One of the most important pieces of advice I can give to growing nonprofits is something that I heard years ago from a business consultant: be slow to hire and quick to fire. It may sound heartless, but we often rush to fill open positions and then are slow to act when we realize we’ve made a hiring mistake. As a 30-year nonprofit consultant, I’m no longer surprised to hear of organizations suffering from revolving […]

Nonprofits are expected to provide the public with an annual report. This gives donors, volunteers, members of the community and others information about the organization’s accomplishments and growth over the past year. The report includes details about projects, success metrics, and more. The report serves several purposes, including recruiting volunteers, providing donors with an organizational vision, garnering community support and proving that the organization has kept records as they should. By writing an effective report, […]

It’s hard to ramp up the good work you do if you don’t know how to concretely define, measure and communicate your impact to supporters. It’s important to learn how to share your efforts with the world, and even more important that you know just how big of an impact you’re making on the issue you’re trying to solve. Defining impact “Impact,” by definition, is the action of one object coming forcibly into contact with […]