A publication of the Stanford Center for Social Innovation and their Graduate School of Business, the Review publishes articles and focus peer review onto strategies, tools, and ideas for nonprofits, foundations, and socially responsible businesses. They also host and sponsor conferences and events, many related to social computing.

This lengthy guide introduces tax-exemption status for non-profit organizations. Read this if you contemplate establishing a not-for-profit organization.

Laws require corporations, as legal entities owning property, entering contracts, and assuming debt, have a governing board of directors, accountable as a fiduciary to its shareholders, members, or the public. These governing boards organize and operate according to articles of incorporation, bylaws, resolutions, and policies, oversee corporate purpose and plans, select and supervise management, ensure sufficient resources for the organization, and ensure compliance with laws and regulations. This linked page outlines and links many more pages covering governance and policy; roles and responsibilities; operations and systems; accountability and ethics; staffing, compensation, communications and the issues of running an organization. It also covers director training as a comprehensive overview and exemplar of how boards should work. The scope and volume of information make it suitable for a weekend workshop with additional homework in addition to a checklist and toolkit enroute to introducing best practices.

“We are not really a foundation [like the Gates Foundation]. It’s a bit of a 501(c)3, a bit of a C corp, and a bit of an academic environment. I can play more of the keys on the keyboard. A 501(c)3 can’t lobby. A 501(c)3 can’t invest in a company or build an industry. [From Google we get] 1% of the equity, 1 percent of the profits, and 1 percent of the people go into Google.org. The most important asset isn’t money, it’s people. One percent of the people means 60 or 70 of the smartest people in the world trying to solve some of the biggest problems in the world.” —Larry Brilliant, Google.org —in http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/brilliant.html

PolicyLink, a non-profit dedicated to fostering best practices and cultivating resources for buillding social capital and social enterprise, surveys financing and ownership models for cooperatives. This guide links many other organizations and programs for specific help.

I first learned of this via the Burning Man Webteam. Hosted at Reclaiming, a site devoted to modern witchcraft and paganism, yet subtitled “No-Magic” and originating from the short classic by Berit Lakey of the Movement for a New Society, a reform movement within the Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers, this document may sound like a contradiction. Instead widespread adoption likely attests to the practical success of things that work. And what works for pagans and Quakers, and hackers and Burners, ought also work for many of us.

Meeting facilitation, especially when parties find difficulty in coming to agreement, can be an art. Use this checklist after understanding the approach guided in the companion document “Meeting Facilitation — The No-magic Method” by Berit Lackey of the Movement for a New Society, a reform movement within the Society of Friends, the Quakers.

Incorporating a not-for-profit in New York isn't all that difficult. It doesn't require a lawyer, though ability to understand thick layers of instructions and experience help. This guide answers frequently asked questions, provides instructions for a sample Certificate of Incorporation, and information about fees.

Throughout my life i've read in the paper stories i also from the inside. Mostly they get gist right but in many instances they get details wrong. Having written for the Black Rock Beacon for six years and served as News Editor for three, i keep my eyes out for getting things right and even go back after publication to check. Happily, this article gets things right, but also, much has changed in the past year. Perhaps time is due for another article. Only City News has yet to visit and write an article. You'd think, given their scope, audience, and political leanings, they'd have been first.

Sure, Larry Harvey espouses 10 principles for Burning Man. They appear in each summer issue of the Burning Man newsletter. Organizations adopting them, however, do not automatically work. They are not the true principles deep at work underlying functioning communities. Instead, i find other deeper ones. Here is an honest and earnest description of one of them.