I originally posted on the NetSquared blog.
How should managers and staff plan for an executive transition at their nonprofit? How would you define capacity building? What is ongoing learning for an organization?
Do you know the answers to these common nonprofit questions? Third Sector New England wants to be sure you can find the answers, to those three questions and many more, in a way that’s engaging than searching and reading. How?
Third Sector New England’s Video FAQ
Thanks to the work of Denise Moorehead of Third Sector New England, the distinguished videographer Steve Garfield, and Deborah Elizabeth Finn, a growing number of videos are collected on TSNE’s Strategic Communications Blog. As Deborah explains, “We’ve put together a number of short segments in which TSNE’s mavens respond to frequently asked questions about topics such as finance, human resources, program evaluation, diversity, and fiscal sponsorship for nonprofits.”
The plan is to move these videos off the blog and into a web-based video reference tool that nonprofit managers and staff could access as needed. Deborah says she’s hoping, “that we’ll eventually be able to add Seesmic to the mix, so that nonprofit professionals can use their web cameras to add comments and follow-up questions, thus sparking a real exchange of knowledge.”
Check out Third Sector New England’s Strategic Communications Blog to find videos on the questions above and many more.
Last week, I read a post from Inside Philanthropy called Foundations need to tell their story better. It discusses the idea that foundations aren’t doing a good enough job telling the world about all the wonderful and diverse things they do. It is a good idea and one that applies to many, many organizations, not just foundations. I think the best part, though, didn’t come until the very last sentence: “foundations must do a better job telling their story, and helping the groups they support tell their own story.”
I think that if foundations want to really show the diversity and greatness of their investments (grants, PRIs, MRIs, etc. are all investments in one way or another), they should tell the story of those they are investing in—the nonprofits.
A great way to start telling the story of foundation grantees is to create a virtual tour of your programs. Instead of text-heavy program descriptions, incorporate photos and videos of funded programs to highlight success as well as provide examples of the funding areas. Many foundations list grantees on their website; if yours does, there should be links to the program/project/organization and a way to follow up with the program/project/organization contact so others looking to do similar work or get an understanding for the foundation’s focus can contact grantees.
Just a couple quick thoughts. I’d love to hear yours! Do you work for a nonprofit that has been featured in some way by a granter? How did it feel? What effect did it have on the organization or the foundation (to your knowledge)?
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