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Strategic Planning: Failures and Alternatives
Here is Part 1 of a two-article series on strategic planning and alternatives to strategic planning. Strategic planning swept into the nonprofit sector in the mid 1980s. Nonprofits were becoming seriously interested in management techniqu …
Firing the Executive Director
Boards of directors tend to fall into one extreme or another when it comes to dissatisfaction with the executive director. Some boards let their dissatisfaction simmer for years without resolution. Other boards are too hasty and fire an executive at th …
How to Hire Your First Development Director
The only thing worse than not having fundraising staff is having bad fundraising staff. To help you avoid the mistakes many others have made in hiring development staff, we’ve stolen a script of a scene with consultant Leyna Bernstein as she talk …
Grantseeker’s Guide to Foundation Affinity Groups
Like the mysterious Freemasons and their Grand Lodges, foundation affinity groups feel open and warm to insiders, but to outsiders they appear to be secretive, cloistered societies with their own coded languages, titles, and hierarchies. Rick Cohen fir …
Nonprofit Bookkeeping Test
If you’re not an accountant yourself, it can be hard to hire a qualified bookkeeper. How can you tell if an applicant really knows bookkeeping? CPA Dennis Walsh created this terrific assessment test you can give candidates for bookkeeping and ac …
Meaningful Budget Work by the Board
For many nonprofits, the annual "approval of the budget" is the cornerstone of board financial oversight. However, this annual approval is frequently an empty ritual: one where board members peruse a budget that they are unsure is realistic o …
What is Micromanagement and What Isn’t?
Micromanagement: whatever the board is doing that the executive director doesn’t like. :) From an executive director: “The board is micromanaging! They’re driving me crazy!” And from a board member of the same organization: “Every time …
Six Easy, Nearly-Free Ways to Be More Disabled-Accessible
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations are undeniably intimidating and seem so expensive to implement, but disabilities activist Mary Lester says there are simple ways to make your office and program sites more accessible without busting …
The Easiest Way to Raise Money: Register with CFC
Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) guru Bill Huddleston tells how nonprofits can raise money from federal employees in just eight great points: 1. Why should I bother to read this article about the Combined Federal Campaign? Because i …
A Board-Staff Agreement for Financial Accountability
Not all board members need to be familiar with financial terms and concepts, but eachorganization needs to develop a clear and explicit agreement for how financial accountability will be ensured. The following is a starting point for an agreement …
