Online Learning: Designing & Funding Nonprofit Projects May 7

Dear Idealist Colleagues,

The Center for Sustainable Development is announcing a pair of online professional development courses: Designing & Funding Nonprofit Projects will lead you through the development of a real project, in real time, and leave you with the practical tools to sustain it.

Become the solution. Development Professionals from 146 countries and 475 organizations have developed course projects that are impacting over 300,000 people.

For example, student projects have included efforts to help communities in Europe and North America with community development projects such as: activities for the elderly, adaptation to climate change, alternative energy, alternative transportation, bicycle paths, business skills training for immigrants, conservation, elderly care facilities, natural resource management, recycling, urban renewal, and vocational skills training. The course will lead you through the development of similar real projects, in real time, in your own country. See a complete list of over 270 types of projects students have developed.

Course leaders that have gained their development expertise providing face-to-face consulting services to nonprofits in the field will also provide you with consulting to ensure your project has a solid beginning.
1. They will help you conduct a needs assessment with your constituents,
2. develop a preliminary project concept,
3. conduct research on your project to identify evidence based development activities,
4. refine your community-based project and share it with your constituents, and
5. share your project concept with a potential donor.

The online course will be led by Tim Magee, CSDi's Executive Director, who has over 30 years experience in both working with nonprofits and leading training workshops. Mr. Magee is the author of A Field Guide to Community Based Adaptation published by Routledge/Earthscan.

If you work with a nonprofit in a northern country working on traditional programs such as food banks, animal rescue, teen drop-in centers, homeless shelters, day care centers, community development, environmental restoration or conservation—this course will help you develop an impact oriented local project.

OL 101. Designing & Funding Nonprofit Projects
Gain an insight into contemporary methods of developing impact-oriented projects. You will leave the course with practical tools and develop a range of skills: needs assessments, project design, community workshops, and discovering evidence-based project activities. The course is designed to be used as a vehicle for you to develop a real project, in real time, during the course.

OL 102. Project Architecture: Planning for Impact
This course will take the project concept developed in OL 101 and transform it with a powerful set of management tools into a project for presenting to donors. Logframes, detailed budgets, schedules and compelling fact sheets: these tools will communicate to donors, staff, and stakeholders exactly what you are going to accomplish, and lead the effective management of the project once funded.

To learn more about this pair of courses.

If you have questions about the Online Learning program, please contact:
Online.Learning@csd-i.org .

Sincerely,

Tim Magee, Executive Director
Center for Sustainable Development

Be sure to visit our Online Development Community to see groups that support our courses.

The Center for Sustainable Development specializes in providing informational resources and training in best practices nonprofit professionals worldwide. CSDi is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.