This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Over the years, I’ve realized the importance of keeping things simple. This is even more important now during this time of chaos and uncertainty. I’m sure you’re experiencing those both professionally and personally. I often find pleasure in simple things such as taking a walk, reading (I’ve found the Thursday Murder Club series to be a nice escape right now), and doing yoga.
If you think public speaking is scary, asking for money is like doing it while skydiving—with no parachute.” So, you’ve been asked (forced or voluntold) to help raise money for your favorite charity. Well, welcome to the Nonprofit Fundraising Club. You are not alone. In fact, you’re in a massive, sweaty-palmed club of nonprofit tribe of do-gooders and boardroom escape artists who would rather wrestle a porcupine in a vat of Jell-O than ask someone for money.
Credit: Fabrice Florin on Flickr This is the fourth in a series of six NPQ articles that first challenge—and then change—the way we think about volunteers. In this series, The Unexpected Value of Volunteers , author Jan Masaoka takes on the underappreciated topic of volunteerism, provides some unexpected ideas, and points the way toward a public policy agenda on volunteerism.
Nonprofits are crucial for communities, but they face significant hurdles. These organizations face many common challenges like securing sustainable funding, managing volunteer engagement, and navigating internal dynamics that can hinder their vital work. When we recently asked the Blue Avocado community “What do nonprofits struggle with the most?
Nonprofits are under more pressure than ever to demonstrate financial accountability while continuing to expand their impact. Traditional budgeting models often fall short, reinforcing silos, limiting flexibility, and stalling growth. Enter collaborative budgeting: a dynamic, team-driven process that enables smarter resource allocation and builds financial resilience at scale.
When starting out with any voter registration event, our Voting in Your State voter registration drive guides are the first resource we recommend going to. Even if you’re a seasoned pro and register folks like clockwork, it’s always a good idea to keep up to date with state laws on voter registration. As laws change rapidly, checking these protects your organization while empowering your community to vote!
I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me… Stories Can Be Ethical & Still Raise Funds When I first started working in the nonprofit sector, I was bright-eyed, eager, and deeply passionate about the causes I served. Like many new graduates entering this field, I wanted to use my skills to make a difference and to contribute to my community. I found myself starting my first nonprofit position as a Development Associate for a veteran service organization.
I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me… Stories Can Be Ethical & Still Raise Funds When I first started working in the nonprofit sector, I was bright-eyed, eager, and deeply passionate about the causes I served. Like many new graduates entering this field, I wanted to use my skills to make a difference and to contribute to my community. I found myself starting my first nonprofit position as a Development Associate for a veteran service organization.
Nonprofit events come in all shapes and sizes, and the type of event you choose to host largely depends on your organization’s unique audience, resources, and goals. However, virtual events consistently prove a useful tool to engage with donors and expand your reach. Virtual events erase geographical barriers, letting supporters from across the country and even the world engage with your organization.
If you’ve ever wondered why your nonprofit’s emails aren’t making it into inboxes – or why some messages get more traction than others – it’s because inboxes work a lot like social media feeds now. Just like Facebook or Instagram only show you what they think you’ll care about, inbox providers like Gmail and Outlook are using user engagement signals to decide what lands in the inbox and what disappears into the void (also known as Promotions or Spam).
Knowing what fundraising campaign prompted a gift to your nonprofit is important, but often difficult. Here are some fixes to common attribution challenges.
In 2025, gender disparities in the technology sector remain firmly entrenched. According to AnitaB.org , women account for just 29% of the tech workforce and only 15% of engineering roles. Representation drops further at the intersections of gender and racial/ethnic identity. According to Forbes , Black, Latina, and Indigenous women collectively comprise less than 5% of the sector’s workforce.
Speaker: Tim Sarrantonio, Director of Community Engagement
There’s more than one way to end the year with impact—and we’re letting you decide the direction. In this "choose your own adventure" community-led webinar, attendees will vote in real time to pick one of three year-end event strategies to explore in depth: Volunteer Appreciation Events 🧡 Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Campaigns 🌈 Mission/Program Celebrations 🎉 Once the path is chosen, we’ll dive into a step-by-step engagement workflow plan tailored to that format, showing how
Tima Miroshnichenko, Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels , public domain. These days, the phrase “return to office” is as inescapable as “work from home” was circa 2020. Fortune 500 firms that were once remote workplaces are now publishing white papers and executive letters that argue the necessity of getting employees back into the office. Yet a March 2025 Gallup poll indicated that 93 percent of remote-capable workers (as in, workers whose jobs can be performed remotely) prefer either compl
"Most nonprofits don’t have a branding problem—they have a clarity problem." Discover how refining your verbal identity can transform your nonprofit's outreach and engagement. The post Branding Beyond the Logo: What Nonprofits Must Know appeared first on The Charity CFO.
People who serve on nonprofit boards are great. They’re doing more than their share of making the world a better place. But… Most members of nonprofit boards are not fundraising professionals. There’s nothing wrong with that. But things can go sideways when they board members confuse “governance” with “micromanaging” and don’t have fundraising knowledge to make their managing useful.
Speaker: Lee Andrews, Founder at LJA New Media & Tony Karrer, Founder and CTO at Aggregage
This session will walk you through how one CEO used generative AI, workflow automation, and sales personalization to transform an entire security company—then built the Zero to Strategy framework that other mid-market leaders are now using to unlock 3.5x ROI. As a business executive, you’ll learn how to assess AI opportunities in your business, drive adoption across teams, and overcome internal resource constraints—without hiring a single data scientist.
Warm-Up: Why Giving Tuesday Needs a Hype Squad G iving Tuesday is like the Super Bowl of generosity—except nobody gets Gatorade dumped on their head, and the commercials are free because you make them yourself. Waiting until Thanksgiving week to wave your pom-poms is a rookie move. Six to eight weeks out, start slipping feel-good stories into inboxes, phones, and WhatsApp chats.
When many nonprofit leaders hear the phrase competitive assessment, they pause. Isn’t competition a for-profit concept? Should nonprofits even think this way? At Prosper Strategies, we understand that discomfort. That’s why we prefer to talk about “comparator assessments” instead of “competitive assessments.” While nonprofits don’t exist to out-sell or defeat one another, you do operate […] The post Should Your Nonprofit Conduct a Competitive Assessment During Strategic Planning?
By Eden Stiffman Iowa Nonprofit Alliance The CEO of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits is helping nonprofits raise revenue, be good employers, and build strong boards.
By Stephanie Beasley SFAF The San Francisco AIDS Foundation chief is finding commonalities and building bridges among organizations with different missions.
Speaker: Gareth Webb & Phil Selley, Founding Partners at Intouch Business
For many nonprofit organizations and NGOs, managing grants and monitoring projects with spreadsheets and manual processes feels familiar—but is it holding your organization back? As funding requirements become more complex and stakeholder expectations for transparency grow, relying on outdated methods can lead to inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and compliance risks.
Co-leaders of a Louisiana community group share what makes their norm-defying intergenerational partnership a boon for their staff, their community, and their personal growth. By Drew Lindsay Illustration by The Chronicle of Philanthropy; Photos courtesy of Metromorphosis. Co-leaders of a Louisiana community group share what makes their norm-defying intergenerational partnership a boon for their staff, their community, and their personal growth.
The heiress says it's time for rich people to 'fight like hell' By Sara Herschander The philanthropist is using her “weird voice and weird position” as an heir to the Disney fortune to challenge rich Americans who are afraid to step up.
By Stephanie Beasley Nina Nelson, Save the Children The chief development officer of Save the Children is in pivot mode from government to private philanthropy.
By Ben Gose People’s Action Institute The organizer, who immigrated to the United States from El Salvador at age 13, has an ability to understand people who don’t think like she does.
Your financial statements hold powerful insights—but are you truly paying attention? Many finance professionals focus on the income statement while overlooking key signals hidden in the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Understanding these numbers can unlock smarter decision-making, uncover risks, and drive long-term success. Join David Worrell, accomplished CFO, finance expert, and author, for an engaging, nontraditional take on reading financial statements.
By Alex Daniels Chronicle Illustration; Courtesy Images Tonya Allen, Deepak Bhargava, and John Palfrey are united in their determination to give according to their values.
By Sara Herschander Pastors Salguero Ministries He isn't afraid to speak out about the second Trump administration's rippling impact on his congregation and others.
Carla Hayden will join the Mellon Foundation as a senior fellow advising on efforts to advance public knowledge through libraries and archives. By James Pollard, Associated Press NEW YORK Her new position as a senior fellow at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation places her back at the center of the very debates over American culture that surrounded her dismissal.
Traditional budgeting and forecasting methods can no longer keep pace with today’s rapidly evolving business environment. Static budgets, rigid annual forecasts, and outdated financial models limit an organization’s ability to adapt to market shifts and economic uncertainty. To stay ahead, finance leaders must leverage a future-forward approach—one that leverages real-time data, predictive analytics, and continuous planning to drive smarter financial decisions.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 27,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content