October Learning Update

Each month, HOPE’s human resources team puts together learning updates for staff members’ professional development. This month’s update focused on development and fundraising. We hope you find these resources useful too!

Development

• Donors = Checkbooks with Mouths, by Chris Horst, HOPE’s director of development
  In this blog post, Chris shares the importance of building relationships in fundraising.
• Creating Enchantment, Guy Kawasaki
  In this 62-minute Stanford talk, Guy shares secrets to enchanting others and developing influence.

Leadership

• Flawless Execution, by Mark Miller
  In this blog post, Mark offers seven methodical ways for leaders to help their team pursue flawless execution.
• 10 Ways I Want to Lead, by Mark Meyer
  Pick one or two items to add to your leadership toolkit.

Spiritual Integration

• The Spirituality of Fund-raising, by Henri Nouwen
  An encouraging perspective on the relationship between fundraising and spirituality adapted from Nouwen’s passionate lectures on the subject of fundraising.
• The Road Less Traveled, by Rich Haynie
  This article was recommended by Isaac Ezell, HOPE regional representative, as “the single most informative article on a God-centered perspective of fundraising that I have read since joining HOPE.” Rich Haynie illustrates the differences in motivations between secular and Christian fundraising.

Economic Development

• Consumer Lending and Overindebtedness in Latin America, by Rafe Mazer and Sergio Navajas
  “In Latin America household debt levels have been rising in recent years. This has been driven in part by the growth in consumer lending that has coincided with rising incomes of many low-income households in countries such as Chile, Peru, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. This growing consumer base has attracted new providers from international and national-level retail chains to local consumer lenders, eager to capture market share in a population often underserved by traditional financial institutions in the past.”
• Global Development: Views from the Center, by Beth Schwanke
  “Would you invest in a project that looks to reduce the incidence of ‘Rhodesian’ sleeping sickness in cattle in Uganda? What if you could make a return on that investment? You can’t do it yet but if CGD and Social Finance’s Development Impact Bonds Working Group keeps charging ahead, you just might be able to someday.”

Self-Development

• For Those Who Want to Lead, Read, by John Coleman
  “History is littered not only with great leaders who were avid readers and writers (remember, Winston Churchill won his Nobel Prize in literature, not peace), but with business leaders who believed that deep, broad reading cultivated in them the knowledge, habits, and talents to improve their organizations.”
• 10 Time Management Tips, by Andy Gilbert
  It seems like to-do lists keep on growing, and there never seems to be enough time in a day to accomplish everything. This article provides some practical tips to better manage your time.