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Days of Thanksgiving 11/15/08
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The whole world seems to have sighed with relief after the U.S. presidential elections. For many, the election of the former nonprofit community organizer Barack Obama (previous Blue Avocado article) was a cause for celebration. For others, at least the news frenzy and suspense was over. (One Blue Avocado reader commented, "We are discovering how depressed we have been for eight years.") In many community nonprofits, people see hope and despair, ignorance and generosity every day. It's nice to see the emotional balance tip, at least temporarily, from depression to hope.
Hope itself is a kind of happiness, it is sometimes said, and as Thanksgiving arrives we can be thankful for this kind of happiness, and for the benefits of community. In this issue of Blue Avocado, we visit a Crow Indian Reservation, and track a turkey from egg to table as it goes past all the nonprofits that touch its path along the way. Our popular Ask Rita column tackles the issue of someone drinking at work; the Board Cafe column takes on nonprofit embezzlement, and we sum up the sign-offs used by readers. Kind regards (I think that's the reader suggestion I liked best), Jan Masaoka
Turkey Giveaway on the Crow Reservation
Peggy Wellknown Buffalo at the nonprofit Center Pole in Montana talked to Blue Avocado about Thanksgiving, turkeys, and hunger:
We go to the schools and give the turkeys to children. If you give turkeys to adults it can reinforce the wrong things. But if you ask the children who wants a turkey to take home, and he brings it home on a wagon through the snow it makes the child feel valuable, he's bringing home food for the family. It reminds me when I and my brothers were in charge of getting all the meat for our family [by hunting]. 
Children worry about their next meal, if there's going to be something to eat when they get home. They can't really concentrate on anything else, you know, if they're worried about that.
--Peggy White Wellknown Buffalo, Executive Director, The Center Pole Foundation on the Crow Indian Reservation
Permission for use of Peggy White Wellknown Buffalo photo graciously granted by Susan Sermoneta. The photo of children on the Reservation is from Center Pole.
An Alcohol Problem Holds the Bookkeeping Hostage
Dear Rita: Most of the 11 employees in the rural education nonprofit I direct work out of the office. We hardly see each other, so after our quarterly staff meetings, we usually get together for a glass of wine or dinner. After our last meeting our bookkeeper, "Alice," got obviously drunk. Then a few weeks later, I went into the office unexpectedly and she made a quick excuse to leave. I think - but don't know for sure - that she was drunk. Also, in the past few months Alice has missed a few deadlines. Once, she didn't make the tax deposit! What can I do? Sobered Supervisor > Read more
The Trouble with Turkey
If there’s one day when socially conscious do-gooders can be excused for letting the cares of the world slip away in a haze of tryptophan, it’s Thanksgiving. As major holidays go, Thanksgiving is remarkably worry-free, its main focus neither commercial nor ceremonial in nature. You don’t have to come bearing gifts. You don’t have to dress up. You don’t have to stay up till midnight. Even religious worship is usually not de rigueur, unless you count prayer at dinner. Honestly, unless you’re the host, all you have to do on Thanksgiving is show up, watch football, and, well, eat. Right?
Ah, if only it were that easy. > Read more
Nonprofit Embezzlement: More Common and More Preventable Than You Think
"I was on the board of a national social justice organization for three years. The Development Director discovered that the "external-auditor-turned-internal-accountant" had been embezzling funds by stealing checks and using the "stamp signature" of the CEO. The day after it was discovered, the accountant shot and killed himself. He had also been embezzling from a church he volunteered for. The lesson I walked away from this tragic scene with was this -- as a board member did I do everything I could to prevent embezzlement? Why did I hesitate in saying anything when staff suggested it was a good idea to hire our auditor for internal work because 'he knew us so well'?" --Blue Avocado reader who asked to remain anonymous
Embezzlement -- fraud committed by employees and volunteers -- is especially painful in community nonprofits. Not only is real damage done to our organization, but we feel that our cause has been betrayed by someone we trusted and liked. We worry that donors and grantmakers will be less likely to give us money if they hear about it. And because embezzlement is so often kept quiet in nonprofits, we might think that we are the only ones to experience it. What are some of the most common types of nonprofit embezzlement and how to deal with them?
> Read moreTake a 3-Minute Vacation Right Now: "Thanksgiving: A Native American View"
People in every culture have celebrated the harvest for centuries. Here in the U.S. our harvest festival has complicated political nuances. We are grateful for the insightful and inspiring classic essay about why celebrates Thanksgiving by Jacqueline Keeler, a member of the Dineh Nation and the Yankton Dakota Sioux, who now works at the nonprofit American Indian Child Resource Center in Oakland, California. Read her short essay for a 3-minute vacation: Thanksgiving: A Native American View.
Nonprofit Email Sign-Offs
Dozens of Blue Avocado writers gave our writer Keiko Rosenstiel a lot to work with:
After hearing from dozens of Blue Avocado readers what is the right way to sign off on a nonprofit email, I've come to the conclusion that there is none! It's a personal preference that must take into consideration who is at the receiving end. It's impractical to type "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars," as Casey Kasem signed off his famous Top Ten radio show. However much I like the message, it's too long! The consensus is . . . keep it short and in synch with the tone of the email. Here's some of what we heard:
> Read more
