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Ego Checks, Spaghetti Sauce, and Other Suggestions for Nonprofit Collaboration
My dad is a fan of saying, “Many hands make light work,” as I’m being voluntold to help clean up after dinner. Now how does being elbow deep in burnt on spaghetti sauce relate to nonprofits? It’s hard work but collaboration makes it easier. One …
Whose nonprofit is it anyway?
Call it founder’s syndrome, the succession slump, or something not suitable for work, when a nonprofit leader moves on, the process isn’t always easy. But when control of a signature program or the organization itself is on the line, questions about wh …
In the Board Room: Staying In the Loop And Out Of the Weeds
Recently, a nonprofit CEO requested that I help him keep his incoming board chair “in the loop but out of the weeds.” A catchy slogan, but what does that really mean? Those who have been through board leadership changes know the de …
First-Person Nonprofit: Making the Case (Statement!)
Alice Rossignol is a development writer and editor for The Nature Conservancy. Here she puts her pen to paper about a big professional first. She decided to leap or maybe she got pushed. Either way, a story we need to hear again and again! …
First Person: I Am A Young Social Entrepreneur
Editor’s Note: What does it take to be entrepreneurial? We invited Anika Stephens to share her recent experience in an incubator for young leaders who have already made a positive social or economic impact in their communities and her advice for …
Divorce and the Nonprofit Board Member
Over the course of seven years, I have served on the boards of two nonprofit agencies and on the education committee of a third. I’m a professional academic, with the organizational skills and the flexible schedule that make me valuable as a vol …
Robert Egger: “Our Sector Is About To Be Hit, And Hit Hard” A Blue Avocado Interview
For 24 years, Robert Egger served as president of the DC Central Kitchen, which has created more than 30 million meals and helped 1,500 men and women gain full-time employment. Today he runs the astoundingly successful L.A. Kitchen on the same m …
From Black Panther to Nonprofit CFO
Norma Mtume is my hero. As a college student she joined the Black Panther Party and went on to serve as director of the Alprentice Bunchy Carter and the George Jackson People’s Free Medical Clinics. She also co-founded a nonprofit in a broken-down trai …
Crawling Out of the Psychological Depths
Most of us have had moments of despair. Marilyn Neece very generously shares her story with us: It’s hard to say this out loud. I lost my edge. I went from sharp-minded and insightful consultant to a tired and nearly burnt out executive director …
I Followed A Founder: a First Person Nonprofit Tale
Too often the focus on nonprofit executive transitions is about the departing executive. We’re in the middle of interviewing 58 executives who followed founders or long-time leaders. Here’s just one of their stories; we’ll call her “Amanda”: The …
