Accountability

Over the last couple weeks, I've listened to major gift officers on why they haven’t done what they said they were going to do with their caseloads. All of their reasons have to do with losing focus on what their primary jobs are: creating and building meaningful relationships with donors...

Today we celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The man embodied many things, but perhaps among his most notable identifiers was that he was a man of remarkable vision. Vision is crucial to inspiring others to give, volunteer and participate. However, many nonprofit leaders spend countless hours writing a compelling vision statement,…

A New Hampshire nonprofit is making the unusual decision to turn down tens of thousands of dollars in federal aid. Keith Howard, the executive director of the Liberty House in Manchester, N.H., a transitional house that helps homeless veterans, said he is choosing not to seek a nearly $40,000 grant from HUD (Housing and Urban Development)…

A few years back, I was facilitating a board retreat, where it quickly became clear to me that the majority of the board members were unwilling to participate in fundraising or even open to the idea of fundraising. The First Question Is Key In all my years of working with boards, I had never encountered…

Do your best to plant seeds and live in the moment. You hope all of your efforts with prospects, volunteers, board, administration and others ultimately will bear fruit during your tenure. The simple fact is many times results have a different timetable. Keep working hard and understand dreams are being created that you will never see to enjoy...

The Second Mile filed a petition last week to dissolve itself and give its remaining $800,000 in assets to the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State University assistant football coach who in 2012 was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse of 10 different boys and sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison, founded the 39-year-old nonprofit based in Bellefonte, Pa. Sandusky also supported the nonprofit as an active fundraiser...

A USA Today report found that 29 colleges and universities spent a combined average of $2.5 million a year on large-format graphics to decorate athletics facilities. The schools say they help with recruiting of players and donors. Critics say they're a waste of funds better spent elsewhere. But what do facility graphics really mean for these schools' bottom lines?...

Three days before Christmas, Boston University was awarded a $16 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for brain-injury research. The funding was supposed to come from a $30 million unrestricted gift from the NFL, but when the study was announced, there was no mention of the league's involvment. Did the NFL back out of the deal? Or was it never involved to begin with? Here's what we know...

On Feb. 16 of this year, I will be celebrating my 40th year in the field of philanthropy. I have played many roles and have had many titles in my career. I have spent a great deal of time in the front of the organizational shop, so to speak. What I am most proud of is the fact I also have spent a great deal of time in the back of the shop. In order to succeed in the highest levels of our profession, you need hands-on experience and knowledge of both the front and back of the office...

Nonprofits can breathe a sigh of relief today. The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department withdrew the proposal of a new substantiation rule that would allow charities to self-report donations of more than $250 from the Federal Register today...