Tools for nonprofit leaders: Tips for chairing meetings

Congratulations. You have been elected or appointed to chair meetings. Here are some tips on how to do a great job. 1. Get materials to participants well in advance of your meeting Ensure that the agenda, the minutes of the...

Governance Q&A: Nonprofit sector consultants – are they ethical?

My nonprofit needs expert help from time to time. How do I learn which consultants serving the nonprofit sector are ethical? An excellent question! Because consultants serving the nonprofit sector usually earn less than they could earn serving the for-profit...

Conducting a legal audit of your organization

Because they serve the public, nonprofits need to be as accountable and transparent as possible. This means that all documentation and procedures should be in order and reviewed regularly by an outside party. Adam Aptowitzer, a lawyer with the Ottawa-based...

Community Economic Development: Moving out of the margins

When compared with other countries, Canada regularly fares very well. For instance, amongst G7 countries, Canada: has the best overall quality of life; ranks first in providing equal opportunities for individuals; has the lowest cost of living; ranks second in...

Marc Kielburger and Leaders Today

Who will be the leaders of tomorrow? And will they be ready to handle the challenges placed before them? If Marc Kielburger has anything to do with it, they will be more than ready. Since co-founding Leaders Today in 1999,...

Tools for nonprofit leaders: The old SWOT analysis still works very well…when used to advantage

In the 1960s, Albert Humphrey of Stanford University developed the SWOT analysis technique as a strategic planning tool. The concept is simple and easy to apply: You identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) of a particular organization, an...

Handling donations between Canada and the US

Canada and the United States share the longest undefended border in the world and we consider ourselves to be good neighbours, but when it comes to cross-border donations things can get a bit tricky. Adam Aptowitzer, a lawyer with the...

Online collaboration tools for nonprofit board members

Nonprofit organizations do better when their board members and staff collaborate effectively. One of the board's biggest responsibilities is strategic planning. In most nonprofits, creating the annual strategic plan is a very time-consuming (and painful) process. It starts with a...

Building quality into the project

In the last article, we discussed developing quality benchmarks to effectively evaluate the project when it is completed. The quality benchmarks can be internal standards defined by the project team or external standards recognized more broadly in the industry or...