Dear Bonnie: Late last year I started a new job after being unemployed for almost the entire year. I collected unemployment, which I now have to pay tax on. I just did my taxes and I cannot pay the amount due. I know that they... Continue
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“You win a while, and then it’s done, your little winning streak.” - Leonard Cohen You may think you are a loser: full of self-criticism, disliking your looks and your body, eating badly, drinking and smoking, not sleeping enough, ignoring your kids, slacking off at... Continue
One of the difficult decisions members of the boards of directors of Sonoma Valley nonprofits make is how much to compensate their executive directors. And one of the difficult decisions nonprofit executive directors make is how much to compensate the employees who work for them.... Continue
Of all the difficult things in the world, watching myself get old and decrepit will surely rank among the toughest. Unless I keel over and suddenly expire, fate dictates I will likely suffer indignities of pain, weak bones, altered gait, low energy, debilitating disease, and/or... Continue
In their present form people have been knocking around this planet for something like 200,000 years and over that span of time many conclusions have about people have been made. Such conclusions are by no means consistent or logical. Different cultures have arrived at their... Continue
Previous to the last 10,000 years during which farming, agriculture and establishing fixed cities emerged as dominant social structures, human beings lived by hunting and gathering, living in modestly sized groups, picking up camp and moving with seasonal food sources. All that changed when three... Continue
Though I moved to California in 1968 when I was nineteen and made it my home, in no small part I’m still a “New Yawkah.” Even so, I’m slowly losing New York. I remember the unseasonably frigid October night when I decided to move to... Continue
Dear Bonnie: I just opened a business selling products over the web. I work from my home, which I really enjoy. But I’m a little afraid to take a home office deduction on my tax return. I heard that it’s a red flag and I... Continue
The defining character of the modern age is its relationship to acquiring knowledge: the idea that knowledge is power, specifically power over nature and others. This orientation distinguishes modernity from antiquity’s belief in knowledge as its own reward and wisdom ultimately found “in here” not... Continue
What societal trends will have the greatest impact on nonprofits in 2012? Convio, a firm that tracks nonprofit donor trends and provides software to help nonprofits manage their constituent relationships, predicted the following trends in a recently released report: (1) the maturation of social media,... Continue