Category Archives: Academic & Nonprofit

Using Kerika in education and nonprofits.

Ultimate Guide to Lesson Planning: Tips and Strategies for Teachers

Academic & Nonprofit, Kerika,

Mirror Review features Kerika in an article on lesson planning! From the article:

Choosing the right lesson planner is important as it directly impacts your ability to organize teaching materials efficiently and save time in the long run. Kanban tools have gained popularity among teachers due to their visual and flexible nature. There are many tools available in the market like Clickup and Trello. But if you’re looking for a cost-effective tool that caters specifically to educators, Kerika is the standout choice.

Read the entire article.

Kerika has a free Template for Teachers to plan their classes

Academic & Nonprofit, Kanban & Lean, Technology, Tutorials, , , ,
Click on the image to view this Template/

This template is for teachers and professors that want to manage their teaching schedule. It offers all the tools you need to manage your teaching schedule. It gives you the flexibility to create new cards and columns inside the template.

If you want one place to manage your multiple lectures and classes, this template is perfect for you!

How to use this template:

  1. Use Resources: you will find many useful tools that will help you manage your teaching schedule. You can add your resources by editing the existing cards or creating new ones.
  2. Start of the semester: Each new semester requires creating a plan, booking specialized areas, sharing material with students, etc. And each card in this column is designed to help you with that.
  3. Week 1: Use this column when you’re finished creating a semester plan, and you are ready for the first of the semester. Create a card for each lesson plan for the first week in this column. Or use the existing cards and start filling details.
  4. Week 2: Use this column when the first week of your semester is over. Create a card for each lesson plan for the second week in this column. Or use the existing cards and start filling details.
  5. Week 3: Use this column when the second week of your semester is over. Create a card for each lesson plan for the third week in this column. Or use the existing cards and start filling details.
  6. Add more columns: When you click on the vertical three dots in any column, it will show you a tab named ‘COLUMN ACTIONS‘. It will allow you add a column to the left or right, depending on where you want a new column. This is useful when your semester is longer than three weeks, and you want more columns for them.
  7. End of the semester: This column is useful when your semesters are over, and you want to plan things for your last semester. For example, final exams.

How to manage a Fundraising Pipeline for Nonprofits

Academic & Nonprofit, Kanban & Lean, Tutorials,

We had previously mentioned our Grant Pipeline for nonprofits; here’s a similar version that our nonprofit users can use to track their fundraising in general.

Screenshot showing Fundraising Profile template
Click to view this template

This simple template lets your nonprofit team track all the fundraising opportunities that are out there, and make sure they get attended to as they go through the process: Prospect → Contacted → Pitch Preparation → Await Response.

As the possible opportunities move through the process, for each opportunity you need to track at least this information:

  1. Name and contact details for donor.
  2. Organization (include specific department or program office if you are dealing with a foundation).
  3. Key motivations: what’s the donor’s known mission, and how does your nonprofit fit within that vision.
  4. Likelihood of donation: this is something that you update as the task moves through the process.
  5. Pitch process: smaller donors may have an information process, but larger donors are likely to have intermediaries like foundations or family offices that have a specific process they like to follow before they will commit to a donation. Make sure you follow their process!
  6. Expected Date: when you think the donor might make a decision.
  7. Fiscal Year: which fiscal year the grant will come in, for your nonprofit.

Check it out and let us know if we can improve it.

How to manage a Grant Pipeline for Nonprofits

Academic & Nonprofit, Kanban & Lean, Tutorials,

A large number of our users are from small nonprofits (and they get free use of Kerika under our Academic & Nonprofit Plan!) and to help these folks manage their grant pipeline better we have create a new template that’s available to everyone:

Screenshot showing Grant Pipeline template
Click to view this template

This simple, yet very flexible, template lets your nonprofit team track all the grant opportunities that are out there, and make sure they get attended to as they go through the process: Prospect → Qualified Lead → Prepare Grant Application → Await Response.

As the possible grants move through the process, for each opportunity you need to track at least this information:

  1. Name and contact details for donor.
  2. Organization (include specific department or program office if you are dealing with a foundation).
  3. Key motivations: what’s the donor’s known mission, and how does your nonprofit fit within that vision.
  4. Likelihood of donation: this is something that you update as the task moves through the process.
  5. Pitch process: smaller donors may have an information process, but larger donors are likely to have intermediaries like foundations or family offices that have a specific process they like to follow before they will commit to a donation. Make sure you follow their process!
  6. Expected Date: when you think the donor might make a decision.
  7. Fiscal Year: which fiscal year the grant will come in, for your nonprofit.

Not all of this will be available in the Prospect stage, but it needs to be gathered in the Qualified Lead stage for sure: otherwise, your lead isn’t really qualified, and you are not going to be in a good position to win that grant.

Creating this, and other templates for nonprofits, are all part of our “social good” mission.

Check it out and let us know if we can improve it.