Where Most Needed

Acorn: Where's the Oak?

Pulled down by an embezzlement scandal and a lightning rod for right-wing attacks, the deeper tragedy at Acorn is how Wade Rathke turned community organizing into a personality cult that prevented the emergence of a new generation of leadership. 

Doors Closing for Small Scale Advocacy Organizations

Changing priorities at two foundations affect funding for hundreds of small scale advocacy groups across the US.  It looks as though free lance advocacy is losing out to the broader strategic objectives of political campaigning.

Ford Foundation Still Driving a Fairmont

The new president of the Ford Foundation commits to continuity, while the organization remains best known for projects it sponsored a over a generation ago. 

Detroit Zoo Director Survives Bull Charge

He confesses that an anonymous accusation that he fibbed on his résumé was correct and loses a month's pay as punishment.  But the nonprofit organization that took over the zoo from the city remains in a fight for its life without an assured funding source. 

How Charities and Nonprofits Jump the Strategic Planning Hurdle

Strategic planning, a management technique long ago rejected by for profit businesses, thrives in the charity industry mostly because funders insist on it.  And the exercise has drifted from both strategy and planning to emphasize consensus-building instead. 

Oregon Nonprofit Association Enters with a Whimper

Anemic dues structure will hamstring the new 140-member association.  My analysis suggests that the members have much more capacity than they are willing to commit to the organization. 

Michigan Nonprofit Association Folds into Volunteering Organization

The state embraces a model where nonprofit support is a joint responsibility of corporations, donors, and government—but working human service nonprofits have their own, separate organization.

Harvard Researchers: Back to Bigness

A historian of charities and a lawyer revive interest in charity organizations that combine national and grassroots perspectives in a federated structure. 

Salvation Army Embraces Centralized, Corporate Marketing

The largest charity in the US (in terms of private suport) ventures outside its comfort zone in the new century's fundraising environment. 

American Lung Association Loses Stragglers in Strategic Overhaul

A handful of chapters prefer to launch out on their own rather than accept consolidation into larger units as part of a strategic plan to encourage larger donations.