Category: working with others

Tips for Your Next Tech Volunteer Engagement

Got a tech need at your nonprofit that goes beyond your skillset?

Then a volunteer engagement is likely on your mind. And what a great time for it! There are tons of tech wizards (many remote) wanting to save the world, and a bunch of websites for finding them.

So Iā€™m not here to rain on your parade. Get that [tech thing] built/migrated/implemented!

But keep in mind that tech volunteer projects are uniquely complicated. Where thereā€™s great reward, thereā€™s also some risk. And we need to talk about it.

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How to Deliver Bad News to Staff Stakeholders

Yup! You can deliver bad news in a way that still leaves everyone feeling good-ish.

Aw, sugar. That’s my first thought anytime I’ve got bad news.

If you’ve ever had to deliver bad news to a colleague, you know it’s a delicate dance. No one wants to hear that they can’t have what they want. Especially in tech!

But sometimes, this is the nature of work. When you’re beholden to a group of stakeholders, be they staff or other constituents, you can’t make everyone happy all of the time!

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How can fundraisers & database managers best work together?

A prospect researcher and a database admin walk into a bar.

This week, I teamed up with prospect researcher Joan Ogwumike to share tips on what what makes for a great fundraiser/database manager working relationship. Check it out over on her blog, A Researcher’s Diary!

10 Project-Management Tips To Help You Work Better with Colleagues

That awkward moment when your colleague doesn’t deliver…doesn’t have to be awkward at all.

Project-managing and collaboration wasn’t exactly easy before the crisis. So these days, it’s probably feeling even trickier.

Personally, I can spend hours engrossed in a spreadsheet. Or tinkering with Salesforce endlessly.

But there’s an undeniable satisfaction that comes from being able to work with other people, to achieve a shared outcome for your org/mission. It’s a great feeling when it happens.

And when it doesn’t? It’s usually because of a hiccup somewhere in the coordination.

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How to Get The Most From Online Community Groups

If you’re part of any online groups or forums, here are some lessons learned how to be an effective contributor.

In this digital age, it’s gotten so much easier to find the info we need to do our work. One reason for that? Online communities.

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How to Build an Intake Process for Staff Requests

A simple concept for something that can feel somewhat complicated.

Have you ever spent tons of a time on a request, only to realize you didn’t build the right thing? *raises hand*

It’s not a great feeling. But miscommunication can happen when you don’t have a way to organize staff requests early on.

It doesn’t matter if you write content, work with data, or submit grant applications. If you do anything highly specialized for your org….you can benefit from a solid request intake process.

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