Blog Archive


iPhone 5 Model
for Charity Annual Reports

iphone-5-blur

Posted August 23, 2012 by Al Mueller 0 comments

What if the once-a-year “reveals” of a charity’s impact had the hype of the iPhone 5? What if millions of people spent time guessing about program upgrades and the higher performance that the most dynamic charity in the world had developed in the past year? What if people were making viral videos and sketching out projections for a charity’s outcomes and functions before real pictures and numbers were revealed? I could only wish that charities Excellence in Giving clients support stirred such anticipation to see their latest performance. I would love to receive a mysterious invite (like Apple is about to send to tech media writers) to attend a dramatic presentation of new charitable program designs and their increased productivity. Maybe one day the presentation of a charity’s annual report would warrant that hype.

Tags: Annual Reports, Grant Impact Reports, Impact

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Organizational Health Standard #3: Financial Sustainability (Part 3 of 6)

Posted August 13, 2012 by Al Mueller 0 comments

High performing nonprofits develop careful strategies for creating consistent revenue to sustain operations. Donors do not want to support an organization one year and see its programs collapse the next year from insufficient funding.  Great organizations with bold visions and effective programs understand that sustainable revenue streams are mission-critical. Finding out if organizations you support will sustain themselves is step 3 in our 6-step process for evaluating nonprofit performance.

Tags: Charity Evaluation, Charity Evaluations, Nonprofit Evaluation, Nonprofit Performance

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How to Know You Made a Difference: Grant Impact Reports

Posted July 9, 2012 by Al Mueller 0 comments

Is my giving really making a difference? That is a question that haunts every giver. Every day individuals and foundations make decisions about where to give. Over a million active U.S. charities provide endless opportunities to support big visions and passionate leaders. The difficult task for those of us screening opportunities is how to know who is really making a difference. The task should be easy. Charities should be measuring their performance and reporting the results. All of us who issue grants at foundations should have no more difficult a task than reading grant impact reports from previous gifts. But it’s not that simple. The quality and clarity of grant reporting is all over the map. So what do you do to raise the bar for grantee reports? Go to the rest of my post on the new Association of Small Foundations blog to find out and discuss.

Tags: Foundation Grant Making, Grant Impact Reports

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Best Online Charity Evaluation Platform Gets Better: Nonprofit Analytics

Posted May 14, 2012 by Al Mueller 0 comments

Do you want to know if charities you support operate efficiently and effectively in pursuit of their mission?  You can.  The best online charity evaluation platform just got better.  The 2-page nonprofit Analytical Overviews from Nonprofit Analytics have added 30 entry fields for a total of 150 up-to-date data points on organizational health and performance.  Check out a sample 2012 edition Analytical Overview.    There is no more comprehensive and concise overview of a charity’s leadership, financial management, strategy and impact available on the internet anywhere. New nonprofit information in the 2012 edition Analytical Overviews include…

Tags: Charity Evaluation, Charity Evaluations, Nonprofit Evaluation, Nonprofit Performance

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Organizational Health Standard #2: Financial Management

Posted April 4, 2012 by Al Mueller 0 comments

High performing nonprofits must understand how to manage their money. Charities cannot promise great things to supporters and run out of resources along the way. A delicate balance of maintaining healthy reserves, minimizing debt, and sticking to a budget is required.  Donors don’t want a bait-and-switch where increased donations go to debt service or get stockpiled in the bank without any increased impact. And no one can tolerate financial mismanagement where an organization lives in the red with unrealistic budgets or doesn’t put the majority of its funds into mission-related activities.

Tags: Charity Evaluation, Charity Evaluations, Nonprofit Evaluation, Nonprofit Performance, Performance Standard

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Nonprofit Analytics cited as major “charity evaluator” in RELEVANT Magazine

Posted March 22, 2012 by Al Mueller 1 comment

Just days before Nonprofit Analytics turns 1 year old, we have finally been recognized as one of 8 major online charity evaluation and accountability organizations. RELEVANT Magazine published an article “Where Do Your Donations Go?” and listed Nonprofit Analytics alongside Guidestar and GiveWell.  Admittedly, the author chose to highlight and interview Charity Navigator and ECFA leaders.  But the citation in a 3rd party publication is a step in the right direction for what we believe is the best all-around charity evaluation platform available.

Tags: Charity Evaluation, Charity Evaluations, Due Diligence, Nonprofit Evaluation

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Organizational Health Standard #1: Leadership

Posted March 1, 2012 by Al Mueller 0 comments

Where do you start when evaluating the health of a nonprofit organization? Incessant headlines about dishonest educational programs, irresponsible board governance, misleading cancer charities, and corrupt first responder foundations remind us a little assessment can go a long way. But most of us don’t have time for detailed due diligence. So where do we begin a cursory evaluation of nonprofit infrastructure and impact?

Tags: Charity Evaluation, Charity Evaluations, Nonprofit Performance, Performance Standard

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How do Family Foundations make giving decisions?

Posted January 5, 2012 by Al Mueller 0 comments

Are foundations making good grants?  I see positive trends to applaud and emulate in the latest Money for Good II study that surveyed foundation giving decisions.  If you want to find out how many hours of research foundations are doing before issuing grants and how much their findings affect new gifts, check out my recent post about Positive Trends in Foundation Grant-making at the Council on Foundations RE:Philanthropy blog.

Tags: Charity Evaluation, Due Diligence, Foundation Grant Making, Strategic Giving

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Giving poorly can be worse than not giving at all

Posted December 15, 2011 by Al Mueller 0 comments

What if your donation to fight human trafficking paid the salary of a human trafficker? What if your donation to support widowed law enforcement families went to a felon’s bank account? What if your child sponsorship monthly donation and letters never helped the girl in the picture? What if you gave money to loan to a struggling entrepreneur in Africa that was actually embezzled by loan officers? In the last year, I have seen each one of these nightmares come true.  It could have been avoided. Read how in my latest Alliance magazine article Giving poorly can be worse than not giving at all.

Tags: Charity Evaluation, Charity Evaluations, Due Diligence, Nonprofit Evaluation, Philanthropic Advisor, Strategic Giving

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The Rebirth of Generosity: A response to Leon Neyfakh’s Boston Globe article “Why We Give to Charity”

Posted December 8, 2011 by Al Mueller 0 comments

When people think more, they are less generous.  How do you feel about that?  Leon Neyfakh promotes this hypothesis in his new Boston Globe article “Why We Give to Charity.”  Nonprofit service organizations like Law For Change and Campbell & Company have posted the provocative article for website visitors to read.  It has been swirling around philanthropy-related twitter feeds for all to see.  I bumped into it on a daily news blast from the Chronicle of Philanthropy.  I loved its trend-bucking subversion.  But I found its case truly unconvincing.  So much so, I’m firing back with some neglected facts in the oversimplified case.

Tags: Charity Evaluation, Charity Evaluations, Heart Test, Philanthropic Advisor

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