Hi Reader,
Here's your latest serving of good news and replicable good ideas to improve your nonprofit:
- Two What's Most Goods focused on collaborative systems change.
- Three Quick Hits addressing common IT issues, and
- An AI prompt to ease grant compliance obligations
And by the way, I want to introduce our inaugural featured nonprofit partner for our Read Good / Do Good Pledge (see postscript): Rooted. This innovative Madison-area nonprofit works hard every day to build better food systems. I know its co-EDs, Ginny Hughes and Hedi Rudd, really well, and I am proud we can contribute to their continued success.
Atlanta Collaboration Moves 430 People into Housing and Tees Up $10M Upstream Initiative
Atlanta’s nonprofit homelessness coordinator, Partners for HOME, has now helped move more than 430 previously unsheltered people into housing through Downtown Rising, the first phase of its broader Atlanta Rising campaign. The organization reports that it has raised $162.5 million toward a $235 million goal, brought 713 permanent supportive housing units online, and has 389 more in development.
Perhaps most important for nonprofit practitioners, 96% of those rehoused remain housed, and the initiative is now paired with a planned $10 million prevention program beginning in June 2026 to help about 800 families a year avoid losing housing in the first place.
The operational lesson here is practical and powerful: the program combines 24 street outreach workers, cross-sector partnerships, supportive housing inventory, and prevention resources in one coherent system. This is a systems-design story. Communities that already have outreach teams, service providers, and housing partners could adapt the same coordinated structure rather than starting from scratch.
If we want to move the sector forward in a time of increasing constraints, we have to break down barriers of “competition” between nonprofits in the same space and increase collective action among nonprofits in adjacent spaces. Our beneficiaries deserve that.
Catherine Vassel, CEO of Partners for HOME, is the contact listed in the materials I reviewed. Her email is cvassell@partnersforhome.org.
Palm Beach County Food Bank Direct Food-and-Nutrition Program Combining Mobile Pantry and Medically Tailored Boxes
The Palm Beach County Food Bank has launched its first-ever direct Food & Nutrition Program, marking a shift from solely distributing through partners to also serving residents directly in neighborhoods with limited food access. The new model combines a mobile food pantry, monthly nutrition education, and medically tailored food boxes for people managing chronic conditions. The program is being implemented with partners including the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County, Palm Beach County Community Services, Florida Blue Foundation, and Baptist Health. Participants can access services at multiple sites, and intake is available in English, Spanish, and Creole, which improves reach in communities that are often missed by fixed-site pantries. The program also uses the county’s OSCARSS system to track participation and tailor food selections.
This is an unusually practical innovation because it does not invent a new service category; it improves delivery by stacking mobile access, health education, and nutrition matching into one workflow. Food banks and multi-site hunger nonprofits elsewhere could copy this design with local health and county partners. Toni Ravelo-Hassinger, Senior Account Manager, Slatkow & Husak Public Relations, is listed as a contact, with a phone number of (561) 278-0850.
Make Your 404 Pages Useful (From "Dead End" to Engaged Donor)
Swap the generic “Page not found” message on your website for a friendly message, a search box, and 3–5 high‑intent links (Donate, Programs, Volunteer, Contact). Even better? Add a light “Having trouble? Email us” CTA. Here is a great reference with examples of really smart 404's.
The ROI is obvious: if you turn one frustrated potential donor into a laughing guest, you dramatically improve your fundraising success!
Use a Pop-Up to Catch People Leaving Your Donor Page
If your web platform allows, show a lightbox (pop-up) when someone moves to close the tab: “Need more info? We’ll email you a 60 second impact story.” This captures warm leads respectfully—without pressure tactics. While pop-ups can be annoying, if someone is on your donor page, they are primed to do something, and this allows you to capture an email.
Create "Stop Phishing" Guide
Write an internal one-pager and send it to staff and volunteers today. While this might be viewed as a "threat reduction" instead of an opportunity, think of it as an opportunity to avoid catastrophic loss. You could use the information in this link to create something in under 15 minutes. As a bonus, share the linked article and ask people to share back their worst phishing stories (since engagement increases learning).
Compliance-Proof Your Grants
I was speaking to a subscriber who was worried about compliance issues hidden in grant contracts. I worked with ChatGPT to do the following exhaustive prompt:
PROMPT: Review This Grant Contract for All Compliance Requirements. Act as an expert nonprofit grant compliance reviewer. I am uploading a grant contract, agreement, award letter, amendment, exhibit, attachment, or related document. Review it carefully and identify all compliance requirements that apply to the nonprofit grantee. Your job is not to give a general summary. Your job is to find every obligation my nonprofit must follow, including requirements that are easy to miss. However, prioritize your results so that we can focus on what is truly material.
What to identify
For each compliance requirement, provide:
- ID — a short tracking label
- Requirement — what the nonprofit must do, in plain English
- Source — the section, page, exhibit, or quoted language that creates the requirement
- Category — such as reporting, allowable costs, budget changes, match, audit, record retention, insurance, staffing, data privacy, subcontractors, procurement, performance, publicity, closeout, or termination
- Responsible party — who inside the nonprofit likely owns it
- Trigger — whether it is ongoing, one-time, deadline-based, incident-based, reimbursement-based, closeout-related, or triggered by some other event
- Deadline or timing — exact due date or frequency, if stated
- Evidence to retain — what records would prove compliance
- Consequence of noncompliance — repayment, delayed payment, termination, audit findings, loss of funding, or other consequences
- Risk level — high, medium, or low, with a brief reason
Pay special attention to [insert any special worries you have].
Make sure you catch requirements involving:
- reports and invoices
- spending restrictions and allowable costs
- prior approval for budget or program changes
- matching funds or cost share
- record retention
- audits and monitoring
- insurance
- staffing, training, or background checks
- data privacy and security
- subcontractors or subrecipients
- procurement rules
- nondiscrimination and accessibility
- publicity or acknowledgment language
- equipment or property
- incident reporting
- closeout duties
- termination, repayment, or clawback
- laws, regulations, policies, or external documents incorporated by reference
Also include these sections:
1. Top Risks
List the most important compliance obligations and the biggest likely failure points, noting for each why you have force-ranked them that way.
2. Full Compliance Table
List every requirement in a clear table.
3. Easy-to-Miss Requirements
Flag obligations hidden in boilerplate, exhibits, definitions, attachments, or incorporated rules.
4. Needs Clarification
List vague language, missing attachments, conflicting terms, and anything that should be confirmed with the funder or legal counsel.
5. Outside Rules Incorporated into the Contract
Identify any statutes, regulations, manuals, online terms, or policies the contract pulls in by reference, and explain whether the uploaded document appears incomplete without them.
6. Compliance Calendar
Create a practical checklist showing:
- action
- owner
- due date or frequency
- evidence to retain
- risk level
Important instructions
- Be thorough, not brief.
- Focus only on obligations that apply to the nonprofit grantee.
- Treat boilerplate as important.
- Do not invent requirements that are not supported by the document.
- If you infer a requirement, label it as an inference.
- If the document is incomplete, say what appears to be missing.
- If multiple documents are uploaded, compare them and flag conflicts.
- After finishing, do a second pass just to look for missed obligations in attachments, definitions, and boilerplate.
Whew! Is that too much for you? Drop it into your favorite AI with the prompt:
Make me the simplest version of this prompt that is still robust.
Other AI Prompts for Nonprofits
I like this list of potential AI prompts for nonprofits. I would likely tighten the language (email me if you want ideas for one that intrigues you), but the list shows the vast power of AI to help you serve your beneficiaries better.
That's it for this week. Thank you to those who have let me know what they are working on so that I can research ways to help. Reply to this email with more suggestions.
(If you have received this email from someone, use this link to sign up for free.)
Ted
P.S. The "Read Good / Do Good" Pledge provides 20&% of net profits from NGN Premium to a nonprofit partner.
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Founder and CEO Risk Alternatives, LLC 202.758.7572 (cell) 608.709.0793 (office) Website
Author of Managing Your Nonprofit for Resilience
We help nonprofits thrive by providing practical tools and support to address uncertainty and improve risk management.
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