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 black…

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…

As a proud young nonprofit professional in the Phoenix valley, I believe it's important to remember that age is not a qualifying factor in one’s professional abilities. I can testify that, on behalf of my young peers, we are investing in ourselves through professional development opportunities and networking, and many of us even share common higher education degrees. We are a group of individuals that have passion, motivation, and competencies to succeed, and we don’t let age get in our way.

When the younger generations start to enter into nonprofit executive roles, it is up to us, the leaders of the “now” and the “future,” to show the more experienced individuals what we are made of. We bring innovative solutions to community’s toughest problems. Long gone are the days of “Oh, you’re too young for that” or, my favorite, “How cute, you’re trying so hard!”

Being a young nonprofit Executive Director with minimal nonprofit leadership experience, I have entered the sector this year and have found a new home. I love being in the nonprofit industry and have found my forever place helping those in need. I may be young, but I have already started to move mountains! How important is age anyway if I have the passion and drive to succeed?

Young nonprofit leaders need to value education and experience — even though our resumes are not as extensive — because we can do anything we put our minds to. We need to learn from the individuals who have…

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.

To celebrate my very first blog post, I decided to be brave: I will introduce an emerging concept: “Attention Philanthropy” (AP). This concept is actually inspired by a branch of economics called “attention economics” (AE), an approach to the management of information that treats human attention as a scarce commodity. I define AP as philanthropy that is primarily concerned with getting donors and supporters to pay attention to a certain cause.

AP as a marketing strategy is not entirely new: many nonprofits have been using similar principles to further their philanthropic efforts. However, this practice is becoming increasingly prevalent as we enter the second decade of the 21st century. In our increasingly information-saturated world, people’s capacity for attention is overwhelmed by the 24-hour news cycle, countless social media outlets, and endless information at our fingertips.

As a result, they often fail to notice organizations or causes that are not constantly in their faces in a flashy and memorable way. Thus, philanthropy and charity work are driven by attention like never before. Nonprofit leaders and…

A few years ago, a nonprofit executive was bragging to me about a fundraising breakthrough he had when he had gotten a new $5,000 donation from a local foundation and how much effort he, his board, his development director, and others spent wooing and making their case for the contribution.

He thought he would get at least three or four years of funding in about the same range. In the same conversation he lamented to me how much government funding he was losing because of state budget cuts for his core mission and programs. He didn’t seem to see the irony — or the connections between his comments.

Government funding for many nonprofits, particularly health and human services nonprofits in Arizona, can be anywhere from 50% to 90% of the agency funding. Yet, nonprofits don’t see the connection to advocacy for the people they serve as their major fundraising activity. Nonprofits are the backbone of the health and human services community, and, when the government stops funding them, the whole community suffers in lost community capacity, lost jobs, lost economic activity, and lost community benefit. 

In the last three years in Arizona, many health and human services have lost over 25% or more of their state funding at least, depending upon area of concern. Childcare alone has lost all its general funding for low-income families. Funding for domestic violence, homelessness, aging, child welfare, and mental health services…