Lawndale Alliance

Sankofa is a word in the Twi language of Ghana meaning “to retrieve" More commonly, it symbolizes taking from the past what is good and bringing it into the present in order to make positive progress through the benevolent use of knowledge. Sankofa is often symbolized by a mythical bird with its head turned backwards while its feet face forward carrying a precious egg in its mouth.
As we finish out the year in the Nonprofit Utopia community, we are taking stock of our wins, our losses and challenges in 2022 so that we can finish the year strong, and hit the ground running in 2023. One of our first steps is to use assessment tools to gauge our leadership styles and skills and organizational skills in order to get a true sense for where we are. Indeed, we believe that we can’t really know where we should be going until we know where we are and where we have been. Even if it means peeking through our fingers because the truth is so glaring that we could be startled into paralysis.
This livestream will help you understand
1. The power of assessments
2. How to use assessments to chart your professional course
3. How to use assessments to help your organization navigate community change
Nonprofit Utopia community members will also have access to individual and organizational assessments and a members-only group coaching session to get answers to questions and draw from support of their peers.

The nonprofift employee handbook can be used to support operations, communicate benefits and other employment retention policies and minimize risks that might arise from lawsuits and failure to comply with state and federal regulators. We will show you how to develop an employee handbook, what should go into it, and refer you to professionals who can review your finished product. If you are a member of the Nonprofit Utopia community, we will share templates and free and low-cost resources you can use to develop employee handbooks that create winning situations for your organization's board and staff.

Often called the personality of an organization, organizational culture is a shared set of workplace beliefs, values, attitudes, standards, purposes, and behaviors. It reflects both the written and unwritten rules that people in an organization follow. Your organization’s culture is the sum of all that you and your colleagues think, say, and do as you work together. If that sounds important, it is. (Bamboo HR)

For our purposes, when we speak of toxic nonprofit cultures, we are speaking of environments that stifle creativity and productivity, and prevents organizations from making the maximum impact on clients and the communities they serve.
We will talk about 12 signs that your nonprofit's culture is toxic, and strategies you can use to make improvements.

You are the leader of a nonprofit that brings in a million dollars. You work tirelessly to fulfill your mission. You maintain strong relationships with your organization's funders. In fact, you have done everything "by the book", and you still find yourself scrambling because your current funding streams are highly restricted, and don't cover overhead. Have you ever considered that the problem is not you or your nonprofit, but the traditional fundraising model?

Join us for a lively discussion with Sherry Quam Taylor, the founder of QuamTaylor, LLC. She will share ways nonprofit leaders can grow revenue streams exponentially by transitioning from a fundraising model to a financing model.

When was the last time you examined your organization's structure and culture? I mean, REALLY examined the structure and culture. Did you prepare the org chart in response to a funding proposal, or did you do a deep dive to look at how best to structure the organization to meet your mission? Was your statement concerning organizational culture meant to develop collateral materials to recruit new talent, or because you wanted to create an environment that leads to sustainability over the long term?

This livestream will help you explore alternative organizational structures and develop a culture that will help you to increase efficiency, better serve clients, retain talent and position your organization for long term success.

Organizational crises can take on many forms--business interruptions caused by natural disasters, data security breaches, unexpected financial losses and the like. What we don't like to talk about are those instances in which nonprofit leaders engage in unethical behavior that could lead to scandal, and threaten the very existence of their organizations.

Join us for a lively discussion with Laurie R. Glenn, the Founder, President and CEO of Thinkinc, an international public affairs and political strategy firm. We will talk about what your organization should be doing before, during and after a crisis to return to a sense of normalcy.

A code of ethics is used to help organizations communicate and reinforce their mission, core values and standards of what is considered right and wrong behavior on behalf of board, staff and volunteers. The code of ethics is often entertwined with other organizational policies and procedures and support day-to-day decision making. It helps organizational stakeholders understand how mission and core values translate into everyday decisions, behaviors and actions.

Robin K. Butler, the Founder and CEO of Catalyst Consulting Agency, LLC, will talk about how you can go about developing a code of ethics in your organization.

A charity that has clearly articulated purposes that describe its mission, a knowledgeable and committed governing body and management
team, and sound management practices is more likely to operate effectively and consistent with tax law requirements. And while the tax law generally does not mandate particular management structures, operational policies, or administrative practices, it is important that each charity be thoughtful about the governance practices that are most appropriate for that charity in assuring sound operations and compliance with the tax law.

This livestream will provide an overview of best practices for board governance with respect to:

Mission
Organizational Documents
Governing Body
Governance and Management Policies
Financial Statements and Form 990 Reporting
Transparency and Accountability

Social responsibility is a branch of ethics that focuses on the idea that individuals, business owners, and increasingly, nonprofit leaders, have an obligation to act for the benefit of society at large. This can manifest itself in organizational culture at all levels, including policies and procedures, hiring, sales, product development, etc.

Investing In Communities (IIC), a nonprofit affiliate of MAP Real Estate, Inc. is a prime example of how to create triple-win scenarios for individuals, corporations, and nonprofit causes while contributing to the local economy. IIC empowers individuals and businesses to fund their favorite nonprofits for free through brokered real estate transactions.

Join us as Michael Pink, the Founder of Investing in Communities, shares his perspectives on ethics and social responsibility as they relate to real estate and community development.

Results-Based Accountability™ (RBA) is a data-driven, decision-making process to help communities and organizations get beyond talking about problems to taking action to solve problems. RBA may be used as part of a community-based collective impact effort, or as an organiztional performance management initiative. We will share an overview of the RBA framework and show you how to use it to develop evidence-based programs and services and community plans.

Often, when we think of performance management for nonprofits, we tend to focus on outcome measurements and impact to our clients and communities. While this information is extremely important, it is not without limiations. Outcome measurements don't give a sense for what's going on with our day-to-day operations. This livestream will povide an overview of the Balanced Score Card (TM) and how it may be used for strategic management.

You Will Learn How To:

Align program and services and day-to-day operations with your organization's mission, vision and strategies
Develop a strategy map that aligns organizational capacity, operations, customer satisfaction and financial returns
Monitor ongoing progress using the Balanced Score Card

Have you ever managed a nonprofit program, knew that it was valuable, but couldn't demonstrate impact during an evaluation because you didn't have the necessary data? Not a fun place to be, especially if your major funder was the one who called for the evaluation.

This livestream is designed to help you understand how to properly plan for program evaluation so that you have the data you need to show the impact your programs and services.

Program logic models help us assess the community and our current situation to develop our goals, objectives; determine the resources and activities required to meet our goals and objectives and to identify desired outcomes. They are most likely used for planning prograams and developing proposals. This livestream will help you develop program logic models and use them for management and evaluation tools so that your programs may be more impactful.

You Will Learn

The differences between programs and operations
How to develop program logic models
How to use program logic models for planning, implementation and evaluation
How to identify desired outcomes
How to develop outcome measurements

With the exception of the use of outcome measures and logic models performance management systems are more likely to be used in for-profit companies to measure operational effectiveness. However, the same principles may be easily applied to nonprofits, and we will show you how.

You Will Learn

What performance management is, and why nonprofit leaders should care
The difference between performance management and outcome management
How to select appropriate key performance indicators (KPI)
Common methods for assessing performance

It takes a village to maintain nonprofit compliance. That includes the organization's board and management, the community, government regulating agencies and independent entities that collect data to maintain transparency. This livestream will focus on the role of the Illinois Attorney General and Department of Revenue in maintaining nonprofit compliance and strengthening the nonprofit sector.

When we think of the IRS' role in nonprofit compliance, we typically think of enforcement-the things that happen to nonprofits when they fail to file reports. However, the IRS' role is much more extensive than that. Join us as we talk about how the IRS' role in creating new organizations, compliance, education and enforcement are used to strengthen the nonprofit sector. We will talk about Form 1023-the Application for Tax-Exempt Status, Form 990, Payroll Taxes and educational materials produced by the IRS and its affiliates.

When we think about nonprofit compliance, we typically think about the IRS, Form 990, the state and the reporting requirements. We don't usually think about the fact that "it takes a village" to maintain nonprofit compliance. In this episode, we will talk about the roles that organizations, communities, foundations and Guidestar by Candid play in maintaining nonprofit compliance.

During our last session, we showed how non-technical nonprofit leaders can develop comprehensive technology assessments that align with mission, vision and core values while supporting every program and process in the organization. This livestream will build upon lessons learned from assessment to build a technology plan. We will talk about when the plan should be developed, who should be involved and how to monitor progress.