Entries with Media Type: Article

There comes a time at every nonprofit that conversation must shift—whether naturally or through force—to future leadership needs. But often, founder’s syndrome, overbooked schedules, and fear of change squelch the conversation or muffle the sounds of potential future leaders leaving.

But few nonprofits should actually be afraid of leadership development since often it indicates growth and mission success.

When your organization is open to examining your current organizational goals and is ready to actively assess your employees and positions to see if you have the employee talent to lead your organization forward, there are hundreds of resources for leadership development.

Thankfully, The Bridgespan Group has put together a Nonprofit Leadership Development toolkit, with videos based off of their own leadership development research, that can help you tie the skills and talents your organization will need into your strategic planning efforts.

Watch the first video here.

UST’s ThinkHR hotline can also help you prepare for future leadership needs with expert job description builders, salary benchmarking tools and more than 200 on-demand courses for both management and employees! Visit the webpage here.

Learn more about the HR resources available to UST members by calling (888)249-4788 today.

The Millennial generation has been getting a lot of press over the past few years, and often the coverage is decidedly unkind, with a focus on personalities that feel entitled to a “participation trophy,” are lazy, and don’t respect their elders at work. With an engrained focus on technology and change previously unseen in former generations, Millennials have made a lot of people uncomfortable and have been called out repeatedly for it.

But according to research done by the Social & Demographic Trends arm of the Pew Research Center, Millennials are forging an identity that is “confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat, and open to change”– which makes them perfect candidates for your next open Board seat. (Read the full report here.)

Creative and highly adaptive, many Millennials are defined by their upbeat energy, positive outlook and high level of inclusion. Conversely many Boards are getting a bad rap for being exclusive, untouchable, and far too opaque in their conservative decision-making.

According to advocates for younger board members, having Millennials on your board has many benefits and advances your organization in ways that may be overlooked by those quick to dismiss the young. These include:
 

  • Passion for your mission and organization
  • Access to fresh, new networks and a strong knowledge of how to continue building them
  • Future leadership potential and the ability to act as a bridge to other future leaders
  • Technologically savvy with a knack for teaching other generations the benefits of a technological shift

Read more of the benefits of having younger board members on your Board.

Take the quiz to find out how Millennial you are.

Do you have younger board members at your organization? How did you find them? Tell us about your board demographic!

More than thirty years ago, the Unemployment Services Trust was established with the core mission to help nonprofits save money and do more for their mission. As the years have passed and UST has grown to more than 2,000 member nonprofits nationwide, the scope of the organizations that we partner with has also expanded into a broad spectrum of charitable functions, including every major nonprofit sector.

For those of us who help run the day-to-day operations of the UST program, there is a special thrill in hearing how each of our members is able to make an impact in their community through after school programs, health and human services, meal delivery programs, arts, literacy advancement efforts, animal advocacy, and so much more! We wanted to reach into our local community and get help illustrating (literally) all of the types of nonprofits UST serves. So we asked the children that participate in our local Girls, Inc. and Boys & Girls Club programs to help us by entering a calendar contest. And within a month, we received more than 100 incredible drawings!

The only problem is there are only 12 months in a year! So after a difficult selection process, we presented each of the winners with awards, and threw all of the participants a pizza party. Said Tristan from the Boys & Girls Club of Carpinteria to the local newspaper, “I was really excited I won because I never thought I was that good at drawing.” His entry in the Museums category is the winning image for May.
 

On Tuesday, December 3rd, the second annual #GivingTuesday took place. Encouraging people all over the world to take place in what started as a national day of giving, the campaign celebrates and contributes to the success of charitable activities that support millions of nonprofit organizations.

This year online donations by Blackbaud rose 90% to $19.2-million, with the average gift hovering around $142. Network for Good, which also processes online donations, said it handled $1.8-million in gifts on Tuesday.

In 2012 there were more than 2,000 recognized #GivingTuesday partners in the U.S. During that 24-hour period, Blackbaud processed more than $10 million in donations while DonorPerfect recorded a 46% increase in online donations on that day over the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in 2011.

The #Unselfie, in which participants take a picture of themselves holding a piece of paper with the name of a charity they support– either through volunteer work or donations– and post it to their social media networks, helped contribute to the trend and was a leading keyword in the days leading up to Tuesday.

What was your favorite #GivingTuesday campaign? Tell us about it on Facebook and Twitter.

Terms Of Use

Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

UST maintains a secure site. This means that information we obtain from you in the process of enrolling is protected and cannot be viewed by others. Information about your agency is provided to our various service providers once you enroll in UST for the purpose of providing you with the best possible service. Your information will never be sold or rented to other entities that are not affiliated with UST. Agencies that are actively enrolled in UST are listed for review by other agencies, UST’s sponsors and potential participants, but no information specific to your agency can be reviewed by anyone not affiliated with UST and not otherwise engaged in providing services to you except as required by law or valid legal process.

Your use of this site and the provision of basic information constitute your consent for UST to use the information supplied.

UST may collect generic information about overall website traffic, and use other analytical information and tools to help us improve our website and provide the best possible information and service. As you browse UST’s website, cookies may also be placed on your computer so that we can better understand what information our visitors are most interested in, and to help direct you to other relevant information. These cookies do not collect personal information such as your name, email, postal address or phone number. To opt out of some of these cookies, click here. If you are a Twitter user, and prefer not to have Twitter ad content tailored to you, learn more here.

Further, our website may contain links to other sites. Anytime you connect to another website, their respective privacy policy will apply and UST is not responsible for the privacy practices of others.

This Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use for our site is subject to change.

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

UST maintains a secure site. This means that information we obtain from you in the process of enrolling is protected and cannot be viewed by others. Information about your agency is provided to our various service providers once you enroll in UST for the purpose of providing you with the best possible service. Your information will never be sold or rented to other entities that are not affiliated with UST. Agencies that are actively enrolled in UST are listed for review by other agencies, UST’s sponsors and potential participants, but no information specific to your agency can be reviewed by anyone not affiliated with UST and not otherwise engaged in providing services to you except as required by law or valid legal process.

Your use of this site and the provision of basic information constitute your consent for UST to use the information supplied.

UST may collect generic information about overall website traffic, and use other analytical information and tools to help us improve our website and provide the best possible information and service. As you browse UST’s website, cookies may also be placed on your computer so that we can better understand what information our visitors are most interested in, and to help direct you to other relevant information. These cookies do not collect personal information such as your name, email, postal address or phone number. To opt out of some of these cookies, click here. If you are a Twitter user, and prefer not to have Twitter ad content tailored to you, learn more here.

Further, our website may contain links to other sites. Anytime you connect to another website, their respective privacy policy will apply and UST is not responsible for the privacy practices of others.

This Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use for our site is subject to change.