By Todd J. Sukol This week I read Edward Luce’s jarring The Retreat of Western Liberalism. His sober assessment of American and European democracy left me more concerned than ever about today’s fractured political and economic environment. As for post-2016-election America, Luce doesn’t spare criticism of either the right or left as he draws into…
Confronting Organizational Entropy
By Todd J. Sukol Today I had the pleasure of attending a luncheon in honor of Joshua Venture Group‘s most recent cohort of talented social entrepreneurs setting out to the change the world through Jewish values and teachings. What an impressive group! What stood out most to me was the way that the two year…
The Nonprofit “Uniqueness Epidemic”
Last summer I had the pleasure of taking a course in Economics as it relates to the philanthropic and economic sector (at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University). Like many in our field, my background is on the programmatic side and my orientation is more intuitive than analytical. Over many years as…
Zero-Based Budgeting for Nonprofits
I recently had the pleasure of debating with fellow students at the School of Philanthropy about the relative advantages and disadvantages of zero-based budgeting for nonprofit organizations. Over the last few years, zero-based budgeting has become very much in vogue again in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector. Like so many good things, however, is sometimes…