Creativity is an often-overlooked skill at work and people often underestimate their creativity. However, everyone is creative and should bring that skill to work. Creativity at work can lead to innovative ideas for problem-solving, programming, fundraising, and increased productivity. Developing your creative skills at work can be beneficial. Here are five tips to harness your creativity at work.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month – and a great opportunity to talk about Employee mental health. Of course this is no small topic, even in the best of times. And in 2022 … mental health – both in the workplace and out of it – is definitely a topic worth paying attention to. Read more to find out how you can apply flexibility in the workplace to support employee mental health.
There are a lot of questions regarding nonprofit consultants. You may wonder about the consultant’s role, how much they cost, or where to find a consultant. This post will walk you through determining whether or not you need to hire a consultant, then how to price your work and where to find a consultant partner.
Leadership transitions at a nonprofit can be an unexpected surprise, but you can be prepared and weather the transition period successfully by having a written succession plan in place. By taking this step, you’ll not only find yourself with an easier, smoother transition period, but you’ll also taking positive steps toward the long-term sustainability of your organization.
Cross-cultural events can be a fun way for participants to learn more about each other. While many of these events tend to celebrate surface-level culture, to have a successful event it is important to have activities to help participants learn about surface-level and below-the-surface-level culture. Different activities can be done at cross-cultural events to celebrate both levels of culture.
Whether you celebrate Volunteer Month or Week, April is a time for the nonprofit sector to focus on those who give of their time freely. Volunteers provide an enormous benefit to the sector. For example, volunteerism offers a value of over $1.8 billion dollars to the U.S economy. However, you might find it hard to recruit volunteers and use them well. Spark Group provides four best practices for getting the most out of your volunteer program.
Many of us fundraising professionals have questions about how or when we can host in-person events. Living with the coronavirus for the past two years has taught us new ways technology can support fundraising to coordinate three types of events: in-person, virtual, and hybrid. Most importantly, we should think about what will make for a unique and meaningful experience for donors.
How do you become an exceptional leader in a time of crisis? Start by understanding your default leadership style. Once we know what leadership style comes naturally to us, we can then build a plan for how to improve other aspects of our leadership. Building up our skills in each of the frames allows us to adapt to changes and crises and become exceptional!
Nonprofit leaders are looking for ways to get back on track with strategic plans developed before the pandemic. But what exactly Pandemic Recovery looks like for each of us varies from organization to organization. Pivoting responds to a new context. It is not the same as ‘mission drift,’ and does NOT signify failure. It takes an organization firmly rooted in its community to respond to its needs.
Over the past two years, strategic planning trends have been on a rollercoaster ride. Nonprofit leaders started 2020 with shiny new plans and high hopes for the next five years but were walloped by COVID reality. Now, more than ever, nonprofit leaders need to carefully consider what is relevant.
Implicit biases are weaved into the very fabric of your organization–your systems, policies, procedures, and protocols. In this article, I will name three places where implicit biases can show up in your organization.
You are not alone! Professional networking groups can inspire a fresh perspective or put the ‘fun’ back into fundraising. Here are the top five reasons professional networking groups can improve your fundraising.
If your team is like ours here at Spark Group, you likely have times when you work remotely and in other situations where you are in person. Sometimes, when working with clients, we work with individuals in-person and virtually simultaneously. Below are our picks for the top tools that help facilitate meaningful hybrid workplaces.
We are well into the Great Resignation, and everyone is talking about retaining employees. Professional development is one way to retain employees, increase productivity, and support organizational growth.
I like to think of myself as a creative, innovative individual, and often pride myself on my ability to come up with (what I consider to be) great new ideas! So -- full disclosure -- the first time I heard the advice I’m going to share with you today, it was somewhat of a hard pill to swallow.
Utilize existing best practices for Program Design. Funders don’t typically want to see how innovative and creative your new program ideas are; they want to know their money is being invested in proven methods, upholding any industry standards.
Writing a federal grant may seem like an intimidating task, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are 4 tips for greater success to help you secure federal grant funding. Of course, no grant application can ever be 100% guaranteed to be successful (and anyone who tells you differently is running a scam!) But with these four tips in mind, you can feel confident as you write and submit your federal grant application.
This year, Allyship should be part of your Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work. I outlined steps to integrate it into your work. These steps are critical to moving your organization from performative allyship to authentic allyship.
Strategic plans are useless if we fail to create action steps and align our team’s focus. Follow these steps to make your plan work for you!
Farewell, 2021, and welcome the new year, 2022! The start of a new year is a great time to help your organization set the stage for months to come. So here are five fundamental fundraising resolutions you should make this year.
As you gear up for your end-of-the-year holiday party, including one particular ‘secret ingredient’ can ensure your staff feels valued and appreciated.
