WSMA is pleased to announce their webinar series for 2012.  We have some fantastic topics lined up and encourage you to take part in the entire series. This is a great opportunity for business assistance and economic development practitioners, members of the financial, education and workforce communities, nonprofits and of course WSMA members! A registration link will be added for each webinar.

The fees for the webinars (per webinar/individually priced) are:

• Members – $20
• Non-members – $25

Mission-driven earned income must be a part of every nonprofits revenue generation strategy. Microenterprise programs particularly must model good business practices for their clients with a diverse revenue mix that includes fees and earned income. Earned income activities offer opportunities to expand your work in the community, secure unrestricted funds and reduce dependency on fickle funding sources. This session will help nonprofit leaders learn how to identify opportunities within their current operations, test the feasibility of a concept and adapt their systems for the strategy while staying on mission. Bring your ideas and questions to this interactive webinar and facilitated discussion on earned income for MDOs.

WSMA has partnered with the Enterpreneurial Law Clinic at the University of Washington to present this webinar in the series. This program will provide an overview of the legal requirements for starting a business in Washington State. Topics covered will include: choice of entity – to include liability and tax concerns; basic formation requirements; and the difference between employees versus independent contractors.

Note – The presenters will not be able to answer questions other than those related to the webinar; questions about individual businesses will not be answered since this is not a forum for giving legal advice.

This two session webinar series introduces you to data analytics and performance benchmarking drawing on microTracker.org, a new website designed for U.S. microenterprise practitioners. How do you use data to help improve your program’s performance? What data should you use? What questions does your board, management team, or staff have about your program that could be answered by comparing your program to others in the U.S.? In this interactive session – FIELD staff will use case study examples to explore critical benchmarking questions; how microTracker can help programs with the answer, as well as investigate your specific questions.

The first session will introduce the concepts of data analytics and benchmarking and address some of the basic benchmarking questions programs often have; “how do I compare to other organizations in terms of how many loans I make/clients I train/entrepreneurs I serve?”. Participants will be introduced to microTracker and become familiar with how to use this tool for accessing basic statistics at the industry and state level, as well as focused on programs with a specific geographic focus. Participants will be asked to provide their own critical benchmarking questions to be addressed in the second session.

In the second session we will explore more complex benchmarking questions such as; “How do I compare to others in terms of cost per loan? How do I compare nationally, to others in Washington, to other rural training programs, programs that focus on low-income entreprenuers, etc?”. We will explore more complex benchmarking questions via a microenterprise case and will address benchmarking questions participants raised in the first session.

Is corporate philanthropy dead or dying? If so, how can we resurrect it? Today’s economy is challenging for corporation, individuals and especially nonprofits. If your organization has relied on corporate support in the past or is thinking about how to best approach businesses in a challenging economy, this session will be one you don’t want to miss. Based on research for a new book, this session will discuss the challenges facing corporations today and how nonprofits can develop win-win situations to encourage corporate philanthropy. We will discuss how to approach corporate leaders, how to motivate them to become involved in your organization, and how to develop a corporate appeal.