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To Solve the Problem, Focus on the Desired Outcome: A Formula for Nonprofits
The gala attendance for your nonprofit is down, year over year. So, you ask, How can we fix our gala attendance? Naturally, this leads to ideas to make the gala snazzier. However, that doesn’t actually solve the shrinking attendance problem. …
The Worst Way to Share an Idea is to Say, “I Have an Idea.”
How nonprofit employees can help ideas be heard and embraced Bryan has an idea for something he thinks might help his nonprofit. His supervisor, Wanda, already has a lot on her plate at the moment. When Bryan says, “Here’s my idea,” it feels lik …
How Nonprofits Can Return to In-Person Board Meetings and Retreats as the Covid-19 Pandemic Winds Down
It’s Spring 2021 and your board retreat approaches. Half of your board members—and all of those over 65 or with chronic health conditions—have received a Covid-19 vaccine. In this near future, perhaps new Covid-19 cases have dropped below 60,000 …
Making Strategic Planning (Relatively) Painless
Strategic planning time! Do I hear groans or cheers? In my experience sitting on nonprofit boards and employed as a nonprofit staff member, I typically hear some grumbling when the topic of strategic planning comes up. Volunteers (or very minimally pai …
Strategic Planning 101 for Nonprofits: Strengthen a Nonprofit’s Board-Executive Director Relationship
When I talk to nonprofit leaders about strategic planning, they often voice some of the obvious benefits of aligning teams around organizational identity (mission, vision) and organizational priorities (goals). In contrast, they rarely voice a benefit …
Yes, You Really Need One – Why Strategic Planning Matters and How to do it Better
During a recent call with a leader of a nonprofit organization, he asked a question I’ve been getting more and more. “Do we really need a strategic plan?” He continued, “It seems like a lot of work for some pie-in-the-sky document that ra …
In These Turbulent Times for Nonprofits
2017 has already brought many new challenges for the service sector, and we can expect more to come. So there is no time to waste in getting ready for whatever changes your nonprofit may face. As leaders, we are continually using internal …
A Fork in the Yellow Brick Road to Oz
Erik Talkin is the CEO of the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County. He has fun describing an approach to strategic choices that has us singing, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” . . . So you and your nonprofit stepped out onto the yellow brick road, hear …
Matrix Map Part II: The Strategic Imperatives
In this article, Steve Zimmerman continues presentation of the Matrix Map model from the book Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability: In our last Blue Avocado column, we introduced the Matrix Map, which you …
The Matrix Map Approach Part One: How to Create the Matrix Map
You may have heard of the Dual Bottom Line: the idea that strategic choices must serve both mission impact and financial viability. But how do you turn this idea into a quantitative decision-making tool? Blue Avocado columnist Steve Zimmerman sum …
