NonprofitEye

Last November, in a post called " The Limitations of Dashboards " I wrote about my disappointment with the promise of electronic "dashboards". But when I was about to waive the white flag, I found him. Who? The Dashboard Spy , that's who. And who is this spy guy? Nobody knows, and nobody has to really care either (see spy bio at the end of this article if you really want the scoop). The point is, he introduced me to some very inspiring applications of what a dashboard can do for a nonprofit (or the community in general). Let's get down to specifics. Whatcom County's Community Dashboard uses red-yellow-green gauges as indicators of everything from Annual voter turnout, to Suicide Rates. They have gauges for women owned firms, violent crime, domestic violence incidence rate, rental affordability, releases of carcinogens into the air. And more! A girl who loves data might find her match here. The site does offer the raw data, and drills down to...

Thinking Clearly by pam ashlund Remember Hobbes describing life as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short"? Well how about this quote from the critical thinking website: "much of our thinking...is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed, or downright prejudiced." Critical Thinking Website I'm thinking about nonprofit effectiveness today (again). Why is it one of my favorite topics? Because...IF WE AREN'T EFFECTIVE WHY ARE WE BOTHERING???? It seems even Bill Gates Senior is asking this question. I have to paraphrase him here (from a talk at a small gathering). The essence of his statement was this: Historically most efforts to cure social problems had little or no effect or (this is the frightening part) only made them worse . What a disturbing claim; even more so because of how it resonates. In a February post I wrote about the counterintuitive nature of social problems . That article (more than many) has influenced (haunted?) my thinking ever sin...

It was back in April, 06 that I first got "blog-itis". Finally a technology that conformed to my need. I don't know why, but I've always "choked" when I try to write; but a blog post let me capture an insight without overwhelm (after all, you can always write another post). I started out with a copycat approach. I used my friends blog as a template. I took the easy road with Blogger. And then the fun began. I covered this journey in Birth of a Blog way back when. So today I just want to give props to the bloggers that gave me that critical guidance, resources and inspiration to get me going: Beth Kanter's Beth's Blog Allen Benamer's Non-Profit Tech: Confessions of an IT Director Michelle Murrain's Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Blog Michael Stein's Non-Profit Technology Blog Technorati Tags: Blogging , MetaBlog , Nonprofit , NPTech

"Since untruths can be unintentional, the truth must be intentional" Arline Belton The greatest obstacles to truth telling are: "time is limited" and fear that "truth will hurt us, or someone or something we care about." Arline Belton I'd never heard of an "Organizational Healer" before. That is, until I read Erline Belton's article Truth or Consequences? in the NonProfit Quarterly. I offer an executive summary of the article, but highly recommend reading the real thing. Arline is the CEO of the Lyceum Group in Boston. She has been identified by clients as an organization healer, and feels honored to be of service as she practices organization development from her heart and head. It seems like honesty would be a given in the nonprofit sector; afterall we're the good guys right? Yes and No. Arline identifies barriers to telling the truth : Groupthink (you are a team player AREN'T YOU ?) Imaginary Conflicts Hidden Age...

Last week I wrote a "hate" post and created a del.icio.us tag " IhateMeetings "; Today I offer an antidote: a new del.icio.us tag: " Icouldn'tsayitbetter " I've tagged articles (and blog posts) that are so well put that I'm left humbled. These authors write what I've felt for so long, but could not articulate. When you're feeling overwhelmed by the insanity in the nonprofit world, here are some ideas that will help you find your way back to sanity (some already becoming "classics"): 1) Clara Miller talks about why the "normal" rules of accounting get very weird when applied to nonprofits in: The Looking-Glass World of Nonprofit Money: Managing in For-Profits' Shadow Clara steps "through the looking glass" asking (and answering) the following true/false questions: Rule 1: The consumer buys the product. Rule 2: Price covers cost and eventually produces profits, or the business folds. Rule 3: Cash is ...