http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adria-rolnik/heather-watts-on-the-powe_b_1615703.html?utm_hp_ref=dance

How do you balance work and home—and how, in your experience, do  nonprofit employers measure up in supporting the working mothers on their  staffs?

http://philanthropy.com/article/Having-It-Allthe/132579/

Hello Emergency Volunteers.

As many of you are aware, the state of  Colorado appears to be on fire. While we here in the Arkansas Valley have remained safe so far, conditions are extremely dangerous and there are fires burning all around us. Most notably, the Waldo Canyon Fire near Colorado Springs has taken a turn for the worse and at last count over 32,000 people have been evacuated. Ark-Valley Humane Society has logged 4 calls so far from evacuees migrating into the mountains out of harm’s way and we have taken in one dog for emergency boarding here at the Buena Vista facility. We received a call this morning from a woman in pre-evacuation mode looking for temporary housing of her 22 (!!!) parrots. We provided a contact number to refer her to someone with more bird expertise but if any of you have the capability to assist with that, please call the BV facility at 395-2737 and ask to speak with Margaret.

Please reply to this e-mail to confirm that you are still able and willing to provide emergency sheltering for AVHS SHELTER PETS so that, if needed, we can make room to house evacuated pets at our BV and Poncha Springs shelter facilities. Additionally, if you are able to assist with temporary housing for a family WITH a pet, provide your Name, Address, Phone and what accommodations you may have (# of people you can house, # and type of pets). The shelter is happy to provide portable kennels at no charge to assist with pet housing. The ideal situation is to keep people and their pets together because they are bonded and owners can provide the best care for their pets and their pets will be more comfortable in the care of people they know and love.

Thank you so much and please feel free to contact me through either the e-mail or cell number below if you have any questions or concerns. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for some rain (and no lightning) today.

Michele C. Wayland

Executive Director

Ark-Valley Humane Society, Inc.

director@ark-valley.org

wk. cell: 719-966-9120

In recent letters to the Board of Directors, Mr. Krill wrote:

“the overall goal of the Club this year and in the next 3-5 years is to re-establish junior competitive skiing and snowboarding as a primary focus of this community”

AND

“Simply seeing more kids (especially ones that would not have that opportunity without the Club’s efforts) involved in snowsports and quality programs, coupled with their success in competition and life, is our ultimate goal. ”

Look for the Crested Butte Ski Club to take off this year!

Many Nonprofits (especially smaller ones) struggle with the demands of kepping up in the cyber world with good websites, e-marketing and the like. Contact us if you need help getting the IT monkey off your back so that you can move on to delivering your mission!

Brian

Today, in Gail Perry’s Fired Up Fundraising newsletter, the WHOLE ARTICLE really hits home – so here’s the link.

http://www.gailperry.com/2012/06/5-tips-for-a-happier-and-more-effective-board/

There is a definite art to fine-tuning your site’s SEO. A number of tools need to be utilized to get the best results, and a certain amount of knowledge is required to make your optimization efforts effective. Here are some ‘must-have’ tips to get you started on your own, but if you would like more information, Peak can provide you with a free consultation to understand your website’s current search engine perfomance and suggestions to help improve your rankings.

• Every page of your website should contain unique meta data. Meta data provide the title, keyword and descriptions for the content on that particular page. Meta data is implemented within the code of your website and is used by search engine ‘spiders’ for quick reference to the content available on that page.
• Optimize your content. The verbiage on a particular page should correspond with the meta data for that page. The first one hundred words and ‘headings’ are the most spidered content. Images and inline linking to other pages within your website should also be optimized.
• Create sitemaps and robot files to improve your sites indexing within search engines. Common files are sitemap.xml and robots.txt, once these files are created and uploaded to your web server, you will want to create various webtools accounts and link these files within those accounts (see next tip).
• Google and Yahoo!/Bing provide free webmaster tool accounts so that you can submit your site to the search engines, and properly manage the SEO required for proper indexing and improved rankings on each respective engine. The tools provide you with information about your sites search ranking, as well as any errors that are reported.
• External linking is one of the most efficient ways to improve your sites ranking, and providing reciprocal links trumps that further. See this blog post for more details on external linking >>
• Sign up for a free Google Analytics account!!! If you really want to improve your sites ranking Google Analytics is key. After all the work is done this tool will tell you how your site is performing, providing cross-statistical analysis for how and where your site is being used and being found. You will use the reports from Google Analytics to continue ‘tweaking’ your site’s meta data, content and external linking, further improving your website’s ranking.

You, your volunteers and board members are cordially invited to attend a one-day conference, Creating Possibilities in a Changing World, on the Western State College Campus on Thursday, May 22, 2012 in beautiful Gunnison, Colorado. Sponsored by Thule, Leadership Learning Systems, Western State College and many supporting nonprofits, the program offers workshops for directors, staff, board members, volunteers and anyone interested in nonprofits.

The conference is divided into four distinct tracks, each of which will include an overview and philosophy session, a strategy and technique session and a case study and panel discussion, so that you can tailor the training to your unique needs. Participants will leave the conference with practical, hands-on strategies to apply wise business practices within your own nonprofit organization.

For as little as $45 per person, three individuals from your organization can enjoy the keynote speaker, Doug Matthews from Thule and the institute track of their choosing, along with lunch and closing reception. Plus there will be a drawing to win a $500 grant at the reception!

For a full schedule, information about all of the presenters, sponsors, and registration form, please visit www.western.edu/extendedstudies or call Western’s Extended Studies today at (800)876-5309, ext. 7 or (970)943-2885.

Please forward this email to all of your nonprofit friends, staff and board members. We hope to see you in Gunnison on May 22nd.

The Rocky Mountain Nonprofit Institute
Western State College Extended Studies

Layne Nelson
Director, Extended Studies
600 N. Adams
Taylor 303
Gunnison, CO 81231
Phone: (970) 943-2885
Fax: (9700 943-7068

Congratulations to the Mountain Roots Food Project for a successful celebration this past Friday in Crested Butte. Peak Nonprofit Consulting guided this organization through the merger of two similar and new organizations at either end of the Gunnison Valley – Mountain Roots (Gunnison) and Paradise Food Project (Crested Butte), and then helped them through their 501 (c) 3 application, setting up organizational structures and planning. Join them next Friday for a similar celebration with the Gunnison Community, and check out their website for more information at http://www.mountainrootsfoodproject.org.