This afternoon I had the privilege of participation in a fantastic free webinar presented by the amazing Heather Mansfield. She shared a host of great tech tools and social media tips for nonprofit professionals, focusing quite a bit on fundraising and overall stakeholder engagement techniques detailed more completely in her latest book called Mobile For Good: A How-To Fundraising Guide for Nonprofits. This is a book I'm dying to pick up, and it's safe to say that Heather's goal of selling more books by offering free webinars is going to work... At least it will have worked on me! (Seriously, just buy her books. They are great and you will use her tips every single day.)
A bit of a geek, I love learning how to maximize my social media efforts and to validate my organization's current choice in prioritizing the design of a responsive website. Figuring these concepts out isn't easy stuff, however. Neither is researching how to add files in a Drupal-based website, designing my first issue of a Constant Contact newsletter, mapping out an online volunteer management database, navigating between two Instagram accounts on an aging personal iPhone, or half of the other tasks I take on in any given day. Between responsibilities for fundraising and community engagement and volunteer management and public relations efforts... I've found myself carrying a much larger personal "tool box" than many of my peers in the standard business community.
Is carrying a bigger tool box becoming the new norm for nonprofit leaders? Am I the only one who sometimes feels a little weighted down by the demands of embracing an ever-widening array of job responsibilities? Are nonprofit boards of directors and executive directors going to increasingly expect professionals to be experts in a little bit of everything? Are they going to support their new and seasoned employees with larger training and tech tool budgets?
I don't have all the answers... But I'm definitely interested in hearing how organizations you work with are tackling these tough issues!
A bit of a geek, I love learning how to maximize my social media efforts and to validate my organization's current choice in prioritizing the design of a responsive website. Figuring these concepts out isn't easy stuff, however. Neither is researching how to add files in a Drupal-based website, designing my first issue of a Constant Contact newsletter, mapping out an online volunteer management database, navigating between two Instagram accounts on an aging personal iPhone, or half of the other tasks I take on in any given day. Between responsibilities for fundraising and community engagement and volunteer management and public relations efforts... I've found myself carrying a much larger personal "tool box" than many of my peers in the standard business community.
Is carrying a bigger tool box becoming the new norm for nonprofit leaders? Am I the only one who sometimes feels a little weighted down by the demands of embracing an ever-widening array of job responsibilities? Are nonprofit boards of directors and executive directors going to increasingly expect professionals to be experts in a little bit of everything? Are they going to support their new and seasoned employees with larger training and tech tool budgets?
I don't have all the answers... But I'm definitely interested in hearing how organizations you work with are tackling these tough issues!