Online Learning Overview: What the course environment is like.
Video: Intro to the Online Courses
Module 140: Creating a World Class Organization
OL 141 Getting the Job Done:
Your Organization’s Vision, Expertise, & Performance.
8 Weeks
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Getting the Job Done. Organizing for effective community development. Establish an organizational vision & explore what is working in your organization and what’s having impact in your programming. Build a step-by-step strategic action plan that will paint a picture of where you are now, where you want to go, and practical achievable actions you can take today for getting there. |
To learn about course fees and to register please go to the bottom of this page.
Getting the Job Done: Your Organization’s Vision, Expertise, & Performance
All organizations are busy. Many courses are academic rather than practical in nature. CSD workshops are designed to provide organizational tools that yield rapid results, are easy to understand and utilize, and quick to implement.
Would you like your organization to be achieving greater impact? Participate with the Center in developing a strategic action plan for your organization, and discover new information about your organizational vision, your organizational structure, your programming, and your project performance. Rather than just boring-old-planning -- this course is fun and motivational!
Get specialized staff out of their silos and let them explore the organization’s bigger picture. We show you how to initiate a retreat by letting staff members draw (literally) their picture of how they see the organization’s vision, objectives, strategies and activities. These exercises will improve their understanding of how their different departments work together to create impact and where they fit in as members of a team.
The course output will be a Strategic Action Plan that will paint a good picture of where you are now, where you want to go and what practical actions you can take today for getting there. The course will cover:
Where do you want to go?
Do you have a vision about what you want your organization to be doing?
Do your board and staff share the same vision?
Calibrate your compass: Recast your vision into one that clearly represents where you want to go and one that is compelling for staff, the board, donors, partners and beneficiaries.
Where are you now?
Does your staff realize the important role they play in the organization?
Are staff members properly trained for their positions? What support, tools and training are available to them?
What strategies are you currently using to fulfill your vision?
How efficient are your operations in supporting your strategies?
Do your beneficiaries adopt your programming activities over the long-term?
Does your organization have a long-term sustainability plan?
How do you get to where you want to go?
You will identify organizational gaps that separate where you are today from getting to where you want to go.
We will develop a doable set of actions that will bridge those gaps—and create a step-by-step Strategic Action Plan.
You’ll prioritize the actions both by their importance in creating impact, and also by what you have the time and resources to accomplish today.
Each class assignment is a concrete step in developing a Strategic Action Plan; we will connect class assignments to your organization by encouraging you to conduct a staff retreat – as well as conduct individual interviews with staff, the board and community members. This is an online field course with tangible, concrete results.
We supply two levels of mentoring. Each week’s assignment will be accompanied by a clear, professional example of what we want you to achieve that week. It is yours to use as a template for your assignment. We will also provide comments, suggestions and encouragement for each one of your assignments individually. We want you to develop high quality outputs, and we also want you to understand the hows and whys.
The classes are designed to be fun and interactive: you will be collaborating with colleagues from around the globe. Who should attend? Southern and Northern development students, field staff, grant writers, project managers, directors, and donor staff.
What Students Think About the Online Courses
Course Syllabus
Week 1 & 2. Vision:
Establish Global Vision for Your Organization
Conduct a ½ day staff vision retreat
Interview key staff, the board and constituents -- and draft an organizational vision statement
Define geographic focus and scale; define NGO’s thematic focus
Your development philosophy: Top down or bottom up?
Week 3. Strategy
Define Implementation Strategy
Number of communities? Clustered or dispersed?
Do you have a plan for community engagement, empowerment and disengagement?
Have you defined a project design team and responsibilities – and a project implementation team and responsibilities?
Do you have a monitoring & evaluation program?
Have you established community mentoring and follow-up programs?
Week 4. Tools
Package the Program Strategy: Discover how to quickly assemble drafts of:
Staff handbook on project management, community engagement and participation
Staff handbook for your standard products and interventions
Lesson plans and workshop materials for field staff to use in community workshops; Take-home learning materials for beneficiaries
Week 5. Training
Identify what types of training you need now
Training the Trainer Workshops
Courses for developing job skills
Community participation and project design for Field and Project staff
Training in monitoring and evaluation
Training in efficiently launching a development project
Training in specialized skills for project implementation and management
Management training in personal and interpersonal management skills and techniques
Week 6. Sustainability
Funding and Community Support
What is your definition of a sustainable project?
Are you engaging communities, government, business and donors?
Do you have a funding plan?
Define the size of a typical proposal
Do you have a fundraising and proposal writing team?
Do you have a list of appropriate donors to approach?
Week 7. Implementation
Developing trusting relationships with the community
Do you engage field staff members from the same culture/language group as the beneficiaries?
Are you providing field staff with handbooks, manuals and copies of budgets, logframes and schedules?
Do you have a community feedback mechanism that allows field staff to know if information is understood and appreciated?
At project milestones, do you keep donors and evaluators informed?
Do you ensure that the community is ready to take over at the end of a project?
Are you making sure mentoring and follow-up are in place?
Week 8. Packaging your Strategic Action Plan
Assembling the information developed over the past seven weeks into an organizational plan of action toward fulfilling your organizational vision and effectiveness.
Where did you find gaps in fulfilling your organizational vision, program strategies and sustainability?
Prioritizing in two levels: which actions are going to have the most immediate impact and which actions do you have the resources to do today?
Organizing the first quarter’s strategic activities.
Organizing the first year’s strategic activities.
Organizing the second year’s strategic activities.
Getting to work on the plan.
The Course will also Provides the Following Resources
Documents on course topics by contemporary experts.
Books, posters and manuals available online for download.
Internet development links organized by sector.
Class blog for sharing your stories and photos from the field.
Class forum for posting questions to your classmates.
There are no books to buy—all course materials can be linked to, or downloaded from the course site.
Course Fees
The 8-week course is $95.00 for citizens of developing nations living in a developing country (which includes an automatic $50.00 discount), and $145.00 for citizens/residents of developed countries if paid before May 21. If you have a question don't hesitate to contact us at: Online.Learning@csd-i.org .
Choose which price fits your profile and look for the corresponding number (1., 2., 3., etc.) in the dropdown payment menu.
If you have a question about this, please visit our Online Learning FAQ; most questions are answered there.
1. $95.00 for developing country citizens: Early Bird Discount - register by May 21
2. $125.00 for normal registration after May 21
3. $145.00 for developed country citizens: Early Bird Discount - register by May 21
4. $175.00 for normal registration after May 21
Registration and Payment; there are only 2 steps for enrolling in the course:
1. Pay the course fee.
2. Fill out and email the Student Information Sheet to us.
We will send you a confirmation letter upon receipt of payment and Login information the day before the course begins.
To pay by Western Union, please write us for the transfer information: Online.Learning@csd-i.org .
To pay by debit or credit card, select the correct course cost below, enter your nationality, and click 'Add to Cart.'
When you are ready to pay, click ‘Proceed to Checkout.’ PayPal membership is not required to submit the payment; in the lower left you will see 'Don't have a PayPal account?' Click 'continue' and you will be linked to a form for non-PayPal members.
After paying, please fill out and email the Student Information Sheet to us.
You will be sent your Login username and password, and instructions for starting the course on Monday, June 14, 2010. We look forward to meeting you.
The online course will be led by Tim Magee, CSD’s Executive Director, who has over 30 years experience in both working with nonprofits and leading training workshops.
If you have a question don't hesitate to contact us at: Online.Learning@csd-i.org .
Registration closes on . Space is limited.
