Technology Committees, Part I: Creating a Technology Team/Advisory Committee Technology is becoming increasingly useful and pervasive in how nonprofit organizations operate, from organizing volunteer efforts to attracting and accepting online donations to the availability of e-filings. However, “technology” may still be an avoided word for some nonprofits despite the growing...
Common Nonprofit Governance Problems – ABA Teleseminar
I am presenting a teleseminar with Lisa Runquist and Alice Anderson for the American Bar Association Center for Continuing Legal Education today at 1 pm Eastern Time (10 am Pacific Time) on the Responsibilities and Duties of Directors of Nonprofits: How to Limit Your Liability. Here is an excerpt from my segment on...
Everything You Wanted to Know About Nonprofits & Committees
The board of directors of a nonprofit corporation is generally empowered to create committees at its discretion, subject to the nonprofit corporation’s bylaws and the laws of the state of incorporation. While committees can be utilized to alleviate the board of some tasks and help increase efficiency, committee formation...
Alternatives to Forming a Charitable Nonprofit
Check out the article Emily and I wrote for the American Bar Association's Business Law Today on Alternatives to Forming a Charitable Nonprofit here. It was nice to get a "Hallellujah" from New York Times philanthropy reporter Stephanie Stromm on Twitter. In connection with the Business Law Today issue focusing on...
Joining Forces in the Back Office – Lodestar Foundation Resources
Sharing Administrative Services, Part IV: Joining Forces in the Back Office – Lodestar Foundation Resources The Lodestar Foundation’s mission is to maximize the growth and impact of philanthropy by encouraging philanthropy, public service and volunteerism; and by supporting long-term collaborations among nonprofits working in the same area in order...
The NP-Myth
NP-Myth: the fatal assumption that any individual who has a passion about a charitable mission can successfully create and manage a sustainable nonprofit to further that mission. Best-selling author of the E-Myth Revisited, Michael E. Gerber, hypothesizes that the single most disastrous assumption anyone can make about going into...
Joining Forces in the Back Office – Management Service Organizations
Sharing Administrative Services, Part III: Joining Forces in the Back Office – Management Service Organizations Management Service Organization: MACC CommonWealth MACC CommonWealth is an MSO that was created in January 2007 by five social services groups to provide finance, human resources, and technology. With a 20 employee staff comprised of the...
Joining Forces in the Back Office – Administrative Collaboration and Consolidation
Sharing Administrative Services, Part II: Joining Forces in the Back Office – Administrative Collaboration and Consolidation On June 3, 2009, The Chronicle of Philanthropy presented the webinar, “Joining Forces in the Back Office: How Collaboration Can Help Your Organization,” moderated by Nicole Wallace, Senior Writer at The Chronicle of...
Board Attendance: Expect More and Strengthen Your Organization
Previously published in Nonprofit Conversation (June 8, 2009). A board of directors is charged with providing ultimate oversight over the activities and affairs of its organization. Each director must discharge such duties in good faith, in a manner the director believes to be in the best interests of the organization,...
Administrative Consolidations and Management Service Organizations
Sharing Administrative Services, Part I: Administrative Consolidations and Management Service Organizations In January 2009, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom created the San Francisco Community-Based Organizations Task Force, co-chaired by Dr. Sandra Hernandez, chief executive officer of the San Francisco Foundation, and City Attorney Dennis Herrera, to devise a strategy between...