Good | by Trina Isakson

Category Archives: Good

Executive Director position and Professional Development certificate

Two great opportunities came across my desk, and even though I’m currently keeping it real in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, I had to share.

Executive Director, Take a Hike Youth at Risk Foundation

Deadline: June 30

My friend Michelle is becoming a mother, and her position is open. I have a variety of experiences with Take a Hike as a donor, volunteer and event attendee, and they’ve all been fantastic!

This would be a great opportunity for a younger (in age or career) nonprofit professional looking for challenging but well-supported leadership position.

Read the posting on Charity Village here. They are hoping to hire by mid-July for a mid-August start.

SFU Certificate in Dialogue in Civic Engagement

Deadline: July 10

I completed this certificate in April this year, and also developed online curriculum for the first course in the program. I think this program is highly appropriate for activist and advocates, government employees involved in public engagement, citizen organizers, and private sector employees that have a public role in their work – anyone really with an interest in “strategically addressing issues of public concern.”

The people – faculty, staff, and fellow learners – were diverse, experienced, and encouraging, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the program. I was able to use the techniques and principles immediate in my work and was able to explore possible further career interests in dialogue and civic engagement.

Scholarships are available for selected applicants from nonprofit sectors – don’t let the costs stop you from applying.

12 things to do when you leave your job for the next person

As I’ve written about already, I’m heading to Central Asia for about 6 months soon, and my last day of work is today (egads!). I’m currently doing some cross training, and though I’m not perfect, I’m striving to get the following things done before I go to ensure as smooth a tradition as possible.

There’s nothing worse than the only times your name comes up after you leave being in phrases that involve frustration and expletives.

Written documents:

Next 30 days: A list of things that will need to get done in the next 30 days.
Project status: A documents with ongoing projects and their current statuses. I use my email and file folders to create a structure.
Key contacts: Key contacts needed to get core work done, plus list of peripheral but helpful/collaborative/interested others.
Yearly plan: Major dates/deadlines/projects throughout the year.
Philosophical documents: Mission/vision/philosophy/values and other core principles that have guided your work to now.
Support staff: A list of who does what. My student staff keep a constantly updated manual going, and it REALLY helps make onboarding more efficient.
Burn after reading: The down-low on relationships, funding, issues, and other contexts that are important to have a heads up on, but that aren’t “on record”.

Access:

Email files: I’m sharing most email folders with the next person. I’m only sharing (and not exporting/importing) as they should only be for reference if necessary. It’s never a priority, but try to clean them up and delete irrelevant ones.
Computer files: Keep them orderly fashion from the beginning (by project/task area) and it will be a huge help. At my last job I had no crossover time with the new person, but I heard back many thanks that all the files were easy to find!
Paper files: I’m not a huge paper file person. But do the same as you should do with computer files.
Online tools: Make sure any surveys/mail lists etc that you are the owner of either get shared or transferred to the new person.
List of passwords and logins.

What do you do to help transition staff changeovers?

Posted April 16, 2010

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What’s in your message to donors? Technology to assess communications

I was really excited to attend Net Tuesday last week, and I wasn’t disappointed. Ben Johnson (currently with Union Gospel Mission) was one of two presenters giving a talk on data for social change. While he had tonnes of great points re: data analysis, what excited me most was the visualization of text data using Wordle.net. (I used Wordle last year to demonstrate what my blog was about, and it was right on target!)

Question 1: What message are you sending out?

What message does your board chair’s message in the annual report send?
What message does your vision and vision statements send?
What message does your newsletter send?

While we obviously write these items with very specific intents, sometimes our language, when we dig down deep, doesn’t actually reflect our intentions.

Copy and paste your text (or an rss feed) into Wordle, and voila! (See below for an example). You may be surprised. At UGM, Ben found that some of the language actually focused on programs, when really what they wanted to focus on was people.

Question 2: What messages do your donors respond to?

On UGM’s online donor form, an open box question asks “What inspired you to give today?”. Ben then took all the responses and threw them into World, and voila!

Many at UGM (a faith-based social services organization) might assume that faith and God would be reasons behind giving. These words were present, but even more so were words that indicated a connection to family (brother, father, sister, etc.) and times of year (eg Christmas).

If you analyze what is inspiring donors to give, you can update (and assess!) your communications accordingly to match donors’ interests.

Example: UBC Vision and Mission

UBC is my alma mater, and I have always loved and identified with their vision and mission. I would have done SFU’s but alas, we DON’T HAVE THEM (ridiculous and uninspiring, I know).

Image Credit: Wordle.net

I can see easily now why I connect with UBC’s vision and mission. Beyond the obvious university words like “research” and “students”, the next most prominent words are “society”, “sustainable”, “global” and “citizens”. I’m surprised that “learning” isn’t more prominent though.

Try it! You might like it! What results did you get?

Posted April 14, 2010

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“Hey guys” and other gender-bending language

Image Credit: Pablo Gutiérrez

When I was a high school teacher, I tried very hard to avoid the ubiquitous “guys”.

“Alright guys, listen up.”
“I need all you guys to put your lab equipment back up at the front once you’re finished.”
“Attention up here guys.”
“What did you guys think about….”

“Guys” are male. Half of my classes weren’t. So instead I tried to use gender-neutral alternatives.

“Alright everyone, listen up.”
“I need each of you to put your lab equipment back up at the front once you’re finished.”
“Attention up here folks.”
“What did you all think about….”

Gendered language like this is so commonplace it’s easy not to give it a second thought. Other non-gender-neutral language is more thoughtfully shifting, as roles that historical may have been filled by one gender are much less homogeneous today.

Stewardess–>Flight Attendant

Policeman–>Police Officer

Chairman–>Chairperson

And then there are the phrases like “men at work” and” manpower”. Somehow “personpower” doesn’t have the same ring to it though. (And spell check doesn’t like it either).

I don’t think it’s being oversensitive to want to change the way we genderify language. (I totally just made that word up.) Rather than be an outspoken activist about it, I just infuse language into my conversations. Repeating a gendered phrase back with ungendered words, for example.

“That waitress was such a wench.”

“Yeah, the server was totally rude to us.”

Is speaking with ungendered words important to you? (For me yes). Or does it even matter? (For me yes).

Can gendered language create barriers? (I think so). Or am I just being overly PC? (I say no).

Posted April 12, 2010

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Do you rant, or model?

Image credit: Luke Redmond

I have a few strong convictions, but I don’t YELL THEM IN MY FACEBOOK STATUS or join a bajillion groups or tweet associated rants.

I try my very best to model my convictions. I’m not perfect, so sometimes I might, say, get takeout in styrofoam, but I own that.

I have a friend who models veganism by making AMAZING vegan dishes for book clubs and potlucks. Other friends model sustainability by biking everywhere, even in the rain (really, it’s not so bad, and can actually be very refreshing).

However, if you are going to rant publicly about your convictions, I feel that you better live that way publicly, and privately.

I have friends (who I love dearly, but) who were quite vocal against the Olympics publicly, but who also jumped at chances for free tickets to events. I totally respect their convictions and beliefs on this topic, as they also were respectful of my volunteering with the Games. But they didn’t model. They ranted publicly, and flip-flopped privately.

Maybe this makes me more of a pacifist than I imagine myself to be. Maybe it’s my weariness for confrontation. But I don’t think you can rant all things animal rights and then go eat a Big Mac. If you’re a staunch pro-lifer, you better be rethinking that stance if you’re helping your daughter get an abortion.

I’ve argued in the past that support of one cause doesn’t define the rest of your beliefs.

But if you do find yourself doing something that you’ve argued against in the past, you better be open minded to broadening your beliefs, and your public rants.

Posted March 25, 2010

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