Extract from Strategy and Planning Descriptor available on the ASK Inyathelo portal 

Tweeting your event is a great way to get exposure, build followers and strengthen your brand. It can open up key learnings to people far beyond those attending your events. But it takes more than just showing up and sending off a couple of tweets. Here are some simple, common sense tips:

Inyathelo: The South African Institute for Advancement is seeking a new Executive Director.  Based in Cape Town, Inyathelo’s work focuses on the financial sustainability of civil society organisations and universities and promoting philanthropic giving in South Africa.   

Inyathelo's dialogue on the implications of the election results on civil society was hosted on 4 October, with guests William Gumede and Stanley Henkeman. Below are summaries of the discussion. 

It’s well documented that stress in the workplace is strongly associated with absenteeism, lower productivity, poor morale and high turnover rates. Conversely, employee wellness programs are a proven component in attracting top talent and keeping them happy. Despite this, non-profits often have a reputation for pushing a missionary-like work ethic (long hours, thankless work, low pay) on their employees.

Inyathelo invites you to join a dialogue on the implications of the election results on civil society.

The ASK Inyathelo web portal offers numerous resources on Advancement specifically for South African non profits. Its collection of podcasts looks at ways to activate different aspects of Advancement to garner support, and offers suggestions on how organisations can better position themselves to become more sustainable.

These podcasts are available free on the ASK Inythelo website!

NPO finance expert, Curtis Klotz, argues that it is not enough to tell donors of the need to fund overhead and admin costs, we need to show them. The problem, says Klotz, is that “We are stuck with old terms and old images.”  He thus proposes a radical solution, that we retire our traditional organisational pie chart!

Two recent publications from the American NPO, Unemployment Services Trust (UST), will undoubtedly ring true with the South African non-profit sector as well. The 2015 Nonprofit Employee Engagement and Retention Report, and the spinoff article, 6 Reasons Why your NonProfit Employees Quit, should be required reading for HR directors.

Both publications are available as free downloads from the UST website.

The South African Nonprofits and Social Media Survey (2015 – 2016) shows that the vast majority of South African nonprofit organisations are seeing positive benefits through using social media. This is despite the fact that more than 80% of NPOs do not allocate a budget for social media, close to 50% said that staff lacked the expertise to manage social media, and almost one-third said they have no communications plan to guide their social media work. 

Download the full report.