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?
A professional accountant discusses how to make your nonprofit’s accounting more virtual.
A nonprofit talks about how they accomplished a successful strategic planning process with as little pain — and as much gain — as possible.
Nonprofit employers must navigate a multitude of workplace laws and risks, including employees with underlying medical conditions.
Now is a good time to review and focus on two key pieces of your volunteer program: training and engaging your volunteers.
It is important to take into account legal and practical considerations so as to balance community safety with the impact on individuals.
PART 2 of an article explaining more details about the New York State and City paid sick/safe leave laws.
Explore new state laws, in addition to COVID-19 leave, provided under New York State’s Emergency COVID-19 Quarantine Paid Sick Leave.
Instead of defining people by their problems, asset-framing defines people by their aspirations, their gifts, and their contributions.
Partnerships are an opportunity to step up, tune out the noise, rethink funding priorities, and advance the common good.
If you have an employee that also wants to volunteer at your nonprofit, here are some tips to help protect your nonprofit and your employees.
Methods for interacting with emotional labor that create a net positive for everyone in your nonprofit organization.
Read “How to Build a Compassionate Workplace”? Here’s some background and resources to support branch one of othering: emotional labor.
Revenue from contracts with customers (ASU 2014-09) will impact your nonprofit, depending on the nature of your revenue and support.
Unhappy employees sometimes say they are working in a “hostile work environment”. Here’s what that means, and when to investigate it.
How might you pivot your work to help end social isolation and loneliness? Listen to the wisdom of elders and youth.
Interview with Rudy Espinoza, Executive Director at Inclusive Action for the City (IAC) in Los Angeles.
A step-by-step guide to refocusing the board-executive director relationship to better align with their nonprofit’s greater mission.
Empathy, understanding, and flexibility is necessary to ensure that we help our employees, and in turn, our nonprofits survive and flourish.
Employees are classified as either “exempt” or “nonexempt.” However, many in the workforce instead use the terms “salaried” or “hourly”.
Charities are forced to compete with one another for limited resources, and most will remain reluctant to bite the hand that feeds them.
Employing specific strategies discussed in this article will help you locate government grants and determine whether you qualify for them.
Interview with social entrepreneur Matt Jorgensen. How to unlock the power of small, home-based entrepreneurs and their kitchens.
Interview with Mitch Gruber, social entrepreneur, social justice advocate, and Chief Strategy Officer at Foodlink.
The pandemic has created new complexities. The duty to engage in the interactive process with employees with disabilities has not changed.