Nonprofit Infrastructure

Fariha Raisa, Feedback Labs | October 28, 2022 How Do We Get Feedback? Committed to mentoring relationships, Silver Lining Mentoring (SLM) empowers youth in foster care through the development of essential life skills. They are dedicated to cultivating an environment where marginalized voices are lifted up and centered in service of dismantling systems of oppression. Listening to the youth has been at the heart of their work to improve their programs offerings as well as the branding of their organization. In early 2023, Silver Lining Mentoring (SLM) will launch a pilot program supporting youth who are transitioning out of the foster care system. In planning for this new program, they want to listen deeply to the youth who are participating in the pilot, and iterate on the program in response to their feedback. In the past, SLM has had challenges getting youth and mentors to respond to feedback surveys. As a consequence, they are exploring new ways to listen to the youth who are a part of the pilot program, and presented in LabStorm to gather ideas and advice on how they can improve their feedback practices. Collecting feedback without survey fatigue. A shift towards microlearning through short bursts of information could address the short attention span of the youth and facilitate effective feedback response. Pulse checks through social media posts as well as online polls have the potential to minimize clicking and time spent on a survey. As an alternative, discussion groups were proposed for a smaller number of participants to allow organic and conversational feedback. Opening a platform where participants can share their opinions over time could add to the conversational space by hosting people remotely and anonymously. Integrating real time feedback and progress. Advancements for customer engagement in the private sector were recommended for collecting real time feedback. Using platforms like WhatsApp was encouraged since people can access the app through a smartphone and WiFi without the need of an active phone line. Secondly, a brief post-module survey for each module was suggested to evaluate if a module lived up to the expectations of the students. Incentivizing youth participation. Attendees directed attention to the sender of the survey requests and suggested looking into the established relationship between the mentees and the sender. If the request to fill out the survey came from a direct supervisor who explains the purpose behind the request, it could be perceived as more meaningful than a random evaluator. As such, name recognition and existing relationships were suggested to support the survey requests. SLM was also encouraged to look into the use of language and its impact; instead of framing the questions as a survey or feedback, giving a name like “Weekly Power Move” could provide a psychological strategy to move out of survey fatigue. At the end of the session, Jesse from SLM reiterated the key takeaways of shifting mindset, integrating feedback and reframing formal questionnaires. Feedback requests could be presented as an empowering opportunity for young people to share input on their own progress and to improve the program. Jesse mentioned the importance of 1-2 quick survey questions at the end of each module and using social media for polls. They concluded by emphasizing the need to re-frame formal feedback processes but still keeping them actionable by phrases like pulse check or power move. Learn More About LabStorms LabStorms are collaborative problem-solving sessions designed to help organizations tackle feedback-related challenges or share what’s working well in their practice. Presenters leave the experience with honest, actionable feedback and suggestions to improve their feedback processes and tools. To learn more about participating in a virtual LabStorm, please visit feedbacklabs.org/labstorms.

Pandemic-driven delays and challenges in the data ecosystem itself are putting previous nonprofit data accessibility gains in jeopardy.

At the Johnson Center, we think of philanthropy as an ecosystem of nonprofit organizations, individual donors, formal foundations of all types, and corporate giving programs. Essentially, it includes all of…

How can nonprofits leverage their assets to better achieve their missions? Many paths are available—some of which are usable to organizations with assets below $1 million.

Support Nonprofit Resilience Grantmakers enable nonprofits to focus on long-term mission fulfillment by providing support that is flexible, reliable and enables grantees to build critical skills. Whether it’s supporting the development of strong nonprofit leaders, helping grantees to build and maintain their capacity or providing the kinds of support that contribute to strong and effective nonprofits, grantmakers can play a key role is supporting the financial resilience and sustainability of their grantees. To help grantmakers support nonprofit resilience, GEO has compiled answers to some of the most common questions about financial sustainability, capacity building and leadership development. If you would like to propose a new question related to this topic, please contact Amy Shields. Leadership Development A nonprofit organization’s resiliency and capacity to navigate change successfully depends largely on its people. Ask any grantmaker about the distinguishing characteristics of strong and effective nonprofit organizations, and the conversation inevitably will turn to leadership. But too often nonprofits lack sufficient time and resources to make their talent and leadership needs a high priority, which ultimately hinders impact. Many grantmakers are making leadership development investments as a means of strengthening nonprofit performance What makes for a successful leadership development approach? How can we target our leadership development support? What is collective leadership and how can grantmakers support it? What is coaching and what are the benefits? Where can we go to dig deeper on leadership development? What do nonprofits need to make leadership development a priority? Who is building leadership well? Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation The Durfee Foundation Capacity Building Nonprofits need certain core capacities in order to deliver results — strong leaders, financial management, performance measurement and technology, as well as softer things like communications, adaptability and relationships. These needs will also change over time as organizations evolve. Grantmakers can play a key role in helping nonprofits build and maintain their core infrastructure and other capacities. What is nonprofit capacity and why does it matter? What are three principles for building nonprofit capacity? How can we support capacity-building efforts? How will we know if our capacity-building support is working? What are the key things we need to know about organizational assessments? Where can we go to dig deeper on nonprofit capacity building? Who is successfully building nonprofit capacity? Financial Sustainability The size of many grants, and the strings attached to them, often don’t align with the results grantmakers seek. With GEO’s support, grantmakers are embracing approaches that fuel nonprofit success — such as providing general operating support, multiyear grants, larger average grants and support for leadership development and other forms of capacity building, as well as releasing restrictions on grants and caps on overhead. What financial challenges do nonprofits face? How can we be more supportive of nonprofit financial sustainability? What is general operating support and why is it important? How can we evaluate the impact of our general operating support grants? How do we know if a grantee is a good candidate for general operating support? How can we grow impact? What does it take to spend down successfully? Where can we go to dig deeper on nonprofit financial sustainability? Who is supporting nonprofit financial sustainability? In this section What We Offer GEO Community GEOList Conferences Conference Planning Process Peer Learning Remote Learning Capacity Building Champions Place Based Strategic Learners Network Community Driven Philanthropy Peer Network Race Equity Culture™ Fellowship Change Leaders in Philanthropy Fellowship Publications GEO in the Field The Smarter Grantmaking Playbook Learn for Improvement Support Nonprofit Resilience Strengthen Relationships with Nonprofits Collaborate for Greater Impact Join the GEO Community 500+ members sharing insights and learnings to move philanthropy forward. Check out the benefits of membership

Breaking away from preconceived notions of how leaders and leadership is supposed to look can open up more space for “untraditional” leaders to emerge.

Workers in the nonprofit sector increasingly see unionization as a pathway to better pay, greater wellbeing, and increased equity.

A look at nonprofit finances in the United States—how they’ve changed, where they stand now, and what the field needs to consider in the coming years.

Trust-based philanthropy centers around advancing equity and ending power imbalances in grantmaking. See how General Service Foundation and Libra Foundation are putting trust-based processes into action.

Read the full article at: www.givingdata.com

After an extended period without face-to-face gatherings, the 15th research conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) had a celebratory air, as over 225 attendees and over 100…

Strengthen Relationships with Nonprofits Better solutions take hold when they emerge from the communities we serve. When we fail to achieve the best results, it is often because we aren’t connected to our communities and the work of grantees. What is stakeholder engagement? Many grantmakers are recognizing that in order to ensure better results, we need to tap into the knowledge experience and energy of key stakeholders — nonprofits, community members, other funders, thought leaders. This type of engagement means reaching beyond the usual suspects, deep listening and involving key players in philanthropic decision making. Doing so provides a better understanding of the challenges on the ground, increases buy-in and improves strategies. Find the full answer here > What are different ways to engage stakeholders? A host of specific practices and activities can help grantmakers bring the voices of nonprofits, beneficiaries and community members into decision making and planning. These activities range from lower touch where grantmakers create vehicles to communicate with key stakeholders, to higher levels of involvement in shaping grantmaking programs. Find the full answer here > Which stakeholders should we involve in our decisions and how? Taking time early in the grantmaking process to map out the stakeholders affected by our work, and their position in the ecosystem, helps creates a deeper understanding of key issues. It also prepares us to address future concerns and to tap stakeholder expertise in a proactive way that helps build agreement and buy-in that ultimately leads to more effective programs. In order to do this well, grantmakers need to master stakeholder analysis and determine how to bring key players into decision-making. Find the full answer here > What is empathy and what are the benefits? Empathy is one of the main reasons individual and institutional philanthropy exist. Grantmakers in communities across the country and around the world are mission-bound to try and help people and communities overcome challenges in order to thrive. Implicit in most grantmaker missions is the message: “We care, and we want to help.” But while philanthropy often originates out of compassion and concern for others, grantmakers sometimes forget to make empathy a core driver of our grantmaking. In this piece, we discuss the value of empathy and how it can help grantmakers make smarter grantmaking decisions. Find the full answer here > How do we build and maintain authentic relationships? While we may not be able to totally remove the inherent power imbalance between grantmakers, our grantees and the communities we serve, we can take steps to build more trusting, honest and authentic relationships. By making our work about others, not ourselves, we can develop more genuine connections with grantees and communities. This can mean getting out of the office, bringing the outside into our organizations, making the necessary investments in time and resources, and leading from the top. Find the full answer here > How do we know if our stakeholder engagement is working? Effective stakeholder engagement starts and ends with respect — respect for the expertise that those on the front lines bring to the problems affecting their community, and respect for their capacity to develop solutions if given the chance. Assessing whether stakeholder engagement strategies have truly taken hold requires a shift in our traditional approach to evaluation and learning processes and the factors that constitute success. Find the full answer here > Where can we go to dig deeper on stakeholder engagement? This document contains resources and websites that can assist grantmakers as we continue to improve our engagement with grantees and other partners. Find the full answer here > Who is engaging stakeholders well? A searchable collection of member stories about strengthening relationships with nonprofits is available here. In this section What We Offer GEO Community GEOList Conferences Conference Planning Process Peer Learning Remote Learning Capacity Building Champions Place Based Strategic Learners Network Community Driven Philanthropy Peer Network Race Equity Culture™ Fellowship Change Leaders in Philanthropy Fellowship Publications GEO in the Field The Smarter Grantmaking Playbook Learn for Improvement Support Nonprofit Resilience Strengthen Relationships with Nonprofits Collaborate for Greater Impact Join the GEO Community 500+ members sharing insights and learnings to move philanthropy forward. Check out the benefits of membership

Read the full article at: www.geofunders.org