Recovering Executive Director

In this week's Chronicle of Philanthropy, which is always an excellent read by the way, there is a discussion about whether philanthropy is a profession.  The article is written by Dr. Howard Gardner, a developmental psychologist at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  Dr. Gardner is a pioneer in the way we learn and how we assess intelligence (spoiler:  there isn't one way).  I believe he is one of the great thinkers of our time. His essay sparked a reaction from me because he suggests that philanthropy is not a profession, in a way that other professions exist with an established career path, participants, and gatekeepers that decide who can participate and who gets rewarded. Philanthropy, by definition, is simply the love of humans.  In this way, all of us have the potential to be philanthropists, acting out of love to help others with our time or financial resources.  Some of us are or will become major donors to support our largest institutio...

This week I was preparing a presentation about how nonprofits can engage with the public better. The trick is there is no trick.  There isn't a magic formula to improve public engagement but I do know what doesn't work.  It doesn't work to yell louder or even more frequently about how your organization and its programs are the best that ever was. Public engagement is committing to a two-way relationship where each party gets something out of it, not a one-sided relationship where the nonprofit seeks public support, volunteers, donations, or even clients.  Do you really know what your community needs and wants from you? So before you start talking, start listening.  And even better, commit to building a culture in your nonprofit organization that is open to outsiders at all times.  Think about how you share what you do, why you do it, what impact you are having, and how you manage your finances.  It's actually pretty simple to say but very hard to do. ...

Before and after the most recent federal election, nonprofit organizations across the country started to hear more about the importance of getting their stakeholders engaged.  Some nonprofit organizations do advocacy very well and others are scared of making mistakes so don't engage at all.  How do we shift the function of advocacy to a core function of every nonprofit in calm as well as turbulent times? Why do nonprofits need to do advocacy anyway? The first answer is because they can!  They can, and should, engage in many activities that are not only legal within the confines of your nonprofit designation but often necessary to truly address your mission and goals for your organization. I found myself browsing a university library shelf, which I admit I do pretty regularly, and came across a book called "Woman's Part in Government", written by William Allen of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research in 1911.  This was nine years before the US ratified the 19t...

I am reading "Weapons of Math Destruction:  How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy" at the same time as I am reading the newspaper headlines of what to do about youth joblessness in Chicago. There is no shortage of data today; every agency collects more and more data, even applies complicated algorithms to predict behavior and financial outcomes, and are we really using all of that data effectively?  Are we data smart? When I teach students or conduct workshops, I actually prefer to use the term information instead of data, seems less intimidating.  Nonprofit organizations are so busy doing delivering programs and services, that they rarely have time to look up.  However, if nonprofits are going to be truly successful, both efficient and effective, they need to look at all of the information in their organization and how they are using it. Likely they will find that information (data collection) is happening across the organization from the f...