Remi closes her investigation file and opens a new one. Now that she has a better picture of where the financial literacy program stands, she needs to answer an essential question: what does the ideal program look like? This is the part that people often skip. They go straight from "here is what we have" to "here is what we will build." But without a clear picture of the ideal state, decisions get made on assumption and habit, and the program ends up in the same place it star

Remi comes back from her walk with a specific intention. She is going to figure out what this program is actually supposed to do. She pulls up the organization's website, finds the strategic plan, and opens it. She has seen this document before but never read it with her program in mind. She reads it now. It is clear. It is well-written. There is a real sense of direction in it. Remi feels a small swell of pride. She works here. This is good work. Then, she starts investigati

Remi is the Manager of the Financial Literacy Program at her nonprofit and has been in the role for eight years. She knows every workshop, every toolkit, every handout her program has ever produced, and she knows exactly how hard her trainer Dale works. He is the one in the room, every time, and he is great at what he does. Participants leave his sessions feeling more capable and confident. But the organization wants more reach, more communities, further away, without the tra

Sarah is the training manager for a multi-service community hub in Vancouver. She recently spent a month building an eLearning course called “Protecting client confidentiality in the workplace”. She was incredibly diligent: She included comprehensive summaries of the provincial Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). She used detailed charts explaining the difference between "expressed" and "implied" consent. She ended with a graded quiz where staff testing their knowledg

Imagine that you are the new executive director of a small but growing nonprofit. You’re excited about this growth, but you’ve just crossed a staff threshold that triggers a new world of legal compliance. You take these policies seriously. Non-compliance means fines you can’t afford but more importantly, you want your staff and nonprofit truly protected. The problem? Between board meetings and daily operations, you’re feeling the pressure to do it all. A thread of hope appea

This packed list of helpful tips appeared at the end of a self-paced online course on how to fight the “winter blues”: Here are some ways to adapt your nutrition for the winter months: Drink lots of water See a doctor about vitamin levels. Some people don't get enough vitamin D in the winter Limit your alcohol consumption "Winterize" your diet to include fresh produce, like cabbage, sweet potatoes and beets Include lean protein, legumes (lentils, chickpeas), and fibre Unfortu

Elena* stands at the edge of the emergency shelter’s entry, watching the Monday evening shift change. On her tablet, the dashboard shows 100% completion for the new mandatory "De-escalation" eLearning course she recently launched. Technically, all volunteers in the room are "certified." Then Marc, a regular client, approaches the front desk. He is hoping to return after a three-day service restriction, but Sarah, the newest volunteer, sees the restriction is still active for

Do you sometimes wonder how you could make your dry and boring course introductions into something more interesting? Something that your staff will read and maybe even learn from. Start by ditching the boring list of course objectives and capture their interest with something that will encourage them to keep going. The Status Quo: Functional but Forgettable How many courses have you started that look like this: This course is about being more inclusive in the workplace. Each