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Climate change is a global crisis that affects all of us. Its ramifications include the last decade being the hottest one in the past 125,000 years, the planet now experiencing record-high levels of carbon dioxide, and 1.2 trillion tons of ice melting every year. Through a variety of measures, individuals and companies around the world are working to reduce their carbon footprints, whether it’s a household adding a compost bin to the kitchen or a business going paperless.

Of the many benefits provided by non-profit associations, the annual meeting has proven itself a perennial favorite. For the past two years, meetings have continued to be a highlight, even though they have been fully virtual for countless organizations and haven’t been able to give members the same level of face-to-face networking and socializing they would find at a traditional meeting.

Juneteenth is a historic day of freedom - a day that commemorates the emancipation of African American slaves in the United States. Juneteenth was first celebrated in Galveston and is considered the “Longest-Running African American Holiday.” So why is this holiday so important and what do we celebrate today?

When it comes to public health, non-profit associations play a central role. From specialists in niche categories of healthcare to product safety experts to environmental researchers, countless members of groups with a vested interest in promoting and forwarding health-related initiatives are represented by associations designed to provide education, support research, and foster relationships that allow professionals to build on one another’s knowledge and work.

At any organization, it’s essential to have capable guides at the helm. In the case of non-profit associations, these guides are the board members, who are the fiduciaries who steer the organization toward a sustainable future by adopting sound, ethical, and legal governance and financial management policies, as well as by ensuring the non-profit has adequate resources to advance its mission.

Social media is an integral part of our lives. Whether in line at the grocery store, killing time on a train, or in the break room at work, we want to stay connected. Social media has evolved into a necessity for non-profit marketing. What does this mean when planning experiences for conferences and meetings? Social media needs to be laced throughout programming and events.

As an occupational therapist with a focus on hand therapy, Rachel Pigott, MPH, OTR/L, CHT, Immediate Past President of the American Society of Hand Therapists (ASHT), Occupational Therapist and Certified Hand Therapist, Johns Hopkins Hospital, works every day with patients who have suffered traumatic injuries. But one patient in particular stands out in her recollection.

Association Headquarters values the contribution volunteers make to the association industry. We emphasize this with our leadership, employees, and partners and work diligently with volunteer organizations to ensure we leverage our resources in an effort to support these invaluable causes. National Volunteer Week is a celebration of the millions of dedicated individuals who support the association and non-profit industries each and every day.

​​​​​​​World Health Day was created to honor the anniversary of the World Health Organization's formation. Now, that celebration is recognized worldwide as the interconnectedness between the planet and the health of its inhabitants. Each year, World Health Day is assigned a theme, 2022’s being Our Planet, Our Health, which emphasizes “keeping humans and the planet healthy and fostering a movement to create societies focused on well-being.”

Event management is a core element of running a non-profit association — and as with many other areas of association management, it has undergone a great deal of change over the past two years in order to adapt to the ever-shifting circumstances of the pandemic. Organizations have approached this return in various ways, with some opting to remain virtual for now, others opting for fully in-person events, and still others opting for a hybrid approach.

When a person thinks of medical emergency services, what often comes to mind is an ER full of patients with broken bones or extensive wounds. But there are less visible medical emergencies as well, and one of these is organ failure. In the United States alone, over 100,000 people are on the national transplant waiting list. Unfortunately, performing an organ or stem cell transplant doesn’t just involve a high-risk surgery — it also requires that the donor and recipient be a perfect genetic match. Otherwise, the recipient’s immune system will likely reject the transplanted organ or stem cell.

Every non-profit association, regardless of its purpose and provenance, shares one fundamental commonality: the accounting must be done, one way or another. Depending on your association’s needs, that could be a fairly straightforward task—or a quite complex one. Fortunately, as in many other areas these days, complex processes, and even straightforward ones, can be simplified through digital automation.