Online learning is a new and convenient way for nonprofit professionals to increase effectiveness and efficiency, acquire new skills, and exchange knowledge and experience with colleages while avoiding the extra expense and time investment of attending conferences and training programs. In many cases, online learning can be integrated into a regular work day - even for busy nonprofit professionals.
This website, Nonprofitlearning.com, offers a comprehensive up-to-date directory covering online learning opportunities in areas of nonprofit fundraising, communication, governance, technical and data management,,and more.
Start your online learning journey here at Nonprofitlearning.com.
Your organization’s hardware, software, and network form the foundation of your technology implementation. If the foundation is not strong, it’s tough to succeed in any other area. It can be difficult to wade through the myriad options for each category, but we’ll help you cut through the jargon and review the essential knowledge needed to understand hardware, software, and networks.
Skill Takeaways:
Develop a technology audit
Manage a nonprofit’s technology assets
Evaluate and choose appropriate software applications
JOHN KENYON has been helping nonprofits for over 15 years by providing advice, teaching seminars, and writing articles about technology. In the late 90’s he was Information Technology Director at San Francisco’s Management Center. Along with Michael Stein he wrote both The eNonprofit: a guide to ASPs, internet services and online software and the Nonprofit Quarterly article “A Decade of Online Fundraising”. John recently served as Training and Consulting Manager at Groundspring.org/Network for Good, helping organizations effectively leverage the Internet, before returning to private practice in 2006. He is an adjunct professor for the University of San Francisco’s Masters of Nonprofit Administration degree program and has been a featured speaker at conferences across the US, in England and online.
For nonprofits, the arrival of SproutBuilder is a welcome innovation. Using Sprout, non-technical staff can create multimedia widgets that bring together up-to-date information about the work of a nonprofit. Each “sprout” can include text, images, video, calendars, RSS feeds, and a “donate now” button spread across multiple “pages.” Once the sprout is published, supporters can post these rich media widgets on their own blogs, websites, and social networking profiles. Nonprofits can update the widget at any time and track where they are appearing and how individuals are interacting with them. The best part of all is that Sprout is completely free. For cash strapped nonprofits, investing a few hours to build an attractive Sprout widget can be a positive and financially rewarding use of social media. This webinar will look at a number of successful nonprofit implementations of Sprout, provide a quick demonstration on building and promoting a sprout, and offer tips on how to integrate a sprout in your own work. The presenter of this webinar is neither a staff member nor a consultant with SproutBuilder.
Change is hard. Especially when it comes to changing the way that people use their computers to do their jobs. Successfully adopting online collaboration tools is both a technology and a people problem. This session will cover tactics and tools for getting your users to break the email habit and adopt online collaboration tools to share files, manage tasks, and communicate better.
Product Spotlight Webinars are presented by sponsors. In these sessions, you’ll have the opportunity to learn about products and services, as well as some of the latest trends in the sector. Content in these sessions has been developed solely by the sponsor.
We know that information technology touches many aspects of our work in nonprofits. From accounting to programs to fundraising, we use technology to organize and analyze data, to communicate, and to deliver services. In this session, we’ll examine the role of information technology in supporting the essential functions, business processes, and mission of a nonprofit organization.
Skill Takeaways:
Explain the role of information in supporting the essential functions, business processes and mission of a nonprofit organization
Understand basic technology terms (IT, ICT, Systems Analysis, Data, etc.)
Describe Managing information vs. managing technology
JOHN KENYON has been helping nonprofits for over 15 years by providing advice, teaching seminars, and writing articles about technology. In the late 90’s he was Information Technology Director at San Francisco’s Management Center. Along with Michael Stein he wrote both The eNonprofit: a guide to ASPs, internet services and online software and the Nonprofit Quarterly article “A Decade of Online Fundraising”. John recently served as Training and Consulting Manager at Groundspring.org/Network for Good, helping organizations effectively leverage the Internet, before returning to private practice in 2006. He is an adjunct professor for the University of San Francisco’s Masters of Nonprofit Administration degree program and has been a featured speaker at conferences across the US, in England and online.
Your organization uses your site to communicate many messages to many audiences. But with so much content, how can you design a site that truly generates results by getting each audience to do what you want them to do? In this webinar, we’ll reveal tricks of the trade to optimize your site for results from your audiences using nonprofit websites as examples. And you just might be surprised what some simple changes can accomplish.
Session Takeaways:
User testing: Critical…and not so scary after all
Effective brand presentation: “What you do” versus the “mission statement”
Creating compelling and contextual calls to action: Refining the “ask”
It’s a common nonprofit complaint: “When we’re dealing with such important issues . . . why aren’t more people listening?”
Everyone today talks about the need for a message, but how do you create one? During this webinar, you’ll learn the five principles that underlie the creation of powerful messages and the five steps to creating one. You’ll hear how you need to be clear about what action you want. How you need to speak to your audiences’ desires more than their needs. And why the less you say, the more you’re heard.
If you are struggling to capture your audience’s attention or aren’t certain how to best guide your conversations with them, this webinar will give you the step-by-step how tos you need to refine or revamp your nonprofit’s messaging.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. Eastern
(11:00 a.m. Pacific)
Registration is $35
Guest speaker Rebecca K. Leet is an expert in nonprofit communication and author of the first book on message development: Message Matters: Succeeding at the Crossroads of Mission and Market. She has consulted for nonprofits, foundations, and associations for more than 20 years and, previous to that, had a career in the national news media and politics.
Spending time and money trying to market your nonprofit or its programs without a strategy in place is a big waste of both precious resources. But who has time to create in-depth, well-researched strategies when there is so much “mission” work to do?
During this webinar, you’ll learn how to find the middle ground — to create a “quick and dirty” marketing strategy. You’ll learn the steps that you need to go through to create marketing strategies for your nonprofit organization as a whole or for a specific campaign or program. Even if you only spend a couple of hours drafting your strategy, you’ll greatly increase the likelihood that your efforts will work. You’ll also gain a better understanding for when “quick and dirty” isn’t enough and you do need to embark on a more intensive planning process.
During the webinar, Kivi will walk two participants through the process of creating a quick strategy. You’ll receive details on how to submit your nonprofit or campaign for consideration after you register.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. Eastern
(11:00 a.m. Pacific)
Registration is $35
Kivi Leroux Miller, president of EcoScribe Communications and founder of Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com, will present this webinar.
A nonprofit’s email list is a lifeline to donors, volunteers and other supporters. It’s an essential part of your online marketing strategy. Many of the people who will turn into your best donors in years to come are the ones who are signing up for your email newsletter today. But buying lists or poaching them from other nonprofits isn’t considered acceptable behavior. So how can you grow your own opt-in email list easily, effectively, and ethically?
During this webinar, you’ll learn the best practices in how to grow your email list, whether you are starting from scratch, rebuilding a list that’s stagnating, or just curious about easy solutions you may be overlooking. We’ll look at incentives you can use on your website to encourage people to give you their email addresses and how to use viral marketing and social media to grow your list. You’ll hear several real-world examples of how nonprofits across the U.S. have successfully expanded their email lists. You’ll also hear about some list-building attempts that flopped. Finally, we’ll cover offline techniques you can also use to build your list.
TechSoup’s free day-long online event is coming up this Wed. May 14th: Online Activism: Social Media Tools for Social Change in the TechSoup online forums.
Dive into the conversation with hosts Heather Mansfield, owner of DIOSA Communications and Online Community Manager for Change.org and Carie Lewis, Internet Marketing Manager for the Humane Society of the United States, as they explore the ins and outs of using social networking sites and strategies for determining how, why, and when to use different applications to broadcast your message. In discussing the dos and don’ts of effectively fundraising and promoting your cause, we’ll also look at lessons learned from successful (and not so successful) online campaigns.
How do social networking sites fit in with other outreach efforts?
Are the benefits worth the time needed to keep up a social networking presence?
How can you translate online activism into on-the-ground action towards change?
Is it ever a good idea for organizations to start their own social networking sites?
Take part in the discussion Wed. May 14th in the TechSoup Emerging Technologies forum. This event is asynchronous (not live). No registration is required, just show up and post! Feel free to spread the word to any of your colleagues that may be interested.
Discover how easy it is to get more items, more bids and raise even more money using the web as we uncover new avenues in which to reach additional donors, constituents and attendees for your events.
We’ll identify the challenges that schools and nonprofits face when planning and executing charitable auctions, and illustrate how fundraisers are now adapting new technologies to overcome inherent limitations of live and silent auctions – ultimately raising more money from these events.
This webinar will show you how to:
Get more items - Use online donating capabilities, dedicated email campaigns, consignment items and barter sponsorship on your auction site to get items
Get more bids - Attract bidders and motivate participants through a series of web-based bidder alerts, email sends and online promotions; and use the Internet to expand your reach beyond your constituency and your community
Raise more money – Use supplemental revenue channels such as online sponsorship, ticket sales and cash donations directly through your auction’s website to raise even more money
PRESENTERS Jon Carson, CEO, cMarket Renea Ferriss - cMarket Customer, Regional Coordinator, Muscular Dystrophy Association – Houston Paul Clolery, Vice President/Editorial Director, The Nonprofit Times Anna Carbonara, Moderator, American Marketing Association
It’s a common nonprofit complaint: “When we’re dealing with such important issues . . . why aren’t more people listening?”
Guest speaker Rebecca K. Leet is an expert in nonprofit communication and author of the first book on message development: 
A nonprofit’s email list is a lifeline to donors, volunteers and other supporters. It’s an essential part of your online marketing strategy. Many of the people who will turn into your best donors in years to come are the ones who are signing up for your email newsletter today. But buying lists or poaching them from other nonprofits isn’t considered acceptable behavior. So how can you grow your own opt-in email list easily, effectively, and ethically?
