Notes for the people who run community nonprofits
Short pieces on boards, planning and knowing where you stand, by Jeff Ward.
- Where you are going
How to Find Out Who Funds Organizations Like Yours (Without Paying for a Database)
Foundation research can feel like a members-only room. Yet every private foundation lists its grants in a public filing, and two free tools will read those lists for you. A method any nonprofit can run in an afternoon. - Where you are going
Before You Add a Second Program
Growth is the sector's default compliment, and expansion ideas arrive dressed in mission language. Six questions to ask while the new program is still an idea, including the one about stopping. - Where you are going
You're Doing Well. Now What?
We assume the hardest organizational choices belong to struggling nonprofits. I've watched the opposite: strength brings the questions with no deadlines, no forcing functions, and no obvious answers. - Where you are going
From Surviving to a Five-Year Horizon
Someone asks where the organization wants to be in five years, and the room goes quiet. Not empty quiet. Out-of-practice quiet. On rebuilding a muscle that survival seasons take away. - Where you are going
A Strategic Plan Is Not an Action Plan
In a cabinet near you sits a handsome strategic plan that has been consulted twice since the retreat. Most small organizations need the other document first, and it fits on a page. - Where you are going
The Building Question
A bequest, a below-market offer, a landlord ready to sell: suddenly owning a building is possible, and the dream arrives with a shadow. Questions to sit with before your organization becomes a property owner. - Where you are going
When to Say No to a Grant
The funding opportunity is almost your mission. The room is talking itself into it. A few questions worth asking before yes, and some thoughts on declining money graciously. - Keeping it going
Building a Two-Way Feedback Loop Between Your Board and Staff
Board members and staff experience your organization in fundamentally different ways, and both views are essential. A few small, deliberate channels can let each inform the other. - Where you stand
How Small Nonprofits Can Assess Organizational Health Without a Consultant
Traditional assessment often means a consulting engagement that runs into the thousands. But the value was never the consultant in the room. It's the structure, and structure has gotten far more affordable. - Where you stand
How to Frame an Organizational Assessment So Your Team Actually Engages
The most important part of an assessment happens before the survey opens. How you frame it, to your board, your staff, and yourself, shapes everything that follows. - Where you are going
Turning Assessment Results into a Productive Board Conversation
The report is a starting point. The real insight arrives when board and staff look at the same data together and ask what it means for us. A one-hour format, built around a single decision, that any chair can run. - Where you stand
What 'Organizational Health' Actually Means for a Community-Based Nonprofit
'Organizational health' shows up everywhere in the nonprofit world, defined either too vaguely to use or too narrowly to be true. A practical way to think about it, built for community-based organizations. - Where you stand
Why Confidentiality Makes or Breaks a Nonprofit Assessment
An assessment is only as useful as the honesty behind it. How KindTru protects the people who answer, where that protection comes from, and where it stops. - Keeping it going
Why Your Nonprofit Board Meeting Feels Unproductive (And What to Do About It)
Most board meetings are consumed by reports and updates, leaving no time for the conversations that actually move organizations forward. Three changes you can make before your next meeting. - Where you stand
5 Signs Your Nonprofit Has Outgrown Its Governance Structure
Organizations evolve through stages, but governance structures often don't keep pace. Five signs your nonprofit's governance hasn't caught up with its growth, and why each one is actually good news. - Where you stand
What an Organizational Health Assessment Actually Reveals (And Why Nonprofits Avoid Them)
It's natural to put off an organizational assessment for fear of what it will find. A well-designed one is less a judgment than a map.
Know where you stand, and decide where you are going
The free guide, the Planning Check, or the whole of KindTru for $299.