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Point-Counterpoint: Too Much Influence or Not Enough – Should Nonprofits Be Allowed to Support Political Candidates
After signalling his intentions to do so at the National Prayer Breakfast in February, on May 4, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at weakening the Johnson Amendment, an act that has received mixed reaction from the nonprofit world …
How do federal funding threats affect you?
It’s time for our next Blue Avocado Poll. Does your organization rely on federal funding? Are you discussing the possible budget cuts at the federal level? What are your contingency plans? Please take a minute to tell us what you are seeing, and …
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 …
How Do You Count Employees . . . to Determine Which Laws Apply?
Dear Rita: We are a small nonprofit that provides summer day camps for youth. We have 6 full-time employees, and hire about 40 or so seasonal workers who staff our summer camps. We also hire a few administrative workers through a temporary agency to he …
Contract Wizardry: Conjuring Impact from Government Contracts
Have you ever tried to piece together eleven government contracts for overlapping programs, trying to make them fit together to fund all the costs? Or have you had six foundation grants, all for the same program area, but each requiring different …
Endorsing Candidates. Illegal. How to Do It.
Perhaps the most effective way to bring about social change is to elect the right people. Yet nonprofit 501c3 organizations are prohibited from supporting or opposing candidates running for office. Some long-time nonprofit practices address …
Volunteerism Public Policies Can Hurt Nonprofits
Amidst the predictable praise for volunteerism and the Serve America Act, we at Blue Avocado detect the mooing of a sacred cow. Cow hunter and policy analyst Rick Cohen lets us know the four things we should be worried about with public pol …
Amaze Your Friends with these Nonprofit Factoids
When we believe something to be true but don’t have the data to support that idea, what happens when we do find the hard evidence? Two things: either we find out we were wrong after all or . . . we were right and now we have the facts to put into a gra …
L3C: Pot of Gold or Space Invader?
For-profit companies continue to seek ways to obtain two benefits that are usually reserved for nonprofits: foundation grants and government tax exemptions. These efforts are led by both well-meaning individuals as well as those that simply want fundin …
What’s the Point of a Nonprofit Board, Anyway?
Democracy is the worst form of government, said Winston Churchill, except for all the other ones. The same might be said of nonprofit boards. Here we take an unconventional look at three dimensions of why boards exist: legal reasons, mission reasons, a …
