IdeaEncore Resources of the Month

Looking to find and share resources with colleagues?

IdeaEncore is an easy way for you to learn from others in the nonprofit sector, earn unrestricted income for your organization and share what it know. Check out these resources to help you network and build important nonprofit skills. And don't forget to select Young Nonprofit Professionals-San Diego (YNPN-SD) as your Primary Professional Association when you sign up for a free IdeaEncore account.

Building a Nonprofit Career Path

Shared by The Bridgespan Group (Free)

The Six Secrets of High Engagement Presentations

Shared by Wholonomy Consulting ($15)

Stalking the Elusive Exec: 12 Tips to Get Your ED to Learn About Volunteer Management

Shared by Energize, Inc. (Free)

Smart Policies for Workplace Technologies – Email, Blogs, Cell Phones & More

Published by Nolo Press ($20.99)

The Nonprofit Sector’s Leadership Deficit

Shared by The Bridgespan Group (Free)

Recognizing the Unrecognized

I had the honor of attending Stay Classy’s 3rdAnnual Classy Awards last weekend - a red carpet event recognizing the top philanthropic achievements by charities, businesses and individuals nationwide.  What an amazing evening it was:  I cried, laughed, and gave big hugs to those sitting around me.

Leading up to the event, people from all over the country nominated and voted for Charity of the Year, Volunteer of the Year, Best Use of Social Media, Most Creative Fundraiser, and for the first time, Young Nonprofit Professional of the Year. Reading the stories and impact of the young nonprofit professionals that were nominated was inspiring, but did make me think about all those young nonprofit professionals that were not nominated.   There are so many of those who, day after day, make a difference, touch lives, and often times go unrecognized.

To all you young nonprofit professionals, I would just like to say, THANK YOU…

• For dedicating your professional career to the nonprofit sector,
• For working long hours,
• For volunteering on your off-hours for other causes you care about,
• For being a philanthropist,
• For turning down other higher paying jobs,
• For dealing with “old school” technology,
• For leading the way in cause awareness through social media,
• For asking questions and challenging the status quo,
• For “volun-telling” your friends and family to donate, volunteer and get involved,
• For taking your professional development into your own hands, and 
• For dedicating your professional career to the nonprofit sector.

  

You aren’t necessary the founders, executive directors, board chairmen, or sometimes even part of the leadership team at your organization (yet!), but you work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure your organization meets its mission. Whomever you are and whatever your role within your organization, thank you!

Thank you, too, Stay Classy for having given us the opportunity to recognize the achievements and impact of our sector.

Thanks to YNPN San Diego Co-Chair Jaci Feinstein for the blog contribution!  To learn more about YNPN San Diego, follow us @ynpnsandiego or find us on Facebook.  We look forward to seeing you at our next event.

YNPNSD and IdeaEncore: Working Together

Lately you might have noticed that our blog is featuring a new guest contributor representing the IdeaEncore Network.  We have been partnering with the San Diego-based IdeaEncore Network for a while now (you might remember their contributions featured in our now-quarterly newsletter), and as they have grown, we've welcomed the opportunity to share educational resources with this community stakeholder.

Establishing a connection with IdeaEncore is important to us not only because they have a collection of great resources to share, but also because their vested interest in both growing and grooming the next generation of nonprofit leaders means that their mission aligns with our own.

IdeaEncoreNetwork is an online learning marketplace for nonprofits to share, buy, and sell information resources such as policies, presentations, plans, and templates that improve their effectiveness and efficiency. It is a community of people like you who have been through situations like yours.  It is a place where nonprofit professionals share, buy, and sell tools and resources that improve effectiveness and efficiency.  By aligning individual and organizational incentives, including earned income, we reduce “reinvention of the wheel” and increase both the social and financial return on philanthropic investment.

Sharing your experience and documents helps emerging and experienced nonprofit professionals the world over by saving them and their organizations time and money.  When you share with IdeaEncore, you have the opportunity to generate earned income for your organization by selling resources that you’ve created.   

Scott Bechtler-Levin, President of IdeaEncore, stated “All of us can benefit from sharing what we have learned with each other.  And the credibility and recognition can really help emerging nonprofit leaders establish themselves.”

It’s free to create an account, and 90% of resources are free to download.  Unlike Idealware, another resource-driven site, IdeaEncore is a crowdsourced platform that facilitates its users own personal and professional growth in the resource-sharing process.  Learn more here, and let us know what other resources you use for knowledge management.  

Follow us on Twitter or Facebook, where we share information about local San Diego nonprofit events, job announcements, and share resources.  Thanks to Jamie and Scott for their amazing contributions!

IdeaEncore Resources of the Month

Looking to find and share resources with colleagues?

IdeaEncore provides an easy way for you to share what it know, learn from others in the nonprofit sector and earn unrestricted income for your organization. Check out these resources to help you network and build important nonprofit skills. And don't forget to select Young Nonprofit Professionals-San Diego (YNPN-SD) as your Primary Professional Association when you sign up for a free IdeaEncore account.

On-the-Job Development Opportunitiesfor Nonprofit Staff

Shared by The Bridgespan Group (Free)

Are You Chairing a Board by the Seat of Your Pants?

Shared by Scribner & Associates ($7.50)

Who Generates More Traffic to Your Website – Twitter or Facebook?

Shared by Idealware (Free)

Hiring Your First Employee – A Step-by-StepGuide

Published by Nolo Press ($14.99)

The Intergenerational Center

Created by Templeton University (Free)

Highlight: Classy Awards Nominee for Young Nonprofit Leader of the Year, Meg Storer

Meg Storer has been a part of 2-1-1 San Diego for 8 years, helping to brand it and support its growth from a 1.5  million dollar budget to its current 4.5 million dollar budget. Meg started with completing the CPUC application, organizing events, outreach, press releases and building relationships in the community from Qualcomm to city managers. Those relationships have since flourished, with giving from some of San Diego’s top foundations, individuals and corporations. While Meg has built 2-1-1′s annual event from having 300 to more than 650 attendees, she has also worked to bring awareness of the 2-1-1 service to the thousands of nonprofits that need to be connected to better serve our community.

Meg Storer first came to 2-1-1 when it was located in a small shop with a few folks on the phones, taking calls from hard-pressed individuals needing help and not knowing where to turn. Meg played a major role with the launch of 2-1-1 in 2005, writing and sending press releases to convey the message of what 2-1-1 is, responding to media inquiries about this new organization, and conducting outreach at events. Meg then moved into the role of ensuring that 2-1-1 staff gave accurate referrals via her position as Quality Assurance Manager. CEO John Ohanian recognized Meg’s tremendous efforts to spread the word and promoted Meg to Communications and Development Manager. 

In this position, Meg helped to re-brand the organization, building out an entirely new website, managing the development of 2-1-1 social media, managing the needs of the Board of Directors, being the “handler” for the 2-1-1 CEO, and writing grants to support the organizations operations and new special programs, which she simultaneously assisted in building out. Meg is known for “getting it done” no matter what the effort. Her current passion lies with helping 2-1-1 develop its current partnership with other organizations to grow its military and veterans program, a program Meg finds very dear to her heart because of her own experience as a military wife. She knows the isolation one can feel when you don’t know where to turn when your loved one is abroad, and she uses those emotions as fuel to help 2-1-1 and its special programs thrive more than ever.

Thanks to our partner, StayClassy, and best of luck to Meg.  Visit the Stay Classy site to get tickets for the September 17 awards ceremony.

Highlight: Classy Awards Nominee for Young Nonprofit Leader of the Year, Amy Harmon

Raised in a struggling low-income family, Amy blossomed as a woman sweetly fierce about her calling to make higher education accessible to all. Amy has over 11 years of service and commitment in nonprofit management and fundraising, from Executive Director of an organization empowering young woman (which she appeared on Oprah for) to recently becoming the San Diego State University College of Education’s Director of Development.

Where does vision and commitment to a cause come from? Amy’s story is rare and one of transcendence and persistence. In modern society it is one thing to grow up urban poor and it is another to grow up rural poor, with very litle access to resources/services, dilapidated and unfunded schools, and no community supports for miles. Amy grew up in rural Kentucky, with her three older brothers and parents, in a place where school success could have easily taken a back seat to the growl of a hungry stomach and the struggles of home life. Not to mention, without the simple luxury of indoor plumbing, mid-night treks to the outhouse do not lend to a good nights sleep, particularly in the winter. Many times it is through difficulty and trial the most beautiful things form. Amy’s spirit and humble altruism is a testament to that proverb. Thanks to the help of a high school guidance counselor, Amy discovered Berea College; a small private liberal arts college where bright low-income students attend tuition-free. It was there that she discovered her passion for the power of education to change lives.

Only in her early 30s, Amy has raised millions of dollars for numerous worthy causes, none dearer to her heart than giving those less privileged a shot at higher education. For Amy, these stories are personal and will tell you of the impact a college education had on her life. To her and those she fundraises to support, college is more than classes that lead to a job, but a saving grace, a pathway out of poverty and a shot at destiny. Amy is a living testimony of her work, work that is breaking generational cycles of poverty and bringing hope to society’s forgotten youth.

Highlight: Classy Awards Nominee for Young Nonprofit Leader of the Year, Emily Davis

For more than 15 years Emily has been committed to the nonprofit sector as employee, trainer, board member, philanthropist, and consultant. Currently, Emily serves as the Executive Director for the Hemophilia Society of Colorado and is authoring a publication for the AFP Fund Series, Fundraising and the Next Generation, due out in 2012. Emily serves on a number of committees and advisory boards including Social Venture Partners of Boulder County, Nonprofit World Magazine, and Nonprofit Cultivation Center. Her passion is serving cause she truly believes in and strengthening the entire nonprofit community by leveraging every generation for the future. Her impact is vast as she continues to develop leadership, engage in conversations, and coach the next generation of nonprofit and philanthropic leaders.

Emily’s upbringing included a significant mix philanthropic and nonprofit exposure which is where her passion for nonprofit work started. In college, Emily shifted her focus from a career in dance to a full time commitment to the nonprofit sector. Emily’s work in ending violence against women & women’s health proved to be an enormous asset to her as she formally launched her nonprofit work. Emily began her career working in the field of ending violence against women more than 15 years ago as a community activist, victim advocate, and trainer. After focusing on women’s health and sexual assault, she became involved in environmental issues, international human rights, and philanthropy. In 2007, Emily completed innovative research, Preparing the Path to Leadership, on emerging leaders within the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. She is currently writing a book for the AFP Fund Series through Wile Publications, Fundraising and the Next Generation, due out in 2012. She continues to serve as a consultant on multi-generational issues in both philanthropy, fundraising, and the nonprofit sector. Emily is a consultant for multi-generational family philanthropy through 21/64, part of the Brofman Philanthropies.

Emily understands all that it takes to start a nonprofit and employ best practices when starting a business; she herself has started a nonprofit in San Diego, Young Nonprofit Professionals Network San Diego and now serves as the Executive Director for the Hemophilia Society of Colorado. She continues to train on topics such as board development, social media for nonprofits, and fundraising from the next generation. Recently, Emily completed serving as an adjunct professor in the fundraising and development certificate program at UCSD Extension in 2011. Emily has served in numerous leadership roles for organizations such as YNPN Denver, Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights, Colorado College’s Public Interest Fellowship Program and many more. Emily serves on a number of committees and advisory boards including Social Venture Partners of Boulder County, The Gordian Fund, Nonprofit World Magazine, and Nonprofit Cultivation Center.

Please note this is Part 1 of a three-part series wherein YNPN San Diego highlights the three San Diego leaders nominated for the 2011 Classy Awards Young Nonprofit Leader of the Year honor.

Encores of the Month

Looking to find and share with colleagues?

IdeaEncore provides an easy way for your organization to share what it knows, learn from others, and earn unrestricted income. Select YNPN-San Diego as your "Primary Professional Affiliation" when you sign up for your free account to access special discounts and members only resources.

Recruitment Diversity: Identifying and Developing an Applicant Pool
Created by the Corporation for National and Community Service (Free)

Every Nonprofit’s Guide to Publishing
Published by Nolo Press Lab ($17.99)

On the Rise: A profile of Women of Color in Leadership
Shared by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services (Free)

Preparing the Path to Leadership
Shared by EDA Consulting ($10)

Leadership with a Multicultural Twist
Created by the Society for Human Resource Management (Free)