Olsen Thielen

A nonprofit advisory board has many advantages.  An advisory board is an informal group of volunteers whose purpose is to give advice and support to the governing board.  It does not have any formal legal responsibilities or decision-making authority, but it can bring complementary — and valuable — skills and

Not-for-profit organizations are like many other businesses. Over time, they move through stages of development called the organization life cycle. Their early stage precedes a growth period that runs several years, followed by maturity. At this stage, the nonprofit has built its core programs and achieved a reputation in the

Telecommuting is a work arrangement in which an employee works outside of the standard office. The employee often works from home, either full-time, on certain days of the week or as the need arises.  Telecommuting has become increasingly popular as employers seek new ways to provide a greater work/life balance

Even though nonprofits don’t face the same government regulations as for-profit companies, fiscal oversight is the board's responsibility.  Donors and other watchdog groups pay close attention, and the media is quick to pounce on rumors of fraud in the nonprofit sector.

If your not-for-profit’s program lineup has remained unchanged for a couple of years, some of them might be due for replacement.  Consider using the tradition of spring cleaning to review and update your offerings.

Many nonprofits struggle with technology because of smaller staffs and limited IT expertise. For them, "embracing the cloud" is a solution that’s easy to adopt, and could result in better control over technology costs and greater efficiency and productivity.

Are you doing everything you can to educate your financial supporters and their employers about matching gifts? Corporate gift-matching enables donors to make larger contributions than they can manage on their own. Knowing their gift will be matched, they might even bump up the amount. Therefore, do everything you can

The key role of a not-for-profit’s internal auditors was once limited largely to testing financial and compliance controls and reporting their findings to the organization’s leadership. But today, with their cross-departmental perspective, internal audit staff (whether employees or outside consultants) can help anticipate and mitigate a variety of risks, improve