Last Note

As I sit here at my desk on my last day as the executive director of NCNA I am finding it hard to walk out my office door. When I do walk out I will be known as the “former” executive director of NCNA and I don’t like the sound of that.
For the past nine [...]

The call to serve

The coming Independence Day weekend gets me in a mood to cogitate on democracy, freedom, and all things core to the American political ideal. I was a political science major in college, so I read tons and tons of books, essays, and treatises on American government (as well as other forms). After all that though, [...]

Mr. Inexperience Goes To Washington

NOTE: This is a guest post from Sam Richard, author of the blog Deserted After Dark, which chronicles his life as a college student living in Downtown Phoenix, where he is the President of the American Humanics Student Association at Arizona State University. After he finally finishes his degree somewhere near the end of this decade, Sam [...]

Bright side

It must be summer, because nonprofits are sweating–and not just due to the heat, which has been knocking on 100 degrees here. Gas prices, a faltering economy, a rapid-fire series of natural disasters, and other ill winds are combining forces to challenge the resourcefulness of nonprofits to the max.
And that’s the gentle way of saying it. [...]

Back at it!

The end of May and beginning of June was a pretty momentous time for me and for NCNA. In those couple of weeks, two major projects that I (we) have been working on for many, many months finally culminated: the Nonprofit Congress National Meeting and publication of Work With Me: Intergenerational Conversations for Nonprofit Leadership. [...]

“Democracy is not a spectator sport”

“It’s time for us to realize that democracy is not a spectator sport.”
Sam Daley-Harris, founder of RESULTS
What kind of day was it that turned on 18 diverse nonprofit leaders from Montana? Lit a fresh fire in the heart of a missionary reverend from Connecticut? Created bright eyes and smiles on the faces of young women [...]

Newsflash: Nonprofit folks like to talk.

Big surprise, right? But I learned this anew at the Nonprofit Congress National Meeting here in DC last week. As one member of a single-digit staff working to make a 500-plus meeting run like butter (is that a saying? Run like butter?), I spent a lot of time behind the scenes: making centerpieces by the dozen, [...]

Here we are…

Here we are at the Nonprofit Congress National Meeting. I sort of can’t believe it. After many, many months of planning, its finally here. It is so wonderful to see all of the smiling faces, meet the people I’ve been speaking with on the phone, and interact with all them as well. The meeting so [...]

Off to the Meeting!

Hello everyone!
The staff of NCNA are off to the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill for the 2008 Nonprofit Congress National Meeting - Convene · Connect · Commit! We will be setting up shop tomorrow, Saturday, May 31 and welcoming our first participants on Sunday. Though we won’t be in the office, we will be keeping [...]

Public Confidence - A Matter of Concern

I received a call from a reporter recently asking me about my reactions to the results of Paul Light’s latest Organizational Performance Initiative survey indicating that the public’s confidence in the nonprofit sector was declining. The survey has not been officially released but was reported in an article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy (Public Confidence [...]