Microenterprise Program Library

Our next peer networking meeting is on March 12 at 2 pm. The topic will be "Developing a Board that Supports Change". Also, please send Heather your workplans if you have not already done so.

Board Source
BoardSource increases the effectiveness of nonprofit organizations by strengthening boards of directors through our highly acclaimed consulting practice, publications, tools, and membership program.

Board Cafe
Board Café is an electronic newsletter published by Compass Point exclusively for members of nonprofit boards of directors.

Guidelines for Hiring/Transitioning to a New Chief Executive
This draft is a guide for organizations planning to undergo a leadership transition, and should be modified to fit your organization's particular situation. It is chocked full of tips and useful information!

Fieldstone Alliance has some online assessment tests for your nonprofit that you might want to look into:

Here are a couple of items for your night stand reading. One is a very insightful article from the same Drucker site titled, "Spiritually Intelligent Leadership". I think this article goes a step past the goal to be emotionally intelligent leaders. http://www.leadertoleader.org/knowledgecenter/L2L/fall2005/zohar.html

I also recommend that everyone pick up this month's special issue of the Harvard Business Review on "the Tests of A Leader". The issue is pricey ($16.95) but it has great articles that will stretch your thinking including "How Leaders Use Create and Use Networks."

Homework for December 7 meeting: "The Real Reason People Won't Change"
This Harvard Business Review article explains employees' inexplicable resistance to change and provides some guidance to uncovering subconscious and competing goals. CAMEO will send a copy to all participants via email.

"The Manager's Guide to Program Evaluation: Planning, Contracting, and Managing for Useful Results". This is a short manual published by Wilder Publishing that teaches a manager how to manage the evaluation process and create a system for ongoing evaluation with your staff and stakeholders. The ISBN number is 0-940069-38-5.

CAMEO Volunteer Program Resource Book (PDF File)
A resource book full of articles, worksheets and templates for microenterprise programs developing or refining their volunteer programs.

Executive Leadership Program for Microenteprise Practitioners
June 28-29, 2005
About This Program

THE FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARY PROJECT

In the fall of 2002, CAMEO received funding from the National Fund for Enterprise Development towards a National Economic Development and Law Center (NEDLC) survey about the needs of the field, especially with respect to the development of a financial intermediary for microenterprise in California. Phone interviews were held with 38 practitioners, funders, and advocates. Click here for a PDF version of the resulting complete 43-page report.

VIRTUAL LEARNING CLUSTER STUDY

Let’s face it. Capacity building for nonprofits is a puzzle. Everyone has a different definition of it. The only way to achieve it seems to be through expensive, long term consulting and costly training conferences. Even if you could define it and pay for it, how do you measure whether or not it has been achieved? Operating a trade association with over eighty community development nonprofits spread out over the state of California, we found the task of building organizational capacity more than a little daunting. After years of experimenting with training conferences, consulting, goal setting, and measuring the results so we could be funded again, we came up with program design that seemed to click. The Virtual Learning Cluster model utilizes some popular elements such as web based training, goal setting and peer support to help the nonprofit staff achieve their goals in a short period of time. We would like to share what we have learned and continue to learn using this model. An abstract of the study is available here >>

Our hope is that by reducing the cost of capacity building for nonprofits, more funders would want to fund it and more nonprofits could participate. This could result in more nonprofits with greater capacity to serve. Who says cheaper can’t be better?