NonprofitEye

Civil Society, Government, Church - What role do we play? Ever wonder what the role of nonprofits should be in the mix of government agencies, the business community, churches and other "faith-based" orgs? I have, since April, 2005 , ever since I heard Bruce Sievers speak on the topic. It is great grist for the mill. And so the quest for knowledge continues. Recently, a friend sent me a job opening for an innocuous position for the County of Orange called "Performance Auditor". The job paid well (approx. $90 to $150K) and the job description read like so many others: This position will report to the Performance Audit Director and be assigned activities such as: management audits, process improvement studies, reorganization studies, cost effectiveness assessments, cost-benefit analysis, best practice analysis, program performance evaluations... etc. etc. All read normally until...I got to the the requirements section. It read: The candidate must also ...

WHAT'S IN A NAME? by pam ashlund What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet. Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2) Let me begin with a declaration: No one should be allowed to self-declare themselves a “wave” (the third wave, the first wave, the new wave); It’s okay for historians to name these movements retroactively, but naming them yourself, in real time, is a no-no. So many have called for a new name to replace "non-profit"; the objection being that it is defining ourselves by what we are not . Try out a few commonly in use: CBO - Community Based Organizations NPO or Non-Profit Organization? NGO or Non-Governmental Organization "Civil Society" The "Third Sector" (Church and State being first and second) Pondering these, I came across a website called ForBenefit.Net where a new name (and model) is proposed: For-Benefit . Touted as "a new paradigm in organizational design" and "a new class of organ...

Bruce Sievers & Nonprofit Identity by pam ashlund Every once in a while (I wish!) I find I’m guilty of a huge (unintentional) oversight; and last April was one of them. Specifically, it was March 21st & 22nd, at CAN ’s Policy Day’s in Sacramento, CA. It was at that conference where I heard Bruce Sievers deliver the keynote address “A Tale of Three Cities: Government, Business, and Civil Society--a look into the increasingly fuzzy relationship between nonprofits, government, and business”. It was after hearing his talk that I launched the NonProfit Eye and wrote my first post “ Identity Crisis ”. Since that day, I haven’t stopped struggling to address the ideas that sprang from that keynote. Bruce, on the understanding that I not use it in print, sent me his talk notes (which helped to re-inspire me long after the talk). Today, I came across (yet another) blog (posted on 10/28) on the topic of Non-Profit Identity and I set out to track the coverage of that topic. I imagine that...