What the Tech? Awesome Tools for Managing Your Capacity Building Practice

Why the tech heck am I writing this post?

Last week, I gave a breakout session at the Alliance for Nonprofit Management‘s 2017 Capacity Builders Conference. My co-presenter, Keith Timko (Executive Director/CEO of the Support Center) and I presented “What the Tech? Awesome Tools for Managing Your Capacity Building Practice.” Designed for nonprofit consultants and capacity builders, the tools we discussed can also be useful for small business owners and start-ups.

We promised to share all the resources after the conference, hence this post.

Here is a list of software tools we discussed and demo-ed during the session:

• Google Suite (productivity)
• Boomerang (add-on for Gmail that lets you schedule emails and “boomerang” them back into your inbox at a date/time you specify)
• Asana (project management for individuals and teams)
• Basecamp (project management for individuals and teams)
• Slack (team communications)
• Evernote (note-taking app that lets you save and organize a wide variety of note types – text, photos, graphics, audio, etc.)
• Evernote Web Clipper (browser add-on that lets you “clip” items you want to save directly from your browser)
• Salesforce (CRM/database)

Other resources that came up over the course of the session included (in no particular order):

• Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do it Better, by David Shipley
• Work Smarter, Rule Your Email, by Alexandra Samuel
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity, by David Allen
• Things (a task list app for Macs)
• Bullet Journal (not a digital tool, but a hand-written task list system)
• ProsperWorks (CRM app for Google Suite)
• Symbaloo (grid/icon-based bookmarking in the cloud)
• TravelTime (app for adding travel time to appointments in Outlook)
• Trello (project management for individuals and teams)

Many other questions arose during the session, mostly around technology management. We didn’t have to time to cover those topics, but here are some blog posts I’ve written in the past that may be useful:

• The Importance of (and Resources for) Technology Planning at Nonprofit Organizations
• Writing and Drawing by Hand vs. Typing on a Keyboard
• Struggling to Learn New Technology? Adopt a Growth Mindset,
• The Importance of SSL for Nonprofits
• Cybersecurity Info for Nonprofits (for Cybersecurity Awareness Month)

For more info or to ask questions:

If you have any questions about the tools or resources mentioned in this post, please email me (leonard@rmu.edu) or Keith (ktimko@supportcenteronline.org) anytime!