best practices

Fundraising can be an important tool in a municipality’s toolbox for supplementing the budget and helping fund projects and events throughout the year. It is vital that municipalities understand the different ways in which cities and towns can accept funds throughout the year and to make sure that the funds are handled appropriately so municipalities can continue to reap the benefits of unanticipated revenue.

Whether you’re walking, riding a bike, in a car, truck, 18-wheeler, or futuristic hovercraft, we all want to get to our destination safely and efficiently. Not only are the ways we might travel unique, but our abilities can also vary due to age, health, and other challenges. Unfortunately, roads often do not accommodate all the different ways we might travel. Paths that were once traversed by sure-footed cows became narrow rural roads to accommodate speedy cars and trucks.

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing resources — including storage, workstations, servers, databases, networking, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) — via the internet. This is commonly known as Infrastructure as-a-Service (IaaS). It offers numerous benefits for municipalities. The four most common advantages of moving to the cloud are:

Veteran suicide prevention coalitions are being developed in your communities. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) identified reaching Veterans in their hometowns extends the reach to connect with Veterans through support with our community partners. Over the last two years, VA Manchester and community partners organized eight community coalitions throughout New Hampshire and continue to seek opportunities to build more.

The Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA) is the oldest and largest cooperative-model recycling nonprofit in the country. Located in Epsom, New Hampshire, NRRA works with 90% of New Hampshire communities, helping municipalities market their recyclable materials and providing ongoing education and technical assistance. While town officials and residents may have seen the NRRA name on the Environmental Impact Report often included in annual town reports, most don’t realize the additional NRRA benefits and resources available to municipal members.

Stream crossings (i.e. culverts and bridges) play a pivotal role in connecting human and wildlife communities, with roughly 20,000 structures dotting New Hampshire alone. Many of these crossings are aged or failed, exacerbating stream fragmentation and flooding risks, yet resources to manage these assets are often limited and scattered across stakeholders.

As New Hampshire emerges from its warmest winter on record[1], it is becoming abundantly clear that the impacts of climate change are already here. Across New Hampshire, communities are experiencing a wide range of impacts – including sea level rise, catastrophic storms, flooding, and impacts to tourism and agriculture. When confronted by a problem of such enormous complexity and scale as climate change, it can be difficult for communities to know where to begin or what might be done.

One of NHMA’s major initiatives for 2024 is establishing a strategic plan to guide the organization’s direction over the next several years. According to the NH Center for Nonprofits, strategic planning is “big picture thinking” about the direction the organization is taking and the way it is fulfilling its mission. Often, specific goals, objectives, strategies, and resources are included in the strategic plan as a means to deliver on the mission, and the perspective of a broad range of stakeholders is often included.

It is generally understood that a municipal official who has a conflict of interest in a specific situation is not supposed to participate in that matter.  What is less understood is how this process works and what is at stake in making that decision.

What is Recusal?

April snowstorms aside, it really is spring in New Hampshire! In addition to being the season of mud and daffodils, it's also a time when many newly elected or appointed local officials are learning the ropes. For NHMA, that means it's one of our busiest training seasons—and we hope you can join us at one our training events over the next couple months, including: