Introduction
This site provides some general resources on the topics Wellspring asked about in our recent survey. We hope these lists of resources may help kickstart a discussion around any one of these topics - and, for some organizations, offer a new way of thinking about some areas. We tried to identify resources that are easily digestible and as conceptually universal as possible, recognizing that context will affect relevance. We also know that many of you already have expertise on these topics.
These resources are an initial step - and part of a larger response to what we learned from the survey results. As we work on ways to further support the work of grantees, please don't hesitate to initiate conversations around any of these topics with your program team whenever it will be helpful for you.
Communications to Advance Your Work
The specifics of strategic communications vary significantly depending on the context. However, the basic elements of developing a communication strategy — identifying goals and objectives, target audiences, and developing relevant messages — are widely relevant. The resources provided here aim to address those broad concepts of a general communications strategy as well as digital strategies.
| Resource | Description | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Designing Your Digital Strategy | A guide for campaigners, activists and nonprofit organizations to design and implement effective digital strategies to achieve progressive social change. The report and workbook can also be downloaded in PDF form. Additional resources ForaChange recommends are here. | ForaChange |
| 2 | Cause Communications | Tools to strengthen communications and amplify impact. Included are a communications effectiveness quiz, interactive lessons on various communications topics, and a comprehensive communications toolkit. | Cause Communications |
| 3 | Public Interest Research Centre | A variety of framing guides and resources to develop and test communications strategies. | Public Interest Research Centre |
| 4 | Opportunity Agenda | Social justice-focused communications resources hub with framing guides and research resources with guidance around messaging various issues in the U.S. context. | Opportunity Agenda |
| 5 | Heartwired: Human Behavior, Strategic Opinion Research, and the Audacious Pursuit of Social Change | This strategy guide examines how change-makers can leverage an understanding of their target audiences to hasten a tipping point on pressing issues of the day. Intended for U.S. progressive activists that have not yet integrated this type of approach into their work. | Goodwin Simon Strategic Research/Wonder for Good |
| 6 | Strategic Communications for Social Change | This handbook is a resource on the basic concepts and processes of strategic communication. It is intended to be as jargon free as possible, introducing the topic to those who have an interest in strategic communications but may not yet have in-depth experience using them. There is also an accompanying workbook and set of videos on Facebook. | Well Made Strategy |
Evaluation and Learning
Evaluation is often thought of as a “one-off project” focused on a specific program or area of work. Developing evaluation capacity, similarly, is thought to typically involve learning technical skills or methods. The resources below, however, think about evaluation and learning differently. They are designed to help you integrate learning and adapting as an ongoing component of your work to make evaluation easier and more useful.
| Resource | Description | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Organizational Learning Self-Assessment Tool | Eighteen questions to self-assess your organization’s learning culture and identify steps for action. Accompanying resources from the same project can be found here. | Andrew Taylor and Ben Liadsky, Taylor Newberry Consulting |
| 2 | Five Important Discussion Questions to Make Evaluation Useful | This guide is designed to help organizations articulate more clearly what they want to get out of an evaluation concerns about the process. It is meant as a conversation starter to open up a dialogue with stakeholders in a subject area that can be complex and difficult. | Ontario Nonprofit Network and Taylor Newberry Consulting |
| 3 | Advocacy Strategy Framework | This brief offers a simple one-page tool for thinking about the theories of change that underlie public policy advocacy strategies. | Julia Coffman and Tanya Beer, Center for Evaluation Innovation |
| 4 | Integrating Evaluative Capacity | A guidebook to help integrate evaluative thinking into everyday organizational practice to ensure not only stronger programs but also stronger, more effective organizations better able to deliver on their missions. | Anita Baker and Beth Bruner, Evaluativethinking.org |
Leadership Development
Organizations can benefit from thoughtful investments in leadership development at all levels. Individuals at any stage in their career can also play a formal or informal leadership role to advance their organization's work and mission. The resources below offer some overall recommendations from the leadership development field, as well as some that are more context specific.
| Resource | Description | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Social Transformation Project | Covers an approach for mission-driven life both personally and professionally, including: decision-making, ailments, power, creative conversations, managing emotions, managing performance, delegation, etc. | Social Transformation Project |
| 2 | Nonprofit Leadership Development | This guide outlines a series of steps to create and implement a leadership development plan as part of your organization's everyday business. It recommends first taking Bridgespan's leadership development diagnostic survey. | Bridgespan |
| 3 | ProInspire | Research and articles for individuals and organizations to utilize to accelerate equity and leadership in the sector. | ProInspire |
| 4 | Haas Jr. Fund Resources | Resources on building internal racial equity, race and nonprofit leadership. | Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund |
| 5 | What Enables or Disables Leadership for Transformational Change in Africa | 2018 research paper by Uongoze Institute. The Institute seeks to understand how change toward sustainable development has taken place in Africa, and what contributing role leadership has played. | Uongoze Institute |
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
In order to most effectively and authentically advance justice and equity, internal operations need to be consistent with values by reflecting the diversity and experiences of the people and communities we seek to support. Organizations often inherit the dominant culture from the world around them, which is then reflected in structures, policies, practices, and relationships. These dynamics take hard and intentional work to address; work that, at Wellspring, we are in the process of ourselves. This section provides resources designed to help organizations examine internal operations in a way that is race-informed, and build a culture that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
| Resource | Description | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Racial Equity Tools | This website is designed to support individuals and organizations working to achieve racial equity – in systems, organizations, communities and society at large. Their resources on organizational change processes focus on helping organizations transform their operations to be more equitable and inclusive. | Multiple Partners |
| 2 | Race to Lead | This report identifies the racial leadership gap in the non-profit sector and systemic obstacles women of color experience over and above the barriers faced by white women and men of color. It focuses on systems change, organizational change, and individual support for women of color in the sector. | Building Movement Project |
| 3 | A Collection of Key Race Equity and Inclusion Resources | These resources were developed as an outgrowth of two decades of internal (and external) work by the Annie E. Casey Foundation focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. | Annie E. Casey Foundation |
| 4 | Paying Attention to White Culture and Privilege | This article is aimed at foundations, but has relevance to other organizations as well in examining how processes aimed at racial equity change can overlook the privileged side of inequity. | OpenSource Leadership Strategies, MP Associates |
| 5 | Building a Race Equity Culture | This guide examines all four levels on which racism operates (personal, interpersonal, institutional, and structural). It helps to recognize the role we may play in enduring inequities, and how we can commit ourselves to change. | Equity in the Center |
Staff Development and Retention
The most commonly cited staff development and retention issues in non-profits are around compensation and benefits, opportunities for professional growth, preventing burnout, recognition/appreciation, communications and feedback, and work environment/culture. There are numerous articles and lists that discuss in more depth, including these from Harvard Business Review and Stanford Social Innovation Review. The resources below provide a few starting points for addressing the issues outlined.
| Resource | Description | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | On the Job Development Opportunities | Helping employees develop the skills they need to advance in their careers and their organizations doesn’t have to be costly. This guide explores on-the-job opportunities for employees to learn new skills. | Bridgespan Group |
| 2 | Talking Talent for Non-profits | A how-to guide for non-profits on talking to funders around investing in staff development. This guide is intended to help identify strengths and challenges in order to subsequently plan, budget, and secure resources to build on the strengths and address identified talent challenges. | Fund the People |
| 3 | Wellbeing and Stress | While mostly focused on other aspects of security, Chapter 4 of the Frontline Defenders Workbook on Security covers wellbeing, stress, and preventing burnout for human rights defenders. | Frontline Defenders |
Security: Staff Safety and Cybersecurity
Wellspring is committed to supporting organizations to be as secure as they can be (while striving to being as secure as possible ourselves). We take a holistic view of security, encompassing physical, travel, and digital security, as well as overall well-being. The list of resources below contains two short checklists developed by Wellspring staff, plus external resources for both building up preventative capacity, and also for post-incident support.
| Resource | Description | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Security Checklist - Holistic | A starting point for building strong holistic safety and security management practices. We also have a version of this guide in Spanish. | Wellspring Philanthropic Fund |
| 2 | Security Checklist - Digital | Building on the holistic security checklist above, this guide provides more detail on digital security. We also have a version of this guide in Spanish. | Wellspring Philanthropic Fund |
| 3 | Security Planner | After taking a short self-assessment, this site provides personalized online safety recommendations. | Citizen Lab |
| 4 | Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline | Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline works with individuals and organizations around the world to keep them safe online. If you’re at risk, Access Now can help you improve your digital security practices. If you’re already under attack, they can provide rapid-response emergency assistance. | Access Now |
| 5 | Security in a Box: Digital Security Tools and Tactics | This toolkit provides advice on how to use social media and mobile phones more safely. Also included are guides on some essential digital security software and services, and tailored advice on tools and tactics that are relevant to the needs of particular groups. | Tactical Tech and Frontline Defenders |
Board Structure and Role
Boards play an important role in the work of the nonprofits they serve. For support and training on board effectiveness, BoardSource is a comprehensive overall resource. The National Council of Nonprofits also has an extensive set of resources, though is targeted primary at a US audience. Below we highlight a few specific resources from these sources and others on board structure and role.
| Resource | Description | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What Makes Boards Good? | This document provides guidance around questions such as: What does it mean to be a good board member? What makes a good board meeting? How do boards get built? Plan A also has a similar resource on running good board meetings. | Plan A |
| 2 | Consultant Resources for Non-Profit Boards on Racial Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion | Despite high levels of discussion about racial diversity, inclusion and equity in the nonprofit sector, 90% of board CEOs and board chairs are white. Even boards that are concerned about their lack of racial diversity often fail to prioritize taking action to address this concern. Creating a governing body that reflects the population your organization seeks to serve requires meaningful action on the part of the board chair, and in partnership with the CEO. | Mistinguette Smith |
| 3 | Three Stages in a Nonprofit Board's Lifecycle | To be effective, boards must change and evolve as their organizations change and grow. This document describes appropriate roles and responsibilities of boards at different times in the organization’s developmental cycle. | BoardSource |
About
This site was developed by John Osterman in collaboration with Wellspring staff.
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