Heather Carpenter - Latest Comments

Re: Why is it so difficult to manage volunteers?

ranavain — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:21:52 -0000

Oooh thanks! I used to work on a political campaign, and we had tons of volunteers that seemed to manage themselves... so it was very weird to move to the non-profit sector and find my employers don't even use volunteers, because they're considered unreliable and hard to control. It is, of course, because nobody is willing to take on the actual task of recruiting and managing volunteers. This guide will be very helpful!

Re: Updates and Musings – 3 weeks until my dissertation defense!

Will Hull — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 21:47:32 -0000

Best of luck, Heather. I know you'll do great.

Re: Updates and Musings – 3 weeks until my dissertation defense!

Maria_G — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 09:54:33 -0000

Can't wait to call you Dr. Carpenter. Break a leg!

Re: The realities of working in a nonprofit organization

Heather Carpenter — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:08:55 -0000

Not sure why some folks are having trouble making comments on my blog and others are posting comments just fine. I followed up with my website designer and there doesn't appear to be any glitches. If you e-mail me your comment heathercarpenter at nonprofitalternatives dot org I'll post it on your behalf. Sorry for the trouble.

Re: New to Nonprofit Finance and Accounting: Here’s a Brief Overview

Kobico — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 22:49:22 -0000

I'm pretty sure Days Cash =
(cash & equivs * 365) / (total expenses - depreciation expense)

and Cash Flow to Total Debt =
(net income + depreciation expense) / total liabilities

Parentheses are NOT optional, because excluding them alters how the expression is calculated and therefore also alters the result.

Re: Best Blog posts of 2010

Rukshan Fernando — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:29:54 -0000

Just following your tweets and look forward to reading them. I am a PhD candidate as well (currently working on my proposal). What are you writing about?

Re: My New Website – Thanks to the Super Talented Will Hull!!

Will Hull — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 08:57:42 -0000

As a brief update, I no longer work for League of Conservation Voters and am looking for new opportunities if any are available. Thanks again for your post on my behalf, Heather.

Re: My New Website – Thanks to the Super Talented Will Hull!!

Will Hull — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:34:37 -0000

You're very welcome. I really enjoyed the process. It was really a pleasure working with you. I hope, in the future we will work together again in some capacity. I hope, with this new design that you are able to take this blog to the next level.

Best of luck and thank you for the opportunity to be creative on your behalf.

Re: Nonprofit Day Wrap Up

Brendan — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 13:50:37 -0000

When fundraising for a nonprofit, I have found that telling a story about your organization is helpful. Sometimes, as you implied here, it is hard to truly listen to speakers if they are spitting off facts constantly. When someone is speaking about their organization and tells you about how they helped someone, it is always more interesting.

Re: I’ll be blogging the 2010 ARNOVA conference

Brendan — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 13:41:11 -0000

As a student who is doing project with a small nonprofit, would you suggest using social media, as you discussed here, to help get their message out? The nonprofit focuses primarily on the elderly.

Re: Aren’t we all working to solve social challenges?

Brendan — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 13:38:29 -0000

According to this post, philanthropists should be on the boards of a nonprofit in order to make help it invest in, and succeed in community projects and social change. Instead of separating nonprofit companies and philanthropists, they should work together in order to achieve the most change.

Re: How to be a Critical Consumer of Nonprofit Research

James D'Ambrosio — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 16:31:02 -0000

Great post on an important subject. Painting with a broad brush often leads to spurious generalizations. I learned the importance of researching a representative sample of the population and looking for statistical significance in graduate school.

Re: Three VERY IMPORTANT Manuals for Nonprofit Organizations

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 08:47:34 -0000

Thanks for this post. I am starting a non-profit organization (charter school) and this is one of the most useful free resources I have come across. Kudos! Excellent!

Re: Don’t start your own blog: start a group blog instead.

Non-Profit Websites by Cozalit — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 13:46:01 -0000

Consultants (etc.) aside, we believe it is important for every nonprofit to start their own corporate blog and to enlist regular writers from within their own organizations primarily, first. Then, a group blog with experts from other organizations is a good additional idea.

Charles Lojko
Communications Consultant
COZALITY | Start a Chain Reaction

Re: Setting the Record Straight about Nonprofit-Focused Graduate Degrees

Devon Smith — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:09:18 -0000

I wanted to second many of the earlier comments that an MBA isn't just for nonprofit board members. I have an MBA (and an MFA in theatre management) from Yale University. I, and many of my classmates, are bound for management positions in a wide variety of nonprofit fields--from health care, to education, to arts, to public policy, to public finance, to the environment. Our current (though temporary) Dean, Sharon Oster, literally wrote the book on Non Profit Strategy. The school has a long history of affiliation with the nonprofit community, and nonprofit cases are included in nearly all of our core classes. Several MBA programs, Yale included, also offer 100% loan forgiveness for those working in a nonprofit post graduation, another important consideration when exploring graduate school options.

Re: Confessions of a Third-Year Doctoral Student: Interpersonal Skils Matter the Most

SG — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:05:11 -0000

I'm in my third year of a PhD program looking for justifications to finish it.

I actually have a different take: I felt that I learned much more about interpersonal skills working for a few years in industry than in my current program; a PhD for me has been a very solitary, lonely experience, where I feel my interpersonal skills have atrophied.

Re: Setting the Record Straight about Nonprofit-Focused Graduate Degrees

Deborah Tucker — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:41:38 -0000

So much good information. I appreciate this site. As a nonprofit founder and ED, I would enjoy speaking with you directly, especially because today's economic environment is a very 'new curve' for all NPOs; especially where fundraising is concerned. I also be interested in seeing an updated (post 2008 list) picks for most influential/talents of NPOs. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Live blogging Nonprofit Day: Coaching–a form of Supervision

Christine Sculati — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:40:25 -0000

Heather,

Thanks so much for live blogging Nonprofit Day 2010. I could not make the event this year, so I really appreciate your posts and knowledge sharing.

Christine

Re: Setting the Record Straight about Nonprofit-Focused Graduate Degrees

Will Hull — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 09:39:13 -0000

Great post on breaking it down. I just completed my Masters of Public Administration (MPA) with a Concentration in Nonprofit Management from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA (Washington, DC area). It was a great program, but the nonprofit management program doesn't allow for a lot of flexibility with your electives. It shaves two off of the four that you would normally have to have Intro to Nonprofit Management and Nonprofit Ethics, Law and Governance as two classes necessary in the program. It was a good program once I dove into the Nonprofit focus. I would recommend it for that. Also, it gives you a lot of flexibility with an MPA to go into the government sector or go in and out as you change jobs over your career.

I have heard it mentioned as a program with subject matter a mile wide and an inch deep. You get exposed to a lot of subject matter, but you don't go very deep into it. That is good because you can go deeper after school if you are interested.

I chose to go deeper into Program Evaluation and Performance Measurement (as a part of my methods courses, a.k.a. stats). I find it helps me think through a lot of what is happening today in the need for transparency in government and nonprofits in measuring true outcomes rather than outputs. Was the outcome meaningful in any way?

Please feel free to visit my portfolio Web site where I write more on nonprofit management and public administration in general at http://www.willhull.com

Re: Setting the Record Straight about Nonprofit-Focused Graduate Degrees

MP — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 16:29:14 -0000

This is a fantastic resource. I hope to share it on my site with full credit and links to you. Thank you!

Re: Setting the Record Straight about Nonprofit-Focused Graduate Degrees

John G — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:44:03 -0000

A great list and explanation of various degree programs. I want echo Mark's comment about MBA programs being valuable, but not all are the same.

I received an MBA from Case Western Reserve University with a concentration in nonprofit management and took courses with the students and faculty that were part of MNO program.

I would argue that there are only a handful of MBA programs that truly offer a nonprofit tract. You mention two, Northwestern and UC Berkley, I'd add Case Western and Stanford, and even University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Terrific summary, thank you!

Re: Setting the Record Straight about Nonprofit-Focused Graduate Degrees

Camelia — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:47:47 -0000

What an awesome post! I just found your blog, and I wish I had found it sooner.

I am getting a Masters in Human Service Administration -- luckily I happened to stumble upon this program, but I wish I had a guide like this when I was looking at schools. Would have saved me months of stress and confusion!

Re: Setting the Record Straight about Nonprofit-Focused Graduate Degrees

Heather Carpenter — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:33:49 -0000

@Joelle cool! I didn't know that type of degree was out there.

@Mark thanks for providing your perspective about MBA programs. Great points!

Re: Setting the Record Straight about Nonprofit-Focused Graduate Degrees

Mark — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:23:37 -0000

Thank you for the post. I believe you take a narrow view of the different options, especially the MBA programs. When I was considering graduate education, I looked at MS, MPA, and MBA programs. While I found many similarities among the programs and degrees, my decision was to pursue a MBA with a focus on nonprofit management as it translates for the for-profit sector and therefore provides me with flexibility in my career and it teaches you about business and management. We tend to think that nonprofits aren't businesses...but they are.

While more MS in Nonprofit Management programs may provide you with the classes tailored to the nonprofit experience, Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Management, HR and others functional area are all skills/functions you will find within a nonprofit and taught in MBA programs.

Also, MBA students who focus on nonprofit management are not doing so to learn to be future board members but to learn to be successful and effective managers/directors/executives of a nonprofit or to be a consultant to nonprofit organizations.

Finally, I would encourage individuals who are interested in a MBA and working for a nonprofit to identify those programs that really integrate the nonprofit experience into their core curricula and not just leave it for electives.

Re: Setting the Record Straight about Nonprofit-Focused Graduate Degrees

Kimberlee Stiens — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:12:11 -0000

Wow, this is an incredible resource! You should see if you can get it posted on other non-profit blogs... its really awesome!