Imagine the following scenarios:

• In a nonprofit board meeting full of smiling people everyone is congratulating the Executive Director on a job well done. She is at the front of the room, making jokes and seeming very happy. The following week, she resigns.
• As he compiles data for an annual report, a Program Manager realizes that the organization's primary program had significantly worse outcomes than the year prior, despite increased staffing. He decides to keep the information to himself and highlight other data in the report.
• The Treasurer of an established nonprofit calculates that the organization's last fundraising event missed its goal by thousands of dollars. Worried about the future of the organization, they decide not to contact a wealthy friend with their annual request for support.

​In the nonprofit space, like all spaces, things go wrong. This can happen regardless of your level of preparation, financial capacity, and good intentions. Organizational leaders at the board and staff level need to know what has gone wrong and why so that they can make informed course corrections. Usually, the sooner they know, the better. But often, bad news doesn’t reach key decision makers in a timely way and sometimes it doesn't reach them at all! 

​What are the top reasons for attending a nonprofit conference?
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What should you expect to get out of it and what should you be ready to put in? How can a nonprofit conference aid in your professional development and equip you to lead better?

These are all questions nonprofit conference attendees and hosts should ask before the event. In the nonprofit world, these questions become even more crucial to consider because organizations are charged with stewarding their resources in a way that furthers their mission, and there are never enough resources to do everything worthwhile. So, sending attendees or hosting a conference often involves a tradeoff. And yet, organizations correctly recognize that conferences are a wonderful opportunity to educate and inspire staff to help them do their best work.

​With the rapid changes that we’ve seen over the last decade across technology, culture, and industry, organizations that fail to adopt an innovation mindset will run the risk of stagnating in their mission delivery and becoming obsolete in their communities. What does this mean for your organization? To put it plainly, the time to innovate is now!

But wait, innovation may not mean what you think it does! While many conversations around innovation typically focus on expanding technological capabilities, the kind of innovation mindset that truly powers today’s top organizations is not solely tech-based.
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True innovation is about fostering a culture of creativity, collaboration, and continuous improvement that remains focused on your mission and its impact on the communities you serve. Embracing this kind of innovation is what will set tomorrow’s nonprofits apart! 

As a society we’ve weathered the storm of the pandemic and its subsequent prolonged fallout and now are firmly in what is being considered the “post-COVID” era. So, what does this mean for nonprofit organizations operating in today’s day and age?
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At each juncture our consultants have given their advice on how nonprofits should respond during these unprecedented times. We gave early advice on how to act quickly, mid-point advice on how to rethink strategic planning, and now it feels right to give a final summary of what the nonprofit world looks like to close out the discussion and equip organizations to understand how to navigate the road ahead. 

​Nonprofit leadership retreats can be used to get new leaders comfortable with the rest of the team, tackle major organizational challenges without the distractions of the office, repair an organization’s broken culture, or even strategize through a major organizational shift. If your organization is facing a period where significant reflection or serious consideration is needed, gathering the leadership team together is a great way to prepare for what’s ahead. But an effective nonprofit retreat won’t just happen on its own. It requires careful planning and preparation to ensure that it will be time (and money!) well spent.

One of the hardest decisions that a board can make is deciding what the future of the organization will look like if there’s a problem that’s big enough to consider sunsetting the organization instead. If one of the questions on the table is whether you can continue to deliver on your mission, it’s important to evaluate whether investing more is actually going to fix the underlying problem.
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The ultimate question is really, “Is the organization worth saving?”

External marketing efforts and internal communications play pivotal roles in raising awareness as well as executing their strategic vision. The most effective nonprofit marketing will drive action among key stakeholders, increasing support and engagement. 

​So, would your organization’s marketing and communications efforts get a passing grade? ​

Nonprofit organizations that are burning through cash typically can’t just ask their donors and partners for more money without first stemming the tide of cash outflows. Funders want to see that an organization is being a good steward of their finances before they are willing to continue (or increase) their contributions. But even aside from the discussion around future funding requests, an organization must shore up their spending to remain viable into the future.