Banks for Money, Food, Blood . . . & Furniture I was familiar with the term “food bank,” but — until I spoke to a salesperson at a local furniture store this weekend — had never heard the term “furniture bank.” That’s where local non-profit Bridging comes in. Bridging will pick up used furniture in...Read More
Not Biting the Hand That Feeds Them: Academe’s Deafening Silence on Runaway Pay “Yale President Richard Levin could have been in investment banking, he could have been in venture capital, he could have run a corporation. Obviously, if he’d gone into other fields, the compensation would be orders of magnitude greater.” –John Pepper, Yale compensation committee;...Read More
The World’s Biggest Non-Profit (or is that, “No-Profit For-Profit?) “Pred·a·to·ry pric·ing” (noun): pricing of goods or services at such a low level that other suppliers cannot compete and are forced to leave the market. –Wikipedia “Meager as Amazon’s 2013 profits were, they represented a small improvement from 2012, when it actually lost money. Even with the...Read More
Coping With “NFL Withdrawal”: T-Minus 22 Weeks Until Next Season “NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has set a goal to push annual revenues to $25 billion by 2027.” –ESPN If you want to triple revenues as Goodell aims to do, there are really only four strategies: 1. Sell more tickets (by adding franchises, building bigger stadiums, etc.);...Read More
That’s the question I fielded the other week from a client on behalf of their friend, who was leaving town imminently, and was (deeply) underwater on their North Minneapolis home. The short answer: ‘no.’ The more detailed answer: “no, for about 18 different reasons,” starting with the fact that what the underwater homeowner is essentially “donating” is a...Read More
Checkout Line Charity What kind of monster would answer the question — posed publicly at a checkout line in front of (many) other customers– “would you like to donate your change to starving orphans (or some such)?” with a callous “No, thanks.” Me. I can think of (at least) three reasons why. One. It’s manipulative (see above),...Read More
