…. wait. What? This sounds like injustice. It’s wrong to be nicer to the rich person than the poor person, or to open more doors for the White person than the Black person, or to listen more seriously to the man than to the woman. …

There are the stated values of your organization and then the real values. Hopefully they match. Many nonprofits have a mission statement, a vision statement, and then a set of stated values. They might call them “core ethics, “ or “guiding principles,” or “key priorities,” or “organizational values.” …

When I was a young, creative, go-getter leader, I had a conversation with another young, creative, go-getter leader, that I still remember. We got talking about books we had read, books that instructed or inspired us, books we enthusiastically promoted to others — and my friend said this: “Leaders are…

Some are vigorously discussed, quoted, used, and applied, to the benefit of nonprofits and their causes. I forget when and where I saw him. I forget actually who the person was. But I’ll never forget what he said, “That report of yours, it still comes up. …

You want smart people in your organization. When the smartest person in the room is speaking, listen. They probably have an above-average ability to sort good ideas from bad ideas, to introduce factors into the discussion others haven’t thought of, to make connections others might miss, to point out flaws…

As I write, yesterday we buried our dear cat Taffy. She was a soft, quiet, beautiful, gentle soul with a goofy, cross-eyed visage. Sad goodbyes. Maybe you’ve been there. It gives me the opportunity to offer a word of thanks to animal charities, a group within the larger nonprofit world…

People get ideas about good things to do to make the world a better place. If an idea gets traction, it might turn into a new nonprofit organization. Isn’t that wonderful? Well, maybe, but exciting program activity is not the point. Making the world better in some way is the…

You have a choice. You can carry on, or you can innovate. I’m not going to say, “You MUST innovate! The world is changing so rapidly, innovate or DIE!” No. If things are going well, maybe you can get by with carrying on. Carrying on is efficient. It’s a great…

Sometimes I face this, in my work as a consultant to nonprofits. For example: once I asked a client about the various funding needs of his Christian organization. His reply went along these lines: “Yes, we need a better building, and yes we need more on-going program funding, but what…