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I'll bet you have a lot of personal integrity. You try to follow through on your commitments, you basically always tell the truth, and you keep your daily doings on the up and up.

No shady business for you. No, ma'am.

And I'll bet you notice that all your good behavior pays off over time. People trust you and they're not afraid to get close to you because they know what to...

Last week, I attended NextAfter’s NIO (Nonprofit Innovation & Optimization) Summit for the first time. And as it turns out, all the hype leading up to the conference was justified - it was well run, informative, and FUN. 

NIO isn’t like most conferences. For one, there are no breakouts. So, no hustling from room to room hoping you chose the best topic. Everyone gets the chance to hear every talk - and learn about topics they may never have chosen for...

This post was taken from the weekly B-mail message sent March 1, 2022 to subscribers. 

If you missed last week’s blog post about common personality types that get in the way of nonprofit progress, you can check it out here. In a slightly tongue-in-cheek way, I described eight seriously disruptive players...so that you might pinpoint sources of friction within your board.

Here’s the good news: many of you probably read the list, had a chuckle, recognized a person or two, and decided those folks weren’t so bad after all.

...

Running a nonprofit organization - and working effectively with a board of directors - requires a high degree of "people skills." Your ability to organize, galvanize, and mobilize a wide variety of people (and their personalities) will determine how successful you can ultimately be in advancing your mission. Disruptive behaviors lead to conflict and, as Dale Carnegie Associates says, "conflict in the workplace weakens morale, strains productivity, and burdens overall progress." 

The...

The best relationships - of any kind - often take the form of partnerships;  during which the parties involved work together to create a particular outcome or reach some type of mutually beneficial goal. The same can be said for the nature of board/staff relationships at nonprofit organizations - the most effective and mutually satisfying arrangements happen between people who take a collaborative approach to their service/work. Contrary to the hierarchical structures found in most...

Welcome to September. I don’t know about you, but this month always seems to take me by surprise. And this year is certainly no exception. 

I’ve come to realize that, as we grow older, it’s typical to think more and more about the passage of time. The idea that life seems to speed up each year is one that causes me - and nearly everyone my age or older - to lament in disbelief. We are mystified by the acceleration. Baffled, even. 

And, whether we...

This week I stumbled upon a 2019 research report that said only about half of nonprofit organizations send a confirmation or follow-up message when someone makes a donation or subscribes to the organization’s mailing list. HALF.

We all know how critical the first 30 to 90 days are to the lifecycle and “lifetime value” of a new member or donor. It’s been consistently shown that donors are more likely to give again within the first few months than at any...