It is the day after Thanksgiving. We have had turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and stuffing. We are stuffed. But we’re not so stuffed that we can’t bring you five mentally nutritious and stimulating articles to lift you from your possible food coma. Here they are:
1) To follow Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Tuesday, November 29 is #GivingTuesday. Giving Tuesday was created five years ago by the Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact and the 92nd Street Y(a cultural center in New York City) to encourage volunteering and charitable donations as a kickoff to the holiday season. The Giving Tuesday site has a directory to help you find charities near to you so you can donate to them or volunteer with them. Get involved:
https://www.givingtuesday.org/about
2) The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette raises some excellent points in “Lax board members hurt nonprofits.” Flagging a study from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, the Post-Gazette notes that 27 percent of nonprofit directors do not have a clear understanding of their organization’s mission and, even more alarming, that 42 percent do not have an audit committee. Find out what else might be going wrong:
http://www.post-gazette.com/business/career-workplace/2016/11/22/Lax-board-members-hurt-nonprofits/stories/201611220005
3) What’s wrong with large anonymous donations? A lot, says Inside Philanthropy. Several factors—the increasing entwining of philanthropy with politics, the ease with which disclosure rules can be skirted, the rise of donor-advised funds—are intersecting to create the potential for a lack of accountability and transparency. Find out more:
http://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2016/11/17/the-price-of-privacy-four-problems-with-anonymous-givingand-the-case-for-reform
4) Nonprofit Quarterly explores an event in which the cast of Hamilton delivered a short speech to Vice President-Elect Mike Pence after he attended the Broadway musical. Following a series of tweets from Donald Trump, one of which read: “The Theater must always be a safe and special place. The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!” NPQ asks: should theatre be a safe space? And, if so, for whom? The essay expands from there:
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2016/11/21/role-art-social-movement-theater-safe-space/
5) Many people on both sides of the political aisle found this past election discouraging and dispiriting. NonprofitWithBalls has an important reminder: “Our eyes ‘reach but little ways.’ We cannot see into the future. So we forget, especially during times like these, the amazing things people are doing each day to make the world better. People like you. You are making the world better every day through your work. That arc of the moral universe does not bend itself; everything we do helps to bend it.” Also, apparently, we’re sexy Jedi unicorns, but you’ve got to read the entry to find out why:
http://nonprofitwithballs.com/2016/11/hey-you-amazing-unicorns-were-going-to-be-ok
And that seems like an excellent place to end this Friday Five. Here’s another reminder to visit http://GivingTuesday.org and donate or volunteer, if you’re able.
As always, if you want more nonprofit information, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. Questions about the nonprofit world? You can reach us at info@b-alaw.com. See you next week!