Nonprofit Blog Carnival: Going Beyond Resolutions (Call for Submissions)

Happy February! Did you know that 25% of New Year’s resolutions are broken in the first week alone?

And within 6 months, over half of us wishful thinkers who made New Year’s resolutions will have given some, or all of them, up.

Guess what – I know why.

New Year’s resolutions are often lofty, mile-high, pie-in-the-sky statements, such as “I want to lose 50 pounds,” “I’m going to write a best-selling book,” and “I’m definitely starting my own dog walking business.”

For sure, those are worthwhile goals! But, without measurable action steps and a timeline to get you there, how will you even know where to begin? And how will you be held accountable for the micro-steps necessary every single day to get you to your big picture goal?

This resolution trap befalls most of us in the nonprofit sector as well. Too often we way that this is the year we are going to “raise awareness,” “raise money online,” and “get 1,000 Facebook fans.”

We don’t like to think about the necessary but challenging (and sometimes even painful) steps that we will need to take every single day on our way to accomplish these lofty goals.

From Mile-High to Measurable

I am very excited to be hosting the February 2016 Nonprofit Blog Carnival!

Being a data nerd with a serious focus on getting ROI (return on investment) for my clients, I want to hear from you about the thrills, chills, and challenges in creating SMART objectives, to accompany your big-picture lofty goals (and resolutions). SMART stands for specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound.

I have my own ideas about the importance of creating, implementing, and measuring SMART objectives in conjunction with big goals – but I want to hear yours!

The Nonprofit Blog Carnival needs your posts and insight on choosing goals and objectives for 2016. Your post may be a case study of an organization that you worked with that struggled but succeeded in using SMART objectives to reach it’s goal. It may highlight a book that you have read that will assist all of us in getting into the measurement mindset. It may be your top 10 tips for crafting goals and objectives with a reluctant Board, when they really want to focus on sexier things (“Let’s get on Pinterest and Instagram!”)

Here’s how to submit:

Write a blog post, or even choose a recent post that fits the theme.

Submit your post via email to: nonprofitcarnival@gmail.com. Be sure to include your name, your blog’s name and the URL of the post (not your blog homepage).

Get your post in by the end of the day on Saturday, February 27th. Check back on Monday, February 29th (an extra day!) to see if we’ve included your post in the February Nonprofit Blog Carnival.

So, what exactly is a Nonprofit Blog Carnival?

It’s a monthly round-up of blog posts on topics for people like you, at nonprofits. Each month, the host creates a theme and sends out the call (in a post like this) for posts on that topic. Then the host (that’s me!) collects the best ones in a round-up post towards the end of the month.

You can write a post for your own website or blog. It doesn’t have to be specifically for the Carnival, or even mention the Carnival. I’ll review the submissions and we’ll feature the best in a post toward the end of the month. Check out the January 2016 Blog Carnival hosted by Beth Kanter.

What’s in it for you?

When your post is included in the blog carnival, you’ll bring new traffic to your blog and help raise its online profile. We’ll link back to your blog post. And you’ll get your writing in front of new readers. Plus, you’ll be helping others. And for that, we’ll all be very grateful!

Never miss a Carnival! Sign up for monthly updates here.