Does your nonprofit organization deal adequately with changing demographics? In other words, are you engaging folks from different racial groups and ethnicities, different ages, to name a few categories? Are they present at all levels in your organization? What are you doing to work on that as you head into the future?
What about new technologies -- have you figured what works and is affordable for your organization? And are you sufficiently engaging in different networks to both learn about different resources, individuals, groups and share information about the work that you do?
These trends -- demographic shifts; technological advances; engaging in networks; increasing civic engagement and volunteerism; and the blurring of the sectors -- are talked about in La Piana Consulting's recent report "Convergences: How Five Trends Will Shape the Social Sector."
At the recent Donors Forum luncheon, David La Piana talked about the significance of leadership development (at the second tier of nonprofit organizations, not just the senior leader); the importance of strategic thinking, not just plans; and the critical nature of taking risks -- without which we would have limited successes. These were "take away" ideas that he believed make a huge difference in an organization's success. Go to the La Piana website to download the free report.
Also, let us know how your organization is addressing the five trends! We would like to hear your comments and observations.
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Tags: convergence, la piana, nonprofit, not-for-profit, trends
In regards to technology, I've been to a few galas in Chicago that have gotten rid of bid sheets and are now using touch screens for bidding. It makes for a very fun night since whoever the winning bidder is for an item is displayed on giant TV screens, very competitive! I think the name of the group that put it on was Events.org. On my side it seemed like a success!
That does sound like a fun and new "tech" way to engage folks in an auction at an event! On a similar vein, at our Symposium this year, we asked our audience targeted questions related to the "Convergences" study (through text-polling), and the speaker, Heather Gowdy, incorporated the poll results into her remarks (complete with PPT tables) at the end of the day. We used the company, www.polleverywhere.com . Figuring creative and mission-focused ways to incorporate technology will only become more important in the future. Thanks for sharing your experience!