So, with the new year, comes a new job posting from my organization. The Community Radio Fund of Canada actually started this search last fall. But, we are still looking. The position is for Program Officer. Check it out and spread the word if you know anyone. The full posting is at www.communityradiofund.org.

Tell stories
Grant writing, marketing, and social media experts are always talking about ways to reach out effectively to your audience. One key trick is tell stories, especially those that can show your impact they can relate to. Care2‘s blog “frogloop” recently wrote about a few applications/tools to help tell stories online with different elements like pictures, video, and slides. One of them also helps create better content across different social media platforms. 4 Tools to Help Any Nonprofit Tell Stories Online

E-mail newsletters
I’m a big fan of newsletters. I’ve just started getting into creating my own for my job. CharityVillage has posted this article called “Ten Tips to Get the Most out of Your Email Newsletters” that are great. They are not rocket science or even new, but it is a great list, and sometimes you need to be reminded. And if you have not worked with newsletters before, this is an excellent list of things to help you start with a bang! There are a number of tools out there for creating e-mail newsletters, and I have come to loooove Mailchimp as it’s free for nonprofits, has great flexibility when it comes to design, and offers extensive reporting tools.

Online resources
David Venn blogs about Nonprofit Public Relations and recently published an e-book called 50 Online Resources for Managing Your Nonprofit. It is a list of resources organized by such categories as Nonprofit Management, Social Networks, Presentation & Publication, and Fundraising. It’s free if you subscribe to his newsletter. I liked the listing. I have heard of or used many of his suggestions, but there were quite a few I didn’t know about (like Bplans, wicked!)

Try out an online template
I haven’t looked at this myself, but SmartBreief on Social Media has created a customizable social media plan template. If you try it out, let me know how it works out for you.

And while you’re at it …
CharityVillage has published a great article on Creating a Social Media Toolkit for your Nonprofit. I love the sample screenshots.

The Facebook
If you are thinking to create a Facebook page or build on the one you have now, here’s a list of 30 tips and tricks you can consider, thanks to the folks at HubSpot Blog and their Ultimate Facebook Marketing Cheat Sheet.

60 Small Ways to Improve Your Life in the Next 100 Days
Written by Marelisa
From the blog: The Best Article Every Day

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to make drastic changes in order to notice an improvement in the quality of your life. At the same time, you don’t need to wait a long time in order to see the measurable results that come from taking positive action. All you have to do is take small steps, and take them consistently, for a period of 100 days.

Below you’ll find 60 small ways to improve all areas of your life in the next 100 days.

Click here for the rest of the article.

Top 10 Volunteer Articles at CharityVillage
Village Vibes
Issue 16.15 – April 12, 2011

Are you thinking about volunteering to get more experience for your resume? Considering a position on a board of directors? Or maybe you manage volunteers as part of your daily duties? Regardless of where you fit in the volunteer spectrum, we’ve got the resources you need. There’s something for everyone in our list of top ten volunteer-related articles.

1. The Big Boom: Is Your Organization Making Good Use of Boomer Volunteers? Find out how your organization can attract and engage baby boomer volunteers.

2. Volunteering for Career Development: 7 Steps to Professional Growth Learn how to find volunteer positions that will help you gain relevant experience for your nonprofit career.

3. The Volunteer as Bully = The Toxic Volunteer Not all volunteers are easy to get along with. Follow these tips to work with and manage difficult volunteers.

4. Evolving the Volunteer Program at the Saskatchewan 4-H Council How one organization overhauled their volunteer program and dramatically increased their retention rates.

5. Employee Volunteerism: A Profit for the Nonprofits? An exploration of corporate volunteer programs and why they are on the rise across North America.

6. All A-Board! Volunteering on a board of directors can do wonders for your career, but it’s also important to carefully consider the responsibility before signing on.

7. Eight Tips for Recruiting and Retaining Volunteers in Tough Times Is your organization as efficient as possible at recruiting and retaining volunteers?

8. Being the Best (Board) Volunteer You Can Be Doreen Pendgracs, author of Before You Say Yes…, offers advice on how to be an effective board member.

9. Screening Volunteers for Attitude Ask these questions to determine whether a potential volunteer has the type of attitude your organization is looking for.

10. Ethics Q&A: Mixing Religion and Overseas Volunteering A reader about to volunteer overseas wonders why she isn’t allowed to bring holy books to distribute to local citizens.

One thing you can do, for your work side of life anyway, is develop an “elevator speech” on your organization, your work, your cause … it’s a pitch. If you walk into an elevator with a potential funder, for example, and you only have the elevator ride to get them hooked, what would you say? CharityVillage has posted this article to get you thinking about it.

For the most part, it’s all been about work. My organization, the Community Radio Fund of Canada, is going to be getting some funding soon. But a few things need to happen before that. One of those things was needing to submit a structural and operational plan to the CRTC in October. And that was no small feat. 13,000 words, one board retreat, many sets of eyes, and countless meetings later, we submitted a pretty solid document. Fortunately, it is being given a once-once over, and we will have a chance to clarify any confusing areas and provide further details where necessary. Then, the plan will go public to the world, and anyone will be able to comment. I know, I know, people will be knocking down the doors to read a 42-page report and offer insight and feedback. I’m looking forward to seeing how it will be received.

Also work related, we had an annual general membership meeting last week, which involved writing even more, including an annual report and a speech. If you are interested, I’ve posted everything on the fund’s website.

Finally, I moved out of my tiny dark moldy Lowertown basement apartment on November 1! I now live in 11th floor splendor in Centretown. It is amazing. The air is a gazillion times better, I have light, the landlords don’t come in whenever it suits them without notice, I have an office, and I even have an entryway closet for coats and shoes. I also have wireless internet for the first time, which was a necessity considering I recently jumped on the iPhone bandwagon. I know a new one will be coming next summer, but I still love my iPhone 4. I am really amazed at what it can do, and I know I am not even close to scratching the surface of its potential. Next on my list is a new couch and maybe a MacBook Air. I’m a little leery of the 13-inch screen. We’ll see. I may still go for the MacBook Pro 17-inch screen. I’ll wait and see what 2011 has in store.

I’m going to have a few updates coming, hopefully soon. The only thing that might keep me from getting to them is the fact that in less than one week I will be going to visit my father and brothers for the first time in 25 years. It’s a little mind boggling when I think about it. But truly amazing.

VAULT: Administered by Volunteer Alberta, registration on this site provides free access to information for volunteer managers. Users can participate in the discussion forum, share documents with other members, and post and search professional development events and opportunities across the province.

UNV Online Volunteering Newsletter, a free monthly newsletter published by the United Nation’s online volunteering department. Newsletters discuss current research relating to online volunteerism, case studies of existing programs, and other news updates.

These two links are focused on working with and recruiting young staff, but some of the concepts apply to young volunteers as well (in my opinion, anyway).

GenDNA, a blog dedicated to the challenges and rewards of both managing a cross-generational team and working in one. The author, David Brookmire, discusses a variety of topics including compensation, communication, leadership, globalization, and more. The site also has a number of resources dedicated to the same theme, including a test to determine which generation of worker you most identify with.

CharityVillage article “Do u wnt 2 ngage Gen Y?”: According to new research by the HR Council, it is vitally important that nonprofits in Canada learn how to successfully recruit and engage Gen Y employees (Note: In Canada, Gen Y tends to refer to those individuals born between 1976 and 1999). If they don’t, they may be facing an incredible shortage of talent in the not-too-distant future. This month, we talk to a few sector leaders to find out their thoughts about attracting Gen Ys to the nonprofit sector, and how to keep them there.