All News

Nonprofit Firsts in 2015

One of the roles the National Council of Nonprofits plays – along with our network of State Associations of nonprofits – is to keep you up-to-date and informed about emerging trends that may affect the operations of your charitable nonprofit. We include news about trends in all our e-newsletters, on our blog, and on our website.

“Never” Is the Better Answer

When should donors provide their Social Security number to a nonprofit? Common wisdom and universal advice from endless sources say “never.” But a dangerous new proposal from the IRS would change the answer to an iffy, “it depends,” confusing the public, stifling donations for charitable works, and opening the floodgates to fraudsters.

Back to the Future with the Nonprofit Sector

You may be familiar with the National Council of Nonprofits’ role as a trendspotter for charitable nonprofits, including annual rundowns of overall sector trends or trends in state policy that impact nonprofits.

Is your nonprofit making progress towards its vision? How do you know?

In this two-part interview with Adrian Bordone, a “Leap Ambassador,” I was interested to hear about the importance of evaluating outcomes to both build the trust of supporters, as well as be a more effective nonprofit. We first discussed what it means to measure impact and evaluation of outcomes on the path to becoming a high-performing organization.

The Performance Imperative

In the first part of this interview with Adrian Bordone, a Leap Ambassador, we heard about the extensive interest in Leap of Reason, and how the book stimulated a growing awareness that high performing organizations are those that take steps to measure…

Who’s Your Nonprofit’s Chief Trust Officer?

By Virginia Turner, a Senior at Ohio State University and the National Council of Nonprofits’ Fall 2015 John Glenn Fellow

Phantom Boards and Bobble Heads

Last week, we attended a meeting of the National Association of State Charity Officials (NASCO) in Washington, DC. In keeping with the season (Hallowe’en’s coming up), it was nice to see that behind their “scary masks,” government officials are just as concerned about nonprofits being victimized by fraud as as they are about protecting donors from fraudulent fundraising. We also heard directly from a panel of regulators about what conduct can spook state charity regulators into conducting investigations of charitable nonprofits:

New Trends in Background Checking and Screening

Using background checks as one step of the screening process before hiring certain employees has long been considered a prudent hiring practice by nonprofits. For instance, reviewing criminal records, motor vehicle records, and education records is com…

Ensuring your nonprofit’s investment management policy works from end-to-end

Historically, small and mid-size nonprofits have struggled to find financial services that provide a fair deal, avoid conflicts of interest, and work efficiently. When it comes to investment management, in particular, there has been little guidance for…

For Your Mission’s Sake: Spread the Word about Nonprofit Votes Count

How does voter engagement really align with a nonprofit’s mission?

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