Information, research, and resources strengthen the nonprofit sector.
We have gathered some key resources that shed light on the different ways the nonprofit sector, volunteerism, and civic engagement support our society. We continue to monitor social trends, explore statistical information, and gather inspiring resources that support you in your day-to-day work.
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Top Resources
Report
Flowing Fridays (Un)Learning Brief – March 2023
Volunteer Alberta works to nourish the conditions for civic engagement and volunteerism in Alberta. One of those conditions – we believe – is that people have the necessary energy and time to engage in their communities meaningfully. In the summer of 2022, we started to wonder how we might begin to challenge the current paradigm about work, starting within our organization, to create more time, space, and energy for our team. We were curious about how we might resist and reset some of the unhealthy conditions that exist in the social profit/non-profit sector around workaholism, unrealistic expectations, perfectionism, and exclusion. We became curious about what would happen if our staff team had more time available for them to use as they liked. To do so, we are experimenting with four-day work week and no-meeting days. In the spirit of “(un)learning out loud,” we’ve created this brief to share a bit about our experiment and what we’ve discovered so far.
Report
Capacity Building 3.0: How to Strengthen the Social Ecosystem
This paper addresses the evolution of the who, how, what, and where of capacity building. Read this paper to learn how to build capacity and be effective at building the capacity of others
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Template
Seeds, Weeds and Stones
Seeds, Weeds, Stones is a tool to understand where opportunities exist for action while anticipating the barriers and challenges that may occur along the way.
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Template
Iceberg Venn Diagram
From Volunteer Alberta’s presentation on volunteer screening and engagement, this example shows how privacy, participation, and protection influence and affect volunteer screening and engagement.
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Tool
Strategic Plan and Social Impact Tool
Using dotmocracy, dive deeper into understanding perceptions of your organization’s strategic alignment.
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Video
Solutions for the sector
21st century challenges demand 21st century solutions. Learn how social innovation and systems thinking can create solutions to the complex challenges we’re facing as a sector
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Tool
Iceberg Example
From Volunteer Alberta’s presentation on volunteer screening and engagement, this example shows the underlying structures affecting volunteer screening and engagement in Alberta.
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Tool
ABSI Connect Kit
This kit reflects ABSIs and Alberta’s story. How individuals and communities collectively striving to address social and environmental problems at their root, stopping them from existing in the first place.
Template
Adaptive Cycle Template
The adaptive cycle is a sense-making tool that allows us to see the different systems at play in our society
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Social Innovation Resources
Where to find social innovation resources, learning and research to support your impact work
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