What is goodWORKSconnect.org? There is so much good work being done by nonprofits in east central Illinois and throughout the state, including social services, education, arts & culture, youth development, and much, much more. You are probably doing some of this good work. Do your colleagues (or potential colleagues) in other cities and towns across Illinois know what you are up to? Do you know what they are doing? goodWORKSconnect.org can help.
goodWORKSconnect.org is an online community space and virtual resource center created to help nonprofit leaders, staff, and board members from throughout Illinois, with special focus on the east central Illinois region, connect with new and old colleagues, share information, and learn from each other. We hope this site will help you:
Expand your network of relationships and help you find others working on similar issues
Learn about opportunities happening in the region and beyond
Ask questions and get answers
Discuss your good ideas
Create a group for your organization or cause
Share success stories and lessons learned
Share templates and forms to avoid "re-inventing the wheel"
Discover new websites, articles, books, videos, resources, etc.
Our vision is to become an online community, where the people doing good work (YOU!) contribute content and help us determine the future.
All tools and content are free to use.
Why do we need goodWORKSconnect.org?
There are over 1,000 nonprofits just in east central Illinois, let alone the entire state…some know each other, but many do not. The people and communities those nonprofits serve as well as the needs they address are connected and intertwined in more ways than we even know. We know that we can create even more positive change by knowing what each other is doing and working together. We hope goodWORKSconnect.org will provide the tools and resources to aid this communication and cooperation.
What you can do in goodWORKSconnect.org?
1. Connect, share ideas and network with the people, organizations and groups who share your interests
2. Generate visibility and support for your work (programs, events, volunteer opportunities and more)
3. Create a group for your organization or cause
4. Learn about resources and in-person and on-line training opportunities
5. Find and apply for grants (coming soon)
History of goodWORKSconnect.org
In 2004, The Lumpkin Family Foundation founded its Nonprofit Excellence Program (NEP) in response to the relative absence of affordable and appropriate professional and organizational development services in Central Illinois. Since that time, more and more of these services are being provided by other intermediaries in the region, putting the NEP in a unique position. In order to connect the good work of these intermediaries and leverage the networks of nonprofits they support in their local areas, work began in 2008 to nurture a nonprofit network and create a nonprofit virtual center—goodWORKSconnect.org.
This approach was inspired by the book The Spider & the Starfish- the unstoppable power of leaderless organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom. Historically, nonprofit resource centers have been reliant on their host(s)—a very “spider” type approach. In order to make a more “starfish” type approach, a group of nonprofit leaders met in September 2007 to discuss how a more networked approach to a virtual center could be developed.
goodWORKSconnect.org launched at the Downstate Illinois Nonprofit Conference in August 2009. Initial funding provided by The Lumpkin Family Foundation supported the building of the site and initial site content population.
Please keep in mind that people involved in nonprofit organizations throughout Illinois, or who just want to learn more about the sector as a whole, are welcome to join our growing community! In order to localize and embed goodWORKSconnect.org in your backyard, the focus region of East Central Illinois has been divided into the following subregions:
Annie Hernandez, Program Officer Organization & Leadership Development, The Lumpkin Family
The Steering Committee is a group of individuals committed to engaging their networks around the region to benefit the community. See the map above for the regions.
REGION 1
Sharon Alpi, MillikinUniversity, Center for Entrepreneurship (Decatur)
Chad Clevenger, United Way of Decatur/HSAC (Decatur)
Missy Batman, The Community Foundation of Decatur/Macon County (Decatur)
Brandi Binkley, Macon County Health Department (Decatur)
Jody Cox, Red Carpet Promotions (Decatur)
Bert Gray, Macon County CASA (Decatur)
Wegi Stewart, The Community Foundation of Decatur/Macon County (Decatur)
Amanda Standerfer, Decatur Public Library (Decatur)
REGION 2
Joan Dixon, Community Foundation of East Central Illinois (Champaign)
Sue Grey, Champaign County United Way/Human Services Council/Volunteer Council (Champaign)
Jan Simon, ParklandCollege (Champaign)
Collette Niland, UIUC Asst. Dean, Advising and Registration (Champaign)
REGION 3
Tosha Cantrell-Bruce, University of Illinois-Springfield (Springfield)
Stacy Reed, Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln (Springfield)
Pamela Salela, Central Illinois Nonprofit Resource Center (Springfield)
John Stremsterfer, Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln (Springfield)
John Kelker, Sangamon County United Way (Springfield)
Amanda Cole, CED Educator (Litchfield)
REGION 4
Jeanne Dau, BusinessSolutions Center, Eastern Illinois University (Charleston)
Carolyn Cloyd, Coles County United Way (Mattoon)
Pam Crisman, LakeLand College (Mattoon/Regional)
Tiffany Macke, U of IL Extension/Economic Development Council (Marshall)
Joedy Hightower, Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation (Effingham)
Jon Fulton, Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation (Mattoon)
STATEWIDE
Anne Heinze-Silvis, Rural Partners/University of Illinois Extension (Urbana)
Thom Clark, Community Media Workshop at Columbia College (Chicago)
Laura Zumdahl, Donors Forum (Chicago)
Delia Coleman, Donors Forum (Chicago)
STAFF
Annie Hernandez, The Lumpkin Family Foundation (Mattoon)
We are just getting started and there are some things you can do immediately to help:
Spread the word about goodWORKSconnect.org to people in your network.
Join today!—personally and for your organization or group
Help us expand our content by sharing your resources on the site and using some of the content from the site. Make this your place to promote upcoming events, job and volunteer opportunities, success stories, helpful resources and more!
As a way to help the community grow through healthy interactions, the following community norms have been developed and used in the creation of the site:
Listen and participate with an open mind.
Be polite and civil with other people and assume good faith at all times.
Practice a positive focus and look for what is working.
Claim your experience as your own and share it.
There is no silent consensus—ask meaningful questions.
Take responsibility for yourself and allow others to do the same.
Have fun!
A couple of other things… 1. Do Not Infringe Copyright—goodWORKSconnect.org is a free, community-driven website based on a customized joomla platform on software protocols which means that anyone can use or modify the content and resources included on the site. Please, however, do not submit resources (beyond reference) or content which are not yours; doing so will infringe copyright and may incur legal problems. It will also limit our ability to share and redistribute content and features across the community. 2. NO incentivized or “paid for” Content—Please no marketing or artificial marketing activities.
Repeated infringements of these community guidelines will result in the deactivation of your account.
If you have feedback or suggestions as to how the site could better help you, please share it with us here.
Download the goodWORKSconnect Logo
If you are working with goodWORKSconnect or need to promote it in your printed material, we have provided our logo for download here. The logos are in .eps and .pdf format for graphic designers and printers.
