How the Arab American National Museum and Others Are Using Their Neighborhoods to Create Art
How the Arab American National Museum and Others Are Using Their Neighborhoods to Create Art is a November 2024 overview by the Wallace Foundation, exploring visitor patterns in the Arab American National Museum. AANM in Dearborn, Michigan has been incorporating placemaking in their community outreach and programming, supported by a Wallace Foundation Advancing Well-Being in the Arts grant. Beyond a museum’s echoing hallways and hallowed exhibits are unseen opportunities for visitors to engage with the story of their own communities. Whether that is organizing workshops or inviting the community to participate in an art project, museums and other cultural institutions are looking for ways to connect more deeply with their communities. Some are embracing the idea of “creative placemaking,” a framework for organizations to use the arts and other kinds of programming to help make their own communities more inclusive and welcoming places.
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Centering Restorative Principles for BIPOC Leaders in Nonprofits
Centering Restorative Principles for BIPOC Leaders in Nonprofits is an October 2024 essay by Kayla Tolentino, a philanthropic and health equity advocate and a participant in the restorative leadership residency at New Seneca Village. Her comments are common in the movement and social justice spaces: leaders often feel disconnected from their own inner wisdom. Particularly for BIPOC women and gender-expansive people, sustaining leadership is about more than professional identity and capacity. It is about ensuring that they are aligned with their own spirit and values—that they are practicing trusting their intuition and integrating their insights in ways that activate good leadership. Against this backdrop, the recent trend of nonprofits leaders taking more sabbaticals and rest experiences is encouraging. Restoration, including the core element of rest, is crucial to ensuring that leaders reconnect to the baseline of their own nervous systems and recover from the stress-induced exhaustion prevalent in nonprofit spaces.
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COVID Cut Giving By Women More Than By Men
COVID Cut Giving By Women More Than By Men is a December 2024 summary by Paul Clolery about gender-related patterns of philanthropy. Among its key findings: the average amount given by donor households has been relatively steady from 2000 through 2020, but single women’s giving increased overall and giving increased to secular causes during the COVID-19 period when compared to single men. Data also show that married couples are most likely to give, followed by single women, and then single men and that holds true not just during a 20-year period but for each individual year tracked. And while the declining donor numbers are the subject of much discussion in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, the decline started later and was less pronounced for single women, compared to single men. This summary overview a study of 20 years of gender and giving trends, “Women Giving 2024” from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute (WPI) at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
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Nonprofit Power: Building an Inclusive Democracy
Nonprofit Power: Building an Inclusive Democracy is a 2024 report by Nonprofit VOTE (NV), an organization focused on providing resources to nonprofits to conduct nonpartisan voter engagement. It argues that nonprofits can and should do more to engage with voters—and that doing so has a measurable, and not-so-subtle positive effect on voter turnout. The report is based on a study conducted by NV concerned with measuring the impact of nonprofit voter engagement on voter turnout. Its outcome was a positive 10-point shift in voters who had been engaged by nonprofits in the 2022 midterm election, increasing their likelihood of voting from 46 percent to 56 percent—a figure that rivals and, in many cases, exceeds the turnout produced by conventional political campaigns.
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Should We Put Out a Statement?
Should We Put Out a Statement? is a 2024 thought paper by Seth Chalmer, examining approaches for thinking strategically about how nonprofits should respond to potentially polarizing world events. Since the October 7 massacres in Israel and subsequent war in Gaza, many nonprofits have struggled to decide whether and how to respond publicly. That decision is more difficult if there are passionate disagreements about the issue among professional teams, boards, funders, and community partners. It’s often impossible to talk about public advocacy without inflaming internal disagreements.
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2022 Survey - A Closer Look at LA-Area Nonprofits
The Committee for Greater LA launched the Strengthening LA’s Nonprofit Organizations project in Fall 2022 to encourage the next Mayor of Los Angeles to reset how the City partners with nonprofits that deliver critical health, housing, employment and other services for millions of Angelenos. As part of the project, the Nonprofit Finance Fund interviewed over a dozen nonprofits with direct City contracts, former and current city administrators, and other subject matter experts in addition to analyzing 2022 State of the Nonprofit Sector data for LA City nonprofits to inform recommendations for the Mayor of LA.
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2023 Not-for-Profit Trends Report
2023 Not-for-Profit Trends Report includes polling data collected from 225 executives from across the nonprofit sector. The report, prepared by accounting firm UHY LLP, states that 41.3 percent of nonprofits reported no change in their total contributions over the last 12 months, while 34.9 percent saw declines and 23.8 percent saw increases. Fear of recession was the top reported cause for declining donations.
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How Nonprofits Can Change Unfair Laws
It can seem like nonprofits have the deck stacked against them and that bringing about meaningful change is next to impossible. Even when changing government policies is the only way forward, the task may appear daunting. Nonprofits are subject to many laws and regulations with unintended consequences that adversely affect the sector’s ability to make a bigger impact. Bringing about change is always an uphill road, but when communities work together, there’s no telling how much they may achieve. The authors use a real example of a successful effort to change policy at the state level to present a roadmap for how nonprofits and their communities can face and win against the Goliath of government policies.
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Parenting in America Today
Concerns about their children’s mental health top the list of parental worries in the United States, a report from the Pew Research Center finds. Based on survey responses from 3,757 U.S. adults who are parents of at least one child under the age of 18, the report (44 pages, PDF), found that 40 percent of respondents were extremely or very worried that their children might struggle with anxiety or depression and 35 percent were extremely or very worried about their children being bullied. These findings can have direct impact on nonprofits serving children and youth.
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Building a Trust-Based Philanthropy to Shift Power Back to Communities
To realize the deep systemic change that America is demanding, philanthropy must reorganize to build and demonstrate a trust-based culture, invest in community leadership capacity-building, and open up decision-making and information-sharing structures. This shift has important implications for nonprofits and community groups, as well as for foundations and donors.
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How Nonprofits Can Truly Advance Change
Stepping into a nonprofit’s potential to create more visionary change in the world will require significant changes in every aspect of work in the nonprofit arena. And because change happens via collective action by real people, perhaps the most important question to ask is this: If it winds up that what must change is us, are we willing to make that change?
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Measuring Is an Act of Power: A Call for Pro-Black Measurement and Evaluation
This article discusses learning, hopes, and opportunities related to how evaluation professionals in the nonprofit sector can interact best with themes of equity, diversity, inclusion, and antiracism (EDIAR) in their evaluation work.
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America’s Nonprofits Get Out the Vote
This publication presents findings from a new survey on the prevalence of nonprofit voter engagement and its intersection with race, leadership, and community served. For instance, seven in 10 voters say they think it is a good idea for nonprofits to offer voter support services, like voter registration, election reminders, and election day transportation. Additionally, nonprofits can effectively reach communities underrepresented at the polls, including low-income, young, and voters of color. Finally, nonprofit voter engagement significantly boosts voter turnout, especially among those otherwise underrepresented in America. The evidence is clear – nonprofit voter engagement is broadly supported, reaches underrepresented communities, and boosts voter turnout to foster a more inclusive democracy.
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How to Qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Avoid the Traps
The US Department of Education recently issued a statement on the federal student loan servicer website, myFedLoan.org, that should be noted by anyone with a federal student loan who works full time for a nonprofit, the government, or other public agency (veterans also qualify). Nonprofit organizations can help their workers by connecting them to this knowledge base.
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Working in Partnership With Opportunity Youth
Leaders of the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions’ Opportunity Youth Forum share lessons from a decade of work achieving better outcomes for young people.
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Five Essentials Of A+ Advocacy for Your Nonprofit Organization
For a nonprofit leader, it is essential to the success and continuation of your organization to promote and support your mission. In this article written for Forbes Nonprofit Council, Christa Day details five essentials for A+ advocacy for a nonprofit.
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5 Actions Nonprofits Can Take to Embrace Disability Rights and Access
This article, written by Catherine Hyde Townsend for Nonprofit Quarterly, lays out five concrete actions organizations of any kind can take to advance disability inclusion and move closer to equity and justice.
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Why Your Nonprofit Needs to Consider Project Management
Why Your Nonprofit Needs to Consider Project Management is an article written by Stephen Jackson and Baily Maples for TechSoup . The article examines project management basics and illustrates some ways that even a little project management can go a long way at a nonprofit.
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The Landscape of Project Management Tools for Nonprofits
The Landscape of Project Management Tools for Nonprofits, a report written for Idealware , looks at the wide range of available software to understand what these systems are capable of, what they cost, and how effective they are for nonprofits. To put those results in context, the report also defines the management techniques that help make projects successful, the specific challenges nonprofits face in project management, and what organizations can do to improve their project management processes.
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A Few Good Tools for e-Advocacy
A Few Good Tools for e-Advocacy is an article written for Idealware . The article suggests a number of tools a nonprofit can use to find, engage, and mobilize the people who support its mission.
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Follow These Tips to Maintain Mutually Beneficial Relationships with Your Nonprofit’s Partners
Follow These Tips to Maintain Mutually Beneficial Relationships with Your Nonprofit’s Partners is an article written for Forbes Nonprofit Council . In the article, eleven successful nonprofit executives explain how to maintain mutually beneficial relationships with partners.
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Blending Evaluative and Organizational Development
Blending Evaluative and Organizational Development is an article written by Saphira M. Baker and Anita McGinty for Stanford Social Innovation Review . The article discusses how collaboration between nonprofit evaluators and organizational consultants can increase efficiency and lead to deeper results
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Culture, Inclusion, and Nonprofit Competence: The Unbreakable Links
Culture, Inclusion, and Nonprofit Competence: The Unbreakable Links is an article written by Steve Dubb for The Nonprofit Quarterly . In the article, Dodd discusses the ideas of cultural competency and inclusivity in regards to nonprofits and examines the benefits associated with them.
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Embracing Radical Imagination
Embracing Radical Imagination is an article written by Maro Guevara for CompassPoint . The article discusses the importance of imagination as a catalyst for social movements and change within an organization.
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Point the Way: Chicago-Area Capacity Building Landscape Study
Point the Way: Chicago-Area Capacity Building Landscape Study, a report prepared by Learning for Action , draws on national lessons and models to inform an analysis of what is and is not working in relation to nonprofit capacity building in Chicago’s social sector. The study includes takeaways for individual nonprofits, funders, and capacity building providers, whether in Chicago or another area.
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Be Not Afraid – of Advocacy
Be Not Afraid – of Advocacy is an article written by Lee Swislow of Third Sector New England. The article provides a brief description of what nonprofits can do to respond to the injustices in today’s social climate while still maintaining their 501 (c)3 status.
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5 Steps to More Innovative Programs
5 Steps to More Innovative Programs is an article written for The NonProfit Times. The article identifies several ways nonprofits can use existing technology to innovate in more subtle ways, implementing solutions that are often both low-cost and effective.
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