Keeping up with the Joneses

So this is not a very thought-provoking post, but I hope it is helpful nonetheless!

One of the real appreciations I have for my experience with business school is that it allowed me to step out of the daily grind of my nonprofit job and reconsider what I think.  Truthfully, I was always so busy at work, I almost never got a chance to look around and see what was going on outside of my bubble.  Of course, in the MBA program most of the concepts we explored in classes were presented within a corporate context.  This meant that if I wanted to know what was going on in the nonprofit sector, I was going to  have to find that information for myself.  Through my friends at the Nonprofit & Public Management Center (on Twitter @npmcenter), I was exposed to a vast number of resources available through the great Internet.  Not everyone is lucky enough to run across such folks, though, so I thought I’d share some of my own practices in the hopes that it will help some of you all, and that you will be able to give me suggestions for other resources.

E-newsletters

If you know how to receive emails, then you can do this;  you sign up on the Internet, and you periodically receive literature delivered direct to your mailbox.  Here are three of my favorite newsletters:

• Philanthropy Today – A resource from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, this is where you can find the most recent news of what’s going on across the sector.  Although you can subscribe to the Chronicle (for $) and read all their articles, you can sign up for this newsletter and get access to a lot of articles for free.  Sign up at http://philanthropy.org/.
• Network for Good Tips Weekly – Great for fundraising tips, plus they have high quality webinars that are advertised through the newsletter.  Check out their most recent version (and opt-in for your own) at https://app.e2ma.net/app/view:CampaignPublic/id:23141.2095943551/rid:94a6b10bcb43656b119ea03277234c1e.
• NewsNotes – Particularly helpful to those of you in Southeast Michigan, Nonprofit Enterprise at Work is an amazing nonprofit capacity-building organization.  Always chocked full of great information about board governance and technology, the newsletter highlights upcoming events (which are always worth attending).  Sign up at http://www.new.org/newsnotes.

Google Reader

Blogs are a tremendous resource for nonprofit professionals, particularly as so many smart people in the sector are willing to share what they’ve learned.  Of course you can see some of my favorites on the blog roll on my site.  What is really nice is that it is no longer necessary to visit sites individually to catch up on what’s going on.  Just set up a Google Reader (via http://www.google.com/reader).  You will actually get posts about how to use it as soon as you sign up.  Then you can start subscribing to blogs, and the blog posts will be sent directly to your Google Reader.  Start with a few, and build up as it feels comfortable.  I follow about 100 blogs, but I have to keep up with these daily.  Do whatever makes you happy.

Twitter

So there is a lot of discussion about Twitter nowadays, with many people believing it is just another noise-filled channel.  I view Twitter as a great tool, which you can use in whatever fashion you’d like (this flexibility is part of what I really appreciate about the platform).  I am certainly no Twitter expert, but I do follow people who “tweet” very insightful things.  Since these people read magazines and follow blogs that I don’t , they will send out what they consider to be the most interesting tidbits from these out into the Twitterverse.  In essence, you get to skim the best of all the blogs, newspapers and magazines without having to sift through them all.  Of course, what you receive depends entirely upon who you follow.  Here are some of the people I get those most from: @philanthropy411, @kanter, @ajlovesya, @hildygottlieb, @johnhaydon, @philanthropy, and @pndblog.  You can see the full list of who I follow by visiting my Twitter profile and clicking on “following”.  I would also add that @kidsareheroes is a *great* person to follow to learn about how to navigate Twitter (particularly if you want to do more than listen and join the conversation).

There are tons of other resources available online, but for those of you who are just starting this should give you a good starting point.  Of course, if you have anything to add, please feel free to comment below!