Learning Opportunities
Learning Opportunities are workshops and other professional development opportunities for nonprofit staffs and board members.
Use this page to learn about funding opportunities outside Meyer, ways to strengthen nonprofit organizations, research about people and communities that Meyer cares about, and useful links for nonprofits and grantmakers.
| Format:YYYY-MM-DD |
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants
The National Endowment for the Humanities invites applications to the Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants program. This program is designed to encourage innovations in the digital humanities.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Webinar: Managing Fraud Risk Through Awareness, Culture Change, and Practical Policies
This webinar will explore the importance of awareness and culture change in managing fraud risk in nonprofits. The program will include a valuable list of practical, affordable, and easy to implement suggestions for managing fraud risk.
Monday, April 12, 2010
National Conference: Unleashing Philanthropy's Potential
The conference will feature cutting-edge sessions designed to help participants
learn new strategies and share experiences that will have an immediate
application in today’s world.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Creative Ways to Reduce Costs
This workshop, for participants who are looking for ways to reduce costs and improve the financial health of their organizations, will explore creative ways to reduce variable costs and make fixed costs more variable.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Webinar: Directors' and Officers' Insurance - What You Need to Know
This webinar will explore the current range of directors' and officers' insurance coverage available to nonprofit organizations and trends in related policy language. Participants will learn how to purchase appropriate coverage for their organizations.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Stewardship: The Lifeblood of Fundraising
Keeping a current donor is easier and more beneficial for an organization than capturing a new one. This interactive workshop will explore best practices for acknowledging, recognizing, and involving those who already support an organization.
Rolling Deadlines
24-Hour Marathon of Design for Good Causes
Are you, or do you know, a DC-area 501(c)3 nonprofit that urgently needs graphic design, web, or communications consultation but can't afford to pay for them? The Falls Church-based MediaStudio offers an annual 24-hour CreateAThon, which provides free design, creativity, and strategic services in support of good causes in Greater Washington.
A Scan of Leadership Development Efforts in the Greater Washington Region
This study examines Greater Washington's leadership needs and the strengths and limitations of local leadership and capacity-building efforts. The literature scan discusses what leaders need to sustain their leadership, how leadership can be expanded in communities and the nonprofit sector, how collaboration can be strengthened, and other topics.
Blue Avocado Online Magazine to Engage and Support Nonprofit Employees
Blue Avocado's aim is to engage and support the employees of community nonprofits, the ones who do the heavy lifting in building social justice and strong communities, and who create and drive the ideas that change our world for the better.
Guide to Proposal Writing Audiobook
The Foundation Center, in partnership with the New York unit of Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, is offering its Guide to Proposal Writing in audio format. The audio book is available free of charge as a downloadable mp3 file and is divided into tracks corresponding to chapters in the print edition. The book can be downloaded as a whole or by chapters.
Advocacy Leaders Program
Maryland Nonprofits' Advocacy Leaders Program, the first statewide program of its kind, strengthens the knowledge and skills of nonprofit public policy advocates and fosters the development and growth of an actively networked community of nonprofit advocacy leaders.
Arts Enterprise: Art as Business as Art on iTunes University
Andrew Taylor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arts Institute offers part of his course "Arts Enterprise: Art as Business as
Art" free on iTunes University.
Collect Donations Through Text Messages
A new program, mGive, allows organizations to collect $5 or $10 donations via text message. Donors send texts and confirm their intent. The donations are charged directly to their wireless bill. From there, the donations are passed from their carriers to the Mobile Giving Foundation, which then passes on 90 to 95% of the donation to the nonprofit.
Craigslist Foundation Offers Nonprofit Bootcamp Sessions Online
The Craigslist Foundation publishes regular presentations, handouts, podcasts, and session notes from its Nonprofit Boot Camp available free for download online.
DC Fiscal Policy Institute Publishes DC Budget Toolkit
DC Budget Toolkit explains the District of Columbia budget and annual budgeting process. Users can find out how much is being spent in different areas, compare spending to previous years, and obtain the tools necessary to get involved in the budget process.
Developing a Powerful Grant Proposal
Tracks to Success has published an 18-part series that covers the entire spectrum of grant proposal development. The series offers step-by-step tutorials, checklists, worksheets, and samples to help guide proposal development.
Experience Project Launches TwitCause
TwitCause, a service of the Experience Project, allows users to connect with and around the groups and experiences that matter most to them. To better connect users with causes of interest to theme, TwitCause will highlight different charities each week.
Free Training for Fathers and Heads-of-Household
CitiWide offers free computer training, life and employment skills, and job placement/retention to low-income fathers and head of households in the District. Training is held at the CitiWide Computer Training Center, located at 3636 16th Street, number BG-49, in northwest Washington, DC.
Grantmaking with a Racial Equity Lens
GrantCraft, a project of the Ford Foundation, has released "Grantmaking with a Racial Equity Lens," a report on how attention to racial equity in grantmaking can strengthen giving programs.
Informational Podcast on how to Prepare for the New Form 990
This free PricewaterhouseCoopers' podcast features Howard Schoenfeld and Laura Parillo of PWC's Washington/National Tax Services Exempt Organizations Practice Group. Highlighted are some of the key features of the redesigned form and outline of the important steps nonprofit organizations should be taking now to prepare for the new form.
Maryland Nonprofits' Online Instruction Center Offers Full Catalog
Maryland Nonprofits offers a full catalog of online course ranging from
language and techology training to nonprofit management and marketing
training.
Nonprofit Careers
Nonprofit Careers is a comprehensive employment resource center for nonprofit sector employers and job seekers in the Greater Washington area. Through Nonprofit Careers, employers can access quality candidates, quick and easy job postings, online reports with job activity statistics, and competitive pricing. Job seekers can post their resume, receive automated weekly e-mail notification of new job listings, and save jobs for later review.
Programs for Health and Human Services Month
During the month of April, the Foundation Center is hosting a number of workshops in honor of it being health and human services month.
Proposal Writing: The Comprehensive Course (online)
This comprehensive and convenient online course from the Foundation Center is a step-by-step exploration of the proposal writing process. The program includes 10 sessions, case studies, interactive exercises, and four exams. Sessions include lessons in topic areas such as the executive summary, statement of need, budget descriptions and budgeting, organizational information, the proposal conclusion, packaging the proposal, and more. Participants who register for 12 months of unlimited... Read more
Report Finds that Only Half of All Students In United States Graduate from High School
An America's Promise study finds that only half of all students graduate from high school. The study, Cities in Crisis: A Special Analytic Report on High School Graduation, concludes that one in three high school students drops out before graduating.
Report: The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle
A vicious cycle is leaving nonprofits so hungry for decent
infrastructure that they can barely function as organizations—let alone
serve their beneficiaries. This report from the Stanford Social
Innovation Review examines nonprofit infrastructure and how funders can
help break the starvation cycle. The report mentions the Meyer Foundation's "Daring to Lead."
Shortchanging America's Health: A State by State Look at How Federal Public Health Dollars are Spent
Trust for America's Health has relased the report, Shortchanging America's Health, which finds that Midwestern states receive less funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention than other states. The report includes complete anaylsis and reviews of key health statistics and federal funding for public health on a state-by-state level. The full report is on the Trust for America's Health's website.
SPIN Project Offers Free Communications Resources to Nonprofits
The SPIN Project offers a broad range of resources for organizations to grow their communications capacity. These free resources include tutorials on how to develop a strategic communications plan, how to develop relationships with reporters, and a communications consultant directory.
Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity: Foundations Ask the Presidential Candidates What They'll Do for America
Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Eos Foundation created this initiative to build momentum for national action addressing poverty in 2009.
Start Smart: A Series for New Washington Area Executive Directors
This four-part series offered by the Center for Nonprofit Advancement is tailored specifically for new executive directors. Each session will focus on essential skills and strategies to successfully meet the challenges of executive leadership in today's nonprofit sector. Themes for each session are: leadership for success, working with a board of directors, working with staff, and working with the communitiy. Class activities will include case studies, small... Read more
StayExempt.org - Free Tax Resources for Nonprofit Organizations
The Internal Revenue Service offers free resources and information for nonprofits with 501(c)(3) tax status on its website. Nonprofit professionals can receive free online training in topic areas including: steps to retaining nonprofit status, managing unrelated business income, employment, filing error-free returns, and managing disclosures. The site's resource library also offers important forms and publications for download.
Study Finds that Arts-Related Businesses Employ Nearly Three Million
An Americans for the Arts study finds that employment in arts-related businesses has grown 11.6 percent in the past year, which is more than four times the increase in overall employment growth. The Creative Industries 2008: The 50 City Report, details this trend and provides an analysis of arts-related businesses, institutions, and organizations in the country's 50 most-populated cities.
Using the Social Web During Giving Season
NetSquared looks at some of the ways nonprofits can use the social web, such as Facebook and Twitter, to support fundraising programs.
Why Nonprofits Need Strong Taglines
This article from Nancy Schwartz and Company discusses how effective taglines can help strengthen the public identity of nonprofits.