Alexandra Urbanowski of NHPR joins Seacoast consulting firm Portsmouth, NH, June 17, 2013 – Alexandra Urbanowski joins Opus following her role as Vice President for Development and Marketing at New Hampshire Public Radio. Alexandra will team-up with fellow partners Annie de Cossy, Jamie Forbes and Rebecca R. O’Brien at their offices on Court Street …
We were all excited to return to Dominica the following year. Working with an British ex-pat now living in Dominica, we made our final arrangements and decided to use the small community of Mero as our home base. Mero is a town of perhaps 100 residents, many of whom live within shouting distance of the …
This is the first in a series of posts that explore a vacation that turned into much more than that. Hopefully you will both enjoy the adventure and join in the learning that we uncovered through our discovery of accidental philanthropy. We didn’t start out with the idea of helping a school build a library. …
We have a funny relationship with money in our society. Some proudly show off their wealth in obvious ways while others do all they can to hide how much they have. Still others live lifestyles that far exceed their capacity. There are lots of underlying reasons why people have different relationships with money, how they …
Most companies give a lot of money away to charities. But far fewer do it with a comprehensive strategy. It’s not really that surprising, if you think about it. And this is particularly true for small to medium sized businesses (with revenue ranging from $1 million to $50 million) because they are typically privately held …
After reading our last blog post about how challenging it is for nonprofit organizations to invest in growth, a friend sent me this article from the Wall Street Journal. In it, the author argues that we need to encourage nonprofits to function more like companies or they will continue to lead a hand to mouth …
Most nonprofit leaders spend an incredible amount of time focused on keeping their organization’s overhead below 10%. They want to be able to state in their annual report that 90 cents of every dollar raised goes to fund their mission. It’s a great goal, but it often prevents organizations from making investments in infrastructure, whether …
I’m fascinated by the recent news that Lance Armstrong decided not to contest the charges against him. After vowing for years that he’d fight allegations that he took performance enhancing drugs throughout his competitive cycling career, he’s decided to stop fighting. The result is that he will be stripped of his professional accomplishments, and he’s …
For many, this maxim is something that parents use or we hear from someone trying to teach us a life lesson. The phrase encourages us to be proactive. And while it’s true, there’s a point at which asking for too much or asking too often turns people off. The opposite problem, of course, is not …
It’s pretty overwhelming to figure out what to read, who to “follow” and identify trends among a virtual tsunami of information that is available. But it’s also important to figure it out. While I certainly can’t claim to have found the perfect formula, I have landed on a way to prevent the feeling of panic …