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Capacity-building tools Tuesday (September 4, 2018)

Tools and Resources

  • The American Evaluation Association's Potent Presentations Guidelines for Handouts (PDF) takes the guesswork out of what content should be included in handouts at presentations. The guide considers formatting, timing, and more.
  • 25 incredibly useful things you didn't know Google Docs could do = yay! Lots of needed tips, such as applying formats, adding images from Photos to docs, and easily and without downloading, sending a link to a PDF version of your document.
  • Sprout Social's The Ultimate Guide on How to Use Instagram Stories is a gem. It offers real-life examples of ways to use stories as well as tips to make the individual posts and collective stories make sense with followers.
  • Adam Grant is a terrific resource for all manner of things. Today, sharing a suggestion about favors.
    After receiving help, don't say "I owe you a favor." It reduces an act of kindness to an accounting transaction.

    Instead of offering to repay a debt, signal a willingness to be generous: "Let me know if I can ever be helpful" or "I stand ready to pay it forward."

    Or better yet, just say thank you and tell them how much you appreciate their help.
  • Finally, a smarter alternative to lorem ipsum. Yes! (Fast Company)

At work

  • Adam Grant takes on an important work question in the August edition of Wondering:
    I would really love your perspective on this growing practice of 'mandated corporate fun' - the company trips to the bowling alley, escape rooms, wine tastings after work, etc. I quite like my co-workers, truly enjoy tackling the problems we face in our business and feel like we have a great, team-oriented, problem-solving culture. What I want to focus on when I come to work is ... call me crazy ... work!

    However, my company puts on periodic 'play/fun' events (once or twice a month) where employees are strongly expected (but not forced) to attend. When these are held during the work day, I feel like they are a distraction from getting our jobs done. When these are held or extend to after-work-hours, I feel like these are robbing me of time with my friends, family and personal pursuits. How can I tell my company that I come to work to work ... I'm not coming to the office for a social life?
  • Science Alert's story This 4-Day Work Week Experiment Went So Well, The Company Is Keeping It is good news for some and challenging news for others (health and human services industries come immediately to mind).
  • Asking these interview questions forces people to give you honest answers (Fast Company)

Learn something

  • Wild Apricot's 46 Free Nonprofit Webinars for September 2018 is another winner. Faves September 2-15 are Five Things You Need to Know About Harassment Investigations (September 6), How to Make Event Volunteers Love You (September 12), and The Great Divide: Bridging Intergenerational Gaps to Fully Engage Your Volunteers (September 13).
  • Transition is a nonprofit organization which serves as the national hub for the international Transition Towns movement of communities transitioning off fossil fuels, living in balance with resource limits, and building equity for all. Their mission is to catalyze and strengthen a national network of people-powered groups who are building local resilience through community action. Transition Launch is an eight-week training comprised of video-provided learning and live online video meetings designed to help communities create or strengthen resilience-building initiatives.
  • 200+ Fundraising Ideas Proven to Raise More Donations For Your Cause truly deserves a +1000 since in addition to providing the idea, it provides
    1. The cost for each idea, with the lowest-cost fundraisers indicated by $ going all the way to $$$$ for the highest-cost fundraisers.
    2. The complexity for each idea, which is rated on a scale of 1 to 4. 1 indicates an easy fundraiser that’s quick to plan, and 4 indicates an event that takes a lot of coordination with different stakeholders to get up and running.
    3. The expected return for each idea, also indicated from $ to $$$$.
    4. Advice and practical tips from a variety of fundraising experts throughout the post to inspire you along your fundraising journey.
    5. The ideas sorted the ideas by type

Good reads



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