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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! …
Nine Nonprofit Trends that Need to Die
Vu Le of the Rainier Valley Corps, calls out some of the most annoying nonprofit trends. We would add the use of word clouds (see left). 1. Ignite-style presentations AKA “presentation by karaoke” “Ignite” involves a five-minute Powerpoin …
Mediocrity Starts with ME (Humor)
After being in this sector for over a decade, I can say that nonprofit professionals are some of the most awesome people on earth. We are smart, talented, dedicated, passionate, caring, humble, witty, cool, and hilarious. Also, we are really good-looki …
If You Give a Board Treasurer A Cookie…
Blue Avocado columnist Vu Le inspires us again with his ideas for nonprofit-themed children’s books. We should all be writing some! Today, I want to talk about children’s books. I am so sick of these children’s books that my one-year-old …
Downward-Facing Budget and Other Nonprofit Yoga Poses
Don’t you love Vu Le, Blue Avocado’s humor columnist? This time he turns to giving us health hints! We in nonprofits work a lot and oftentimes neglect important things. Like flossing. And exercise. There are many benefits of yoga, which are the …
First Person Nonprofit: A Day in the Life of a Major Gifts Officer
So exactly how do you lead someone up to a $1 million ask? The director of major gifts at a large regional environmental organization agreed to tell us everything… as long as we didn’t reveal her name or organization. And best of all: post you …
Bring Unicorns Back to Our World: The Problem with Outcomes
How many outcomes and logic models can fit on the head of a pin? Humor columnist Vu Le enlightens us: The concept of “outcomes” has been well-beaten into all of us nonprofit folks. So much so, in fact, that I start to apply this concept to all s …
The Sustainability Question: Why Is It So Annoying?
This morning, I woke up early and realized I was face-to-face with my son Viet, who has been sleeping in the same bed with his mom and me. Looking at our sweet little baby, who was still sleeping peacefully, one tiny hand under his soft and rosy cheek, …
Humor: Nonprofit Advice on Love, Marriage, and Other Stuff
Vu Le, Blue Avocado humor columnist and executive director of Vietnamese Friendship Association, makes us smile: Executive directors are problem solvers. That’s why we get paid the big bucks. But why keep it to just nonprofit problems? We would …
The Founding Fathers Write a Grant Proposal
“Just look at this second sentence!” groaned Samuel Adams. “‘We hold these truths to be self-evident . . .’ This flies in the face of ‘evidence-based practice!’ We’ll never get funded!” Another delegate had a different complaint: “This mission statemen …
