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Great article on capacity building for nonprofit leadership and staff in communities of color serving people of color

blog by nonprofitwithballs on funding people to do the work in nonprofits not projects, consultants, workshops, and redirecting capacity builders back to basics

Here are five ways to successfully tap into the women's market: 1. Provide good quality information. Producing a newsletter and Web site are excellent ways to demonstrate your expertise and to keep your image in front of clients and prospects. Include plenty of strategies and tips that will help guide women to be more successful in running or growing their businesses. Conducting free seminars or workshops is another good strategy for imparting your knowledge and has the added benefit of serving as a networking forum. 2. Build relationship marketing strategies. Develop and sustain relationships with women and cultivate a sense of community. 3. Host networking events. Historically, women have not had the same opportunities to network as their male counterparts. You can create your own networking events for women clients and prospects. Featuring a guest speaker in your industry can be an excellent addition. Just be sure to build in enough time for networking as well. 4. Sponsor women's business associations or events. If you are looking to target this market and build awareness, consider sponsoring one of the many women's business associations and events. These range from something as specific as mentoring programs (such as the Step Ahead One-on-One Mentoring Program - www.stepaheadonline.com ) to associations for women exporters (such as the Organization of Women in International Trade - www.owit-toronto.ca ). Most hold regular meetings and special functions. Some provide opportunities for sponsors to speak and showcase their expertise. Contributing material to their newsletters, publications and Web sites is another good way to build your identity among members, as these associations often welcome good quality, educational submissions of interest to members. 5. Share core information on a regular basis. Email or mail information that is considered to be "in our mutual interest." News clippings, industry data, notes from indus

blog post by Caroline Kim Oh, August 19, 2014, on reframing networking to build on your strengths, and not be overwhelmed by "networking" expectations at a so-called networking event. "Slow Networking " What I've found is that there is no one right way to build and cultivate your network. It turns out that my way of getting to know people, what I will begin calling "slow networking," is what works for me. I find that I am much better at getting to know people over time. I enjoy "collecting" relationships with people who are doing interesting work both within and outside of my field, keeping in touch with them, helping them whenever I can, informing them of what I am up to and, from time to time, calling on them when I need help. I love the process of uncovering a natural rapport with them as we work together on things we care about. How do you find your bright spot? When you feel you are excelling at a form of communicating with other people, and it comes naturally to you, that is your bright spot. And when you build your networking strategy around your one or two bright spots, you are leading with your strengths instead of trying to replicate some networking best practices book.

Blog by Matthew forti on Measuring Leadership Development, November 28, 2011 Neighborhood Builders by Bank of America builds high performing community-based nonprofits and gives them multiple three-day sessions of leadership training for the ED and emerging leader. Excerpts: "1. Develop a detailed theory of change. It isn't worth spending a dime on measurement until you've carefully defined which leaders you intend to target, what specific training and other programming they need, what they will gain, how those gains will be applied, and what should ultimately result." 2. Measure with mixed methods. 3. Continuously measure to improve impact. 4.Build rigor over time. Leadership programs don't need to build a full-scale measurement system right from the start. The best programs are intentional about whether and how to improve the rigor of their measurement over time, based partly on what they want to do with the results.

capacity building paper for nonprofits by grantmakers for effective organizations

Interesting blog post by Jennifer Dunn on Scoop.it, June 25, 2013. It suggests using LinkedIn, conferences, and current contacts as starting points for building your business network. Not so unusual but the point about how you don't have to go a conference to benefit from the circle of like-minded peers it attracts but go to the website or Facebook page or Twitter to circulate and get acquainted with the people who might be valuable for you to know is a good one. Makes me think, also, about how wikis or any record building device given to participants one year at a conference or workshop might be left open for one to go back and view current participants. (ex. BEtreat wiki is still open to me; WLstudio?)

Blog post by John Seely Brown, "Identity Shift is the biggest shift of all. We're moving from a sense of "I am what I wear/own/control" to "I am what I create, share and others build on." How do I put something into play so others build on it? When you figure this out, you understand agency and impact. "

excellent article by Jennifer Chandler and Kristen Scott Kennedy on building capacity through networks, February 5, 2016. 

Beautiful schematic on value creation--all of the activities and trust building and connection building that occurs before a collaboration effort is noticed, Oscar Berg, February 14, 2012

Linda Stone's key blog in Huffington Post on "Just Breathe: Building the Case for Email Apnea", 2/8/2008 Excerpt: Now I want to know: Is it only the Big Mac that makes us fat? Or, are we more obese and diabetic because of a combination of holding our breath off and on all day and then failing to move when our bodies have prepared us to do so? Can fifteen minutes of diaphragmatic breathing before a meal tune us in to when we're full? If, when we're doing sedentary work, and O2, CO2, and NO are optimally balanced, through healthy breathing, will we escape the ravages of an always-on sympathetic nervous system? Can daily breathing exercises contribute to helping reduce asthma, ADD, depression, obesity, and a host of other stress-related conditions? I predict, within the next 5 to 7 years, breathing exercises will be a significant part of every fitness regime. In the meantime, why not breathe while doing email? Awareness is the first step toward wiping out email apnea! *Email apnea - a temporary absence or suspension of breathing, or shallow breathing, while doing email (Linda Stone, February 2008)

Excellent resource page for building intelligence dashboard using RSS feeds, Yahoo Pipes, persistent searches, etc. Rheingold uses short videos (usually <10 minutes) to staircase steps for building the dashboard.

Article on web 2.0 marketing to millennials by Strategic Enrollment Management February 2009. "Although we are not going to dedicate our article to a recap of millennial marketing, we do want to reinforce the importance of understanding the millennial mindset before you begin to build your Web 2.0 plan. Consider that 64 percent of your audience (teens 12 to 17 years old) are reported to engage in at least one type of online content creation, up from 57 percent just four years ago. Understanding what they are doing online allows our plans to be more comprehensive and effective and fully integrated into a successful enrollment plan. There is even an emerging classification of teenagers using a host of technology options for dealing with family and friends, including traditional landline phones, cell phones, texting, social network sites, instant messaging and e-mail. These "super communicators" represent about 28 percent of the entire teen population (Guess 2008). And possibly the most interesting statistic to watch comes out of Noel-Levitz's "E-Expectations: The Class of 2007" report, which claims that 43 percent of high school juniors have a profile page designed for use in researching colleges (Lenhart & Madden 2007). This all means that if you are not already participating in an active use of online marketing you are overlooking a large group of your audience. Frankly, they are keenly aware of marketing, and as marketers we need to understand their mindset to build effective plans to reach and educate them. We cannot expect that they will conform to marketing as it has been done in a traditional way. Tools of the Trade: Components to Consider The goal of any Web 2.0 is to inform and connect. Simply stated, the tools you choose should work to reinforce that goal and integrate with the other tools of the trade you are using. Enrollment managers who know their audience understand the need to consider a variety of marketing options, from traditional adve

Excellent slidedoc on why slidedocs are important by Nancy Duarte. Really like the distinctions made on slide 15 between presentations and conversations in two columns. Use presentations when you need to communicate an already-formed idea; already have information about the audience's wants and needs; need to inform, persuade, or entertain an audience; does not require real-time feedback from the audience; or need a single event to move an audience toward your objective. Use conversation when you need to build upon, get consensus on, or more fully develop an idea; need more information about the group's wants and ideas; need to build a personal relationship with the audience; need the group's input in order to move forward; need continuous engagement to accomplish your objective. I believe that we are much more about conversation at the Studio.

Stumbled into this blog post on why kids need to learn to code by Doug Belshaw, November 28, 2013 on Digital Media + Learning: The Power of Participation Love this rationale for why learning to code is important because I believe these arguments apply to adults acquiring greater digital literacy as well--it makes the reasons explicit. Coding is defined as learning to read and write a machine language; some are easier than others just like spoken language is. Reasons to learn to code 1. Problem-solving 2. (digital) confidence 3. Understanding the world (realizing that you can not only change and influence things but build things of value to others) In the comments, readers suggested these additional reasons: design thinking, understanding systems, knowing when to amend or break them and soft skills such as sharing your work, receiving feedback and critique to build diplomacy and negotiation skills.

Meghan Casserly of Forbes interviewed 20 young female entrepreneurs and how to use Twitter to find mentors and those that can give you advice as you build your business. All agree it is essential to have mentors, not just 1, and a support group of women in the same stage as you are or a little ahead in building a business.

Great post on Resource Link, October 19, 2011, on value of twitter to professional learning community building. Found it via my Twitterers. Research has identified six 'common patterns of participation' for users of Twitter: Sharing Knowledge and Resources - sharing links to blogs, images or video clips of interest. Monitoring Educational New Sources - sourcing professional readings and research Digitally Attending Important Conferences - sharing thoughts and reflections from professional development sessions or conferences. Encouraging Reflection - engaging in a reflective conversation with others Gathering Instant Feedback - turning to Twitter as the first point of call when needing answers about their practice Mentoring Colleagues - turning to Twitter to find a digital mentor for yourself or a peer. (From Ferriter, W. M., Ramsden, J. T., & Sheninger, E. C. (2011). Communicating and Connecting with Social Media. Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.) How to get started: 1. Set up a Twitter account 2. Find people to follow 3. Learn some hashtags #_____ 4. Manage your posts

Amazing ebook by Daniel Bassill on building networks for good using the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago as model.

Love this post by Seth Godin on "too long; didn't read" mentalities as we all proceed in the "checklist mode" of grazing here and there but never stopping long enough to read, understand, and make sense of things. He mentions the importance of "trusted curators" and how it is up to us to decide how to invest our time. Implications for WLS: building dashboards, prioritizing, culling, controlling the incoming flow are all important skills to master for online work. We build on old concepts--dashboard for online focus, leading online--and become trusted curators too to provoke curious second and third thoughts leading to conversions on our site. Excerpt: One option is to read incisively, curate, edit, choose your sources carefully. Limit the inbound to what's important, not what's shiny or urgent or silly. The other option is to assume that you already know what you need to know, and refuse to read anything deeply. Hide behind clever acronyms, flit from viral topic to flame war, never actually diving in. It appears that this is far more common than ever before. Here's what I've found: When I read in checklist mode, I learn almost nothing. It's easy to cherry pick the amusing or the merely short, but it's a quick thrill with very little to show for it.

blog post by Vu Le, February 2, 2015--reflections on SeaHawks' loss to Patriots and tie-in to nonprofits' lessons And I found that the greatest thing about this sport where a bunch of dudes throw an egg-shaped ball and shove each other around, is the community it builds. The last two weeks especially have been great. People were nicer to each other. Everyone seemed happier. And the ice at any meeting could be broken with a simple "Go Hawks." Applied to nonprofits: One of the most important things that nonprofits do is that we build community. This is hard to measure and is not often funded. But we cannot take this for granted. When we do a good job, our organizations and programs instill in people-our clients, staff, board, volunteers, donors-a sense of belonging to a community that cares about them, where they are seen, where they matter. (See "An immigrant kid's reflections on community.")