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Social Capital Markets

If there’s one challenge many social enterprises have in common, it’s finding capital. Insufficient capitalization is a primary reason that small businesses fail or fail to grow, and that’s also the case for social enterprises. The good news: that seems to be changing. A new field is emerging, so young that it still goes by …

Give, Get, Get Off or Govern?

Company directors on not-for-profit boards are often required to make substantial donations to the cause, or to elicit substantial donations from their network. Those that can’t or won’t become major benefactors are, more or less subtly, removed from the boardroom. But does this model sit well with current notions of directors’ responsibility and the professionalization …

Volvo Fails Crisis Management 101

How poor preparation led to a reputation-damaging viral video. Swedish automaker Volvo is under fire this week after demonstrations of their much-hyped safety systems backfired several times in front of a crowd of journalists. Compounding the issue is the response from the Volvo spokesperson, who violated Crisis Management 101 rules big time with his response …

Asking For The Major Gift – Part 3 of 3

There is a simple, but not simplistic, description of what major gift fundraising is all about: It’s having the right person, asking the right person, for the right amount, at the right time, under the right circumstances. The two right people are the cultivator/solicitor and the prospective donor. They’ve developed a common interest, a relationship …

Do You Have Boss Problems?

Are you in this situation? You and your boss just don’t seem to connect and work well together. It isn’t that you are having knock down fights. It’s just that you know things could be better. You don’t want to look for another job. So you have to figure out how to make it work. …

Can’t Avoid Crisis

A working plan is often the difference between success and failure in crisis management. The scary thing about a media crisis is that it can happen to anyone at any time. It isn’t always about big business. Even mom-and-pop operations can feel the pain. You almost never see it coming, and it is rarely something …

What is Strategic Planning?

Simply put, strategic planning is clarifying the overall purpose and desired results of an organization, and how those results will be achieved. There are different ways to do that planning, depending on the purpose(s) of the planning, the life cycle or stage of development of the organization, the culture of people in the organization, types

Nonprofit and For-Profit Boards — a Comparison

Our firm regularly gets calls, asking about the differences between for-profit and nonprofit Boards. Although there are certain differences, there are more similarities than people often realize. Misconceptions often stem from the belief that nonprofits have to have a Board because they’re nonprofits. Not true. Chartered, or registered, nonprofits have to have a Board because …