What do you think about Paul’s viewpoint that the retirement of baby boomers from the federal sector could bring about needed change in the ‘federal machine’ by incoming young people? Are there any lessons we can apply in the nonprofit sector?

I find it odd that the existence of a sector that provides vital necessities to the public is predicated on whether or not people deem their cause worthy that year.

We use social media to connect and the trick is harnessing that passion to enrich the lives of others.

Working for a nonprofit that operates on a budget that would make scrooge cry, it can be difficult to figure out inexpensive (read cheap) ways to utilize social media techniques, versus all the excess fluff we really don’t have the time or funds to manage or learn about.

When finances are tight, if there are disagreements, or if things aren’t going as well as you hoped, you want someone on board with you who you enjoy being with. You want someone you can stand to be around when the picture isn’t so rosy.

One of the most important skills you can learn in life is knowing when to quit. This skill is rarely taught in school, and there are not many books on the subject, either. So, grab a seat: this is your education on quitting.

The value of college seems questionable because the emphasis is on the content, rather than the process and the application of knowledge.

For fundraising, most organizations solely look to boomers and seniors for donations. The prospect pool is much higher because of the sheer population numbers and income. But this conventional wisdom often leads organizations to completely ignore young donors, but they are making big mistakes if they don’t build donor relationships with millennials.

Sometimes in the quest to get where we’re going, we forget what it will be like once we get there. What looks like a refusal to settle may be only an inability to sit happily underneath the very tree you planted.

From what I have heard about most foundations, they are stuck a lot like many nonprofits are. There have to be changes made in both nonprofits that do the service and those that fund it, and Bill Somerville provides his readers with some great ideas for how to make those changes in the foundation field.