Nonprofits boards: Blessing or bullshit

Anyone who has read my blog for any period of time or has been a nonprofit grad student of mine knows how I feel about nonprofit boards. Most are just deplorable – wasting precious staff energies and bringing nothing to the board table.
We need a “Jack Kevorkian” for nonprofit boards – cutting the [...]

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America you are responsible

In regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society; some are guilty, while all are responsible.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

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The Salvation Army’s cardinal rules for meeting the bottom line

The Salvation Army is rightfully considered one of the most effective, best-managed nonprofit organizations in America.
In five brief paragraphs, they summarize their value-based operating guidelines.

Keep first things first. To put it another way, the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. It requires a constant reminder to everyone in the [...]

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Leadership for a new age

I’m an enormous fan of Margaret “Meg” Wheatley. She writes, teaches, and speaks about radically new practices and ideas for leading in chaotic times. Meg draws many of her ideas from new science and life’s ability to organize in self-organizing, systemic, and cooperative modes.
Listen, let in, what she says about leadership.
“There is a [...]

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Gandhi’s list of evils to remember

I find such power in the enduring wisdom of this holy man.
I take such strength in the enduring words of this holy man. Notice how relevant his words are as when he originally spoke them:

Wealth without work,
Commerce without morality,
Science without humanity,
Pleasure without conscience,
Politics without principles,
Knowledge without character.

–Mahatma Gandhi,
Leader of the Indian Nationalist [...]

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Powerful questions

Peter Drucker, the 20th century management guru, believed that the seeds to successful organizations all started by answering five powerful questions. These questions address the ways an organization intends to create value for its customers and is therefore applicable to all organizations, not just businesses. It requires answering the following:

What is our [...]

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Making staff diversity a priority

As the concept of diversity grows and evolves, many nonprofits are taking steps to make diversity part of their institutional culture. Many larger organizations are establishing a diversity officer, sometimes as part of other responsibilities and sometimes as a separate position.
Kay Hoogland, vice president and corporate director for global diversity for Motorola, offers a few [...]

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Editorial: Called to a higher standard

In an article in today’s Washington Post, Rev. Ted Haggard, President of the National Evangelical Association (NEA) revealed that “he bought methamphetamine and received a massage from a self-described male escort.” Now mind you, this admission contradicted his denial only two days ago.
To put this in perspective, the NEA under Haggard’s leadership has been [...]

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