First-time nonprofit managers can often use a bit of guidance from more
experienced colleagues, as well as the answers to specific questions.
The problem is, there just aren’t enough mentors to go around, and
perhaps this is especially so in the nonprofit sector where resources
are stretched to the limit.
What’s the solution? Well, Third Sector New England
believes it’s found a partial solution at any rate — TSNE is spreading the available expert guidance to a wider audience by putting
its “mavens” on video and on the Internet.
Denise Moorehead of Third Sector New England, videographer Steve Garfield, and Deborah Elizabeth Finn
have put together a number of short videos segments in response to
frequently asked questions about finance, human resources, program
evaluation, diversity, and fiscal sponsorship for nonprofits.
This project is just getting underway, but already you can check out a sneak preview at TSNE’s Strategic Communications blog. Here’s a sampling of the topics you’ll find:
- What is the difference between a nonprofit organization’s mission and vision?
-
How would you define capacity building?
- What are the priorities for a new executive director’s first three months?
- Why should a nonprofit care about “theory of change”?
- What are the top three actions a board should take when the executive director resigns?
The plan is for the mentorship videos to be arranged in an FAQ
format, forming the basis for a web-based video resource tool for new
nonprofit managers.
“I hoping that we’ll eventually be able to add Seesmic to the mix,” Deborah Elizabeth Finn explains, “so that nonprofit professionals can use their web cams to add comments
and follow-up questions, thus sparking a real exchange of knowledge.”