NPO Blog

I wrote this blog while I was Assistant Director at Aspiration and shared about my experiences managing the day to day operations of my organization. I love what I do! I'm now a full-time consultant and PhD student at the University of San Diego. I am continuing to blog on my Nonprofit Leadership 601 blog.

As I am working to wrap things up here at Aspiration before I move to San Diego, I am taking steps to prepare for my replacement. Unfortunately, staff turnover is quite common in nonprofit organizations. Even though no one really wants employee turnover, I think as managers we need to create processes and be prepared when turnover occurs so things can continue to run smoothly in the organization.

If you are in the Bay Area, please join me for the last Nonprofit Operations Brown bag lunch to discuss, "Preparing for Employee Transition," on August 8, 2007.

I learned traditional fundraising methods during my Masters degree and from the many workshops I've attended over the years.  The one thing I remember the most from these seminars is--nonprofits need to diversify their funding sources and not to rely too much on one source of funding. However, my personal experiences in organizations have taught me quite the opposite.

In the first organization I worked for, we relied solely on individual donors.

In another organization, we relied solely on Foundation grants.

I just set up a 403b retirement account for our employees. It was not easy. Even after 8 months or so of researching for the best option for my nonprofit, I still can't tell you much about retirement plans--that is why I am thankful I found Greg Guardiano, an Ameriprise Financial Advisor to help me.