In this podcast, Justin talks with Elizabeth Weaver Engel, CEO and Chief Strategist at Spark Consulting, and Sohini Baliga, Director of Communications at the nonpartisan budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense, about their white paper titled, “Steal Like a Fundraiser.” Their paper addresses innovative practices in the charitable fundraising environment that association executives might want to adopt, specifically... read more
“Did I lose my special treat?” A frequent question from my son. We’ve created a system in our home where if he behaves, he gets a “special treat” after dinner – usually in the form of 22 minutes of TV. While there are some issues with the system (what’s the leverage for behaving once he’s lost this special... read more
Salesforce, by its very name, sounds like a product that only for-profit companies can leverage. Yet, as Kristen Singleton – Director of Tools and Technologies at Education Resource Strategies (ERS) – explains, Salesforce can play a significant role in the information management at non-profit organizations as well. On this podcast we discuss how ERS is leveraging Salesforce, challenges they faced in transitioning to using... read more
Mike Fletcher, Director of Information Technology, Endocrine Society Talking business intelligence (BI) tools with Mike Fletcher, the Director of Information Technology at the Endocrine Society. Mike recently went through the process of finding a BI tool, ultimately deciding on Power BI. We discuss why he wanted a BI tool, the process of picking a BI tool, some of... read more
Koala on Phillip Island, Australia Hello Small Staff Big Impact. I’m baack! I’ve spent the better part of the last year traveling around Australia and SE Asia. I’ve met a lot of great people and learned many things. As part of my experience, I held some interesting jobs to supplement my travel income, including crew on a 43... read more
Looking to do something a little different for your next team-building outing? Take a look at Topgolf, a fun group activity that feels a lot like the bowling version of golf. fusionSpan recently took a Friday afternoon off to try it out, and the reviews all came back positive (much to the chagrin of my local bowling alley attendant). (more…)
Scanning a list of the top 100 Twitter account and you’ll find a lot of singers, actors, athletes and other celebrities. Only a handful of accounts are branded as organization accounts. Organizations that do break into the top 100 represent social media companies, news organizations, and sporting groups (while an association does come in at #60, there model... read more
A little while back we were looking for a backup solution for our office. We have a small network of about 10 computers and it’s a mix of Mac OS X and Windows 7/8 workstations and a couple of Linux servers. Our main criteria for finding a good solution were ease of use and cost. Backup and Disaster... read more
Anyone who’s been involved with event registration knows that there can be many speed bumps along the path before reaching the end goal: a successful event that provides a positive experience for the customers (and staff!). Since I work with a few companies for their event registration processes, I decided to share some of my new-found insight from... read more
Last Friday the fusionSpan team got together to celebrate the holidays. We shared great food, libations, and many laughs. Our talented party planner, Linh, prepared a wonderful spread, with the help of our baker, Jessica, and chef, Sheree. We had a blast playing holiday themed games such as Stocking Surprise, the Present Unwrapping Challenge and Mystery Christmas Sketch... read more
Dear Betty, At the request of our Board, our association recently worked with a consultant to evaluate our membership structure. The consultant strongly recommended increasing our dues rates. I’m worried about the impact this will have on our retention rate. How do I explain an increase in dues to our members? How do I ease the blow for... read more
Source: MemberClicks Hello Small Staff Associations! We found this great article by Sarah Hill of MemberClicks directed towards and written especially for you. Times are tough…and if they’re not tough, they’re always busy. In addition to the stresses Sarah talks about, the government shutdown caused some un-needed stress. Even if you aren’t directly employed by the government, they... read more
Have you considered hiring a consultant to help you identify the ideal system for your association and help with the data conversion? If your nonprofit has a small staff, little technical expertise or limited time, a consultant may be just what you need. You’ll want to make sure the consultant you choose has relevant association experience to understand... read more
When you take into consideration the limited resources you have with a small staff association, it is more important than ever to prioritize. It is easy to go through the motions of your day and not think about prioritizing but by allotting time to this task, you can maximize your staff’s time and resources by deleting obsolete tasks... read more
