Sectors - Articles

Tom Tierney - Nonprofit Management and the Leadership Deficit

One of the biggest challenges in nonprofit management is hiring and retaining talented executive leaders. In this conversation with Stanford Social Innovation Review managing editor Eric Nee, Thomas Tierney shares findings from the Bridgespan Group's study on the "leadership deficit." Tierney talks about how this crisis is affecting nonprofits, and what organizations can do to address the problem.

Going Global: Transforming Relief and Development NGOs
Marc Lindenberg and Coralie Bryant

Going Global

Review By David F. Suarez

The leaders of international humanitarian organizations, such as CARE and Oxfam talk candidly about management strategy, organizational goals, advocacy, accountability, and partnerships.

Spring 2003

Value Shift: Why Companies Must Merge Social and Financial Imperatives to Achieve Superior Performance Lynn Sharp Paine

Value Shift

Review By Perla Ni

The author has penned an engaging book that unravels the complicated issues surrounding business ethics.

Spring 2003

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How Nonprofits Get Really Big

By William Foster & Gail Fine 21

Since 1970, more than 200,000 nonprofits have opened in the U.S., but only 144 have reached $50 million in annual revenue. They got big by doing two things: They raised the bulk of their money from a single type of funder. And just as importantly, these nonprofits created professional organizations that were tailored to the needs of their primary funding sources.

John Sage - Social Enterprise, Fair Trade and Coffee

Combining idealism with a genuine love of business, John Sage cofounded the social enterprise company Pura Vida, one of the largest distributors of fair trade organic coffee in the world. In this University podcast, he discusses his mission to improve the lives of people in coffee-growing regions. Sage explains how Pura Vida works at the intersection of the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, showing how the two can be blended to generate both revenues and social good.

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Luck of the Draw

By Kevin Bolduc, Phil Buchanan, & Ellie Buteau 1

Grantees of foundations have little control over which program officer takes their case. Yet program officers make or break grantees’ experiences with foundations. To trigger social change, foundations must give program officers better training, clearer expectations, and regular performance feedback.

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Learn to Love Lobbying

By Fraser Nelson, David W. Brady, & Alana Conner Snibbe 2

Most nonprofits don’t know how to lobby and, worse, think that it entails cutting shady deals with sleazy characters. Yet lobbying is nothing more than educating legislators – a right that our democracy guarantees. To make change, nonprofits must learn to lobby. And who knows? They may even learn to love it.

Dennis Macray - Social Responsibility and International Coffee

Starbucks has taken environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility seriously in its work with coffee farmers. In this audio lecture, Dennis Macray discusses how the United States' leading coffee retailer is reshaping its business practices and reinventing the international coffee trade.

Paul Lamb - Nonprofit Managment and the Web

Nonprofit management now requires the innovative use of information technology. In this Stanford podcast, nonprofit technology consultant Paul Lamb explores how the web is transforming nonprofits and NGOs. He looks ahead to the potential that ubiquitous mobile computing, virtual worlds, user-generated content, and social networking have to upend traditional constraints and to open new doors.