All governmental organizations and NGOs are founded by well-meaning actors with good intentions. However, corruption inevitably sets in as the “good intentions” are gradually eclipsed by the inevitable organizational impulse to survive and self-perpetuate. Institutions, like organisms, seek survival for themselves and their descendants. They survive, reproduce, replace, predate, evolve, alter, consume and grow. And when a sufficient number of institutions coexist, they function like an ecosystem.

In the past twenty years, student debt has become a major social and political issue in our country. As government guaranteed student loans became more widely available, colleges began to raise their tuition rates to keep pace with the expansion boom that ready government financing created. More students required more professors and facilities to accommodate their needs, and colleges needed more money to pay for the growth. The result, of course, is that students borrowed more and more money to pay inflated tuition and fees and subsequently became burdened with overwhelming debt.

The nonprofit world has struggled for years with the distinction donors make between mission dedicated donations (restricted funds) and funds available for overhead and administrative salaries (unrestricted). The dichotomy has grown out of the emerging belief among donors that money spent directly on mission is better spent than money “wasted” on overhead costs and administrative salaries. Studies reveal that donors “feel” better about donations when they are assured that their money has gone directly to mission outcomes.

In the world of social work, learning networks are nothing new. Social workers have always exchanged information in a social setting, such as sharing referrals and resources with other social work colleagues. Social workers often photocopy and share articles from trusted journals with colleagues they are collaborating with on a project.

Through its FAMCare suite of products Global Vision Technologies helps smaller agencies participate at the big agency level by leveraging technology to amplify impact. In an article that appeared in Policy & Practice, the journal of the American Public Human Services Association, Accenture managing directors Debora Morris and Ryan Oakes present a method for amplifying the outcomes of smaller agencies through a combination of new technology and best management practices.

A friend of ours, Quinn Cooley has reached out with a great resource to share with our partners, clients and friends.  Quinn works with universities and programs to help share their content and he came across a great infographic from the team at Maryville University that we wanted to share.  We think this is a great educational resource for those who are ready to go back to school.

Wall street investors have discovered the nonprofit world. Why are the “profit seekers” sniffing around the pressing social problems that have always been the pervue of nonprofits? Wall street calls this new investor initiative Impact Investing and reports that it is thriving. Currently impact investors have $228 billion in assets under management. “Individuals are huge drivers of the rise of impact investing,” says Amit Bouri, CEO of the Global Impact Investing Network. “They increasingly want to be a part of the solution to problems surrounding their communities and the environment. Investors pumped $35.5 billion into 11,000 deals last year, and that number is expected to grow by 8% in 2018.”

The CEOs of nonprofit agencies have always faced challenges that are uniquely theirs. These difficulties continue to change and evolve as both the industry and those who nonprofits aim to help do so as well. Even within the past five or 10 years, these challenges have proven to be unlike any others faced in years past.

Nonprofit's Role

There are 640,000 students currently registered in the Los Angeles Unified School District and 480,000 (75%) of them are Latinos. The LA. School Report reminds us that this past March 1st was the 50th anniversary of the big “blowout” when “thousands of young Latinos marched out of their East Los Angeles classrooms…for their right to be educated.”

The Web

The modern era of nonprofit marketing began more than 25 years ago when nonprofits realized that without a website they were virtually out of business. Everyone went out immediately and launched a website.