Other stuff

More good stuff for churches and charities – 3/26

More good stuff is my way of pulling together articles that are worth discussing just won’t get a full post by themselves. I’ve done that previously on this blog with the overhead ratio issue.  Will start doing the same thing with general nonprofit articles.

So, here are a few quick reads for background: why churches struggle to grow past certain levels, and some info on filing 990s.

3/25 – Thom Rainer – One Key Reason Most Churches Do Not Exceed 350 in Average Attendance – Here is some info on the size of typical churches in the U.S.: (more…)

Jim Ulvog

About half past 9 tomorrow will be Pi day of the century

March 14 is referred to as Pi day by people who enjoy math. Since pi equals 3.14159, that makes March 14 pi day.

3/14

3.14

Get it?

Well, it’s funny for some of us. Really.

Million Dollar Way points out that tomorrow, March 14, 2015, is the Pi day of the century.

I’ll let Mr. Oksol explain it: (more…)

Jim Ulvog

Maybe you should hold on to employment reference checks forever. A few other ideas on reference checks.

Most sources I have read over the years suggest the document retention timelines for employee files should be three years after the person leaves the organization.

Perhaps you should set to permanent the retention timeline for reference checks on applicants. Might want to extend that to all the materials that support your screening of employees.

That is the suggestion from Richard Hammar in his March/April issue of Church Law & Tax Report. (If your interest in this post has lasted this far into the discussion, you probably ought to be reading that newsletter, available from Christianity Today.)

The reason for permanent retention?

(more…)

Jim Ulvog

Why I chose a gun. Evil exists.

General Peter van Uhm is the Netherlands chief of defense. In the following TED presentation, he explains why he chose a gun to make the world a better place. Others choose a pen or brush.

He intentionally picked up a gun.

I’ve not talked about my military service on my blogs. His presentation is a superb proxy for why I took my turn carrying a gun, especially one that held frightening power.

Here’s the reason in one phrase: (more…)

Jim Ulvog

Good stuff for the nonprofit world – 2/15

I use the “good stuff” description on my other blogs for groups of articles I find of interest that might be of interest to my readers. Typically the articles don’t have much in common with each other. Think I’ll start doing the “good stuff” update here as well.

Here’s a few articles I’ve enjoyed over the last few weeks on nonprofit issues: burnout in helping others, good news for dissidents in denominational doctrine disputes, unintended consequences of free malaria nets. Three very different articles, but a common thread seems to be that life is complicated.

2/1 – The Guardian – The cost of caring – why I had to leave the charity sector – (more…)

Jim Ulvog

Yet another embarrassing tech error – sending a text message to the wrong person

Double check who is getting your texts.

We’ve all heard the stories of hitting ‘reply all’ instead of ‘reply’ when discussing something in an e-mail that shouldn’t go to ‘all’.

Here’s a new oopsie I learned about personally but at low cost.

(more…)

Jim Ulvog

Human trafficking – the dark side of life

Forum News Service has a seven part series on human trafficking in North Dakota dealing with multiple aspects of the prostitution issue. Shift in our cultural perceptions is focusing more on the issue of women getting sucked in and trapped by this destructive world.

This article is cross-posted from my other blog, Outrun Change, because I think it will be of interest to many of the faith-based readers of Nonprofit Update.

The series is set in the Bakken oil field of North Dakota. The general issues apply all across the U.S. This is news because many sides of the downside of economic growth are visible in North Dakota. If the series were set in Los Angeles or New York area, this would be ancient, boring news.

In North Dakota we can easy watch as the reporters describe the devastation of prostitution. The scale of the issue is small enough and new enough in a relatively small state that the story can actually be covered in just seven parts.

One thing I’ve learned in the last few years of blogging is that certain names pop up regularly as authors of routinely superb writing. There is a short list of authors for whom I try to read everything they write. Ms. Dalrymple, who is also a very prolific writer, is one of those.

If you are deeply interested in either the Bakken or the trafficking issue, this is a series you will definitely want to read.

12/4 – Forum News Service in Bismarck Tribune – Trafficking in North Dakota is on the rise, and often the victims can’t escape – Seven part series on human trafficking in the state coauthored by Amy Dalrymple and Katherine Lymn.

First article in the series traces one man from looking on-line for an underage girl through his conviction and sentencing to a five-year prison sentence.

(more…)

Jim Ulvog

Decline in construction of new churches

Here is the millions of square feet of new construction and additions for religious buildings (approximated):

  • 28M – ’90 and ‘91
  • 42M – ‘97
  • 52M – ’02, with a rapid decline to
  • 25M – ’09, then falling off a cliff
  • 15M – ’10, with a slower drop to
  • 10M – ’14 est

Those are my estimates from a graph in the Wall Street Journal article, Decline in Church-Building Reflects Changed Tastes and Times.

Article says the estimated 10.3M square feet in 2014 is down 6% for the year and down 80% from the peak in 2002.

Several factors are cited in the article for the drop in construction. (more…)

Jim Ulvog

A few articles of interest in the fundraising world

I haven’t seen a lot of articles in the last few months on the overhead and “worst charities” issue. Haven’t seen anything on deworming meds in a long time. Maybe I’ve just not been paying close enough attention.

Here are a few articles I’ve noticed lately. First, on for-profit thrift stores, and a few old stories gaining new coverage. Finally, a couple of articles on donor advised funds.

For-profit thrift stores

(more…)

Jim Ulvog

The world is messy and there is no silver bullet for development

That headline is my feeble summary of a superb 6,000 word article at the New Republic by Michael Hobbes: Stop Trying to Save the World – Big ideas are destroying international development.

In the last year he has read all the books on the shortfalls in development he can find.

The article covers a lot of ground. Here are the three biggest points for me:

There is no silver bullet that will fix all problems or work in all situations.

and

We need to modify our expectations that we can find a silver bullet.

and

Projects that work splendidly in one specific location in one set of circumstances won’t scale up by a factor of a thousand and might not do any good if you roll it out across the country.

I often talk of unintended consequences.

New phrase for today is “complex adaptive systems.”

(more…)

Jim Ulvog

Free webcast provides overview of ACA for religious organizations

Bit of short notice, but tomorrow (Wednesday 12/31 at 11 am Central) Clifton Larson Allen will provide a free webcast:

Looks like it will be a great survey for small NPOs.

Hat tip to my friend, Tim Murphy (@NonprofitCFO), of CLA for mentioning the course.

 

Jim Ulvog

Why separate blogs for nonprofits, accounting, and coping with change? Why so much discussion on banking and energy?

  • Why do I have so many blogs?
  • Why are there separate blogs appealing to the nonprofit world and CPAs?
  • Why do so many posts talk about banking?
  • Why so much discussion of energy production?

Let me share a few ideas on how my writing is organized.

The basic idea is that blogs need to have a narrow focus in terms of topics or issues. Then the blog will gather an audience of people with that interest. Cover too many topics and everyone will lose interest.

That means I have split up the core of my writing into three blogs, each designed to appeal to a different audience. People interested in one of those areas may not be interested in the other topics, so I assign my posts to the blog that will have readers who will be more interested in that discussion. The main blogs are:

(more…)

Jim Ulvog