The Social Responsibility of Non-Profit Organisations

whitePaper | February 26, 2020

Big promises are being made about artificial intelligence (AI) and how it will impact our lives. Experts say AI is slowly “edging” its way into daily life, but tectonic changes in transportation, the workplace, and lifestyle have yet to pass. So, when will AI truly “arrive”? In some areas, it already has. One such area generating substantial value is, perhaps surprisingly, the nonprofit space. While nonprofits aren’t historically at the forefront of technological advancement, this sector is quietly becoming an early adopter of AI.

whitePaper | January 6, 2022

Nonprofits successfully navigated the challenges posed by the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and though the traditional methods of fundraising and giving were challenged, new trends have emerged for both donors and nonprofits. To help you make the most of the new year, we’re going to take a look back at lessons learned in 2021.

whitePaper | May 24, 2021

In 2011, Jared, Joel, Jon, Jordan, J. Austin, Josh, and Jesse Stanley formed Stanley Brothers, a for-profit proprietary hemp company. A year later, Paige Figi contacted Stanley Brothers looking for a non-intoxicating natural alternative for her five-year-old daughter, Charlotte. Charlotte suffered from Dravet syndrome, a rare, severe form of epilepsy that caused her to have an average of 300 seizures a week—one every thirty minutes. With the help of the Stanley Brothers’ hemp product, Charlotte’s seizures reduced to just one a day, and in 2015, Charlotte was able to attend school for the very first time.

whitePaper | December 21, 2021

We live in a world that is changing both rapidly and dramatically. Climate change threatens hundreds of millions. Policy changes have reduced or eliminated many of the benefits in healthcare, education, and other areas. Mass migration overwhelms the availability of resources needed as a result of the influx of new immigrants. The public sector can’t keep up, which means that philanthropy needs to work harder than ever to fill the gaps and improve people’s lives. At the same time, philanthropy has a new generation of mega-donors, many of whom come from the tech sector and find the established processes in funding dated and limiting: they lack capacity, visibility, and the ability to collaborate widely. The rapid growth in donors and money flowing through the system, coupled with the increasing demand for nonprofits to meet needs locally and globally, make it harder for all of us to quickly and efficiently connect funders to the boots on the ground.

whitePaper | March 25, 2020

In their seminal article, "Nonprofit Starvation Cycle", Ann Goggins Gregory and Dan Howard exhort nonprofit finance professionals to report to funders the real costs of running nonprofit organizations. The authors explain that the popular trend to restrict funding to specific programs without accounting for infrastructure expenses leads to an unintended consequence, a "nonprofit starvation cycle", where charities cease to function because they can't pay for overhead costs, such as administrative employees, computers and electric bills. To break this unhealthy cycle, the article encourages nonprofits to recalibrate funder expectations by providing accurate financial reports and other supporting information to reflect the true costs of nonprofit operations.

whitePaper | February 3, 2020

In 1990, domestic automobile manufacturers found themselves in deep trouble. The innovative design and the quality of production long associated with the three dominant American brands, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, had long been consigned to the annals of memory. The autos that rolled off of the Detroit assembly lines were notoriously ill designed and were, in general, very unreliable. Additionally, the oil crisis of the 1970s, one that would drive the American consumer to more fuel efficient vehicles, prompted the production of domestic compact vehicles that could not compete with the new foreign imports of Toyota, Mazda and Honda.