The LinkedIn for Nonprofits Weekly Digest

Another Friday is upon us—and the first LinkedIn for Nonprofits Weekly Digest of August is here to bring you some insightful, thought-provoking, and actionable reads to round out your week!

This week, you’ll find articles exploring board diversity, executive salaries, and collaboration in the face of crisis. You’ll also discover a handy six-step process for turning fundraising conversations on their head to drive better results, and a few examples of how nonprofits are using automation to improve their processes.

Here are five must-read articles for nonprofits this week:

1. What Working in Crisis Mode Teaches Us About Collaboration and Impact (Stanford Social Innovation Review)

While the pandemic put a great deal of stress on the nonprofit sector, some of the strategies that came out of it could benefit organizations in the long run. Gabrielle Fitzgerald, founder and CEO of the nonprofit action tank Panorama and co-founder of Pandemic Action Network, shares three approaches her teams adopted while in crisis mode that she believes could accelerate progress if carried beyond the pandemic. 

2. Keeping nonprofit CEOs out of the room when boards decide what to pay them yields good results (The Conversation)

Nonprofit CEO pay is a contentious topic, with high salaries sometimes attracting criticism from within the sector and beyond. Ilona Babenko, Associate Professor of Finance at Arizona State University, shares the findings of a study they completed with two fellow finance scholars exploring what happened at almost 1,700 New York-based nonprofits after the state prohibited nonprofit officers from being present at meetings where their pay was being discussed. 

3. How to Get Donors to Ask You, Not Vice-Versa (Clairification)

Effective fundraising is all about asking for gifts—right? Well, not always. Fundraising expert Claire Axelrad lays out her six-step process for getting potential donors to ask you how they can help, rather than the other way around—and some tips for giving a strong answer when they do.

4. Achieving Next-Level Performance Through Board Diversity (Forbes)                

Studies show that diverse boards perform better. Ashley Sharp, Executive Director at Dwell with Dignity, shares why she believes committing to diversity, equity, and inclusion in governance was one of the most important moves she made after being tasked with leading a growing nonprofit. 

5. How Nonprofits Should Be Using Automation (BizTech Magazine)

Automation might sound like a futuristic concept, but it can help nonprofits save time, expand their reach, and free up staff to focus on more strategic tasks. BizTech outlines a few use cases for automation in the nonprofit sector, along with real examples of how Team Rubicon and The Trevor Project have put these tools into action.

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