Betsy Nelson: Living the nonprofit leadership transition 
BY: Betsy Nelson
POSTED: May 20, 2012
Tags: Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers, Betsy Nelson, Business, maryland, Nonprofit, nonprofit organizations
Seems to me that the much-anticipated leadership transition for nonprofit organizations is now occurring. Maybe it is reality or just my perception, since I recently announced that after 25 years I will step down as president of the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers by the end of 2012. I look around and see that in [...]
Betsy Nelson: Region needs to build on significant assets
BY: Betsy Nelson
POSTED: May 6, 2012
Tags: Annie E. Casey Foundation, Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers, Betsy Nelson, Building from Strength: Creating Opportunity in Greater Baltimore’s Next Economy, maryland, Nonprofit
Last month, I was fortunate enough to attend the first of a four-part Redefining Capital series hosted by the Federal Reserve of Richmond/Baltimore Branch and a number of community partners — including, proudly, the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers. This forum featured the release of Building from Strength: Creating Opportunity in Greater Baltimore’s Next Economy, [...]
Betsy Nelson: United Way campaign results offer hope
BY: Betsy Nelson
POSTED: April 23, 2012
Tags: Betsy Nelson, campaign, charitable giving, Nonprofit, united way, United Way of Central Maryland
It’s been some time since nonprofits have had something to cheer about. They have been hit hard by proverbial one-two punches. With the economy struggling and government budgets under duress, nonprofits have been called upon to deliver even more for our disadvantaged and vulnerable neighbors. Meanwhile, donors tightened their wallets. Although its fiscal year will [...]
Betsy Nelson: Defining and measuring success with data
BY: Betsy Nelson
POSTED: April 9, 2012
Tags: action review, Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers, Betsy Nelson, corporate giving program, data, Nonprofit
As a membership organization of foundations and corporate giving programs, the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers has had a longstanding interest in increasing the funding community’s capacity to support and use data to inform decision making. We have seen increased interest by funders in measuring the impact of their grant dollars. The desire to target [...]
Betsy Nelson: Grants help drive change in city schools
BY: Betsy Nelson
POSTED: March 22, 2012
Tags: Betsy Nelson, charitable giving, city schools, grants, public education, schools
Nationally, 22 percent of all foundation grants invest in quality private and public education, which makes education second only to health as a grantmaking area. Here at the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers, education grants are part of many of our members’ portfolios. Yet, a few years ago, we realized that we didn’t know much [...]
Betsy Nelson: Best, worst grant requests have something in common
BY: Betsy Nelson
POSTED: March 12, 2012
Tags: Betsy Nelson, charitable giving, grantmakers, maryland, Nonprofit
When asked, grantmakers had some interesting insights into the best and worst grants they have made. And the Center for Funds & Foundations at the ASSOCIATED: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore and the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers did the asking at a joint session for trustees and staff at foundations and donor-advised funds. Here [...]
Betsy Nelson: Community comes through for city schools
BY: Betsy Nelson
POSTED: February 26, 2012
Tags: Baltimore, Betsy Nelson, community, Education, ExCELL-E teacher training program, Middle School STEM, public schools, schools, United States Department of Education
It is an exciting time for public education in Baltimore. In late December, the United States Department of Education announced the grantees for its highly competitive Investing in Innovation (i3) grants, awarded to support the validation and expansion of innovative programs that benefit high-need public school students. Out of nearly 600 applications, only 23 grants [...]
Betsy Nelson: Legal safety net needs stable funding
BY: Betsy Nelson
POSTED: February 12, 2012
Tags: Betsy Nelson, charitable giving, federal reserve, funding, iolta, legal safety, Maryland Legal Services Corporation
It likely comes as no surprise to anyone that poor people haven’t seen their fate improve since the advent of the Great Recession. Nor would most people be surprised to learn that there are more people living in poverty in the United States today than at any other time in our country’s history. When we [...]
Betsy Nelson: Boards should spend time looking forward
BY: Betsy Nelson
POSTED: January 29, 2012
Tags: Betsy Nelson, board meetings, Business, charitable giving, charity, funding, johns hopkins university, nancy hall, Nonprofit
In today’s environment, nonprofit organizations are faced with numerous challenges, be they financial, administrative, or programmatic. Wondering how many boards of directors are up to the task, I contacted Nancy Hall, one of my “go-to” nonprofit professionals, for her opinion. Nancy teaches nonprofit management at Johns Hopkins University as well as consults to nonprofit organizations. [...]
Betsy Nelson: A decade later and the stories keep coming
BY: Betsy Nelson
POSTED: January 22, 2012
Tags: Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers, Betsy Nelson, charitable giving, Nonprofit, organization
Ten years and 240 columns about the role philanthropy plays in our community and our world! It gives me pause as I reflect on the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmaker’s biweekly column in The Daily Record. In the initial 2001 column, I noted that while many of us are familiar with the activities of nonprofit [...]
Dolan Business Books
Lawyers Weekly Books