2021 Wrap up
Our 2021 Ngo training summary
Background
Nonprofit organizations often lack the proper business support and training needed to succeed. Our nonprofit training series aimed to help organizations enhance and scale a sustainable business model in order to advance their social missions. Our desired outcome of the training series is to provide nonprofits with the necessary foundational knowledge on strategic planning, corporate social responsibility and digital fundraising. This knowledge will increase their capacity to scale their work, develop new partnerships, and increase their long-term sustainability. We work with skills based volunteers from seven fortune 500 companies who are experts in strategic planning, CSR and digital fundraising. We decided to leverage our unique position as a collaborator between both sectors to help nonprofits receive the support and training they need to succeed.
Throughout 2021, we at V2I have held multiple successful virtual training sessions for non profit organizations. We want to highlight three of those sessions to wrap up 2021. In late September, we held a session which focused on strategic planning with the help of Traci Flitcraft. Following that, in October we held a session on demystifying corporate partnerships for nonprofits with the help of CSR experts. To end 2021, we held a digital fundraising training session with the help of Brock Warner.
Strategic Planning Training
In our strategic planning session led by Traci Flitcraft, Business Solutions Expert at LEV, we focused on best practices for creating and executing a strategic plan; the key elements of a strategic plan including mission, vision, core values, SWOT analysis, goals and tactics; and tools for executing their plans. We provided participants with a workbook and additional resources to continue developing their organization’s strategic plans. Feedback on the session was very positive and participants appreciated the tools provided. 13 people attended live from NGOs in Ghana, the Gambia, the US, Canada, and more!
Demystifying Corporate Partnerships
On October 28th, we held a panel discussion to support nonprofits that struggle with creating lasting cross-sectoral partnerships. The discussion was led by V2I’s executive director and featured panelists Alissa May, Director – Employee Volunteerism at Salesforce, Meriem Bekka, Senior Manager – Social Innovation at VMware, Britney Wehrfritz – Tech Pro Bono Program Manager at Dell Technologies, and Madeline Hutchinson, Global Lead – Tech for Social Good, JPMorgan Chase & Co. The discussion focused on topics such as; where to begin talks of partnerships, misconceptions about CSR teams for large companies, factors that make nonprofits appealing/unappealing to corporate, how to align programs, and how to reach volunteers.
Digital Fundraising Fundamentals
To cap off 2021, we held a digital fundraising fundamentals training session with the help of Brock Warner, CFRE. Strong fundraising practices are at the core of maintaining a successful nonprofit organization. Nonprofits not having the ability to pull income from selling products or services raises the importance of effective fundraising tenfold. If nonprofits aren’t successful in their fundraising, inevitably its sources of funding will cease, leading to a closure.
We at V2I have been successful in fundraising and wanted to share our experience coupled with our speakers’ expertise to the more inexperienced organizations. We held a 90-min training session with goals to give participants; A high level understanding of the major digital fundraising channels and their primary purpose, an understanding of which digital channels will help you raise the most money, and the building blocks of a sustainable email fundraising program.