Learning for Impact: Professional Development that Delivers

Welcome to our first series of lessons on professional development for nonprofit staff! These lessons will look at the capacity, or ability, of a nonprofit to adequately and appropriately invest in their team members’ professional journeys. This looks different in every organization, and for this reason we’ll start by taking a look at what one definition of “professional development” is.

We’ll also take a look at why professional development matters to both your nonprofit and to you as a professional. You’ll also get an idea of what it looks like when done effectively, and what skills you’ll need to get the most out of professional development.

Let’s begin!

*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.

Be sure to download transcripts on the lessons throughout, and remember that you'll find additional reading in the closing lesson in earning your bronze badge.

Now that you have some basics about the topic, let's take a look at why staff professional development 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 key skills related to effective professional development. 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 not only review your learning but also to see the research references used in this lesson.

In this lesson, we'll bring together our learning on what effective professional development programs look like, and how can we measure them.

In this lesson we'll go a little further in understanding effective professional development programs, with an emphasis on how to measure them.

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

Welcome to the silver badge series on staff professional development! We’ll now look at how you can maximize your own professional development as well as that of your organization. This will include an exploration of how nonprofits make learning happen within their organizations, and how you can show leadership in launching or improving a professional development program in your own work.

We will wrap up our learning in this series with some time spent on goal-setting for yourself and your organization, and we’ll introduce a goal-setting model that just might be new to you.

Let’s begin!

*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.

In this lesson, we'll jump get ready to do some action planning around staff professional development, and look closely at how you can make (or support) a really great plan for positive change in your own nonprofit.

Be sure to download the transcript to review your learning.

Now that we have a little bit of foundation in action planning, 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 what types of information can be gathered, shared, analyzed, and used to improve an organization's work in staff professional development.

Be sure to download the transcript to review your learning.

We've talked about action planning and information sharing, but what about reaching success? Goals are a means of knowing whether you have made the change you wanted (or missed the mark), and defining them about organizational capacity means we will continually strive to improve.

Be sure to download the transcript to review your learning.

Goals can get us to new levels of functionality in many areas of our organization. We'll next consider how setting professional development goals for yourself and your nonprofit can be successful both at the individual and team levels.

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

Now that we’ve taken a look at what professional development is, how it shows up in nonprofits that use it effectively, and how we can set goals that support its use, we’re going to wrap up our learning in this final series of lessons.

In these lessons we’re going to look specifically at how professional development can drive engagement and motivation in yourself and your fellow team members. And as we always do on the Merit platform, we will conclude this topic with the opportunity for you to design your own personal learning plan specifically focused on your own professional development.

Let’s begin!

In this lesson, we'll look at how motivation can be supported in building incentivizing professional development 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.

Motivation doesn't always have to be a serious subject: let's look now at a few ways to have fun keeping your energy up and building up the team spirit to improve motivating and incentivizing professional development efforts.

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 Professional Development, 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.