I must have nonprofit boards on my mind recently, probably because I read and recently reviewed Before You Say Yes… by Doreen Pendgracs. In any event, I came across a wonderful article at Blue Avocado, titled Ten Quick Ways to Invigorate Board Meetings. The article is from last year, but goes right to the basics of how to keep a board engaged. These are not fancy or expensive actions but very... (more...)

Fundraising Jeff Brooks, of Future Fundraising, hosted the Nonprofit Blog Carnival with an April Fool’s theme. I especially liked Katya’s “Don’t be a fool: It’s not about you” and the Bestow Community blog’s contribution, “The Well Endowed Fund.” Do you know about Movie Mondays? It’s a wonderful resource for fundraisers. Let Marc Pitman,... (more...)

Facebook is more popular than ever among nonprofits, says a recent report by NTEN, Common Knowledge, and ThePort Network. A survey was done earlier this year of more than 1,000 nonprofits about how the organizations use online social networks. The survey asked about the use of commercial social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, for example, and about building their own “house... (more...)

Serving on a volunteer board of directors can be a study in frustration or one of the great pleasures of your life. If you and the organization are not well matched, you may well be bored at best and appalled at worst. But when both volunteer board member and organization are in tune with one another, each giving what they should to the other, the experience can be both personally and professionally... (more...)

Today is World Malaria Day and there is a great campaign going on to raise money for long lasting insecticide treated nets that will prevent deaths in Africa. Kari Dunn Saratovsky, of the Social Citizens Blog, has a wonderful summary of all the activity, from the campaign by The Case Foundation, Twitter, and Malaria No More, to the 50 Social Media Envoys who responded to the UN Envoy for Malaria... (more...)

We often associate Parkinson’s Disease with older people, but the fact is that Parkinson’s can strike people of any age. Brandi Roman, a nurse in Great Falls, Montana, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s just before her 26th birthday. That was three years ago. This summer, Brandi will climb Granite Peak, the highest mountain in Montana, in order to both prove herself and to symbolize... (more...)

Cause Marketing Have you seen the pink buckets of chicken from KFC? Komen for the Cure and KFC have joined forces to raise money for breast cancer research. But have they gone too far? Joe Waters, of Selfish Giving, explores that question in Komen’s Cause Marketing Program Isn’t ‘Finger-Lickin’ Good Be sure to read all the comments on this one. Nancy Schwartz, of Getting Attention,... (more...)

Free at Ning, the celebrated networking service, came crashing down recently, signalling the end of FREE on the Internet. Now Ning will pamper its premium clients, who will pay an assortment of fees, depending on the services chosen. Some of those “add-ons” include service itself. Yes, to get someone to answer a question apparently, the basic rate is $10 per month. To stop being an advertising... (more...)

Robert Cialdini, author and speaker, may remind you of one of PBS’s ubiquitous programs about motivation (think of Dr. Wayne W. Dyer) or a television evangelist such as Robert Schuller, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t spot on. Cialdini combines the common sense of a Norman Vincent Peale with modern social psychology to distill the “six principles of persuasion” that... (more...)

This week (April 18-24) is National Volunteer Week. It’s a wonderful time to learn about volunteering, work with volunteers, and celebrate volunteers. National Volunteer Week also commemorates the one-year anniversary of the landmark Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, the largest expansion of volunteer service since the 1930s. President and Mrs. Obama have called on all citizens to make service... (more...)