05
Apr 2017The big unveil: A strategic plan to strengthen the Ontario nonprofit sector
This year, ONN celebrates the 10 year anniversary of our grassroots beginning. With a research fellow, the indomitable Lynn Eakin, a visionary steering committee, an inspiring place to call home at the Centre for Social Innovation, and a founding issue (the good ol’ Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporation Act or “ONCA”), we had set the stage for a new way of organizing: a networked approach to public...
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15
Mar 2017The value of followship
What would you think if I told you that you should become a Follower? From childhood, we are taught the value of leadership. We are encouraged to develop our skills in leadership, from the classroom to the workplace. Often, the benefits of leadership are tied to ideas of individual success. I will lead. I will take charge. I will be successful. What we can often...
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02
Mar 2017Managing the Year-End Buying Crunch
Tell us if you’ve heard this one before: “The good news is that we have additional funding. The bad news is that we have to spend it by the end of March!” Ahh, the end of the budget year can create any number of challenges, but none generate mixed feelings like the last minute discovery of extra funds. Whether created by an unexpected source of...
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09
Feb 2017The groundwork for leadership across generations
Have we been here before? Last year, inequality, challenges to democracy, and labour force reform weighed on the minds of many nonprofit workers. Past generations were no strangers to similar problems, albeit under different conditions. Some of us may take comfort in seeing patterns in history to help understand how and why we repeat, recycle, or renew them. We would be remiss if we did...
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07
Feb 2017Can a pizza party be evaluation, too? Updating mismatched expectations in nonprofit measurement
Last year, we put out a resource to help clarify the different ways in which the term evaluation gets used (or misused) in Ontario’s nonprofit sector. Since then, we have heard some great ways nonprofits are promoting critical reflection and learning that didn’t quite fit into our original analysis. So, here’s a resource refresh to reflect what we’ve learned and heard from the sector since....
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06
Feb 2017Don’t let evaluation become the elephant in the room
Evaluation… Impact Assessment… Reporting… Simple in concept, but capable of causing severe challenges for your organization if not properly managed. So, why are many nonprofits missing this important piece? In the private sector, where my experience lies, measurement and evaluation is relatively straightforward: Return on investment. Profitability. Efficiency and effectiveness. In the nonprofit world as I’m learning, however, measurement and evaluation is much more complicated....
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30
Jan 2017The perils of recipe thinking in the not-for-profit sector
If you stuck me in a kitchen without a recipe book, I wouldn’t know where to start. When you are inexperienced or lack confidence, a recipe is an amazing thing. It breaks up a complex task into simple steps. It minimizes the risk of making a mistake. It allows you to achieve things you couldn’t otherwise do. Skilled chefs use recipes, of course, but they...
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30
Jan 2017Evaluation: Expanding design learning
Late last fall, ONN’s evaluation project took me to the American Evaluation Association’s annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia, to present alongside Andrew Taylor, ONN’s Resident Evaluation Expert. For me, it was an important professional development opportunity (one of the seven elements of decent work) and, thinking back, it was a bit of a surreal experience. Never did I think I would be in Atlanta at...
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12
Jan 2017Can charities and nonprofits help heal social division?
The world of democracies seems to be an uneasy and unpredictable one these days. Voters have chosen to support candidates and policies that threaten to upend the status quo, from the election of Donald Trump in the US to the support of Brexit by British voters, to the recent result of the Italian referendum. People who have voted this way are not necessarily ideological radicals...
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09
Jan 2017Decent Work: Could harassment be lurking in your collaborative workplace culture?
One of the many wonderful things about the nonprofit sector is its hallmark of being values-driven – admirable values like integrity, respect, openness – the values that draw us to work in the sector in the first place. Compare this with the stats about workplace harassment: – For Personal Support Workers in Ontario, 20% experience harassment or violence on-the-job – 50% of workplace harassment victims...
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