I’m so very pleased to announce the launch of our first Human Business Works community and education project, 501 Mission Place. This community is geared towards non-profits and charities looking to improve their efforts. From fundraising to the use of new marketing tools to in-depth interviews with the people out there on the front lines doing successful things to grow their non-profits and charity projects, the goal is to give you the tools you need to thrive in this ever-changing economic situation, where funds are drying up at the exact moment that you need them most.
Our Story
From the 501 Mission Place about page:
Like so many of the organizations that we lead, 501 Mission Place started as a conversation between friends. Chris Brogan, president of Human Business Works, and childhood friend Rob Hatch, then Executive Director of Child Health Center, were talking about the challenges of being someone who lives, eats and breathes mission. It’s easy to become isolated because there’s always so much work to do. Because there’s always so much work to do it’s hard to take time to learn about new things, or to network and find the connections that can really push your mission forward.
Rob knew this because he was living it. Chris knew it because non-profit leaders were telling him every time they asked him for advice or help. That conversation ended with the idea of creating an online community to support these leaders, and after sharing it with friend Marc Pitman, a long-time fundraising veteran, they set out to build a home for non-profit Executive Directors.
Chris met Estrella Rosenberg, a non-profit Executive Director & Founder, at a conference not too long after. She shared her plans to do something virtually identical, driven by her belief that the non-profit community was crippled by a lack of real community and her faith that by helping each other grow, our own organizations could grow stronger – amplifying impact for all of us. Recognizing an opportunity to collaborate, Chris told Estrella about 501 Mission Place and she jumped on board to be the host of the home being created.
Why This Matters to Us
501 Mission Place is something of a formalization of my own efforts to show how nonprofits can benefit from using social tools, blended with actionable information from people in the heart of charity work like Estrella Rosenberg, John Haydon, Marc Pitman, and Rob Hatch (okay, well I stole Rob out of his nonprofit role to run HBW, but he used to run a nonprofit). It’s also a way that Human Business Works can give back or tithe, and that’s very important to the larger Human Business Works mission. That’s why we launched this one first.
If You or Someone You Know Wants Useful Education on Improving Nonprofits and Charities
Our goal is to grow 501 Mission Place into a community of practitioners and helpful specialists. There are many great nonprofit projects and communities out there, and we hope you belong to more than one. Ours, we hope, is a way to practice and learn throughout the year. The cost is about the same as buying one new hardcover book a month, or viewed annually, the same as the ticket cost of a conference. So, skip the airfare, hotel, and time out of work, and get 365 days of conference content and hallway conversations. It works for you all year long. Oh, and we answer your questions, instead of just giving you notes to write down.
If you’re not in a nonprofit or charity, but you’re friends with someone who is, please consider passing on this post. We’re hoping to be helpful to those who want to grow their efforts and build new tools in a community of learning and practice.
Thanks, and I hope to see you around 501 Mission Place!