Edible school gardens have been popping up like summer squash over the past 20 years––and in recent years with First Lady Michelle Obama cheering them on. The idea goes back to 1995, when Alice Waters, the pioneer of the “slow food” movement and owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant, created the first “edible schoolyard” in a vacant lot near the Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley, California.

A nice idea? Of course. But with increased testing and heightened security, and many other demands on schools and teachers today, are gardens just a green frill, or are they a good use of a school’s time and money?

The anecdotal stories are compelling: benefits overwhelmingly outweigh the costs in the usual cherry-picked examples.

Leaders of the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, who have helped 30 Tucson schools––mostly public schools in low-income areas––grow gardens through its Farm-to-Child Program,…

Millennials and post-Millennials, Generation Z, live, eat, and likely even sleep, with their phones. The word Millennial has become so overused that it sounds less like a term for a generation and more like fingernails dragging down a chalkboard. Regardless, you can’t ignore the largest generation in American history and the hours they consume media online. Plus, unlike the upcoming Generation Z, Millennials have billions of dollars to spend -- or donate.

Obviously, this makes your video content very important. I constantly hear from nonprofit organizations struggling with how to effectively leverage the attention of this digitally-immersed audience. Below are some of the primary issues I see from nonprofits when trying to tell their stories through online videos: 

What?

Your nonprofit sells bracelets made by youth from disadvantaged neighborhoods and 100% of the proceeds go to raise awareness about polluted water for endangered species in third-world countries with evil dictatorships. Huh?!

That’s too complicated. Keep it simple.

You don’t have to change the mission of your organization; however, try to get your mission statement down to one or two sentences. Even if you do have a highly complex program, you can highlight your best case study, or one compelling story from your most beloved advocate, volunteer, client, etcetera. In a video, your message needs to be immediate, concise,…

We all know many of the reasons domestic violence victims don’t escape their abusers: fear, a sense of helplessness, and financial dependence among them. But an estimated 40 percent of domestic violence victims say that, among the ties that binds them, is their concern for what will happen to their pets if they leave them behind, as domestic violence shelters in Maricopa County generally don’t allow pets, except for service animals.

That is, until now: In 2015, the Sojourner Center in Phoenix started––as a pilot––the region’s first animal shelter to serve the pets of domestic abuse victims. The Arizona nonprofit, Lost Our Home Pet Rescue, is providing the pet care expertise for Sojourner’s project.

The shelter provides basic daily care, exercise for dogs and cats, and special accommodations for birds, fish and other family pets. The shelter is also where the animals’ owners––victims of domestic abuse––can be with their pets for the therapeutic value of companionship and for simple continuity with an old friend. In early 2016, it housed seven dogs, eight cats, two turtles and one parrot near the building where the residents stay for up to 120 days.  After the…

Fundraising is an undeniable part of the nonprofit sector, particularly for 501(c)(3) public charities. Like it or not, money is the fuel of the economy in a capitalist system. According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics at The Urban Institute, 2013 saw $1.74 trillion in total revenue for the nonprofit sector. Roughly 21% of this came from gifts, donations, and grants, while 79% came from fees, contracts, and other revenue streams. In short, almost a quarter of the sector’s revenue comes from fundraising.

According to the 2014 Giving USA Report, 72% of all giving is done by individuals. This means that the quarter of the nonprofit sector’s revenue that comes from fundraising is mostly made up of contributions from individual donors. According to the US Census Bureau, 73.4% of all households reported having high-speed internet access. In every age category, over 50% of households have high-speed internet access. Even in states where the amount of people with high-speed internet access is lower than the national average, at least 62.3 percent of people have high-speed internet, with at least 80% owning a computer. According to the Pew Research Center, 73% of online adults use Facebook. Over 80% of all adults under 50 use social networking sites of some kind.

The reality of the age we live in is that the internet is here to stay. Younger generations have been raised with it and on it. It has become the way we get news, the way we…

The contemporary nonprofit sector exists within a shifting landscape of complex social problems, innovative technologies, and the growth of grassroots efforts. In order to be successful in effectively addressing social ills, nonprofit organizations must learn to utilize a network strategy of collaboration amongst diverse stakeholders to create true social impact. While there are many benefits related to a network-centric framework, including access to new and diverse perspectives, networked resources, and mobilized, coordinated action, there are also barriers to effective networking that can arise, such as collective preconditions, substantive uncertainty, and competition within the network. By utilizing four key strategies of involving diverse stakeholders, creating a backbone infrastructure, developing shared terminology and measurement indicators, and promoting collective action, organizations can find success in effective networking and produce meaningful social change.

1. Involving diverse stakeholders – Stakeholders must have a vision and goals that are aligned with that of the network, and efforts must be taken to involve diverse cross-sector groups, including those from private and corporate foundations, community advocacy groups, grassroots organizations, businesses, government entities and other related nonprofit organizations of various sizes, etc. These stakeholders should exist across all levels, from the CEO to the…