A fascinating report charting current trends in membership includes a rude wake-up call for art museums, where membership is declining–in marked contrast to other member-based agencies (including associations, conservation groups, aquaria and zoos).
Maybe it turns out that increasing your door price 50% (a la the Art Institute of Chicago) isn’t, after all, a way to [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Uncategorized’
March 31, 2009
Membership trends: A word to the wise art museum
December 15, 2008
Gone cruisin’
It’s the holidays, and the Nonprofiteer is seeking sun and solace in the company of friends. A joyous season to you all.
Publication will resume Monday, January 5, 2009–a mere 15 days before we finally have a President again.
December 1, 2008
Gifts that keep on giving
Kudos, as always this time of year, to ChangingthePresent.org, JustGive.org and Redefine-Christmas.org, each of which encourages people to celebrate the holidays by making gifts to charities in their loved ones’ names. The Nonprofiteer is less than thrilled by Changing the Present’s shiny new Web ad campaign, which embodies doubts about this approach (Who wants a [...]
November 26, 2008
As befits the eve of an eating holiday: A long spoon*
When the Nonprofiteer becomes Queen of the Universe, the following phrase will be eliminated from all discourse at, about and affiliated with nonprofit agencies:
“I’m just playing devil’s advocate here.”
Let’s examine why people use that phrase:
Because they have an opinion they know to be unpopular and/or stupid and/or actively revolting to their interlocutors which they’d like [...]
November 24, 2008
Time, place and manner
A small but significant step in the development of any nonprofit from kitchen-table enterprise to community-based going concern is the scheduling and location of Board meetings.
Just having a regular schedule for Board meetings makes it more likely that current Board members will attend (because they’ve put it in their calendars months in advance) and that [...]
September 29, 2008
. . . . but not from me
Some of you who subscribed to e-mail delivery of the Nonprofiteer at its previous address have received a couple of postings in the past few weeks. They are not from the Nonprofiteer but from an outfit called “Shiver Me Timbers,” which appears (as the name suggests) to specialize in pirating e-mail identities. In fact, if [...]
July 22, 2008
Gone campaignin’
The Nonprofiteer has not scrupled to conceal that she thinks the most important thing anyone can do for the nonprofit sector right now is secure the election of Barack Obama. Having been fortunate enough to secure a volunteer gig helping to do just that (running a local campaign office whose mission is to round [...]
July 21, 2008
Multiplication* beats division+
Here’s an intriguing development in the ongoing process of trying to connect residents of deep-poverty nations with the resources of the Internet and, thus, the world economy: a computing device and software that enables up to 30 people to use a PC at one time, as if each person had a computer of his/her [...]
July 18, 2008
Funders’ Friday: Now here’s an actual scandal . . .
instead of manufactured ones like whether ballet companies are promoting smoking by accepting tobacco money. If the American Psychiatric Association receives funds from manufacturers of psychoactive drugs, might it have an incentive to suggest that those drugs are effective against mental illness? Even when they’re not? So Congress is asking the question.
And before [...]
