BE A LIFELONG LEARNER!

Every industry has its own jargon, acronyms, and terminology that is mysterious to those outside that industry. This is true for IT, accounting, non-profit management, for-profit management, and many others. When we don't understand the words being used, we often feel dumb, think of ourselves as uninformed, or experience "imposter syndrome" where we question our own competency.

I believe in being a lifelong learner and I am perpetually curious. According to many of my clients, one of my "super-powers" is translating industry-specific jargon and terminology in a way that the lay-person (or someone outside that specialized field) can understand. This new page, which is a work-in-progress, provides some examples, will serve as a starting point for de-mystifying some basic jargon and pointing the curious toward more resources for exploration.

Would you like to see a topic addressed on this page? Let me know!

Table of Contents

The Process of Appreciative Inquiry

The Difference Between For-Profit and Non-Profit Financial Statements

Choosing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software

Implementing a Cloud Storage and Collaboration Platform

Internet Domains and Hosting Explained

The Process of Appreciative Inquiry

Problem solving usually starts with a negative premise: what isn't working? Bonvie employs a different approach called "Appreciative Inquiry" that starts by looking at what IS working and it invites stakeholders to both imagine the ideal future and reflect on how to get there. Debbie had the honor of learning about Appreciative Inquiry at Case Western Reserve's Weatherhead School of Management in the 1990's directly from David Cooperrider, one of the two people who originally articulated the theory.

Appreciative Inquiry is a positive, strengths-based approach to leadership development and organizational change. It combines the science of change management with the science of positive psychology to help organizations manage change with excitement and with commitment. Traditionally, when organizations wanted to improve their performance, they would look at what is NOT working. They would identify problems, analyze the causes, and come up with solutions. This tended to turn organizations into problems that needed to be solved, zapping from employees energy, motivation, and good will - the very qualities people NEED to be happy and help organizations flourish.

Appreciative Inquiry turns that model on its head, asking instead:

What is working?
What are we doing well?
What are the root causes of our success?
What makes us proud of our work?

AI shifts the focus from problems and deficits to strengths, successes, and positive potential. It aims to create new ideas and possibilities that people want to act on, fostering a sense of engagement, collective purpose, shared vision, and motivation. Appreciative Inquiry uses positive questions and language to encourage change and build momentum in a way that contributes to a more positive and supportive organizational culture.

Learn More

The Center for Appreciative Inquiry (2025)

What is Appreciative Inquiry (2019)

The Difference Between For-Profit and Non-Profit Financial Statements

Standard financial reports differ slightly between for-profit and non-profit organizations, but are equally important to both. I run into many executives and board members who feel they don't really understand finance reports, so here's a brief summary.

In the for-profit world, the Profit & Loss Statement and Balance Sheet are the two reports generally examined to determine the health of an organization. The P&L shows how much an organization makes (revenue) and how much it spends (expenses) while a Balance Sheet shows an organizations' assets, liabilities, and owner's equity.

In the non-profit world, the idea of the reports is the same, but the terminology is a bit different. Instead of a Profit & Loss Statement, a non-profit (which obviously does not operate with the goal of making a profit) shows a Statement of Activities. Similarly, because nonprofits do not have owners, the equity shown on a Balance Sheet is replaced by net assets on a non-profit’s Statement of Financial Position. Net assets are meant to be spent to further the non-profit’s mission.

Learn More

Four Ways Non-Profit Accounting Differs from For-Profit Accounting (2023)

What Nonprofits Need to Know About Functional Expenses (2024)

Functional Expenses Are Changing: FASB’s New Nonprofit Standards (2016)

Choosing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software

Building relationships with stakeholders is critical for small organizations. Having one place to organize and store relationship information allows organizations to work smarter. Here are considerations I recommend when choosing a CRM.

First, be clear about your goals and needs. Are you having trouble keeping track of donors or is receipting overly time-consuming? Maybe you need to improve your fundraising or better manage events. And don't just think about where you are now, but consider where you want to be in 5 years and imaging what your goals and needs will be at that time so you select a program that can grow with your organization.

Next, consider your budget and what other software programs you are already using. There are a wide variety of CRM's out there with various degrees of complexity and corresponding rates. There is no need to pay for an elite racehorse when you only need a working pony, but sometimes the pony won't play nice with your existing stable. True integration is key. Many CRMs say they integrate with everything, but use another platform like Zapier to make those integrations happen. The tech can get tricky quickly and you want to keep things as simple as possible.

Once you know what features are most important and what you want to spend, you can spend some time reading reviews or better yet, find organizations similar to yours who actually use the software and can tell you the real story of how implementation went and what practical issues they've run into using the software. Knowing what challenges you are likely to face helps you better prepare and strategize for the implementation.

Once you've chosen a system, design and implementation is critical. You'll want to teach everyone how to use the system and establish guidelines so everyone using the software enters data consistently.

Learn More

How to Select a Non-Profit CRM (2025)

What to Know About Constituent Relationship Management System for Nonprofits (2024)

Implementing a Cloud Storage and Collaboration Platform

Even before the COVID pandemic, organizations were looking for ways to reduce physical paper in their offices, get better organized, and make it easier for employees to work from anywhere with anyone. I've helped several organizations transition to electronic record-keeping and streamline their collaboration at the same time.

There are two main platforms for electronic records and shared document storage: Microsoft's SHAREPOINT and Google's WORKSPACE. Both are free for non-profits and both compete strenuously with each other. Microsoft pioneered the suite of office productivity products long considered the gold standard: Word for word-processing, Excel for spreadsheets, and PowerPoint for presentations. Google's products largely mirror Microsoft's and are easy to learn and use. Google's products lack some of Microsoft's features but improve on others. Conversely, Google pioneered online cloud storage and integration to improve productivity. Microsoft's cloud storage tries to replicate Google's but does it in a clunky way. So there are pros and cons to each platform.

Whichever platform you choose for your organization, I suggest going "all-in" with it. In other words, don't try to take the best of both platforms. Commit to one, learn it thoroughly, and use it exclusively.

Learn More

Google Workspace vs SharePoint | Which is Better? (2025)

SharePoint vs. Google Drive: Which is Right for Your Business? (2023)

Internet Domains and Hosting Explained

Using the internet has become a lot like driving a car. Most of us know how to drive our cars, but not how to maintain them or what goes on under the hood. When it comes to organizational internet technology (custom domains, organizational websites, and email), many small organization professionals feel woefully under-educated. Let's take away some of the mystery.

Domain

A website domain is the unique name that identifies a website on the internet. It's the main part of a website's address, like "google.com" or "amazon.com". Without domains, websites would be known by their IP addresses, which are strings of numbers. Top-level domains are the suffixes that follow the main part of a website address like "dot com" or "dot org." They indicate the purpose or nature of the website. .com: This stands for "commercial" and is the most widely used domain extension. It is typically used by for-profit businesses and commercial organizations. .org: This stands for "organization" and was originally intended for non-profit organizations and charities. However, it is now also used by many other types of organizations, including educational institutions, clubs, and associations.

Most organizations purchase a domain name that best represents their organization and aligns with their marketing strategy. Often, organizations will purchase several related top-level domains. For example, they might purchase "myorg.com" and "myorg.org" so customers don't have to know or guess which type of domain they need to find your organization. The main domain one is the “primary domain” which is where everything is configured. The other domains forward to the primary. These domains come up for renewal periodically which means you have to pay a domain registrar to continue to own and use them.

Domain Registrar

A domain registrar is the company you use to register your domain or domains. Generally, the longer you register your domain, the less it costs per year. Many people have heard of the large domain registrar "GoDaddy" but there are many less expensive domain registrars out there. If you stop paying for a domain, someone else can assume ownership of it and use it. You can change the registration to a new domain registrar during a short window when the domain is up for renewal.

Website Hosting

Website hosting is separate from domain registration. This website used NameCheap.com as its domain registrar, but the website content is stored on ("hosted by") Google. When an organization has a domain registered with a domain registrar, that registrar uses a service Domain Name System (DNS) to point the internet traffic from your domain name to where you want people to go. So for example, when you searched for or typed www.bonviellc.com" in your internet browser, NameCheap.com used DNS to direct you here to the Bonvie LLC website which I built on Google.

Email Hosting & Programs

Just as your organization's domain is configured (using DNS) to point website traffic to your website, DNS is also used to point email traffic to Google, Microsoft, or whatever service you use to host and process email. You most likely use Gmail or Outlook (Microsoft's email program) to then read and interact with that email.

Learn More

Domain vs Hosting: Definition and Differences (2024)

What’s the Difference Between Domain Name and Web Hosting (Explained) (2024)

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