Disqus - Latest Comments for bethkanter

Re: Hey funders, don’t freak out about AI-supported grant proposals

bethkanter — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 17:18:00 -0000

Nodding my head to Sarah's comments below. Why should nonprofits be punished to using AI (responsibly and ethically) and having it save time and resources when they can't get funders to support overhead or admin>

Re: SXSW PanelPicker®

bethkanter — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 16:00:24 -0000

What a fantastic idea for a panel !

Re: 4 Steps to Year-End Balance, Energy, & Focus (Beth Kanter)

bethkanter — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 11:19:04 -0000

Thank you Nancy for the fabulous write up! It was great to see you, if only briefly.

Re: 7 game-changing things nonprofits can learn from for-profits

bethkanter — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 10:49:44 -0000

Love this post!

Recently in the Bay Area, there was pushback from local restaurants and businesses about the free “on campus” lunches because it hurts their business. If course if they used a social enterprise catering company, maybe it would not have the negative impact!
https://www.google.com/amp/...

Re: Nonprofits, we need to talk about mental health and suicide

bethkanter — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 13:59:34 -0000

Kelly - thanks for sharing those links

Re: Fatigue

bethkanter — Fri, 12 Jan 2018 15:58:13 -0000

Thanks for linking to our piece on Robots

Re: How your childhood affects your self-care

bethkanter — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 13:59:39 -0000

OMG, this is so important. The messages your family gives you growing up are internalized so much so that you don't realize what your'e doing. My Dad was a workaholic, very dedicated to his work delivering babies. So much so that he was working 7 days a week, all the time. He work a beeper in those days, we called the ruin the day machine. Because even on vacation or down time, the beeper would go off and he would be at work. He grew up very poor, got a full scholarship to college, but left for the war and went back under the GI bill for both undergrad and med school. He used to tell stories about how he lived on Campbell's soup and worked really hard because he was the first in his family to go to college - his parents were immigrants. So, I know that is where I got my inattention to self-care. When he passed away a few years ago, it was a wake up call to think about what is important. I also experienced some health issues and that's when I got on the self-care train .. and decided to write the book with Aliza. Self-care begins with self-awareness and it is important to understand how your values, habits, and behaviors have been shaped by your family, culture, and life. Thanks for the shoutout

Re: A Call to Inaction: Nonprofits, Give Your Staff a Break

bethkanter — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 11:30:35 -0000

Thanks for the shoutout for Happy Healthy Nonprofit! And, even more the all the great advice around self-care and time off. We need this to boost our resilience.

Re: 9 self-care strategies in the era of Trump

bethkanter — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 12:04:05 -0000

Great tips! I would mindful consumption of the news. And of course many more in a book I wrote on this topic, The Happy Healthy Nonprofit

Re: SXSW PanelPicker®

bethkanter — Thu, 17 Aug 2017 17:32:22 -0000

Great topic ! Great speakers

Re: 10 Nonprofit Blogs You Should Be Following

bethkanter — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 15:01:54 -0000

Thank you so much for including me on this list with such amazing colleagues.

Re: The downsides of linear thinking, and why we need to embrace failure

bethkanter — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 11:36:36 -0000

Thank you bringing up the "F" word again ... a few years back funders and nonprofits were talking about this - even had "Fail Fest" events and sites where people could read about failures that happened to funded projects (in development) and not replicate those mistakes. But the discussion was not been going on a few a while now and glad you are shining a light on it.

Re: 37 Twitter Feeds Nonprofit Leaders Should Follow

bethkanter — Tue, 16 May 2017 11:45:08 -0000

Thanks for including me on the list~ Great list BTW. Do you have all the Twitter accounts set up on a Twitter list you can subscribe to?

Re: Nonprofit With Balls is now…Nonprofit AF!

bethkanter — Mon, 01 May 2017 16:50:54 -0000

Vu,

I had a problem with my publisher using your blog's name - they were not sure they could put "nonprofit with balls" on the cover of the Happy Healthy Nonprofit to show your affiliation for the amazing foreword you wrote. I love A & F ...

Re: The Nonprofit Serenity Prayer

bethkanter — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 14:39:18 -0000

You know that I had an issue with my publisher about putting your blog name on the cover of the book because "balls" also has another reference. I love what you do and whatever you name your blog, we'll all still love you

Re: What’s jam got to do with cat adoptions?

bethkanter — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 16:41:29 -0000

Thank you for the shout out - and appreciated your post (even though I am more of a dog person because I'm allergic to cats) but love animals and what you do.

Re: 5 Pitfalls That Ruin Your Productivity (and Sanity)

bethkanter — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 12:46:43 -0000

Terrific post and thank you for submitting it for the nonprofit blog carnival - it's included here: http://www.bethkanter.org/n...

Re: Your self-care may be holding you back and making people around you hate your guts

bethkanter — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 11:54:03 -0000

Today is my birthday! Your post is a great a birthday present!! I love it!!

As you may know, I'm working on a book about self-care for nonprofits - both individual and how it can scale in the organization's culture.

I agree with you that it is important not to have individual staff members pit their self-care needs against the organization, but it has to be an overall or collective effort that makes self-care part of making sure that the organization has impact. That self-care is part of the culture and is not resting on the backs of individuals.

It is important to educate folks about what self-care means -- it should be a habit, not epidosic. Also, understanding what positive self-care behaviors -- stuff that brings people energy versus negative self-care behaviors -- the latter which you pointed out so well in your post. Positive self-care (walks, yoga,getting sleep, or whatever works) is very personal or customized to the person - so helping folks identify what works for them and creating a plan to make it a habit is important - and that is something some nonprofits encourage. Again, it has to be acknowledged within the organization.

And not just the organization's culture (although that is critical), but a thoughtful plan and policy -- not just about health care, but also organizational work loads, work environment, and cues. This includes stuff carefully constructed and honored work at home policies or encouragement of taking time off.

I just read an interesting post on Medium from a start up - Base Camp -- and how they encourage self-care organizationally. Yes, I know they're a for-profit and nonprofits could never afford some of the perks like the organic fruit in the break room. But was interesting was the "informal policy" about not overworking themselves:

"And while this isn’t a formal benefit, we encourage 40-hour work weeks. I only make this point since our industry is perverted and often asks people for regular 60+ hour weeks + regular pushes on weekends. We don’t want people working more than 40 hours a week in any sustained fashion (we even built in a “Work Can Wait” feature in Basecamp 3 which turns Basecamp notifications off after work hours and on weekends). In a crisis, or a once-every-couple-years special push, we may require very short-term extended hours, but otherwise we strongly encourage a maximum of 40-hours a week, and 8-hours of sleep a night."

There is also the work culture of working 80 hours a week - and I know it is hard to change, especially when there are such limited resources and we feel that can compensate by over working ourselves. But the research shows that when we overwork, we are way less productive, and it is also starts to impact our attitude and health. If we think that self-care is just the quick surrender when we're stressed out, that is a temporary fix. We need to make good self-care habits a part of our work - because it helps our organization's get better results.

Thank you for writing about this important topic!

Re: SXSW PanelPicker

bethkanter — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 11:08:29 -0000

Thanks! I've pitched another ideas this year - about reboot your tech .. I like your session idea and hope it gets selected and would sign up to go for sure if I am at SXSW

Re: 9 Nonprofit Experts to Follow On Twitter

bethkanter — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 02:00:31 -0000

Thanks for including me on the list

Re: SXSW PanelPicker

bethkanter — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 12:55:47 -0000

Looks like a valuable session for SXSW

Re: SXSW PanelPicker

bethkanter — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 12:55:08 -0000

Excellent and much needed topic in the nonprofit world - thanks for pitching this idea. My panel looks at productivity - but from the lends of managing and balancing use of technology - so would love to attend your session.

Re: SXSW PanelPicker

bethkanter — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 12:54:03 -0000

Eve is an amazing presenter and thought leader in the nonprofit world - she is also a nonprofit SXSW fixture - SXSW would not be the same without a session with Eve.

Re: SXSW PanelPicker

bethkanter — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 20:47:55 -0000

Terrific idea

Re: SXSW PanelPicker

bethkanter — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 20:41:29 -0000

Voted!