Opportunities for expert contributors on Knowhow NonProfit

The future of KnowHow NonProfit

KnowHow NonProfit is an online learning environment for the voluntary sector aimed at improving the way people manage their work, their teams and their organisations.

Over the coming months, KnowHow NonProfit will shift to become a place where all learning requirements are defined by voluntary sector workers who visit the site. We will draw upon the collective expertise of a core group of volunteer experts to help shape and deliver that learning. The aspiration is that, as learners become experts, they, in turn, will use the site to help others in the sector on their own learning journey.

KnowHow NonProfit will mark a step change in the way the voluntary sector learns and develops. It is ‘learning 2.0’ for the sector: reaching more people for less money through new, collaborative technologies.

A call for experts

An expert is someone with good practical knowledge of any aspect of working for a non profit. It’s NOT necessarily someone with a Phd in voluntary sector management, or a senior manager with decades of sector experience. A KnowHow NonProfit expert could be:

• a young fundraiser passionately committed to direct marketing
• a long-standing charity trustee with a dedication to good governance, or
  
• a finance officer with an eagle eye for detail

The things all experts will have in common are dedication to their particular area of practice and commitment to both sharing their expertise with the wider non profit community and collaborating with others.

There are many ways experts can engage with KnowHow NonProfit and continue the growth of this crucial learning community.

1. ‘Bite-size’ training through screencast technology

Our research shows that the majority of people working in the voluntary sector, often for small organisations on shoe-string budgets, want quick, practical, bite-size training that can help them learn something fast.

KnowHow NonProfit meets this need through ‘screencast’ training - the trainer delivers their presentation from the comfort of their computer, which is then disseminated as a web video. No prior experience of this technology is required by the expert trainers.

We have asked our community about their learning needs and we now require experts in the following areas:

• Measuring impact and ‘social return on investment’

• Strategic planning and strategic planning tools

• How to set up a non profit / social enterprise

• Developing digital communications

• Fundraising in age of austerity

• Building strong, cohesive teams

• Bidding for local government contracts

• The essentials of good leadership

If you’d like to help with any of these areas and help increase your own profile as a leading trainer in the sector, please get in touch.

Here is an example of our pilot screencast training, on preparing project budgets: 

2. Empowering discussion

Our research shows that people working in the voluntary sector want fast answers to their day-to-day problems and they need frequent and regular access to experts. KnowHow NonProfit’s discussion forums are where people who want quick help can ask for it.

Each forum requires one or two experts to respond to questions, recommend further resources and keep each individual learning journey going. The idea is that no question in any area of the site is left unanswered, and as KnowHow NonProfit establishes itself as the ‘go to’ place for expert advice, so the profile of the expert advisers increases.

If you’d like to become one of the ‘go to’ people for charity management advice, please get in touch. We’ll show you a list of available areas and how your involvement could empower both yourself and many thousands of other people in the sector.

Here is an example of the general discussions in the café area of KnowHow NonProfit.

3. Wiki collaborations

Learners on KnowHow NonProfit are encouraged not just to take or consume learning, but also to share their own expertise with the wider online community.

One of the main areas for this activity is in the user-generated area for ‘how to’ guidance. This space aims to become the Wikipedia for non profit management issues by allowing people to publish straight to the site in a carefully templated step-by-step format, and by encouraging everyone in the online community to share their expertise.

Anyone on KnowHow NonProfit can:

• add their own step-by-step guide on any non profit management issue
• edit someone else’s step-by-step guide
• request a step-by-step guide for an issue they need help with

This is an exciting new approach to social learning for the sector and it requires a core group of experts to:

• seed the ‘how to’ platform with their own guidance
• moderate and enhance contributions from the wider community
• ensure that ‘how to’ requests are responded to  
  

If you’d like to explore with us how we can develop this important new collaborative tool, please get in touch.

Here is an example guide on: How to make the most of the cloud.

Get in touch

To discuss any of the opportunities mentioned above, please email us at knowhow@city.ac.uk.