Just wanted to share a project I'm REALLY excited about. Starting in September, I'll have the honor of serving as faculty lead for the Nonprofit Roundtable's Future Executive Directors Fellowship, an intensive 9-month program designed to prepare emerging nonprofit leaders. The project is being led by the tireless Rosetta Thurman who is one of the most amazing young women I've ever met. The program consists of six components: Visibility &... Read more →

For the past couple of days I've been digesting the latest report on hiring and succession planning in the nonprofit sector, Ready to Lead? Next Generation Leaders Speak Out. Prepared through a partnership of the CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Meyer Foundation and Idealist.org, the report shares the findings of a survey of over 6,000 nonprofit sector employees conducted this past September. It sheds further light... Read more →

Reader Kayci left me a comment asking: Do you have any suggestions for finding a job at a non profit. A lot of times it seems all they have are volunteer opportunities, but not many paying jobs. Since we're often talking about ways to attract more people to the nonprofit sector and now we have a hot prospect here, give me your best thoughts on what works and what doesn't... Read more →

The Stanford Social Innovation Review has an excellent article summarizing the findings of Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits by Heather McLeod Grant and Leslie Crutchfield. Chronicling four years of research into 12 highly successful nonprofits, including Teach for America and Habitat for Humanity, the book dispels some common myths about what makes a nonprofit successful, as well as identifying six successful practices. The Myths and Practices... Read more →

For the past year, I've found myself immersed in a professional development program of my own devising. It's nothing I planned and no supervisor came and told me I had to do it. (Fortunately I don't have a supervisor). No this program has just just sort of . . . evolved, really, morphing into a kind of trial by fire that's challenging me every day. It's a series of learning... Read more →

We're back this week with the final two posts on how to build a nonprofit website using Wetpaint. Last week, I showed you how to get started with your site. Today we're going to actually start adding content. A Few Key Points Before you take a look at today's screencast, (expect some jumpy audio like in the first screencast) a couple of points I wanted to make: In the screencast,... Read more →

Continuing this week's series on how you can build a free website for your nonprofit using Wetpaint, today's post is going to give you a guided tour of some sites that other organizations have created. I'm hoping that by showing you how it's already being done, you'll start to see the possibilities for your own site. Before we get started, though, in case you need convincing that your website is... Read more →

A few weeks ago, Sallie Owen, Communications Director for the A+ Education Foundation, e-mailed me: Saturday I was a presenter for the Alabama Organizing Project, a year-long leadership training program for grassroots organizers. I mentioned wikis as a sidenote about Web 2.0 and the idea of free or very cheap websites that were easy to update, which turned out to spark a lot of questions. Sallie went on to tell... Read more →

Steve Thiel of HotPress Web emailed me yesterday to let me know that his Denver-based web design company will be giving away a free website worth $5,000 to any charity, church or nonprofit. All you have to do is complete this application by September 30 and Steve and company will select and announce the winner the next day. If selected, your organization will get: 25 pages Site architecture planning Custom... Read more →

As part of answering Reader Questions this week, I'm going back to something that Glenn Ross asked me awhile ago: If I'm responsible for L&D in my organization, how can I help my employees identify their PLEs (personal learning environments) and what resources do I need to provide for them? Apparently Glenn likes to ask the tough questions. But I'm feeling brave, so I'm going to try for an answer... Read more →