Blog

by Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network We need to talk. Not a “let’s sit in a circle and do a quick icebreaker” talk, but a real, honest conversation about something that has been quietly decaying right under our noses: customer service. As nonprofit leaders and workers, we like to think of […]

by Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network Every executive director eventually arrives at the exact same harrowing realization: board management is mostly forensic psychology. When things go sideways in governance, human nature compels executive leadership to grasp for the most convenient, dramatic, and external explanation possible. If board members sit in complete

by Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network Arthur was an Executive Director who possessed a magnificent talent for grand vision statements and an equal amount of shear terror whenever someone handed him a Form 990. When he was brought on to lead Hope Horizon Services, he brought two things to the table:

by Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network I have always liked being liked. It is entirely natural to want to be liked. Human beings are social creatures who survived the ice age by huddling together in caves, and being cast out of the cave because you were unpleasant was a death sentence.

by Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network There is a distinct, fleeting pleasure in updating your email signature. Adding three or four capitalized words after a comma feels remarkably like receiving a knighthood, minus the risk of an actual sword near your neck. When I was thirty-one years old, I experienced this

Tennessee Nonprofit Network announces that Andrea Hill, Chief External Affairs Officer, is stepping into an exciting new leadership role in Memphis. While her departure marks the end of an era for our staff and board, we are immensely grateful for her five years of dedicated service, visionary leadership, and unwavering commitment to strengthening Tennessee’s social

by Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network Note that this is an expansion of a component of a previous blog post. Every sector has its sacred traditions, but the social sector has elevated tradition to a competitive sport. Somewhere along the way, nonprofit culture adopted the belief that an organization’s founding document

by Tony Murchison, East Tennessee Regional Director, Tennessee Nonprofit Network Here at Tennessee Nonprofit Network, we recently wrapped up our first communications training focused on earning media coverage. This was the first of three communications trainings we are offering across the state for nonprofits to learn how to better communicate their impact to Tennessee donors. Along the way, we learned something

by Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network There is a undeniably magical period at the inception of a nonprofit organization. You spot a gaping hole in society, invent a clever mechanism to fix it, and watch your creation blossom. Soon enough, the funding streams begin to trickle in, then flow. The evaluation

by Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network A few years ago, a friend of mine received the kind of news that usually sends a nonprofit executive directly into a tranquilizer-induced coma: her organization’s building had completely burned to the ground. To anyone who had ever set foot in the structure, the fire