By Jeff Ballow, Senior Consultant - Is training more valuable for participants when you bring the training experience to their communities? This is one question that has emerged during the last year as part of our Neighborhood Based Capacity-Building Initiative funded by the New York Community Trust. So far we’ve taken this mountain-to-Mohammed approach to management development in East New York in Brooklyn and Far Rockaway in Queens, and in early May we launched a similar training series in the High Bridge section of the Bronx. Here’s what we have learned so far: Read more >>
News & Views
A blog for those interested in what affects, motivates and drives the New York City Nonprofit Sector — written by CRE’s crackerjack consulting team. We hope you use this space to share your thoughts, ask questions and engage in conversations about our city, social justice and the nonprofit sector.
Leaving the Projector Behind: CRE’s Community-Based Training Efforts
Far Rockaway Leaders Look Ahead
By Maria Mottola, Executive Director, New York Foundation - A half hour into a January 31 meeting with leaders in Far Rockaway, I realized we were not talking anymore about Hurricane Sandy. We were talking about disasters, but not of the sort you can blame on the weather. Somehow the hurricane lost its potency as leaders described how isolation, poverty and incidents of violence persistently disrupt life on the peninsula. Read more >>
CRE Search - Executive Director - Coalition for Asian American Children and Families - SEARCH CLOSED
The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) seeks a full-time Executive Director to lead the nation’s only pan-Asian children’s advocacy organization through its next stage of development. Founded in 1986, CACF successfully advocates for better policies, funding, and services to ensure that children of all backgrounds have an equal opportunity to grow up healthy and safe. Based in New York City, CACF has a $1 million budget and staff of 9 who oversee policy advocacy, youth and parent mobilizing, action research, and coalition building initiatives. This pivotal organization works in strong partnership with other advocates, community based organizations, and policymakers to accomplish its mission. Read more >>
What Do Invisible Nonprofits Mean For Community Leadership?
By Valyrie Laedlein, CRE Co-Director - Those of you accustomed to visiting this website know that CRE exists to support nonprofit organizations in becoming stronger and more effective in their work to fight poverty and advance social justice. So it came as a bit of a shocker to hear the director of a foundation who is a significant supporter of social services and nonprofit capacity building say in a meeting last week that nonprofit organizations are becoming increasingly “invisible.” Read more >>
HR Without HR, Part 4: Employing Fair, Consistent, and Rigorous Practices
By Pavitra Menon, Senior Consultant - Organizations must develop systems that promote fairness and consistency in all decisions related to people because without them productivity and morale will plummet. In addition, ensuring fair and consistent practices will most likely keep organizations from unintentionally breaking the law.
What gets in the way of being fair?
Read more >>
The Power of Collaboration and Why Evaluation Stinks Part II
By Michael Hickey, Independent Community Development Consultant - Just recently I attended a very compelling conference put on by The Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City, and my alma mater the Center for NYC Neighborhoods, entitled The Power of Collaboration. The title of the event comes from the very engaging article “Collective Impact,” published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Its authors make the argument that only through collaborative efforts can funders and nonprofit providers rise above the fragmentation of their service niche. The lay out a helpful framework include the following four components of effective collective action: Read more >>
3 Things Coaching Can and Cannot Do For a Nonprofit Leader
By Mohan Sikka - The recent Daring to Lead survey of non-profit leadership reveals some interesting facts about the use and efficacy of coaching as a professional development strategy. While Executive Coaching has the highest effectiveness rating amongst a range of strategies, it also appears to be underutilized -- only 10% percent of national leaders were currently working with an executive coach. In the New York region the utilization was even lower, compared to, say, workshops and conferences, which were attended by almost 90% of leaders. Read more >>
Succession Planning and Performance Evaluations: Two Sides of the Same Coin
By Jean Lobell - In an earlier post, I outlined Three Key Issues in Succession Planning. Today’s post is a continuation of the insights I shared on the key elements of a successful succession planning process. Read more >>
What's An ED To Do?
By Valyrie Laedlein, CRE Co-Director - I’d been looking at data from the Daring to Lead 2011 study about how Executive Directors spend their time – and how they THINK they should be spending their time – and was preparing to write a blog about what prevents us from focusing on “what matters.” Simultaneously, of course, I was reading articles and analyses about the debt ceiling agreement that has been reached in Washington and finding myself increasingly incensed by how the decisions being made by every level of government are impacting our communities, the nonprofits that serve them, and the impossible quandary about just what should get our attention as nonprofit executives. Read more >>
What Works In Leadership Development
By Mohan Sikka - An intriguing finding of the latest Daring to Lead study is that non-profit executives rate "non-didactic" professional development strategies very highly. The highest rated activities are "Executive Coaching" and "Peer Networks", which are predominantly non-didactic. The next highest rated activity was "Leadership Development Programs". When well-designed like our Leadership Caucus, this also includes multiple non-didactic elements. Read more >>
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