Introverts Unite…Separately

The second half of last century saw the spawning of research that uncovered the differences in how boys and girls learn.  It revealed the ways that most teachers encouraged boys’ learning and discouraged girls’.  As a result, enlightened educators and schools changed and adapted curriculum, pedagogy and more.

During this same time frame, we also came to understand the unique needs of adult learners, and pedagogy shifted yet again. Having male and female and adult and traditional-aged learners in the same class became, and remains, a Read more

Board President: The Ball is in Your Court

Perhaps because I have spent the vast majority of my life in academic institutions or perhaps because as an adult, I started making my new year’s resolutions at Rosh Hashanah, I view September as the time of year to make new starts, new commitments, face new challenges.  Thus, today, in preparation for the start of the new year, I write with a double challenge:  to those reading this who are involved with nonprofits but not a board president and to board presidents everywhere.

To those who Read more

Kids and EDs – What’s the Matter with Them?

I have had a song swirling in my head for a couple of days now.  It is a song from “Bye Bye Birdie” which the parents, and one younger brother, sing when they believe their teenagers are off doing the kinds of nefarious things teenagers might have done in the days (1958) of “Bye, Bye Birdie.”  It is titled “Kids!” and the lines in my head are (and be glad you can’t hear me singing):  “Why can’t they be like we were, perfect in every way? What’s the matter with kids Read more

Chicken Little was wrong

To most, if not all, in the nonprofit sector, September 11th was doubly devastating.There was the sense of horror, loss and disbelief that everyone in this country suffered.And later there was the fear for the health and well-being of their own nonprofits. Would it survive? Would donors be willing to give to 9/11 efforts as well as the organizations they had given to before? Would they, depending upon their mission, be able to handle the increase in demand for services as people tried to Read more

Do Executive Directors Still Want to Learn?

Do as I say, not as I do. Is that the message executive directors are sending the rest of the employees and the board of the organizations they lead? Our anecdotal evidence has me worried.

After many months of market research and planning, The Nonprofit Center launched Executive Director University (EDU) in March. EDU is designed to meet the call that we heard from executive directors: “we want to learn in groups of just other executive directors and we want topics tailored to our needs, Read more