programs and services
What do you do all day?
There are going to be times, many times, in every non-profit executive director’s career when you feel out of touch with what your team is working on. It might be because you are new to the role, new to the organization, or you’ve had staffing changes. There is a lot of trial and error...
New program? No problem!
A non-profit executive director has the strategic plan in mind pretty much all the time. As planned programs and services run throughout the year, the ED, usually in partnership with the staff team, will keep a keen eye out for potential additions. These opportunities are the ideas that were...
Mastering your follow-up report
Your non-profit received a grant. Congratulations! Grant writing is a lot of hard work and succeeding in the application process is no small task. In the excitement of running a new program and paying the bills, you might find time has gone by so quickly and you are not as prepared to write...
Let's keep friendly rivalry, friendly!
Non-profits rely on funding to stay operational. It is rarely enough to have only one funding source. Non-profits will have a collection of funding streams from grants and donations to events and merchandise sales. It will take a lot of people power to keep all the funding programs running and...
Now what?
The strategic planning session is done. The board is happy with the results. The goals, outcomes, and indicators have been decided. Everything is handed over to the executive director for the next step. Now what? I don’t know what to do! A non-profit executive director’s part in...
Keep Your Cool with Negative Feedback
We’ve all been there. A participant didn’t like the way a program was handled. An evaluation is filled with negative comments. A volunteer doesn’t agree with the new direction the organization is headed. An anonymous survey seems to bring out the nastiest responses. A client makes a snap...
Create a Program Evaluation to Gather Useable Information
Evaluation, measurement, KPIs and assessment are all part of the work of a non-profit. Feedback is collected to help determine if the organization is meeting its strategic priorities. But that flow from strategic plan to program to feedback and back around, can feel overwhelming and the creation...
How to debrief, well, …anything
In the heat of the moment, everyone has a comment (or 15) about the workshop/event/meeting they are experiencing (usually about the bad coffee). A week later, at the official debriefing meeting, the comments have dried up and no one really has anything to share. Don’t waste an opportunity for...
Quick Win – Don’t Let Luck Determine Your Success
Have you ever attended an event (virtual or in person) that seemed to go off without an issue? Maybe discussion seemed to flow naturally, or maybe the presentations seemed to really connect with the audience. How does that happen? It isn’t a secret. Its planning, planning, and more planning....