Last week I wrote about the trend of Collective Impact and how thinking collaboratively can be useful for Boards. The main tenets of collective impact are collaboration toward a common goal, coordination of activities, measurement of progress, communication and accountability to a “backbone organization.” In thinking about a best example of collective impact in Los…
For the last few years, it seems like you can’t go to any meeting or conference without hearing the phrase “collective impact.” Collective impact, the process of addressing an issue as a community instead of as an organization, is effective and efficient. This article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review gives a great overview of…
I have a dear friend who is warm, giving, and charitable. But she is a terrible volunteer. And she admits it. Regular volunteer projects (paint a school, picking up trash, reading to kids) just bore her or make her uncomfortable. Here’s the secret about my friend, she’s actually an amazing volunteer if you need someone…
We hear it all the time from foundations, “I wish organizations would stop emailing me questions they can easily look up on our website.” At the same time, we hear from non-profits all the time, “How am I supposed to build a relationship with a foundation?” Unfortunately, asking about grant guidelines, deadlines, or funding areas…
Graduation season is upon us and it has got us thinking about jobs and hiring, specifically in the non-profit and social enterprise area. Based on our work with non-profit organizations, foundations, and businesses, the Team at Starfish Impact has compiled a list of opportunities we have identified related to current trends with recent college graduates:…
The team at Starfish Impact has had the honor of facilitating a few amazing board retreats this year. We’ve seen boards come together to create ambitious goals, set performance objectives, and unify around a single vision for the future. There’s no magic formula for a productive retreat but successful retreats share some common best practices:…
A word we can’t seem to get enough of in the non-profit sector is “impact.” We want to have more impact. We want to support organizations that make an impact. But what do really mean when we talk about impact? For most organizations, impact means success in solving a specific problem or achieving their mission. …
Last month we wrote about taking your Board from a “Founding Board” to a “Funding Board” and we highlighted a tool to evaluate your board composition. So what if you find major gaps in experience and skills on your Board? How to you begin the long task of recruiting new Board members? At Starfish Impact,…
Twitter can be a loud place. With 6,000 tweets per minute, it can be a hard place to be heard. But in addition to building a brand and a presence on Twitter, you should be using Twitter as a research tool. We’ve found some amazing resources out there for family foundations and non-profit organizations. First,…
We hear it all the time. “I wish my Board would fundraise.” If this feels familiar, you’re not alone. Survey after survey shows that getting the board to fundraise is the number one area that non-profits say needs improvement. Part of the reason is that fundraising is a different skill than most Board members use…