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Organizational Development Resources

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Grant Information

Grant Information

 

Christian community computer centers qualify for many grants from foundations and other grant-giving organizations. Because the focus of Christian community computer centers is on addressing the digital divide, they can apply for grants from most foundations and some government agencies, without any modification to program design or the Christian character of the organization. Some tips to help get you started include:

 

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Organizational Start-Up

EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONS TOPIC

Organizational Start-Up

Articles, Excerpts, Tips & More

Maintaining a Positive Relationship Between Your Nonprofit and Your Church: Four recommendations for how to maintain good church-nonprofit relations once a new church-based nonprofit is up and running.
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Four Quick Tips for a Positive Church-Nonprofit Relationship: Church-nonprofit relationship management in a nutshell.
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Seven Key Questions for a Good Church-Nonprofit Relationship: This printable resource will get church-initiated nonprofits and their founding churches on the right track for effective ongoing communication.
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Recommended Books

The Wilder Nonprofit Field Guide to Crafting Effective Mission & Vision Statements: This short manual will help your organization to develop or revise mission and vision statements that clarify your focus and bring direction to your work.
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Be Pure Before God and Israel:: This resource lays out the Jewish sacred texts and practical guidelines for developing, implementing, and maintaining a non-profit entity.
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Starting a Nonprofit at Your Church: This resource will help congregational leaders considering starting up nonprofit organizations through their faith-based facilities.
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The 12-Step Program: This brief primer provides a high-level overview of the basic steps for launching a community ministry.
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Recommended Links

Congregational Resources Guide: Resources for Congregations: This Web site focuses on connecting leaders of congregations with the resources that will help them to “gain insight into problems and to encourage transformation in their communities of faith.”
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Christian Community Development Association (CCDA): CCDA is the leading network of Christians engaged in revitalizing their communities through the key principles of relocation, reconciliation, and redistribution.
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The Community Toolbox: With over 6,000 pages of practical information related to community development covering 250 different topics, this is probably the most comprehensive community development Web site available.
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Alban Institute: The Alban Institute is an ecumenical organization that provides resources for congregations in the form of consulting services, research, book publishing, and educational seminars.
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National Congress for Community Economic Development (NCCED): The NCCED serves and encourages Community Development Corporations through research, education, fund-raising and training.
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Evangelicals for Social Action: ESA is a leading evangelical association conducting practical research and advocacy on social justice issues. ESA sponsors the resource-rich web clearinghouse site, Word & Deed Network.
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Churches at Work: Churches at Work is a website database of churches across the country that are reaching out to help meet the human needs in their communities.
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Sample Church Bulletin Recruitment

Sample Church bulletin recruitment

[sample]

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Organizing for Holistic Ministry

ORGANIZING FOR HOLISTIC MINISTRY

Warning Signs of an Unhealthy Organization

How healthy are your church’s organizational systems? There are three warning
signs that indicate a need to renovate your church’s structure.

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Work Study

Work Study

What is work-study?

As part of their financial aid packet, college students can earn a certain amount of money by working. Most of this money is earned through on-campus jobs, but the US Department of Education requires that 7% of all work-study funds go to jobs serving in community and faith-based organizations. Schools pay up to 75% of the cost of these positions with the nonprofit paying as little as 25%.

Why hire work-study students?

You get the committment paid staff member for half or quarter the money!

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Qualities of Effective Board Members

MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP RESOURCE  

Qualities of Effective Board Members

Establishing a nonprofit board of directors is essentially a two-step process. First you must choose your board's structure and then recruit your board members.

Step 2: Recruit Board Members

An effective nonprofit board of directors requires effective board members. When setting up a board of directors for your nonprofit organization, equip your board with individuals who demonstrate the following qualities:

  • Integrity.  Effective board members are committed to an "above-board" organization that complies with all laws on all governmental levels.

  • Strategy. Board members prepare and adhere to a sound strategic plan that provides measurable goals and ensures ongoing financial resources to support the organization's staffing and programs.

  • Service. Board members faithfully attend board meetings and special organizational events. They talk with staff members and clients, and sound out problems that need fixing or issues that must be addressed.

  • Commitment. Board members demonstrate their faith in the organization through personal financial contributions.

  • Preparation. Board members do their homework; they come to meetings informed and ready to discuss concerns, questions and disagreements about organizational methods and goals.

  • Enthusiasm. Board members are eager to learn, willing to be team players, and energetic in their service.

  • Scrutiny. Board members audit their records regularly and in detail.

  • Knowledge. Board members know the organization's mission and purpose, and understand how its programs and services support the organization's strategic plan.

  • Diplomacy. Board members represent the best of the organization, and mediate appropriately between the organization and the community it serves.

  • Focus. Board members direct the organization toward its goals without getting tied down in details or sidetracked by non-crucial issues.

  • Diversity. An effective board includes and involves members from various fields of expertise, with applicable degrees of organizational experience, to ensure that the organization is well balanced in its strengths.

  • Accountability. Each board member has a unique function on the board. Board members accept responsibility for their functions and for their actions.

  • Dependence. Board members acknowledge the value of the organization's staff and the need for committed, consistent volunteers.

Find out more about Step 1: Choosing Your Board's Structure.
 

Related Articles
Structuring Your Board of Directors
Maintaining a Positive Relationship Between Your Nonprofit and Your Church
Seven Key Questions for a Good Church-Nonprofit Relationship
Related Books
Starting a Nonprofit at Your Church

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Certification: Becoming a MS Office Certified Testing Center

Certification: Becoming a MS Office Certified Testing Center

 

What is Microsoft Office User Specialist (MOUS) Certification?

 

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Faith-Based Organization Research

EFFECTIVE RELATIONSHIPS TOPIC
Orientation to Faith-Based Social Services

Articles, Excerpts, Tips & More
Wrap-around services: Serving Holistically: Many FBOs find that a “wrap-around” service approach is critical in meeting the multiple needs of program participants. This article describes the characteristics of organizations that successfully adopt this approach.
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Being “User Friendly:” The Benefits of a Multi-Faith Staff: Some FBOs find that a diverse staff attracts more program participants and can make service delivery more effective. This article highlights steps FBOs serving religiously diverse neighborhoods might take to ensure that their programs address community needs sensitively.
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Belief Systems in Faith-based Human Service Programs: What makes FBOs different? FASTEN researchers from Baylor University tackle the question, based on their exploration of 15 faith-based service programs.
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When the Service Delivery System is a Congregation: For social workers, public administrators, and others desiring to collaborate with churches in social service programs, it is important to know what makes congregations distinct from faith-based nonprofit organizations – and what the implications of those differences are.
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Creating Communities of Support: The Work of Coalition-Building: Based on research of effective collaboration, here are six quick tips on building coalitions that last.
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Research Brief Volunteer Roles in Faith-based Organizations: This helpful article identifies eight lessons learned about volunteer roles in faith-based organizations and offers insights about the implications of these lessons for program administrators.
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Faith-Based Organizations as Safe Spaces: Creating a safe environment for program participants is crucial. Here are creative suggestions about how to do it.
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Recommended Books
Saving America: Faith-Based Services and the Future of Civil Society: This book compiles and analyzes the most current studies on faith-based social service programs and addresses issues of voluntarism, care giving, and clients’ viewpoints.
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Recommended Links
The Roundtable on Religion & Social Welfare Policy: The Roundtable is run by the Rockefeller Institute and offers a nonpartisan assessment of the role of faith-based organizations in the social welfare system.
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The Finance Project: The Finance Project provides a variety of educational resources of interest to practitioners and public administrators working to improve the lives of low income families and children. It also incorporates all the resources of the (formerly independent) Welfare Information Network.
View this Resource

 

Wrap-around services: Serving Holistically
The Roundtable on Religion & Social Welfare Policy
Faith-Based Organizations as Safe Spaces
Belief Systems in Faith-based Human Service Programs
Being “User Friendly:” The Benefits of a Multi-Faith Staff
 

 

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Performance Appraisal: Common Pitfalls and Solutions

 
      MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP RESOURCE

Performance Appraisal: Common Pitfalls and Solutions

(Adapted from Managing the Staff of the Local Church, by David R. Pollock, Alston-Kline, Inc., 2003, p. 19-24. Used with permission.)

Performance appraisal embodies every element of good staff management, and offers a precise way to develop the people working within your organization. The goal is to use performance appraisals as a coaching or development tool—essentially, as a vehicle to inspire communication about work-related issues.

Because performance appraisal ratings involve human judgment, they are subject to human error. Here are some of the common pitfalls of performance appraisal, and how to avoid them.

     1.  Halo Effect

The Problem: A manager or supervisor allows a general favorable impression of an employee to influence his or her judgment on each separate factor in the performance appraisal process.

The Solution: The rater should consider each factor independently of all other factors, rather than rating the employee at the same level on all (or most) factors in an appraisal. No employee’s behavior can be the same on the variety of skills that the rating scales measure.

     2.  Recency Effect

The Problem: A staff member’s recent outstanding contribution or untimely mistake just prior to a performance review colors the manager’s perception of the employee’s performance for the entire appraisal period. (A similar pitfall, the Unforgettable Effect, occurs when an employee does something so extraordinary, either positively or negatively, that its impressions last for a long time, to the advantage or disadvantage of the employee.)

The Solution: An alert manager compensates for lack of perspective by careful documentation.

     3.  Manager Preference

The Problem: Personal friends of managers get better ratings than their performance justifies. Conversely, managers rate employees lower than they deserve when conflicts of manner, style and personality exist.

The Solution: Managers avoid the tendency to rate favored employees higher than they deserve because of their manner and personality.

     4.  Effect of Past Record

The Problem: The employee who has performed well in the distant past is assumed to be acceptable in the recent past also. Previous good work tends to carry over into the new period being appraised.

The Solution: Once again, observation and documentation of the employee’s performance will give an accurate account of the performance period under scrutiny.

  5.  Leniency Effect

The Problem: A manager tends to rate everyone high. This error is usually committed when managers feel uncomfortable about communicating negative feedback or do not want to hurt the employee’s feelings. (A related problem, the Central Tendency, occurs when a manager rates all employees as average by choosing the middle rating. The Central Tendency is perhaps the most serious error of all; it closes the door to an employee’s growth and improvement on a job, because no strengths or weaknesses are identified.)

The Solution: Understanding the constructive purposes of performance appraisal and acquiring effective skills in giving negative feedback should reduce the tendency to commit this error.

     6.  Carelessness

The Problem: Managers make quick guesses based on first impressions of an employee’s performance.

The Solution: Managers commit significant time to observing staff members and forming judgments based on their observations. Major decisions are often based on performance rating, and ill-considered ratings will contribute unreliable information and detract from the organization’s goals.

     7.  Irrelevant (and Illegal) Standards

The Problem: Evaluations are dependent on the rater’s personal preferences, prejudices and biases. The rater who has a biased or prejudiced attitude toward certain groups of people looks for behavior in these groups that confirms his or her prejudices.

The Solution: When rating employees, the manager must consider the same relevant behaviors for all employees supervised. Social status, race, sex, age or other non-performance factors should not affect performance appraisal ratings. Careful observation, description and documentation of actual performance on an ongoing basis reduce the tendency for bias by emphasizing job performance over a period of time.

Related Articles
Support Your Support Staff
Delegation: Reasons and Rules
Job Satisfaction Survey
Related Links
Nonprofit Good Practice Guide

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A Tale of Two Volunteers: Willy and Sharon's Story

Once upon a time, a couple from Singapore connected with a community center in Uganda through a website based in America—ready to change the lives of hundreds of people in Africa.


Willy and Sharon Ong arrived at Kitega community centre on beautiful Saturday in June 2009.  The young couple spent about a month in the Ugandan village, doing everything from teaching and engineering to social work and organizational assistance.

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Serve America Act: Recommendation on How AmeriCorps Can Address Nonprofit Funding Bias

Research shows that while 52.4% of those in poverty in the USA are people of color, only 16.5% of nonprofits are led by people of color, and only 3% of foundation funding goes toward organizations that are led by people of color. This presentation provides three recommendations of how AmeriCorps can counter this bias: (1) reaching out to Black and Latino led Faith-based organizations (2) requiring grantees provide diversity profiles (3) Revising funding priorities.

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Race, Class, Gender, Faith & Nonprofit Funding Bias

This presentation examines funding biases of nonprofits across race, class, gender and faith. Research shows that while 52.4% of those in poverty in the USA are people of color, only 16.5% of nonprofits are led by people of color, and only 3% of foundation funding goes toward organizations that are led by people of color. Feel free to share this on your Blog or Website using the embed code link at the bottom right of the presentation. Post any comments or questions below after logging in.

Race Class Gender Faith & Nonprofit Funding
 

 

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Volunteer Management Webcast

This call teaches on how to manage volunteers and work-study students.

PowerPoint

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Volunteer Management Training

Part of being a TechMission Corps member is recruiting and managing volunteers. How do you do that well? This presentation covers recruitment, interviewing, orientation, supervision, and recognition.

Webcast, PowerPoint,
Volunteer Management Toolkit

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Workplace Communication

Khary Bridgewater's presentation on workplace communication and conflict resolution at TMC sites.

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TechMission Corps Citywide Volunteer Coordinator Orientation

This presentation is for TechMission Corps Volunteer Coordinators. The presentation focuses on recruitment, including using www.christianvolunteering.org and other volunteer matching websites.

Webcast, PowerPoint,
Citywide Volunteer Coordinator Toolkit

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Podcasts

Capacity Building Podcast

TechMission UrbanMinistry.org and its partners bring you talks and training on organizational development and capacity building.

MP3:      Podcast    RSS Feed

Organizational Development Courses

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Volunteer Opportunities: Organizational Development

Title Organization Name City, State/Country
Director, Development / Fundraising / Humanitarian Aid Pin International
Kampala
Uganda
Worship Leader Hungry For God Home For Young Men
Austin, TX
United States
Youth Leaders Valenzuela Christian School
Valenzuela, Metro Manila
Philippines
FILD OFFICER YATTA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAMM
MATUU
Kenya
Teaching English in formal school for rural children vetngo
Viluppuram District, Tamilnadu
India
Director Such Is The Kingdom Ministries, Inc
Yamaranguilla
Honduras
Adult Development Coordinator Here's Life Inner City Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI
United States
school administrator Such Is The Kingdom Ministries, Inc
Yamaranguilla
Honduras
Summer Missionary HCJB Global
Colorado Springs, CO
United States
Disaster Service Outreach Volunteer The Salvation Army New Orleans Area Command
New Orleans, LA
United States
Title Organization Name
Annual Financial Auditor F.A.I.T.H. Ministries, Inc.
Editor/Writer World Wide Village
Web Master Secret Saints
Fundraiser Secret Saints
Mentoring Program Director KEE
Fundraiser JERIH Foundation, Inc.
Virtual Office Assistant Proclaiming the Truth
Transcriptionist for Our Ministry Proclaiming the Truth
Grantwriter The Well Ministries
RE: NEWSPAPER POSITIONS 4 His Glory Outreach
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