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Research psychologists have long documented a causal relationship between individual wealth and personal contentment. In other words, the consensus among scientists is that money does indeed buy happiness. Intuitively, this makes sense. Having a certain degree of wealth makes it easier to overcome the stress of many of life’s challenges – stresses which presumably leadContinue reading “If You Think Money Can’t Buy You Happiness Then You Don’t Know Where to Shop”

“In the morning there was a big wind blowing and the waves were running high up on the beach and he was awake a long time before he remembered that his heart was broken.” These words of Ernest Hemingway come to mind as I sit outside on this beautiful Hawaiian morning. A few days agoContinue reading “The Man Who Taught Me About Generosity”

Working professionally in the world of philanthropy for the last two decades, I am often asked to volunteer with the business, legal or fund development aspects of managing a non-profit corporation. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve been involved with the “retail” end of the charitable world in which you make modest appealsContinue reading “Small Yet Beautiful Acts of Generosity”

A few months ago I was invited to join a breakfast group that has been meeting every Friday morning for the last 30 years. It’s one of those gatherings of old men who get together once a week to pontificate over a cup of coffee about how to solve all the world’s problems. Apparently, myContinue reading “Solving the World’s Problems Over Breakfast”

Those of us who work for non-profits like to think we’re immune from the rash of corruption that seems to have overtaken the for-profit world. We see convicted felon Bernie Ebbers who perpetrated an $11 billion accounting fraud at WorldCom. There’s Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay of Enron who were sentenced to decades in jailContinue reading “Fraud in the Non-Profit World”

Many of us often say that Door County is a special place. Indeed it is, particularly when it comes to charitable giving. Our level of charitable giving is far greater than you would normally find in a community with less than 30,000 permanent residents. There are few counties across the Midwest in which such anContinue reading “The Art of a Capital Campaign”

Almost inevitably, every community-minded leader in Door County will be asked at one time or another to serve on the board of directors of one of our local charities. It’s volunteer work, so it sounds simple enough; but, what does it actually mean to serve on the board of directors of a non-profit organization? ToContinue reading “Balancing Act”

As the fifth of our six children moves into her first apartment this weekend, I cannot help but pause for a moment to celebrate the giving person she has become. This daughter spends hours dreaming up wonderfully imaginative birthday celebrations for others because she knows how much it will make them smile. When she heardContinue reading “Giving is a Key to Success”

Frank Benford was a physicist in General Electric’s research laboratory almost a century ago. During that era, data sets were typed or written out by hand. One day, as he was looking through pages and pages filled with numbers, he noticed a fascinating pattern that was consistent across all his voluminous ledgers of work. First,Continue reading “An Accounting-Fraud Tool Applied to Nonprofits”

People’s reluctance to talk openly about their charitable giving has always frustrated me. Most folks will excitedly share stories about their beautiful new sailboat or the vacation they took to some exotic, far-away land. Yet when it comes to the charities we support, we tend to be far more hesitant to share. I’ve always foundContinue reading “Lessons for Nonprofits from 50,000 Wills”