It’s October! It’s also the six-month anniversary of the Friday Five. Time flies when you’re preparing for Halloween… I mean, finding the best nonprofit news to share. We have five nonprofit-related articles to illuminate what’s happening in the world of nonprofits.
1) Nonprofit Quarterly asks whether the IRS’ Form 990, the financial form that nonprofit organizations have to regularly file, may be hurting those organizations. Specifically, NPQ points out that nonprofits may be under-reporting the funds they spend in administration and overhead, leading donors to think the organizations don’t need as much to function as they actually do, which leads to lower donations and a vicious cycle. How can the cycle be broken? NPQ has some ideas:
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2016/09/30/part-ix-outer-space-dysfunctional-expense-frame-form-990-encourages/
2) Conventional wisdom says that nonprofits need to learn from for-profits. But in the tech magazine Fast Company, Michelle Kedem argues that for-profit companies can learn a lot from the nonprofit world—everything from how a commitment to social responsibility can help a company’s brand to how recognizing the importance of community can help a company thrive. What else do nonprofits have to teach for-profits? Find out: https://www.fastcoexist.com/3063652/its-time-that-for-profits-start-learning-from-nonprofits-heres-how
3) You may or may not be using comedy in your fundraising and outreach. Sheena Greer, a writer and nonprofit consultant, has a guest post on John Haydon’s blog about comedy and how to apply it to nonprofit communications. You may not have thought that memorizing those Monty Python skits would ever come in handy, but Ms. Greer begs to differ:
http://www.johnhaydon.com/better-fundraising-starts-comedy/
4) Many charities now have a digital trustee, a designated board member who is tasked with staying knowledgeable about online strategy, social media, cybersecurity and other tech areas. On the Just Giving blog, nonprofit consultant Zoe Amar shares what she’s learned by being a digital trustee:
http://blog.justgiving.com/5-things-ive-learned-from-being-a-digital-trustee/
5) The future of philanthropy lies with the next generation. Family foundations are taking steps to educate younger family members, but the transition can still be bumpy. The National Center on Family Philanthropy has a post on Guidestar about the best ways to manage a generational handoff and ensure that a family foundation continues to do good work. See their in-depth analysis here:
https://trust.guidestar.org/teaching-the-next-generation-about-philanthrop
That’s it for the Friday Five. We’re off to find the perfect pumpkin. We’ll be back next week with more highlights from the nonprofit world. In the meantime, check out our Facebook page and twitter feed; you can also get in touch with us at info@b-alaw.com. See you next week!