NonProfit Pro

Maybe you haven't heard of Robert Pittman, but the Mississippi-born media mogul has been involved with some of the most well-known media companies of the last quarter century. He's the co-founder and programmer who led the team that created MTV, and once served as CEO of MTV. He's also held CEO positions at AOL Networks, Six Flags Theme Parks, Quantum Media, Century 21 Real Estate and Time Warner Enterprises. These days, Pittman chairs and serves as CEO of iHeartMedia.

Pittman is no billionaire, and it's unclear exactly how much he's worth. But he has enough extra cash on hand to...

Let the donor beware: A federal lawsuit alleges four cancer charities have scammed consumers out of more than $187 million.

The Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general in all 50 states and the District of Columbia announced Tuesday they have filed a lawsuit against the Cancer Fund of America, Children's Cancer Fund of America, Cancer Support Services and the Breast Cancer Society alleging they violated federal and state regulations. All four charities are run by members of the same family or their close business associates, as detailed in the 2013 "America's Worst Charities" joint report from...

Despite the expected retirement of large numbers of veteran nonprofit executives in the next few years, many organizations lack a formal succession plan, the Boston Globe reports.

According to a report due out in June from Third Sector New England, nearly a third of the nonprofit leaders in the region who were surveyed said they planned to leave their jobs within two years, while almost two-thirds said they anticipated leaving their positions within five years. Yet 60 percent of the organizations in the survey said they did not have a formal succession plan in place.

You finally have the appointment with your major donor. Don't strike out when you finally get in the door. Here are my top six ways to get the most out of a major donor visit.

It only takes one person—and it has to take one person—to start a movement or an organization, to turn around a nonprofit, to take a university to the next level, to start or transform a fundraising program. That is the spark.

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation recently approved a $1 million grant to support ArtPlace America's national work in the field of creative placemaking. The grant, distributed over two years, will support ArtPlace America's four program areas.

Abila last week announced MIP Advance. MIP Advance extends the award-winning true fund accounting MIP family of products to the cloud with an intuitive interface. Clean, accessible reporting, analytics and customizable dashboards allow nonprofit organizations to promote financial stability and handle increasing financial complexity and growth with ease.

As the usage of mobiles and mobile internet services demand pick up speed, marketers need to keep themselves on their toes regarding the implementation of mobile marketing. Mobile marketing is changing the way marketing is being carried out. Some of the advantages it provides include bringing down the costs you incur on marketing, easier to monitor and track, easy to tune to your requirements, using lesser resources and manpower, and making the business more streamlined and efficient.

Yet many aspiring businesses, and even established ones, are not leveraging the power of mobile marketing to the fullest extent.

In 1985 the .ORG domain was released to the public, along with .COM, .NET, .GOV and .EDU—the original top-level domains of the Internet. Over the next 30 years, the .ORG domain would become the Internet home of the nonprofit sector worldwide and become synonymous with the term "nonprofit organization."

Consequently, in poll after poll conducted by the Public Interest Registry, the nonprofit responsible for managing the .ORG domain, the online masses have communicated that more than any other domain on the Internet, .ORG is the most trusted, credible domain name for nonprofits, charities, NGOs, ONGs and social enterprises worldwide.

"Unfortunately, boards of directors have no clear model to follow when it comes to developing the strategic roles that is best suited to the (organization) they oversee. ... More importantly, the board must play a role that matches the strategic needs of the (nonprofit) and the state of its (mission's) sector." For both nonprofits and for-profits the strategic plan needs to be updated or revised every three to five years in a 21st century environment.

Three Strategic Dimensions

1. Nonprofits define strategies in many different ways. A great deal depends on whether or not the board has several directors...