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Practitioners are key to many of the strategies for sustainability described in Opening Opportunities, Building Ownership: Fulfilling the Promise of Microenterprise in the United States.
In fact, the eight directions detailed in the publication’s concluding chapter specify a number of activities that practitioners should undertake to build a more sustainable future, and to demonstrate and enhance their value to funders and investors. FIELD offers three resources to help practitioners along that path: an on-line resource bank, an action planning guide, and practitioner training opportunities.
On-Line Resource Bank
To help practitioners move forward on the directions they consider most important to their organization, FIELD has developed an on-line resource bank with information relevant to each of the eight directions. The bank includes an array of resources: publications with best practice information, toolkits, training curricula, Web sites and more. Most resources are available free and are accessible via easy-to-use hyperlinks. To make finding appropriate tools and resources easy, we have organized them by direction. To see what’s currently available, click on the links below.
Direction 1: Market, Market, Market
Direction 2: One Size Doesn’t Fit All
Direction 3: Think Bigger, Work Smarter
Direction 4: Seize the Power of Technology
Direction 5: Quality is Job One
Direction 6: Policy Matters
Direction 7: Staying Alive
Direction 8: What’s in a Name?
FIELD intends to add new materials to this resource bank regularly. If there are materials relevant to our directions that you have developed or found useful, please e-mail us at fieldus@aspeninstitute.org.
Action Planning Kit
FIELD recognizes that not all of the directions it identified for the microenterprise field will apply to every microenterprise program. Moreover, most organizations will set priorities after determining which directions are most important and/or appropriate given their circumstances, and what kind of funding is required and available. Thus, FIELD has created a special kit designed to help practitioners lead their staff and board through a well thought-out process that involves reflecting on current challenges, assessing organizational strengths and weaknesses, and charting an appropriate set of action steps aimed at strengthening the organization.
Included in Fulfilling the Promise: An Action Planning Kit for Practitioners are: a printed “Guide for Board and Staff,” a narrated CD-ROM containing a PowerPoint designed to encourage conversation between board and staff, and other helpful materials.
Learn more about An Action Planning Kit for Practitioners
Webinar explores creating capital structures that support greater sustainability. This Webinar features the efforts of Justine Petersen to generate more flexible capital and deliver microloans with a pricing strategy that more appropriately matches its costs. ACCION New York staff commented on the loan pricing strategy and staff from ACCION New Mexico provided feedback on the fundraising/development and board development strategy. Click here to access the Webinar.
Key survey findings explored in Webinar. Our recent Webinar “Painting (a Microenterprise Story) by Numbers: A Look at Client Data” on key survey findings from clients interviewed by 34 programs is now available on-line. In addition to the report on key client outcomes, Marsha Bailey, President/CEO of Women's Economic Ventures in Santa Barbara, Calif., discusses what WEV has learned about collecting client survey data, and shares some ideas on how a more effective data collection process can be built industry-wide. Click here to access the Webinar.
Webinar explores social enterprises. A Webinar exploring how three microenterprise programs created social enterprises as part of a sustainability strategy drew more than 90 participants. Staff from the programs were interviewed during a lively discussion of their start-up and ongoing business challenges. The three programs interviewed were: Mountain BizWorks (western North Carolina), which created the Mountain Made craft gallery; WREN (Women’s Rural Entrepreneurial Network, New Hampshire), which established WRENovation gift shop; and Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation, which developed “Coffee with a Conscience” coffee shops. Click here to access the Webinar.
Webcast trainings on MicroTest’s Performance and Outcomes products.
Live and archived versions of MicroTest's hour-long sessions provide an opportunity for MicroTest members to train new staff, or refresh the skill of existing staff members, while they fill out their workbooks for Fiscal Year 2006. Read more.
