NONPROFIT BUSINESS LEARNING LIBRARY
Explore 1,500+ expert conversations and briefings designed to help nonprofits run smarter, fund better, and lead stronger. Search by topic, challenge, or skill area—and learn at your own pace — free to the sector thanks to our Education Partners. From board governance and donor strategy to HR, finance, technology, and cybersecurity, this library connects you with the knowledge, ideas, and guidance needed to keep your organization strong and moving forward!
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How to Record In-Kind Donations—Without Costly Mistakes!
How to record in-kind donations for nonprofits is more than an accounting question . . .it reveals what programs truly cost and how much support the community contributes! Justine Townsend, Manager at Your Part-Time Controller (YPTC), explains how to value, . . . . . . . . .
What exactly am I responsible for if my staff is using AI?
AI governance for nonprofits is quickly becoming a management, finance, data security and leadership responsibility . . .not simply an IT conversation! Dr. Stephanie Rose-Belcher of JMT Consulting explains how nonprofit organizations can gain enormous efficiencies of AI without surrendering . . . . . . . . .
What MacKenzie Scott’s $4 Million Gift Changed at JobsFirstNYC
What should a nonprofit do after receiving a massive unrestricted gift? This is a rare look at what happens after the transformational check arrives. JobsFirstNYC President and CEO Marjorie Parker shares what happened after a surprise $4 million investment connected . . . . . . . . .
Your Nonprofit Board’s Six-Hour Retreat Won’t Fix This
Nonprofit success planning may be a better fit for today’s volatile operating environment than the traditional three-year strategic plan. Jeffrey Wilcox, President and Chief Learning Curator at Third Sector Company, challenges nonprofit leaders and boards to stop treating planning as . . . . . . . . .
Before You Ask for the Gift, Fix the Giving Experience!
A strong year-end fundraising strategy for nonprofits starts long before December—and before you write the first appeal. Melaina Chromy, Sr. Brand Marketing Manager at Bloomerang, explains how nonprofit teams can improve the donor journey, reduce giving friction, coordinate campaign channels, . . . . . . . . .
The “Always On” Leadership Trap
Nonprofit leadership stress can quickly become a business problem, affecting staffing, communication, decision-making and a leader’s ability to keep performing. We had a candid conversation about managing stress when seemingly everyone needs something from you, with Katie Warnock, President of . . . . . . . . .
Your Biggest Fundraising Mistake Might Happen Before Christmas!
Year-end fundraising strategy for nonprofits starts long before December. Ben Cooley, CEO of Maxwell & Marie, joins this Global Edition to explain how nonprofits can turn the holiday giving season into a carefully planned revenue opportunity, not a last-minute fundraising scramble. Ben's message is wonderfully direct: “Your resources are in your relationships.” That means successful fundraising can't depend only on an email blast sent when December arrives. The planning begins with a business question: What exactly are you raising money for? Finance, operations and program teams need to establish the target and purpose before the creative team develops the story and campaign. The conversation then moves into communication strategy . . . direct mail, email, text messages, personal calls, small donor gatherings and social media. Ben also urges nonprofits . . . . . . . . .
Nonprofit Leadership: Creating Space for Better Thinking
Nonprofit leadership decision making can suffer when speed, productivity, email, technology, and constant activity leave little room for strategic thought. Evermay founding CEO Kate Goodall joins us to explore a counterintuitive leadership idea: sometimes the smartest way forward is to slow down. Evermay is creating what Goodall calls an “embassy for the future” in historic Georgetown, a place designed to give thinkers time, physical space, diverse peers, and fewer everyday distractions while they work on ideas with potentially generational impact. For nonprofit executives, board members, funders, and managers, the larger lesson goes well beyond Evermay. “The productivity and the speed at which it happens doesn't necessarily mean that we're heading in the right direction,” Goodall explains. That distinction matters in organizations where leaders can spend entire days responding, approving, meeting, emailing, and producing without ever getting enough distance to ask whether the organization is actually heading where it intends to go. Evermay's Future Fellows model also challenges another familiar organizational habit: surrounding experts with people who think like they do. Fellows come from different disciplines and are deliberately exposed to people who can challenge assumptions. As one applicant described the appeal, “I just really would like to be with people who are different than me, who can spot the holes in my argument.” The Fellows can stay for three, six, or nine weeks. Their schedules intentionally balance limited programming with substantial independent time, peer discussion, meditation and embodiment work, informal collaboration, and shared dinners. The objective isn't inactivity. It's concentrating attention on work that normal routines can squeeze out. Goodall also describes why some potentially transformative ideas struggle to find support: they may be too early, too cross-sectoral, or not yet structured in a way philanthropy considers fundable or investors consider investable. Key Takeaways: Speed and productivity are not substitutes for strategic direction. Protected thinking time can improve the quality of organizational decisions. Cross-disciplinary peers can expose weaknesses insiders may overlook. Not every high-potential idea fits traditional funding structures. Reducing routine decision friction can preserve attention for higher-value work. . . . . . . . . .
From 12 Leaders to 500 Members: An Association Growth Strategy
What if the best nonprofit association growth strategy is to stop obsessing over growth? Lorri Unumb, CEO of the Council of Autism Service Providers (CASP), explains how concentrating on member value, organizational standards, advocacy, and shared infrastructure helped an association . . . . . . . . .