Tools - wrenches, nuts, and bolts

Fiduciary Duty, Governance, IP, Nonprofits, Philanthropy

March 2, 2022

Foundations, Grantees, and Intellectual Property Rights

I was a fundraiser for 15 years. The implications of my survey’s findings on who funds, owns, and benefits from intellectual property created by nonprofits was always lingering in the back of my mind. Fundraising is not a new activity or new profession. I remember one of my grad school professors showing us a direct […]

Notebook with question marks

IP, Nonprofits, Organizational Strategy

February 23, 2022

More Curiosity: What New Questions the Survey Prompted

After the analysis of the survey responses was complete, I found myself in a similar state of curiosity that I’d been in before the survey. There were more questions about intellectual property, management, and strategy that hadn’t been answered. Some of these questions for the basis of my ongoing study and work as a consultant. […]

Cup of coins with plant sprouting

Governance, IP, Organizational Strategy

February 11, 2022

Q30, Q31, Q32, & Q33: Fundraising and Nonprofit Intellectual Property

Today’s survey data is all about whether nonprofits leverage their intellectual property assets to secure investments, like grants or donations. I don’t know of a single nonprofit that couldn’t use more. More money, that is. Money, as one type of asset accomplishes one critical thing: buying resources (talent, supplies, awareness) that enables achieving organizational objectives. […]

"Don't waste your talent" written on sidewalk

IP, Nonprofits, Organizational Strategy

February 7, 2022

Q28 & Q29: Nonprofit Staff and Board Recruitment

My pre-survey reading also highlighted the less obvious marketplace opportunity of recruiting and retaining people talent (Bingham and Spradlin, 2011). Showcasing intellectual capital assets to prospective board members and employees is a way to demonstrate expertise and strong operational skills. For recruiting board members, it’s a way to differentiate a nonprofit from others in the […]

Computer screen with "Do More" written on screen

IP, Nonprofits, Organizational Strategy

February 3, 2022

Q26 & 27: Nonprofit Scaling and Growth

My pre-survey reading opened my mind to the number of ways that intellectual property assets are used to expand market opportunities. Intellectual property is one asset that can be leveraged to grow or scale a nonprofit organization. It is something I have seen done by previous employers and clients. I wondered how prevalent it would […]

Neon sign of two hands shaking

Collaboration, IP, Nonprofits

February 1, 2022

Q24 & Q25: Developing Partnerships with Intellectual Property

My pre-survey reading enlightened me to the myriad ways that intellectual property assets are used to expand market opportunities. Partnering with other brands or companies is one strategy for market expansion. I had worked at nonprofits that sought a variety of partnerships and I wondered how prevalent it would be within this sample. The 19 […]

Piggy bank

IP, Nonprofits, Organizational Strategy

January 28, 2022

Q22 & Q23: Nonprofit Earned Revenue

I was also curious to know if nonprofit organizations were using their intellectual property assets to generate revenues through their own work as fee-for-service or other fees. At the time it seemed silly because fee-for-services represents about 80 cents of every dollar received by nonprofits. But, as that same article points out, that statistic is […]

Walk sign on traffic light

Governance, IP, Nonprofits, Organizational Strategy

January 23, 2022

Q18, Q19, Q20 & Q21: Permissions Granted to Licensees

The nine organizations that license their intellectual property to other organizations were then asked a series of questions about permission to modify and resell licensed IP. I asked this to get a better understanding of where respondents fit on the spectrum of protection for their IP asset. For example, did they prefer weak or strong […]

Person writing on sheet of paper

IP, Nonprofits, Organizational Strategy

January 17, 2022

Q15, Q16 & Q17: Licensing IP to Others

One of the ways intellectual property assets create value is in the ability to license the right to use the intellectual property to others. This can be for a fee or not. Either way, the owner’s stock of reputational or expertise capital grows simply by having a valuable asset that creates value and utility for […]

Chess pieces

Governance, IP, Organizational Strategy

January 11, 2022

Q13 & Q14: Who Makes Strategic IP Decisions

All of the nonprofits were asked who is authorized to make decisions regarding the use of organization’s Intellectual Property on behalf of the organization. This question is distinct from the one asked earlier about the day-to-day management because it gets at the strategic, rather than tactical, usage of IP. The nonprofits shared that: Comparing this […]

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