Improve Your Nonprofit Financial Management with our Financial Sustainability Check-up
Tax Day was Tuesday, and, like it or not, it gets everyone, including social sector organizations, thinking deeply about finances. With the economic downturn and inflation, I spoke with one of our long-term partners, John Gillespie of Charles River CFO, about these...
How to Review Nonprofit CEO Performance
Governance expert John Carver was famous for saying “organizational performance is synonymous with chief executive performance.” In other words, if an organization is performing well, the CEO must be good. And if an organization is performing poorly, it is the CEO’s...
Is Your Nonprofit Ready for an Executive Transition? A Quick Guide for Nonprofit Succession Planning
In John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, he said: “The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are...
2023 Nonprofit Trends: Re-centering our Cultural Norms
Last year, we lost one of my leadership mentors – Frances Hesselbein, who is best known as the transformative leader of the Girls Scouts. This led her to be noticed by Peter Drucker, who named her “the best CEO in America” and later his successor. I interacted with...
Top 10 Moonshot Goals for the Social Sector
As a futurist for the social sector, I am often asked about what to expect in the future. 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 the post-COVID world and...
Nonprofit Trends and Inspiration: Top 5 TrendSpotter Favorites of 2022
With so much negativity swirling around us, it is easy to let it color our view of the world. But as I told my students in our wrap-up class last week, we have a choice. If we let them in, negative news and interactions can convince us that the world cannot be...
How to Create a Nonprofit Advisory Council and Why
I love fall – with it comes so many possibilities. It reminds me of one of my favorite fall quotes by French author Albert Camus: “Autumn is the second spring when every leaf is a flower.” It professes a love for the season of fall but also a season of life where...
How Dashboards Can Help Your Nonprofit Achieve Strategic Goals
London is one of my favorite cities – not only because it is a beautiful urban city that feels small and quaint, but because the people are so welcoming. This week I enjoyed spending some time exploring the city and I noticed the “Mind the Gap” PSAs in the Tube. The...
Q&A on Nonprofit Mergers, Acquisitions and Exits
Everything changed two years ago – so much so, many futurists, including myself, shifted gears from long-range planning to week-to-week survival. Now, as the country begins to get back to “normal,” we have begun shifting back to long-term planning. For nonprofits, the...
Seven Habits of Highly Effective Board Members
Now that school is back in session, nonprofit boards will be meeting regularly and gearing up for the fall season of Giving Days, annual letters and strategic planning. Did you know that the Latin root for governance (gubernare) means to guide or pilot a ship? It is a...
