NonprofitEye

Nonprofit Series: Burnout, Tech & Fraud Detection by pam ashlund Just finished a rant on "blogging about blogging". Took a look at the topics I write and found close to 10% of my posts on blogging & tech. Sigh. On Blogging and Tech: THE TEMPORALITY OF DIGITAL KNOWLEDGE I WILL NOT BLOG ABOUT BLOGGING... ANTI-SOCIAL BLOGGING CARVING OUR WAY TO DISASTER RECOVERY TAG YOU'RE IT: NONPROFIT TAG SYSTEMS I BLOG THEREFORE I AM BIRTH OF A BLOG NONPROFIT OPEN SOURCE DO I DARE DISTURB THE UNIVERSE? ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE: ERROR 404 FILE NOT FOUND Burnout & Balance: NONPROFIT BURNOUT: IS YOUR ADVENTURE WINDOW CLOSED? DYSFUNCTION & NONPROFIT BURNOUT OR A BALANCED LIFE? NONPROFIT BURNOUT? NONPROFIT HALL OF SHAME APPLYING KARMA YOGA TO THE NONPROFIT WORKPLACE Accounting: JUST THE FACTS MA'AM: ALLOWABILITY, REASONABLENESS & ALLOCABILITY! OH MY! NONPROFIT IMAGE PROBLEM: FLAWS IN FRAUD DETECTION DEVELOPMENT & FINANCE: A BROKEN MARRIAGE? ...

Part I in a series examining nonprofit service and "doing good" What does karma OR yoga have to do with nonprofits?" If you think of yoga as an exercise class with a bit of de-stressing meditation, then the answer would seem to be "nothing". Bear with me on this one. I think we'd all agree that nonprofit work is based on the principles of doing good.  The reality is that our work may be driven by political goals, seeking funds, getting paid and getting noticed (publicity). Where does Karma yoga (Sanskrit: कर्म योग) fit in? Karma Yoga is one of the four pillars of Yoga, consisting of entirely selfless service, in which the Ego is given up. It is the path of doing the right thing, of following ones' personal Dharma and accepting destiny. In less abstract terms, Karma Yoga might be cleaning toilets or washing dishes. Doing any type of service without seeking any remuneration in the shape of wealth, satisfaction, name or fame. So this got me thi...

Nonprofit Burnout by pam ashlund PART IV - NONPROFIT EYE BURNOUT SERIES Cross posted from a differnt perspective in my El Loro blog in the post Don't Want to Work for the Man Don’t it always seem to go/You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone — Big Yellow Taxi, Joni Mitchell Somethings comin’ something good…who knows? — Westside Story I've written about Burnout (see series at end of article) before. Certainly, burnout is not unique to the nonprofit sector, but it has indirectly been on the radar recently re: the changing of the guard, the baby boomer effect of nonprofits, the "are we mentoring a group to replace our current leaders as they retire? Who wants to talk about that? Normally not I because I still find the prospect of my own retirement (and mortality in general) depressing. The truth is, that even now (possibly 20 years before retirement), I feel worn out. Words to the effect of “my soul is dying” come to mind. Of course I mainly have these feelings in the...

The Challenge of Working For (and Staying in) a Nonprofit Job by pam ashlund PART I - NONPROFIT EYE BURNOUT SERIES Why did you start working for a nonprofit? Me? In a nutshell, I joined because I found no meaning in helping someone else make money. After college I suffered a few very empty years. I worked for a property management company, and I was miserable. I couldn't figure out how to inject meaning into my life and I figured either I start selling somebody else's shit, or I went to work helping people. It seemed like a basic "either-or" "good or evil" question. I choose the good. But since I work in finance and management...I didn't immediately find meaning. When I did it wasn't because I was helping people (or helping the people who help people). It was because I found my passion. I LOVE teaching, coaching and mentoring (i.e managing a team and supervision). I LOVE figuring things out; automating meaningless tasks, producing fantastic and usefu...

Dysfunction & NonProfit Burnout or a Balanced Life? Part III in Burnout Series by pam ashlund Choices, choices. Back in a September, '06 post, I started a conversation about fraud prevention in Nonprofit Hall of Shame . A colleague wrote that a significant factor contributing to fraud would be burn-out. This has led me to give a lot of thought to the idea of balance. Not just having a massage or taking a day off, but creating work-home-family-finance-health kind of balance. In response to my speculations on the causes of fraud, Ken Goldstein proposed a new movement (in his post " Fraud, Burnout and Getting What We Deserve "): "The Nonprofit Selfishness Movement": We all need to set aside certain times and days to something entirely selfish (and legal). A little "me time" to guiltlessly get away from the stress of constantly being other-focused. Time for our own families, time to take a vacation, and time to recognize our own worth without resorting...

Nonprofit Burn-Out? by pam ashlund PART II - NONPROFIT EYE BURNOUT SERIES Ken Goldstein, in " The Nonprofit Consultant Blog " in his posting " Fraud, Burnout and Getting What we Deserve " wrote: The very nature of the sector is to spend long hours solving other people's problems for less money than our skills would earn elsewhere. Having worked for non-profits for going-on decades, when I saw California Association of Nonprofit’s 15th Annual Conference: Building Strong Nonprofits had a session on "Burnout", I signed up as fast as I could. Appropriately, coming in from a red-eye flight the night before, I arrived at the conference (racing from a 7:30 am meeting), exhausted and worn down. At registration, they told me the workshops were starting in ½ hour. I looked around and made a bee line for an empty row of tables and chairs. But there he was, a conference staffer (with a badge)…”I’m sorry, you’re not allowed to sit there”. "Where may I sit?...