Summer 2012 – Digital Issue

Influences on Nonprofit Management

Summer 2012: Volume 19, Issue 2

Features

• Welcome
  
  
• The Nonprofit Ethicist
  Should a board member who wants to be CEO resign from the board, or is taking a leave of absence sufficient? Is it an invasion of privacy to use a prospect research company to obtain information on a prospective donor? What is the best way to handle “closet bigots” in the office? And what should you do if concerns about your executive director’s charging unrelated expenses to grants fall on deaf ears? Our resident expert responds. by Woods Bowman
  
  
• External Influences on Nonprofit Management: a Wide-Angle View
  If organizations are a product of their surrounding cultures and social structures, what happens when perceived institutional boundaries dissolve and what used to be business as usual becomes unfamiliar territory? As Ruth McCambridge explains, when “we are beset with disequilibrium, we are challenged to step outside of the system.” by Ruth McCambridge
  
  
• The Participatory Revolution in Nonprofit Management
  We are facing an emergent participatory society. Are nonprofit leaders up to the challenge? by Gregory D. Saxton, PhD
  
  
• Nonprofit Management Isn’t a Game
  “Crowding out,” “venture philanthropy,” “social enterprise,” “game theory.” Is it time for nonprofits to push back against this invasion of for-profit models and trends, and cultivate our own management frameworks? by Scott Helm, PhD
  
  
• Managing in the New Economic Reality
  NFF’s Jina Paik outlines strategies used by nonprofits over the past few years to address the changes in public and private funding brought about by the challenging economic environment, and notes: “While organizations will certainly need to include new options in their tool kit of responses, the tried and true will continue to be important.” by Jina Paik
  
  
• Technology’s Effect on Nonprofit Management
  This article explores some of the challenges and opportunities introduced into our workplace by the continuing rise of technology, and asks, will we embrace the discomfort of the new or will we “leave the possibilities on the table.” by Holly Ross

Departments

• Dr. Conflict
  When an agency merges two fundraising teams and cuts one supervisor, an employee worries that the team won’t get enough guidance. In this scenario, how many people can you supervise effectively, and how do you make that case to the top? by Mark Light, MBA, PhD
  
  
• A Tale of Two “Turnarounds”: Heading Back in the Right Direction
  The authors describe what it took for two organizations in crisis to begin their journeys back to financial and operational health. by John H. Vogel, Kelly L. Winquist, and Christine J. Spadafor
  
  
• Vanishing Act: When a Fiscal Sponsor Disappears 
  When a fiscal sponsor goes AWOL and leaves hundreds of projects in the lurch, it begs the question, “What went wrong?” by Rick Cohen