Are Donors Solving Problems—or Creating New Ones

from  “Gospels of Giving for the New Gilded Age”,  by Elizabeth Kolbert ,  New Yorker, 8-27-18 Skeptics fear philanthropies have gained undue influence on public policy. In the spring of 1889, Andrew Carnegie published an essay on money. If possession confers knowledge, then there wa s no greater expert on the subject: Carnegie was possibly the richest American who ever lived. The essay, which was printed first in the North American Review, then in Britain’s Pall Mall Gazette, and later reissued in a pamphlet, became known as “The Gospel of Wealth.” The “Gospel” opened with a discussion of inequity. This was the Gilded Age, and, […]

Interim Executive Management: Seven Benefits to Consider

from an article in The Bridgespan Group newsletter Summary A nonprofit that loses a top leader faces an anxiety-producing situation even under the best circumstances. But losing an executive without a succession plan in place can be particularly agonizing. Nonprofits are increasingly engaging professional transition consultants as interim executives, which can help them fill the short-term gap to give them time to consider the organization’s longer-term future. A nonprofit organization that loses a top leader (e.g., chief staff officer, CEO, executive director, executive vice president) faces an anxiety-producing situation even under the best circumstances. But losing an executive without a […]

YEAR UP Nonprofit Demonstrates National Success in Job Training

Economically disadvantaged young adults trained in a Year Up program, earn 53 percent more than economically disadvantaged young adults who did not participate in the program. The findings said Year Up increased total hours worked by three to four per week and graduates earned nearly $4 more per hour than members of a control group that were part of the study. In 1982 the Job Training Partnership Act budgeted about $3 billion in annual funding for the program.  Since then with repeals and replacements of the law (1982 federal Job Training Partnership Act to 1998 Workforce Investment Act of 1998 […]