Happy New Year! It’s time for our round-up of the GuideStar Newsletter articles you read most last year. As was true in 2016—and to an extent in 2015—you veered away from the traditional formula of fundraising, boards, and boards and fundraising. You were still interested in those topics, but you read articles about other subjects as well.

Since January 2012, we've done an annual round-up of the articles GuideStar Newsletter subscribers read most during the preceding year. Each year, articles about fundraising have predominated. An occasional piece about boards or regulation might make a list, but the topics that appeared most were fundraising, fundraising, fundraising.

Not all volunteers are alike, of course, but many share misconceptions when it comes to fundraising. I could point to several dozen as I do in my book, The Busy Volunteer’s Guide to Fundraising. But here, I’ll focus on three that rear their heads time and again in my training sessions with boards and committees across America. 

In December we asked newsletter readers which activities they used GuideStar for most often. Most respondents (77.5 percent) indicated that they used GuideStar mostly to access Forms 990. But besides accessing Forms 990, how else do people use GuideStar?

If you have ever been involved with a nonprofit organization at any level, you know that competition for grants is intense. Although there are many factors involved in securing funding, the first step is identifying opportunities.