I have the great pleasure of speaking with Syvia Strobel (ACM) and Deborah Vinsel (Thurston Community Television) at the 2013 Alliance for Community Media National Conference on Wednesday, May 29. Our session description follows:: Nuts and Bolts of Nonprofits and Their People Nonprofit organizations provide critical services, but often do...
RISK MANAGEMENT
ADRP Keynote: What You Can Learn From Recent Nonprofit Scandals
Everyone loves a good scandal. That's why they fill our newspapers, television programs, and popular websites. But scandals in the nonprofit sector result in diminished or discontinued services, laid off employees, penalties imposed on responsible persons, publicly embarassed board members, and the death of organizations. They also result in a...
Screwtape’s 10 Tips for Nonprofits That Want to Generate Business Revenues
Start a business, any business. And act quickly! Get on the social enterprise bandwagon. You can’t rely just on fundraising anymore. Invest in pet projects of your key leaders and split the profits with them. Sell all kinds of merchandise with your name and logo if you can’t think...
Gift Acceptance Policies – NCPGC Program Presented by Barbara Rhomberg
On January 12, 2012, I attended the progam "Gift Acceptance Policies: Why, When, What, How, and Who" presented to the Northern California Planned Giving Council by exempt organizations attorney Barbara Rhomberg. Using the example of the Trojan Horse, Barbara quickly convinced us that not all gifts are good...
5 Social Media Myths
Last year, a study conducted by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research (“US Charities’ Adoption of Social Media Study,” August 2010) reported that the largest nonprofits are outpacing for-profit companies and academia when it comes to social media use. Among its findings (based on the 200...
BoardSource Leadership Forum 2010 – Part II: Top Ten Legal Risks for Nonprofit Boards
In the session “Top 10 in 2010: Legal Risks Facing Nonprofit Boards” at the BoardSource Leadership Forum 2010, Melanie Lockwood Herman, Nonprofit Management Risk Center, and Jeffrey S. Tenenbaum, Venable LLP, presented their list of the top ten legal risks facing nonprofit boards: Exposures from social media use, misuse,...
Not Just a Resume Booster: Tips for evaluating a nonprofit before joining the board of directors
Today is your lucky day. You received an offer to join a board of directors of a nonprofit and you readily accept. You cannot be more excited. It seems like a perfect fit. It has a mission you care about and you cannot help but think how great it...
Finding the Right Transparency
Today, more than ever, the public and government agencies are demanding nonprofits to be transparent. But concerns about having a realistic picture of internal operations, where money is going, and the effectiveness of the programs are countered by concerns of overburdened staff, increased administrative costs, and an invitation to...
Charity-Owned Limited Liability Companies
Charitable organizations exempt under §501(c)(3) that own real property may open themselves up to liability associated with such property (particularly from environmental and tort factors). In order to shield the charity from such liability, they may form a separate entity to hold real property. A common strategy employed by...
Insurance – Presentation for YNPN
On December 5, 2006, Melanie Herman, E.D. of the Nonprofit Risk Management Center, and I gave a very short presentation on insurance for the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network. I began the presentation with a discussion of liability. Liabilities Liability may be defined as a type of risk for which...