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Support for Nonprofits

Survey time!

The open ended, tell-us-what-you”re-thinking kind.

Much of the resources we create come from nonprofit professionals asking us for help. I love getting questions like what is the best project management software? Or I want to start a charity; how do I begin? Or e need someone to take a second look at our website/fundraising plan/communication piece. Could you do that?

If you can have one thing to make your job easier, either just for today or overall, what would it be? What do you need help with?

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International Women’s Day

Monday, March 8th is International Women’s Day. This is a day to celebrate the achievements of women and girls, as well as a day to raise awareness of the work that still needs to be done.

Years back, I was asked why I bothered recognizing this day because “women here have it pretty good.”

Since when is “pretty good” the point in which we stop? Since when do we settle with “pretty good”? “Pretty good” isn’t good enough for me and I’m not going to stop working for equality at pretty good.

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Top 5 Podcasts for Nonprofit Professionals

Over the past year as life has changed, many of us have responded by taking up new hobbies and routines. I for one, have discovered the incredible world of podcasts and audiobooks. Although I have always had a keen interest in listening to stories, this new hobby has really gained momentum. I listen all the time, mostly while doing other chores such as cooking. 

I listen to a lot of podcasts for nonprofit professionals and how to do good better. While not all podcasts are created equal, here is my list of top choices:

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Audacity

Our Book Club is reading Audacious Endeavors throughout February. Author Somya Munjal provides the definition of audacious as:

  1. “showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks” and
  2. “showing an impudent lack of respect” (page 7).

Nonprofit professionals are called to be audacious by boldly pushing for change, higher standards, and being better. In doing this, it is easy to become disrespectful. I’m not talking about being disrespectful to the community we serve, but to others who perhaps get in our way, from other industries, policymakers, politicians, donors, …the list goes on.

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Our projects

2020 Round Up

As we set goals for the year to come, it is important to recognize where we have come from. Despite many setbacks and struggles, some incredible strides were made.

We’ve had smoother years in the past. We’ve had easier years in the past. But this past year truly represents what Services in Action is:

Visit for the information services -the tools, resources, direction, and advice, and stay for the project that you just need someone to take care of for you!

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Playing Favourites with Vaccines

The nonprofit industry is made up of people who care passionately, putting people before profit.

Unlike government and other influential decision-makers who respond to the changing requests of the people they serve, the nonprofit industry upholds their organization’s mission unwaveringly.

This past week some headlines have read “Who can get the COVID vaccine in Florida? Hint: It helps if you have donated to a hospital” and “Playing favorites? Hospital boards, donors get COVID shots.”

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The Origin

My first job in the nonprofit sector was with a large, national charity. On the first day, I was being trained by the person whose job I was hired to fill. I asked about a magnet I saw which had another charity’s contact information.

“Oh,” she replied, “we get a lot of calls from people in the community we serve asking for support groups, which we don’t offer. So, I refer them there.”

“They provide support groups; I didn’t know that.” I said.

“I don’t actually know if they do, but the person in this role before me told me that’s what she did, so I did as well.”

“Well!” I thought to myself. “How irresponsible! Couldn’t you at least call and find out? That is one of the first things I will do.”

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2021 Book Club For Nonprofit Professionals

We are launching our first ever book club.

Joining the book club is simple. Get started by sending us a message to let us know you’re here, buy or borrow the books, and get reading. Since we are in different time zones and have complicated schedules, we are going to participate in a conversation throughout the month, rather than at the end, using a Facebook Group. We will all be able to post replies and comments as we work through the books together.  

The books will be:

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Storing, Retaining, and Deleting Files

Should it stay or should it go?

Over the past few weeks, we’ve looked at the management of files. We’ve looked at how to organize them and what to label them. Now let’s turn to storing them.

A record is a file, photo, video, -anything that captures information. Sometimes they matter and sometimes they don’t. Knowing what to keep is an important part of a well-organized filing system, which is essential for not duplicating work, improving organizational memory, organizational knowledge, and being able to tell the complete story of a project, event, program, or system. 

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Miscellaneous is not a category

Last week’s blog outlined six steps to organizing a desktop. The steps begin by identifying the different themes of your work. Each theme is a category. When each category has been identified, two things must be true.

  1. Each category must be mutually exclusive. That means it only contains the information about one subject. It must be exclusive from the themes of other folders.
  2. Each category must be collectively exhausted. That means that every file belongs somewhere. If there is a file that doesn’t seem to belong anywhere, then there are not enough categories.
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