http://www.causeplanet.orgNon-Profit News and Informationen-gbTue, 31 Jan 2012 12:31:46 -0500Copyright: (C) Causeplanet.orgk15Dylan Taylor showed up at my office on the Friday before Christmas with a nicely wrapped gift that, frankly, blew me away--all the baseball cards for the 1977 New York Yankees, matted and framed with a personalized plaque that said, "To the greatest Yankee fan. Love, your friend, Dylan." Dylan and I met about a year ago when he hired me to speak at the http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=338http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=338Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:30:21 -0500In 2012, nonprofits face another year of budget battles and political skirmishes, and the fight continues to intensify with the coming national election. Make no mistake. Nonprofits are in a full-fledged combat situation. Social, political, and economic forces have created a http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=337http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=337Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:00:15 -0500Social media has great power to connect people within and across communities--geographic communities, communities of practice and interest and communities of faith and belief. How are nonprofit organizations mining these connections to achieve their missions? Crowdsourcing is often http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=336http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=336Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:45:31 -0500The walls at Seniors’ Resource Center (SRC) are lined with beautiful photographs of people they have helped, which can be shared with generations of family members. These pictures tell of lives filled with joy, struggle and stories. Telling the story of these seniors is what the CEO for almost 30 years, John Zabawa, believes is the http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=335http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=335Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:31:34 -0500Unlike business partnerships, which are usually grounded in equal shares or investments, the partnership of a nonprofit board and the executive is much more ambiguous. Although one is a governing entity (the board) and the other is a http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=334http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=334Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:54:43 -0500You are already busy enough. In fact, you’re busy running your programs. You don’t want to steal time away from actually doing the work and spend it on evaluation. Let’s face it: evaluation takes staff time, some expertise and money. At the same time, you know that evaluation is at the very least a necessary evil. I’ve been hearing this comment repeatedly, “More and more funders are demanding http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=333http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=333Mon, 26 Dec 2011 14:43:18 -0500As nonprofits began adopting successful practices from the business community, they grabbed hold of one with an iron grip: strategic planning. However, in our efforts to embrace the practice, we confused the process of planning with the real work of http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=332http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=332Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:12:35 -0500Public policies often have a significant effect on the lives of many of nonprofit clients and the resulting demand for services nonprofits provide. With their unique insights and knowledge about how current policies are working, nonprofit http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=331http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=331Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:11:43 -0500For the second year in a row, 84 percent of American workers intend to actively look for a new job, according to new research by Right Management. Workplace incivility is also on the rise. According to research presented at the 2011 http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=330http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=330Mon, 05 Dec 2011 23:49:37 -0500Untrained staff and board cannot accurately judge professionally-crafted direct mail. It's impossible. Mailed appeals are a counter-intuitive enterprise, based on neuroscience, decades of testing, empiricism, and acquired skill sets of surprising depth and complexityhttp://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=329http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=329Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:01:05 -0500Virtually everyone agrees that boards should conduct performance reviews of executive directors (EDs or CEOs). Even so, the predominant practice is neglect, and the predominant feeling is resentment. The neglect comes from the board: only http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=328http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=328Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:30:26 -0500Social networks are hardly news. Everyone participates in networks in our families, schools, neighborhoods and workplaces. For activists from Mahatma Gandhi to current Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street leaders, understanding networks, linking together citizens and harnessing the power of network connectivity have been http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=327http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=327Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:49:42 -0500It has been almost two years since the release of “Convergence: How Five Trends Will Reshape the Social Sector.”In that piece, my colleagues and I looked at how the combined effect of demographic shifts, technological advances, http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=326http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=326Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:45:52 -0400New studies by the Hay Group and the Corporate Leadership Council suggest that employees are getting frustrated with their current employers. Employees feel overworked, underpaid and undervalued. As a result, as many as six in 10 employees are looking to exit, according to the Hay Group. Some 85 percent of http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=325http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=325Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:09:00 -0400Thirty years of research by leadership have proven that 70% of all major change efforts in organizations fail. Why do they fail? Because organizations often do not take the holistic approach required to see the change through. However, by following http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=324http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=324Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:00:04 -0400Numerous studies report that the most successful companies are those run by leaders who understand that people are the most important part of the business equation. Despite these reports, CEOs still do not prioritizehttp://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=323http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=323Wed, 12 Oct 2011 11:46:31 -0400A few years ago, I discovered a framework for evaluating foundation strategy developed by Peter Frumkin that draws attention to three critical features of strategy: its soundness, the quality of its implementation, and the results it produces. The framework has proven to be immenselyhttp://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=322http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=322Wed, 05 Oct 2011 11:56:53 -0400Liking pages is no longer a requirement for conversation. Taking this requirement away will create greater awareness of your nonprofit and allow you to gain valuable insights about "people on the fence." (I am interested in your organization, but not enough to like your page--at least not yet...). This is not different fromhttp://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=321http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=321Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:51:25 -0400Rather than investing so much energy in discussing and developing sustainable nonprofits, we should instead have a more animated dialogue about the best way for nonprofits to go out of business. Why should there be an aura of http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=320http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=320Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:49:39 -0400Last week, we had a chance to ask you and your fellow readers for questions they had of our guest author and contributor, Sara Mellen. Mellen is the author of SOLD: How to Run a Great Community Auction and owner of Community http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=318http://www.causeplanet.org/articles/article.php?id=318Mon, 12 Sep 2011 23:39:31 -0400