This is an interesting (read: crazy, unsure, tension filled, traumatic, lesson-rich) moment in time.

We are all wondering . . .

What will happen to jobs, to local small businesses, to our family’s primary care under whatever health reform bill passes, to our community’s housing as new home sales hit their lowest point in 50 years?

None of us know, but one thing we can be sure of is that nonprofits will be deeply involved in each of these pivotal issues as our nation seeks its future amid the weirdly-staged cacophony of 2010 politics. Within this bedlam, I am awestruck watching the productiveness of nonprofits when they are at their most strategic.

Good strategy requires good intelligence.

I don’t know if you are yet a regular reader of NPQ’s daily Nonprofit Newswire but it is an excellent, concise, and timely — as well as unique — source of intelligence. We’re asking you to help us spread the word about this great service.

It chronicles, with an educated eye, what nonprofits are doing and experiencing all over the United States and it helps make comprehensive sense of it all so you can use the information in your work. What does the newswire cover?
Harvard Business School

  • It points out important studies like the one that exactingly detailed the outcomes of stimulus investments in community health centers, and the study that the United Way of Pennsylvania did to educate legislatures about the problems caused for nonprofits by the record breaking 101 day state budget impasse last year;
  • It tracks trends even when they occur diffusely—as it has with the many new proposals to levy new fees and taxes against nonprofits. These proposals are popping up in wack-a-mole fashion in municipalities, counties and states and they could have enormously serious affects on nonprofit budgets;
  • It watches the legal strategies employed by nonprofits on behalf of populations; tracking suits that are aimed at social and policy change like the challenge heard recently regarding the housing of mentally ill people in New York;
  • It follows changes in policy like the mental health parity act and watches to see what nonprofits do towards preparing for its implementation;
  • It tracks the work of national networks of all kinds in addressing big national problems and it notes the strategies of even the smallest local organizations as they adapt to this new environment;
  • It keeps an eye on corporate philanthropy, government spending and trends in individual giving and fundraising, and fee-based income.

And much more.

We take no prisoners and observe no sacred cows. We treat the sector with respect for its depth and diversity and like the serious force that it is. The NPQ Newswire is news and intelligent analysis about our sector in this economy—packaged for you in brief snippets that dignify both your time and intelligence.

We stay up late and get up early to deliver the Newswire to your inbox each morning but our impact and effectiveness depends on you. Please forward this newswire along to five friends right now—young leaders, board members, colleagues, funders — bread upon the waters.

Meanwhile, I am glad to report that my family’s birthday week has been accomplished—one ninety year old and a five year old, a three year old and a one year old have all been properly feted—the cake has been eaten (with my father, the ninety year old, expressing repeated surprise about its tastiness even after my grandson, the three year old, had buried his face in it when foolish backs were turned). Life goes on and even the best laid plans may have to be scuttled as we find new paths to ever more ambitious end goals.