Established in 2007, Valley Nonprofit Resources offers both information and services to strengthen the more than 4,000 nonprofit organizations in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles. Welcome to VNR's website! Click on the buttons to your left and at the top to access many resources that can help you increase the effectiveness of your nonprofit.
 Annual MENDing Poverty Conference 2009 |
Featured Workshops (for more click on Learning Community) 3/18 - Affordable Housing Nonprofits Workshop 3/25 - Public Relations for Nonprofits Workshop Featured Publications (for more click on Library) 2009 Resource Directory for Nonprofit Capacity Building in Los Angeles County Staying Alive Resource Guide |
In the News
* Forecasting Your Financial Future II - Resources for Affordable Housing Nonprofits will be held Thursday, March 18 from 11 am - 3 pm in North Hollywood. Like its very successful predecessor in October 2009, this workshop will help affordable housing nonprofits, especially those with annual budgets of more than $500,000, expand their financial planning skills. This time the emphasis will be on local resources affordable housing nonprofits can identify and use to obtain working capital and financial consulting services (e.g., to help with financial strategic planning). The main speakers will be David Greco and Karla Salazar of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, which recently opened a Los Angeles office and launched a major foundation-supported program to assist local nonprofits. Joining them will be local leaders in the affordable housing community, including Robin Conerly of the West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation, who will offer practical strategies for success and case examples. Co-sponsored by Valley Nonprofit Resources and Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing, it is recommended that participating nonprofits send both their executive director and chief financial officer. Cost of the workshop is $20, which includes lunch. For more information and to register, contact Diana Medina Wiley, VNR Project Coordinator, at 818/990-0176 or dianahiri@aol.com
* Public Relations for Nonprofits will be held Thursday, March 25 from 4:00 - 6:00pm in Sherman Oaks. This free workshop will present basic public relations concepts for nonprofit organizations interested in finding low-cost ways to expand or create a public relations strategy. Topics will include: 1) benefits of public relations, 2) message development, 3) types of media exposure, and 4) how to contact media representatives. The event will feature Valley-based PR consultants Joe Macias and Evelyn Aleman of Media Image Public Relations. For more information and to register contact Diana Medina Wiley, VNR Project Coordinator at 818/990-0176 or dianahiri@aol.com
* New VNR Project Valley Nonprofit Resources and its lead agency, the nonprofit Human Interaction Research Institute, are conducting an evaluation of the Flintridge Operating Foundation's nonprofit capacity building activities for the northwest San Gabriel Valley. The evaluation draws on HIRI's decades of experience in evaluating capacity building, and VNR's experience with local nonprofits. For more information contact VNR.
* Building a Fundraising Board is a webinar offered by Linda Lysakowski, which will discuss the role the board plays on the nonprofit organization's development team, how to engage board members in the fundraising process, and how to ensure that they will enthusiastically get involved with the fundraising efforts of an organization. (Note: Full participation in this webinar is applicable for CFRE continuing education points.) The webinar will be offered on Tuesday February 23, 2010 at 11:00am PST, and is 90 minutes with a fee of $89.00 per person, $150.00 per site. To register go to:
www.grantstation.com/Programs/WebinarOrder/Webinars.aspx?id=60
* Discounted Technology Courses The International Commission on Workforce Development and TechSoup offer discounts on "e-Skills360°" computer-based courses in information technology and professional development. Nonprofit staff and volunteers can access more than 1,500 courses for practical training on a variety of in-demand skills. Many courses cover technology systems and software, such as Web Design Basics, Cisco Internetworking Technologies, and The Linux Operating System, and others offer professional skills and development, like Communicating Clearly: Write to be Understood and Diversity Awareness: The Evolving Labor Force. To sign up for these courses go to:
www.techsoup.org/stock/Category.asp?catalog_name=TechSoupMain&category_name=ICWFD&Page=1&cg=nyr_2&visit=1
* Microsoft E-Learning Courses from Microsoft Assurance and Tech Soup provide access to self-paced, interactive, training developed by Microsoft. Courses are designed for maximum skill transfer in minimal time. Assessments, hand-on virtual labs, expert advice and an interactive, nonlinear approach make for a flexible e-learning experience. Courses range from beginner level software training, such as Core Training for Microsoft Excel, to more advanced subjects, such as Designing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Access to e-learning courses is available free to organizations that have received donated Microsoft products with software assurance. To learn more and to sign up for these courses go to:
www.techsoup.org/stock/microsoft/ms_assurance_learn.asp?cg=nyr_2
* Nonprofit Centers Network is a community of nonprofit and philanthropic leaders and professionals from the financial, real estate, and public sectors dedicated to sharing knowledge and networks for creating and operating quality nonprofit workspace. The NonprofitCenters Network is a program of Tides Shared Spaces, which operates and promotes sustainable workspace for nonprofits and strengthens nonprofit capacity in the real estate arena. To access the website and learn more, go to: www.nonprofitcenters.org/about-us
* Techsoup Webinars are available on everything from Mobile Technology for Advocacy and Activism to Storytelling and Social Media, to A Roadmap for Microsoft Training. These webinars are available at convenient times, and are also free. The Webinars page lists all archived and upcoming topics. Go to: www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/webinars/ind
* Writing for the Reviewer is a webinar offered by Sandra Jewell, author of the "Notes from a Federal Reviewer" series. It is designed to help nonprofit organizations create winning applications by understanding and addressing the needs of reviewers. The webinar will discuss the steps in creating a winning narrative, the overall structure of a successful funding request, and the do's and don'ts of creating memorable applications. The webinar will be held on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 11:00 am PST, for 90 minutes and costs$89 per person, $150 per site. To register, go to:
www.grantstation.com/Programs/WebinarOrder/Webinars.aspx?id=58
Staying Alive
VNR's Staying Alive Initiative provides workshops, information resources and technical assistance for Valley nonprofits about how to survive and thrive in the current hard economic times. A supplemental grant from the California Community Foundation helps support these activities (CCF is a major funder of VNR).
Upcoming workshops and other events, and new publications addressing nonprofit issues in the current recession, are listed below. For additional publications and other resources, go to Staying Alive Resources.
Upcoming VNR Workshops:
VNR is collaborating with the Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing and the Nonprofit Finance Fund in developing a workshop on financial planning for affordable housing nonprofits - building on the success of the November 2009 workshop. For details of this March 18 workshop see description above.
New Publications:
More publications for Staying Alive will be added next month.
VNR's Partners
Valley Nonprofit Resources is operated collaboratively by the nonprofit Human Interaction Research Institute (which has conducted research and provided technical assistance to the nonprofit sector since 1961), California State University, Northridge, and MEND (the largest poverty services agency in the Valley).
Photo of the San Fernando Valley courtesy of Randy Witt Productions
