Late last year, Imagine Canada, one of the nation’s prominent voluntary sector think tanks, released the following document -- Leadership Perspectives: Interviews with leaders of Canada’s charities and nonprofit organizations. The document surveyed 32 sector leaders across numerous sub-sectors on...
Most nonprofit board members will tell you that at one point they had the misfortune of sitting on the board with a difficult person, someone who dominates discussions, intimidates other board members, is argumentative, shows up late, makes promises that...
Is it ethical to shut down a charity when there is a group of people that would like to form a new board, drawing on new contacts and strategies, to help the organization carry on its work? When should a charity...
Not-for-profit organizations are going green. Wikipedia describes it this way: Environmentally friendly, eco-friendly, and nature friendly are synonyms used to refer to goods and services considered to inflict minimal harm on the environment. Here are some tips on how not-for-profit...
There’s an old adage that states when you want something done right, do it yourself. Many times, that philosophy can pay dividends to those who apply it on an individual basis. But when one looks at the voluntary sector and...
Is it ethical to hire our executive director on a fee-for-service basis rather than on salary? Does this arrangement help us avoid liabilities such as an unjust dismissal suit if we terminate the individual? Many organizations do use this method,...
How are small organizations tracking constituents? What are they struggling with, and what works well? In partnership with the River Network, we spoke to a number of river conservation groups about their constituent databases, and reported back with best practices...
Many high performing not-for-profit organizations engage an objective third party - with the required expertise - to conduct an organization review. This involves a rigorous evaluation of how effectively resources are being applied to serve an organization’s vision, mission, and...
Some Canadian charity boards and senior staff when dealing with legal, accounting, governance problems seem to operate under the premise “Forget about it”. Hey, it even seems to sometimes works. In many cases, however, there is a time of reckoning....
The directors who serve on a nonprofit board do so voluntarily. But there are instances when directors are financially compensated for their time and effort. Adam Aptowitzer, a lawyer with the Ottawa-based law firm Drache LLP, explains when this may...
