Many nonprofits just don’t communicate why they are worthy of a donor’s gift very well. Your strategic plan should help you identify your strengths and opportunities. The planning exercises will help you frame stronger key messages. Having fundraising be an issue to be addressed in your strategic planning will make sure that communications about your mission, goals and specific plans are a key output item from your plan.
This is part 2 of a previous post on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) evaluation model. The goal of these posts is not to give an exhaustive description of this model but to whet your appetite for further study, to refer you to other sources and to share with you some related [...]
Program evaluations are “individual systematic studies conducted periodically or on an ad hoc basis to assess how well a program is working1.” What was your reaction to this definition? Has the prospect of undertaking a “research study” ever deterred you for conducting a program evaluation? Good news! Did you know that program evaluation is not [...]
Now that you: realize a few of the benefits of program evaluation (see “How to Maximize Funding by Tapping into Hidden Potential: Program Evaluation”) and have begun to address any fears you may have about program evaluation (see “How to Address Fears about Program Evaluation”) let us move on to the next step. In this [...]
Having a board recruitment event gives Boards and Executive Directors a chance to work together on this important responsibility. Every Board needs to be active in bringing in new members. The focus for this article is a sample process for planning and hosting a successful board recruitment event.
The following is a guest post from Anne Marie Smith. Let’s play a quick word association game. What is the first word or feeling that comes to mind for each of these companies? Fannie Mae Enron Disney Starbucks If you’re like most people, your attitude about the first two is the polar opposite from your [...]
A new national study of nonprofit executive leadership provides a keen insight into and useful benchmarking statistics on the state of nonprofit leadership. Daring to Lead 2011 is a joint project of CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and the Meyer Foundation. The report is based on responses from over 3000 executive directors and follows similar studies completed in 2001 and 2006.
Here are highlights – along with my commentary – from the Social Network Benchmark Report:
Is your nonprofit publishing an annual report? If not, you may be missing a big opportunity. Funders are interested in this report and posting it to your website is becoming a more important part of accountability and transparency standards. Having an annual report is required by Guidestar to have their Guidestar Exchange seal. If you [...]
I am so enthusiastic to be the new co-host of the Nonprofit Capacity Blog here at the Free Management Library. Greetings! One topic that hasn’t been mentioned much here, that is an interest of mine is technology for nonprofits and so I plan to write about that subject. Frequently when nonprofits talk about capacity building [...]
Marion is a popular facilitator of workshops and Board retreats. Her expertise includes strategic planning, board development, governance and harnessing the power of technology. [Read more ...]
Priya Small has extensive experience in collaborative evaluation planning, instrument design, data collection, and grant writing and facilitation.Provided by
