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The Growth Imperative: How Can Organizations Plan Ahead?

November 30, 2007

In a recent report titled “The Global War for Talent” published by Aberdeen Group, a global research organization, researchers suggest that companies that focus their efforts on future workforce planning have a consistent advantage in talent acquisition. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? But what about organizations that are growing at such a rate that future growth is difficult to predict? This is a common challenge of some entrepreneurial nonprofit organizations whose growth outpaces their ability to plan for growth.

To address this challenge, Commongood Careers has a few suggestions:

1. Know the skill sets you seek. Create a list of common skills and competencies required for hires, both for specific roles and for all employees. If you build these profiles today, you’ll be better prepared when a position opens up in your organization.

2. Be able to connect quickly with candidates who possess those skills. Smart organizations are always “recruiting” to some extent; keep track of and keep in touch with any potential employees you may meet even if you’re not hiring for an open position today. Then, when it comes time to fill an open position, you’ll have a few leads in mind from the start.

3. Elevate talent acquisition planning to a strategic level. Your organization wouldn’t launch a new fiscal year without a budget, right? Planning for new hires is just as important. Build hiring plans, even if they are just forecasts or estimates, into your yearly planning process. A little work on an organization chart in advance will help to avoid hiring “fire drills” down the road.

Other suggestions for how nonprofits can best plan ahead for hiring? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment to this blog entry.

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Hiring Advice, Sector Reports

Professional Women Unite!

November 28, 2007

A colleague just brought to our attention a great web site for professional women. It’s called YourOnRamp and it bills itself as “a community of professional women who balance their work and life with flexibility and creativity.” The site has a Nonprofit section that includes interviews with sector leaders, book reviews, online discussions, job listings, and a wealth of other resources for women interested in nonprofit careers. This section of the site has a slant towards social entrepreneurism.

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Sites We Like

What is a Social Entrepreneur?

November 09, 2007

We often get asked the question, “What is a social entrepreneur?” and it is not an easy question to answer. Last week, James and Cassie attended a session at the Teach For America alumni event in Boston this weekend where Harvard Business School professor Stacey Childress shared the definition that they use in the classroom:

“A ‘Social Entrepreneur’ is one who pursues opportunities to create pattern-breaking social change without regard for the resources that she/he can currently control.”

She explained that where as traditional nonprofits had sought to meet community needs by institutionalizing support systems for those in need, social entrepreneurs generally endeavor to change the way the world itself works in an attempt to root out the primary causes of social ills. They will not rest until they have done this, and they will rarely stop to consider if they have the necessary funding, capacity, workforce or support to get something done. They just dive in and get to it.

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Social Entrepreneurism