Management|Productivity

When Math Meets Creative: Defining Your Nonprofit Financial Terminology   Unless you are the chief financial officer or the accountant/bookkeeper at a nonprofit, you may not be aware of how financial transactions work. Perhaps you are the graphic designer and your mind is swelling with visual ideas. Aside from making the cost of the upcoming fundraiser look fancy on a flyer, you may not have the head for figures. How does a nonprofit join together the math and the creative forces on its team? Words are a good place to start. Development associates deal with words to encourage donors to send [...]

Does your organization have great upcoming events but lack the volunteers needed? Or do you have the volunteers but need the most efficient tools for keeping everyone up-to-date? There are thousands of tools organizations can use to gain and manage their volunteers. Here are 8 popular tools for organizing your volunteer needs. Google Docs is a universal tool that is ideal for connecting and sharing information. Users can share documents, spreadsheets, schedules, and presentations for free and have access to their information from any computer. VolunteerSpot is a free scheduling tool that allows you to coordinate volunteers. You can post calendars [...]

  When you’ve got a team of people who don’t work in close proximity to you, it’s almost impossible to avoid the conference call. A few years ago, when remote working was a new concept, conference calls were seen as the way to make sure your remote team remained engaged with office culture and collaboration.   Now – just like most other means of communication that stem from the 90’s – they’re overused, misused, and often seen as a waste of time. But with a few tweaks in how you strategize, run, and follow up on your conference calls, you’ll hear [...]

Congratulations, you are now the new executive director of a non-profit organization. One of the most challenging things you will have to do is to effectively “manage up” and work well with your board of directors. As an executive director, it is critically important to set the right tone from the outset and strike a balance that will allow you to do your work and productively collaborate with your board in the best interest of your charity. First, it is important to understand the role of your non-profit board. The most critical functions of a board are the following: Ensure the [...]

  The growth in nonprofit management degree programs on the nonprofit sector supports the need for the United States’ nonprofit growth sector, up 11.3% over the decade from 2003 to 2013, according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics. So Top Nonprofits’ list of Top 100+ Nonprofit Degree Program by State is a great resource when considering an undergraduate or graduate degree program for bachelor’s or master’s credentials.   While nonprofit administrators often move to the sector from business and specialties, many seeking careers in nonprofit prepare by earning a focused degree, usually at the undergraduate level.   Very often the [...]