After a moving season of introspection, renewal and recommitment afforded by the Hebrew month of Elul and the Jewish high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it has been a great joy to sit for the past week in my Sukkah. I have felt a sense of closeness and celebration. Not to mention the…
Category: Nonprofit Management & Leadership
Managing the Dark Side of Great Ideas
Many people in our nonprofit sector get super excited about new ideas. We iconize people who think outside the box and revere innovation. And well we should! Our sector’s very essence is independent, creative problem solving and moral imagination. We wouldn’t be who we are without free thinking disruption. But you, as an emerging leader…
Nonprofits and American Survival
Not long after the founding of the United States, Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville observed a propensity among citizens of the young American nation to form voluntary associations. These precursors of today’s nonprofit organizations were an essential part of making early America work. In striking numbers, people with common interests would ban together to reinforce each…
The Unexpected
A colleague recently commented that he would like to be paid $1.00 for every time he has heard or read the word “unprecedented” the past six months. Indeed, “unprecedented” seems to be the word of the year in the midst of our new pandemic-racial reckoning-political turbulence-social media reality. Then again, the unexpected is what makes…