pic by anabananna

Nonprofits struggle to balance public good and good business practices.  I wanted to congratulate Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in Manhattan New York for a strict adherence to conservative investing.  This college is a no tuition school and is nearing completion on a new $150 million academic building.  Their conservative approach has allowed them to keep their endowment at or slightly above last year.

Nonprofits have to remember that their not investing on behalf of risk taking investors, but for the financial long term health of the organization.  Consistent low risk returns build an organization.  The higher the risk a nonprofit takes with its money the more likely the intended outcome can fail.  When nonprofits are looking for that higher return the difference between low risk and high risk should be allocated to ongoing and one time expenses.  The higher the risk the more the expense should be assigned to one time expenses.  A nonprofits management and Board need to allocate their budgets accordingly to prevent in the future the impact of decreasing endowments.

The other good practice is to budget with a margin.  When building a budget with program the staff takes two steps.  First, allocate costs based on expected revenues. Second, reduce the budget by three percent, have a plan on how to produce the same amount of outcome for the reduced dollars.  This will create a practice efficient at budgeting and building a reserve.

It’s a familiar story. Upstart popularizes technology that threatens to disrupt an industry. Larger rivals enter picture and try to squeeze out little guy. TiVo (TIVO), whose set-top boxes made it routine for viewers to save TV shows on a hard drive so they could watch them later (and fast-forward through the ads), has followed this very trajectory. The cable companies began rolling out their own digital videorecorders a few years ago, and TiVo has been hemorrhaging subscribers ever since.

To read the rest ofthe article please the see the Business Week page.

On June 15, President Barack Obama went before the American Medical Assn. seeking support for his health-care reform initiatives and appealed to the assembled doctors’ sense of professional idealism. He observed that medicine in the U.S. has been turned “from a profession–a calling–to a business. And that’s not why you became doctors.”

To reads the rest of the article please follow the link to the source page.

pic by Crabz

Nonprofits are looking to control their business outcome.  As nonprofits look to use evidence base practices and technology to promote themselves and the services they offer they risk losing control.  The main loss of control is really about controlling what anyone can see. However, use negative results to show positive results.  It can show where improvement has occurred and over what period of time.  The hiding of data and letting technology become the obstacle to controlling a nonprofits direction shows an organization in need of change first. 

President Obama and most congressional Democrats say they want to preserve private health insurance. They also want to add a “public plan” to compete with private insurance plans. Their basic argument is that a public plan would offer needed competition, save money through low administrative costs and zero profits, realize greater economies of scale, and be a superior negotiator of the prices of medical services and technology.

To read the rest of the article please see the Wall Street Journal Page.

Rain does not stop me from enjoying myself.  I just get wet. It is the adults whom are complaining.

From Papa:

While Spring can be a time of unpredictable weather nonprofits can use Spring to invite participation with their organization.  After a winter period of being indoors more people look for a reason to get out and do something.  This is especially after setting New Year resolutions that they have not acted upon.  So let Spring be the time to grow an experience working with kids. 

You can explore the outside nature but you can do it in school by learning new things and mess around in your brain.

From Papa: 

Looking for an adventure. Nonprofits have plenty to offer.  Employees should check out Guidestar for a program near them.  To plan activities nonprofits can utilize other nonprofits programs for those they serve. 

President Barack Obama on Tuesday signaled flexibility on a key health-care issue, suggesting he is open to an overhaul that doesn’t include a government-run program to compete with private insurers. At a White House news conference, Mr. Obama said he hasn’t laid down any absolutes about what must be included in health-care legislation except that it must control costs and help those without insurance or with inadequate coverage.

To continue reading this article, please follow the link to the Wall Street Journal.

Congressional debate over health care hinges on numbers projected a decade forward to make sure the plan can be paid for. But it’s hard enough pinning down today’s numbers. The Census Bureau estimates that the number of uninsured amounts to 45.7 million people. But the agency might be overcounting by millions due to faulty assumptions. Another problem: That 45.7 million figure includes undocumented immigrants, even though they aren’t likely to be covered under new laws.

To continue reading this article, please follow the link to the Wall Street Journal.

Why has health-care reform stalled in Congress? Democrats, after all, control both Houses, and President Obama, whose popularity remains high, has made universal health care his No. 1 priority. What’s more, an overwhelming majority of the public wants it. In the most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 76% of respondents said it was important that Americans have a choice between a public and private health-insurance plan. In last week’s New York Times/CBSNews poll, 85% said they wanted major health-care reforms.

To continue reading, please follow the link to the Wall Street Journal.