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TA Tuesday (September 12, 2017)

Here's your weekly dose of TA. Enjoy.

Tools and Resources

  • 5 Lessons Learned from Donating to 25 Nonprofits is a good read. It will help organizations assess how well their development operations serve donors. In short, Nonprofit Tech for Good writes, "There was a wide variety in donation page design, layout, and functionality and that made donating to 25 nonprofits all in one sitting a somewhat frustrating, and at times, perplexing experience."
  • Looking to jazz up your organization's social media? Take a look at 19 Tools for Creating Engaging Social Media Videos, Images and GIFs in Minutes. This list contains some oldies but goodies (Canva, for instance) and some new and new-ish tools. Think Crello for design, Animaker for animated videos, and gifs.com for recommended best moments to GIF.

At work

  • Want your staff to put their phones down, pay attention to what you and others are saying, since we all know people cannot multitask? Read Don't multitask while you read this. In short,
    But how much do all of those distractions diminish our ability to remember? A new study led by Castel and Catherine Middlebrooks, a UCLA graduate student, found that while divided attention does impair memory, people can still selectively focus on what is most important — even while they’re multitasking.
    Interested in reading the paper? Selectively Distracted: Divided Attention and Memory for Important Information is available on Sci-Hub.
  • Does your HR team ask for prior salary history? You (and they) should read Should women disclose their prior salary in interviews? They get punished either way. It's something to think about.

Learn something

  • Effective Public Engagement, Thursday, September 28 from 11:00 am - Noon. This free webinar is brought to you by FEMA as part of their FEMA Region III September Coffee Break Webinar series. What FEMA has to say about the session:
    Building a successful plan does not happen in a silo; it’s critically important to outreach to your community at large for their ideas and concerns. Bringing residents, businesses and other organizations in your community along for the ride will help ensure the political will to back the plan and mitigation actions, and will help in their own education on their role in reducing risk. Join us for the FEMA Region III September webinar on Effective Public Engagement.
  • If you are interested in learning about disaster assistance and preparedness, this is the week to learn. The Safety and Emergency Readiness Virtual Summit takes place September 12-14. Participation is free. The sessions offer best practices, advice, and lessons learned. Presenters include former state emergency management directors, authors, researchers, educators, and numerous government, corporate, healthcare, university and non-profit leaders and innovators. Some of the sessions are Community Recovery and Rebuilding After Disaster, Social Media for Emergency Managers, and Communicating with Persons with Disabilities or Functional Needs.
  • 5-Day Tell Your Story Boot Camp is FREE! It started September 11, so sign up now to participate in the remaining four days! What it is:
    Storytelling experts, the Million Person Project are hosting a 5-day Facebook live bootcamp. If you are someone with a message you want to get to the world, then this is a great training for you. You will explore how you can be the most compelling speaker about the work you are most passionate about.
  • The Rural Planning Caucus of Virginia 2017 Annual Conference, October 18-20, takes place in South Boston. The conference includes several outdoor activities, discussions about maximizing local resources and assets, and a session about a few specific planning topics.

Good reads



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