Executive Issues

Today’s most forward-thinking nonprofits understand that the ability to tap into the enthusiasm and energies of a committed pool of executives can mean the difference between success and failure. Properly applied, the leadership provided by such executives can pay dividends in a number of different ways, from facilitating development opportunities to formulating strategy, and from refining objectivities to clarifying goals...

We all love a good crisis. Don’t we? No, you say? What did you do the last time you passed a traffic jam on the opposite side of the expressway? Did you slow down and rubberneck to check it out? What about that fire that you just happened to drive by? Did you park, get out and watch?...

I was so impressed with the way my colleague Sharon Kerr, who works for The Salvation Army in California, organized and rallied her program people that I had to pass it on to you to copy and use, with her permission...

For-profit companies have often sought to generate goodwill through charitable donations and a combination of environmental and social advocacy. For some companies, however, the occasional goodwill gesture isn’t enough. That’s what B Corporations are for: These for-profit companies intend to make money, of course, but doing good also is one of their goals...

The Clinton Foundation's critics may soon have less ammunition to suggest the organization lacks transparency. The charity has taken initial steps toward regaining a rating by Charity Navigator, a major charity watchdog that assesses more than 8,000 organizations on a scale of zero to four stars. The Clinton Foundation, headed by former President Bill Clinton,…

In an effort to make good with participating nonprofits and repair its own reputation, Kimbia, the technology platform and solution provider for Give Local America, has announced a multi-phase plan to help nonprofits achieve their goals and mitigate any loss brought about by the technological snafu that brought nonprofits' websites and fundraising efforts to a crashing halt on May 3...

Financial problems are forcing the closure of NC New Schools/Breakthrough Learning, a champion of specialty and early-college high schools, the nonprofit announced Thursday. The organization had expanded rapidly, said Jeffrey Corbett, president of its board of directors, and the expansion outpaced its funding. "We ran into cash-flow problems that were directly related to growth and…

Presidents of large, private foundations get paid too much. How much? At foundations with budgets greater than $2 billion, the median CEO salary is more than $610,000 a year, not counting some very generous benefits and bonuses, according to the 2015 salary report from the Council on Foundations. That’s very generous. Too generous. I don’t say that…

This week I was visiting with a great mentor—an incredible philanthropist, board member and fundraiser. We are both fans of a friend who recently left a university where the president did not allow anyone else to engage with its top donors and prospective donors...

A really effective executive can make a nonprofit successful. But, a really ineffective or even incompetent executive (e.g., rising to your highest level of incompetence but a really good practitioner) can destroy a nonprofit. And, while there is a modicum of literature about what makes a great executive, there is little literature that describes the…