FORWARD-THINKING PHILANTHROPY: Focusing on Outputs Over Inputs

by Eddie Thompson | Aug 26, 2019 | Development Management, Donor Communications

Over the last few months (March & April) I posted a couple of articles on Jim Collins’ follow-up supplement to his best-seller—the 35-page booklet entitled Good to Great and the Social Sectors. In those previous posts (GETTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE ON THE BUS and...

IN THE MIDST OF A STORM: How Nonprofits Can Survive and Excel in Hard Times 

by Eddie Thompson | Jul 29, 2019 | Development Management, Donor Communications

My previous post, “Weathering the Storms,” covered practice-management strategies to employ during good times that tend to harden nonprofits against three types of hard times: 1) economic recessions that universally impact all donors and their giving capacities; 2)...

WEATHERING THE STORMS: Practice-management Strategies That Ready Your Organization

by Eddie Thompson | Jun 3, 2019 | Development Management

Hard times at nonprofit institutions generally come in three forms: 1) Economic recessions universally impact all donors and their giving capacity, as well as their “giving confidence.”  In the years between 1854 and 2009, there were 33 economic cycles, averaging...

LEVEL 5 LEADERSHIP: Getting Things Done Within a Diffused Power Structure

by Eddie Thompson | Apr 22, 2019 | Development Management

This is the second in a series of several posts on Jim Collins’s booklet entitled, Good to Great and the Social Sectors. In this 35-page supplement to his bestseller, Good to Great, the author identifies and comments on five challenges that are unique to nonprofits...

GETTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE ON THE BUS: The Neurotically Obsessed with Excellence

by Eddie Thompson | Mar 20, 2019 | Development Management

In 2007, six years after publishing Good to Great, Jim Collins wrote a 35-page booklet applying the principles to the nonprofit world—Good to Great for the Social Sectors: Why Business Thinking Is Not the Answer. That follow-up seemed to be inevitable since his own...