In this first of two blog posts on organizational strategy, CompassPoint Project Director Shannon Ellis considers the changing social and operational environment nonprofits are working in, and the shifts in orientation these changes necessitate. In Part 2, Shannon lays out how getting clear on strategy can help an organization move through turbulent waters.
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June 4, 2013
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June 4, 2013
Last week, in “Think Like a Surfer: Part One of a Two-Part Series on Organizational Strategy,” Shannon Ellis wrote about the powerful and turbulent waters we’re navigating as nonprofits, and reflected on some of the leadership capacities it takes to harness that power to effect lasting change. This week, in Part Two, she discusses the five practices she sees in common among organizations that are successful in surfing through these changes.
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May 29, 2013
Avoidance. What a cowardly escape from conflicting interests or opinions! Avoiding looks like an ostrich with its head in the sand, deluding itself into thinking its body is out of danger just because it’s not looking at the threat. Avoiding sounds like a kid with her hands over her ears, singing “la la la” to keep the unwanted truth out of her head. I know these things. I am an avoider.
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May 3, 2013
We know that the social justice sector is not funded as well as the overall nonprofit sector. Just 14% of grant dollars go to groups addressing the root causes of economic, social, and environmental injustice. We also know that many social justice groups suffered large budget cuts due to the recession and most are still facing reduced or stagnant income trends.
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March 23, 2013
Over the past week I’ve watched Dan Pallotta’s TED Talk, “The way we think about charity is dead wrong” ripple throughout the nonprofit sector and beyond.
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March 21, 2013
“I would love to give to the Film Festival, but I really have to devote all my giving to my children’s public school.” This sentence, said by a long-time donor in response to a request for funding renewal from a board member at a local Film Festival, helped to start a project called “Nonprofits Talking Taxes."
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February 26, 2013
Recently I found myself chatting with someone with roots in philanthropy about my current effort to lead my organization in a process of re-imagining our future to increase our social impact. That person provided her insights and support; she recognized that my “big idea” for my organization sounded like it built on our organization’s history and strengths. She also understood that I was doing this as a process of co-creation involving all our stakeholders.
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February 8, 2013
Erin Scott, Associate Director of the Family Violence Law Center, participates in the Blue Shield of California Strong Field Project Leadership Development Program. CompassPoint delivers this customized program for leaders from California domestic violence organizations.
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January 28, 2013
Sometimes leadership roadblocks are created by your own hands, I know this firsthand. For 15 years I have been unaware I was climbing a ladder and building a glass ceiling over myself in my off hours as a social justice activist.
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January 22, 2013
This became a refrain while in the midst of analyzing the data for our newly released report: UnderDeveloped: A National Study of Challenges Facing Nonprofit Fundraising (a joint project of CompassPoint and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund). But this is not a report about recruiting and retaining development staff. At least not entirely. This is about a much deeper problem, what we describe as a vicious cycle that many organizations are caught in.
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