Coping With PTED: Post-Traumatic Executive Disorder

After months of mediation, performance improvement plans, recalibration, blood, sweat and tears, the (seemingly) inevitable has occurred: your nonprofit organization’s toxic leader has resigned. Like something akin to a divorce, there are combined feelings of relief, abandonment, disappointment and uncertainty, and that’s just among the board of directors. But once the dust has settled, PTED –– Post-Traumatic Executive Disorder –– can set in, and it can ruin an organization. The unplanned departure of an executive is a major trauma for an organization to endure, and it’s an experience that can make or break a nonprofit depending on how it’s handled.

Ensuring Future Organizational Success Through Transparency in the Hiring Process

Your nonprofit’s long-term strategy should not only outline your goals for the future, but also the talent you’ll need on your team to achieve those goals. Today, your primary focus may be on securing the team you need for your current initiatives. However, you should also consider the talent your organization will need further down the road. Like many matters in the nonprofit sector, talent needs can be dynamic and unpredictable. How can you be sure the individuals you hire today will be the right people for your team next year, or five years from now? To improve chances of

2018 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Scheduled to Take Effect Mid-May

  As you may know, the 2018 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law late in 2017. While this new bill provided a tax break for businesses, the overall outcome of the law is proving to be problematic for nonprofits, as shown in our blog article on how the new tax law affects pre-tax transportation benefits for nonprofits. The new law requires employers to pay taxes on transportation benefits to their employees. While the benefit is still tax-exempt for employees, employers must pay the employer portion of FICA taxes, as well as include the transportation benefit amount when

Prioritizing Social Sector Talent to Achieve Organizational Goals

  The most impactful and successful organizations are deliberate about how their work is organized, how their work is carried out, and how they use and develop their talent to achieve effectiveness. A capable team –– with the right tools, a clear understanding of mission and goals, and support from leadership –– can maximize your organization’s impact. On the flip side, if your organization fails to build a healthy culture and engage employees effectively, you can be sure your mission will suffer. Referring to our recent discussion regarding where your organization currently sits on the Talent Sustainability Continuum, if your

Where is your Organization on the Talent Sustainability Continuum?

  As nonprofit organizations strive to achieve a greater impact, unfortunately, talent remains a fairly low priority across the sector. This is a mistake. People are the primary drivers of nonprofit performance and impact. The most impactful and sustainable nonprofit organizations are those that understand just how interdependent organizational sustainability and talent sustainability truly are. Your organization simply cannot be sustainable without strong, intentional and integrated talent strategies and practices. To achieve talent sustainability, you need: Intentionality. To be truly intentional with your talent practices, understand that talent sustainability is not just a nice-to-have — it is an asset to be

7 Inspiring Female Nonprofit Leaders to Watch in 2018

According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s “Untapped Potential of Women in Nonprofits” report, 57 percent of women working in the sector –– and 72 percent of women aged 18 to 24 –– want to someday be CEO of a nonprofit. This is not the case in the private sector. In another study of for-profit companies, only 31 percent of female millennial respondents said they wanted to be a CEO. It seems that, despite some existing gender leadership and pay gaps, nonprofits will be at the forefront of women in leadership in the years to come. In honor of Women’s History

Nonprofit Leaders Discuss Pay, Power, Privilege: Gender Equity in the Social Sector

  Data clearly demonstrates that the gender pay gap and leadership inequalities remain prevalent in the nonprofit sector. Even though women make up 75 percent of the nonprofit workforce, women represent only 48 percent of board members and 42 percent of board chairs, according to the 2017 report, Leading with Intent. GuideStar’s 2016 Nonprofit Compensation Report found that female CEOs of nonprofits were paid 8 percent less than their male counterparts. And in the workforce as a whole, in 2015, women earned 83 percent of what men earned, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of both full- and part-time

Effective Talent Practices That Sustainable Nonprofits Share

When describing your nonprofit, does the word “sustainable” come to mind? How do you know if your organization is truly sustainable? According to Nell Edington, “nonprofit sustainability occurs when a nonprofit attracts and effectively uses enough and the right kinds of money necessary to achieve their long-term outcome goals.” Further, she says, “Nonprofit sustainability means that a nonprofit board and staff know what they want to accomplish, develop a smart strategy and business model, and use money as a tool to make it happen.” With this definition in mind, many nonprofit leaders may think of sustainability from a purely financial

The New Tax Law: Good for Business, Bad for Nonprofits

  Late in 2017, the largest tax reform bill in three decades was signed into law. A portion of the new the tax law is meant to significantly lower business taxes in the hope that lower business taxes would translate into more money for employees. However, the new tax law also cuts tax deductions for businesses, stating that with the lower tax brackets, employers will no longer need small tax deductions. One of these eliminated deductions was pre-tax commuter benefits employers provided to employees. Historically, both employees and employers have saved on taxes by contributing to commuter benefits on a

Department of Labor Adopts “Primary Beneficiary Test” for Unpaid Internships

  How should employers determine whether unpaid interns are entitled to compensation? On January 5, 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor issued the new “Primary Beneficiary Test” to help employers determine whether unpaid interns should be classified as employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The new test requires employers to consider these seven factors:  Both parties understand that the intern is not entitled to compensation. The internship provides training that would be given in an educational environment. The intern’s completion of the program entitles him or her to academic credit. The internship corresponds with the academic calendar. The internship