As AmeriCorps members serving at NPower Northwest, we will be experiencing both sides of volunteer management work this year. While we currently work in volunteer positions, volunteer management will be an important part of our year of service. We'll be working with skill-based volunteers to help provide technology assessments and training to local nonprofits next spring. This month, we were granted the opportunity to attend a two-day workshop facilitated by Nikki Russell from the United Way of King County, “Essentials of Effective Volunteer Management.”

Most nonprofits know the value a successful volunteer program can provide by deepening your nonprofit's connection to the community, turning friends into donors, and putting valuable skills to work within an organization. However, this training showed us that effective management of a volunteer program isn’t always easy and can require many different skill sets.

The first day of the training focused on the mission, purpose, and philosophy of a volunteer management program. We drew funny pictures to illustrate the role of the 21st century volunteer program manager (hint: most of them included multiple hats and juggling lots of balls in the air). Volunteer managers need to be able to connect well with potential volunteers, act as a liaison between staff and volunteers, delegate well, advocate for volunteers, manage complex schedules, provide volunteer recognition, and many other tasks. Despite the many challenges, all of the nonprofits present at our training agreed that even if our organizations had unlimited financial resources, we would still want to engage volunteers.

The second day of training covered more specific volunteer management tasks such as screening, orientation, training, and evaluation. We were reminded to “screen people in” for volunteer positions rather than screen out and also got into tricky issues surrounding volunteer supervision - for example, how do you fire a volunteer?  A spirited role play highlighted the dos and don'ts when approaching a difficult volunteer. The day concluded with information about the importance of volunteer appreciation. Everyone needs and deserves recognition for their contributions, and organizational staff who work with volunteers should not be overlooked, either.

We want to thank United Way and Nikki Russell for this great opportunity and we look forward to applying what we have learned in 2012!

- Elissa Thomas, Abby Nafziger and Stephen Eggers

The NPower community is deeply saddened by the sudden loss of Senator Scott White, husband of our Executive Director, Alison Carl White. A memorial service will be held for Scott on November 6^th at 1:00pm at the University of Washington’s Meany Hall. All are welcome.

In addition to attending the memorial, there are several ways to support the family through this difficult time. A Facebook page has been set up in remembrance of Senator White, allowing friends, colleagues, and family members to post photos, share stories, and express their condolences. Donations can be made in Scott’s honor to the Wedgewood Elementary PTSA, EarthCorps or to an education fund for his two children. Donations to the children’s college savings accounts may be sent to: GET Program, P.O. Box 84824, Seattle, WA 98124-6124. Make checks payable to "GET" and indicate the donation is for Barrett and Claire White.

NPower Northwest was excited to learn last week that we're among a select group of recipients for the 2011 Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility. NPower received the award after a rigorous review process, including an evaluation of programs and practices, and a confidential employee survey. NPower is committed to helping our employees maintain a healthy work-life balance, and achieves this by providing adequate paid time off, remote work options, and the ability to work a modified or compressed work week.

We’re proud to be recognized both by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and our own employees for our commitment to providing a flexible work environment. Learn more about the award and other recipients on the When Work Works website.

- Mandi Moshay

NPower Northwest’s staff, board and community are deeply saddened by the loss of Scott White, husband of our Executive Director Alison Carl White. We know how important Alison’s family is to her, and our hearts go out to her, her children and the White and Carl families.

Statement from Alison Carl White:

Scott’s family and I wish to express our appreciation for the outpouring of support we have received since learning of his passing.  He was a tremendous husband, father and public official, and we are deeply moved by the nobility and honor with which his professional accomplishments are remembered.  We are consoled by the support of friends, colleagues and our community. Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated.

A Facebook page has been set up in remembrance of Scott. Visit the page to share stories, photos, and condolences and learn more about ways to support the family as they navigate this difficult time.

Donations can be made to the Wedgewood Elementary PTSA, EarthCorps or to an education fund for Scott’s two children. Donations to the college savings accounts of Barrett and Claire White may be sent to: GET Program, P.O. Box 84824, Seattle, WA 98124-6124. Make checks payable to "GET" and indicate the donation is for Barrett and Claire White. All funds received will be divided equally between the two accounts.

Please join us in supporting Alison by contributing to the educational fund for her children or adding your comments here.

Washington Nonprofits' 2011 Nonprofit Governance Symposium is taking place in on November 4th at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center. Here's the latest from Washington Nonprofits on what promises to be an engaging event:

Just three weeks from now, nonprofit board members from around the state will gather for one of the most stimulating and informative governance presentations ever held in our state.

Dr. Cathy Trower of Harvard University, one of the leading presenters and writers on today’s challenges for nonprofit boards, will keynote the Governance Symposium being presented by Washington Nonprofits on Friday, November 4, at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center from 8 am to noon.

Dr. Trower’s keynote, Governance as Innovation, will be followed by facilitated, in-depth discussions on specific topics raised in her presentation. The morning will wrap up with an extended Q & A session during which you can learn directly how to apply the concepts of Governance as Innovation to your own board.

Register today by going to www.washingtonnonprofits.org. Check the list of Partner organizations. If you belong to or are associated with one of them, you are eligible for the discounted registration rate for members.

We thank our sponsors, Hagel & Company, Pacific Continental Bank and Bader Martin for their support of the Governance Symposium.

You may have already noticed that you've been hearing from us again the past couple of days. We are officially back in action with email flowing as of 10 am Monday.  We think we're caught up with responding so if you haven't heard from us and are waiting for something, please send us a note!

We learned a few things along the way:

• We had built a system that we thought provided adequate redundancy, and now we are planning for more scenarios to protect ourselves better in the future.
• We missed you! Having learned some important lessons last week, our pledge is to limit our downtime to 4 hours in the future.

With thanks for you, our clients and community partners,

The NPower Northwest team

On October 10, NPower kicked off our Best Practices model initiative. This work springs from NPower’s strategic planning and our recently created Theory of Change work. This initiative will allow us to develop a set of recommendations for the nonprofit sector to assist in the creation and selection of technology tools to increase community impact.

We’ve divided our work into five key elements: people, process, infrastructure, data management, and online engagement. Each of these elements has a dedicated group of nonprofit technology experts to make recommendations, including members of NPower’s CIO Council and NPower staffers, with support from our AmeriCorps team members. Best Practices teams will use their best thinking in regards to current technology, nonprofit tools, and organizational processes to create a final model by the end of the year.

Our kick off meeting grounded the teams in a set of values that will shape the process. These values include a list of assumptions ranging from, “We take a holistic approach to technology use within nonprofit organizations – people, processes and tools are interconnected and equally important,” to, “Our Best Practices Model will represent our best thinking, not the lowest common denominator.” And, uniting all of our work is the idea that technology can play a pivotal role in creating the greater good.

As AmeriCorps members, we are excited to be staffing this important work. Wwe have a high interest in finding ways to help nonprofits better integrate technology, so this meeting was an inspiring glimpse into the huge amount of experience, intelligence, and wisdom gathered together in one room all focused on that very goal. Each of our AmeriCorps team members will be leading a team and meeting virtually the next nine weeks. As our work unfolds, we'ill keep you updated on this blog and on Twitter - follow the hashtag #npthinkbig.  We are excited to be a part of this important work that promises to impact the entire nonprofit sector!

- Abby Nafziger, Elissa Thomas, and Stephen Eggers

Technology is awesome and so are we, and sometimes hardware failures happen. We are having one of those days. Our email server is down today, October 13. To reach us please call our front desk at 206-286-8880.

Our experts have advised us we will be back up by tomorrow morning. Thanks for your patience!

NPower recently partnered with Gividend.com. Gividend partners with daily deals sites to offer each company’s deals in one convenient location. Gividend's Principal Community Manager, Andy Turman, shares more.

Gividend is proud to announce a partnership with NPower Northwest, a true innovator and implementer of technology solutions for the nonprofit sector. Gividend.com is organized in a way that helps you quickly find the most relevant deals for your lifestyle, and automatically donates a percentage of each purchase to NPowerNW.

Gividend partners with daily deals sites including GroupOn, BuyWithMe and Tippr to offer each company’s daily deals in one convenient location. Gividend saves time for busy individuals like you by consolidating the daily morning emails from a range of deals sites. You can filter the deals by category or location, further streamlining the experience. Gividend earns an affiliate commission for referring customers to the major daily deals sites.  Whether or not you’ve purchased a GroupOn in the past, you are still eligible to contribute to NPower by finding your deals at Gividend.com. We encourage you to visit Gividend.com, select NPower as your nonprofit, and purchase the deals that interest you. It's so simple!

The idea to create Gividend sprung from the Seattle nonprofit community. Aaron Bird, founder and CEO, saw an opportunity to bring the massive Seattle deals industry to the doorstep of local nonprofit organizations. After conversations with board members of local nonprofits, Aaron set out to make his vision a reality.  We are now operating in 29 cities nationally, but are extremely proud to claim Seattle as our HQ.

We are very happy to have made this natural partnership with NPower Northwest. As they continue to bring technology to nonprofits, so too do we work to bring technology to nonprofit fundraising.

Andy Turman

Principal Community Manager

Gividend.com

andy@gividend.com

Have you heard of Google Analytics? Do you know what it does? Many organizations know that it exists to track website visitors but at the same time don't know what to do with all the numbers and reports that it can generate. We recently dove into Google Analytics and had both a brown bag workshop and an online webinar highlighting how organizations can get the most out of this free website tool.

You can learn more about how your nonprofit can use Google Analytics by watching the free recorded webinar or by downloading the Google Analytics for Nonprofits Handout at our Knowledge Center. The knowledge center also contains links to the brown bag Prezi and the webinar slide deck in case you want to quickly click through to find information that is most relevant to you. You can also check out a previously posted a blog containing three Google Analytics gems for nonprofits (they are also briefly covered in the webinar).

Curious if your organization is alone in implementing a Google Analytics strategy? Check out the results from the webinar poll:

We also asked what challenges participants are facing:

We tried to focus on addressing the challenges of those involved in the webinar. Our topics covered:

• Setting the context - without examining the trends the numbers may not mean a lot.
• Metrics basics - giving definitions and examples for the metrics Google Analytics reports.
• Nonprofit goodies - how your nonprofit can leverage this tool such as identifying your constituents or for deciding on your next web page titles.
• Tips and tricks - some helpful tips that may not be obvious.
• Q & A - hear some questions and answers from the community.

Whether you have never used Google Analytics before or if you just don't know how to get anything useful from it, you'll hopefully learn a lot, or at least get some inspiration to log in and start looking for the trends. Your website may be the foundation of your communications strategy and Google Analytics can help you optimize that for free (and with a little time).

Let us know if these techniques work for you! Share your stories and feedback about this training in the comments below. If you have any questions about our training offerings, email us.

- Stephen Eggers