Paula couldn’t figure out why things had stopped running smoothly. As the CEO of medium-sized business, she was admired for her decision-making ability, moral conscience, and close coordination of staff activities (“Paula Front-and-Center,” they called her). But recently she was overhearing aggravated remarks from staff: she wasn’t paying attention to them, she was missing appointments, and forgetting to discuss important points at meetings.

Conscientious Paula was shocked to uncover these frustrations, and only stumbled on the solution by accident. Paula’s secretary Amy directed all of the traffic in and out of Paula’s office, but Amy had recently gotten so burned out from work that she couldn’t handle the traffic anymore. She failed to pass along calls, snapped at visitors, and passed along incomplete messages that made it look like Paula was being sloppy. Paula knew that helping Amy de-stress was step one of getting things back on track.

Let’s pull back the curtain.

The story above is about how your brain works. Your brain has a part called the Prefrontal Cortex, or “PFC” (remember “Paula Front-and-Center”?). The PFC is basically what makes you act like a human and not a salamander. It directs our attention, is responsible for moral decision-making, allows us to empathize with others, and helps coordinate the thousands of signals rushing around your brain. If your PFC stops functioning, you’re in trouble. There are two ways this…

Serving on nonprofit boards has been some of the most rewarding and frustrating work I have ever done. It gives you a chance to have significant impact on the direction of an agency and issue you are passionate about. I have experienced the amazing work they can do when they at their best, as well as felt the disillusion when they don’t. While I’m no Yoda in the wisdom column, I hope I have picked up a couple tips that could be useful for those looking to serve or already working on a board.

We will start with a bit of a shocker. It’s a job (no really, it is), and like any job it deserves the proper time and energy required to do it right. The agency you are assisting is no less deserving of your best than your employer. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you go Office Space on your employer. Living off Jack’s “Value Menu” isn’t desirable, but your board work shouldn’t be kicked aside out of convenience either. So, make sure you understand the time commitment (about 16 hours a month) and alert your employer of the new commitment.  Employers can be supportive of this work when they realize the benefits in terms of skills and increased moral that can come with service.

In order to make this commitment, you have to understand your reason for serving. Nothing disengages a new member quicker than a mismatch between their expectations and reality. An…

Welcome to Research Friday! As part of a continuing weekly series, each Friday we invite a nonprofit expert to highlight a research report or study and discuss how it can inform and improve day-to-day nonprofit practice. We welcome your comments and feedback.

Not long ago, I had a need to find a friend, Bob, with whom I had not been in contact for a number of years. To the rescue: LinkedIn. My experience searching for Bob is concrete evidence of the helpfulness of various social networking sites (SNS) like LinkedIn and Facebook. So, I was intrigued with a report from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project about the social impact of widespread use of social networking sites.

This research post is based upon the Pew's social networking site survey of October 20-November 28, 2010. The study attempts to "disentangle whether people's varying social behaviors and attitudes are related to the different ways they use social networking sites."

And the findings are, indeed, interesting. First of all, for this survey 79% of American adults said they used the internet, and 59% of these use at least one SNS. A few days ago, Pew released a new study that pushes the number of SNS users even higher, to 66%. (In 2008, 26% of adults used an SNS.) In 2010, over half of all adult SNS users are over 35 years of…

A close friend of mine and I were having a conversation about his future job prospects when he mentioned that the offer he was most interested in didn’t include health insurance. Surprised, I asked him how he could consider taking the job.

He responded, “If I had health insurance, I’d be much less likely to agitate for change so that everyone can get it, too.”

“But you can be in a better position to help others if you’re not at-risk yourself,” I argued.

He shrugged. “If I’m comfortable, I feel much less urgency to try to change things.”

My friend is deeply committed to issues of social justice, which includes equal access to affordable health care for all. His stance raises the question: Does being committed to social change require making one less comfortable or resisting being “too comfortable?"

Historically speaking, great movements occur because the conditions in which people live are intolerable. As a nurse in the early 1900’s, Margaret Sanger watched numerous women die while trying to give birth because they had few safe alternatives for contraception, despite the warning they might die if they had another child. Out of that anguish was born the long struggle of the birth control movement. Nelson Mandela spent four-plus decades as an activist and freedom fighter and 27 years in prison because the demeaning National Party policy of apartheid in South Africa impeded…

Do you have a fan page? What’s the hashtag for that conference? Did you see that great blog post? Will you write a LinkedIn recommendation for me?

These phrases and others are becoming increasingly more common among marketing, development, and communications professionals at nonprofit organizations. And with the ongoing support for the value of digital communications strategies, they are sure to stay part of our business lingo for a long time to come.

Digital communications has found a permanent place within organizations. Those that embrace it, making it a part of their daily communications efforts, will find it a worthwhile and beneficial means to talk to and with your organization’s stakeholders.

When it comes to digital communications, it is about engagement and influence, not numbers. Yes, it is exciting when your Facebook fan page hits a major numbers milestone. Or you reach a couple thousand followers on Twitter. But in order for your Facebook or Twitter stream to impact your organization, those fans and followers need to act on the information you are sharing. It may be that a fan page of 500 engaged followers will be more beneficial to you than a fan page of 5,000 inactive or passive followers.

Digital communications is most successful when your content is being shared across other platforms. And content should not be all about you and your organization. Consider sharing information about…