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Articles
Falling overboard
A board of directors is clearly a powerful and necessary mechanism for any nonprofit. When the right mix of individuals sit on a board, decisions regarding the mission, vision and planning can be made with clarity and lively, but functional, debate. But what happens when a board member’s performance isn’t up to snuff?
Governance Q&A: The charismatic founder
This article addresses how staff and board members can help the charismatic founder of an organization to gracefully move away from a leadership position.
The least wanted list
Law enforcement agencies have their most wanted lists. What job seekers want to avoid at all cost is being placed on a least wanted list. This article outlines five areas of behaviour that can put an individual at high risk of being considered least wanted.
Nothing’s certain but death and taxes: A brief guide to planned giving programs
Is a planned giving program the right choice for your organization? This articles addresses common planned giving myths, including that legacy programs are only for large and well established organizations, and also offers tips on setting up a program of your own.
Fundraising Q&A: The benefits of monthly giving
Why organizations should consider setting up a monthly giving program.
Funding: The next generation
Find out how the Ontario Trillium Foundation partnered with the Laidlaw Foundation and Tides Canada to explore ways of supporting youth engagement and grassroots youth organizing beyond simply giving dollars.
How employee engagement can drive organizational change
The ability for employers to motivate, inspire and engage employees is fundamental to the success of any nonprofit — that much is obvious. But how nonprofit employers go about engaging employees to drive organizational change or achieve their mission is far less clear.
Need a little guidance?
The Canada Revenue Agency’s new guidance on fundraising is scheduled to be released in March 2012. We’ve got all the highlights here.
Career Q&A: How to work a room
Do you find yourself tongue-tied and shy at networking events? Our Career Q&A columnist Mitchell Stephenson shows you how to work a room like a star.
It’s time to take your time off
Studies show Canadians are not taking all of their vacation time – but there are risks of an all work and no play attitude. How can organizations work with staff to ensure everyone gets to enjoy their time off?
What’s going on in your office? Love, actually
With nearly 60% of Canadians report having dated someone they have met at work, CharityVillage® thought it would be interesting (and timely for mid-February) to explore how individuals and organizations navigate the intrigues and realities of workplace dating and ask: are office romances still taboo?
Human Resources Q&A: When it’s time to run for the hills
I’ve been hired for a new short-term job that doesn’t start for a couple of months. Since I verbally agreed to take the role, I have been receiving a flurry of emails, some of which ask me to create documents and do other work. Although I have been told that everything will be fine and will smooth out, I am getting concerned that all of this extra work is likely going to be a regular expectation once I officially start. What do I do?
State of the union
Workers of the nonprofit sector, unite! That famous Marxist quote — altered slightly here for effect — could apply to the 21% of unionized employees in Canada’s nonprofit sector.
Putting the spotlight on committees
Following these committee best practices can lead to a less painful experience when serving on a board of directors.
Making room for space: How nonprofits are optimizing their physical environments
The role that physical environment plays in shaping the culture or mood of an organization cannot be ignored, and is increasingly taken into account by both client-based and non-client-based agencies.
Governance Q&A: Handling a disruptive member at an AGM
This Q&A article advises readers on how they can ethically deal with a disruptive member at an annual general meeting.
Reboot: Ten tips for working with IT consultants
The situation: you want a new website; or you think an app would be useful; or perhaps you want to beef up your organization’s e-commerce. It might be time to hire an Information Technology (IT) consultant.
Making lemonade: Moonlighting in the nonprofit sector
Though the term evokes images of an employee waiting tables to supplement a day job, the practice of working at multiple nonprofits simultaneously or over a short period of time — identified as "job hopping" or "moonlighting" — is a growing reality, particularly for workers under the age of 35.
Take me to the pilot…program
Back in October 2011, CharityVillage® covered the early pilot launch of Imagine Canada’s new Standards Programs, designed to be a guide to good governance and operating policies and practices and intended to complement standards that many organizations already have in place. So what did some of the participating organizations find out about their own operating standards levels while in the pilot? Is there a clear benefit to being involved in the program?
Me and my corporation: A tale of interest and impact
Corporate partnerships come with their fair share of complexities, questions and concerns. But, as a growing number of nonprofits choose to bed with the private sector, obviously benefits abound as well. So how does the sector find the right balance in its marriage with corporate Canada?
Career Q&A: Finding a new career for a new year
New Year’s is usually a time when we all reflect on how things have gone in the past, look at where we are now, and consider our future options, at least to one degree or another. Here’s a simple process that might help you increase your odds on the career side of your resolutions.
Have students, will achieve
We interviewed several organizations with student volunteer programs to find out the benefits and challenges of working with this unique segment of the population.
Hiring outside the baby boom box
Even in today’s tight and competitive labour market — where the candidate holds many of the cards — nonprofits still present an appealing option to those seeking meaningful participation in the workforce. But with baby boomers retiring, it’s time to think outside the baby boom box to meet the hiring challenge before us.
Human Resources Q&A: Use active listening techniques to strengthen relationships
This article explores the concept of active listening and how you can apply it in your day-to-day working relationships.
The case for interim staff leadership
At times when the chief staff executive position suddenly becomes vacant and the issues before the board seem too large, too overwhelming, and too systemic to be fixed without a different approach, it may be appropriate to consider interim management.
Be it resolved: Four tips for better meetings
It’s time to take a fresh look at meetings and the amount of time you spend in meetings each week. Here are four resolutions that will get your meetings off on the right foot.
Governance Q&A: Communicating administration costs
Since we value honesty, but donors and funders don’t want to support administration costs, how can we ethically define and report on administration costs?
Partnering with government
From coast to coast, provincial and federal decision-makers are recognizing, some in word and some in deed, the importance of supporting nonprofits and charities to help better communities countrywide. The following is a snapshot of a few of the current and pending government-nonprofit sector initiatives from across the country.
Celebrating the #spiritofgiving: Random acts of kindness brighten the Twitterverse
What better way to brighten the darkest days of winter than by celebrating random acts of kindness? To honour the holidays and combat winter gloom, CharityVillage® is running a Twitter campaign designed to bring smiles to communities everywhere.
Who me? A bully?
Are you a “tell it like it is” guy? Are you a “get the job done” gal? Or, are you a bully? Most office bullies are completely unaware that their behaviour is being perceived as bullying.
Burnout: Signs and strategies for every nonprofit professional
Something of a sector buzzword, employee burnout remains a perplexing phenomenon. By recognizing triggers and symptoms, nonprofits can establish support systems to alleviate or stave off burnout, both at a managerial and institutional level.
Attracting the best and brightest: Five strategies for nonprofits
Nonprofits that have a plan to attract, develop and retain top talent will see a dramatic boost in organizational performance. In fact, this is the key challenge facing any nonprofit manager: strengthen your organization’s talent pool dramatically to meet current and future demands…or wither, become irrelevant, cease to be a player.
Human Resources Q&A: I’m afraid my job is at risk
A reader wonders whether a written analysis of her day-to-day duties as compared with her job description might put her job at risk.
From scarcity to abundance
“We need more volunteers!” is right up there with “We need more money!” in terms of the nonprofit sector’s hot topics, most common gripes, and most often heard pleas. Endlessly discussed as a challenge in organizations, large and small, the problem of needing more people to accomplish organizational goals doesn’t seem to be going away. In fact, the need may be more urgently felt than ever as organizations are trying to deliver more impact with fewer resources.
Treat them like professionals and they’ll play like professionals
These were Governor General David Johnston’s words of advice to the nearly 500 delegates at the National Summit for the Charitable and Nonprofit Sector. This sentiment seemed most appropriate for improving conditions for the attraction and retention of paid staff in the nonprofit sector.
Starved for attention yet striving for greatness
From all across the country nonprofit leaders convened for the National Summit for the Charitable and Nonprofit Sector to share ideas on maximizing the sector’s contributions to Canada and the world over the next decade. So why the focus on improving how the sector demonstrates its impact?
The challenge of sustainable financing
Of the four priorities for action identified at the recent National Summit for the Charitable and Nonprofit Sector, priority theme two — more diverse and sustainable financing — had the highest number of attendees. At the core of this priority area for action is the question: How can individuals and organizations collaborate to secure sustainable financing for operations and growth?
Governance Q&A: Who gets the loyalty points?
Many organizations require staff to charge expenses to their personal credit cards, reimbursing them at a later date. But if the employee collects loyalty points on their cards, is it ethical for the employee to keep them rather than donate them back to the organization?
How to effectively manage conflict
Conflict can play out with co-workers, in boardrooms, among volunteers, at annual meetings with members, and in working relationships with stakeholders. So how should a nonprofit leader best deal with conflict in the organization? These tips can be used when conflict arises.
Think outside the kettle: Three holiday fundraising case studies
Like retail, charities get much of their revenue during the winter holiday season: those few precious weeks bracketed by the lead-in to American Thanksgiving in November and closing with Christmas. But the rush to be first can create hazards for an organization that is more committed to standing out than standing firm on what made them important to their core supporters. Here are three approaches (not all of them successful) to give you festive food for thought.
The challenges facing rural nonprofits
Lack of funding is a common theme for every organization in the sector, especially in the arts. But, the issue can be much more significant in rural communities. Find out the challenges facing rural nonprofits, as well as how they are effectively meeting these challenges to remain sustainable.
Donor messaging: Balancing heart and mind
If organizations forego the emotional appeal and focus on messaging that delves into the complex issues they face each day, will it help or hinder the level of giving and their subsequent work on the ground? Is it possible to transcend the traditional discourse on band-aid fixes to a more comprehensive, intricate discussion on long-term solutions?
Spreading the word: 8 ways to get media attention for your nonprofit’s positive news
When you read the papers or turn on the news, it sometimes seems like all you hear about is negative stories. Car crashes, robberies, injuries, fires, political scandals, economic struggles — if it bleeds, it leads, the old adage goes. But what do you do if you’re a nonprofit that’s creating positive change in your community? How do you grab attention for good news in a media environment that tends to focus on the pessimistic?
Game on: Charities toy with new ideas for online engagement
You’ve may have noticed that the concept of “Gamification” is a hot topic in the technology community. What is it really, and what does it mean for charities and nonprofits?
Charity Intelligence: Transparent on transparency?
In an economic climate that’s already impacting the flow of donor dollars to the nonprofit sector, Canadian charities, foundations and nonprofits are crying foul over the recent launch and national media coverage of a charity appraisal search engine by a self-appointed watchdog organization that casts a shadow over them all.
Moving from ‘like’ to action
It’s a common challenge confronted by many nonprofits. Increasing awareness is one thing — but how do you move people from awareness to meaningful action, whether that’s a change in behaviour or support in the form of a donation?
Facebook status updates: 5 content Ideas for nonprofits
Assuming that you know how to post a status update on Facebook, the next question is, what should you post? Find out in this article.
Career Q&A: Performance review blues
A reader with a less-than-satisfactory performance review gets some advice from our Career Q&A columnist.
Returning from a leave of absence: Four stories
Returning to work after a leave can be a daunting process. CharityVillage® spoke to four people who have been through it to find out what they learned and what advice they’d offer to people who are getting back to ‘the grind’ after a leave of absence.
