One of WNA’s business goals is to create opportunities and platforms to connect with other skilled professionals through formal and informal partnerships. What’s really fun about this is that we get to connect with other like-minded professionals whose work aligns with our vision to create, grow and sustain initiatives that result in positive social outcomes. […]
Coffee with Colleagues: Q&A with Sandy Battise Read More »
Here at WNA, we like coffee. We spend a significant amount of time at Austin coffee shops (our favorite is Bennu on E. MLK). In fact, if you’re reading this in Central Texas, it’s likely that you’ve had coffee with us at one time or another. Coffee fuels our work. Bennu also serves as a
Meet our New Team Members (and a Love Letter to Bennu Coffee) Read More »
I attended the Collective Impact Forum‘s Champions for Change workshop last month, and it got me thinking about how we structure collaborative social sector initiatives, especially here in Texas. Wait, buzzword alert. Surely you’ve heard this term, collective impact, right? Everyone’s throwing it around lately. John Kania and Mark Kramer with FSG wrote a landmark
What's a Backbone, Anyway? Read More »
We recently concluded a 9-month community planning process focusing on children’s mental health in Travis County in partnership with Austin Travis County Integral Care. It was quite a journey and truly a collective impact effort, and my hope is that it will serve as a case study for future community planning initiatives. Like the search
The Zen of Creating a Common Agenda Read More »
It’s been one year since Woollard Nichols & Associates officially launched, and we’ve been reflecting on the work that we’ve done over the last year. It was a great year – we supported almost twenty clients including coalitions and collaborations, membership associations, non-profit organizations, city departments and divisions of school districts. We facilitated community planning
Happy Birthday to Us… But the Gifts are For You! Read More »
A while back, I got an email informing me that we didn’t get a grant that I had convened a team of consultants to apply for. A dozen lines in response to an application that required well over 100 combined hours of unpaid work to submit – no question that it was a downer to
Reflections on a Grant Rejection Letter Read More »
My close friends all know that I love to organize games. Some of my favorite memories involve playing Mafia, Balderdash, Cranium, Celebrity and Apples to Apples with friends over the years. So, it’s probably not a huge surprise to them that I’m now incorporating games into my career. Games and other simulated exercises allow people
Tough Issue? Get to… Playing! Read More »
WNA supports our clients in achieving financial sustainability and stewardship through the creation of development plans and strategies. Whether you are just getting started or would like to refine your existing online giving strategy, here are some great tips authored by our talented intern and current University of Texas student, Alenis Leon. Online giving is
A Refresher Course in Online Giving Read More »
We love communications and PR folks. They are amazingly creative professionals who can offer value-added services to promote your mission by helping you craft your message to the media, by designing impactful collateral that supports strategic fundraising, by creating infographics that demonstrate complex concepts at a glance, and more. But – and I think my
We’re currently working with a collaboration of local entities on planning for substance abuse services, so when I saw this article last week, it piqued my interest. It’s not a long read, but if you’re pressed for time I’ll boil it down: People lie when asked about hard drug use. To get a real picture
Could the Loss of Obscure Federal Data Impact Your Ability to Get Funded? Read More »