Decoding Your Nonprofit Population's Needs

Welcome to your first lessons on understanding your population’s needs!

Understanding the population we serve is vital for our effectiveness in meeting their needs and making social change happen. These needs are complex, often in flux, and are difficult to meet through a single program, service, strategy, or even through one organization’s efforts.

We’ll begin our learning by looking at what we mean by understanding our population’s needs, and why this matters. We’ll look at the five skills related to better comprehending our target population, and round out our learning by exploring how to spot and measure effectiveness in this area.

Let’s jump in!

*Note that a transcript of all audio is available for download on the lessons to come, as well as an audio-only version of the lessons. You can always turn on closed-captions on the video player settings above.

In this lesson, we'll jump in on an overview of what it means to understand our population needs and what it looks like in your non-profit.

Be sure to download the transcript to begin building your reference library, and also feel free to use the audio-only download below for on-the-go learning.

Now that you have some basics about understanding our population's needs, let's take a look at why it matters.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

In this lesson, we'll look at the five skills needed to support population assessment. Remember: skills can be learned, practiced, and developed over time, so if you feel that you have a little (or a lot of!) room for improvement, know that you're on the right track!

Be sure to download the transcript to begin building your reference library, and also feel free to use the audio-only download below for on-the-go learning.

In this lesson, we'll bring together our learning on what effectively understanding our population looks like, and how can we measure it.

Be sure to download the transcript to add to your reference library, and also feel free to use the audio-only download below for on-the-go learning.

In this lesson, we'll explore the process of measuring our population needs, abilities, or practices in your nonprofit.

Remember, you can download the audio and transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

Welcome to our silver badge lessons on understanding your population’s needs! As you work toward your silver badge, you’ll go deeper into the “how” of needs assessment: how we can activate this capacity in your organization, how to lead community asset inventory efforts, and setting goals that look to build up your capacity and that of your organization in these efforts.

Let’s jump in on our next lesson on activating our needs assessment efforts in our nonprofits!

*Remember that a transcript of all audio is available for download below on the lessons below, and you can always turn on closed-captions on the video settings above.

Let’s start with activating your population needs efforts and go beyond the focused skill-building we talked about in our bronze lessons. We’ll look at more deeply exploring your motives for improvement, managing innovation, and understanding others.

Be sure to download the transcript to review your learning.

Now that we have a little bit of foundation in your population needs efforts, let's think about how we can apply this to your organization.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

In this lesson, we'll look at how to put population needs efforts into practice with a look at how to build and enhance it in your nonprofit.

Be sure to download the transcript to review your learning.

In our consideration of how to build up your own capacity in developing and supporting effective population needs at your nonprofit, we’re going to consider the principles behind goal-setting.

Be sure to download the transcript to review your learning.

Setting goals to improve your nonprofit’s overall population needs efforts looks and feels different than setting goals as an individual.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

Welcome to your final series of courses on nonprofit population needs! We’ve covered a lot of ground on what understanding our population’s needs means… and doesn’t mean. We’ve also looked at how you can put this learning capacity into practice, and what it looks like when it’s done well. In our gold-level lessons, we’ll bring this learning together to explore how we can get and stay motivated to build up our own abilities to understand our population better. We’ll also look at some ways to understand our fellow partners’ motivation or resistance.

These lessons also include a review of all we have covered in our work on population needs, and you’ll have the opportunity to complete a personal learning plan to conclude your learning.

Let’s jump in!

*Note that a transcript of all audio is available for download on the lessons to come, as well as an audio-only version of the lessons. You can always turn on closed-captions on the video player settings above.

In this lesson, we'll look at how motivation can be supported in building population needs efforts in your organization.

Be sure to download the transcript to not only review your learning but also to see the research references used in this lesson.

In this lesson, we're going to discuss how we can inspire others to get personally motivated about nonprofit population needs efforts, especially those who may be resistant.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

In this final teaching lesson on population needs, we're bringing together all our learning into a capstone video on how we can grow from everything we've covered thus far!

Be sure to download the transcript to not only review your learning but also to see the research references used in this lesson.