Each month, HOPE’s human resources team puts together learning updates for staff members’ professional development. Wendy-anne Durika, benefits and policies specialist, introduced this month’s update: “This edition of the learning resources update has a back-to-basics focus. Giving, thank-you notes, the essentials of strategic planning, and getting to the root of issues through the Five Whys are just some of the topics in this learning update.” We hope you find these resources useful too!
Leadership
- Managing a Geographically Dispersed Team – Achieving Your Goals Together, While Apart
- Five Essentials of Strategic Planning
Spiritual Integration
- Desiring God – Sermons by John Piper available online
- Preach It, Teach It – Sermons by Francis Chan, Max Lucado, and more available online
Industry News
- Microfinance, E-Commerce, Big Data and China: The Alibaba Story – From CGAP’s blog
- Generous Matters – Encouraging lives that are rich toward God
Self-Development
- Lancaster Chamber of Commerce events – Topics include women in business, diversity, and networking for young professionals (40 and under)
- Writing Nonprofit Thank-You Notes That Inspire Future Gifts (webinar) – Did you know that the quality of your thank-you letter can determine whether your donor gives again or not? Research proves that thank-you letters are incredibly important in turning a first-time donor into a life-long giver.
- Five Whys – Learn to use the Five Whys strategy to get to the root of the problem.
![Before Eveness Mulungu joined the Walusungu (“mercy”) savings group through our church partner in Malawi, she faced days where she and her family ate animal feed because they couldn’t afford human food. But that changed when she joined the savings group. Eveness used her first group loan of about $1.70 (U.S.) to start a business selling doughnuts and beans.
“By the end of my first cycle I made $140 (U.S.),” Eveness shared. “My life is no longer the same now; [I] was regarded as no one in the community. ... This was the first time in my life that I ever touched and owned big money like this!”
Pictured: Eveness, with her husband in front of their piggery—a third successful business that she operates.](https://blog.hopeinternational.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)