Posted By Decisions Decisions on July 22nd, 2011
D2 helped Brazil-based, Shine A Light, evaluate their work teaching digital media to marginalized children. When the leaders of the nonprofit Shine A Light wanted to evaluate their work over the past ten years, Decisions Decisions helped them design an evaluation process and present their findings.
Shine A Light has created a network of more than 300 nonprofits in 49 cities in 16 countries throughout Central and South America that work with street kids. Through the network, groups collaborate and share knowledge with their peers. Shine A Light has conducted 19 major projects with some of the best of these organizations over the past decade. Its digital media programs – film, music, design, and literature – have made it possible for street kids to share their knowledge and inspiration with other organizations and activists. Shine A Light wanted to more deeply understand its impact on these kids.
During its evaluation, Shine A Light learned that its programs have had transformational impacts on the children who participated. Many of them are now making a living as artists or serving as arts educators. Two-thirds became leaders in their communities. Thirty-eight percent have gone on to college – a higher percentage than their peers in the United States. A Bolivian leader described it this way: “Poor kids have to face a million brutal hierarchies. So when they get a real chance to practice democracy, they shine.”
A surprising – and unintended – result of Shine A Light’s work is the impact that the organization has had on the nonprofits in the collaborative network. Because of Shine A Light, significant percentages of collaborating nonprofits received new funding, expanded their services, and changed public policy.
A Brazilian program director said it well: “You catch these kids at their best, as they show what they want to be. And then years later, at a tough time, they look at these films, or hear the music, and it reminds them. Film is like a commitment to yourself, and when there are so many temptations of drugs and gangs all around, that’s important.”
We were excited to partner with Shine A Light and to support their incredibly important work. Want to learn more? Check out www.shinealight.org. You can read their evaluation at http://www.shinealight.org/Texts/Evaluation2011.pdf
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Posted By Decisions Decisions on March 4th, 2011
The Retirement Boom. The impact of an aging workforce is being felt throughout the country in all sectors. The exodus of the baby boomer generation from the nonprofit sector will have a dramatic impact on many organizations at both the board and staff level. Leadership transitions occur for any number of reasons, planned and unplanned. This time can be a powerful opportunity to strengthen the organization if a thoughtful plan is in place. Executive transitions are transformational, but when poorly managed, they often bring on a crisis leading to decreased effectiveness and sometimes even organizational failure. Jim Morris, our Manager for the Sustainable Leadership Practice, was recently interviewed by
Saving Land Magazine in an article titled "
The Retirement Bomb." In the article, Jim outlines a strategy for not only dealing with these transitions, but how to plan for them as well.
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Posted By Decisions Decisions on October 22nd, 2010
Building Board Leadership: A Special Presentation by Marc Smiley. What happens when two great organizations like Decisions Decisions and the Nonprofit Association of Oregon (formerly TACS) collaborate? A whole lot actually. Beginning this October, D2’s Marc Smiley and others within our firm will be sharing our breadth and depth of knowledge about building effective organizations through a series of five lectures offered through the Nonprofit Association of Oregon (NAO). Marc has already completed the first two, but there is still time to sign up for the next lecture on November 3rd when he will present on “Building Board Leadership.” Not sure whether you should sign up? Click here to see a full description of the lecture and here to download a copy of the training packet from the first session entitled “Board Orientation: What You Need to Know to Serve on a Nonprofit Board.” Not located in Portland? No problem – in addition to Portland, the lecture series will take us to Salem and Bend over the next 6 months. As many of you in the nonprofit field know, building an effective board is critical to creating a sustainable organization – this is a great opportunity to come and learn more about how to draw out the leaders on your board. We hope to see you soon in a city near you!
Lecture Dates and Times:
Nonprofit Board Network
Board Orientation: What You Need to Know to Serve on a Nonprofit Board
October 12, 2010 – 5:30 to 7:00 pm
Ecotrust Conference Center, Portland
Rogue Valley Nonprofit Training Series
Sustainable Nonprofit Business Models
October 20, 2010, noon to 1:30 pm
Red Lion Hotel, Medford
Executive Directors Network
Building Board Leadership
November 3, 2010, 8:00 am to 9:30 am
Ecotrust Conference Center, Portland
Mid-Valley Executive Directors Network
Board Fundraising: Lessons from the Field
January 25, 2011 – 8:00 am to 9:30 am
Mission Mill Museum, Salem
Nonprofit Network of Central Oregon
Building Board Leadership
April 27, 2011
St Charles Medical Center, Bend
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Posted By Decisions Decisions on October 21st, 2010
Land Trust Alliance's 2010 Rally in Connecticut. Energizing, exciting, inspirational, and a whole lot of fun! That is how Solid Ground team members Allison Handler, Jim Morris and Marc Smiley described their experience at Rally 2010 in Hartford, Connecticut. Rally, sponsored by the Land Trust Alliance, has been dubbed the “premier training event for land conservation” and this year brought together close to 2,000 people from all walks of the land conservation field. Whether they were taking hikes on beautiful trails that had been collaboratively conserved, playing music alongside the Travellin’ Trout Trunk Band during Rallypalooza, getting into the nitty gritty legal details of writing conservation easements, or getting certified in order to conduct assessments, those with a passion for green came and Rally delivered.
At a glance, Rally is really an opportunity for people interested in land conservation to combine classroom instruction, peer learning, networking, and some good old fashioned fun in one non-stop, information-packed, action-inspiring week. Marc made an especially significant contribution to the week by teaching and debuting Solid Ground Consulting Group alongside Barb Welch and with ongoing support from Allison and Jim. Click
here to access the course packet! The event also highlighted several timely, critical issues, such as climate change, and surfaced how these issues intersect with farmland conservation and large landscape protection. In the end, participants came, learned, and were inspired…and as Allison put it, “It was incredible to be surrounded by so many people working so hard to protect so many significant, special places.”
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Posted By Decisions Decisions on August 18th, 2010
Adding Value Through Vacation. Most of our time here at D2 is spent working hard for our clients by acting with intention, responding to requests with authenticity, producing quality work, making sure we speak with integrity, and taking any and every given opportunity to learn in order to conduct good business. But once a year, usually in August, we tackle the other two values that, amid impossibly packed schedules, seem to get quietly swept under the rug. These two values, of course, are balance and fun.
This August we are taking these two values extremely seriously as we anticipate a busy and full fall quarter. The reason that values like "balance" and "fun" are included as part of the D2 philosophy is because we are firm believers that our work is only as good as the energy we put into it. And that energy is directly connected to how much time and importance we place on work/life balance.
Fun, of course, is an integral part of that balance because it speaks to the part of us that we too often forget exists - the inner child that calls to us to skip down the hall at work or take a break to walk down the street just to buy an ice cream cone. Whether we admit it or not, these values tend to fall to the wayside when it comes time to crack the whip and get work done. So this month, we are taking a moment to appreciate our staff for taking care of themselves by remembering that balance and fun are equally important to conducting good business and producing quality work, in fact, they are essential to it.
D2 newlywed Allison Handler (right) taking on both balance and fun with husband John Miller (left) by appreciating the beauty of the wilderness that we strive to protect through our work with land trust conservations. Photo taken at Victoria, Canada, on the way to Salt Spring Island.
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