Resiliency Resources
Featured Resource:
General-operating support grew dramatically during the pandemic as grant makers recognized nonprofits’ need for greater flexibility during the crisis. Now, many nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and advocates are wondering if the trend will continue once the pandemic wanes.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy assembled a panel of experts to explore that question, and the connection between general operating grants and advancing equity. Read on for highlights of the discussion, or watch the video to get all the insights.
How Can We Help You?
I’m looking for resources on…
Best Practices in
Financial Management
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Telling My Story
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Emotional Wellness in Professional Settings
To request more information or resources that are not listed, email info@readytogrowoc.org.
Where to Start:
Nonprofit Finance Fund: NFF provides financing, consulting, training and partnership opportunities to nonprofits with the goal of connecting money to mission. Visit their website to learn more about their Full Cost Project, a powerful tool to address resource disparities and advance equity.
StrongNonprofits Toolkit: The Wallace Foundation and Fiscal Management Associates have built a library of resources to help your organization become “fiscally fit.”
501 Commons: Financial Management Resources to amplify the strengths of nonprofits—so ALL people and communities flourish.
NonprofitReady: Free Online Fundraising Courses that cover how to create a fundraising plan, online fundraising, donations campaigns, and more!
National Council of Nonprofits’ Financial Management Guide: NCN has compiled a list of financial resources including basic policies, board involvement, and financial literacy.
Executive Director’s Guide to Financial Leadership: This expert guide outlines essential steps for EDs: transforming your annual budget analysis, deciding whether or not income diversification is the way to go, achieving a robust reserve, and equipping your board for effective financial governance.
Nonprofit Finance: 12 Golden Rules: Healthy nonprofit organizations employ financial management practices that build stability and flexibility, both today and in the future. In this resource we set out the 12 golden rules for nonprofit finance, including budgeting, diverse funding sources, and interdependence.
Nonprofit Leaders Forecast 5 Trends That Matter Now: The Chronicle of Philanthropy shares the key trends nonprofits leaders need to know as they plan Q1 of 2022 – hybrid work, fewer in-person donor meetings, videos expand audiences, rethinking traditional galas, & prepare for the next disruption.
Who Can Help:
Small Business Development Center – Orange County: Since 1991, the Orange County SBDC has helped in stimulating economic growth within the local communities by providing entrepreneurs, small business owners, and nonprofits with the necessary resources to succeed.
Academies for Social Entrepreneurship: Developing innovative solutions to social problems by providing training and mentoring for social entrepreneurs.
Propel Nonprofits: An intermediary organization and federally certified community development financial institution (CDFI). We provide capacity-building services and access to capital to support nonprofits in achieving their missions including the ability to link strategy, governance, and finance and to support nonprofits throughout their organizational lifecycle.
Social Finance: Social Finance is a national impact finance and advisory nonprofit. We work with public, private, and social sectors to build innovative partnerships and investments that measurably improve lives.
Impact Finance Center: Impact Finance Center is a multi-university nonprofit academic center that identifies, trains, and activates individuals and organizations to become impact investors, helping them better align their assets with their values. And through advisory services, we bring our expertise directly to foundations, nonprofits, family offices, and other interested groups in a consulting capacity.
GAAP: The Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) are a set of established concepts, objectives, and standards all not-for-profits need to be aware of.
Watch & Listen:
“Can Business Models Save the World?” Presented by Adlai Wertman (video)
Candid (formerly Guidestar & Foundation Center) presents Best Practices in Financial Management for Nonprofits (video)
The Chronicle of Philanthropy presents Lessons from a Pandemic: Nonprofits Reach More People Without Spending More (video & article)
Nonprofit Finance Fund presents Strategic Budgeting and Scenario Planning (video)
Partners for the Common Good presents Providing Solutions to Small Business Minority Owners’ Access to Capital (video)
Global Impact Investing Network presents their latest podcast, Next Normal: Re-Imaging Capitalism For Our Future (podcast)
Remaking the Economy – Redefining Risk: To change economic development requires changing how risk is assessed, explain three community finance activists in a lively conversation about risk, race, class, and social power.
Also Check Out:
Fundamentals for Nonprofits: NFF’s Alice Antonelli has authored a comprehensive blog series to guide nonprofit leaders through the ins and outs of budgeting, including tips to get started and advice to navigate periods of change or uncertainty. Topics include nonprofit budgeting basics, best practices, below-the-line budgeting, and more.
Venturize Financial Tools & Management: Venturize has compiled a list of resources to help you keep your business in good financial health.
Financial Management Resources: 501Commons shares the essentials to managing a nonprofit budget, audits, guidelines on procedures & policies, and best practices.
Do Nonprofits Pay Taxes? Do Nonprofit Employees Pay Taxes?: Blue Avocado answers the conditions of nonprofits paying or not for taxes.
How to Prioritize Foundation Funding Opportunities – Four Criteria to Consider: CCS Fundraising provides an overview process to ensure that your team spends their time cultivating foundations and applying for grants where you have the strongest likelihood of success. They share why it is important for nonprofits to develop a system to qualify and prioritize new funding opportunities.
Accounting Procedures Manual Template: Has “Create an Accounting Procedures Manual” been on your To Do list for several months now? For several years? You aren’t alone. Fortunately, Blue Avocado has your team covered and thanks Deborah Cooper of the California Association of Nonprofits, along with Meredeth Clark (also from CAN) and Steve Zimmerman, C.P.A., for creating a free template.
Five steps to starting an endowment – even smaller nonprofits can: Candid shares a five-step plan that a smaller nonprofit can use to create an endowment—and put itself on solid financial footing.
Download Spreadsheet: Forecasting Nonprofit Finances & Pivoting Programs in a Crisis: Blue Avacado shares how a nonprofit was able to forecast their finances and pivot programs during the ongoing pandemic.
Nonprofit Audit Guide: The National Council of Nonprofits has created this Nonprofit Audit Guide to provide charitable nonprofits with the tools they need to make informed decisions about independent audits.
“Controls” for Small Nonprofit Organizations – A guide for Board Members: 11 things even the smallest nonprofits can do to guard against damage to financial health or reputation.
StrongNonprofits Toolkit: Check out Wallace Foundation’s StrongNonprofits Toolkit which features a variety of resources to strengthen your nonprofit financial management. Topics include budgeting, cash flow, operations, and more!
Getting the Grant – A Guide to Your Grant Presentation: If you are new to grantmaking, preparing for a grant presentation can be a confusing and overwhelming task. Read on for a guide on landing a grant presentation, what to include, and how to make the most of the opportunity.
Practical Tips for Nonprofit Budgeting: Blue Avocado shares practical tips for nonprofit budgeting and its importance in telling your organization’s story.
What a Finance Committee Can Do for Your Board of Directors: Implementing a finance committee of the board of directors was one of the best things nonprofit Baby Bear Hugs ever did—here’s why.
Role of the Nonprofit CFO in Executive Management – The CFO-ED Relationship: Blue Avocado shares best practices to take in forming a perfect partnership between any nonprofit’s CFO and Executive Director.
What a Finance Committee Can Do for Your Board of Directors: Learn why implementing a finance committee of the board of directors is a beneficial action for your organization.
Charitable Giving Report – Using 2021 Data to Transform Your Strategy: In the report, you will get a firsthand look at how charitable giving performed and the best practices you need to boost your organization’s fundraising performance.
The Compensation Starter Kit: Having a complete understanding of your organization’s compensation strategy is important for ensuring pay equity, offering competitive compensation, and staying within your budget. Utilize BambooHR’s starter kit to help you and your team.
Where to Start:
Strategic Planning in Nonprofits: The Washington Nonprofit Institute covers six planning elements: preparing, listening, envisioning, planning, executing, and evaluating.
The Sustainability Mindset: Nonprofit sustainability lies at the intersection of exceptional impact and financial viability. Best-selling authors Jeanne Bell and Steve Zimmerman present a field guide to the matrix map—a powerful tool for nonprofit strategic decision-making. The matrix map is an accessible framework that combines financial and programmatic goals into an integrated strategy.
Strategic Planning for Nonprofits: National Council of Nonprofits has compiled a list of strategic planning resources including sample strategic plan documents and additional articles.
Propel Nonprofits’ Social Enterprise Business Plan: This outline for a social enterprise business plan is a guide for research, planning, and writing a business plan for nonprofit social enterprises.
The Bridgespan Group – Strategic Planning: A general overview of how a strategic plan is used within a nonprofit, its methodology, and additional resources linked.
Who Can Help:
Blue Garnet: A strategy and management consulting firm for social change organizations in Southern California.
Learn from Local Leaders:
Organizational Planning in Times of Crisis with Dawn Reese, CEO of The Wooden Floor on The Leadership Voice.
Strategic Planning Tools and Best Practices with Robert Santana, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Central Orange Coast.
Lemonade Planning (Post-COVID Planning): This episode of Zoot Velasco’s 501(c)3(b)s Podcast focuses on creating post-COVID interim plans (making lemonade from our lemons).
Also Check Out:
Inside Social Innovation Podcast: Talks and lectures by leaders of social change, from Stanford Social Innovation Review.
Operating Models: How Nonprofits Get from Strategy to Results: This article from The Bridgespan Group describes eight best practices for designing an operating model to fit a nonprofit’s strategy.
Lessons From Casey’s Strategic Coinvestor Approach to Community Change: When the Annie E. Casey Foundation joined local partnerships in three communities through its Family-Centered Community Change™ (FCCC) initiative, it did so with a new approach called strategic coinvesting. A two-page infographic describes this approach, as well as lessons for both communities and funders gleaned from an evaluation of the seven-year effort.
Blue Avacado’s Social Transformation for Your Nonprofit– Live Q&A: We encourage nonprofit leaders wanting to address racial equity to attend to learn more about the role of anti-racist community organizing in social transformation and advancing racial equity. When registering, please submit a question that you are hoping to be addressed during the webinar on Thursday, Dec. 9th, at 11 AM – Noon PST.
Venturize Business Planning and Strategy: Venturize has compiled a list of great tools on developing a business plan and roadmap for your business.
Leadership Transition & Succession Planning: 501Commons shares steps to take leading up to a leadership transition and how to develop a succession plan.
Strategic Planning Resources: 501Commons knows strategic planning is a necessary process for a healthy organization. Find a guideline and templates to get your strategic planning started.
Centering Equity in Collective Impact: Standford Social Innovation Review shares how a decade of applying the collective impact approach to address social problems has taught us that equity is central to the work.
A Fresh Look at Your Organization Can Turn Challenge Into Opportunities: CLA discusses how taking a step back and reviewing your strategic plans, people needs, and technology infrastructure can lead to more opportunities.
Strategic Planning – Is Your Board Ready?: TCC Group provides nonprofit organizations with a heightened understanding of many of the upfront questions to ask themselves prior to deciding whether to embark on planning within their Strategic Planning presentation.
Ten Keys to Successful Strategic Planning for Nonprofits and Foundation Leaders: TCC Group shares ten important keys to promote more successful strategic planning.
10 Dangers to Collective Impact: SSIR takes a look at the worst practices in using the collective impact approach for social change and lessons on how to avoid them.
Craft Your Small Nonprofit Strategy: Network for Good breaks down a proven strategic plan process that works for small nonprofits (even those with all volunteers or just one employee!) in this webinar.
Measuring Social Impact – A Guide for Grantmakers and CSR Professionals: Under Submittable’s guide to help you get started on being intentional about how you implement measurement into your plans will ensure you create the right foundation to support your team.
Sustainability Audit – Stakeholder Interview Questions: Executive Transitions shares how asking key stakeholders questions can assist in organization’s succession planning and organizational strategy work.
Preparing for the Inevitable – A Succession Readiness Checklist: Executive Transitions shares an agency can expect a relatively smooth transition to new leadership by creating a succession and capacity building plan.
How to Implement Change with Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model: When researching organizational change, many resounding voices have lent their expertise on the subject. Check out Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model and how it can be implemented in your organization.
Why Social Movements Require Entrepreneurial Values: Rachel Sumekh with Swipe Out Hunger discusses three practices all organizations can take to advance their justice work – mutual beneficial partnerships, dispel the myth social impact requires martyrdom, and deal-making.
Where to Start:
Association of Fundraising Professionals – Orange County Chapter: AFP is the leading organization for fundraising professionals, providing innovative educational programs and events to help fundraisers reach their goals.
Nonprofit Tech for Good: A digital marketing and fundraising resource for nonprofits.
CSS Fundraising: A strategic fundraising consulting firm with digital insights, webinars, and other resources for nonprofits.
Fifth Estate: The Fifth Estate Newsletter highlights key issues within philanthropy, the nonprofit organizations doing important work on the ground, all while uplifting the leading voices of those in the social sector looking beyond government and the private sector alone to drive significant, positive social change.
Who Can Help:
Charitable Ventures: Charitable Ventures helps nonprofit clients address social challenges through capacity building services.
The Mark USA: A women owned and managed evaluation firm focused on social outcomes, and passionate about bringing different or divergent interests together as one to define your impact.
Lumos Marketing: Strategically growing your community and attracting the needed resources to turn your cause into a movement.
Charity Navigator: A 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is the world’s largest and most trusted evaluator of nonprofits. Utilize their objective charity ratings, curated lists, and Giving Baskets so that you can give with confidence and ease.
Thrive Impact: THRIVE IMPACT provides a community for mission-driven leaders. We are seeing significant shifts in fundraising and impact strategy. We believe in nonprofits. That’s why we want to share the six shifts that are helping nonprofit leaders grow revenue and avoid burnout.
Watch & Listen:
Invest in Results Podcast: This podcast series grew out of a multi-year partnership between NFF and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, exploring the benefits and challenges of outcomes-based funding. It features social sector leaders on topics like measuring outcomes, funding with unrestricted operating support, and building trust into nonprofit-funder relationships.
The Heart of Giving Podcast: This podcast fosters an atmosphere of benevolence and service through showcasing stories of active donors who have a passion for giving, making a difference, and inspiring others. We feature dialogues with the power to strengthen our understanding of generosity and the transformative impact that giving has on the human spirit and our society as a whole. By highlighting these narratives, we’re able to gain in-depth insights into the motivations that form the basis of giving and service.
Network for Good Webinars & Events: Receive free webinars and fundraising event trainings on-demand at any time. We want to help nonprofits of all sizes and tenures reach and exceed their goals. Our nonprofit webinars allow you to learn first-hand from fundraising experts. With in-depth trainings on how to plan a fundraising event, how to best conduct outreach to donors, and how to manage operations, we are happy to partner with your organization and help guide you to success.
Synergos Cultivate The Soul – Stories of Purpose-Driven Philanthropy: Cultivate The Soul explores the intersection of philanthropy, contemplative practices, self-reflection and spirituality. Hosts Gretchen Ki Steidle and Melissa Durda are joined by leaders in philanthropy who discuss how they are bringing inner work to outer action and the impact this creates for charities, foundations, and other nonprofits. Presented by Synergos, a global organization helping solve complex issues around the world by advancing bridging leadership, which builds trust and collective action.
The Accidental Fundraiser Podcast: Network for Good’s original show featuring fundraising expert and leader Kimberly O’Donnell answering the top-of-mind questions keeping you up at night. Through the stories shared by other nonprofit leaders you’ll leave each episode empowered with a “yes, I can” mentality and be ready for anything – including your next big fundraiser.
Fundraising In A Virtual World: Sector-wide trends are changing the field as we know it! In this session, Network for Good will explore the big picture, changing donor demographics, the decline in broad-based giving, the impact of virtual events, emphasis on outcomes, and more.
Mission to Scale Podcast: Mission to Scale reveals the tools, mindsets and strategies that organizations and funders need — to make the most impact. On the podcast, host Dan Berelowitz talks to brilliant leaders from today’s most dynamic nonprofits, social enterprises, and purpose-driven brands about pursuing change, at scale.
First Day Podcast: Highlighting current news and research, this weekly 10 minute podcast provides fundraisers with the latest information in fundraising and philanthropy.
What We’re Reading:
The Role of Brand in the Nonprofit Sector: This article published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) shares examples of nonprofits that are developing a broad, strategic approach to managing their brands to create greater social impact and tighter organizational cohesion.
Nonprofit Resource Hub: Utilize Nonprofit Resource Hub’s Archives for articles, videos, and webinars on financial management, fundraising & development, strategic planning, and more!
4 Steps to a Successful Year-End Virtual Event: Network for Good shares their four-step plan for hosting a year-end fundraising event that gets the results you need for your nonprofit.
Clear Communication Is Essential to Keep Pandemic-Weary Big Donors Engaged & Giving: The Chronicle of Philanthropy discusses how clear communication can impact a nonprofits chance for donor engagement and giving.
Setting and Executing Nonprofit Fundraising Goals – A Guide: To make sure your organization’s fundraising team, your supporters, and your board members are prepared for your next fundraising campaign, let’s take a look at some of the most important steps in setting your nonprofit’s fundraising goals shared by BoardSource.
Empowering Your Board to Be Your Storytellers: Donorly shares 4 key tips for empowering your board members to be storytellers on behalf of your organization.
‘Tis the Season for Nonprofits to Maximize Online Donations: Stanford Social Innovation Review shares how behavioral economics research shows how small nudges can make a big difference to end-of-year fundraising results.
Giving Vehicles to Meet Your Charitable Goals: Donors have a wide range of options for making charitable gifts. Which one is the best approach for meeting your philanthropic goals? SSIR publisher Michael Voss speaks with Vonny Carrington, partner with Cerity Partners, and Julia Reed of Schwab Charitable to explore the various approaches available to donors.
What You Need to Know Going Into Year End – The Latest News & Research on Giving: Chronicle of Philanthropy reviews how to plan and forecast your end of the year fundraising as 2021 comes to a close.
Measuring Fundraising Effectiveness: BoardSource has developed a new framework for evaluating fundraising effectiveness — one that provides a balanced approach that emphasizes how important it is to invest in strong and sustainable fundraising programs. It includes a free toolkit for for boards and leadership teams to apply this framework to their organization.
The BIG List (100+) of Nonprofit Board Fundraising Tasks: Mind the Gap Consulting shares a list designed to give board members a wide range of tasks they can choose from to support the financial growth of your organization.
How Business Thinking is Changing Donor Stewardship: Charity Navigator briefly reviews how nonprofits can build relationships in their communities and secure reoccurring donors.
10 Writing Tips to Supercharge your Fundraising Messages: Watch Patrick Schmitt, the Co-CEO of FreeWill, to learn writing strategies to help you create effective fundraising communications. He includes tips for being thoughtful and sensitive to donors’ needs while still continuing to generate funds.
Crypto Donations Webinar: The trends & impacts nonprofits can expect in 2022: Join FreeWill on Tuesday, January 11th from 12-1 PM ET to learn what crypto is, the trends and changes impacting crypto giving, and how nonprofits can fundraise and accept crypto donations.
Still Publishing Donor Names? Ditch the List: Blue Avocado shares reasons why listing donor names in your annual report is not a priority and how doing so impacts your current donor relations.
How To Turn Your Board Members Into Fundraisers: Follow this 3-step plan to get your board on board with fundraising. In this guide, Network for Good collected their favorite tips that you can use to move the needle with your own board.
Data in Collective Impact – Focusing On What Matters: Here are four lessons from Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR)’s work to help collective impact initiatives and their funders use data more effectively for social change.
Using Data to Disrupt Systemic Inequity: A look at how the collective impact initiative StriveTogether is enlisting data to resolve systemic barriers that limit opportunity for children and families of color in the United States.
Aligning Funding with Equity Goals Webinar: We All Count’s Data Equity Framework contains a suite of concrete tools to help you assess and improve the impact of funding structures on any data process, in any sector. Join them 3pm-4pm (ET) on February 10th. You’ll walk away with a tool you can implement immediately to explore and improve the way you fund, or deal with funding in your data projects.
The Promise of Outcomes Funds: Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) reviews efforts at improving global education too often fail to have the desired impact. Outcomes funds can help shift funders and policy makers toward the most effective approaches.
How to Ask Donors to Share Demographic Details: The Chronicle of Philanthropy discusses Apra’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Data Guide on how to seek, store, and use demographic details from donors.
Strengths-Based Storytelling – Focusing on Power: YWCA provides an overview of strengths-based storytelling and how it can benefit your organization. Strengths-based storytelling is an important concept to understand, whether you’re connected to a nonprofit providing services or just in your daily life.
4 Beautiful Examples of Compelling Nonprofit Storytelling: Classy.org discusses how nonprofits can weave storytelling into their communication with their community and donors. They focus on four examples of storytelling and how you can implement them in your own organization.
The 5 Phases of Securing a Major Gift: Blue Avocado outlines the 5 phases of securing a major gift that all nonprofits should follow.
Lessons for the Next Stage of Covid Grant Making: A collaborative of grant makers supported nonprofits in more than 100 countries — and learned that bravery, resilience, and organizing power point the way to successful philanthropy.
Never Applied for a Grant? Here’s What You Need to Know: TechSoup provides some tips to save you some time and a few headaches, while applying to grants to support your organization’s work for the first time.
Ethical Storytelling for Nonprofits: Blue Avocado shares how nonprofits can perform ethical storytelling during “donation season” and all year-round.
From Projects and SMARTs to Personas and Storytelling – a webinar recording on Building Positive Narratives: Regardless of the type of activism you do, communication is crucial to your success. Whether it’s community engagement and mobilization, or social campaigning and fundraising, being able to turn your work into a story enables more impactful interaction with any audience. During the webinar recording we’ll have a quick look at the basic, but key, elements you’ll need to build your own narrative.
How to Utilize NFTs for Fundraising: A new form of art is gaining traction in the cryptocurrency space. Whether you believe it to be a fad or the future, millions of dollars in donations for nonprofit organizations and charities have been generated through this technology in the last few years. So what is this trend, how might it benefit nonprofit organizations, and most importantly how can you take advantage of this opportunity?
The Way Forward – Diversifying Revenue and Giving Opportunities: Many of your revenue sources have either changed or disappeared. Yet your fundraising goal, and the money your organization counts on, has stayed the same. Use the ideas in Blackbaud’s free eBook to create stability and future growth through diversification of revenue and giving opportunities.
Modern Tools to Engage, Retain, and Community with Supporters: Blackbaud’s free toolkit is packed with actionable suggestions for you to engage, retain, and communicate with your supporters in our ever-evolving environment.
10 Troubling Observations about the State of Fundraising Today: The resiliency of fundraising teams has been tested over the past 20 months; thankfully, organizations were able to adapt despite tremendous uncertainty. However, based on data from the Blackbaud Fundraiser Performance Management™ Community, ten concerning trends have emerged during this time as well.
The Practical Guide to Corporate and Foundation Giving: If you’re interested in getting insights to take the right steps to secure more corporate grants, get this new practical guide by iWave and our partners at Gravyty. This ebook covers the difference between corporate and foundation giving, a step-by-step guide with the five basic principles to keep in mind when establishing this initiative within your organization, and more!
How To Choose The Right CRM: The Modern Nonprofit addresses questions all organizations can ask themselves when determining the right CRM for themselves.
Measuring Social Impact: A Guide for Grantmakers and CSR Professionals: As you work to advance social good, measurement is an essential component. Learn how to build a framework to track, understand, and analyze your impact.
The Pursuit of Sustainability: Nonprofit sustainability helps ensure boards are focused on programmatic sustainability as part of their financial oversight.
How to Build a Pipeline of Major Donors: How to Build a Pipeline of Major Donors offers tips for fundraisers looking to cultivate mid-level donors and encourage loyalty.
Tipping Point – Aligning with Supporters in a Changing World: Many organizations appear to be out of touch with the attitudes of their donors and were therefore less prepared for the flow of generosity that happened in 2020. All that can be said with confidence is that the future will look markedly different than the past. With that in mind, we offer our conclusions and recommendations from this research.
Your Data-Driven Donor Persona Checklist: Understanding what motivates your donors – and speaking to who they are as people – inspires the close connection to your organization they crave. One way you can achieve this is to approach your communications like a marketing professional by creating personas for your donor community. This guide and printable checklist can help you do just that.
Where to Start:
BoardSource: BoardSource is the leading organization focused on strengthening nonprofit board leadership. Check out their latest blog article by Marcus Walton on Purpose-Driven Leadership.
NonprofitReady: Free online training for the nonprofit professional.
Nonprofit Learning Lab: A national nonprofit that connects and trains leaders in the nonprofit sector.
Who Can Help:
OneOC: With a mission to accelerate nonprofit success, OneOC offers over 120 trainings a year for nonprofit professionals.
Executive Coaches of Orange County: Developing nonprofit leaders in Orange County for maximum impact through no-cost executive coaching services.
Fieldstone Leadership Network: Strengthening the nonprofit community by providing a continuum of programs that develop executive leadership, increase agency capacity, and sustain a collaborative and vibrant network.
Orange County Nonprofit Professionals Network: Inspiring, connecting and elevating nonprofit professionals through experiential learning opportunities.
The Bridgespan Group: We work with nonprofits, foundations, investors, philanthropists, & corporations to provide strategy consulting and leadership development that addresses opportunities and challenges related to scaling social impact.
Exec2Exec: As executive directors wrestle with funding changes, managing remote workers, planning for a return to in-person work, and other challenges, we are launching Exec2Exec to provide you with a confidential sounding board and advice from an experienced executive. The number of available spots is limited, so please request executive advising at your earliest convenience.
What We’re Reading and Watching:
Leading With Intent: Leading with Intent: BoardSource Index of Nonprofit Board Practices answers these questions as the latest in BoardSource’s series of studies tracking and analyzing trends in nonprofit board leadership since 1994.
Connecting Boards with The Communities They Serve: In this webinar, BoardSource’s Jim Taylor and Valerie Threlfall, Managing Director of Listen4Good, explore questions revolving around board community involvement in-depth with Dan Rhoton, Executive Director of Hopeworks Camden.
The Four Principles of Purpose-Driven Board Leadership: In the face of increasingly pressing systemic inequities, nonprofit boards must change the traditional ways they have worked and instead prioritize an organization’s purpose, show respect for the ecosystem in which they operate, commit to equity, and recognize that power must be authorized by the people they’re aiming to help.
Work in Progress Podcast: Working Nation’s weekly podcast focused on the future of work and the future of the worker. Editor-in-Chief Ramona Schindelheim travels the country interviewing leaders from companies big and small, local and state governments, leading educators, and nonprofits on how they are working together to address the growing talent crunch.
Authentically Inclusive Podcast: CCS Fundraising and the Kellogg School Center for Nonprofit Management have expert faculty share academic principles complimented by nonprofit leaders sharing their own journeys leading with meaning and purpose.
BoardSource’s Key Topics in Nonprofit Board Service: Great board leadership takes intentionality and effort. BoardSource is here to help. We have resources and tools on a wide range of board leadership topics that can help you educate yourself and your board, navigate thorny board issues, and address new challenges or opportunities your board may be facing.
Deep Listening: Stanford Social Innovation Review shares on developing active listening techniques as essential to creating understanding and the authentic relationships necessary for social change by nonprofit leaders.
Board Diversity – Beyond the Numbers: Weingart Foundation’s recorded webinar offers guidance to nonprofit organizations in recruiting and supporting people of color on their boards of directors and creating a more inclusive culture within their organizations.
Uncharted Ground With SSIR: Uncharted Ground tells the stories of nonprofit and social entrepreneurs at the forefront of global development. Host Jonathan Levine takes you on their journeys to solve some of the most daunting social issues on the planet.
Leading a Nonprofit Organization – Tips and Tools for Executive Directors and Team Leaders: The structure of some nonprofits may mirror the corporate model, with a clearly defined chain of command, but many others, particularly smaller organizations, pursue their mission in a more unique fashion. Accordingly, this toolkit is divided into two main sections: “Operational Responsibilities of the Executive Director” and “Leading Teams.” The former provides practical tips and tools for the first-time executive, while the latter discusses leadership in broader terms — offering insight and activities to help anyone become a stronger leader.
How to Hire Leaders of Color – Firsthand Advice: The Chronicle of Philanthropy hosted a virtual forum with three panelists and their editor, Stacy Palmer, to discuss hiring leaders of color and ensuring their success requires listening to the people your nonprofit serves, thinking differently about the qualifications that would best serve your nonprofit’s mission, and providing ongoing support without getting in the way of what you hired them to accomplish.
Great Leaders Have These Behaviors in Common: Gallup shares seven actions exceptional leaders all have in common and how you can make them central to your leadership development.
Nonprofit Leadership in 2022 – From Challenge to Transformation: Nonprofit Pro shares how to learn how to get your mission right, overcome fundraising issues and lead your organization into the future
Board Responsibilities and Structures: BoardSource has been fielding governance-related questions posed by nonprofit leaders for over 30 years. Here is a list of answers to those questions most frequently asked about board responsibilities and structures.
Changing Boards for a Changing World: Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) shares an excerpt from How Boards Work on how boards can reform to meet the moment.
To get workers back to the office, leaders need to create spaces for success: Citrix’s VP of People outlines four strategies leaders can use to rethink the workplace in this latest Fast Company article.
Looking at the impact of COVID on office space and use: WRAL TechWire shares since last year, COVID has changed the way offices are used. While the number of remote workers has grown, more and more employees are finally beginning to return to in-person work.
How to Be a Great Supervisor: Insights Learned from 20 Years of Managing: Blue Avacado provides three insights on how to successfully manage a team and become a great supervisor.
Welcoming the Next Generation of Board Leadership: BoardSource discusses how to recruit, retain, and develop young board leaders to serve your organization.
Fostering Self-Organization: An excerpt from Impact Networks on four key principles to realize the immense potential of collaborative and purpose-driven networks.
10 Phrases Leaders Use To Build Trust With Team Members: Building a culture of trust starts with a shared vocabulary of simple—yet powerful—phrases that leaders use to say thanks, offer compassion, and provide support.
Recruiting for Board Diversity — Without Disrespecting People of Color: BoardSource shares on how to expand and diversifying your network of potential board candidates.
Failure is not an Option: How Nonprofit Boards Can Support Leaders of Color: BoardSource examines tips on how to ensure a successful leadership transition with
Codes of Conduct and Ethics: Under well-established principles of nonprofit corporation law, a board member must meet certain standards of conduct and attention in carrying out his or her responsibilities to the organization. This resource provides practical tips as well as sample codes of ethics.
How to Unite Your Nonprofit Workforce – and Keep It United Through Misperceptions: As the leader of your organization, if you are feeling the negative effects of a team being unbalanced, that probably means the issue has been unfurling for a while for it to finally make it up to you. To correct the balance, there’s some unbiased actions that need to happen.
Onboarding New Nonprofit Board Members – 4 Key Steps to Ensure a Successful Transition: NonprofitReady discusses four key steps to onboarding new nonprofit board members: providing a general overview of the roles and responsibilities of all nonprofit board members, creating a new board member orientation packet detailing your organization’s history, mission, key programs, and stories of impact, and more!
Understanding the Different Types of Nonprofit Boards: NonprofitReady shares the different types of boards and their functions within a nonprofit.
Mastering Performance Management: BambooHR provides a free seven-part performance management video series where you’ll learn how to use performance management to help your employees grow and progress.
The 2022 Essential Retention Guide: In the world of HR in 2021, you couldn’t read a think piece, attend a conference, or join a discussion group without hearing about The Great Resignation. For most in HR and leadership, it’s at the top of their list for 2022 concerns, and that makes retention a critical business initiative for the coming year.
11 Leadership Lessons From Today’s Top People Managers: To help you develop the leadership skills you need for today’s workplace, BambooHR and 15Five have compiled advice from some of today’s top thought leaders on leadership, culture building, emotional intelligence, and managing millennials.
Innovation in Board Structure and Dynamics: Are you looking for ways to improve your board’s performance? Explore innovative thinking on board leadership and transition.
Scenarios 2030 – Workforce of the Future: Automation and ‘thinking machines’ are changing the skills workers need, while demographic changes promise a talent shortage, longer lifespans and other significant shifts that will affect theworkplace. PwC developed scenarios for the future to kickstart your thinking about steps you can take now.
Transition Tips for Chief Executives and Boards of Directors: The stronger the relationship between the board and chief executive, the better they work together for a planned transition.
How to Improve Nonprofit Culture Through Mission and Values Realignment: Blue Avocado reviews the culture of organizations and their connection to mission and values as a key area to focus on for realignment.
What We’re Listening To:
Crisis and Change: Conversations With Leaders— Navigating the Pandemic: In the final episode of this special series, Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, and Mark Suzman, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, share how they’re redefining the role of philanthropy in addressing public health crises and preparing for future pandemics. Produced in partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts.
The Essential Guide to Managing Volunteers at Your Nonprofit: This free guide created by VolunteerPro will help you get started on managing volunteers within your organization. Whether you are brand new to volunteer coordination or have been at for years, we hope you’ll find some helpful advice and resources on these pages.
Where to Start:
We All Count: We All Count is a project to increase equity in data science. This project has a place for you in it if you want to work towards a world where data science is good, and good for everyone.
What We’re Reading:
Liberatory Design: Liberatory Design is a creative problem-solving approach and practice that centers equity and supports us to design for liberation. It is made up of mindsets and modes. It builds on the legacy of best practices from fields like design thinking, complexity theory, organizing, equity, restorative healing and beyond
Measure Upstream Discrimination: We All Count discusses how to measure data between groups and identify discriminatory gaps.
Crafting Models for Equity: We All Count shares examples of models for equity and discusses how to create your own after analyzing data work.
Using your Data Responsibly and Ethically: Data is a powerful resource that many organizations have but it needs to be managed and stewarded with care. We must ensure that our data practices are in alignment with our overall organizational values, and that we do not increase the vulnerability of the people that we serve.
Racial Equity Tools Glossary: Racial Equity Tools has created a glossary of terms to create a shared understanding of words to enhance the way we talk about race. Language is an essential tool in racial equity work, and the terms we use have evolved as this work has developed. Having a common language allows us to better engage, discuss, and reflect on these important issues together.
Donor Collaboratives Are a New Approach That Advances Equity and Efficiency: The Chronicle of Philanthropy shares how collaborative funds in a recent survey are focuses on advancing equity and efficiency within nonprofits.
How to Build Nonprofit Talent Systems During Times of Rapid Growth: Four data-driven, inclusive human resource systems that can help quickly scaling nonprofits maintain their efficiency, values, and performance.
Moving Philanthropy Forward in 2022: What’s holding the sector back? We asked 10 experts for insights and approaches you can put into practice today.
What We’re Reading:
Trading Glass Ceilings for Glass Cliffs – A Race to Lead Report on Nonprofit Executives of Color: This report focuses on the experiences and challenges of nonprofit leaders of color who have attained the top position in their organizations.
Rest for Resistance: QTPoC Mental Health is a grassroots trans-led org that creates online and offline spaces for trans & queer people of color to practice being our whole selves. Rest for Resistance strives to uplift marginalized communities, those who rarely get access to adequate health care or social support. This includes Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Pacific Islander, Asian, Middle Eastern, and multiracial persons.
Levels of Healing – Individual, Interpersonal, Institutional & Structural: National Equity Project discusses why healing is capacity building. When we attend to healing we expand our ability for ourselves, our organizations, and our movements to evolve and grow, and it ensures that change is sustainable, grounded, and rooted in community needs, desires, and dreams.
5 Tips To Create a Calm, Healthy, and Happy Nonprofit Hybrid Workplace Post-Pandemic: To help you make the transition back into the office, here are five tips to create a calm, healthy, and happy nonprofit hybrid workplace post pandemic.
Holistic Diversity & Inclusion Strategies for Nonprofits in 2022: Network for Good discusses how holistic DEIB practices and strategies will strengthen your organization.
How mindfulness can help teams prevent burnout: Headspace shares how workplaces can address employee burnout with mindfulness and confirm their team is experiencing this occupational phenomenon.
Keys to Improving Workplace Fulfillment – Mindfulness: Syntrio has outlined the 6 Key Attitudes of Mindfulness to help you on a mindfulness journey, all of which relate back to the greater concept of a speak up and listen up culture that are critical to business success in the modern workplace.
What We’re Listening To:
The CliftonStrengths Podcast: There are 34 different CliftonStrengths themes — but an infinite number of ways to use them. Join strengths experts as they discuss the unique qualities of each theme, using strengths at work and at home, teamwork, and so much more. Each episode is recorded to help listeners live a happier and more successful life.
The sgENGAGE Podcast Episode 221: Why You Need a Mentor: Listen in to learn about what mentorship means and how it differs from sponsorship, the different kinds of mentors out there, and how to get the most out of a mentor.
Creating a Civil and Respectful Workplace: Syntrio shares why a civil and respectful workplace matters within your organization.