Mad Scientist!

Sometimes I feel like a mad scientist here in the NorthSky lab brewing up new formulas and innovative solutions for the nonprofits here in northern Michigan. I guess there is a little madness going on right now for all of us as we search for new strategies and approaches to age old problems: How do we increase our funding? How do we find and recruit strong Board members? How do we keep staff excited and engaged? How do we get the message out to the community with only a limited promotional budget?

The exciting thing is that when you investigate all that’s going on in the field, you discover tremendous innovation occurring on a national, regional, and local level. Right now, the NorthSky team is excited about the LaPiana "Real Time Strategic Planning" approach which is a practical approach to planning that takes the best of market-based planning and applies it to the nonprofit world. Many of you are also involved in the work we’re doing with Rotary Charities and Chris Ameen, a member of the NorthSky consultant network, on capacity-building models and evaluation. We’re also experimenting in our learning lab with a financial matrix from Fieldstone Alliance to identify and evaluate new revenue sources and with dashboard reporting with our colleagues at the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center.

We also benefit every day from area nonprofit managers and board members who share their innovations. We hear about new tricks for fundraising, volunteer recruitment, communications, and using technology.

So what are you doing in your own learning lab that is innovative and creative? Any thing you can share with your colleagues? Let us know by posting your experiences on our blog.

Enjoy the week,

Pam Evans
NorthSky Program Manager