editors and readers picks

Life | Work | Style • January 15, 2009 • Email Print

Did you know that hundreds of nonprofit organizations helped make Dr. King who he was? And do you know what they're up to today?

Do you know...

1. Which national nonprofit did Martin Luther King Jr. join as an undergraduate student?

Feature Articles • By Tom Battin • December 14, 2009 • Email Print

December is famously a bad month in which to look for a job, and a
bad month in which to bring on someone new. Get a leg up on January with Tom Battin's guide to nonprofit job sites:

In this article, we review 33 websites for people seeking nonprofit jobs, and of course, for nonprofits seeking to hire new staff. Job sites serve two audiences: job seekers and employers. Job seekers can look for potential positions as well as upload their resumes so that employers can seek them out. For employers, such job sites allow them to search posted resumes to find people with specific characteristics.

This is not a complete list. We have focused on sites that are exclusively for nonprofit jobs, or that have a substantial number of nonprofit jobs. We have not included the hundreds of websites such as those of nonprofit associations where members can post openings, nor have we tried to find all the listservs and association newsletters where members post openings. Instead, we focused on sites that are primarily about job seeking: that are updated daily, that have features such as being able to search only for executive jobs, and so forth. Be sure to ask people in your chosen field or geographic region or the sites, listservs and newsletters that they know.

For each of these 33 job sites in this Directory, we include the number of jobs that were posted on our test day as well as the key features . . .

Word On The Street • By Jan Masaoka • January 2, 2010 • Email Print

Nominations are coming in for the Just Awards! We are very pleased to be co-sponsoring this new prestigious, nonprofit sector award series created jointly by Blue Avocado and Nonprofit Online News.

The first "Justie" will be awarded to a foundation or funder for Narcissism in Philanthropy in 2009, and the second "Justie" to a newspaper, website or media outlet for Abominable Media Coverage of the Nonprofit Sector. Full information and nomination forms are available at the new Just Awards website: www.justawards.org.

I peeked at one of the nominations, which told the story of a foundation that gives out $5 million a year and is now building themselves an $8 million building. Keep the nominations coming! 

Just Awards are inspired by the IgNobel Prizes, which aspire to "make people laugh, and then make people think." In that spirit, the Just Awards will highlight the irrational, the irresponsible, and the irrelevant organizational behaviors that most affect the work of social service and social change. With a particular emphasis on the world of philanthropy and with the support of respected judges, we will bestow awards each year to those organizations who best exemplify the foibles of our sector.

The "Justies" will be announced during the week of April 19, 2010, immediately preceding the annual conference of the Council on Foundations.

As of this writing, the judges' panel includes: Ami Dar (Idealist.org), Aaron Dorfman (National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy), Pablo Eisenberg (Georgetown University), Ruth McCambridge (Nonprofit Quarterly), and Omowale Satterwhite (National Community Development Institute). Newest judge: Pricilla Hung of GIFT.

Additional judges are still being confirmed and will be announced on the Just Awards website, where nominations forms, criteria and all other information can be found. Anyone can submit nominations, and their names will be held confidential.

Just Awards is a joint project of Blue Avocado and Nonprofit Online News. Jan Masaoka and Michael Gilbert are co-chairing the project. We look forward to your comments and nominations! Click here to nominate.

Washington Nonprofit Insight • By Rick Cohen • January 6, 2010 • Email Print

Why does Teach for America (TFA) attract so much adulatory praise, so much vitriolic criticism, so much government and foundation money, and so much jealousy/resentment from other nonprofits? And did we mention so much money? Held up as the exemplar of social innovation and civic engagement, the TFA model merits closer attention as to what it really means for public education, to the nonprofit sector, and to society at large. TFA's positive press is so well known that this article focuses on the less-heard concerns and questions about the model:

It's hard to imagine a nonprofit entity that encapsulates the emerging definition of social innovation more than the Teach for America juggernaut. Founded in 1990 by young Princeton graduate Wendy Kopp, TFA now needs no introduction; it has nearly the same brand recognition enjoyed by nonprofits like the United Way and American Red Cross. But as the nation moves toward defining social innovation and handing over the federal Social Innovation Program to private foundations, it cannot hurt to recognize TFA and other vaunted models for what they are:

Washington Nonprofit Insight • By Rick Cohen • October 30, 2009 • Email Print

When we believe something to be true but don't have the data to support that idea, what happens when we do find the hard evidence? Two things: either we find out we were wrong after all or . . . we were right and now we have the facts to put into a grant proposal.

Rick Cohen mined metric tons of data to bring us some newly published, meaningful facts about the nonprofit sector that we should be aware of . . . and use.

1. It's official: we're underpaid.

Nonprofit managers make $34.24/hour on average, compared with $36.18 in comparable state government positions, $39.75 in federal government, and $41.86 in private sector positions, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics National Compensation Survey. Office and administrative support staff in the nonprofit sector also come up short: average hourly earnings of $15.46 compared to $15.53 in the for-profit sector, $15.92 in state government, and $16.76 in local government. On the other hand, the relative gap among positions is smaller in our sector. So . . . should we be demanding more from our funders -- not because we're greedy but for the sustainability of our work?

2. Maybe I should look for a job in local government: Nonprofit human services workers are paid about the same as in the for-profit sector, but considerably less than in government. So . . .  With so much of nonprofit human services supported by government money, why don't government contracts . . .

Board Cafe • By Jan Masaoka • September 12, 2009 • Email Print

Are board giving requirements a best practice or a bad idea? We report on trends and explore the real questions:

Few debates can rile up board members more than the question, "Should our board have a giving requirement?" Many of us know from firsthand experience that responses to this question are often characterized by frustration, bewilderment, sarcasm, absolute certainty, or even anger.

Unfortunately, there's no definitive answer to the question, because having a requirement for giving does work for some boards, but not having a requirement works just as well for others. There are substantive, valid arguments to be made on both sides of the debate:

Proponents of required giving believe it signals board member commitment, at the same time giving board members a sense of investment and shareholder stake in the organization.

Institutions such as universities, operas, museums, and others whose board members are recruited mostly for fundraising are where one sees required giving most frequently, at levels ranging from $500 to $2,500, $10,000 and so forth. And in the stratosphere of board giving, one major university expects (requires) trustees to make personal gifts of $20 million each during the period of their trusteeships.

Reflecting frustration dealing with her board, an executive recently exclaimed in anger and disgust . . .

Board Cafe • By Jan Masaoka • August 9, 2009 • Email Print

Board members invest a tremendous amount of time and energy at board meetings. A few simple changes can often make that investment pay off in important ways. Make a resolution to implement at least one of the following ideas this month:

1. Supply name tags for everyone at every meeting. It's embarrassing to have seen people at several meetings and wondered what their names are . . . and later it's really hard to admit you don't know their names.

2. Make a chart of frequently used external and internal acronyms(such as CDBG for Community Development Block Grants or DV for domestic violence) and post it on the wall of every meeting. (If you distribute the list on paper, it is soon lost.) The chart will help people unfamiliar with the acronyms know what others are talking about.

3. Write an anticipated action for each agenda item. Examples:

Feature Articles • By Jan Masaoka • June 23, 2009 • Email Print

Do you have a hard time getting board members to meetings? Justice Now, a California organization working in women's prison issues, has ten board members, of whom six are imprisoned. There is much to learn from them about involving board members in strategic decision-making, about board member mentoring of staff, and about how board members can raise money from their peers in unexpected circumstances. In this issue Board Treasurer Misty Rojo and Co-Founder/Executive Director Cynthia Chandler talk with Blue Avocado.

Blue Avocado: Misty, I understand that you were released three months ago after nearly ten years in prison, and you've been on the board for six years. How did you get involved with Justice Now?

Misty: When I was just starting my time in prison, I had some health problems. I met two women who were fellow inmates who were founding members . . .

Feature Articles • By Jan Masaoka • June 7, 2009 • Email Print

Thanks to dozens of Blue Avocado readers who sent in examples of nonprofits in popular culture, here's a look at the mostly-fake world of nonprofits on the big and small screen.

Queen Latifah in "Life Support" is a refreshing exception to how nonprofits are typically portrayed in popular culture. As Ana in this 2007 film, she works her butt off at Life Support, an AIDS education noprofit, but neglects her family and endangers her own health (sound just a little familiar?). Through Ana, we catch glimpses of what we know community nonprofits to be: fiercely committed,under-staffed, and essential life support to their clients and the community writ large.

In contrast, nonprofits are more usually invisible, stereoptyped, or off-camera employers of minor characters. For example, in "The West Wing," Mary Louise Parker played the director of a women's rights group deeply enmeshed in policy work. Several "Curb Your Enthusiasm" characters interact with  NRDC, a nonprofit where producer Larry David's ex-wife is active in real life. References to the real-life Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center as well as to the fictional California Arts Center pop up in "The L Word."

Nonprofit issues . . . but not nonprofits

But mostly what we learn about nonprofits in popular culture -- and not just in mainstream culture -- is wrong twice over. First, while the issues that nonprofits . . .

Feature Articles • By John Killacky • May 9, 2009 • Email Print

John Killacky, artist and arts funder, not only knows that we need the arts now more than ever, but gives us ten survival strategies for arts organizations and one for audience members -- and
reminds us that all of us are audience members.

The arts are where hope lives. And right now, as the very tenets of civil society are being re-written, and as health and human service needs rise, there is legitimate concern about whether the arts will survive, how the arts can thrive.

The arts, like every other nonprofit sub-sector, are being challenged by significant contribution losses from government, corporations, foundations, and private donors. Box office and gallery admissions are also eroding as discretionary dollars evaporate. Almost everyone agrees funding problems will become more acute in the upcoming three to five years. Adaptability is replacing growth as a barometer of success. There's no question to me but that the arts organizations that have dynamic, interactive, authentic relationships with their constituents, audiences, and neighbors are the ones that will come out of this maelstrom stronger. Here are ten . . .