Nonprofit Sector

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 feb 2015

According to National Council of Nonprofits, 'Nonprofit board members are the fiduciaries who steer the organization towards a sustainable future by adopting sound governance and financial management policies, and ensuring adequate resources. The board of directors have three primary legal duties known as the "duty of care", "duty of loyalty", and "duty of obedience".' To make changes to various aspects of the organization and take decisive actions is a challenging task and requires experienced, capable and effective individuals to be members of the board. Professor Eugene Fram of Rochester Institute of Technology, defines three main groups of board members who are part of the decision making process - (1) Directors who want change (2) Directors opposed to change (3) 'Process Directors', individuals who are uncomfortable with major decisions and always want more data or information before voting. The third type of directors, although well-intentioned individuals, can sometime become obstacles in the board's decisiveness. According to Prof. Fram, 'The board has to be careful that these directors don't allow the board to continually examine one angle after another until they lose sight of the board's main job. They can keep action in limbo indefinitely!' Board chair have to optimize the board processes and don't let them go out of hand, as it may result in loss of talented volunteers. Read on...

Huffington Post: How Can Nonprofit Boards Overcome the Inertia of Certain Directors?
Author: Eugene Fram

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 feb 2015

Nonprofit sector is an important contributor to economy and employs 10.7 million people (over 10% of the US workforce). According to the 2015 Nonprofit Employment Practices survey just released by Nonprofit HR, 50% of the 362 nonprofits it queried anticipate creating new positions in the coming year. Moreover the nonprofits are also avoiding layoffs, as only 7% are expected to do so in 2015. Lisa Brown Morton, President and CEO of Nonprofit HR, says 'The nonprofit sector is a huge, but often overlooked, economic powerhouse.' She provides important advice for those in search for nonprofit job - (1) Research groups that match your passions and values. (2) Get involved at a nonprofit to gain an edge over the competition. (3) Broaden your chances of getting hired by saying you're open to project work that's part-time or has an end date. (4) Don't assume you need to take a vow of poverty to work for a nonprofit. (5) Tweak your job-search tactics. Read on...

Forbes: 5 Tips To Get A Nonprofit Job Now
Author: Nancy Collamer

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 26 jan 2015

Nonprofits are always in need of support through funds, volunteers, materials etc. But if the nonprofit is a small one than the required help is even more. Jacqueline Wilson, founder of PrimeParentsClub.com, provides her opinion on why smaller nonprofits should be the focus of support of individuals and families - (1) Small nonprofits have little or no staff at all. (2) Salaries are super small (or non-existent) at smaller nonprofits. (3) Smaller nonprofits would go out of work without your help. (4) Small nonprofits rely on the kindness of strangers, i.e. anyone who can pitch in for support. (5) Smaller nonprofits aren't on the radar of big company donations. (6) Smaller nonprofits have even smaller marketing budgets. Read on...

Huffington Post: 6 Reasons Small Non-Profits Need Your Family's Help More Than the Bigger Non-Profits
Author: Jacqueline Wilson

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 31 dec 2014

Nonprofit funds are often acquired through donations, grants, fundraising, endowments, membership, and program fees and services. Although there are differences in nonprofit and for-profit models but success of both depends on similar operational effectiveness. Nonprofit leaders should follow the art of risk taking and strategic innovation that entrepreneurs follow to be successful. Professor Emad Rahim of Bellevue University suggests the following five key elements that nonprofit leaders should consider to operate like a startup - (1) A Nonprofit is a company (2) Operating effectiveness is essential (3) Donors are essentially customers (4) Good publicity can boost donations (5) A nonprofit has competitors. Read on...

Forbes: 5 Competitive Advantages To Help Nonprofits Think Like Entrepreneurs
Author: Emad Rahim

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 30 nov 2014

Nonprofit boards play an important role in providing direction and guidance to the organization by developing policies and plans to achieve their goals. They also bring accountability and oversight to the organization. Eugene Fram, Professor Emeritus at Rochester Institute of Technology, provides outcomes of one of the sessions organized by National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) focusing on board 'challenges and opportunities expected in the next five to seven years.' According to Prof. Fram, the results of the session, although for for-profit boards, can also be applied to help nonprofit boards focus on culture, leadership and achieve strategic success: (1) Inherent in the board-management relationship is an information imbalance. (2) With an expanding board agenda, process and expectation settings are critical. (3) An empowered lead director... can help mitigate the risk of information imbalance. ... and can break down some of the roadblocks that may develop between the management and directors. (4) Ultimately, the board has to make winning decisions that are informed by data. (5) The board should identify which stakeholders are critical to the strategic plan and target communications to those groups. Read on...

Huffington Post: Strong Culture and Leadership Critical for Nonprofit Board Strategic Success
Author: Eugene Fram

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 oct 2014

The evolution of global society and growth of interdependent world has facilitated 'networked' approaches to public value and new models of global problem solving. Moreover digitization of society has transformed its capability to organize for innovation, creation of wealth and public value. In an interview, Don Tapscott, an innovation and technology thought leader, suggests four pillars of the society that rely on each other for success and survival - (1) Critical role of 'governments' in achieving security and prosperity, and achieving harmonization, fairness and justice (2) Most countries in the world have chosen the 'private sector and corporations' as the dominant institution for the creation of wealth (3) The 'civil society' has emerged as a new and critical pillar with not-for-profit sector becoming a massive part of the economy and providing employment to substantial population (4) Internet has empowered 'individual citizens' from every walk of life to have an extraordinary effect on achieving social change. Read on...

DonTapscott.com: The New Interdependence: Four Pillars of Society
Author: Don Tapscott

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 21 oct 2014

Wikipedia recently launched a project 'Wiki Zero' that advocates for free access to health and education materials in developing countries through mobile networks. Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, says that in developing economies lack of access to health and medical information results in large number of preventable deaths and cites the case of Ebola in Africa. He mentions that Wikipedia is currently the most viewed health resource online in the world. Wiki Zero has already been adopted by mobile service providers in China and India. Read on...

The Telegraph: Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales: 'Free Wiki could save thousands of lives'
Author: Oscar Williams-Grut

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 12 sep 2014

For the better development of society, it is important that kids, who are the future, spend time in community service activities. Leigh Ann Errico, founder & CEO of Kidkind Foundation & 'Wear the Capes', points out, 'Volunteering with your kids touches hearts, teaches important life lessons and engraves fond, lifelong memories of family bonding. Understanding and participating in activities to benefit the community is crucial to weaving one's moral fiber.' Based on extensive research, Dr. Philip Brown of Rutgers University & 'Wear the Cape', provide reasons to encourage kids to serve others. According to him, 'As young people get older, they need to stretch their abilities, including their moral sensibilities. Engagement with other kids and adults in meaningful service activities can support healthy development in a variety of ways, providing opportunities for both growth and positive fulfillment.' The 10 reasons suggested by him are - (1) Volunteering helps foster empathy (2) Volunteering helps develop a sense of self-efficacy (3) Volunteers gain experience working with other people (4) Volunteering develops new skills (5) Volunteering provides the opportunity to explore new interests and develop new passions (6) Volunteers learn a lot (7) Volunteers actually make a difference in other people's lives (8) Volunteering encourages civic responsibility (9) Volunteering offers you a chance to give back (10) Volunteering is good for you. Read on...

EIN News: TOP 10 REASONS TO ENCOURAGE YOUR KIDS TO VOLUNTEER
Author: NA

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 08 sep 2014

Donor support is the single most critical component that makes or breaks nonprofits. Most nonprofits spend a substantial part of their efforts to attract and nurture donors. Fear of failure often add to the worry of losing donor support. Main aim of social enterprises is to solve societal and community problems and they can do better if they embrace failure and learn from it. Epaminondas Farmakis, president and CEO of Elpis Philanthropy Advisors, suggests most common fear of failures - (1) Failure to Profit (Social entrepreneurs focus on providing sustainable social solutions to the communities they serve and also balance it with offering attractive returns to their investors. They need to have a right fit between investor values, community requirements & return on investments. Shareholders must understand that the primary goal of a social enterprise is to serve the community. (2) Failure to Measure (Since there are no clear methods of measuring nonprofit's success, there is always some ambiquity. So there has to be an understanding among the stakeholders regarding this. Researching on direct impact of donations for improvement of society can be one of the measure of their success. (3) Failure to Innovate (Social innovations go through a similar process of iterations and experimentations as for-profit innovations. And failure is part of the process. Learning from mistakes should happen all the time). Read on...

Devex Impact: 'Failing up' for social enterprise success
Author: Epaminondas Farmakis

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 aug 2014

The increase in the number of nonprofits in the past decade, up by 25% to more than 1.5 million in US, is leading to hightened competition among them to attract donors. They are utilizing innovative methods to efficiently market their cause to attract and retain givers. B2B brands are trying to act like B2C for customer engagements. But they can go a little further and try to emulate the nonprofits to nurture and cultivate passionate and loyal customers. Although the passion that exist for a nonprofit cause is hard to be imbibed in for-profit customers but businesses can learn few lessons from them and try to bring their customers closer to the brand. The four lessons that B2Bs can learn from nonprofits are - (1) How to market to donors (Effective use of social media and crowdfunding sites to get the message go viral); (2) How to build and use advocates (Use of brand advocates and trusted referrers); (3) The importance of transparency and public perception (More transparency and accountability leads to trust. Engagement in social causes and social responsibility creates positive perception); (4) The importance of personality and tone in communications (Nonprofits take on personality attributes to their branding & communication channels - trailblazer, cool, bold, innovative, friendly etc). Read on...

MarketingProfs: Four Things About Branding That B2Bs Can Learn From Nonprofits
Author: Rolf Wulfsberg

Latest             ⊲ Newer Posts             Nonprofit Sector             Older Posts ⊳             Last