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DC Site Director - Nonprofit Finance Fund

The Nonprofit Finance Fund works to improve the financial aspect of nonprofit organizations. They're a CDFI, which is a designation from the Treasury Department that allows them to do things like give out below-market loans and extend lines of credit to clients that regular banks would find too risky. Besides providing funds, they also do a lot of work training and consulting with nonprofits to help build up the financial acumen of the sector, resulting in healthier organizations able to continue doing good work. NFF is itself a nonprofit, so they are able to appreciate the uniqueness of nonprofit financials first-hand.

NFF does really great work and has carved out a really unique niche for themselves. However, being in a unique niche makes their jobs pretty unique and I'd imagine it will be difficult to find the right person for this position. You need someone with an understanding of nonprofit operations AND experience in lending or banking.

Executive Director - Brookline Music School

Since no one else seems to be using this anymore, I thought I'd use it to assist in my weird little job-hunting addiction. Note: I'm not actually looking for a new job - I'm very happy with my current one. I do, however, like to look at job postings and if it's a job I find intriguing, wonder what kind of experience would make someone qualified for it.

One that caught my eye the other day was for the Executive Director of the Brookline Music School. This is a community music school in a suburb of Boston. The budget's ~$1.8 million, 7 administrative employees, and a ton of teaching/artistic staff.

So...what kind of person would be qualified for this job? The posting itself lists "five years experience as a nonprofit manager" which implies that they're open to younger candidates. That's nice to see - there's so many postings I've seen over the years for smaller organizations than this asking for "over ten years experience in a senior management role." If people in the nonprofit arts are so concerned about developing leadership skills in the next generation, why aren't there more small and medium sized organizations open to having younger people lead them?

Lots of talk, will there actually be action?

There's been a lot of chatter lately about encouraging more people into volunteer work and/or entering the nonprofit and public sectors:

The Rockefeller Foundation conducted a survey last December on national service and civic engagement. Some of the findings:
• Nearly two thirds of Americans want a national call to service
• Over one third would consider entering a national service program (like the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps) if the next president called on Americans to participate
• Half think the federal government should require young people to spend three months in full time public service
Read the full results here.

Barack Obama has obliged with a plan for universal voluntary public service.

The Aspen Institute released a report last week detailing policy recommendations that would strengthen the nonprofit sector. Two of them are service-related:
• Expand recruitment and retention of a new generation of leaders for the nonprofit sector
• Make a Summer of Service a rite of passage for every middle-schooler

And then there's this article from the Wall Street Journal about how the weak job market is encouraging more college graduates to enter into a year (or more) of service.

Great Product Name

http://www.idea-sandbox.com/blog/2007/12/eat_me_crunchy.html

Making progress

100_3681, originally uploaded by I heart documentation.

I think I've gotten at least five years older in the past week, trying to get up holiday lights. This is one shot of progress.

Mahna Mahna!

I've been watching the Muppet Show and am totally amazed and how awesome the show was - I definitely didn't appreciate it enough when I was three years old! It also reminded me of that seminar I missed where for some reason you talked about Mahna Mahna.



Some random facts about the skit:

• It was the first skit of the first taped episode of The Muppet Show in 1976. It also appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and Sesame Street (where we all probably saw it).
• The song was originally released in 1968 by Perio Umiliani and debuted on the soundtrack of a Swedish porn movie.
• "Mahna Mahna" was voiced and performed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz
• On “Muppets Tonight” the Snowths appeared with Sandra Bullock and uttered their famous retort after she said the word “phenomenon”

Man, Bolzies making press everywhere, huh?

Marty found this surfing the internet tonight. Maybe I'm just late to the game, but I was impressed by our big time collective member! I'ma hafta post it for my students at Point.

Neal's new project

He done gone and turned his car into a vehicle for public art.

The geochalker.