I received this question via email this morning, and it made me smile. First, the message: In today’s world, is an annual report of the traditional kind important for nonprofits? Smaller as well as larger? We are debating how much money and staff time to put into some kind of publication – we haven’t done … Read more
What if boards don’t need training? What if board members already know what they need to know, and just need to be reminded of that? What if “what boards need” is help with uncorking and putting to use the wisdom they already have just from living life? What if “what boards need” is encouragement to … Read more
We’ve had an idea for a program at Creating the Future, and in following our own advice, we don’t want to launch anything until we get all the possible insights we can. Programs are so much more effective when they’re built by the people who will use them! This will be a program for people … Read more
I thought it was going to be easy. Yes, I know, famous last words, but I really did. In a post early last week, I asked whether or not we should do a year-end fundraising appeal. We received many responses to that post (sadly, most of those responses were off-line – what is it about … Read more
An organization Dimitri and I love is about to die. Everyone says it is a casualty of the economy. We know that is not true. Even when times were good, the ABC Group was struggling. And so five years ago, when we were teaching an earlier version of our “Building Engaged Support for Your Mission” … Read more
I confess that sometimes even this Pollyanna gets fed up. I don’t get fed up with the same things as most people in this field, though. I get fed up with blame and intolerance. I get fed up with pointing fingers at symptoms, focusing and refocusing on addressing those symptoms, drilling deeper and deeper, unpacking … Read more
The vision of the Community Driven Institute is a healthy, vibrant, resilient, peaceful, humane world. To make that vision a reality for all of us, the mission of the Institute is to encourage and support the Community Benefit sector to leverage its considerable resources to do so. In developing our plans for the next 12-24 … Read more
(This is the final installment in a 4-part article. Head here to start with Part 1.) Management Support Organizations have immense potential. Looking beyond just helping the individual organizations they serve, their highest potential is the highest potential of our communities themselves. No one could be more interested in that potential than Gayle Valeriote and … Read more
(This is Part 3 of a 4-part article. Head here to start with Part 1.) What would it look like in practice if Management Support Organizations were catalysts for Community Potential? Here is just some of what that might be: • The board and leadership of Management Support Organizations would see the organization’s purpose as … Read more
(This is Part 2 of a 4-part article. Head here to start with Part 1.) One thing is clear in speaking with leaders of Management Support Organizations of all kinds; they may have the potential to be catalysts for building extraordinary communities, but that is not how they are currently operating. As we consider the … Read more