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High Pay for Nonprofit Execs? Analysis of 100,000 Salaries
Everybody has an opinion about whether nonprofit executives are paid too little or too much, but almost nobody has any real data outside their own experiences. At last! Economist Linda Lampkin (left) analyzed 100,000 nonprofit CEO salaries and h …
And Now for a Different Type of Board Agenda
Board meeting time is deeply precious time, and the fulcrum of board-staff opportunity or disappointment. Let’s be smarter about how we use it. Bonus: board meeting cartoon at end of article. Every third Tuesday, or maybe four Wednesdays …
Stance: The ED’s Role and Attitude in Strategic Planning
An overlooked — but crucial — element in strategic planning is the attitude or stance that the executive director takes to the process. Jeanne Bell of CompassPoint suggests a variety of roles and stances that will be appropriate: As we …
Getting Real About Real-Time Evaluation
Every once in a while a field creeps closer to actually being helpful to nonprofits. Thanks to evaluators Clare Nolan and Fontane Lo for explaining a type of program evaluation — and how to make it work for you. Have you ever had an eval …
Questions to Ask Prospective Board Members
Spend a few minutes ahead of time thinking about what to ask prospective board members to get a better idea if it’s a good match.
Nonprofits: How to Survive an IRS Audit
Uh oh. We are all afraid of getting audited by the IRS, but we don’t really know what would happen in one. Here is the True Life story of an environmental organization’s audit, how they survived, and their tips for the rest of us. I Survived an IRS Aud …
The Automatic Nonprofit Salary Calculator
Jon Pratt of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits uses a tongue-in-cheek version of the familiar Salary Calculator model to comment trenchantly on the indiscriminate — and not so indiscriminate –differences in how nonprofit staff get paid:How muc …
Executive Director Evaluation Survey Form
A process and an evaluation instrument for executive director evaluation surveys. Includes survey in Word format for easy modification.
The Philanthropic-Consultant Industrial Complex . . . editor notes issue #74
You’ve probably heard of the 5% payout requirement for foundations . . . but most people mistakenly believe this means that foundations must grant out 5% of their assets each year. Actually, foundations must spend 5% of their assets each year . …
Evaluating the Executive Director
Are you sighing just from having read the title of this article? Why does this topic make us all feel so tired? Virtually everyone agrees that boards should conduct performance reviews of executive directors (EDs or CEOs). Even so, the predominant prac …
