Is Your Nonprofit on Life Support? A Financial Check-up for the Social Sector
After our recent national survey and webinar, which we discussed in a recent post, I wanted to dig deeper into the financial results. First, the bad news from the survey – due to COVID-19, 17% of nonprofits reorganized, 13% reduced overhead and 10% postponed...
What You Should Do Instead of Working on a New Nonprofit Strategic Plan This Year
Last Sunday, we sprung forward with Daylight Saving Time. It was a perfect analogy for how many of us are feeling – we have been in a holding pattern for the past year and we are ready to spring forward into 2021. Right now, the No. 1 question I have been hearing is:...
Is Your Nonprofit Sustainable and What Does Nonprofit Sustainability Really Mean?
“Sustainability” has been a buzzword in the social sector for the past few years, but what does it really mean? Everyone agrees that sustainability is an important factor to evaluate the resiliency of social sector organizations, but few have agreed on a simple path...
The Great Nonprofit RESET: Nonprofit Trends & Actions for 2021
Pivot. I imagine you’ve heard or used this word to describe your nonprofit’s activities in the past year. With the devastating impact of COVID-19 on our economy and public health, nonprofits have indeed had to shift quickly to answer the call of their communities....
How to Use Theory of Change to Map Your Nonprofit’s North Star
Finding your direction in the social sector can be daunting. With limited resources and so many competing interests vying for our time and attention, it would be helpful if we had a compass to guide us toward our “north star” of social change – whether it...
Which Strategic Plan is Right for You?
While there are numerous books and websites on strategic planning, the process of developing a plan can seem prescriptive. But, it shouldn’t be that way. Strategy for any organization can be tailored to set forth the ways in which an organization will negotiate its...
Fail Early, Fail Cheaply: 4 Steps to Vetting New Opportunities for Your Organization
Because the social sector is in the business of changing the world, we often have an inclination to see every need or idea as a call to jump into action. The result of taking on too many opportunities comes in the form of mission creep, donor confusion or staff...
Combating Leadership Fatigue in the Social Sector
I think I speak for all of us when I say that this year has presented some unexpected challenges. As the dedicated social sector leaders we are, we keep facing those challenges head-on, but some of us are beginning to experience something deeper than exhaustion.I come...
After COVID-19: Top 10 Aspirational Goals for Daring Greatly in the Social Sector
As a futurist for the social sector, I get asked a lot about what to expect from a post-COVID-19 world. While there are many things I don’t know, there are some that I do. For example, I know the social sector has risen to the challenge and opportunity of 2020 and...
Minding the Gap with Dashboards
We love sharing good deeds like a great one we saw from July 2019 when good Samaritans came to the aid of a little boy in Australia who fell in the gap when boarding a train. The boy ultimately was fine thanks to the dozen or so commuters on the platform rushing to...
