One of the most powerful and low-cost (even free) sources of
help is a peer learning group. You might join a current group
or form your own group — often, it’s much easier than you think.

Members in a group are considered to be peers because each
is equal in helping themselves and others to share ongoing support,
feedback, materials and accountability to get things done –and
learn at the same time.

Group members can meet face-to-face or by means of telecommunications
(via phone, email, Web, etc.). Also, members often can schedule
their own meetings and where those meetings will be held.

The format and process used by the peer group depends on the
purpose of the group, whether it be for goal attainment, problem
solving, training, support or networking. For example, peer groups
might be discussion groups, study groups or peer coaching groups.

Often, the best groups are small in size (6-10 members), keep
has the same members in each meeting, use a standard agenda, and
meet for a few hours at least once a month. Someone from outside
the group can be assigned to facilitate or all groups members
can take responsibility for facilitating. Some groups might decide
to have a different group member facilitate each meeting.

The following links are to additional resources about peer
learning, including about the many benefits, where you can learn
more, how to choose the best program, some organizations that
provide peer learning programs, and materials from which you could
form your own peer learning group.

Sections in This Topic Include the Following

Benefits of Peer Learning
Learn More About Peer Learning
Peer Learning Groups and Programs
Form Your Own Peer Learning Group
General Resources About Groups

Also consider
Related Library Topics

Learn More in the Library’s Blog Related to This Topic

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blog that has posts related to this topic. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

Library’s Team Performance Blog

Benefits of Peer Learning

What
is Peer Learning? Why is Peer Learning So Popular Today? (read
the top sections on this page)
Joining
Forces — Entrepreneurial Peer Groups
Peer
Business Advisor Groups Ease the Pressure of Ownership
Peer Learning

Learn More About Peer Learning

Various
Forms of Peer Learning (one-page depiction)
Action
Learning and Peer Learning Programs (some theory, principles,
etc.)
Peer Learning

Peer Learning Groups and Programs

Authenticity
Circles (peer coaching groups)
Create
a Personal Board of Directors
Creating
Your Own Personal Board of Directors

Form Your Own Peer Group

To form your own group, first think about the purpose or application
of the group. Usually, there are two major different kinds of
groups:
1) Those where all members learn about the same topic or skill
(training groups), for example, around a common topic in the Free
Management Library.
2) Those where members address the same problem/goal or each addresses
their own (coaching groups). For example, Tom works on strategic
planning, Susan works on time management, Jack works on career
development, etc.

In a training group, you would gather any 6-8 people who are
interested in the same topic or skill. In a coaching group, you
would gather 6-8 people, ideally who have similar roles or positions
in their life and/or work.

To Find People in Your Locale (for Face-to-Face Meetings)

The following link is to a free online service that helps you
locate people with similar interests in your geographic area.
First, you join the service (they don’t share your information
and use it for marketing). Then you can use the service to join
or form a group of people in your area.

Meet Up
Craigs List About Sites

To Join or Form Internet/Web-Based Groups

One of the most popular online forums is the Yahoo groups.
The groups are free and the Yahoo group software provides a wide
range of functionality for members. There’s already a vast range
of established groups you can consider joining, or you can use
the software to start your own group.

Yahoo groups

General Resources About Groups

The following link is to a wide variety of types of groups
and includes information about facilitation, as well.
Group
Skills

For the Category of Peer Learning (Facilitation and Teams):

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Online Sources of Jobs

Man looking for job through online sources

Job Banks

(for-profit and nonprofit)

The following links are to job banks, that is, to sites that
list many job openings.

If you want to add a new link now to a job bank, please first
read the short section “Add to Library” referenced from
the sidebar.

Sections in This Topic Include the Following

For-Profit and Nonprofit Job Banks
Nonprofit-Specific Job Banks

Also consider
Career
Advancement
Career
Change
Career
Planning and Management
Personal
Development

Learn More in the Library’s Blog Related to This Topic

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see
the following blogs that have posts related to this topic. Scan
down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the
sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to
numerous free related resources.

Library’s
Career Management Blog

For-Profit and Nonprofit Job Banks

Canadian government’s
job bank
Career Builder.com
Careers in
Business
Executive, Management
Jobs
For-profit web
page with prior month’s listings for non-subscribers
Indeed’s job bank
Jobs.com
Monster.com Zip
Recruiter
Zip job bank

Nonprofit-Specific Job Banks

The 7 Top Websites For Nonprofit Jobs
24 Nonprofit Job Boards For Finding Employment!
Indeeds job list

Thanks to Lisa Macey Klevenz (lisa@ChildAdvocacy.org) for the following listing.
ACCESS: Network in the
Public Interest
Association for Public Policy
Analysis and Management
Execs, association jobs at a variety of levels
Can search Bay area nonprofit
openings
CEO Update sells
subscriptions for national registry of ceo level jobs
Chicago-based nonprofit jobs
and volunteering
Chronicle of Higher Education, higher education jobs that; appear in their print
edition
Coalition on Human Needs,
many DC-based policy openings
Community Career Center,
resume posting and career; services available
Community of more than
150 global justice jobs
Council for Advancement and
Support of Education, management; ranks at higher ed. institutions
Council on Foundations, openings
at foundations at all levels; (More extensive list for searchers who are members)
Essential Home with Good
Works job pages
Families USA, human services
and advocacy job bank
Federal jobs
HandsNet’s Webclipper
provides a job board and a 30 day free; trial membership
Harvard
Law Office of Public Interest Advising
Job-Applications.com

Legal Services of New Jersey
LinkUp Job Search Engine
National Parks and Conservation
Association
Nonprofit Times, national
listings
Opportunity Nocs,
fee-based job listing service
Philanthropy Journal
Online, foundation and development listings
Management Information Exchange,
administrative and management; positions in legal services offices
National listings
and links for social worker positions
Union Jobs Clearinghouse,
openings nationwide
San Francisco area ($45
charge for job listings, for profit and nonprofit)

January 18, 2022September 20, 2022

Free, Online Discussion Groups

General Resources

January 18, 2022September 20, 2022

Sources of Assistance for Nonprofits and For-Profits

Man on gray suit besides woman assisting her

Help for Nonprofits and For-Profits

Organizations With Free or Very Low-Cost Assistance to You:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some
related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes
free, online resources.

For-Profits
Nonprofits
Other Sources of Assistance

Resources for For-Profits

1. Small Business Answer Desk: Call 800-827-5722
2. SBA:
Small Business Administration Home Page
3. SCORE
– Service Corps Of Retired Executives Call 800-827-5722
4. Better
Business Bureau
5. Small Business Development Center: Call 402-595-2387
6. American Home Business Association. Call 800-664-2422.
7. National Association for the Self-Employed. Call 800-232-NASE.
8. Business Assistance Service (with Department of Commerce) Call
202-483-3176
9. National Business Association. Call 800-465-0440.
10. Chambers of Commerce and Trade associations — You should
contact your local Chamber of Commerce, even if only to introduce
yourself. The Chamber can be a great source of help and contacts.
One of the ways in which they can help if to suggest an appropriate
trade association for you to join. The particular trade association
you would benefit from, depends on the nature of your products
or services.

Resources for Nonprofits

1. Contact your Secretary of State and/or state’s attorney
general’s office and ask for a list of resources
2. Executive
Service Corp provides experienced consultation in the areas
of technical and management.
3. National
Council of Nonprofit Associations (find your local office and
call for help)
4. Contact the local volunteer recruitment organization in your
community and ask for assistance.
5. Look in the Yellow Pages of your local telephone directory
for professional associations. Look for networks or associations
of organization development practitioners, facilitators or trainers.
6. Look in the Yellow Pages of your local telephone directory
under the categories “Consultant” and “Volunteering.”
7. Contact local large corporations. They often have community
service programs and can provide a wide range of management and
technical expertise. Speak to the head of the Human Resources
Department.
8. Call a local university or college and speak to someone in
the college of Human Resources, Training and Development, or Business
Administration.
9. Ask other nonprofits (particularly those that have similar
services and number of staff,) or current clients and ask for
ideas, contacts and references.
10. Ask a retired business person (from a for-profit or nonprofit
organization). Often, they have facilitated a wide variety of
meetings.

Other Sources of Resources

Free, Online Resources

See the list of Websites that have extensive, free online
resources for you

Consider a Mentor

See the topic Mentoring

Form a Study Group

In the group, members share support and accountabilities to apply new information
and materials to learn. Here’s a procedure
to start your group.

January 18, 2022March 24, 2023

Free Training Programs

Free Training Programs

(for-profit and nonprofit)

The number of free training programs and courses has increased dramatically, especially with the advent of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC’s).

The following links are to free, online training programs that provide free materials and associate means for you to learn from the materials and then to somehow verify your learning.

Sections in This Topic Include the Following

For-Profit and Nonprofit Programs
Nonprofit-Specific Programs
Free Lesson Plans

Also consider
Related Library Topics

For-Profit and Nonprofit Programs

Nonprofit-Specific Programs

Although the above-listed sites are labeled as “for-profit,” many of the guidelines apply to nonprofits as well — there is more in common between nonprofits and for-profits than is uncommon.

Free Online Lesson Plans, Lecture Notes, etc.

A recent trend is for educators to freely share their educational and training materials. In addition to using the materials to design and implement your own learnings about particular topics, you also can learn about systematically designing trainings in general, including about the training’s outcomes, goals, learning objectives, training methods, result and methods of evaluation.

For the Category of Training and Development:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

January 18, 2022September 20, 2022

Lists of Newsletter Directories

Periodicals and Newsletter Directories

This section is about online newsletters. Online magazines, journals, etc., are included later on below.

January 18, 2022September 20, 2022

Free, Online Discussion Groups

Happy people excited to talk to each other

Online Discussion Groups

One of the most convenient means to get quick, useful advice is to join a free, online discussion group in which to pose your questions. There are 1,000s of these groups and that number continues to grow rapidly. There are a variety of names for the groups, for example, listservs, egroups and eforums. Some people have strong feelings about which name should be used and why the names are different. Usually, groups have a home page which includes description of the purpose of that group, and how you can participate in it.

Groups use a wide range of technologies to support discussions. One of the first types was Usenet, or newsgroups, usually having names with words separated by periods, e.g., “alt.activism” or “soc.org.nonprofit.” Often, these groups need special types of news readers, many of which are available for free on the Internet.

The following lists by no means includes all groups. However, many of the major ones are listed below. New ones are often announced in some or all of the following, as well.

Sections in This Topic Include the Following

For-Profit and Nonprofit
Nonprofit-Specific

Learn More in the Library’s Blog Related to This Topic

For-Profit and Nonprofit Groups

Indices — Each Having Long Lists of Groups

The following sites pertain to both for-profit and nonprofit topics.

Some of the Most Common Groups (That Can Have Subgroups, As Well)

Also consider

Nonprofit-Specific Groups

Indices — Each Having Long Lists of Groups

January 18, 2022March 23, 2023

Blogs About Management Topics

Woman Wearing Black Vest Using a Laptop While Working

Blogs Directories

About Business Blogs
Indices of Blogs

About Business Blogs

Before you look at any of the lists of blogs later on below,
it might be useful for you to understand what is involved in writing
a blog or even consider doing your own blog. See
Business Blog FAQ
Bloggers — A Portrait of the Internet’s New Storytellers

NOTE: We don’t include links to individual, specific
blogs below. There are just too many — and too many don’t survive
past their first year. Instead, we only include links to indices
of blogs, that is, links to organizations that maintain lists
of individual blogs. If you want to publicize your blog, we recommend
that you submit them to one or more of the indices below.

Indices of Blogs — Sites That List and Categorize Numerous
Blogs

The number of blogs has exploded over the past several years.
Many blogs do not last past the first year. Consequently, it’s
quite difficult to identify and monitor individual blogs for this
Library.

Instead, the following list is to numerous services that monitor
and organize blogs into relevant categories. Some of the services
also list how long certain blogs have existed and how many visitors
that blog receives each day.

Search the various categories to find several blogs in which you are interested.
You might select individual blogs based on how long they have lasted and how
many visitors regularly visit that blog.

Free Management Library blogs

131+
Manually Verified Free Blog Directories To Submit Your Blog
100+ Blog Directories
to Submit Your Blog Posts
10
Blog Directories Actually Worth Your Time
21
Web Directories That Still Have Value in 2019
blogs of financial blogs
102
Best Business Blogs You Need to be Reading (and Taking Lessons From)
About.com’s
Top
100 Small Business blogs
Blog Search Engine
Lists of blogs (Wikipedia)
Complete List of Blog Sites
50 Successful Blogs
in Every Topic Imaginable – Sparring Mind
The world’s
50 most powerful blogs

January 18, 2022September 20, 2022

Worksheet for Drafting an Organizational Mission Statement

Worksheet for Drafting
an Organizational Mission Statement

Applies to nonprofits unless otherwise noted.

Simply put, a mission statement is a succinct description of
the overall purpose of an organization. Basically, the mission
statement helps to convey the purpose of the organization to the
community and aligns organizational activities to one overall,
common purpose.

There are a variety of views about what should be included
in a mission statement.

Developing/Updating
a Mission Statement (the purpose of the organization)

For the Category of Capacity Building (Nonprofit):

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Online Reference Materials (Dictionaries, etc.)

Types of Reference Materials On This Page Include the Following

Acronym and Jargon Finders

Dictionaries

E-mail Address Books

Encyclopedias

Glossaries

Language Translation

Library

On-Line Sources to Get Up-to-Date National and International News

Media “Watchdogs”

Business News

World News

USA, including international focus

Phone Books

Quotations (general)

Reference “Desks” (sites with multiple types of reference information)

Thesaurus

Internet Searches

Join / Form Peer Learning Group

Sections in This Topic Include the Following

Learn More in the Library’s Blog Related to This Topic

Benefits of Peer Learning

Learn More About Peer Learning

Peer Learning Groups and Programs

Form Your Own Peer Group

To Find People in Your Locale (for Face-to-Face Meetings)

To Join or Form Internet/Web-Based Groups

General Resources About Groups

For the Category of Peer Learning (Facilitation and Teams):

Job Banks

(for-profit and nonprofit)

Sections in This Topic Include the Following

Learn More in the Library’s Blog Related to This Topic

For-Profit and Nonprofit Job Banks

Nonprofit-Specific Job Banks

Recommended Links

Additional Links

General Resources

Help for Nonprofits and For-Profits

Organizations With Free or Very Low-Cost Assistance to You:

Resources for For-Profits

Resources for Nonprofits

Other Sources of Resources

Free, Online Resources

Consider a Mentor

Form a Study Group

Free Training Programs

(for-profit and nonprofit)

Sections in This Topic Include the Following

For-Profit and Nonprofit Programs

Nonprofit-Specific Programs

Free Online Lesson Plans, Lecture Notes, etc.

For the Category of Training and Development:

Periodicals and Newsletter Directories

Online Discussion Groups

Sections in This Topic Include the Following

Learn More in the Library’s Blog Related to This Topic

For-Profit and Nonprofit Groups

Indices — Each Having Long Lists of Groups

Some of the Most Common Groups (That Can Have Subgroups, As Well)

Nonprofit-Specific Groups

Indices — Each Having Long Lists of Groups

Blogs Directories

About Business Blogs

Indices of Blogs — Sites That List and Categorize Numerous Blogs

Worksheet for Drafting an Organizational Mission Statement

For the Category of Capacity Building (Nonprofit):

Indices of Blogs — Sites That List and Categorize Numerous
Blogs

Worksheet for Drafting
an Organizational Mission Statement