Nonprofits are the heart of society. Fieldstone Alliance helps them soar. Nonprofit centered. Knowledge based. Results Focused. Fieldstone Alliance is a consulting group - they are a business, not a non-profit. That said, their website and e-newsletter (2x month) offer insightful, up to the minute, trend-setting, free information for those of us in the non-profit sector. Free Resources (with consistently updated information) cover the following topics: Boards, capacity building, collaboration, community building, finance, advocacy,...
After hearing a short interview on NPR with author Michael M. Kaiser about his work on saving arts organizations on the brink of disaster, I was intrigued enough to buy his new book The Art of the Turnaround.Although his book was written before our current era of bailouts and mortgage meltdowns, I hoped his work experiences from the mid-1980s to around 2007 might offer some assistance to arts organizations facing the current economic crisis.In a...
Candace Matelic's article, "Understanding Change and Transformation in History Organizations" (AALSH History News 63.2, Spring 2008), is a must read to understand the complexity of initiating change and transformation within a history organization.After studying seven very different history museums in various parts of the country, Candace Matelic explains the variety of reasons institutions are facing a fundamental redefinition of purpose and outlines ground rules and key understandings necessary to facilitate change.Based on the belief that...
How can you move your organization from Good to Great?Management guru Jim Collins' first book described the steps a business or corporation had to take to move from good to great. This short pamphlet takes the model he developed for the business world and translates it into workable principles for non-profits.Collins claims that greatness is a matter of conscious choice and discipline and identifies five key factors for success:Defining success through clearly stated outputs and...
How can you find advice in all areas of museum management, all under one cover?National Standards & Best Practices for U.S. Museums by Elizabeth E. Merritt, former director of AAM's Museum Advancement and Excellence Department and founding director of AAM's Center for the Future of Museums, is a good place to start.The book defines standards as "good things all museums should do" and best practices as "commendable actions for which they should get extra credit".If...
