Fall 2018 – Digital Issue

Are Humans Resources? Moving from Extraction to Reciprocity in Our People Practices...

Fall 2018: Volume 25, Issue 3

Introduction

• Welcome
  
  
• The Nonprofit Whisperer
  What can you do to break down the seemingly impregnable barriers between departments in your organization and replace them with an open and positive culture? The Nonprofit Whisperer is here to help!

Features

• It's Time to Re-form Human Capital Assumptions in Nonprofits
  
  
• Nurturing Renewable Human Capital in the Nonprofit Workplace
  “If we were to think of the human capital in and around our organizations as explicitly including social, intellectual, and cultural capital, what changes might it engender in our nonprofits’ human resource practices?,” asks Ruth McCambridge. A shift like this, she proposes, would fundamentally transform the employment contract. by Ruth McCambridge
  
  
• Developing Human Capital: Moving from Extraction to Reciprocity in Our Organizational Relationships
  “Many of us in the nonprofit sector aspire to make our organizations more human, more personally sustainable, and more conscious of the full humanity of the people with whom we work. For many of us this means revisiting, if not entirely revising, our approaches to ‘human resources management,’” writes Jeanne Bell. This article is an in-depth how-to for organizations wishing to develop reciprocity in all organizational areas. by Jeanne Bell
  
  
• BALLE—Change from the Outside In
  In this article, which inaugurates the Nonprofit Quarterly’s “Racial Equity Change Process” series, Cyndi Suarez presents a detailed case study that highlights the mix of uncomfortable self-reflection and creative breakthroughs one organization experienced over a seven-year period committed to centering racial equity in its work. by Cyndi Suarez
  
  
• Emergent Coaching: Becoming Nimble in Complex Times
  “Our assumptions about how work should be structured to be highly effective are changing. Even in corporate settings, there is an acknowledgment that engagement is prized—that people want to know that their work matters and has meaning. Yet, we are only on the threshold of understanding what this means in practice.” Here, Ana Polanco and Susan Misra present the experiences of four leaders who used emergent coaching methods to “navigate their complex and emergent environments.” by Ana Polanco and Susan Misra
  
  
• The Rich Get Deductions and the Poor Get Ruled: A Burning Platform for a Universal Charitable Deduction
  
  
• The Growth in Total Household Giving Is Camouflaging a Decline in Giving by Small and Medium Donors: What Can We Do about It?
  Small and midsize donations are falling, increasing nonprofit dependence on the wealthy few. Should we be prioritizing the universal charitable deduction as sectorwide policy? This special feature presents new research demonstrating two trends that are negatively affecting the nature of how America gives, leading to the diminishment of civil society generally. by Patrick M. Rooney
  
  
• Nonprofit Contracting: Breaking the Cycle of Public Underinvestment
  The way nonprofit contracts with government are handled suggests a lack of respect bordering on malfeasance. Make no mistake: these are tax expenditures, and we should demand more from public agencies that administer those funds. by Mary Kate Bacalao

Departments

• You First: Leadership for a New World “SWOT’samatteryou”
  “Think of a funnel—or a sausage grinder, if you’d like. You put the information in the SWOT’s grinder, and out come your best strategies,” writes Mark Light in this damning disquisition on the everprevalent SWOT model. by Mark Light, MBA, PhD
  
  
• Breaking Through the Academic Bubble: A Personal Journey
  How can you take your research beyond the “academic bubble” and into the concrete realm of policy? Here, Nhan Truong describes how he used a “pracademic” approach to leverage his research into practice, discovering critical issues for the pracademic along the way. by Nhan Truong
  
  
• 61 Restoring Reciprocity: How the Nonprofit Sector Can Help Save Capitalism from Itself
  Nonprofits often act to mend problems within a given system, but what if the system as a whole is decaying? This article discusses the problematic entanglement of state and market, and how this adversely affects the majority of the population. by Elizabeth A. Castillo