In your 2024 strategic plan, nonprofit leaders should prioritize leadership equity, adapt fundraising efforts, build a reserve fund, and focus on retaining and hiring quality employees to navigate the ever-changing nonprofit landscape effectively.
Leadership in Times of Crisis
Join our host, Mary Gladstone-Highland as she interviews Adrian Mendoza and hears about his tale of remaining resilient in times of crisis.
How to Prepare for Your Next Strategic Planning Process
In this blog, we'll explore the importance of understanding your organization's position within the life cycle and outline three key steps to prepare for your upcoming strategic planning process.
Three Tips to Up Your Facilitation Game
As nonprofit leaders, we often find ourselves in the role of guiding discussions, fostering collaboration, and ensuring that the goals of our organizations are met through effective group dynamics. To excel in this role, we need to continually refine our facilitation skills. In this blog, we'll explore three essential tips to elevate your facilitation game and create more impactful and engaging experiences for your team, stakeholders, and participants.
Unlocking Year-End Giving: The Art of Compelling Campaign Narratives
Year-end campaigns are a crucial component of a nonprofit's fundraising strategy. When executed with careful planning and attention to detail, they can yield significant returns, enabling organizations to continue their vital work. To make the most of this opportunity, nonprofits must start planning early and incorporate a key ingredient: a compelling campaign narrative.
Interims: A Secret Ingredient for Smooth Leadership Transitions
Join host Mary Gladstone-Highland in a compelling conversation with Dorothy Norris-Tirrell, Interim Executive Director at the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance, on the Nonprofit Experts podcast. Discover intentionality's pivotal role in hiring, the dangers of hasty recruitment, and the valuable insights offered by interim leadership during times of transition.
#1 Reason Calm is a Great Resource for Your Organization
Discover how 'Calm: How to End Destructive Conflict in Your Church' offers proactive conflict resolution and decision-making strategies for nonprofit leaders. Learn valuable skills to foster healthy communities and adapt to virtual environments. A must-have resource for any organization seeking unity and success.
Authors Chat - Calm How to End Destructive Conflict in Your Church
In this episode, Mary Gladstone-Highland, Christina Wichert, and Katy Stokes discuss their upcoming book, Calm: How to End Destructive Conflict in Your Church. They offer a behind-the-scenes look at what it took to develop the text and outline several ways that you can handle conflict in your organization – faith-based of not.
In this episode, you will hear:
How to address conflict in your organization
Tools and resources that you can use in order to not feel alone in your tension
Tips for being proactive about conflict resolution
Spark Group Summer Closure Dates
Spark Group annually packs up and shuts down for the first week of July. Therefore we will be closed between July 1 - July 9, 2023. Wondering why we take this rest each year? Read more to find out!
Celebrating Pride Month
This month —Pride Month— is a time to honor and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, their achievements, and their ongoing struggle for equality. At Spark Group, we proudly stand with the LGBTQ+ community and recognize the importance of creating safe and inclusive spaces for individuals of all sexual orientations and gender identities. We celebrate the diversity within the LGBTQ+ community and acknowledge the unique contributions they make to society.
Outlining Your Organizations Values
Explore the benefits of core values and their profound impact on decision-making, organizational culture, and partnerships. Learn how Spark Group's values shape their work, attract like-minded collaborators, and establish boundaries for impactful relationships. From collaborative partnerships to championing diversity, equity, and inclusion, Spark Group stands ready to help you craft values that elevate your organization's mission and foster meaningful connections within your community.
Introducing our New Book "Calm: How to End Destructive Conflict in Your Church"
We are so excited to announce the August release of a brand new book entitled Calm: How to End Destructive Conflict in Your Church, from Abington Press. Spark Group consultants Mary Gladstone-Highland and Christina Wichert have co-authored this book with their good friend and colleague, Katy Stokes. We began developing this curriculum back in 2018, so getting that first author’s copy of the book has been quite a moment of celebration for us!
The Strength of Community Collaborations
Welcome to "The Nonprofit Experts," a podcast where we discuss important topics for nonprofit professionals. In this episode, we explore:
The power of an asset-based approach
The importance of flexibility
Making deep investments in our community
Navigating the complexities of multiple partners
Strategies for collective decision-making
Advice for launching new programs
Tune in to gain valuable insights and practical advice to enhance your nonprofit work and make a meaningful impact.
Why is Everyone Talking About ChatGPT?
You've heard the buzz. Everyone is talking about ChatGPT. But how can it support your work? In this episode, host Mary Gladstone-Highland is joined again by her friend and co-owner of Spark Group Consulting, Christina Wichert. The two discuss cutting-edge technology that's transforming the nonprofit sector. Whether you are a ChatGPT savant or brand new to the movement, this episode is for you.
4 Nonprofit Finance Mistakes to Avoid
Many nonprofit leaders feel self-conscious about their lack of knowledge regarding nonprofit finances. At Spark Group, Executive Directors often whisper to us, “I don’t really understand the ins and outs of nonprofit finance.”
If that sounds like you, you’re not alone!
What Else You Need to Know about Tax Season
It is tax season. There are different resources to help file income taxes. You might not know about some of these resources. There are resources that help you prepare income taxes for free and there are resources for people that speak different languages. There are also resources about how an organization can set up a tax assistance program.
Restricted and Unrestricted Donations: What’s the Difference?
Donors have the power to move an organization or support a cause. They can determine how their gifts can make an impact. Organizations cannot survive without support for programs and operational expenses. You can claim ownership of the impact you would like to make, or you can give the organization some flexibility. Read more to discover the best gifts you can make to any organization.
So, You're a New Executive Director. Now What?
Starting as a new Executive Director of an organization is nerve-wracking – especially if you're new to the role! In this episode, you will hear from Kristina Schmidgall, LMSW, the Executive Director of the Lansing Area Aids Network. Kristina shares about her journey to the role of an E.D., how she prepared for the job, what she did to make her first two years a success, and how you can adapt her guidance to your career path.
The Benefits of Trauma-Informed Program Design
Whose voice really matters when you develop a new program? What kind of insight does it take to develop a successful program? On the other hand, is there a first step that really leads toward a program disaster ... and can it be avoided? A game changer for how nonprofits can approach their work with clients is taking a trauma-informed approach, looking holistically at the different and varied experiences of individuals rather than just their symptoms.
5 Great Ways to Show Employee Appreciation
Today, we want to take a moment to appreciate the hard work and dedication of all the employees out there who make a difference every day. Often overworked and overwhelmed leaders arrive at Employee Appreciation Day and think, “Oh crap! I need to go get something!” Let me save you the trip to the store! Employee appreciation is actually not about things. Employees don’t feel appreciated if they have been micro-managed or ignored all year and then suddenly they get a gift card to Starbucks. It is more of a long game!