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Too Many Nonprofits? No — There Aren’t Enough Good Nonprofits
While Jan Masaoka was executive director at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, the organization completed two mergers, rejected four merger offers, and was rejected by the other party in two other merger explorations. In addition to consulting …
Six Things Every Board Member Should Know About the NEW 990
Just the thought of an IRS form can bring out the clouds on a sunny day. But now that this annually required nonprofit form is on the web for everyone to see (at GuideStar.org), it goes beyond compliance to being an important way to t …
Succeeding With – or Maybe in Spite of – Evidence-Based Practices
We understand the reasoning that allows funding only for proven, evidence-based practices. But too often this requirement has become a club battering community nonprofits. Evaluator Clare Nolan explains how to “tweak” evidence-based practices to …
Nonprofit Embezzlement: More Common and More Preventable Than You Think
"I was on the board of a national social justice organization for three years. The Development Director discovered that the "external-auditor-turned-internal-accountant" had been embezzling funds by stealing checks and using the "st …
The Board Builds Its Sense of Self: Body-Building for Boards
Perhaps the single most important attribute of an effective board is also its most intangible: an independent sense of itself. This sense of self is the board’s identity as a BODY rather than, for instance, as a loose collection …
Three Steps to Effective Board Oversight of Insurance
As a board member, it is your responsibility to understand your group’s insurance needs and help make sure you have the right coverage. Here are guidelines for board members who want to make sure their community nonprofit has appropriate insurance cove …
Closing Down the Right Way
In the last Board Cafe column, we discussed how to think about the possibility of closing down a nonprofit, including alternatives to closure. But sometimes closure is the best choice of the possible options. In recent weeks we’ve had a chance to see s …
Nonprofit Retirement: Part 1 of 3
This issue we begin a three-part series on nonprofit retirement, written by Blue Avocado columnist Steve Zimmerman. You’ve read about how organizations should prepare for people retiring, but not much about how you can prepare. In our trademark f …
Is It Time for an Audit?
Blue Avocado reader Bill Mitchell writes: “As a board member of both a small ($400k/year) and a much larger ($1.8m/year) nonprofit, what are the criteria to determine whether or not to conduct a formal outside audit? I have worked on staffs, sat on boa …
Should the Board Hold Executive Sessions?
Nonprofit boards are often criticized for a lack of vigor, being subservient to their executive directors, and for weak evaluation of their chief executive. The need for frank and informal discussion about staff performance, and the importa …
