So, you don’t think you directly benefit from nonprofits

sn,x1313-bg,f8f8f8.u1Hi everyone. Before we begin today’s post, new NWB merchandise! The Nonprofit Unicorn Mantra line of products! Also, I got comments from non-nonprofit readers who felt left out, so here is some “I am a social justice unicorn” merchandise.

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This week, my awesome smart audio speaker arrived. It’s really cool. I can use my voice to ask it to play music, forecast the weather, read news headlines, set the timer, add things to my calendar, and—with other devices linked to it—control the lights and other appliances in the house. Her name is Alexa, and she’s a lifesaver when I have a newborn screaming in my ears and a three-year-old dangling from my leg. Alexa also spouts pick-up lines upon request, although “Hey girl. Are you a high chair? Because I want to put a baby in you” did nothing to calm the children down.

Why do I bring this up? Because I am amazed and grateful for all the incredible stuff people come up with. I appreciate inventors and manufacturers and retailers and am happy to pay money for useful gadgets that make my life easier. For-profits are critical to society, and we nonprofit folks understand that. I don’t know a single nonprofit that makes vodka. Continue reading “So, you don’t think you directly benefit from nonprofits”

7 hopeful trends in philanthropy

friends-1149841_960_720Hi everyone. Last week I was in Minneapolis for the GEO (Grantmakers for Effective Organizations) conference. I was there primarily to give a short talk called “Want to Help Communities of Color? Stop Trickle-Down Community Engagement” and avoid work. But I stuck around for most of the conference, mainly because funder conferences always have way better food and booze. I was trying to hoard appetizers, having developed this unconscious fear of being in places traditionally reserved for funders. If I was going to get found out as an unwashed nonprofit Wildling and asked to leave, by golly I was going to take as many grilled artichoke hearts with me as I could.

But then I realized that my organization, Rainier Valley Corps, is considered by many as a funder. Instead of giving financial support to organizations, though, we send resources in the form of full-time fellows of color, whom we train, to develop the capacity of host organizations led by communities of color. They apply to be a host org. No wonder these past two years everyone has been treating me nice, and no wonder I’ve suddenly become 27% more attractive to most people, despite being married and having two kids and basically having let myself go. Continue reading “7 hopeful trends in philanthropy”

Uh, technical difficulties today. But here’s another nonprofit joke.

balls1.jpgHi everyone. Our computer got infected with a virus, so I couldn’t work on my blog post today. I am on a tablet, typing approximately one word per minute. This paragraph has taken one hour so far. I’ll put up the post later. Meanwhile…

An Executive Director, a Director of Operations, a Development Director, a Chief Finance Officer, and a Communications Director were on a boat when it sank. They barely made it to a deserted island.

The DO said, “I’ll start building us some shelter.”

The DD said, “I’ll go gather us some food.”

The CFO said, “I’ll stay here and inventory our supplies.”

The Communications Director said, “And I’ll practice building signal fires.”

Everyone turned to the ED.

“You guys go ahead. I have sooooooo many emails I need to catch up on.”

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Ahahaha. I hope you enjoyed that joke. It took me two hours to type. And now I’m way behind on my emails.