Online Education Sessions

Webinars are scheduled to begin at 2 PM Eastern Time and run for 90 minutes.
Fee: $89 per person or $150.00 per site.


Writing Federal Grants
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Alice Ruhnke will talk about how to identify federal grant opportunities, and she'll outline the major elements of grant applications required by most federal agencies. Resources to help your organization through the government grant seeking process will also be discussed. This webinar will be held and is for intermediate participants.

How to Mobilize Your Board to Raise Funds (NEW)
Thursday, October 27, 2011

Judith Margolin will discuss methods for motivating board members to become more involved and comfortable with the grantseeking process. Topics covered include the following: who should and should not be on the board, what policies and structures need to be in place to facilitate fundraising, how to achieve a state of grantseeking readiness, and how to develop an action plan to move toward a more fully engaged board. Specific attention is paid to the various roles board members can and should play vis a vis an organization's prospects and funders.

Designing Surveys That Produce Useful Results
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
If surveys are not designed and administered properly, they can generate worthless information and waste your time and money. Learn when to use a survey (and when not to), how to write relevant questions, how to get good responses, and how to make results useful. Participants will also receive a ten-page survey development guide and several samples of well-designed surveys. For beginning and intermediate participants.

Customizing Your Grant Proposal to Meet Funders' Needs
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Judith Margolin provides specific advice on tailoring grant requests to meet funders' needs while referring to real-life grant proposals as examples.
Many nonprofits have one standard proposal that they mass mail to potential funders. This is a mistake since it is critical to customize each grant proposal so that it matches the funder's own criteria as closely as possible. With so much information available today on exactly what funders are looking for, and with competition as steep as it is now, it is essential to go the extra mile to make each proposal special.

The Fundamentals of Conducting Focus Groups
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Focus groups are an excellent strategy for collecting in-depth, meaningful information. Susan Eliot will discuss when to use a focus group, how to design good questions, how to recruit and screen participants, how many participants and groups are needed, what to look for in a facilitator, what type of incentives to provide, how to analyze findings, and how to structure the report. Participants will receive samples of the following: question guide, recruitment flyer, participant tracking form, scheduling matrix, consent form, data analysis sheet, and focus group reports. A 15-page do-it-yourself guide to conducting focus groups will also be provided. This course is designed for those with minimum knowledge about conducting focus groups.

Click here for a complete list of upcoming Online Education Sessions.

Visualize Philanthropy's Impact on the Arts

During October 2011 only, you can register for free use of Philanthropy In/Sight®: Arts, a custom edition of our interactive mapping tool. By tapping into the Foundation Center's vast database of information on grantmakers and grants and providing the ability to overlay to a diverse array of demographic, socio-economic, and other data, Philanthropy In/Sight: Arts enables you to gather the intelligence you need to craft compelling grant proposals and visualize philanthropy's impact on the arts.

Register through the Foundation Center for free use through October 31, 2011.

Free access to Philanthropy In/Sight is available anytime at the Nonprofit Resource Center .

New to the collection - check it out!
Collaborative Grantseeking: a guide to designing projects, leading partners, and persuading sponsors
by Jeremy T. Miner, Lynn Miner and Jerry Griffth