Public Allies Arizona’s 13th class will graduate in June, the completion of a 10-month AmeriCorps program that places emerging young leaders at local nonprofits for full-time paid apprenticeships. (Find out how you can get involved as an Ally or a Partner Organization.) In this post, which appeared in condensed form at PublicAllies.org, meet Class 13 Ally Channtal Polanco, who was placed at Opportunities for Youth.

What were you doing before you enrolled in Public Allies? What drew you to Public Allies?

Prior to Public Allies I was a first-generation college student pursuing my Associate of Arts (AA) degree at Phoenix College, working part-time with the City of Phoenix Head Start and being a mother to my wonderful child.

What drew me to Public Allies were many things, one being that I’ve had the opportunity to meet alums who spoke highly of Public Allies Arizona. I have known about Public Allies for quite some years but was, in a way, hesitant to make the commitment knowing I had a child to support and all the unknowns that may have come with Public Allies. After a while working in my community and serving, I yearned to continue to grow and be…

Peer-to-peer fundraising events started nearly 50 years ago with events such as the March of Dimes’ fundraiser that has come to be known as March for Babies. Over time, the field of peer-to-peer fundraising events grew and developed.

A wave of walk events was followed by 5Ks, cycling events and many other types of events to raise funds from a network of peers.

But are these events’ best days behind them? The Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Thirty shares that the top 30 events across the nation have been on an overall steady decline, though not all events in the top 30 have seen a decline.

This idea of decline can make it seem as though peer-to-peer fundraising is no longer effective, though this type of fundraising continues to bring benefit to nonprofits. 

Peer-to-peer fundraising represents an important way to grow awareness, constituent base and to raise funds for a nonprofit. Though events can be a costly way of fundraising, they continue to raise valuable awareness and bring new people to the organization, which can be difficult to measure with a dollar value. In order to get the benefit out of peer-to-peer fundraising that still exists, nonprofits must stay up to date with the times and on top of the trends. This means putting detailed plans into place on how to manage the…

Prior to the ASU Lodestar Center’s American Express Leadership Academy, I was somewhat of an education junkie. With the ability to take classes online from some of the most prominent institutions in the world, I was enrolled in tons of classes and getting a lot of great education. But I greatly missed the human element and learned quickly that you can’t replace face-to-face interaction.

Learning from others is ingrained in our DNA and is nothing short of crucial. Research from Harvard Business Review shows that learning happens best when learners collaborate and help one another. And yet, according to an April 2019 HBR study titled, Educating the Next Generation of Leaders, “the most difficult skills to teach, measure, or even articulate are leading, communicating, relating, and energizing groups,” all of which require collaborative learning environments, individual coaching and personalized learning plans.

When I started the program with American Express Leadership Academy, I was not sure what to expect, but our first day single-handedly set the tone for the incredible 10 months ahead. We started by diving into our individual Emergenetics profiles with expert and incredible leadership coach Dr. Kevin Patterson. This tool allowed me to better identify my natural strengths…

What comes to mind when you hear Diagnostic Survey?  How about Certification Rubric? It’s possible you may have already stopped reading this blog because they sound like WAY too much to do and you do not really understand the benefits.

Well, let me assure you that it is a lot of work, but when preparing these components for certification with the Service Enterprise Initiative (SEI), the benefits your organization will reap far outweigh the time spent. SEI is a national program, offered in Phoenix by the ASU Lodestar Center, that provides training and certification to selected nonprofits that are committed to implementing exemplary volunteer management practices to achieve their missions. 

Our organization, the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services & Education/Arizona Bar Foundation, is 40 years old, and we have always believed in volunteers and how much we need them in order to fulfill our mission.  We have trainings, we have orientations, we have recognition… We thought we would just sail through the process. NOT!

What we came to realize more deeply is that it’s not all about me as the Director of Volunteers. We had to take off our rose-colored glasses and see that it’s all about each and every one of our staff, how they work with…

For nonprofit organizations to effectively serve their missions and be sustainable, they must invest in some of their most vital resources: their staff. Unfortunately, the data shows that 81 percent of organizations are without a retention program.

The 2017 Nonprofit Employment Practices Survey results show that organizations’ top three greatest talent challenges are hiring qualified staff within limited budget constraints, maintaining salary budgets against market pressures, and finding qualified staff. However, when comparing costs associated with staff turnover, versus costs of investing resources into staff, studies show that turnover is a greater expense for organizations. Costs of productivity, errors, the impact on remaining staff and hiring costs must be taken in to consideration. Challenges recruiting qualified staff only intensify the need to retain them. 

Coleman Selden and Sowa state in 'Human Service Organizations Management Leadership & Governance' that studies examining turnover show that effective HR practices, from recruitment and…