Staying At It
11 February 2012
by Harvey Chess
How does your outfit deal with this scenario/conundrum/dilemma, if at all?
Here's a conundrum that presents itself in the sector again and again. There is a well-known nonprofit in some local setting, one that is largely revered for the nobility of its work, let's say ministering to the varied and pressing challenges of local families that are, seems to me, without the resources to allow them to enjoy the fruits of lives well lived. Or, without being euphemistic, these are poor families. Okay, the nonprofit does a solid job of letting the larger community know about the existence of the bereft families, and fund raises successfully to help out. I suspect that the organization's mission is to help such families out, so there is no dissonance between what the organization does and what is was established to do. Here's where the dilemma presents itself for me. In the absence of an intentional/kindred/corollary/connected effort to change the circumstances that find families in the state of privation, there will always be a basis by which the work of the nonprofit will continue. Isn't the net effect maintenance of the status quo? Is it folly to imagine one such organization that intentionally sets out to do away with the need for its services over time? Simple question; not-so-simple answers, I'd wager. I'll return to this theme.
 more articles
by Harvey Chess posted 9 August 2011
I make it my business to read a variety of electronic and paper-based sources of information about doings in and among nonprofit, public benefit organizations. I've come to notice that a favorite term tossed around willy-nilly in what I scan is, metric, or metrics. Singular or plural, the word fairly bristles with the implication of profound and even quasi-scientific importance. So, I decided to look into this ostensibly puissant term by looking it up. Here's what I was able to find by consulting a couple of dictionaries.
You get the drift. The one definition included that might relate itself to the onslaught of usage in our midst, i.e., "a standard of measurement," seems tenuous and is overwhelmed by the aggregation of much more precise definitions.
by Harvey Chess posted July 26, 2011
A "keynote address" pulled together, when requested by a colleague, for a gathering of representatives from a bunch of nonprofit organizations
by Harvey Chess posted July 12th, 2009
If they are truly as labeled, why isn't every nonprofit out there using them?
by Harvey Chess posted July 22nd, 2009
The nonprofit sector in general seems to have snatched the concept of sustainability away from its more specific use in environmental settings. I get to see it tossed around all the time, not least amongst the grant makers of our realm. I have seen some of their reps somberly opine its importance.
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