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In the early 2000s, I met with the executive director of an education fund in rural Virginia to kick off what would eventually be a seven-year engagement as a grant writer. She told me that my predecessor had already done grant research for the organization, and all I had to do was to follow up on the leads. She then handed me an enormous loose-leaf notebook with hundreds of pages of grant descriptions printed straight from the Foundation Center’s database.

We’ve analyzed the House tax proposal as introduced last week and are tracking the actions that are reshaping it every day. The Senate will soon release its competing version. We’ve identified four questions nonprofit leaders can ask about the impact on nonprofits to help your nonprofit look ahead and be prepared. The answers below relate to how the House bill may impact most charitable nonprofits.

What’s the secret sauce in great funder/nonprofit relationships? Here’s a crowdsourced “recipe” straight from the participants in four programs we co-hosted with Exponent Philanthropy.

Nonprofits can use their credibility as proven champions for the community (not one political side or the other) to bring unnatural allies together. Nonprofits do this all the time. For instance, a community organization seeking support for a bike lane learns to navigate opposition from those in the community who don’t want the bike lane. There may be legitimate safety concerns about how narrow the road will become with the addition of a bike lane. Listening to the other’s side’s concerns creates better solutions. Your nonprofit may have led many similar conversations.

When we think about the characteristics of a charitable organization – a “public benefit” corporation (that’s the official IRS moniker for charitable nonprofits) – elephants may not immediately come to mind. But for those of you who are familiar with research about elephants, you’ll know what I’m about to share and why I’m suggesting that nonprofit leaders should try to be more like elephants.

Have you ever participated in a professional development conference where you listened intently, asked a few questions, and dutifully took notes, only to discover that the most memorable parts of the conference (besides the cookies) were the conversations you had in the hallways or during lunch? That’s a risk in our too-busy and technology-saturated lives: learning and retaining what we’re learning seems harder.

The White House released a stark budget blueprint that proposes the elimination of 66 programs, many of which support the work of nonprofits in communities.