Business Partners Program
Resources & Tools > Nonprofits
Effectively Engaging Businesses and Business Volunteers
Managing Volunteers
101 Ways to Motivate Volunteers
Superfundraiser has compiled a list of 101 creative ways to motivate volunteers and inspire them about not only your cause but the experience of volunteering.
How to Motivate Volunteers
Volunteer Power provides several ways to motivate and retain volunteers so that you can build a solid and reliable volunteer corps.
Developing and Managing Projects
Resource Center: Browse by Topics
Corporation for National & Community Services’ Resource Center provides tutorials and courses on volunteer, member, and staff management. Access to some sections of the site requires registration. The Resource Center, according to the website, is a one-stop-shop for tools and resources to strengthen volunteer programs.
VolunteerMatch Resources
Volunteer Match’s Resources Section provides useful resources on engaging volunteers and running volunteer programs.
Developing Partnerships
Collaboration Challenge: How Nonprofits and Businesses Succeed Through Strategic Alliances
Collaboration Challenge: How Nonprofits and Businesses Succeed Through Strategic Alliances discusses managing relationships between businesses and nonprofits. The book can be borrowed from the Corporation for National & Community Service’s library.
Points of Light Institute: CVC Listing
You can contact your local Corporate Volunteer Council (CVC) by viewing this listing of all CVC’s in California through the Points of Light website.
Promoting Volunteering Opportunities
Great Nonprofits
Great Nonprofits is a site that allows members to post reviews of nonprofits. Nonprofits can create profiles on the site for free to have their nonprofits reviewed by users. It is a great way to promote your nonprofit.
Common Interest, Common Good: Creating Value through Business and Social Sector Partnerships
Common Interest, Common Good: Creating Value through Business and Social Sector Partnerships explores alliances between businesses and nonprofits through case studies. The book can be borrowed from the Corporation for National & Community Service’s library.
Creating "New Value" Partnerships with Business: Step by Step
Excerpt from Shirley Sagawa and Eli Segal’s Common Interest, Common Good: Creating Value through Business and Social Sector Partnerships. Access to this document does not require registration.
National Service Resource Center
Collaboration Challenge: How Nonprofits and Businesses Succeed Through Strategic Alliances discusses managing relationships between businesses and nonprofits. The book can be borrowed from the Corporation for National & Community Service’s library.
Motivate Your Employees to Get Involved
10 Simple Ways to Motivate Your Employees to do Good
Learn ten ways to motivate your employees to get involved in the community through work organized programs and other methods.
Effective Practices in Workplace Volunteering
Effective Practices in Workplace Volunteering is a paper from the Points of Light Foundation that discusses ways to get employees involved and provides examples from the fields to support its recommendations.
Building Nonprofit Capacity
Resource Aggregators
Tools for Organization
Idealist.org has a comprehensive list of resources for nonprofits in the Tools for Organizations section of their website. The site covers many areas including fundraising, HR, recruiting, and managing volunteers, etc.
Welcome to Capaciteria
Capaciteria is a searchable database directory that enables registered members to access peer-rated capacity building resources. Members can also add useful resources for nonprofits in over 133 categories and rate these resources. Registration is free and access to the resources does not require a login. Users can also access message board discussions on the site.
Points of Light Institute: Resources
Points of Light Institute is a great source of information on a wide-range of topics including trainings, research, and key tools. Resources are classified by the audience in order to ease searching. Registration is free and access to the resources does not require a login.
Capacity Building
A detailed and exhaustive resource from the Corporation for National and Community Service provides a multi-chaptered tool kit intended to assist nonprofit organizations in building capacity, recruiting and maintaining volunteers.
Needs Assessment/Diagnostic Tool
Checklist of Nonprofit Organizational Indicators
This is a checklist of nonprofit organizational indicators developed by United Way of Minneapolis Area to help nonprofits identify their strengths and weaknesses. The checklist can be accessed and filled out online free of charge.
Employee Volunteering Guide
The Employee Volunteering Guide, produced by NSW Premier’s Department Employee Volunteering Working Group, provides comprehensive assessment tools and checklists to help companies define their workplace volunteer program needs and execute the set up of the program.
The Principles of Excellence: An Employee Volunteer Program Assessment
The Principles of Excellence: An Employee Volunteer Program Assessment is a set of standards to help measure the effectiveness of employee volunteer programs (EVP). The Principles of Excellence comprise three broad components that are equally important in defining a quality EVP program: Commit, Target, and Acknowledge. You will have to log in to begin the assessment.
Board Governance
BoardSource: Building Effective Nonprofit Boards
BoardSource is dedicated to advancing and improving board services. The website houses resources and tools that provide guidance on governance issues. There is additional information available on trainings, conferences and consulting services. There is fee-based access to BoardSource’s books and online tools. Additionally, registration is required.
BoardnetUSA: Connecting Nonprofit Boards and New Leaders
With a mission of strengthening the management capability of nonprofit boards, boardnetUSA allows nonprofit boards and those interested in serving as board members to reach out beyond their existing networks and find each other. There is no fee to join boardnetUSA but nonprofit organizations must be a registered 501(c) 3 organization.
Fundraising
GIFT: Free Articles
Highlights key issues, trends and tips for fundraising. Access is available to both free and fee-based articles (at $3 per download). Users can also subscribe to the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training (GIFT) e-newsletter. The e-newsletter comes out every eight weeks and contains practical tools and tips. The subscription rates are sliding scale. Kim Klein, an internationally renowned authority on fundraising, also has a column, ‘Dear Kim,’ on the GIFT site where she answers readers’ questions.
USA Fundraising
USA Fundraising provides a wealth of fundraising ideas for nonprofits as well as individuals looking to raise money for targeted causes. Various tools are available for users, including strategies on planning and executing successful fundraising campaigns.
Association of Fundraising Professionals
The Association of Fundraising Professionals offers an online card catalog where users can search for articles, videos and books that address their key areas of interest. Other key areas on the website include a bookstore and an area that is dedicated to highlighting important publications in the fundraising space. Registration is free and it is not required to use a majority of the tools.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Guide to Grants
The Chronicle of Philanthropy offers a comprehensive search tool for grant opportunities. With over $200 million in opportunities that are updated every two weeks and searchable, this resource costs around $49 for a subscription. Certain tools and areas of the site are available to subscribers only.
Marketing
Jocelyn Harmon’s Blog: Marketing for Nonprofits
Jocelyn Harmon, a Director of Business Development, writes this regularly updated blog on marketing for nonprofits.
Training and Tips for Do-It-Yourself Nonprofit Marketers
Kivi Leroux Miller, a communications consultant, answers questions about communications on her blog and offers webinars through her website.
Legal
Nonprofit Law Blog
Gene Takagi is a California based nonprofit attorney and his blog discusses legal matters that affect California nonprofits.
Training
Craigslist Foundation’s Nonprofit Boot Camp
The website provides access to Craigslist Foundation’s Nonprofit Boot Camp outstanding presentations, podcasts, and notes, on issues ranging from fundraising, legal & accounting, marketing to board governance.
Technology
Wild Apricot’s Nonprofit Technology Blog
WildApricot’s nonprofit technology blog is a great resource for nonprofits interested in harnessing web 2.0 technologies.
Nonprofit Technology Network
Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) is a membership organization for nonprofit technology professionals. Users can sign up for the free monthly newsletter and access original research through NTEN’s website.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Technology Guide
The Chronicle of Philanthropy offers a comprehensive list of technology related resources that can be accessed electronically to increase awareness and build nonprofit capacity. Certain tools and areas of the site are available to subscribers only.
