The FAMCare Blog

There are both productive non-governmental organizations and those that are unable to reach their full potential and have the desired impact. To run smoothly, a nonprofit requires a lot of work, and many things can go wrong. Mistakes, on the other hand, can provide an opportunity to grow and learn. We hope that by sharing these common mistakes, we can help keep your agency running and thriving.

Employee turnover is becoming a major problem for nonprofits. A 2021 survey by the National Council of Nonprofits of over 1,000 nonprofit organizations found that 42% of responding organizations had job openings for 20% of their positions. Almost half of those responding had more than 30% of their positions vacant.

The coronavirus pandemic has presented nonprofit organizations with new and unexpected challenges. To address these challenges, several sectors have redesigned their operations and concentrated their efforts on education and safe pandemic awareness.

They've discovered new ways to dispel myths, validate facts, and disseminate them to other organizations and individuals in a variety of ways. Several organizations that had already implemented case management software were able to continue working remotely while avoiding infection risk.

In his new book, Effective Fundraising, Harvard Business School professor emeritus, F. Warren Mcfarlan, identifies the board of trustees as nonprofit's core fundraising asset. The book outlines the broad range of roles trustees can play in contributing to the crucial function of fundraising. While some rare souls are enthusiastic about directly soliciting gifts, Professor Mcfarlan says, others may be more effective at expanding networks, making introductions, lending credibility, or providing the coaching and context that contribute to a successful "close".

Nonprofits exist to assemble assets in support of humanitarian missions. Financial assets are the most obvious but human assets are the most essential. Without hordes of volunteers, many of our most iconic nonprofits would simply disappear.

As the corona virus pandemic descended over the world, everything changed for nonprofits. Suddenly many of the smaller organizations are fighting for survival. We contacted a retired professor from the Harvard Business School who has spent a lifetime researching nonprofit management to ask for his suggestions on nonprofit crisis management.

Increasingly, nonprofits face growing competition from their for-profit counterparts. These for-profit companies can often deliver services at a lower cost or offer higher financial returns to cities, thanks to their capacity and ability to raise investment capital as business entities. This leaves the non-profit social infrastructure in communities at a competitive disadvantage and requires a more thoughtful approach to determining the value of contract bids beyond simply financial criteria.

In this new dystopian world of negative and divisive political discourse, we find it refreshing to seek out and report on the positive, uniting energy of the mission-centric nonprofit “other-world” we inhabit with our colleagues across the country.

The San Francisco board of supervisors recently introduced a budget measure that would raise the minimum wage for nonprofit and in-home supportive service workers from $15/hour to $17/hour. When challenged, the board justified the $13 million added annual expense to the city budget by citing the crisis the home healthcare field is experiencing in San Francisco. It is bleeding workers daily.

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.