Category Archives: Nonprofit/NGO/Agency Management

Basic Fund-Raising for Small NGOs/Civil Society in the Developing World

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Some of the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) to online forums for community-based organizations (CBOs) in developing countries, whatever the subject, are regarding funding.

In addition, the first impulse of many small non-governmental organizations (NGOs) seeking funding is to request the contact information for possible funders, and once they find the name of any company they think gives grants to NGOs, these NGOs often write immediately to the company with a desperate please for funds. This approach often harms the NGO, rather than garnering any support at all. Not only do these please rarely attract funding, they can turn funding sources against the NGO altogether.

After seeing these questions and messages again and again over several years (I’ve been on the Internet since about 1994) I drafted a list of basic tips for fund-raising for small NGOs – it was 15 pages long. Now, years later, it has evolved into 31 pages. It is a PDF file.

The document is meant to provide very basic guidelines for small NGOs in the developing world regarding fund-raising and adhering to the basic principles of good governance, and to point to other resources. By small NGOs, I mean organizations that may have only one paid staff member, or are run entirely by volunteers; and may or may not have official recognition by the government. These organizations are extremely limited in their resources, and are often in unstable environments and/or serving profoundly poor populations. Certainly medium-sized NGOs could use it as well – organizations that may have two or three paid staff members.

Please note that this document is NOT written for nonprofits serving the “developed” world — organizations serving communities in North America, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand or Japan would probably not find this document particularly helpful, as it has been prepared to make recommendations relevant for nonprofits serving in a developing country.

This document is also not for organizations that send volunteers into developing countries to work. This document will not help you fund the trips of such volunteers. If you are such a volunteer-sending organization, see funding your volunteering trip abroad and fund raising for a cause or organization for more helpful information.

THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT A LIST OF FUNDERS/DONORS.

Let me repeat that: THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT A LIST OF FUNDERS/DONORS.

It is, instead, a set of guidelines on how to prepare an organization in a developing country to be attractive to donors, how to search for potential donors and how to approach such potential donors.

The document includes:

  • A list of activities an NGO should NEVER do regarding fund-raising
    (& how I know if an NGO has actually read this document!)
  • How to network among various sectors in your country and establish credibility to insure fund-raising success
  • The absolute essential preparations to solicit donations, both locally and from international NGOs working in your geographic area
  • Establishing credibility and a reputation of integrity, transparency and accountability
  • How to find donors that would be interested in your NGO and how to make contact with them
  • A warning about fund-raising scams
  • Online resources for detailed tips on writing funding proposals
  • Suggestions regarding volunteers in other countries fund-raising on your NGO’s behalf (new chapter added October 2011)
  • Online resources for further information

Once you have received this document, please do NOT distribute the document via a web site or on an online discussion group without my written permission. I frequently update the document, and want to ensure people are getting the most recent version.

Here is the web page for more regarding: Basic Fund-Raising for Small NGOs/Civil Societ in the Developing World, including how to access the document.

*Another* Afghanistan Handicraft program? Really?

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Recently, I got an email from yet another organization that is teaching Afghan women how to make handicrafts and textiles to sell in the West.

And I sighed. Heavily.

I’m not saying that these are bad programs. In fact, I have supported many of them, as a consumer: My husband and I each have a lovely Shalwar Kameez from a shop run by Afghans for Civil Society in Kandahar (here’s him in his; I’m in the burqa), I have a custom-made jacket from AWWSOM Boutique in Kabul that I wore at my wedding reception, I have a custom-made purse from Gundara, and I have lots of items from Ganjini Showroom and various other stores in Kabul. These items are beautiful, they are well-made, and I love showing them off (for more info, see my guide to shopping in Kabul).

HOWEVER, teaching more and more Afghan women how to make purses, shawls, table cloths and other lovely items is not going to lift women out of poverty, nor move them into their proper place in society, because there is not enough of a market for all those products.

Capacity-building programs have to be focused on what is actually needed in a particular community, that are more guaranteed to provide income regularly, long-term. That means programs that teach Afghan women how to:

These are things that local people need, and/or that they want – they are not just that are nice to have.

If you know of a program – local or international, government-run or foreign run or civil society run, whatever – that is teaching Afghan women to engage in income-generation activities that are practical and sustainable, feel free to post names and links in the comments section of this blog.

911 charities gone wrong, how to measure fundraiser performance, & Palestinian/Israeli cooperation

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Three items that came to my attention recently that you REALLY need to read:

First, an AP story about 9/11 nonprofits that raked in millions of dollars – and have nothing to show for that money.

“There are those that spent huge sums on themselves, those that cannot account for the money they received, those that have few results to show for their spending and those that have yet to file required income tax returns. Yet many of the charities continue to raise money in the name of Sept. 11.”

I seethed as I read this. Not only at the reprehensible mismanagement of funds, but also because this will make millions of potential donors say, “I’m not going to give to nonprofits anymore. They cannot be trusted.” ARGH! Here’s advice on what needs to appear on your nonprofit, NGO or charity web site, to show you aren’t like these 9/11 charities.

Second, a piece in the Nonprofit Quarterly by Simone P. Joyaux, about how to measure performance of a fundraiser/donor manager. Absolutely outstanding!

And, finally, something that made me very happy: six paramedics and supervisors from Magen David Adom in Israel (IMDA) attended the International Trauma Life Support (ITLS) course, provided by instructors and doctors from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS). While both organizations cooperate around emergency ambulance services, this was the first time that PRCS staff served as instructors for IMDA personnel.

These were shared earlier via my Twitter feed:

Would love to have you as a follower. Actually, what I would really love is for someone to tell me exactly how to create a bridge so that all that I tweet gets posted here on my blog…

Tags: transparency, accountability, accountable, scrutiny, accounting, finances, donations, donating, funding, sponsorships, investment, investing, Palestine, Israel, Red, Cross, cooperation

Debate: volunteer manager qualifications

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What should the qualifications be for a person that is responsible for volunteers at an organization?

That’s a hot topic right now, and there is a LOT of disagreement about it. Heck, we can’t even agree what to call such a person! (volunteer manager? volunteer resources manager? volunteer coordinator? director of community engagement?)

My view:

If an organization views this person as merely the purveyor of free labor, and sees this person as the primary manager of volunteers in a single activity – volunteers staffing the gift shop or the help desk, working in the food pantry (more with the food than the clients), serving food in a shelter, cleaning up beaches on one-day events –  then the qualifications are going to be quite low. The person in charge of volunteers will report to the head of human resources, won’t be a senior manager, and will be judged on whether or not all shifts are filled and all tasks are completed. Those are skills that can be taught to someone on the job – no need for volunteer management credentials – though some volunteer management workshops would be helpful.

This is how most corporate folks and very traditional organizations view managers or coordinators of volunteers. This is how most volunteer management workshops and most volunteer management conferences view those responsible for volunteers at an organization.

By contrast, if an organization views this person as responsible for:

  • community engagement, demonstrating that the community invests in the organization and believes in its mission
  • building the capacities of other employees to involve volunteers in their work and supporting employee involvement of volunteers in a variety of roles, including in leadership roles
  • being up-to-date on legal issues, political rhetoric and trends that can affect volunteer involvement
  • creating ways for volunteer involvement to relate directly to the organizations mission

then the qualifications required for the person in charge of volunteers are MUCH higher. The manager of volunteers or director of community engagement is not merely the purveyor of free labor; this manager has a direct role on program delivery and, therefore, should report to the director of programs – if not directly to the Executive Director! And credentials are essential – though not necessarily a certificate in volunteer management.

Here’s all the places this is a hot topic right now – check out what’s being said and join the conversation!:

Also see:

Feuds in the nonprofit/NGO/charity world

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I work with nonprofit organizations, international agencies and even government offices that don’t get along with each other. And it leaves me in an awkward position when I’m talking with such an organization about some activity or resources that would be oh-so-appealing to another organization. I know that, when I make the suggestion for collaboration, or even just an email update or event invitation from one organization to the other, a heavy silence will fill the air – or some quickly-made-up excuses will flow and the suggestion will be ignored.

Entire organizations hurt each other’s feelings all the time, just as people do – because organizations are made up of people. But often, what one organization views as a criticism or an act of conscious disrespect by another organization is actually incompetence or thoughtlessness – it’s not at all a deliberate act. It can be an email that doesn’t receive a response or a phone call that doesn’t get returned (They are ignoring me! They hate me!) or a duplication of activities (They *know* we already do an event like that! They did this to try to steal our thunder!) or an event that doesn’t get announced until late (They didn’t tell us about this earlier so we wouldn’t be able to participate!).

I know one organization that believes it’s in a feud with another organization – but that other organization has no idea there’s any hurt feelings! So while the Hurt Organization takes every action by Other Organization as an attack, a slight, an insult, etc., Other Organization is completely oblivious that Hurt Organization feels that way.

Sometimes, a feud is acknowledged by both organizations – but there’s no effort to get over it. And there always be an effort to get over it, because there’s no room in the nonprofit / NGO / charity world for feuds. Disagreements? Yes, those need to happen, and it may be you never see eye-to-eye about what the approach should be to homelessness, or women’s health care, or stray animals – but the disagreement can be acknowledged by both parties without a silent and/or nasty feud between them. Debates? Absolutely – we won’t evolve or learn if we don’t debate! But silent feuding? That hurts all of us and those we serve.

When I take on public relations/outreach activities for an organization, one of the first things I do is to look at the distribution list for press releases and announcements, invitation lists for events, etc., and I make sure every organization that has a similar mission and is working in the same area is on those lists. That can include groups that have publicly said they disagree with the organization’s mission. There might be some cringing from other department heads, even a closed-door meeting where I’m assured the overture won’t lead to anything positive, but I insist. And every time, maybe after weeks, maybe after months, there’s a thawing of relations: Someone has lunch with someone else. Someone attends another’s special event. A white paper is shared. Small steps.

Maybe the organizations will never like each other; but I don’t have to like you to work with you!

Also see:

How to handle online criticism

Community Relations, With & Without Tech

PSU Volunteer Management courses have started!

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Erin Barnhart has put together a “Volunteerism and Volunteer Management” course for Portland State University, and I’m thrilled to be teaching one of the modules! I’ll join her and Kathleen Joy of Oregon Volunteers to present a series of intensive classes focused on those who work with volunteers in any capacity – or those that want to.

This comprehensive course will cover topics ranging from core competencies and emerging trends and tools for building and sustaining a successful volunteer program, to understanding the broad-reaching impacts of volunteer service and effective volunteer management, to engaging individuals in innovative and accessible ways to serve in their local neighborhoods, via their computers and smartphones, and in communities across the globe.

Unlike a lot of other volunteer management courses, this course will full integrate online tools into all discussions (not just a module at the end), and will discuss the international volunteering scene.

This course is comprised of four all-day sessions: 9 am – 4:30 pm on four Wednesdays, June 22, 29, July 6 and July 13. It can be taken non-credit or for-credit. If you missed registering for this summer, contact Sharon Hasenjaeger at PSU Institute for Nonprofit Management, (503) 725-8221 or hasenjs@pdx.edu, to express interest in a future course. Grad students register for PA592 CRN 82727 through the PSU website. Noncredit students register thru the INPM office, using this noncredit registration form. Tuition is $495 for non-credit enrollment. Graduate credit is $945 plus $41 fee.

I love teaching. I try to give my workshops a lively, audience-oriented feel. I use case studies to illustrate points, focus on both what’s happening now and what is trending, encourage a lot of student participation, and develop activities that get class participants designing strategies they can use immediately. My goal in any training is to give participants a base on which to further build and improve long after a class is over. My schedule fills up very quickly. Contact me and let me know what kind of training you might have in mind!

 

 

Is your organization a buzz kill?

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Is your organization a buzz kill to new ideas? Does your organization cry “It’s against our policies/It’s not in our policies!” when an employee member or volunteer suggests an activity – and the response isn’t because what’s proposed isn’t good idea, but because somone at the organization is afraid of… well, something?

Stephen Colbert has been trying to start a political action committee (PAC). At first, his parent company, Viacom, said it was illegal. So Colbert consulted with a lawyer and came up with a way to make creating a PAC legal. But the parent company for his show, The Colbert Report, still said no, sent Colbert a letter explaining why, and asking him not to read the letter on his show. So Colbert paraphrased the letter thusly:

We are stupid lawyers who hate fun. If you do this, we’re all scared because people might get mad at us. I think we just peed a little. So, even though we know it is totally legal and everything, and everybody wants you to do it, we’re not going to let you.

Sincerely,
Admiral John Q. Buzzshackler, Esq.

I laughed and laughed and laughed. I have gotten this message myself, not from lawyers, but from colleagues at organizations where I’ve worked or where I’ve volunteered – one fairly recently, when I made a very simple suggestion regarding a one-time social media activity to a very well-known nonprofit organization I won’t name now, but will be happy to if you buy me a beer. The emails I’ve gotten over the years, including most recently, can be paraphrased similarly:

“We are stuffy nonprofit/NGO/international development agency senior managers who hate fun and new ideas. If you do this, we’re all scared because people might get mad at us or someone somewhere may say something negative about it or we might have to work differently. Or we might have to actually work. I think we just peed a little. So, even though we know it is totally legal and that thousands and thousands of organizations are doing this successfully and it could lead to more volunteers and more support, and most everybody wants you to do it, we’re not going to let you.

Sincerely,
Secretary General John Q. Buzzkill

Happy Friday, everyone!

Stop multi-tasking; FOCUS instead!

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Back in August 2009, I blogged that Stanford University had published a study that the AP called “surprising”: people who multitask are more easily distracted and less able to ignore irrelevant information than people who do less multitasking. Chronic digital multitaskers were found to be not as good at switching between tasks, compared with people who weren’t chronic multitaskers. In other words, multitaskers cannot concentrate on a single task and do it well; instead, they do a lot of things not very well. They get LESS done than single-taskers.

“The huge finding is, the more media people use the worse they are at using any media. We were totally shocked,” Clifford Nass, a professor at Stanford’s communications department, said in the AP article.

As I said at the time:

Huh? Shocked? Really? Are Stanford researchers THAT out of touch and naive?

I wasn’t AT ALL shocked. It was confirmation of something I’ve known for a long, long time: multi-tasking muddles minds.

In this article in Time from November 2010, Turning Your Phone Off as a Technological Gesture of Affection, the Stanford study is explored further, with this observation:

Multitaskers overestimated their abilities. So, for instance, when your brother insists he’s listening to your story, even as he texts his girlfriend, he really does believe that he’s hearing you. But chances are, he got only every other word.

It’s the same in the workplace: you are not listening to that phone conference while you are checking your email. YA colleague calls on the phone to discuss something or deliver information and he or she knows you are not really listening, as you are trying to IM or fill out a form at the same time – meaning he or she will have to repeat it all later when you realize you don’t know something you should. At a meeting, people ask questions that are fully answered in the two page document they claimed to have scanned on the plane.

At conferences, it’s impossible to strike up conversations with people around you — something essential to make a conference valuable — as they all have their heads buried in their lap tops or PDAs, talking to people elsewhere instead of the people right there next to them, eager to connect.

So why not embrace true digital efficiency and give one slice of attention to each task, even just a few minutes, so that you do all tasks well? It’s amazing how much more work you get done when you single focus! Close your laptop in meetings and workshops. Put the phone or PDA away. Listen, look, make eye contact. Do it just a few times a day, and you will be amazed how much more information you discover and retain, how many MORE connections you make!

I now have a rule during my presentations: if you are going to have your lap top open, you have to be in the back rows; the front and middle rows are reserved for participants; my workshops are interactive, and I’m tired of asking a question to a room full of people or having people break into groups to work on a quesiton and having those at their lap tops look up and say, “Huh? What? Huh?”, or updating their Facebook screens while people behind them watch their screens instead of me. I put a lot of work into my presentations; if you aren’t there to participate, I’d actually rather you not attend at all.

The ability to concentrate on a single task, to get it done properly and completely, or to concentrate on a single content source, reading or listening thoroughly to the information provided, is rapidly becoming a lost skill, and the workplace, public discourse and even every day community life is suffering for it. We’re not becoming more efficient and productive: we’re becoming more distracted, less inclined to complete tasks on time, less likely to do a quality job, and less likely to really, substantially connect with new people. It also affects our quality of life: there are generations who seem to not know how to become engrossed in a movie, how to sit and people-watch, how to just be in the moment, and that means they aren’t really satisfied with anything.

But it’s more than just being ignored while I’m putting my heart and soul into a workshop or watcing co-workers founder in meetings: People are crashing their cars while texting. And even worse: people are making up their minds about world events, government policies, candidates running for office and proposed activities by various organizations based on snippets they’ve glanced at online or on comments heard by a pundit on the radio or TV as they are doing two or three other things at the same time. Debates have become easy for me to win these days because I actually still READ and have more than sound bites to refer to.

My tag line on Yahoo for a few years now has been “Read More Books.” The world would be a better place if more people did, not only because knowledge is a wonderful, empowering, enlightening thing, but also because it would teach people the power of “single-tasking“, or the power of concentration, of focus.

Take just 10 minutes every other hour to read something, in silence, related to your work — memos from colleagues, abstracts from journal articles, an executive summary — without doing anything else. Don’t answer your phone while a colleague is in your office. Turn away from your computer when you are on the phone. Sit and listen intently to a presenter for even just the first 10 minutes, without doing anything else. Introduce yourself to two people sitting near you at a workshop. Never ever write emails while trying to listen to a phone call, a presenter or a colleague. These are little things. And if you do them, you will LOVE the results!

Okay, after that lecture here’s some levity re: Facebook. Enjoy – and don’t do anything else while you watch it, because then you will actually enjoy it!

 

When to Monetize a Web Page

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Monetizing a web page means putting advertising for a company or product not your own on a web page of your own, and being paid in some way for posting that advertising. That can be in the form of a display ad or an in-text link. Some advertising works this way: every time someone clicks on an ad, the web site owner is paid a fee, often as little as a penny. If you raise even $10 a month with such web ads, you are considered doing very well in terms of revenue. The most popular source for these is Google Adsense. Some organizations also join a program like Amazon Associates and link to books on their web sites as well. Ads can also be done in the old-fashioned way: a business pays you a fee up front to display the ad for a set period of time.

Many nonprofits and NGOs are tempted put ads on their web pages as a way to generate much-needed revenue. But is it appropriate for a nonprofit or NGO to put ads on a web page? After all, many nonprofits put advertising in their print materials. For instance, there is nothing unusual about seeing advertising in a printed program for a nonprofit theater performance. Or a flier or brochure for a nonprofit event (“Sponsored by….”). But there is no question when you look at those printed materials – at least the ones that are well-designed, that the focus of the material is the content, not the advertising. In addition, note that you probably won’t see advertising on a brochure that lists an organization’s health services or an organization’s annual report.

As a nonprofit organization, the purpose of your web site is to reach out to potential and current clients/customers/program participants, volunteers and donors, as well as to educate the press, elected officials, other organizations, the general public – even the surrounding neighborhood. Your web site isn’t just to get new clients or donors; it’s also supposed to build your organization’s credibility. As a nonprofit organzation, an NGO, even a government or public sector agency, you are a mission-based organization. Advertising on your nonprofit or NGO web site easily takes away from that web site purpose, as well as your mission. It also encourages people to leave your web site!

Online ads can negatively affect your nonprofit organization’s credibility: one Pro-Choice site I visited had monetized its blog with Google Adsense, and all the ads were for anti-choice organizations, making it difficult to tell what the blogger actually stood for. I have visited web site for NGOs that are supposed to be helping poor women in a developing country and was greeted with ads for mail order brides.

I think most of the material on a nonprofit or an NGO web site – and a government web site, for that matter – is far too precious for advertising, and I don’t allowed such on nonprofit organization’s web sites I have managed. When would I bend my no-advertising rule? In these narrow circumstances:

  • A nonprofit animal shelter creating a web page on its site to list dog trainers, pet sitters, pet groomers and kennels in the area; any business that wanted to be listed would have to pay, and on the page, it would be made clear on the page that companies paid to be listed. There would also be a strong disclaimer saying the shelter in no way endorses any of these companies.
  • A nonprofit theater or dance company creating a web page on its site to list restaurants or other local businesses that want its patrons to visit before or after a performance. Again, on the page, it would be made clear that companies paid to be listed. There would also be a strong disclaimer saying the organization in no way endorses any of these companies.
  • A public high school that creates a page on its web site to list karate schools, dance schools, gymnastic schools, and other businesses that cater to youth. Again, on the page, it would be made clear that companies paid to be listed. There would also be a strong disclaimer saying the school in no way endorses any of these companies.
  • An NGO in a developing country creating a page on its site to list restaurants, guest houses, tour companies, even security agencies that could be utilized in the area. Again, on the page, it would be made clear that companies paid to be listed. There would also be a strong disclaimer saying the NGO in no way endorses any of these companies.
  • When a company or series of companies sponsor an event by a nonprofit organization, with cash (not just an in-kind gift). Even then, the sponsor’s logo is small and in no way dominates the one or two pages its listed on and, in addition, clicking on the logo doesn’t take you to the company; instead, it takes you to a page explaining that this company (or these companies) is/are sponsoring the event, why sponsorship is so critical, etc; on that explanation page, only then, am I willing to link to the sponsor’s own web site.

In all of these cases, advertisers are vetted, and its clear to anyone visiting the page that the listings are there because the businesses paid a fee. Such online advertising should never be open-ended; it should be up for renewal in three, six, nine or 12 months.

Even if you are not a nonprofit company, NGO or government agency – you’re a for-profit business and you are focused on making money – remember that advertising on your web site should never draw the reader’s focus away from the content so much that the advertising dominates the page. Ads need to be placed carefully on a web site, without interfering with the content. You don’t want your web site confused with those sites that masquerade as produced by some helpful individual or organization but are, in fact, online ad farms; they are set up only to generate advertising revenue, with rather general text that is rarely updated.

My consulting business is not a nonprofit. Even so, I’ve been careful about online advertising, because I don’t want my web site to ever be confused with an ad farm, or to give a visitor a reason to click off the site after looking at just one page. The primary purpose of most of my web pages is to promote me, as a consultant and an expert, and in many cases, online advertising would take away from that. That’s why I don’t monetize my blog at all either. That said, I do use Google Adsense and Amazon Associates on a set of pages on my site targeted specifically at volunteers and potential volunteers, rather than my primary target audience: nonprofits, NGOs, and government/public sector agencies, as well as corporations that want to engage in community-betterment programs. I set up these monetized pages because I got tired of responding to the same messages from volunteers and potential volunteers again and again: how do I volunteer, how do I find community service to fulfill a court order, how can I find funding for volunteering overseas, how can I volunteer in Japan/Haiti/latest disaster site, etc. I could have simply stopped responding to those questions, but decided I’d continue to offer the help and make money from such as well. It’s a gamble, but so far, it’s paid off. I update my Adsense settings constantly in an effort to keep the advertising appropriate – something an ad farm doesn’t do. Note just how different these pages look from the rest of my web site – also an effort to distinguish these money-making pages from the rest of my site, which have a completely different purpose.

Also see: Web policies and security for nonprofit organizations

Knowledge transfer – it’s more than a buzz phrase

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Every organization – every nonprofit, charity, non-governmental organization (NGO), civil society organization, government agency, for-profit business – large or small, anywhere in the world, has subject matter experts (SME), each with a deep knowledge and understanding of business-critical information. At nonprofits, some of these SMEs are paid staff, but many are volunteers.

You often find out who these SMEs are when they go on vacation and you suddenly realize you don’t know how to update text on the home page of your web site, or you don’t know how to direct a person who calls who wants to volunteer, or you are going through the list she left of everything to do Monday morning and, at the end of Tuesday, you aren’t even half way through the list.

Most organizations hire paid staff and recruit volunteers specifically because of the paid staff or volunteers’ particular area of expertise, expertise that the staff person has spent years cultivating in university academic studies and/or professional and volunteering experiences. You could never expect such a person to transfer all of his knowledge to a co-worker, a new hire, or a partner organization. However, there are business-critical functions at your organization that various staff members are doing — probably every staff member, including volunteers — that must be documented. Looking at a mission-based organization (a non-profit or an NGO, for instance), these critical functions could include how to:

  • update/change text on the web site
  • use the 5-10 most common functions on your phone system
  • direct phone calls and emails appropriately, for the entire organization or just within one department or program
  • direct inquiries from potential volunteers
  • direct inquiries from the media
  • retrieve data from a computer system backup
  • start a computer system backup, or how to ensure an automated backup took place
  • moderate your online discussion group
  • coordinate the logistics for any kind of meeting your organization has regularly, on site or online

This knowledge often needs to be conveyed to people with a lower level of technical expertise than the person in charge of these tasks – even if the person in charge of a task is an individual contributor with no staff to supervise — like the receptionist — while the person who needs to know is a senior manager.

(I have a firmly-held belief that the receptionist of an organization is often the most knowledgeable about what’s happening at the organization, and he or she is always one of the first persons I talk to if I’m consulting with an organization regarding its communications or volunteer engagement practices – but I digress…)

Content management systems (CMS), like a simple Intranet, that allows staff to upload and read each other’s information, and to share what they are working on, greatly assist in effective knowledge transfer and staff cross-training, but only if everyone has access to such, is encouraged to contribute to such, and is evaluated per their contributions to such. It’s about establishing a culture of internal transparency and rewards for sharing as much as it’s about creating a CMS. By contrast, partitioning information so that only certain people have access to it (knowledge hoarding), limiting it to folders in the file cabinets next to our desks, leads to inefficiency, duplication of effort, confused messages and errors.

This free document by Keith De La Rue details how to build a knowledge transfer toolkit. It’s a highly technical, jargon-filled document, and sometimes you will want to yell “Why don’t you just use plain English?!” Still, you will find it helpful if you want to ensure that business-critical information and practices at your organization are identified and documented. “This toolkit includes a range of individual elements, comprising content management, communications, learning and multimedia elements, coordinated as a managed program. Approaches to maintaining the currency and accuracy of content, dealing with knowledge hoarding and the relevance of social media principles will also be addressed.” Here’s more about Keith De La Rue.