All the staff at my agency work on contracts, and renewals depend on confirming our core and project funding. The funding approvals usually come in at the last minute, sometimes even after we have worked a couple of weeks in...
Mission, vision and values are supposed to be the North Star of strategic planning, the beacon by which organizations set their strategic compasses and then align their everyday priority setting. But let's face it, the prospect of attending a visioning...
This is the second in a series of four articles on risk management ideas for not-for-profit organization leaders and volunteers. In the first article, readers were invited to consider how to determine an organization's risk appetite and risk tolerance position....
I have been a volunteer at an agency for four years. In that time it has grown and I feel like a part of that and have particular insight where my volunteer function is concerned. Yet the organization does not...
Long before the Internet introduced us to spam and those annoying web pop-ups, businesses were using the telephone to deliver their message to consumers...whether they liked it or not. Last year, the federal government decided it was finally time to...
Any well-rounded board of directors will include professionals who are experts at analyzing financial statements, savvy in boosting fundraising efforts, irreplaceable in introducing the executive director to community leaders, and relentless at evaluating and perfecting programs. But what about developing,...
Two years ago, I was involved in a three-day multi-stakeholder consultation that gathered veterinarians, slaughterhouse operators, meat processors, farm representatives, regulators, research scientists, and animal welfare activists. The goal was to develop a code for the humane handling of farm...
Should alcohol be served during board meetings, retreats, staff parties and other internal events at a nonprofit? Is this normal practice? If so, who should pay for it? This simple-sounding question raises a set of thorny questions that each organization...
I am a board member of a local charity with seven staff members. I have no idea what the Executive Director earns or how it is determined. The Chair says only the Executive Committee needs to know, and they are...
I am a program manager, delivering human service programs in my region. I have been told to do something that feels all wrong. I can't break confidentiality to tell you what it is. I went through our code of conduct...
