Practical Considerations for Non-profits

What should your non-profit be thinking about during Covid-19? The pandemic has brought about many changes to which non-profits must effectively respond. In this free eBook, we discuss what  non-profits need to consider in order to survive (and thrive) during the Coronavirus crisis.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Every organization faces the possibility of turnover. Some may actually be beneficial, and you can limit “bad attrition” in the future through targeted retention programs. When the worst happens and key employees move on (it's inevitable), it’s possible to cope.

Orienting and Managing Your Unpaid Help

Volunteers are the lifeblood of many non-profits, but recruiting and using them is not without its challenges. Many issues, however, are over-stated or flat out untrue, and this makes it even more difficult to acquire and deploy an unpaid workforce (without abusing it)!

Realize Your Potential with Strategic Living

Strategic plans are means to ends, but too often non-profits treat them as "must-haves" but "don't-executes." You're going to have to "live strategy" to keep your non-profit vibrant and relevant over time, and maximize your full potential to serve the public.

Know Your Prospects and Influence Behaviors

Is your message reaching and resonating with the right people and persuading them to contribute? Do you keep them, and equip them to advocate for you? If you know your prospects intimately, you can build relationships that continuously deliver over time.

Keep Your Plan from Getting Put on Ice

Non-profit strategic plans often wind up in the freezer, frozen and stored until it's time for the next iteration. In the end, strategy is about facilitating mission-focused actions in dynamic conditions. A sound plan is an important tool that drives your mission. 

Realign Your Workforce for Modern Demands

Technology is changing. Starting a "grassroots transformation" in your association will help you respond to member (and prospect) needs with the right plaforms, products, and services. Modernizing can also re-energize your workforce as you navigate a new future.                                                                   

Use Market Recruiting for Hiring Challenges

Creative, needs-based resourcing strategies are aligned with your labor market(s) help you define needs, creatively identify and assess options, choose the right approaches, and take cost-effective action to get the skills you need to reach your potential.

Building Blocks for Effective, Responsive Strategy

Stop your strategic planning initiative! Hold on a second. Instead of looking at it only as planning, you should be "engaging in strategy," start to finish, from disovery to implementation, adaptation, and ajdustment. In this presentation, you'll learn the building blocks of strategy, and how to make sure yours works for your organization and the communities you serve.

Non-profit Institute at the College of Southern Maryland 

Annual Conference - May 2022

Making Over Your Non-profit's Board for Better Governance

A strong board is essential to non-profit success. To be effective, boards need members with the right skills, experiences, motivations, and attitudes - the right composition. This means defining the best mix, finding and recruiting, and carefully selecting from among candidates. It's as easily done as said if you're clear on how to do it and you put in the requisite effort.

Virginia Association of Free and Charitable Clinics

Board and Executive Leadership Series - January 2022

Emerging Stronger from Covid-19

With vaccines on the horizon, it appears as though there's a light at the end of the "Covid Tunnel." Non-profits need to prepare now, but they shouldn't look backwards to the way they were before the crisis. It's insufficient just to "turn the lights back on." It's a time for forward-thinking strategies that leverage new practices and lessons learned, strengthening organizations to do more.

Loudoun Chamber of Commerce/CFLFC

Non-profit Academy - December 2020

How to Deal with the Coronavirus' Impacts

Change is in the air! Covid-19 affects non-profit programs, delivery methods, workforce, donor relations, and more. This presentation examines the impacts of continuous, dynamic change associated with the current public health crisis, and provides approaches to handle them effectively. While it's geared toward non-profits, businesses and governments can also benefit from this material.

Virginia Ass'n of Free and Charitable Clinics

Annual Conference - November 2020

Practical Considerations Series Summary

Snowflake and the Non-profit Alliance of the Northern Shenandoah Valley (NANSV) held a six-part series for non-profits on the strategic, management, and stakeholder implications of Covid-19. This is the series summary, covering all six topics. This session and Session 1: Strategic Responses (below) are free. There is a nominal charge for the other presentations.

Practical Considerations for Non-profits Series

Zoom Sessions - May - June 2020

Non-profit Adaptation to the Coronavirus

Covid-19 is changing the game for non-profit organizations. From client service to finances and the workforce, there are many impacts to which non-profits must adjust.  And ad hoc responses won't do... they need to think strategically about how to respond,  consider the implications and impacts, and make informed, intelligent decisions to be succesful in the short- and long-terms. 

Practical Considerations for Non-profits Series

Zoom Sessions - May - June 2020

Strategic Engagement for Social Good

Non-profits do amazing things, but they need to be even more exceptional if they're going to transform lives, build communities, and change the world. Many, however, don't evolve. Several barriers are often cited... but are they real? By engaging in continuous, dynamic, collaborative problem-solving, non-profits can engage in strategy (and with stakeholders), and accomplish more!

Nonprofit Institute at CSM

Annual Conference - February 2020

Creating "Donor Experiences"

Every interaction a donor prospect has with a non-profit is an "experience" that shapes perceptions and influences responses. Each little moment contributes to peoples' impressions of you and your cause - for better or for worse. Positive, rewarding experiences create strong, lasing relationships that persuade donors, retain them, and even make them advocates for your cause.

Maryland Nonprofits/MARFY 

Annual Conference - October 2019

Surviving and Thriving through Strategy

Strategic plans are powerful tools for non-profits. Sound strategy drives sustainability, improvement, and expansion, and ensures organizations stay relevant and cost-effective even as conditions change. But what does "strategy" actually mean - and what are the implications of our definition for creating, executing, and adjusting it that advance missions?

Nonprofit Alliance of the NSV

Annual Symposium - October 2019

Aligning People with Strategy for Your Mission

Strategy that's all talk and no action isn't worth the paper it's written on. Effective strategic action requires resources who have the skills to execute key tasks, and to effectively integrate the organizational changes that result. It's critical to know in advance what you need, who you have, and how to fill the gaps if you want your strategy to succeed and deliver the right outcomes.

Virginia Ass'n of Free and Charitable Clinics

Annual Conference - November 2017

Creating a Strategy that Gets Results

The term "strategic planning" is really a misnomer. Good strategy is a "lifestyle" - a continuous, dynamic cycle of interpretation, planning, action, and adaptation that needs to be fully embraced. After all, it's not the plans that get results - it's through "living strategy" that non-profits will achieve the outcomes they need, leading to sustainable services and smart growth.

Nonprofit Alliance of the NSV

Annual Conference - October 2017

Guiding Your Team through Dynamic Change

"The only constant is change." For many organizations that's true - and hard. Accomplised researchers have said navigating change and integrating new ideas requires strong leadership. But what's a leader without followers? Executives need to be "coaches," knowing their teams, tailoring interactions, and using truly influential people as "captains" to positively affect behaviors.

4 Good Nonprofit Knowledge Center

Webinar - August 2015

Creating and Sustaining Cost-effectiveness

When  there is pressure to reduce costs, it's "Internal" functions that feel the heat the most. However, human resources, technology, etc. can significantly affect mission cost-effectiveness. Just slashing "back office" budgets is a mistake. It's critical to see how each business unit affects others, and use this knowledge to optimize cuts for the greatest total net returns.

Association for Strategic Planning (ASP)

Annual Conference - May 2015