I am half way through my first semester as a college professor and I can truly say – I love my job!!  It is a lot of work balancing being a new mom, having a new job, and living in a new city, but I’m right where I’m meant to be.  Last week I signed [...]

It’s Valentines Day and there are pink decorations, candy, clothing, and cards in stores everywhere!  Whenever I see something pink I cannot help but think of the Susan G. Koman Foundation.  Many nonprofit bloggers wrote about the Koman Foundation defunding and then refunding of Planned Parenthood (see John Haydon’s blog post highlights) but I cannot [...]

I was sad to learn that Jane Adaams’ Hull House Association — one of the first settlement houses in the United States went out of business last week. I don’t know the details of their closure but was sad to learn there wasn’t a national fundraising appeal. It is sad that the Hull House serves [...]

I recently noticed a trend in many nonprofit organizations.  The Executive Director/CEO travels around the country and speaks at nonprofit conferences. This is good in theory because it promotes the organization but…what is going on back at the office while the CEO is away?  There should be a COO (Chief Operating Officer) or Operations Director [...]

This week I taught my undergraduate students about volunteer management best practices.  I enjoyed hearing about their volunteer experiences and I was not surprised when some students explained how they had volunteered at well known organizations that were disorganized in their volunteer management practices. The biggest issue I’ve encountered while working in nonprofits is the [...]

I’ve been a part of many national committees aimed at improving leadership  in the sector.  First there was the Nonprofit Congress’s Leadership Working Group. As a committee we worked with a consultant to develop a booklet titled Work with Me: Intergenerational Conversations in Nonprofit Leadership. Unfortunately the committee dissolved along with the Nonprofit Congress. Then [...]

I am finally getting around to publishing my blog posts from the ARNOVA conference.  I got a taste of being a working mom.  My husband and I drove to Toronto for the ARNOVA conference from Grand Rapids.  We took our one month old daughter with us and she did great! I attended every other conference [...]

The White House Forum on Nonprofit Leadership is going on today.  In attendance at this invitation only event is the who’s who in the nonprofit sector.  What’s being said at the Forum is nothing new, we’ve heard it many times by many different speakers at many different conferences, and in many different reports (e.g Daring [...]

I was shocked to find out that Volunteer San Diego shut its doors and laid off seven staff members.  I don’t know much about the details of this closing other than they ran out of money.  This is disappointing..for many reasons. First, VSD had very little competition and served a legitimate need in the community [...]

Another book I read over the summer was The Lobbying Strategy Handbook, by Pat Libby.  Her practical and helpful book explains how nonprofits can and should lobby.  She and her team of writers explain the differences between lobbying and advocacy and how much nonprofits can spend on lobbying activities.  She provides ten common elements of [...]