fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
How NOT to Build a Real-Time Multiplayer Game in 30 Days
By: Omar Sharaki
Tags: Project Management, Hackathons, Software Development, Programming, Game Development

Don’t Skimp on Research

That’s not to say things were going swimmingly on the front end. The same way Firebase does a lot of the heavy lifting for you on the back end, using a game engine allows you to hit the ground running by providing many tools out of the box: a game loop, object rendering, physics — the list goes on. That is, of course, if you use these tools.

While we did use many of the tools offered by Flame, we ended up implementing many others ourselves. Not because Flame’s own implementation of them was inadequate, but simply because we didn’t know they existed!

In our eagerness to get started we rushed through that most important of phases — the research phase. As a result, we built many components from scratch when, unbeknownst to us, they were just an import statement away.

A prime example of this is the joystick, which Flame had a perfectly fine module for. Instead, we made our own, which, don’t get me wrong, was great practice, but perhaps not the best use of our time on a tight schedule.

We did this a few more times with a few other components and very soon it became clear that when you reinvent the wheel, often what you end up with is a square.

The hasty solutions we put together made the project very difficult to work with and expand on (which is really saying something if you’ve only been at it for a couple of weeks!). This prompted us to take a step back and redo much of what we already had, but this time using as much of what the game engine offered as possible.

This rebuild certainly took some time away from implementing new features (about a couple of days), but once we were done with it we could already tell that we were progressing at a much faster rate.

The thing to remember here is that even a few minutes of research now could save you hours of unnecessary work down the line.
Absolutely do this.
By: Anne Dougherty
Tags: Project Management, Planning Ahead, Work Life Balance, Anxiety

Absolutely do this. Not only because is eases your reentry, but also because is helps you to closeout the current year and enjoy your time off. Even if your first couple of days will be going back to that unfinished project, your brain (okay, *my brain*) needs that feeling of closure to avoid that mental to-do list that usually makes Sunday evenings hell.
Project Management in ERP projects: waterfall vs agile
By: Johan De Coster
Tags: Scrum, Project Management, Erp Software, Waterfall Model

ERP software, aka Enterprise Resource Planning software, is a software package that aims to support all business processes in a company in a single unified program.

Overview of common ERP functions.

An ERP system offers quite some advantages: a single source of truth, no spaghetti like mess of interlinked applications,…

Well-known ERP software developers are companies such as SAP, Microsoft, Salesforce, Odoo and many others.

Project Management Triangle

Project management is about balancing scope, time and budget. If one changes, so does one or both of the others.

Project management implementing ERP software

This article isn’t about ERP softwareitself, but about implementing it. ERP implementations are often large projects, especially if they’re green field projects.

The waterfall method

Traditionally they are managed in a classic waterfall way.

The project will more or less go through the following phases:

Analysis: the as-is and to-be business processes are analyzed. The outcome is a blueprint of the to-be business processes.

Implementation: The agreed blue print is implemented.

Training: (Key) users are trained on the implemented solution.

Validation: the key (users) validate the implemented solution.

Go live: after a successful validation phase, the company goes live with the ERP solution, meaning the business processes are run on the new ERP system.

In a waterfall managed project, the scope is agreed and fixed and the timing and budget depend on the agreed scope. The advantage is that a company knows what it will get in the end.

The biggest drawback of this, is that user validation comes quite late in the project. Which means if something is not analyzed or implemented correctly, it is only known quite late and rework often is extensive.

Scrum or Agile

Scrum or agile project management aims to validate implemented functionality as soon as possible and aims to add functionality in an step-wise manner through so-called sprints. These sprints have a fixed length (4 weeks) and the scope of each sprint is determined based on priority and workload of the desired functionality (the so-called backlog).

In scrum, the timing and budget is fixed and the scope is flexible. The big advantage is that user validation comes very early.

The big disadvantage is that the scope isn’t fixed. In e.g app development this is less of an issue when adding features to a product, but in ERP this can be a huge issue: a company cannot go live with half of an order-to-cash process.

So, what now?

Though the waterfall tends to be the default method for ERP projects, a lot of projects will be run by a hybrid approach: overall the project will still be managed in a waterfall, but the implementation will be done through scrum.

This hybrid model counters the biggest drawback of the waterfall model through getting user validation early in the process.
How to roll out Scrum where it has never been used before
By: Daria K.
Tags: Scrum, Project Management, Project Manager

When you’ve made sure Scrum is what you need and you’ve got approval from the top management (or whoever approves changes like this in your organisation) the creative part can begin. You’ve got to seek buy-in from team members first. If you succeed, by the moment you set up the first Sprint Planning they are already excited and even exhausted by anticipation. Here you don’t need to rush. Slice an elephant into small pieces and make a plan.

What worked for me many times is visualisation of challenges we faced on the project and then the demonstration of Scrum potential in solving those. Of course the challenges should be real and known to everyone, not only you.

People don’t like to change their habits and start with new complex things, even though they still want to work out their issues. We won’t discuss this paradox now.

I recommend emphasizing the simplicity of Scrum, its extreme adjustability and customisation opportunities. Worth mentioning that introducing a new framework wouldn’t mean abandoning what has already been working for the team. The focus here is an improvement rather than change.

When presenting anything new to your team try to address their concerns, suggestions and worries. If they ask questions, that’s a very good sign. When they get the answers and you support the dialogue, the anxiety related to unexpected life changes will be reduced.
PayBright.com — Product Delivery/UX Case Study
By: Anthony To
Tags: Case Study, UX, Fintech, Product Management, Project Management

Introduction

PayBright.com, a FinTech firm offers Buy Now/Pay Later (BNPL) plans to retail customers through merchants. They have partnered with over 7000+ merchants from small to medium businesses in the e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retail space like eBay, Samsung, Article, WayFair.ca and many more.

Why would merchants partner with PayBright you may ask?

PayBright highlights these offerings for their partners:

Well how about customers? What would benefit them?

Turns out, I’m not the only one who seems to have items sitting in “My Shopping Cart/Basket” that I hope to purchase someday in the future. Further, I’m not alone in wanting the flexibility to purchase items in installments — interest free.

I haven’t felt the need to use these offerings but, there is definitely a market for this as firms like PayBright, Affirm and Afterpay have seen huge growth in recent years.

Needless to say, it is sure helpful to have the option for those who may not have a lot of disposable income at a point in time.

The BNPL process is quick and easy. Whether online or in-store; PayBright gathers the customer’s phone number or email, and sends them through an application process that can approve/decline their application for their transaction purchase within a minute!
This is a very under-discussed problem, especially in the context of Data Science.
By: Charudatta Manwatkar
Tags: Project Management, Data Science

This is a very under-discussed problem, especially in the context of Data Science. Kudos for a great article. It would have been even better if there were some specific examples in each of the sections describing what can go wrong and how to prevent it. E.g. I worked on a project about bank document processing. The client and the developers had very different ideas about accuracy. The clients wanted the program to run perfectly on 80% of the documents and the developers were thinking that the program should give 80% performance on each document.
Learning and Teaching Tech Tools Week Three
By: Kaytriona Williams
Tags: Startup, Project Management, Tutorial, Sales, Tech Tools

Hey! I’m spending 30 days building a series of tutorial videos and blog posts demonstrating how to use strategic tech tools that benefit startups. This is my week three documentation. If you’re interested in learning more about my project, you can view the full project here.

What I did:

This week I focused on increasing my proficiency with tech tools in sales. In week two I created a mockup website for the company Strava. I then proceed to add and teach tech tools that would benefit that website.

Now that everything on the website creation side was running smoothly, it was time to show how I would sell it. Everything from newsletters and email campaigns and leads lists.

I started by adding a newsletter subscription box on my website. You can view my website here. You’re welcome to click around, make sure to check out the FAQs and About pages. Also, feel free to drop a question for me in the live chatbot and I’ll reply.

The subscription panel is at the bottom of the home page. The list of subscribed emails is compiled into a list that I could easily send the newsletter too. I then used Mailchimp to design a template for the newsletter. Newsletters are a way to promote your product through engaging content and it also keeps your current users involved and interested in your product.

Strava already has a large number of blog posts. All they would need to do is enter the body and the header and possibly drop a picture or two into the template design on Mailchimp. And just like that, they have an engaging newsletter crafted to fit their company’s style.

Next, I gathered a list of leads using Hunter.io. I then documented this process with a tutorial video and blog post. My next step was to create three email cadences for Strava using Mailchimp. Those emails would be sent to the leads list.

This process was similar to building the newsletter. I started by building a template that I would use for all three, then I wrote the content for each email. I then made a blog and video walkthrough documenting what I built. I also built a tutorial video and blog teaching how to build an email campaign using Mailchimp.

Here are the links to the videos and blogs:

Blogs:

Videos:

I also linked each of the videos inside of their correlating blog posts.

Overall

I didn’t run into too many problems this week. Any that did arise were small and I was able to fix them fast. I learned a lot that I didn’t know about Mailchimp and Hunter.io. I also learned how to write better sales emails.

In week four I will be compiling all of my projects onto a website to serve as a one-stop tutorial site. I will also be learning and teaching how to use Salesforce to track and analyze the data received. You can view my week four here!
Cyberpunk 2077 — what can we learn from it?
By: Hélder Pinheiro
Tags: Waterfall, Technology, Project Management, Agile, Gaming

Smartphones, cloud gaming, and Covid are fueling the Gaming Industry to expand its revenues to the point that many say it is already 3 to 4 times bigger than the Movie Industry.

CD Projekt is a gaming software house responsible for one of the most renowned gaming series of all-time, the Witcher. The last manifestation of that series occurred with Witcher 3, a magical and medieval open-world, voted by many the most prominent game of the last decade.

In the attempt to create a new AAA series, Cyberpunk 2077 was announced as an open-world RPG, played in a futuristic city, with great graphics, environment, and side quests. The development started in 2012(3), with twice the people who worked in Witcher 3. Moreover, CD Projekt promised a game superior to the Witcher 3, and considering development, distribution, and marketing, various media articles are reporting a budget around 200M€ (versus roughly 100M€ in the Witcher 3). Following two postpones that indicated obstacles in the development, the game was finally released, on December 10.

Supposedly, Cyberpunk 2077 attained great commercial success with more than 8 million pre-orders, representing revenues higher than 400M€. Still, examining the first reviews, and despite some elevated technical details — as promised-, it did not meet the higher expectations — it is inferior to Witcher 3- with many reviews giving it 8 out 10 (compared to many 9 and 10 from the Witcher). On top of that, the game is unfinished, with laggy performance and a considerable amount of bugs to the point it becomes almost unplayable in old-gen consoles.

The problems were so severe that Sony decided to remove it from the Playstation Store for considering it did not meet the minimum standards to be available to the public.

I am a fan of CD Projekt, having enjoyed the games they gave us and want the best for them. Sooner or later those hiccups will be fixed, and millions of players will enjoy exploring that world.

My primary motivation behind this story is to set the tone to what I consider the most important: the supposed lessons learned we can extract from an episode like this and take to the projects we are involved with or will be:

1) Don’t oversell your product, it can play against you and damage your reputation in the long-term — we all know it is by far more challenging to create a positive image from a negative starting point.

2) It is pointless to focus on the details or extras if the basics are not satisfied.

3) If the product or service is not really, don’t launch it.

4) Instead of developing a complex product in a row, develop the core with great utility and performance, then, start shipping additional features and details.
In the Beginning
By: Pain Points
Tags: Project Management, Pain Points, Hardware, Women In Tech

I’m tired of being the string to your balloon.

My first experience witnessing a “no woman” attempt to avoid her fate was while working at a brewery. Linda— the director of hospitality, a mentor and my boss’ boss — attempted to translate every last minute, zany fantasies of the male founder back into reality. She pulled permits at a moment’s notice, hired for roles invented over night and razed her own prep back to the ground when it was rendered useless by a dramatic pivot.

As Ann Friedman writes, no one likes being the ‘no woman’ because “[you’re] perceived to be rather cold and rules-oriented, when in fact you are expending a ton of creative and emotional effort for far less professional glory.” Eventually her endless hoop-jumping turned to belabored rants, delivered behind the thin office door (us “no woman” always meets a singular fate in burnout). In no time at all, the C-level dynamic trickled down to the hourly employees. Company-wide she was marked as a zero-fun naysayer, something I knew to be professionally and personally very untrue.

Years later, I found myself in a job in hardware authoring the reports that explained how we, a contract manufacturer, had faltered in our assembly of customer circuit boards. Despite the clarity of my role, my performance reviews coached me on the difference between the medium and the message. “It’s not what you’re saying, it’s how you’re saying it” a female boss once said in visible pain over the irony.

As a student of communications and rhetoric the dual meaning was abundantly clear, “please be more tactful, its a real bummer for those of us that would like to stay in the fantastical space of our unlived dreams.” It was a hurtful thing to be perceived as a pessimist, a personality trait that couldn’t be further from the truth, when I thought I was just doing my job.

So why, when I found myself at the coveted conference room table, did I embrace my role as the one that says, “sorry but did you consider this” even after watching Linda scapegoated?

“Pain points” are something we speak of as opportunities to resolve a problem, and possibly even gain mileage as a result of our hard-won efforts. When given data-driven feedback on our failures, in my blinding, unflinching optimism, I believe we have a chance to do better.

In this space, I hope to expand and reflect on some issues I’ve encountered in the various industries I’ve worked in, learn how brilliant, creative people are potentially solving them and collaborate with friends along the way.

So, let’s do better together. What do you say?
My Israel-Palestine peace forum Unity is Strength has a challenge now.
By: Rebecca Sealfon
Tags: Taxes, Payroll, Nonprofit Management, Nonprofit, Palestine And Israel

My Israel-Palestine peace forum Unity is Strength has a challenge now. It’s reached the point where, in order to grow the way I would want, it needs to become a nonprofit. I’ve started to read about the taxes and paperwork, and I really need to delve into the details of what this entails. This week, one of our writers is applying for a public service scholarship and grant, using the forum as well as another he started as the main credential on his application. Another grant we got stipulated that we become a nonprofit in the first half of this year, so they could send the money. The nonprofit would be filed in the state of New York. Does anyone here have experience with starting and running a nonprofit in the U.S.?

Photo by Humphrey Muleba on Unsplash
Rebecca Henderson’s “Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire” Book Review.
By: Jeffrey P Davis
Tags: Startup, Climate Action, Nonprofit, Business Development

December 26, 2020

I published this book review in the Harvard Social Impact Review earlier this month. I think you’ll find Henderson’s great reputation at Harvard and beyond justified as she makes her case for integrating society’s needs into the decision-making process of the next generation of business leaders.

The Eden Project was the vision of Tim Smit who I always viewed as an inspired capitalist, an adventurer who has taken one of the great “journeys” into the areas of socially conscious capitalism that Rebecca Henderson describes in her new book. Somewhere between profit maximization and pure charity resides a zone of opportunity. The Lost Gardens of Heligan as well as the Eden Project succeeded in social impact, but their different business structures show that achieving a mission can be done with radically different organizational structures.
A Holiday Movie Lesson for Nonprofits
By: Sarah Willey
Tags: Fundraising, Abundance, Christmas, Nonprofit, Philanthropy

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

One of the movies my family watched every year at Christmas growing up was Miracle on 34th Street. If you aren’t familiar with the film, it centers around a new gentleman, Kris Kringle, taking on the job of mall Santa at Macy’s one Christmas season. He claims to be the ACTUAL Santa. The story is meant to be a heartwarming tale that reinforces the belief in Santa for those children whose culture includes him.

My big takeaway (yes, even as a child) was the attitude Santa introduced to the corporate execs at Macy’s. When a family wanted a product that was currently out of stock, he would refer them to another department store that did have it in stock.

Santa viewed things differently than corporate America. His focus was on the mission — ensure that all the children had the Christmas gifts they wanted on December 25th. He saw no reason why any given department store shouldn’t focus first on the mission — satisfied customers, the people who are the reason for their existence. He wasn’t concerned with a competitive attitude.

Ironically, that became a competitive advantage. Before long Macy’s rival department store, Gimbal’s, was employing the same method. Both stores were doing just fine with their bottom line, and customers were more satisfied than ever.

If a fictional department store can put a mission ahead of a competitive mindset, can real-world nonprofits do the same? I think we can, and we must.

Generosity is not a zero-sum game. Our donors do not belong to us, and their giving to other nonprofits doesn’t mean less for our organization.

If we believe that there are enough resources out there to solve the problems we exist to tackle, we operate with an abundance mindset. When we believe there is enough to go around, we are more willing to share and to collaborate. Just as that meant success for the respective department stores in the movie, it can mean more success for our organizations.

By adopting an abundance mindset, by approaching our work with a collaborative spirit, we can accomplish more. We exist to solve problems, to improve or even save lives. Our organizational ego, our concerns for our organization’s bottom line, cannot overwhelm our ability to focus first on our beneficiaries and their needs.

We don’t have to believe in Santa or celebrate Christmas to appreciate and apply this lesson to our lives and our work. Let’s take this lesson with us into 2021.
BETHESDA SELF-STORAGE PARTNERS DONATES $25,000 TO LOCAL BETHESDA CHURCH TO HELP WITH COVID-19 RELIEF EFFORTS
By: Ir Media
Tags: Covid 19, Food Insecurity, Homeless, Maryland, Nonprofit

With the help of its community partner and tenant, Bethesda Cares, Church in Bethesda can continue serving ‘working poor’ families and the homeless devastated by the pandemic

BETHESDA, MD — Today, Bethesda Self-Storage Partners/1784 Capital Holdings announced the company is donating $25,000 to the Church in Bethesda to aid in their work with Bethesda Cares, a leading Montgomery County, Maryland non-profit. The donation will help bolster aid to working poor families, homeless outreach efforts, and hot meals program, which has increased dramatically since COVID-19.

“We are incredibly grateful to Bethesda Self-Storage Partners (BSSP) for their generosity and commitment to the Bethesda community,” said Ryan Phipps, pastor, Church in Bethesda. “The pandemic has revealed the longstanding health and economic vulnerabilities of our friends, neighbors, and family members. Financial support from corporate partners, like BSSP, help us close the gap and continue serving those most in need, especially during these tough economic times.”

For more than 30 years, Bethesda Cares has worked to respond to the needs of the homeless and those facing economic hardship. Through its neighborhood partners, like Church in Bethesda, Bethesda Cares provides daily meals, clothing and housing assistance to more than 20,000 annually.

“Several weeks ago, I had the honor of meeting Pastor Phipps and learned about the incredible work he is doing at Church in Bethesda to provide assistance to families and the homeless community in Bethesda,” said Kelly McKone of BSSP/1784. “We are excited to support the church’s work with Bethesda Cares and hope our donation will help bring comfort to those in need.”

###

For more information:

Church in Bethesda and Bethesda Cares — ryanphipps@mac.com

Bethesda Self-Storage Partners — media@irmediallc.com
Charity Digital 2020
By: Dan Papworth-Smyth
Tags: Charity, Nonprofit, Social Media Marketing, Digital, Social Media

Charity Digital 2020

This year has been exhaustingly intense. Uncertainty and change have made this year very difficult for us all. Yet, determined to still highlight all the brilliant work across digital in the charity sector (as per tradition) I’m back for my fifth year to look at some of my favourite things that deserve some recognition. As always, it’s by no means exhaustive but just a handful of some digital things that have really stood out to me.

Without further ado, here we go…

CALM: Finding The Words

Thanks to Luke for flagging this great video from CALM that reminds me a lot of another video I’d shared back in 2017 from Movember. Utilising how people view and interact with videos, rather than the narrative that is necessarily obvious at first.

That’s not all from the CALM team though: take a look at their Chrome extension which helps to remove some of the stress of COVID-19 noise from across the internet as you browse.

Facebook Fundraising through virtual events

It’s been hard to miss the unsurprisingly huge rise in popularity of virtual events and challenges this year. If your news feed is anything like mine then it’s full of various adverts for different takes on what indoor or outdoor activity can you do X number of in Y month. Many being run together with Adrian and the team at Get Your Stories Straight.

We’ve run three of such challenges at Breast Cancer Now, with the most recent two during October raising a combined £915,000.
Social Enterprise Alliance’s Year in Review: 2020
By: Social Enterprise Alliance
Tags: Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship, Nonprofit, 2020

In the decades to come, we’ll remember 2020 as the year of challenges, when many social, economic and health inequities, long embedded in our society, rose to the surface. In 2020, we witnessed and experienced firsthand the suffering of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent deaths, job losses, small business closings and economic and mental health crises. 2020 brought a racial reckoning, as centuries of injustice resulted in the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and countless other Black and Brown people. As we approached the 2020 election, our nation had never been more divided and scared.

But even in this darkness, there was hope. We saw people come together to help and serve their neighbors in the midst of tragedy. Nonprofit, grassroots and social enterprise organizations pivoted to provide those disproportionately affected by the pandemic with food and supplies. Frontline health workers served their communities selflessly and relentlessly. And in November, history was made as Kamala Harris was elected as the United States’ first ever female, Black and South Asian Vice President.

2020 was also a historic year for SEA.

In May, SEA onboarded eight new directors to the national board when previous directors stepped down to make room for renewed energy and innovative ideas. In the fall, the board expanded to include eight additional directors with diverse and exciting backgrounds and areas of expertise. The new board has undergone in-depth research with SEA members and stakeholders, formed three Action Committees to collaborate in co-creating the next iteration of SEA, launched a monthly SEA Happy Hour, rekindled historic partnerships like the Social Enterprise World Forum and most recently raised over $50,000 with our community to ensure the continuation of our work.

Photo by Kate Macate on Unsplash

But now we want to hear from you! What was something inspiring that you, your organization or your community accomplished this year despite the many challenges and obstacles? How has social enterprise played a role in that inspiration? Let us know here, and we might feature your story through our channels next year!
The Great Conjunction + You. Today on the winter solstice, the stars…
By: Gloria Feldt
Tags: Leadership, Recovery, Women, Great Conjunction, Nonprofit

Issue 154 — December 21, 2020

Today on the winter solstice, the stars align. For the first time since 1226, the planets Jupiter and Saturn will be so close in the night sky that they might look like one large star.

Astronomers call it the Great Conjunction. Some people call it the Christmas star.

We humans like to imbue these celestial moments with supernatural meaning. For me personally, it’s extra special because today happens to be Alex and my 40th wedding anniversary!

I wish you and your loved ones health and joy during this unusual holiday season when most of us will celebrate virtually.

And you can make this day of the Great Conjunction especially meaningful for yourself by choosing this date to make a contribution to Take The Lead.

You’ll be helping to make sure that even in these troubled times, we can continue to provide the training, coaching, role models, and thought leadership so all women of all diversities and intersectionalities will reach parity in leadership by 2025.

We won’t let a pandemic deter us from our mission. But your support is essential. The challenge is immense.

Four times as many women as men have lost jobs or been forced by caregiving responsibilities to leave the workforce.

Together we can put women at the center of the recovery so they can recover their lives and livelihoods.

Your gift today — any size — will create a great conjunction of good in the world, for you will be helping women and their families get back on track and prosper in the New Year.

With great appreciation and very best wishes for the holidays and New Year,

Gloria Feldt

Co-Founder & President, Take The Lead

P. S. Does your company match contributions? If so you can double your contribution. Check here if you’re not sure whether your company matches.

GLORIA FELDT is the Cofounder and President of Take The Lead, a motivational speaker and expert women’s leadership developer for companies that want to build gender balance, and a bestselling author of four books, most recently No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power. Former President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, she teaches “Women, Power, and Leadership” at Arizona State University and is a frequent media commentator. Learn more at www.gloriafeldt.com and www.taketheleadwomen.com. Tweet Gloria Feldt.
2021 Trends in Nonprofit Human Resources to Have Your Best Year Yet
By: News You Can Use
Tags: Human Resources, Recruiting, Professional Development, Retention, Nonprofit

By Jackie Sue Griffin, MBA, MS

The world of Human Resources (HR) is always changing and evolving. Even amidst the global pandemic, HR leaders are reshaping their workforce management approach to be prepared for anything and everything that the next year will bring.

Here are the top three trends in HR that can help your organization continue to navigate the current crisis while keeping employee engagement high so your people and organization can thrive in 2021:

1. The growing importance of digital communication in HR

HR handles every employee’s life cycle in a nonprofit organization — from recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training and development to termination. Despite the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic on companies of all types and the job market, a staggering 60 percent of companies have hired at least one new worker since the beginning of the pandemic.

One of the newest challenges for HR is remote hiring and onboarding, which comes with such issues as virtually interviewing and assessing a candidate’s skills, screening for candidates suited for remote work and conveying your nonprofit’s culture during virtual recruiting and training. But HR doesn’t stop there. As organizations continue to adapt to the new normal, HR’s duty is to support employees and offer them guidance and information during the ongoing pandemic. That’s why, in 2021, one of the most important HR trends will be a greater focus on digital communication throughout an employee’s lifecycle.

2. Emphasis on employee mental health

All statistics show that COVID-19 has been negatively affecting people’s mental health for quite some time. Many employees faced remote work for the first time and have had to deal with extra responsibilities. There’s growing data showing that many employees may not be using the healthiest coping mechanisms: According to the CDC, 4o0 percent of adults in the U.S. are experiencing substance abuse or mental health issues due to the pandemic. For the past several years, and especially as we moved through 2020 and now into 2021, the role of HR has been to advocate for the health of the nonprofit’s employees, helping the organization invest in mental health and well-being initiatives and tools.

3. Data-driven insights

As more people work remotely, organizations are investing in tools to help them assess their employees’ engagement and productivity. HR leaders will have to find a way to ensure their workforce continues to meet target goals while maintaining a supportive work environment. Therefore, in 2021, the newest trend will be adopting sophisticated tools for measuring employee productivity and well-being to understand how workers are adapting and coping with the changes brought on during the pandemic.

As the future of work continues evolving, HR has a vital role in maintaining employee engagement and well-being, adapting valuable tools and offering the necessary support to ensure that your organization’s needs and goals are met.
Nonprofit developer buys 74-unit property in Maplewood to preserve affordability
By: Tony Cowger
Tags: Developer, Home, News, Affordable Housing, Nonprofit

“Aeon, a Minnesota nonprofit owner, developer and manager of affordable housing, recently purchased a 74-unit apartment building in Maplewood. This move will keep residents in Cobblestone Court Apartments at or below 60 percent of the medium income in their area.

Despite a recent report that housing sales in the Twin Cities were still up despite the pandemic, the Twin Cities has long struggled with housing insecurity.

‘Preserving affordable homes is more economical and faster than building new affordable homes,’ said Sarah Harris, executive vice president of Strategy, Partnerships and Production at Aeon, in a statement. ‘Having a home is core to our community’s health and stability now more than ever. We are pleased to be helping 74 families remain in homes they can afford.’

Properties like Cobblestone Court are called naturally occurring affordable homes, meaning if they are not bought by organizations like Aeon, the property could be acquired by someone interested in increasing the rent of tenants, which could displace hundreds.”

View the whole story here: https://www.twincities.com/2020/12/18/nonprofit-developer-buys-74-unit-property-in-maplewood-to-preserve-affordability/
Emily’s Gratitude Wave
By: Emily'S Gratitude Wave
Tags: Gratitude, Nonprofit, Emilys Gratitude Wave

Emily’s Gratitude Wave

What is it?

Emily’s Gratitude Wave is a non-profit organization that was created to achieve ways to help people to really search for what they’re grateful for, and to find ways to give back! Emily’s Gratitude Wave really digs into the deep understanding of gratitude, and helps you to find the things you are grateful for. Whether it’s or a person, a company, a product, you name it! There are so many things to be grateful for, and Emily’s Gratitude Wave wants to help you find ways to truly express your gratitude by giving back.

Where is it?

The beauty of gratitude is that there are no limits on where it can be, what it can be about, and who can posses it, and that’s exactly how we feel about Emily’s Gratitude Wave. No matter what city, state, or country you live in, gratitude can be spread by the kindness in our hearts, allowing Emily’s Gratitude Wave to be right alongside you. Taking the opportunity to look at what you are grateful for is really an incredible experience, and being able to share it just makes it all the better.

Who is it?

Emily’s Gratitude Wave was created by Emily Orsini, a 16 year old who truly believes that gratitude can change someone’s life. She is based in Delaware County, PA, and wants to be able to help spread gratitude throughout the area and areas surrounding it. Gratitude is like a wave, and the only way to prevent it from crashing is by continuing to spread the kindness and compassion that goes along with it, and that was Emily’s idea behind the creation of it

Ways of Contact

Be sure to check out our instagram, @emilysgratitudewave

If you have an questions or concerns, contact us at emilygratitudewave@gmail.com

If you want to find a way to get involved with Emily’s Gratitude Wave or be updated, join our Remind! https://www.remind.com/join/ckfgk2
The Evil of Charity Scams
By: Charlotte Lipari
Tags: Donations, Charity, Nonprofit

“Help feed starving children now!” Your heart is touched as you read the plea for donations you were emailed. How could you not help these poor children? After researching the nonprofit in question, you are convinced that it is reputable and impactful. You donate. The rest of the day you feel content, thinking that you fed hungry children. Little did you know that you just paid a scammer.

Charity scams happen all over the world. They hurt not just donors, but can hurt the charity itself. Valuable funds which are meant to make a difference are wasted. These scams increase after disastrous events such as hurricanes, or other natural disasters. It shows that these scammers only care about money. Exploiting the good will of others and actively harming vulnerable people are the actions of villains.

There are multiple types of charity scams. One is where scammers create fake charities and gather donations to keep for themselves. Another type is when scammers may pretend to be employed by charities you know, in order to collect donations you wanted to go to that charity. This is especially dangerous because researching the specific charity will not alert you that you are being scammed. A final type of scammer is one who pretends that they are in need. For example, they may say that they are sick and need money.

It is scary and overwhelming to know that there are people out there ready to snatch your money the moment you let down your guard. Donmo is here to protect you from these villains. We will thoroughly evaluate charities before they are added to our platform, so you won’t need to worry about your money going to fake charities. We will also ensure that your donations go to the real nonprofit, and not scammers who pretend they are employed by it.

Through Donmo, you can be sure that your small change is making big changes!

Sources:

“Charity Scams- The Evil Side of Good Will.” Fraudwatch International, 20 March, 2020, https://fraudwatchinternational.com/brand-protection/charity-scams-the-evil-side-of-good-will/

“Charity and Disaster Fraud.” FBI, https://www.fbi.gov/scams-and-safety/common-scams-and-crimes/charity-and-disaster-fraud. Accessed 10 December 2020.

“Fake Charities.” ScamWatch, https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/types-of-scams/fake-charities. Accessed 10 December 2020.
How B Corps Are Supporting Their Stakeholders by Staying Active
By: Kiera Murphy, She Her
Tags: San Francisco, B Corp, Nonprofit, Wellbeing, Community

As part of its commitment to supporting the B Corp movement, atlasGO has been an active member of B Local Bay Area. Mathieu believes that the community has helped shape the company’s culture and essence. So atlasGO wanted to give back to the Bay Area B Corp community and bring everyone together on their platform. For the past two years, they’ve worked with B Local Bay Area to run multi-company employee engagement challenges that benefit local nonprofits.



For the inaugural challenge in 2019, B Local Bay Area invited local B Corps to pick a nonprofit partner to support. The community decided that they would come together to support local at-risk youth job training by raising funds for the nonprofit New Door Ventures. Eleven B Corp company teams participated in the challenge for one month, with 70 individuals tracking over 4,500 miles by walking, running, biking, or traveling by wheelchair and raising $2,100 for New Door Ventures.

This year, the B Local Bay Area 2020 challenge pivoted to being more inclusive. Since the pandemic started, atlasGO went from positioning itself as a fitness platform to a well-being platform by adding activities like doing indoor workouts, making bread, reading a bedtime story to your kids, completing a puzzle, and many others. Whether it was going for a hike or gardening, 40 participants tracked over 1,300 miles and 555 hours, keeping their minds and bodies active all month long.

After supporting New Door Ventures in 2019, the community wanted to support an environmental justice nonprofit in 2020 and raised $1,200 for San Francisco Baykeeper. Tracy Tinclair, B Local Bay Area’s Events Chair and Hanson Bridgett’s Events Coordinator, says, “No matter where you live in the Bay, we all love and want to protect the health and natural beauty of the Bay and Baykeeper fights to make sure that happens.”

Employees from local B Corps and San Francisco Baykeeper joined the challenge. “For B Local Bay Area, it’s great for us to expand and work with nonprofits because we get to build stronger relationships and make connections,” Tinclair says. “When we bring B Corps together with local nonprofit partners, it’s valuable as we learn a lot from each other.”

For participants, a highlight of the 2020 challenge has been seeing the #sweatyselfies and the beautiful places people choose to quarantine and explore safely. The atlasGO app offers 24/7 engagement methods with other participants through virtual high fives and photos shared with other “sweaty changemakers,” and provided people with a way to connect and celebrate each other’s successes during a challenging year.

“Investing in your people’s well-being is more critical than ever,” Mathieu says. “I believe organizations have an amazing opportunity to help their people develop healthier habits and strengthen the unity of their community by leaning on each other with a focus on service and giving back!”
Together we can change the world!
By: Igor Gavrylin
Tags: Hunger, Children, Poverty, Nonprofit, Donations

Together we can change the world!

Today, our civilization has developed in information technology to such a level that we can claim to know all the news from anywhere in the world. The way it is. We know all the news through news agencies. We are always promptly in possession of the latest world events. We observe what is happening in every corner of our planet. We are looking. and don’t see what is really happening right next to us!

We pretend that we don’t see it — it’s so convenient for us. It is convenient to just say:

— how can I help?

is not in my power and not my responsibility !

-it’s none of my business!

Maybe I’m wrong , but I can’t explain in another way how in today’s highly developed, educated, humane, democratic, legal world community, in a Community that everywhere declares human life, human rights and freedoms, humanism as the highest value, we have terrifying statistics. 15,000 children a day under the age of 5 are dying because inaccessibility of timely pediatric observation and emergency medical care, and simply from hunger. About one billion people live below the poverty line and. forced to live in poverty at $ 1.90 a day. 175 million children are not getting preschool education. Environmental disasters that are simply killing our planet. I want to remind everyone once again: the whole planet is our home and the people living on it are one big family!

Dividing into social strata and classes, rich and poor, ignoring the problems of vulnerable people, we don’t. become stronger. The strength of all mankind is equal to the strength of the weakest and most vulnerable segment of the population.

We must pay attention to the problems that many people face to face !

Together we can change the world!

Gavrylin Igor

Head of NGO DAMARK

www.ngo-damark.org
A Little Girl and Her Cupcake
By: News You Can Use
Tags: Homelessness, Homeless Families, Nonprofit, Pinellas County

By Kirk Ray Smith, President & CEO of Hope Villages of America, formerly RCS Pinellas

As some of you may or may not know, our homeless shelter community, Grace House — which provides temporary emergency housing, programs and services for hundreds of children and their families each year — lost a significant amount of government funding. That funding underwrote nearly 85 percent of its annual operating budget.

As you can imagine, this presents a major challenge for us. Not only are nearly 50 percent of all family shelter units available in Pinellas County at risk; several full-time jobs are at risk, as well. There is never a good time to lose employment; however, there has been no worse time than now.

During a recent meeting with the Grace House team, I noticed a cute little girl eating a cupcake as she followed her mother down the sidewalk, headed to their Grace House apartment. As I was addressing the staff, I could not help but watch her and her family as they innocently headed in for the day. As I looked out the window, I thought to myself, “She has no idea what we are discussing right now. Her only focus is eating that sweet cupcake and walking home with her mommy. She did not ask to be homeless — to be displaced and away from her friends — but she is making the best of her situation.”

As a sweet little girl, she deserves to only have to focus on enjoying her cupcake and having fun.

She and her family deserve to have shelter, a safe a clean place to lay their heads at night.

There is no need for her to worry about funding for Grace House, or whether her mom’s key would work when she tries to open the door to their apartment.

It is my job to do whatever it takes to keep the proverbial lights on and the water running so she can wash her hands and face after eating her messy, delicious cupcake.

Kids deserve cupcakes, not homelessness.

While I am confident that this community will pull together with us here at Hope Villages to sustain, and ultimately grow Grace House to serve even more families, I believe it will take God’s divine hand and intervention to get us where we need to be.

Because the HVA team and this community are no cupcakes, I am convinced Grace House doors will remain open. That said, I look forward to the day when no child has to deal with being homeless and can just simply enjoy a cupcake.

And I know one more thing: When this all over, I am going to have me a cupcake!

Answer the call to the cause by helping us protect that little girl and allowing her to enjoy her cupcake in peace!

I appreciate you!