Posts by nc
How the Down Syndrome Community Sugarcoats Difficult Realities About the Condition
By David Perry Thirty years ago, Ronald Reagan declared October Down Syndrome Awareness Month. Ever since, too many efforts at awareness have relied on pictures of people with Down syndrome being cute, accompanied by constant, upbeat assertions that they and their families are all very happy. Throughout October, adorable photos of people with Down syndrome and heartwarming,…
Read MoreNonprofits: How to Be Your Own Social Media Guru, Using Engagement Data
By Farra Trompeter The leaves are changing and the pumpkin spice lattes are brewing. Yes friends, it’s fall, the perfect season to step back and rethink your social media strategy. With a new channel popping up everyday, it’s easy to follow the latest shiny object. But before you turn on another profile, or pull the…
Read MoreCorporate Giving Doesn’t Have to Be Cash Only
By Celeste Amato Business owners across Maryland tell us that corporate philanthropy — charitable giving directed by a business entity — is highly rewarding to everyone associated with their business. In the same way that a business plan helps a company stay on course toward its financial goals, a charitable giving program, however informal, can…
Read MoreHelp Move the Nonprofit Sector from an Overhead Myth to an Overhead Solution
By Jacob Harold, President and CEO, GuideStar In 2013, I joined with colleagues at BBB Wise Giving Alliance and Charity Navigator to write an open letter to the donors of Americaexplaining that “overhead ratios” are a poor way to understand nonprofit performance. As you know, these ratios—the percent of charity expenses that go to administrative and…
Read MoreWhat Matters When Deciding Which Charity to Support
To the Donors of America: We write to correct a misconception about what matters when deciding which charity to support. The percent of charity expenses that go to administrative and fundraising costs—commonly referred to as “overhead”—is a poor measure of a charity’s performance. We ask you to pay attention to other factors of nonprofit performance:…
Read MoreIs Your Company Running a “Healthy” Food Drive?
Each year, millions of food drives are run to support more than 50,000 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other organizations in the United States. And many of these food drives are held by companies as a way to engage employees in their workplace giving programs. But how much are those food drives really helping…
Read MoreWhat’s the Best Way to Market Your Charitable Giving?
By David Hagenbuch From the red Dell laptops for AIDS awareness to pink Nike high-tops for breast cancer research, more companies are embracing social causes as ways of helping themselves and others. Such cause-related marketing generally produces win-win outcomes: The for-profit companies generate goodwill and earnings, while the nonprofit causes share in income they may not…
Read MoreChanging Children’s Lives by Teaching Financial Literacy
Young students from a suburban Chicago elementary school drew pictures of their morning with a special classroom visitor. On each page they commented on the stories that she had told them, the games they had played together and the things she had taught them, and bundled everything up into a handmade book. When Baxter finance…
Read MorePro Bono Week: A Time For Skills to Shine
By Ryan Scott What’s so special about pro bono? According to Taproot, the leading national advocate for pro bono service, pro bono has been a quiet partner in many of the key social movements in our nation’s last 75 years. Taproot should know; the organization has long been an instrumental player in the pro bono movement.…
Read MoreA Treasure of Not Only Black History, But American History as a Whole
By Demetria Irwin Black History Month was always an exciting time for me when I was in elementary school. As the child and grandchild of people who spoke extensively to me about contemporary and historical figures in the African diaspora, I was always eager to share my home-grown knowledge with classmates and teachers. In fourth…
Read MoreThe Children’s Inn At NIH CEO, Kathy Russell, Featured in People Magazine
By Tara Fowler When Kathy Russell was a young hospital administrator, she saw something she didn’t like. “Every day I’d come up on the elevator and I’d walk through radiology and I’d see all these kids in metal cribs with their parents lined up to go through whatever test they had in the morning,” she…
Read MoreGuideStar Unveils Online Tool to Gauge Nonprofits’ Diversity
By Alex Daniels Charities can rate their diversity efforts with a new yardstick being offered by GuideStar, an organization that compiles data on nonprofits. Using a tool on GuideStar’s website nonprofits can compile demographic data on their board members, employees, and volunteers, including their gender, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, and any disability they might have. Once…
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