JJ Hanley faced a situation well known to nonprofit executives: the number of volunteers that wanted to help was outstripping the agency’s capacity to manage them.  Operating with a small staff, volunteers were key to the success of JJ’s List – which connects people with disabilities with community businesses and services – and her late-night brain-storms of one weren’t getting anywhere. She had some ideas, but the challenge was new to her. Pay a consultant? Yeah, right.

Vital missions, visionary boards, few staff, and less money. How can nonprofit executives fill the gaps in experience and expertise created by lean budgets?

An innovative program by the Pierce Family Foundation in Chicago is offering ways to answer this and the gamut of questions that keep nonprofit executives up at night. Through their Peer Skill Share (PSS) program, the foundation connects staff among grantees to help each other answer questions ranging from how to use a piece of software to how to attract and retain volunteers or use social media more effectively, to how to better serve transgender clients.

Read the full article about helping the leaders of our grantees by the Pierce Family Foundation at the National Center for Family Philanthropy.