Alan Cantor Consulting – Helping Nonprofits Succeed!
Al approaches complex issues with thoughtfulness, moral clarity, and ardor.| Alan Cantor Consulting
Here are two sentences you’ll never hear bosses say:| Alan Cantor Consulting
When retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter died earlier this month, the nation lost a remarkable public servant – and a man who, sadly, predicted with stunning accuracy the constitutional disaster we now face as a nation. I was an acquaintance of David Souter’s. Our relationship began in the late-1980s when I was a young...| Alan Cantor Consulting
The writer Dorothy Parker had a unique way of answering the phone. Instead of saying hello, she would cry out, “What fresh hell is this?!” I think of that on a daily basis as I hear about at the latest amalgam of cruelty, graft, chaos, mendacity, and inanity coming out of the Trump Administration and...| Alan Cantor Consulting
[Note: This is a slight updating of a post I did nine years ago. Alas, the content is still current!] As fairy tales go, “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” is fairly benign. Goldilocks is not eaten by a wolf. She isn’t fed poisoned apples. The worst thing that happens to Goldilocks is that she wanders...| Alan Cantor Consulting
Nobody who has followed Elon Musk’s rampage through the world of business, social media, and politics would be surprised to learn that his approach to charitable giving has been a bit, well, ill-considered. Heedless. Self-serving. Disrespectful of the norms and the rules. Certainly infuriating. And Musk’s charitable impact? Only a bit more than negligible. Musk’s...| Alan Cantor Consulting
As we approach this year’s Academy Awards, I’ve been thinking about the best picture of 1957, director Sidney Lumet’s “12 Angry Men.” If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth watching. It’s a terrific courtroom drama – or, more precisely, a jury room drama, as twelve jurors (this was nearly 70 years ago, so they were...| Alan Cantor Consulting
Our grandson Jack is a few weeks shy of turning three, but he’s extremely verbal and bright – or at least this doting grandfather thinks so. During our July family vacation, we were walking on a beach in Maine, and my wife Pat said, “Oh! Somebody left trash on the beach!” To which Jack asked,...| Alan Cantor Consulting
Last week’s big news was that AmazonSmile is closing shop after ten years. What can you say about AmazonSmile? What can you say about a corporate behemoth that undertakes an ill-conceived and manipulative plan to remake its image on the backs of the nonprofit sector; that then spends a decade overpromising, underdelivering, causing serious distractions...| Alan Cantor Consulting
[Note: An edited version of this article appeared in Harvard Business Review on October 12, 2022.] If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it, well, a dozen times: “We almost never have time in board meetings to talk about strategy. We’re too busy with board business!” Which raises the question: What kind of board business is...| Alan Cantor Consulting
The boarding school I attended recently announced a $25 million gift from one of its trustees. I don’t begrudge my alma mater its big gift. I’ll also note that the donor is a gracious and generous man – I’ve met him once or twice. And the funds are directed for scholarships, which I applaud. But...| Alan Cantor Consulting
Al approaches complex issues with thoughtfulness, moral clarity, and ardor.| Alan Cantor Consulting
No Common Man| Alan Cantor Consulting
