A few years ago, V. Kasturi Rangan from Harvard Business School argued that nonprofits need to have more than just a lofty mission to survive. In his article, entitled "Lofty Missions, Down-to-Earth Plans," he argued that nonprofits need a systematic method that connects their callings to their programs.

The Wall Street Journal weekend edition last weekend covered Eli Broad and his philanthropy. If you don't know, Mr. Broad is retired from for-profit jobs where he founded two Fortune 500 companies. He lives in Los Angeles and manages a foundation with $2.1 billion. As Ms. Riley, from the WSJ points, out, he is living by the Carnegie mantra of "Who dies with wealth, dies in shame."

On Tuesday of this week, I facilitated a 2.5 hour session called measuring and managing your strategy. I had a choice. I could teach to a case, and get participants from 30 organizations to all work on the same material, or I could ask them to build their own strategy map and measures. Now the challenge is that to effectively build a strategy map and measures typically takes 2-3 sessions of working with an organization's leadership team. Oh, did I mention that I also wanted to teach about using the Balanced Scorecard as a management tool, not just a measurement tool.

I get a regular email from HBS Working Knowledge, and today's email had a very interesting article in it. The article was called Trusth in Giving: Experimental Evidence on the Welfare Effects of Informed Giving to the Poor. Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee is doing research with Christina Fong to study whether people give more when they understand the plight of the person they are giving to. They try to answer the questions about how giving changes based on the context of the group being helped. Would you give more or less money to individuals who are poor because of circumstances they control (gambling or drug problems) or circumstances out of their control (children or economically devistated region). His research is interesting.

On June 18, the New York Times in coordination with the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York and Philanthropy New York (the old Regional Association of Grantmakers). Like last year, this event was held in the wonderful NY Times center, and the presentations were excellent.

I had the pleasure of being at the best practices workshop and the awards ceremony at the Washington Post today. This was the 15 year anniversary of the award for excellence in nonprofit management. The Center for Nonprofit Management manages the award program. This year, there were some great finalists.

Did you receive a postcard when you got home from the CLA conference? Our mailing company sent it a week after we wanted, so it would have been hard for you to bring the postcard to our exhibit booth. Don't worry, the offer from the postcard is still good through May 15, 2009.

Columbia Business School's "Ideas@Work" blog had an interesting post last week entitled "The Nonprofit MBA." The premise was that in a time of unprecedented challenge for non-profits, hiring a MBA may be a way for social sector organizations to tap into management expertise that can help them survive. (Since MBAs are a lot cheaper now than they used to be!)

It has been an interesting seven months since I have written about the potential for Mergers and Acquisitions in the nonprofit sector. The question in my mind has always been about how you would conduct mergers with nonprofits. What would be the incentive? Where would the money come from? The payout might be more efficient delivery of services, but the people that get the services typically are not paying, so they cannot force consolidation in the industry. The New York Times might have answered my longstanding question today.

I'm very happy to report that the first-ever Mission Driven Performance Management Summit in Washington, DC, was a smashing success! We had over 80 people in attendance and had incredible discussions about how the Balanced Scorecard can be used to drive lasting strategic change.