I was listening to the Tavis Smiley Show on New Year’s Eve as he hosted a stellar panel of African American leaders reviewing the events of 2005. Connie Rice, co-director of the Advancement Project and definitely a lady with the gift-o-gab had some pointed words for a prominent Democrat with her eye on the presidency.
Jack Abramoff’s Philanthropy (Jan 06)
Last week I sent you an article by Pablo Eisenberg exhorting us all to be brave in calling out those nonprofits among us who do not act in good faith. But in the case of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, we have a miscreant who has poached his way into our sector and used a charitable front
Color Blindness (Feb 06)
“Everything must change. Nothing stays the same.” This hauntingsong by Bernard Ighner has been in my head since last week whenit was sung at the funeral service of my oldest friend. It washis favorite. Bob and I have been friends since I was 18 and he was a mature(?) 21. He was an extraordinary man
All About Evaluation (Mar 06)
I’m not being coy when I say that it creeps me out when people refer to me (or anyone else) as an expert. It always holds an implication that the person in question has finished learning about the subject and it seems to me it shuts down the requirement to listen, doubt, and drive our
Thinking in the Nonprofit Sector (Apr 06)
“This remarkable new model for managing nonprofits will turn everything you thought you knew on its head. This breakthrough approach, pioneered in Silicon Valley with high tech firms, has already had promising results in two social ventures, and is now ready for full scale replication. Or you can stay hopelessly behind the curve.” Ever heard
Your Humble Servant . . . Truly! (Apr 06)
NPQ needs your help — and what we need from you is quick and easy. Over the past nine months, the Nonprofit Quarterly has been in the eye of a small but potent storm as we have spun off from our parent organization, Third Sector New England. Although the ultimate objective was agreed upon, these
Needed: Your Ethical Questions (May 06)
I was talking to an old friend today about the questionable integrity of an organization we know. “It’s like North Carolina’s state motto,” she said (she can always surprise me with her arcane bits of knowledge). I didn’t bite — just looked at her and waited. “Well, you know their motto is “to be rather than
Grassroots or Bust (May 06)
My family of origin likes to argue about words. I still remember with pride the first time I bested my father on a word definition. It was actually pretty recently and my children scathingly said I took unfair advantage of his advancing age but — look, you take what you can get in this life. So
Many Hands . . . (Jun 06)
The last few weeks have been a humbling experience for the Nonprofit Quarterly as we moved into our offices. Our email still isn’t consistently up – not good for a publication that functions on deadlines with a lot of external writers and advisors. Our secondhand phones have quirks all unto themselves, and the elevator has
Does Board Prestige Matter? (Jul 06)
We had a remarkable moon the other night. It was a bright red/orange suspended in a dark sky. All around me were the sounds of living in this decade –- car horns, music, teenagers hooting and laughing, dogs selling woof tickets to each other within the safe restraint of their leashes, a group of tipsy
In A Pickle? (Jul 06)
There are ethical dilemmas in every work venue, but particularly in nonprofits. Understanding the balance between various layers of accountability can be very complex. Ironically, as with Enron, a nonprofit’s worst ethical traps may be created where a good deal of celebratory noise cocoons problematic details and unanticipated consequences. Of course, when these issues later
Drowning in the Ripples of Enron (Aug 06)
A friend of mine from Northern Ireland recently visited, and over a very bad fish dinner at a local watering hole that we should have tagged as suspect for anything more than a basic brew, he caught me up on what was going on in his neck of the woods. Stevie runs a big NGO