The Great Disconnect

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I was speaking with the executive director of a small nonprofit the other day. She mentioned that her board’s major development initiative was to increase the organization’s endowment from $400,000…
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Stress Test

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Fewer and fewer Americans are making charitable contributions, and we need to ask ourselves why. Certainly, economics plays a major role. “Gilded Giving 2018,”a report from the Institute for Policy…
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Plucking

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When a philanthropist pays off the college loans of 400 students, that’s a good thing, right? Absolutely! During his recent speech at the Morehouse College graduation, Robert F. Smith shocked…
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The Vision Thing

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The past few months have seen a dozen or so would-be presidents appear in my community of Concord, New Hampshire. If you haven’t experienced the New Hampshire Primary, I can…
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So, Tell Me About Yourself!

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A few months ago, by a fluke, I found myself sitting at the head table of a fundraising dinner next to the keynote speaker, National Public Radio’s legendary journalist Susan…
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Phony and Corrupt

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There is so much that is good about the charitable world. But simply calling something “charitable” does not make it worthy. Which brings me to two troubling and destabilizing trends:…
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Hubris

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Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, is the richest person in the world. He obviously has remarkable expertise in starting and running a technology and retail giant. But when it…
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Micromanager, Heal Thyself

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“The problem is, I’m a terrible micromanager.” Said nobody. Ever. People constantly complain about micromanagement. But micromanagers never fess up. In their own eyes, they’re detail-oriented. They’re concerned with quality…
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