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PATH PartnersI am no longer surprised when I receive an email from a nonprofit group announcing their dissolution of operations. More and more charity groups are going out of business. Typically, these organizations are small, with little capacity to weather this current economic storm.
Tag Archives: non-profit
Charity Impossible: Do America’s Charities Need Rescuing?
May 16, 2012 – 7:17 pm
Robert Irvine charges in like a bull in a fine dining establishment, except the restaurant in need of rescuing is not fine. In fact, typically it’s failing. His television show on Food Network, Restaurant: Impossible, showcases Irvine’s talent for reviving dying eateries with a change of interior, menu, branding and, of course, food. At the end of each episode, the nearly-shuttered restaurant becomes a successful, vibrant community eating space. Does the charity world need a similar hero?
Study Finds Resistance to Homeless Management Information System Adoption
Apr 6, 2011 – 4:00 am
A study released in the March issue of Cityscape, a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) publication, investigated adoption of the Homeless Information Management System (HMIS) amongst a sample group of homeless providing agencies. HMIS is a national HUD initiative to streamline information sharing across homeless service providers. The idea is that better information sharing decreases duplication [...]
How Social Entrepreneurs are Improving Lives and Changing the World
Apr 4, 2011 – 12:00 am
I sat in my chair riveted for the whole day listening to these idealistic, technologically savvy leaders of companies and non-governmental organizations describe how they are literally changing this world. The speakers were this country’s next generation of executives, influenced by role models like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Bono, creating life changing products of [...]
Why Nonprofit Technology Sucks
Mar 8, 2011 – 3:02 pm
On Monday Joel argued that technology has a role to play in helping people lift themselves out of poverty by connecting them to services and one another. As the founder of a technology social enterprise myself I could not agree with this sentiment more. However, while Joel laments that non-profit technology does not hold a [...]
Bad Data, Bad Decisions – How Well Intentioned Organizations can Hurt the Poor
Jan 20, 2011 – 2:14 am
From a professional standpoint there is only one thing I like more than good data; helping lift impoverished people out of poverty. I am fortunate that my profession is at the intersection of my two passions. Good data helps people make good decisions every day. Good data also helps make people a lot of money, [...]
Homeless for the Holidays: My Simple Christmas List
Dec 20, 2010 – 4:05 am
Can you hear the music? Those ballads of joy, the ringing of bells, and the lyrics of faith? It is that time of year when music pipes through Macy’s tiny ceiling speakers and every other department store, spreading good tidings. The music overwhelms radio waves, television commercials, and our own ears. The festive atmosphere inspires [...]
What Really Matters in Poverty Alleviation Work
Dec 15, 2010 – 7:20 am
My career focus, like many of you who read this site and work in the social sector, is poverty reduction, and hopefully eradication. While we all focus on poverty, we do so in different ways. Some of us are advocates, some work in direct services, others build housing, etc. My company creates database systems that [...]
Is This Country Teetering on the Brink of Social Insolvency?
Oct 12, 2010 – 2:09 am
As people’s pocket books grow leaner, if not empty, state and municipal governments are slashing their appetites for spending. Slimming down is always good for personal health, but forced economic diets can wreak havoc on those struggling with poverty. The Urban Institute recently confirmed what many on the front lines of American homelessness already know—institutional [...]
Innovation and Evaluation: Saluting the Homeless Shelter Pay-To-Stay Experiment
Sep 16, 2010 – 3:29 am
The Union Rescue Mission (URM), a homeless services provider in downtown Los Angeles’s Skid Row, recently announced it would start charging some shelter residents a fee for staying in the agency’s shelter. I applaud URM’s decision to try something new, not because I think it will necessarily succeed in improving client outcomes, but because it [...]
