Imagine your best friend Holly is in a horrible car accident and tragically dies. As grief overwhelms you and tears run down your cheeks, you pull out your smartphone. You send Holly a text telling her how much you miss her. Within seconds she responds with a funny cat meme—just like she always did. You start to laugh. After many more back and forth texts it feels like Holly is still alive. Or is she. […]

Have trouble getting your executive director to make their calls and schedule appointments with major donors? You’re not alone. Executive Directors Often Mean Well, But … The other day, I spoke with Marlene, a campaign director, whose executive director is wonderful in most every way, except—and it’s a big exception—that he had trouble actually getting around to the critical major gift calls he had to make for their campaign.

The holidays are over, and kids and college students are packing up book bags and suitcases and heading off to their respective halls of knowledge to learn about the Pythagorean theorem and the significance of metaphors in 18th-century British literature. But what about you? What do you want to learn more about this semester? There are any number of fantastic courses available, but the best place to start is right here. In this article, we’ll […]

As nonprofit leaders, we have a responsibility to show the country what’s working and what’s at stake on the frontlines of America’s most vulnerable communities. But social-sector hard data is sparse at best, and real-time data is even rarer. The longer our sector remains an outlier in a data-driven world, the greater the opportunity cost—and the greater the risk that others will inappropriately use what numbers there are to justify budget cuts and other misguided […]