Spring series of (free) nonprofit webinars

The spring schedule of Wednesday Webinars at NonProfitWebinars is now being finalized, with some great new presenters and offerings.

March Webinars:

Introducing the Philanthropic Directory
George McCully, Philanthropic Directory
Wednesday, March 23, 1:00 to 2:00 EDT
The Philanthropic Directory is a new on-line operating system for philanthropy. For the first time, it presents all philanthropic charities, systematically searchable and analyzable by the first taxonomy of philanthropic fields, demographics of people served, location, revenue size, and date of IRS authorization, with links to their websites. Philanthropy is on the verge of becoming systematic.

Effective Online Storytelling
Allan Pressel, CharityFinders
Wednesday, March 23, 3:00 to 4:00 EDT
How you can most effectively tell your nonprofit’s story online – in a way that will make your website visitors believe in your mission and want to support it.


Effective Strategic Planning Part 2: Getting Results
Sam Frank, Synthesis Partnership
Wednesday, March 30, 1:00 to 2:00 EDT
Strategic planning has a dicey reputation for any number of reasons:
1) it often is tedious and time-consuming;
2) the issues it identifies are either obvious or not critical to the mission (or both);
3) the actions it specifies are vague and unmeasurable;
4) it is ignored once the plan is written (or the written plan is never quite finished);
5) it simply adds tasks to an already over-stretched staff;
6) it has no results visible to stakeholders;
7) it does not advance your mission.
These problems are not inherent to strategic planning; they are signs that it has been done badly. This webinar will look at how a nonprofit can infuse its mission into the daily activity of staff and board through a straightforward, rigorous, and even morale-building process. It will offer both a structure and tools for planning.


Grant Writing 101 - Preparing a Successful Proposal
John Izzo, Community Grants Associates
Wednesday, March 30, 3:00 to 4:00 EDT
Grant writing is part science, part art. While most people prefer dental surgery to grant writing, the process is fairly painless if you follow a few of the simple steps discussed in this seminar. While this seminar focuses on federal grant applications, the same process can apply to state, foundation, corporate or other types of response to a request for proposals.

April to June Webinars

-- Leaders' Writing Circle, Dalya Massachi, Writing for Community Success
-- WordPress for NonProfits, Jann Mirchandani, Marketing Cafe
-- Structuring Nonprofit Businesses, Brian Howe, Vox Legal
-- Major Gift Strategies that Work, Rod Miller, ExecIAE
-- Setting Up an Online Store, CJ Lucke, Public Remix
-- Get Results: Traffic, Leads, Donations, Katharine Coles, Mad Marketeer
-- Deeply Informative Reference Checks, Laura Gassner Otting, NPAG
-- Things You Shouldn't Be Paying For, Shauna Carey, The Extraordinaries
-- Grant Funding Forecast 2011 & Beyond, Renee Bourque, Bright Star Grant Consultants
-- Decisions Before, During, and After a Crisis, John Hilley, Patmos Consulting
-- Crowdsourcing vs Community-Sourcing, Amy Sample Ward, TechSoup
-- Program Evaluation Essentials, Cecilia Harry, Economic Development Coordinator
-- Before You Hire an Architect, Sam Frank, Synthesis Partnership
-- Effective Marketing Communications, Michele Levy, brand strategy consulting
-- Online Networks/Offline Community Building, Peggy Duvette, WiserEarth
-- Newsletters, Tina Cincotti, Funding Change

For the full season schedule, and the archive of past webinars, visit http://bit.ly/SyPwebinars