It’s not about technology; it’s about what you do with it.
The Research System: A Public Utility on Which All Nonprofits (Should Be Able to) Depend
Accomplishments notwithstanding, the nonprofit research infrastructure needs to move to the next level.
In Desperate Times, Bad News Is Good News for Fundraising
In nonprofit politics, the commando approach has it pros and cons.
Lashed to the Deck
We have been doing a lot of listening lately to nonprofit leaders who are thinking about what they have to do to continue to serve their constituencies over the unpredictable course immediately ahead.
Fighting Concentrated Poverty: Nonprofits and Their Networks of Support
If President Obama is going to confront the depths of urban and rural poverty in the U.S., he is going to need to build the capacities of, and infuse capital into, community-based nonprofit organizations in poor communities. In addition to joblessness, lousy schools, high crime, and poor health outcomes, the least successful poor communities lack local nonprofits capable of providing ideas, expertise, and leadership for community renewal. The few localities making some progress, notwithstanding the past eight years of intentional downgrading and corrosion of federal government support, are those with functioning nonprofits—generally backed by an infrastructure of national and regional capacity-builders, financial intermediaries, and foundations.
Foundation Immortality – A Given in These Times?
We need your reaction to an important paper being released on the Nonprofit Quarterly Web site today!
Foundation Sacred Cow Challenged in Nonprofit Quarterly Article
“The doctrine of perpetuity insulates foundations from maximizing the value of their assets for society,” argues Arthur “Buzz” Schmidt in an article released today by the Nonprofit Quarterly. The founder of GuideStar USA and founder and CEO of Guidestar International, Schmidt writes in, “Escaping the Perpetuity Mindset Trap” that this moment in history and the
Escaping the Perpetuity Mindset Trap
FROM THE ARCHIVES:
“The doctrine of perpetuity insulates foundations from maximizing the value of their assets for society,” argues Buzz Schmidt in this article.
Wrongheaded Thinking about Foundation Grantmaking
Imagine being an investor in the stock market—a scary thought in these times—examining investments in potential securities, but being unable to distinguish and disaggregate equities (stocks) from bonds, cash equivalents, and other assets. You may think you’re buying into a fund of large cap equities but you discover you actually just landed a bunch of U.S. treasuries or even a Real Estate Investment Trust .
Welcome to the bollixed up way we think about the similarities and differences among U.S. foundations!
Nonprofit Capacity Needs More Investment
Will nonprofit issues be high on President Obama's policy agenda?
Look at what he faces — a plummeting economy that could wipe out a slew of small nonprofits with thin fund balances and thinner operating reserves.
If you don't think that could happen, just imagine how the numbers of bank failures, job layoffs and the automakers' troubles will inevitably reverberate down to the nonprofit sector with devastating results.
Ethical Bull Droppings
I want to invite your questions for the Nonprofit Ethicist again but before I ask for your story I want to tell you one.
Watchdog or Lapdog?
Like any other sector of society, a healthy philanthropic sector needs the scrutiny of external watchdog organizations as well as appropriate governmental regulation and oversight. But ensuring that the watchdog does not turn into a lapdog is a challenge that bedevils even countries with well-developed philanthropic sectors and confounds those where the sector is only beginning to build an infrastructure.