Appnuity - Technology Solutions for Nonprofits

I am excited to have Appnuity joining us as a sponsor in both Indianapolis and Cincinnati. David Eckel and his Appnuity team were partners with Charitable Advisors in beginning the Not-for-Profit News more than 10 years ago. Their business has thrived by working with both nonprofits and businesses. Here are a few words from David about their work:

“Appnuity has been providing expert and reliable technology services to the nonprofit and corporate sectors since 1999. As an Information Technology consulting and services company, we provide services from strategy to cloud hosting within our SAS-70 Type II data center (SSAE-16). We work closely with our clients to ensure their information technology environment meets all regulatory and compliance requirements, whether on-premise or utilizing our cloud-based technologies.

Our proprietary Consult, Implement and Operate (CIO) methodology, combined with our comprehensive services, enable clients to leverage one service provider across all technology requirements. Our consultants bring deep technology experience as we assess your business information technology needs in order to create technology strategies that deliver optimal returns. Some of our non-profit clients include: Central Indiana Community Foundation, Children’s Bureau, Inc., Day Nursery and Indiana Grantmakers Alliance. http://www.appnuity.net/non-profit-solution.html or give them a call at 317-566-0203 or toll-free at: 877-850-2777.

Best Practices for Volunteer Orientation

Do you think of your board members as volunteers? I came across the article below and was struck by the intentionality put into training and orientation for volunteers who are requested to perform basic functions or roles around a nonprofit. How much more might be appropriate for the volunteers we expect to help lead our organizations?

Best Practices for Volunteer Orientation - Shawn Kendrick, VolunteerHub.com

Back in 2007 we wrote a blog examining why volunteers stay with an organization -- and why they leave. We mentioned that lack of training and/or orientation is one of the reasons volunteers don't stick around. If "on the job" training is your organization's primary means of acclimating volunteers, it may be time to reconsider. Although it takes a little more effort, orientation is a volunteer management practice that sets the foundation for a successful relationship. To help get you started, we've pulled together some recommendations and best practices.

-Start with Some One-on-One Time
-Bring out the Paperwork
-Give a Sample of The Work You Do
-Pair Them Up with an Experienced Volunteer or Staff Member
-Give Feedback

In the end, you'll see that investing just a little more time upfront in the orientation process can pay big dividends later. You'll have better-trained volunteers who stay longer, which is well worth it.

Read the Entire Article.

Recruiting and Vetting Nonprofit Board Members

Intro - As we approach mid-year, many nonprofits are hustling to recruit that final candidate for the July 1 start of the fiscal year or beginning to look at the long list of experienced board members who will be stepping down in December 2012. We found this article that provides a pretty comprehensive look at finding the right board members.

A key ingredient to increasing a nonprofit organization's impact in the community it serves is having the right people on the team. Critical to this team are an organization's board members.

"Board composition is a key lever," said Jeri Eckhart-Queenan, a partner at the Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit advisor to nonprofits and philanthropy. "Having the right people with the right skills helps the organization achieve its strategic goals."

Therefore, the first question that nonprofits should consider as they start to formulate their board recruiting plans is: What are our key strategic priorities, and what new skills or expertise might we need on our board to help us achieve those priorities?

Read the full article here.


SALARY SURVEY REMINDER - We need 50 more responses to our Central Indiana Salary Survey. EDs, CEOs, HR Directors - contact
Survey@CharitableAdvisors.com for your organizations survey link.

Thank you,

Bryan Orander
President of Charitable Advisors and Publisher, Not-for-Profit News


www.CharitableAdvisors.com 
www.NotforProfitNews.com
317-752-7153

Salary Survey Open to UWCI Agencies!

We are very excited that United Way of Central Indiana has elected to join our Central Indiana Nonprofit Salary Survey effort this year. We will launch links to approximately 100 UWCI agencies about 5pm tonight (Tuesday, May 7) with a close date of May 22. This means that we are also going to keep our main survey open – which has 185 solid responses so far.

Bob Cross, from United Way of Central Indiana, shared their thinking - “To avoid duplication and make better use of our community resources, UWCI is joining with Charitable Advisors to provide a more comprehensive study of non-profit salaries and benefits in our community. By including UWCI agencies in Charitable Advisors annual salary survey, the non-profit community will benefit from a broader view of agency salaries and benefits. This year is a test of this approach. We will survey UWCI agencies later this year to get their appraisal.”

HELP US MAKE IT WORK. Keep in mind this salary survey only applies to Central Indiana counties and organizations who have paid staff and excludes hospitals and universities, but not the foundations. The person responding must have access to all executive and management salary information.

If you are a United Way agency and don’t have a survey link in your e-mail on Wednesday morning, please check your Junk Mail and Spam folders and then contact us at Survey@CharitableAdvisors.com. We will send your link again.

We want more non-United Way participation - We have received survey link requests from dozens of organizations who have not completed the survey. Your link may be in your spam or junk mail folders. Please let us know at Survey@CharitableAdvisors.com and we will send your link again.

We are also happy to have new organizations participate. You’ll recall that all participating nonprofit organizations will receive a more detailed report than what is available to the general public. There is no cost to participate and the reports are free.

Join Us On-line to Talk Board Engagement

On May 16 at 1pm EST, I will be partnering with Indiana Youth Institute’s monthly webinar series to present “Why are Exceptional Boards the Exception – Increasing Board Member Engagement”. I am excited to work with the IYI training team on this topic because it is the most common question I receive from staff leaders and board members. We’ll talk about how both staff and board leaders have critical roles in creating and sustaining an engaged board.

The IYI webinar format uses presentation, interview, and Q&A to keep things moving along. The session is free for staff and board members of organizations who serve youth or children. IYI typically has over 100 attendees but I think this topic could draw more – I hope you will join us and push attendance to a new high. Have every board member join in from their office.

FMI and to register go here.