nonprofit needs a budget, but some are more effective than others. Consider these tips for making a budget that works well for everyone.
Forecasting is financial prototyping, and it’s a tool that will remain as part of our finance strategy. Download the budget forecast template.
How can supervisors help their employees perform at their most productive level and maintain consistency in their approach to managing their employees?
Seven results-based ideas and three relationship-based ideas on how to build your nonprofit’s capital structure.
Terminating an employee because they haven’t shown up or reported in should be pursued only after proactive efforts to reach out have failed.
Blue Avocado explores procedures concerning who is permitted to catalog and inventory donated items received by a nonprofit.