Archive for managing a nonprofit

Podio

January 15, 2013 managing a nonprofit, Uncategorized No comments

I am always looking for ways to better manage all of the projects and tasks I have. I’ve tried everything from filling a notebook I carried everywhere with dog ears and post its to managing it all on Outlook. Still, when it came to working with others on projects or keeping track of my employees’ projects and tasks I didn’t have anything that worked.

My new best friend is Podio! Podio is an online application that allows for task management, project collaboration and database management. I’m sure my team will tell you they are sick of my singing Podio so much praise, but finding this software could not have come at a better time.

The aspects that I appreciate the most include:
• Tracking tasks I assign to others
• Collaborating with those within and outside of my organization
• Integration with Evernote and Box
• Being able to very easily build applications (I am not a big techie so this is huge)
• Easy conversing (similar to how you use facebook)

You can use the basic version for free. If someone who would like to use it as a company intranet the full version is $8 per month per employee.

“I’m giving my two week notice”

December 9, 2012 financial literacy, managing a nonprofit, Uncategorized No comments

Every employer dreads the phrase “I’m giving you two weeks notice”. It means that change is afloat the the hunt for a new employee must begin.

Last week I heard the dreaded words above and had to immediately go into overdrive seeking a replacement. There is so much that must be done before posting for a job. I had to review our current organizational needs and determine if the position and job description of the person I was replacing was going to meet our current organizational need. From there I had to then make the changes to the position and job description and figure out how I would be be able to identify good candidates.

Financial Beginnings is seeking a full-time Program Manager to join our team. I have been posting the position on all applicable job boards (within budget) in hopes of notifying qualified candidates.

Still, I think where I am going to find the best candidates is within my networks. We have over 500 volunteers in our system and many more that are on on our mailing list. These people are already passionate about financial education and Financial Beginnings. Who better to promote the new position?

Reading Brent Hunsberger’s article How to brush up on your networking and job search during the holidays this morning, I was thinking this came at the perfect time! I posted a comment on his blog too about our open position.

Brent’s article talks about how it’s worth job seekers’ time to network because this is likely how they are going to find their next job. I’m taking the same strategy as an employer. At every meeting I attended this week I mentioned the open position and immediately was getting words of excitement from people about possible candidates they were going to tell.

And this is just one more attempt to delve into my network for qualified candidates. Please spread the word about our open position!

Job Description

If you build it…will they come?

April 11, 2011 financial literacy, managing a nonprofit, starting a nonprofit, Uncategorized No comments

This is a question we all ask when planning educational events. Though its common knowledge there is a huge need for financial education usually the people who need the information are not going to seek it out. One of the struggles many of our partners who serve adults face is getting people to attend their events. Financial Beginnings is fortunate we don’t need to recruit our audience because our classes are in the in schools or community groups where are audience is already gathered. They are stuck hearing form us if they want to or not.

Last week was Money Smart Week in Oregon. Financial Beginnings and Operation HOPE decided that we wanted to expend our efforts beyond our youth in school programs during Money Smart Week. I have always wanted to have an open forum for adults to be able to ask their questions regarding personal finance. With laws and industry norms changing so frequently in addition to money always being viewed as a taboo subject I thought people have a forum to where they can ask questions would be wonderful. Money Smart Week gave me the push I needed to finally organize one of these forums and we named it Unraveling the Mysteries of Your Money. You’d be surprised how long it took us to come up with the name.

At Portland State University we brought together experts within the financial industry including; Jim Hunt from OnPoint Community Credit Union, Michael Parker from the Oregon College Saving Plan, Nelson Rutherford from Alten, Sakai & Co, and Diane Childs and Fernando Velez from the Oregon Division of Finance and Corporate Securities. The moderator of the panel was Brent Hunsberger, It’s Only Money columnist for the Oregonian Newspaper. Brent’s diverse knowledge in personal finance combined with his reputation in the community really helped to bring exposure and credibility to this event. You would think that with this great group this would have been the hard part of my task, but this was easy.

The hard part was the promotion and getting people to come to the event. I hear it time and time again from event organizers that it is so hard to get people to come. Having the event be free may even make it more difficult in some respects because of the perceived value. If people pay for attendance to an event they may tie a higher value to it and may be more likely to attend.

As of the three days before the event we had less than 10 people registered to attend. My anxiety level was high and I was so worried I was going to waste the panel’s time because nobody would show up. So we marketed it hard with the help of this Email Marketing Agency. All of the panel members helped to promote the event. Brent wrote about it in the paper and Nick Allard from KGW brought us on the bricks to promote it. We ramped up our social media and contacted all of the business professors at Portland State.

The registrations started flooding in, we maxed out the registration. We even added more seats because our experience has shown that usually only 2/3 of those that register end up attending free events. Our predictions were correct and we ended up with about 2/3 of those who registered attending.

I was so pleasantly surprised by the diversity of the crowd and their eagerness to hear from the panel. We had several planned questions in case the audience did not have questions right away, but Brent was only able to get one of the planned questions out and the audience took over from there. I saw several individuals in the crowd filling out multiple pages of notes. When time ran out several audience members flocked the panel for additional questions. It was like they were rock stars.

Aspects I see attributing to the success of the event:
• Having Brent Hunsberger of the Oregonian as the moderator added a lot of credibility to the event and his writing about it gave the event more exposure.
• Holding the event at Portland State University also added credibility to the and highlighted the educational component of the event.
• The panel was made up of high level and respected individuals.
• The varied marketing proved to be successful based on a pole of those attending reporting how they heard about the event.

We will definitely hold the event again next year during Money Smart Week. We have created a great foundation for the event and will be able to build upon this more next year.

Panel

Writing my annual report letter

October 3, 2010 financial literacy, managing a nonprofit, starting a nonprofit, Uncategorized No comments

Writing the annual report letter is always such a challenge. Each year I’m given one page to highlight our accomplishments for the year and talk about what’s to come. This year is even harder as I was told by my Development Director that I only get half a page this year. So here’s what I’ve got. Consider it a sneak preview of our annual report.

It’s hard to believe that we just finished our fifth year of bringing financial education to the Northwest. This is a huge milestone for us as it should be for any organization, especially in this economy. Half of new businesses do not survive more than five years, for nonprofits it’s been estimated that figure is even less with only one third hitting the monumental five year mark.

So as Financial Beginnings celebrates five years of service to our community I would like to thank all of you who helped to make this happen. Schools and community groups have welcomed us with open arms. Youth and parents who have utilized the valuable life lesson we provide. Businesses and individuals who have supported our cause by providing their time and resources. All of this support in a time when we have all been struggling.

Even though we have been doing this for five years I still feel like this is just the beginning. How can we maximize our resources and continue to serve the ever increasing demand? I think we’ve figured out the answer… partnerships. We have been working to enter into several strategic partnerships here in the Northwest which will allow us to serve more and provide more, for less.

Thank you all for your continued support. I look forward to discovering with you what the next five years will bring.

So what do you think? Am I on the right track?

A New Team Member!

September 24, 2010 financial literacy, managing a nonprofit, starting a nonprofit, Uncategorized One comment

My name is Josh Gordon, the new Program Coordinator for Financial Beginnings.  I joined the Financial Beginnings team at the end of August.  I came here because our communities desperately need young people to receive a financial education.   I am extremely happy to be here and I want to tell you all a little about myself and my role.

I graduated from Willamette University in 2009 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics. I excelled in finance, accounting, and mathematics and I am confident my academic success will be an asset at Financial Beginnings.

Before starting at Financial Beginnings I worked in financial planning, real estate, law, information technology, and sales.  I plan to draw from my previous experiences to expand the capacity of the Financial Beginnings program.

I bring a fresh perspective to the team and my primary ambition is to identify new opportunities for Financial Beginnings.  Over the next year I will be actively involved in volunteer recruitment, training, and management.  In addition, I aim to increase the number of students educated via the Financial Foundations and Banking on Our Future programs by 20-30%.  To achieve this I will expand our programs into new schools and into new regions.  I will look for opportunities not only in schools but also in community organizations, local businesses, and our existing network.

Throughout the coming months I will develop and launch a series of teacher training workshops.  It is vital teachers are equipped with the correct information and resources in this era of financial uncertainty.  I am tremendously excited to develop new programs for Financial Beginnings. I am also pondering other ideas to continually improve the efficiency and scope of the organization.  You will have to come back to find out the details! 🙂

I will use this blog to inform you of new developments in Financial Beginnings, to present free available resources, and to offer new ideas and analyze existing ones.

My experience so far has been fun and productive.  I welcome ideas, comments, and concerns.   I look forwarding to hearing from you, thanks for reading to the bottom!

“If you can count your money, you don’t have a billion dollars.”

Josh