Heather Carpenter - Latest Comments

Re: Private: Blog

Jana — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 09:34:34 -0000

I work for an academic institution in Africa where our students do their clinical training

in the community with state institutions, NGO's and NPO's. We really want to assess the impact that their training has had on the community as well as the community perceptions. Thanks to Heathers article i have some ideas, does anybody else have some suggestions?? i would really appreciate the insights.
Thank you

Re: Education for Good: Graduate Degrees

Veda Coates — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 13:52:34 -0000

I work for a nonprofit organization in Birmingham AL, known as JBS Mental Health Authority. I graduated in 2004 from UAB with a Masters in Health Education. And would like to know if I qualify for the loan forgiveness program. Be sure to reply back at your earliest convenience for more information, thank you. Ms. Veda L. Coates

Re: Three VERY IMPORTANT Manuals for Nonprofit Organizations

Tammy Tibbetts — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 15:07:42 -0000

Found this extremely helpful for She's the First -- thank you!

Re: Three VERY IMPORTANT Manuals for Nonprofit Organizations

Gil L. Gregorio — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 03:34:07 -0000

Great source of organizational knowledge. Keep it up!

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

Laura — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 18:48:37 -0000

This was so helpful thank you!

Re: Three VERY IMPORTANT Manuals for Nonprofit Organizations

Emma Wakpi — Sun, 21 Jul 2013 22:19:44 -0000

Happened upon this site as I was researching information about writting polocies for the ngo I'm working for. Found it very helpful. Thanks so much. :-)

Re: Nonprofit Accreditation Friend or Foe?

Garland Doyle, CNP — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 20:20:23 -0000

I believe most attendees already have to go through an accreditation process ie NASPAA, CSWE, etc and therefore are not in support of another one. As a recent graduate of a MPA in Nonprofit Management and a future researcher, I believe there is a need for process that identifies schools who are following NACC guidelines ie NACC compliant or Non NACC school. This process would not be as grueling as accreditation but students would know what schools are following the NACC standards.

Re: Education for Good: Graduate Degrees

Heather Carpenter — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 15:25:44 -0000

From Heather Carpenter:

Mark: Thanks for your comment! Yes, Roseanne's website is great but is not meant to be comprehensive under the definition of "for good". The programs listed on her website are programs with a nonprofit concentrations and nonprofit courses. I define "for good" much broader and would include all MPA and MSW programs. I'd also include the many MBA programs that have a social enterprise specialization. :)

Re: Education for Good: Graduate Degrees

Mark A Hager — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 13:25:00 -0000

H: I think Rosanne's list is broader than you give credit for. There aren't many freestanding nonprofit management programs... I'm in one at Arizona State, and there's the big one at Indiana U. So, under "degree" on Roseanne's site, most/many of the programs look to be in the kinds of departments/schools you mention. Eg, under public administration, there are a couple dozen schools listed.

Re: Education for Good: Undergraduate degrees

ranavain — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 22:04:13 -0000

Hmmm... I like this list, and I totally agree with everything on it. But I would want to add another criteria: If you already know what type of non-profit you'd like to work in, you should consider majoring in something directly related; ie, if you want to be part of the social advocacy scene, ala Planned Parenthood, or Emily's List, or one of the think tanks, a major in Poli Sci is about as valuable as any other. If you're big on working with groups ending or alleviating in poverty, the Social Work degree above is a really, really good way to go.

But if you're more interested in the administrative, managerial, or more "professional" roles (accounting, counsel, membership or fundraising), and don't care as much about the cause (I assume as long as you agree with it, but I suppose even if you don't, it matters less in these "professional" roles) taking more professional or business-y majors are probably better.

Bracing any non-profit major in classes for accounting, graphic design, video editing, or computer programming is also a solid plan to "add value" to many of your roles!

Great post! Looking forward to the next one!

Re: Find your passion and strive be an Olympian in your job!

cynthiacol — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 21:04:52 -0000

This is an excellent and inspiring post.

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 Gajewski — 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