Social Entrepreneur blog for the world changers
conference notes
ARNOVA Conference 2011 – Teaching Section Workshop
Nov 20th
I am finally getting around to publishing my blog posts from the ARNOVA conference. I got a taste of being a working mom. My husband and I drove to Toronto for the ARNOVA conference from Grand Rapids. We took our one month old daughter with us and she did great! I attended every other conference session (I normally attend everything 
. I couldn’t have attended the conference without the support of my wonderful husband who is a really hands on dad. I am so happy that I attended the conference — the sessions I attended were awesome! The only issue I had with the conference was the poor internet connection at the hotel. I couldn’t access the internet in most of the rooms and the internet was free for 1 hour increments in the hotel lobby. I wish that hotels would make the internet free. My phone didn’t work in Canada either.
The first session I attended was the Teaching pre-conference workshop. The workshop was coordinated by Mary Ann Feldheim. Mary brought together representatives from nonprofit academic organizations including:
- Dr. K. Tom Liou from the American Society for Pubic Administration (ASPA). The mission of ASPA is to advance the art, science, teaching, and practice of public and non-profit administration. Liou – ARNOVA Presentation
- Roseanne Mirabella, President of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) & Will Brown, create of NERF – Nonprofit Education Resource and Forum Website –to share resources and syllabi. Will is part of the ARNOVA educational committee that created a teaching resource website. Nonprofit faculty members submit syllabi, cases and other teaching resources.Mirabella and Brown ARNOVA Presentation
- Katherine Campbell, Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration. CCVA advances the profession and practice of volunteer resource management. CCVA Resources – ARNOVA pane. CCVA Slides – ARNOVA panel
- Laural McFarlend, members of National Association of School of Public Affairs Education (NASPAA). The mission of NASPAA is to ensure excellence in training for public service and to promote the ideal of public service. NASPAA also serves as the accreditor tor for public service degree programs.NASPAA Presentation on Nonprofit Standards
- J. Patrick Murphy and Sean Shacklett, the Nonprofit Academic centers Council (NACC). NACC is a membership association comprised of academic centers or programs at accredited colleges and universities that focus on the study of nonprofit organizations, voluntarism and/or philanthropy. Established in 1991, NACC is the first group entirely dedicated to the promotion and networking of centers that provide research and education in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector.
- Marcia Cross, Nonprofit Leadership Alliance. The mission of the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance is a national alliance of colleges, universities and nonprofit organizations dedicated to educating, preparing and certifying professionals to strengthen and lead nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit Leadership Alliance – ARNOVA Presentation 2011
These organizations have many nonprofit management education resources available to faculty, students, practitioners and funders.
The panel discussion mostly focused on the pros and cons of standardizing nonprofit curriculum. Some were in support of standardization and others had hesitations. Several panelists and participants emphasized the importance of sharing learning outcomes and rubrics.
There was agreement that there are silos in nonprofit management education and work needs to be done to identify the common threads and skills that help people cope with the realities of nonprofit management.
Updates and Musings – 3 weeks until my dissertation defense!
Apr 7th
I haven’t written a post in over 2 months — shame on me!!
I’ve often thought about writing a post but then was reminded of that looming deadline I have approaching. In less than 3 weeks I will defend my dissertation and if all goes well, I will become a Ph.D!! It has been a long road to get here but a wonderful one. I am so thankful for my amazing professors and mentors I have encountered along the way. All four years have led up to this moment — where I will defend my dissertation study and then be sent out into the world.
Words cannot express how grateful I am for this experience and how my PhD program has prepared me for my future endeavors. If you or anyone you know is interested in pursuing a Ph.D. with a specialization in nonprofit and philanthropic studies, please have them contact me. I’d be happy to share with them about my experience and the various programs that offer a similar type of experience! Each year that I’ve been in the program I’ve written about my experiences:
- Confessions of a first year doctoral student
- Confessions of a second year doctoral student
- Confessions of a Third Year Doctoral Student: Interpersonal Skills Matter the Most
- Confessions of a Forth Year Doctoral Student: Persistence Pays Off
A lot of exciting things have happened in the past couple of months including, my first peer reviewed article was published in the Journal of Public Affairs Education! It is titled: How We Could Measure Community Impact of Nonprofit Graduate Students’ Service-Learning Projects: Lessons from the Literature.
I love this work and I am really excited to see where it takes me next. I’ve been interviewing for faculty jobs in nonprofit-focused master’s degree programs — so we’ll see!!
On another note, I organized the social media team for the BenchMark 3.5 conference: The 4th Conference on Nonprofit and Philanthropic Studies. BenchMark 3.5 was designed to consider the development of nonprofit/nongovernmental management, voluntarism, social entrepreneurship, and philanthropy as a field of study in higher education. I am so thankful for the team, which was primarily made up of graduate students from DePaul University. The social media team wrote over 30 blog posts from the conference – I’m still putting them up on the conference blog! The social media team also took numerous videos throughout the conference, which are also posted on the blog, and they tweeted the conference using the hash tag #benchmark3 If you are interested in learning more about the field of nonprofit management and philanthropy as a field of study in higher education please check out the conference coverage!!
ARNOVA 2010: Nonprofit Research that Builds Theory and Informs Practice
Dec 5th
I made a conscious decision to not LIVE blog the ARNOVA conference. I wanted to reflect on the various topics and themes that emerged during the conference before blogging about them. I did tweet during the conference.
One of the main themes of the conference was the struggle between research that builds theory and research that informs practice. I applaud ARNOVA for organizing sessions on Friday afternoon that had a practical application and focus. I attended a session about learning organizations, where Angela Bies and Jeffrey Brudney (Editor of the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly) presented about the frequency in which NVSQ publishes articles related to nonprofit practice. They concluded that only 32% of NVSQ articles are related to practice. No surprise, I was disappointed by this small percentage. However, several of my colleagues put this percentage in perspective and stated that other journals publish far less articles related to practice, and the field needs scholars who advance theory as well as scholars who advance practice.
The closing plenary speaker, Lynne Huntley, President of the Southern Educational Fund, also brought up the issue of research being related to practice. She expressed that researchers need to recognize the position and privilege that we come from when we do research. This is also known as the emancipatory view of knowledge. She urged us to consider how those working in nonprofit organizations might create research questions differently than scholars in academia.
The topic of research related to practice is something that I think about constantly. For me it’s not an either/or but I personally want to do research that has both theoretical and practical implications. For example, last year I conducted a national survey of people’s perception of nonprofit careers. This research informed Idealist’s Nonprofit Careers Month Initiative. While developing this survey, I also worked with Jessica Word, a professor from University of Nevada, Las Vegas to include questions about Public Service Motivation theory. Our goal was to see if Public Service Motivation theory could be applied to those working in the nonprofit sector.
I’ll be blogging the 2010 ARNOVA conference
Nov 16th
This week I’ll be blogging at the 2010 Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) annual conference. I am excited about this opportunity to report on the latest research studies and emergent theories in the nonprofit/philanthropic sector.
ARNOVA’s adhoc social media committee (John Ronquillo, Lindsey McDougle, Debra Beck, Taylor Peyton Roberts, and I) have been hard at work this year trying promote social media within ARNOVA. We are opening the door…very slowly, since there is a strong culture of hesitation and concern about social media in the world of academia.
Our social media objectives are to:
- Build awareness of ARNOVA.
- Promote ARNOVA membership and the work of individual sections within ARNOVA.
- Highlight new research articles, briefs, and books by ARNOVA members.
- Market new ARNOVA initiatives.
We should be really called the adhoc marketing committee, because that is what we are really doing. Providing free marketing to the association.
The adhoc social media committee will be hosting a colloquy to discuss the future direction of ARNOVA’s social media efforts. We’d like to ePlease share with us through twitter, facebook, or by commenting on this blog about how social media has impacted your interactions with ARNOVA. Our goal is to encourage the board to create a permanent social committee to support the work of ARNOVA.
I’ll be blogging the 2010 ARNOVA conference
Nov 16th
This week I'll be blogging the 2010 Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) annual conference. I'll be attending a variety of sessions and reporting on the latest research studies and emergent theories in the nonprofit/philanthropic sector. (Twitter coverage of the conference can be found here)
ARNOVA's adhoc social media committee (John Ronquillo (chair), Lindsey McDougle, Debra Beck, Taylor Peyton Roberts, and I) have been working hard this year trying promote social media within ARNOVA. We are opening the door....very slowly, since there is a strong culture of hesitation and concern about using social media.
Our social media (e.g., facebook, twitter, and linkedin) objectives are to:
The adhoc social media committee will be hosting a colloquy on Thursday morning at 8:15am (Magnolia C) to discuss the latest research on nonprofits' use of social media. We'll also be discussing what we have accomplished thus far by using social media within ARNOVA, and what we hope to accomplish in the future.
We believe that social media will help create a sustainable future for the association and we'd be interested in hearing your thoughts. How did you learn about ARNOVA? Was it through social media? Would you liked to get more involved in ARNOVA?
ARNOVA's adhoc social media committee (John Ronquillo (chair), Lindsey McDougle, Debra Beck, Taylor Peyton Roberts, and I) have been working hard this year trying promote social media within ARNOVA. We are opening the door....very slowly, since there is a strong culture of hesitation and concern about using social media.
Our social media (e.g., facebook, twitter, and linkedin) objectives are to:
- Build awareness of ARNOVA.
- Promote ARNOVA membership and the work of individual sections within ARNOVA. (For example, have you seen the Community and Grassroots section's website?)
- Highlight new research articles, briefs, and books by ARNOVA members
- Market new ARNOVA initiatives (for example, the newest initiative is ARNOVA press).
The adhoc social media committee will be hosting a colloquy on Thursday morning at 8:15am (Magnolia C) to discuss the latest research on nonprofits' use of social media. We'll also be discussing what we have accomplished thus far by using social media within ARNOVA, and what we hope to accomplish in the future.
We believe that social media will help create a sustainable future for the association and we'd be interested in hearing your thoughts. How did you learn about ARNOVA? Was it through social media? Would you liked to get more involved in ARNOVA?
Rethinking Leadership
Oct 26th
During the Independent Sector Conference the NGen fellows reported that we (the next generation of nonprofit leaders) have trouble identifying under 40 leaders that are creating social change in the sector. The fellows encouraged us to rethink how we view leaders and leadership.
There are many different ways of viewing leadership and how people create social change. My favorite way of viewing leadership is as a collective process. Leadership is not about one person in an organization making singular decisions; it is about multiple staff members coming together to collectively move the agenda of the organization forward. Yeah, the CEO might be the face of our organizations, but as next geners, we are making things happen behind the scenes, we are making our CEO’s look good.
Additionally, collective means that leadership is happening among many different groups of organizations. Funders are starting to fund these groups of organizations (case in point the Social Innovation Fund from the Corporation for National and Community Service). Even so, this view of societal change needs to be taken a step forward and recognize that leadership flows throughout people, organizations, and communities.
So let’s rethink how we view leadership and how social change is occurring in our sector. I’m really excited that the Next Gen Leadership award went to Darell Hammond, CEO of KaBOOM! because he understands collective leadership and his organization is truly creating societal change.
Reflections from the Independent Sector Annual Conference
Oct 24th
This past week I had the pleasure of participating in the Independent Sector annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The Independent Sector is the leadership forum for charities, foundations, and corporate giving programs committed to advancing the common good in America and around the world.
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I organized the social media team for the NGen portion of the conference. Blog posts from these sessions can be found on the Independent Sector blog.
On the last day of the conference during the NGen debriefing session, Rusty Stahl executive director of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy and Trish Tchume, Director of Civic Engagement for the Building Movement project had us write down three items that we wanted to take away from the conference.
Here are the three takeaways that I wrote down:
1. Inspiration: I was truly inspired by the speakers throughout the conference and hearing their visions for the nonprofit/philanthropic sector. My inspiration is reflected in the three blog posts that I wrote for the Independent Sector during the conference.
2. Focus: Patrick Corvington, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service said something during his keynote speech that really stuck with me. He said, "We need to balance our passion with pragmatism." Many younger people in the nonprofit sector are very passionate about their work but are not realistic or focused in how they enact their passions. Patrick's statement made me realize the importance of focusing and narrowing one's passion so that it can be realistically achieved. Let me give you a personal example.
As many of you know I am super passionate about the ENTIRE nonprofit sector. This passion has opened many doors for me but it has also caused me to take on way too many projects beyond my time capacity. Patrick's inspirational speech helped me to think of ways that I can focus and refine my passion into specific areas within the nonprofit sector (that can be accomplished).
3. Action: From now on all the NEW work that I volunteer for, or take on will be related to refined passion/vision for the nonprofit sector and will focus on three distinct areas.
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I organized the social media team for the NGen portion of the conference. Blog posts from these sessions can be found on the Independent Sector blog.
On the last day of the conference during the NGen debriefing session, Rusty Stahl executive director of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy and Trish Tchume, Director of Civic Engagement for the Building Movement project had us write down three items that we wanted to take away from the conference.
Here are the three takeaways that I wrote down:
1. Inspiration: I was truly inspired by the speakers throughout the conference and hearing their visions for the nonprofit/philanthropic sector. My inspiration is reflected in the three blog posts that I wrote for the Independent Sector during the conference.
2. Focus: Patrick Corvington, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service said something during his keynote speech that really stuck with me. He said, "We need to balance our passion with pragmatism." Many younger people in the nonprofit sector are very passionate about their work but are not realistic or focused in how they enact their passions. Patrick's statement made me realize the importance of focusing and narrowing one's passion so that it can be realistically achieved. Let me give you a personal example.
As many of you know I am super passionate about the ENTIRE nonprofit sector. This passion has opened many doors for me but it has also caused me to take on way too many projects beyond my time capacity. Patrick's inspirational speech helped me to think of ways that I can focus and refine my passion into specific areas within the nonprofit sector (that can be accomplished).
3. Action: From now on all the NEW work that I volunteer for, or take on will be related to refined passion/vision for the nonprofit sector and will focus on three distinct areas.
- Nonprofit Workforce: Everyone would view working in a nonprofit organization as a viable career option.
- Nonprofit Operations & Capacity Building: Executive directors, staff, board members, and volunteers within nonprofit organizations would freely access the amazing capacity-building/operational tools and resources available to them across the sector.
- Nonprofit Education: Nonprofit master's degrees would focus on student AND organizational learning outcomes.
Reflections from the Independent Sector Annual Conference
Oct 24th
This past week I had the pleasure of participating in the Independent Sector annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The Independent Sector is the leadership forum for charities, foundations, and corporate giving programs committed to advancing the common good in America and around the world.
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I organized the social media team for the NGen portion of the conference. Blog posts from these sessions can be found on the Independent Sector blog.
On the last day of the conference during the NGen debriefing session, Rusty Stahl executive director of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy and Trish Tchume, Director of Civic Engagement for the Building Movement project had us write down three items that we wanted to take away from the conference.
Here are the three takeaways that I wrote down:
1. Inspiration: I was truly inspired by the speakers throughout the conference and hearing their visions for the nonprofit/philanthropic sector. My inspiration is reflected in the three blog posts that I wrote for the Independent Sector during the conference.
2. Focus: Patrick Corvington, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service said something during his keynote speech that really stuck with me. He said, “We need to balance our passion with pragmatism.” Many younger people in the nonprofit sector are very passionate about their work but are not realistic or focused in how they enact their passions. Patrick’s statement made me realize the importance of focusing and narrowing one’s passion so that it can be realistically achieved. Let me give you a personal example.
As many of you know I am super passionate about the ENTIRE nonprofit sector. This passion has opened many doors for me but it has also caused me to take on way too many projects beyond my time capacity. Patrick’s inspirational speech helped me to think of ways that I can focus and refine my passion into specific areas within the nonprofit sector (that can be accomplished).
3. Action: From now on all the NEW work that I volunteer for, or take on will be related to refined passion/vision for the nonprofit sector and will focus on three distinct areas.
- Nonprofit Workforce: Everyone would view working in a nonprofit organization as a viable career option.
- Nonprofit Operations & Capacity Building: Executive directors, staff, board members, and volunteers within nonprofit organizations would freely access the amazing capacity-building/operational tools and resources available to them across the sector.
- Nonprofit Education: Nonprofit master’s degrees would focus on student AND organizational learning outcomes.
Blog posts at the Independent Conference
Oct 21st
My blog posts are appearing on the Independent Sector blog this week since I’m organizing the volunteer twitter/blogging squad for the Independent Sector annual conference.
- Be Inspired: An Evening with Patrick Corvington
- Be Inspired Part 2: Conversation with NGen Leadership Awardee Darrell Hammond
- Conversation with a Sector Leader – Vivian Schiller, Head of NPR
Nonprofit Day Wrap Up
Sep 1st
Nonprofit Day 2010 was the BEST nonprofit conference that I have EVER attended – and I have attended many nonprofit conferences!! I am not just saying this--there was truly something magical about this conference. The awesome theme, networking opportunities, and talented speakers made this event top my charts.
The theme of Nonprofit Day was storytelling. This theme allowed for attendees to briefly pause the busyness of running their nonprofit organizations and learn how to tell REAL stories about the people that we serve, the lives that we touch, and the communities that we impact.
Stories can be shared in many different formats through video, audio, verbal, and text. In fact, a nonprofit organization Storytellers for Good created videos for select nonprofits during the conference and StoryCorps audio recorded nonprofit stories during the event! We definitely need more positive videos (stories) about nonprofits and the amazing work that we do.
Emotions emerged and flowed through the space as a result of the conference theme. There were many instances in which the tears were flowing down the faces of many attendees because of the compelling stories that were shared by the speakers.
There were also many breaks throughout the conference and extended periods of networking. This allowed for conference attendees to spend as much or as little time as they wanted to networking, visiting exhibitors, or catching up on their work. I thoroughly enjoyed the networking time and reconnected with people I hadn't seen for years and people I had only "met" digitally.
The last piece that made this conference so phenomenal was the speakers. In the sessions that I attended there was much audience participation! We networked and engaged in partner activities.
After the conference ended there were two happy hour events. One, an official part of the conference, was hosted by Eventbrite and the other was hosted by YNPN SFBA.
Many people tweeted about the conference. These tweets can be found on the Nonprofit Day Live page or by using twitter search #npd10. @jdeancoffey @jakenyon @wiserearth @fitz350 @tccgroup @gtak @hollyminch @lisa_sherrill @stories4good @missionm @nonprofitsrule & more tweeted the event.
A few of us also wrote blog posts about the different sessions that we attended.
The theme of Nonprofit Day was storytelling. This theme allowed for attendees to briefly pause the busyness of running their nonprofit organizations and learn how to tell REAL stories about the people that we serve, the lives that we touch, and the communities that we impact.
Stories can be shared in many different formats through video, audio, verbal, and text. In fact, a nonprofit organization Storytellers for Good created videos for select nonprofits during the conference and StoryCorps audio recorded nonprofit stories during the event! We definitely need more positive videos (stories) about nonprofits and the amazing work that we do.
Emotions emerged and flowed through the space as a result of the conference theme. There were many instances in which the tears were flowing down the faces of many attendees because of the compelling stories that were shared by the speakers.
There were also many breaks throughout the conference and extended periods of networking. This allowed for conference attendees to spend as much or as little time as they wanted to networking, visiting exhibitors, or catching up on their work. I thoroughly enjoyed the networking time and reconnected with people I hadn't seen for years and people I had only "met" digitally.
The last piece that made this conference so phenomenal was the speakers. In the sessions that I attended there was much audience participation! We networked and engaged in partner activities.
After the conference ended there were two happy hour events. One, an official part of the conference, was hosted by Eventbrite and the other was hosted by YNPN SFBA.
Many people tweeted about the conference. These tweets can be found on the Nonprofit Day Live page or by using twitter search #npd10. @jdeancoffey @jakenyon @wiserearth @fitz350 @tccgroup @gtak @hollyminch @lisa_sherrill @stories4good @missionm @nonprofitsrule & more tweeted the event.
A few of us also wrote blog posts about the different sessions that we attended.
- From Nonprofit Law Blog -- CompassPoint Nonprofit Day 2010 Recap
- From Nonprofit Leadership 601 -- My Story about CompassPoint
- From Jara Dean Coffey -- Social Change for Service Providers
- From Wiser Earth -- Next Generation Leadership
- From John Kenyon -- Next Generation Organizations
- From Wiser Earth -- Is your Nonprofit Leveraging Volunteers Effectively?
- From Nonprofit Leadership 601 -- Reimagining Service/Effective Human Resources Management Practices
- From Nonprofit Leadership 601 -- Coaching--a form of supervision
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