I know, you feel like you need to be on every social media. Everyone else is, right? Wrong! Most people are not active on more than one social media. If they are, they are either not getting anything done or they have a team of people making that possible. Multiple Accounts Yes, it is okay to have an account on more than one social media. You never know when one is going to take off and you may want to switch. However, stick with one as your primary source of engagement. Which? Which one should you choose? Simple. Where is your audience? It doesn’t matter how cool Twitter is or…

Volunteers are essential to any nonprofit. They are the lifebloood. Relationships with volunteers are what keep me going during the ups and downs of work and life. Sometimes it is hard to know what to give to volunteers. There is definitely a range of gifts when it comes to volunteers. You don’t want to hand the keys to the car over to everyone. Perhaps you have struggled with whether or not to give certain responsibilities to volunteers. You may have even experienced volunteers who said they would do something and then didn’t follow through. That can make it difficult to trust again. I want to encourage you to do so…

I haven’t told you about this cool thing I’m part of called Crescent City Cafe. In 2009, some young adult ladies in New Orleans got together and asked how they could serve the homeless of New Orleans. Many of them had experience working with the homeless and they wanted to do something different. Out of their discussions came Crescent City Cafe , a restaurant style breakfast served on the first Saturday of the month. Their mission, “Inspired by the love of God to serve those who are poor and marginalized with dignity while providing opportunities for young adults to serve our community, build relationships with those we serve and connect with one another.” In…

At Crescent City Cafe this month, the coolest thing happened. A group of co-worker volunteers seriously invested some time into our homeless progam. They work at La Capitol Federal Credit Union (also on Facebook). First they raised money to give to us. They did a bake sale, which is pretty self explanatory. Then they did a “Jean Day” at work, where you could wear jeans to work if you donated $5 to Crescent City Cafe. I just love that. A simple creative way to raise funds for charity. Next they brought a group of volunteers at 7:00 am in the morning on a Saturday to serve the homeless with us.…

You may have noticed that I haven’t been blogging the past few weeks. This is because I’ve been doing a 3 week long Kid’s Camp through Mid-City Ministries. Forgive me. I’m back. This brings up a good question. Which is more important, doing your nonprofit work or blogging about it? The temptation is to focus on doing the work and not worry about blogs, newsletters, social media, etc. The problem is that in nonprofit world, you are dependent on donors to fund your work. If you don’t update donors, they won’t give and you won’t be helping anyone. It is kind of like which came first, the chicken or the…

  Are you familiar with other cafe’s like SAME Cafe? If so, please share in the comments section. I’d love to hear about them.  

When I was in college, I had the amazing opportunity of joining a fraternity. I’ve heard many negative stories about the Greek System, and I believe them. My experience, however, was extremely positive and it was there that I first began to look outside of my little bubble to see all the many needs in the world. I developed a desire to live a life of service. I know a lot of people who work or volunteer in the nonprofit world. Thank you to all of you for what you do. But if you don’t work in nonprofit work, you can still live a life of service. Here is a…

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All the professional bloggers out there seem to agree on the first thing you must do to be a successful blogger: Be Consistent. I am not a professional blogger, nor am I consistent on my personal blog. Like you, I have excuses. I’m busy. I have people to meet with and things to do. I blog for my nonprofit, so my personal blog takes a backseat most of the time. (I’m working on it Michael Hyatt. I’m working on it.) The fact is, though, that in nonprofit work, as in most areas, relationships are everything. People don’t connect relationally with a business or organization. It is you, the individual, they want to…