The Blog
Evaluation, research, workforce development, and nonprofit leadership — from Rojas Blakely & Associates.
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VideoLeadership Journey: A Reflection
October 26, 2023
Grab a cup of coffee and jump in as we reflect back on how leaders became leaders and why they continue in this role. Transcript: Cynthia Rojas 0:03Hi, everyone. Welcome to Coffee Time with...
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VideoAll Things Nonprofit Boards: Part 1
October 19, 2023
Boards...Boards...Boards. They can make or break a nonprofit organization. In a few weeks, we will be launching a series of conversations focused on nonprofit boards. Join us today for a sneak peek...
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VideoDeveloping High-powered Boards
October 12, 2023
Do you struggle with your board? Are your members not as engaged as you wish they were? Do you dream of a high-functioning group of partners who are just as invested as you are in the organization's...
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VideoRegional Workforce Challenges
October 5, 2023
Workforce issues are regional and today we are going to be joined by Beth Weisbrod, the Vice President of Talent and Workforce at the Chamber of Commerce in Richmond, Virginia, known as Chamber RVA....
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VideoLeadership Development for Emerging Leaders of Color
September 28, 2023
Why are leadership programs designed for people of color important? Leadership development programs have been around for decades. So, why is focusing on leadership programs, specifically for people...
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VideoFostering Leaders - Changing a Community
September 21, 2023
What if there were a leadership program that transformed leaders and the community? What would that look like? Join us as we hear about the Community Leadership Program in New Haven, Connecticut and...
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VideoImplementing with The 4 Disciplines of Execution
September 14, 2023
Today, we’re going to discuss and learn the importance of creating strategic plans and moving them into action using a specific framework to ensure that those plans don’t gather dust. Transcript:...
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VideoFundraising Board: A leader’s journey to transforming her board
August 17, 2023
Are you struggling with board engagement or getting your board members to fundraise? You are not alone. Join us as we hear one leader's journey to transforming her board....
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VideoStructural Solutions to Sustaining Your Workforce
July 27, 2023
One year ago, Laura Perille came on the show. She talked to us about struggling to maintain staffing for her early childhood education centers. Her approach was bold, a little risky, and took a...
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VideoYear 3 of COVID Times
July 20, 2023
How are you feeling as we enter Year 3 of COVID? Well, we check-in with each other to see if we have arrived at our new normal or if we are still finding our way. Join us for a deep conversation...
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VideoThe Power of Targets
July 14, 2023
Goals? Benchmarks? Outcomes? All so confusing ... What do all these words mean? Well, today we discuss why the one word you need to know is TARGET! Join us as we discuss how powerful targets can be...
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VideoInnovative Workforce Solutions: Part One
June 29, 2023
The great resignation has provided us an opportunity to shed some light on what others are already doing when it comes to workforce. Join us as we continue the conversation on innovative workplace...
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VideoWhat makes a board great?
June 22, 2023
Over the past few weeks, we have talked to leaders about how to build great boards of directors. Today, we'll debrief what have we learned so far about building and nurturing great boards. We'll be...
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VideoBoards and Strategic Planning - Their role, Their impact
June 15, 2023
Transcript: 0:00:47 Cynthia Rojas Hi, everyone, Welcome to Coffee Time with Masterminds. We have an exciting show. If you watch our shows back to back, you saw a replay with Anne Yurasek of Fio...
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VideoNonprofit Boards are Transforming: Is Yours?
June 15, 2023
Nonprofits are changing and adapting all the time, but is your Board changing? Join us as we hear from Sharon Danosky of Danosky Associates what Boards need to do to transform....
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VideoWhat today's leaders need to know
November 29, 2022
How can we support leaders throughout their careers? Today we are talking with Forrest Helvie, Director of Professional Development for Connecticut Community Colleges and Melissa Harris, Director of...
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VideoLeadership: What we need to know (Part 2)
November 29, 2022
In this episode, we learn from two leaders who participated in a leadership program specifically for emerging leaders of color. We'll hear what they learned, how this program was different, and their...
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VideoWhat's going on with the workforce?
November 29, 2022
Transcript: 0:02 Pieta Blakely does it seem like everyone's got a new job or everyone's trying to hire? It’s been a year since we started talking about the great resignation. Today, we're going to...
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VideoThe Power of Strategic Planning
November 29, 2022
Transcript: 0:04 Cynthia Rojas Hi, everyone, welcome to Coffee Time with Masterminds. We are so happy you are here. We have an amazing guest talking about an amazing topic. Did find yourself throwing...
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VideoWorkforce Development Training: What's Working?
November 29, 2022
Transcript: Pieta Blakely 0:02Many organizations are struggling to find enough workers. Today, we're going to talk about innovative solutions to prepare the workforce. Serial social entrepreneur,...
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VideoImplementation from a Leader’s Perspective
September 27, 2022
How do you get yourself motivated? What is your why with what you are doing? Join us as we continue our discussion about implantation… this time, from a leader’s perspective. Transcript: Cynthia...
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VideoMentorship: an important aspect of leadership development
September 27, 2022
Mentorship can be an important part of anyone's leadership journey, from early career to experienced leaders. Today, we're talking with Nate Gonzalez, expert on mentoring about developing formal and...
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VideoHow to work with consultants
August 18, 2022
Today, we’re going to be discussing about the questions and answers about working successfully with your consultants. Transcript: Pieta Blakely 0:01Engaging with a consultant is a complicated and...
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VideoYear 2 of the Pandemic: Reflections of Leaders from Mission-based Organizations
August 18, 2022
Join us as we review the findings of a study with leaders reflecting on what the last two years have been like, how their leadership has changed, and what they think the future of work looks like....
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VideoRounding Out Equity in Organizations – Leadership, Evaluation, Funding
August 18, 2022
Today's Coffee Time with Masterminds episode, "Rounding Out Equity in Organizations" is the final episode in our Equity Series. Today, we discuss out of box solutions for overcoming barriers to...
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VideoLearning from Funder Feedback
August 18, 2022
Organizations can learn a lot from funder feedback. On today's Coffee Time with Mastermind's episode, we discuss how to make the most of your fundraising experience by incorporating donor feedback in...
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Data & Making Better Decisions
August 1, 2022
Is your organization collecting more information than it can use? Do your staff have the tools to take data and make good decisions? Cynthia and Pieta are talking about how to make the most of the...
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VideoBeing a learning organization
July 28, 2022
What has your organization learned as it’s navigated the Covid pandemic? And how can you apply the best of your learning going forward? Today we’re talking about being a learning organization. What...
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VideoWhat can a robust data system look like?
May 6, 2022
Are you tired of patching together your outcomes for the sake of another funder's report? Would you like to get consistent reports on how well your clients are doing? Join us as we share what a...
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VideoAccurately Measure Progress
May 6, 2022
How does your organization measure progress? Today we’re talking about measurement. Measuring for management and measurement for progress. In this episode we delve into a deep discussion on how...
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VideoThe New Workforce with Alicia Modestino
April 8, 2022
Is there really a shortage of workers? How has the pandemic changed our approach to work? What does the new workforce look like and how can employers -- especially not-for-profits -- adjust. Dr...
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VideoLet's talk about Structural care!
April 8, 2022
One of our most controversial shows was on Structural Care. It was titled “I’m Mad About Self-Care”. Pieta taught all of us something that day … self-care is an illusion that puts the burden of...
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VideoCentering Collective Care in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion with Enrico Manalo
April 6, 2022
Enrico Manalo, Chief of Learner Success at All Aces will join us to talk about how their organization implements collective care and what it means for the work of diversity, equity, inclusion, and...
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VideoEmbedding Structural Care into Your Organization
April 6, 2022
We have talked about the importance of structural care in organizations. In this episode, we are highlighting actual structural care techniques that you can begin to embed into your...
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VideoThe Future of Work with Lauren Currie
January 4, 2022
There’s no doubt that the workforce is dramatically different today than it was before the pandemic. Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring some of the changes and what we think it might mean...
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VideoSustaining your workforce with Laura Perille
December 10, 2021
So many organizations that offer vital services are low on staff and high on stress. What can we do to support our workers and maintain our programs? What are the long-term solutions? Laura Perille...
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VideoManaging the Great Resignation with Chanelle Goldson
December 9, 2021
What is causing this great resignation? What are people looking for? Why are they leaving their jobs? Watch as we tackle this with Chanelle Goldson and the ways on how non-profits manage this.
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VideoHow to get ahead in hiring with Nancy Varsos
December 5, 2021
One of the things the pandemic has done is isolate us. How can we reengage our team to be an effective team again? In this episode, we talked with Nancy Varsos of Varsos Consulting on how to manage...
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VideoJustice, equity, diversity, and inclusion: Making progress and measuring results
May 17, 2021
What does justice look like in your organization and in your work? How do you advance equity in your non-profit? What does success look like? This week, Dr Kimberly Truong joined us to talk about the...
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VideoMotivation series: Theories of motivation
March 10, 2021
How does motivation work? Where does it come from? And how can leaders build and manage it? Last week on Coffee Time, we talked theories of motivation with real applications for managing,...
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VideoMotivation series: Measures and motivation
March 4, 2021
Measures can be scary and demoralizing. But they don’t have to be. In this episode, Rebecca and I talked about harnessing measures for collaboration, problem solving, and joyful...
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VideoMotivation series: A year of Covid
February 23, 2021
We have been in a global pandemic for one year, with a mixed sense of how much longer we have to go. So how's your motivation? Leaders have a double challenge - keeping themselves and their staff...
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VideoFeedback series: Leading with effective feedback
February 9, 2021
How can we use feedback to make our organizations better? How can leaders deliver feedback in ways that help staff grow and improve? This week, we asked Cynthia to share her insights on using...
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Feedback series: Learning from reporting to funders
February 2, 2021
Recently, we have talked about making a strong start to the new year. One of the themes that has come up over and over is collecting data, reflecting on it, and using it. So, for the next few weeks,...
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VideoBuild community with social media
January 27, 2021
What does it mean to do social media "well?" How do we measure output vs. engagement? What are the unexpected benefits when using social media as a not-for-profit leader? Inspirational life...
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Video
The first 100 days
January 20, 2021
The first 100 days of a leader’s tenure are the most important. Why? Well, the concept has been used for leaders of corporations as well and some nonprofits. If you are a new leader or planning...
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VideoA unique approach to an annual appeal with Ann O'Brien
December 21, 2020
Extraordinary times call for creative approaches to getting your message out. This fall, we were joined by Chris Lysy to talk about unconventional communication. We learned how effective pictures can...
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VideoJoy and resilience
December 7, 2020
In stressful and uncertain times, we don’t often emphasize joy. But this week, Thaddeus Miles joined us to talk about joy as an act of resistance, a way of claiming our agency, and a source of...
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VideoAnd if you don't know, now you know
November 18, 2020
Ever feel like you're reinventing the wheel? Is your team duplicating efforts? re-writing the same text? wasting time and energy because they don't have effective ways of sharing information? Can you...
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VideoWhere do we go now?
November 9, 2020
Many leaders are struggling to adapt the methods we have always used to such a strange and unsettled time. When multiple variables are changing, some of us are finding that our usual methods of...
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Video
Is your organization ready to adapt?
October 20, 2020
Right now, mission-based organizations are finding themselves adapting and innovating at record speed. Some are struggling. Dr. Tanya Hills takes us through the science of adaptation and what it...
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VideoLeading and reading: Some of our favorite books
October 14, 2020
Cynthia, Rebecca, and I are constantly recommending books to each other. And sometimes we get asked what books we use in our work. So, last week on Coffee Time, we shared some of our favorites. We...
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Video
Unconventional communication with Chris Lysy
October 8, 2020
The last few years have seen more and more elaborate forms of visual communication. But more complex is not always better. Last week on Coffee Time, Chris Lysy joined us to talk about keeping the...
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Video
Make the most of your data
September 17, 2020
Is your data supporting your strategy? Is it aligned with your mission? Last week, we chatted with Joanna Fulford, founder of Fruitful Data about creating a data strategy. What's that you ask? It's a...
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Video
Innovation and adaptation
September 8, 2020
We have been talking to leaders for 20 weeks now about leading mission-based organizations in a time of crisis. So this week, we reflected on what we have learned about innovating and adapting in a...
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Video
The role of philanthropy in building the post-2020 future
August 26, 2020
When we started airing our show this spring, we thought we'd talk about COVID for a few weeks and then run out of material. Instead, we are living through a global pandemic, the largest civil rights...
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Video
Leading productively through disruption
August 3, 2020
It just hit me recently that the way we are working now is going to be the way we will work for a long time. And a lot of us are finding it hard. So Lindsay Satterfield, productivity coach and...
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Video
The long-term financial impact of COVID
July 29, 2020
COVID-19 has disrupted our programming, disrupted our fundraising plan, and in many cases increased the need for our services. Leaders have been asked to step up in every way imaginable. Now with the...
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Video
Building and using effective feedback loops
July 14, 2020
In a time of uncertainty, building and using feedback loops is more important than ever. Some organizations excel at gathering information but struggle to use it to make effective change. Others make...
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I'm mad about self care: Why self care is a myth
June 23, 2020
Last week on Coffee Time with Masterminds, Tom King, Executive Director of Massachusetts Children's Alliance joined us to talk about the idea of self-care. We explored how the term self-care...
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Coffee with masterminds: Planning for the post-COVID future
April 22, 2020
This past Friday, my good friends and fellow not-for-profit consultants, Cynthia Rojas and Rebecca Tuttle and I met (virtually, of course) to create the first episode of our new, weekly series...
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A very brief introduction to evaluation methods: Non-experimental, experimental, and quasi-experimental designs
February 20, 2019
When you are evaluating a program to see whether it was effective, there are three types of approaches: experimental, non-experimental, and quasi-experimental. The difference between them is that in...
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Video
Randomized Control Trials: Really Gold?
March 14, 2018
A randomized control trial (RCT) is a study design in which participants are divided into two groups and one of those groups is given an intervention (the treatment group) while the other is not (the...
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