One of the most important functions of Nonprofit Boards is, of course, fundraising. Board members want to be set up for success when they join a Board, and generally, all is well and good when Board members are financially able to make donations, are comfortable talking about money and their charity, confidence in management is …
Continue reading "Successfully Managing the Ties That Bind Boards and Executive Teams"
One of the challenges in American philanthropy, broadly speaking, is its “stuckness” at about 2% of disposable income annually. The concept of financial “stuckness” is not a new problem; in fact, we humans demonstrate consistent financial behaviors – good and bad – in many ways. Economists and psychologists have been studying this for a while …
Continue reading "The Importance of Storytelling in Philanthropy"
In the not-too-distant past, what we now know as impact investing was pretty much confined to de-selecting “bad” publicly traded securities from portfolios and investing in securities that were selected because of factors deemed to be positive – board diversity, nascent social impact industries, and so on. Private impact investments were generally funded by individual …
We hear often about the opportunity for Boards and nonprofit executives to work even more effectively together to consistently raise money and resources. Nonprofit executives cite the “usual suspects” as trouble spots, including buy-in and engagement, and challenges in achieving give-and-get success. While these are certainly valid concerns, there are other stumbling blocks, including the comfort …
Continue reading "Get Your Board Past Stuck on “Give and Get”"
In some things, tradition matters more than almost everything else. Family recipes, for example. In other things, how much tradition we incorporate into our work is ideally understood – like so many things – along a continuum. In an organization that delivers services primarily using technology, or develops apps, for example, we can see intuitively …
Continue reading "#Sustainability Means Sometimes Taking Chances"
As impact (responsible) investing has become increasingly mainstream in the public markets - mutual funds, ETFs, 403(b) plans, and so on - a parallel market for private investment has naturally emerged. The number of channels and mechanisms for connecting financing with companies - platforms, as it were - is significant and looks at this point …
Continue reading "Connecting Impact Investors and Companies"
You know, of course, that the iconic nonprofit fundraisers' tool Raiser's Edge is made by Blackbaud. But did you know that the company trades publicly on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker BLKB? And that the company has a bunch of lines of business and revenue that extend far beyond nonprofits? This is true. …
