Pay for Success: A New Model for Nonprofits?

Posted by Frank Connolly on May 24, 2023 12:00 PM

An innovative way to fund social-service programs is slowly catching on in the United States—and it has the potential to transform the way larger nonprofits and mission-driven companies go about their business.

Pay for Success (PFS) is a funding model that relies on public-private partnerships to provide services that have traditionally been provided by the government. The idea originated in Great Britain in the early 2010s and gradually made its way across the Atlantic to the U.S., where it is now being employed in the social-service, healthcare, criminal-justice, and housing sectors.

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Formative Evaluation - Advanced Grant Writing

Posted by Skye Learning Team on Jun 7, 2021 2:40 PM

A grant proposal’s evaluation plan measures change. Formative evaluation measures include changes in policy, procedures, and processes.

Formative evaluation includes the following types of data collection methods that in turn show data that is measurable and demonstrates change over time:

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Conflicts of Interest in a Nonprofit

Posted by Frank Connolly on Oct 21, 2020 11:17 AM

The most fundamental ethical obligation for any nonprofit organization is to avoid conflicts of interest. Because nonprofits rely on donated funds, it is essential that they be able to demonstrate that this money is being properly spent—and that none of it is being used improperly to enrich the organization or its leaders.

Conflicts of interest most often involve the organization's executive director or members of the board of directors, because they are the people with the most direct influence over the organization's activities and business dealings.

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Logic Method in Grant Writing

Posted by Tricia Goodwin on Oct 8, 2020 12:12 PM

Successful grant writing is a highly iterative, detail-oriented process. To craft a truly great grant proposal, you need to demonstrate to a potential funder how all of the parts of a grant application both fit together and affect one other.

To ensure a grant proposal is both logically and structurally sound, use a logic model (also called a theory of change) to demonstrate how all of the moving parts in a proposal work together to form a cohesive, measurable project. A logic model is a blueprint that evaluates and measures how certain assumptions, inputs, activities, and outputs (the process-focused components of your program or project) lead to the desired goals and short-, medium-, and long-term outcomes that will best serve the target audience and effect social change.

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Grant Writing Planning Overview

Posted by Tricia Goodwin on Oct 7, 2020 11:33 AM

Pushing your grant writing skills to the next level is an exercise in focusing on the details. Our newest course “Advanced Grant Writing” shows you how to ask iterative questions of yourself, your team, and your proposed program in order to sharpen and refine your grant proposal and push it to the top of the pack. By looking closely at how a logic model can shore up your proposal at each key stage, the course will demonstrate how to push your planning, evaluation, and budgeting from good to great.

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Subject Matter Expert Spotlight: Cynthia Holt

Posted by Katie Sica on Jun 19, 2020 9:00 AM

This week, Skye Learning is thrilled to feature Cynthia Holt, an experienced consultant and nonprofit manager with more than two decades of experience in management, coaching, strategic planning, grant research and writing, and more. She is a subject matter expert for several Skye courses, including Introduction to Nonprofit Management and Strategy for Nonprofits.

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Responsibilities of the Nonprofit Board

Posted by Frank Connolly on Apr 8, 2020 10:30 AM

Like for-profit businesses, nonprofits range in size from small and medium organizations to very large, well-established organizations. These differences in size affect the way that nonprofits conduct every aspect of their operations, including fundraising, developing volunteer programs, establishing financial processes, and selecting a board of directors.

Regardless of a nonprofit’s size, the board plays an essential role in the organization’s success.

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Nonprofit Direct Mail Best Practices

Posted by Frank Connolly on Feb 27, 2020 9:35 AM

For nonprofit organizations, donor acquisition is the necessary foundation for every fundraising program. Two of the most common ways to identify new donors and also to re-engage existing contributors are direct mail and telemarketing.

Perhaps the most effective way to acquire a large number of first-time donors is to solicit their support by mail. Nonprofits use mail solicitation most frequently for annual campaigns. Using direct mail successfully, however, is not easy.

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Grant Writing Course Testimonials

Posted by Skye Learning Team on Feb 3, 2020 10:38 AM

Writing grants is often a critical part of gaining funding for any nonprofit organization's mission. Strategic grant writing aligns the needs of a nonprofit with funding sources, whether foundations, government agencies, corporations, or individuals. The Skye introductory-level course offers a guide to the basics of grant writing.

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3 Strategic Nonprofit Planning Processes

Posted by Frank Connolly on Oct 16, 2019 9:24 AM

Nonprofit leaders can employ the strategic planning process to keep the organization focused on its mission and goals. Strategic plans can be helpful in anticipating and responding to changes, building consensus within the organization, and keeping the operations of the nonprofit aligned with its mission. For example, leaders can target spending only on those programs and projects that are identified as vital, and they can link fundraising and applications for grants to the nonprofit's strategic vision.

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