Nonprofit training aligns your people, enhances service consistency, and boosts compliance. But this training is only effective if you distribute it in the right way. In this article, we highlight 6 powerful use cases of an LMS for nonprofits, and explain what kind of functionality your organization should prioritize.
Training is much more than a mandatory workplace exercise. It’s the glue that holds your mission, operations, and culture together. It aligns your people, strengthens compliance, and empowers you to deliver real, tangible change to the citizens and communities you serve.
Without it, everything crumbles away.
Which may be why over half of nonprofits plan to increase their training and development initiatives in the coming year.
But how can organizations scale up their training efforts sustainably and without overstretching their already-stretched resources?
The answer is short and simple: with a learning management system (LMS) that’s built for nonprofits.
A learning management system is a software that facilitates every aspect of your learning, development, and onboarding initiatives, from creating courses to tracking pass rates and administering certificates. They’re a fundamental tool for standardizing and democratizing training across your multi-site nonprofit.
Typical LMS software solutions include:
These are all pivotal features. But they’re just the baseline of what LMS vendors should deliver.
Some software providers offer additional capabilities and integrated functionality. For example, the Claromentis LMS contains a feature-rich intranet platform at no additional cost, allowing you to consolidate communications, knowledge sharing, and learning in one centralized solution.
Now that we’ve covered what an LMS is, let’s visualize how it might slot into your nonprofit’s tech stack.
In the following section, we’ll highlight 6 powerful use cases of the software — and how it can benefit your staff, volunteers, and beneficiaries.
Attracting new volunteers and winning top talent is only half the battle. To ensure they embody your nonprofit’s ethos and follow your operations to the letter, you need to invest in standardized onboarding training.
An LMS for nonprofits is the perfect foundation for this. Simply build out dedicated courses — related to your culture, policies, handbooks, and procedures — and thread them into a clear, trackable e-learning pathway.
Native statistics and test results provide reassurance that individuals have properly ingested and understood each training. Assigned course tutors provide a clear mechanism for sourcing support (should your new staff or volunteers need it). And automated triggers guarantee that “newbies” can only access sensitive documentation once they’ve passed the applicable courses.
Best of all? Once you’ve built your digital onboarding pathways, you can reuse them across your sites. This reduces the burden on volunteer managers and ensures everyone receives the same tried and tested learning experience.
Funding friction and financial uncertainties have caused many nonprofits to slam the brakes on pay increases. There aren’t many ways to circumvent this problem — save for finding new funding streams. But, remember, money isn’t a motivator for everyone.
There are ways to retain your employees without financial incentives.
In fact, 53% of non profit employers say enhancing professional development opportunities is key to retaining talent. And this is precisely where an LMS can be of help.
Building out skills-based courses and designing career development pathways give your employees a chance to progress in your organization. This satisfies their need for learning while simultaneously opening the door for future opportunities.
How engaged and informed are your board members really? If your answer lands somewhere between ‘not at all’ and ‘somewhat’, you might take comfort in learning that 56% of nonprofit organizations struggle with board governance, too.
According to the Stanford Survey on Leadership and Management in the Nonprofit Sector, many board members fail to fulfil their job role, especially when it comes to succession planning and fundraising.
This is unsustainable. New and established board members must understand their responsibilities and stay invested in your day-to-day operations. Otherwise, your nonprofit will never achieve its underlying goal.
With an LMS, you can create nonprofit board training centered around fundraising expectations, succession planning, handling conflicts of interest, conducting self-evaluations, and more. This rigorous and standardized approach will enhance governance, compliance, and performance across the board and beyond.
We often associate compliance with heavily regulated industries, such as healthcare and financial services. But even the smallest of nonprofit organizations have their fair share of compliance obstacles to navigate — including reporting on financial performance, complying with labor laws, and securing sensitive data.
An LMS not only increases knowledge sharing and adherence to policies and industry standards, but can provide a traceable log of training records that you can present to regulators. Meaning you can bolster compliance and streamline your audits in one fell swoop.
The larger your nonprofit grows, the harder it becomes to maintain process consistency across your locations.
For instance, imagine you work for a refugee charity that provides support to displaced individuals. One location screens and assesses candidates based on a rigorous checklist, comprising questions about the individual’s background, finances, education, current living arrangements, and so on. On the other side of the country, however, another location takes a more relaxed approach. This results in two case management processes that are completely out of tune. One location finds and prioritizes critical cases — the other doesn’t.
Training standardizes these procedures and creates a consistent rhythm across every team and location. In turn, this can strengthen your reputation, streamline your operations, and keep employees aligned with your mission.
AI is sweeping through workplaces across every corner of the globe. Some organizations are adapting well to the change. For others, AI is still an enigma waiting to be solved.
As it stands, only 45% of nonprofit professionals have some understanding of AI, and 26% are not using AI at all.
As labor shortages rage on and resources dwindle, AI will become an increasingly necessary aid. Which is why it’s important to upskill your workforce now rather than later.
LMS training centered around artificial intelligence can steadily build digital skills, ensure compliance, and futureproof your nonprofit in the coming months and years. Native performance analytics indicate where employees or volunteers are lacking and help you prioritize areas for improvement.
Traditional learning management systems act as a one-stop shop for creating, distributing, and tracking training. But that’s where their functionality ends.
In many cases, learning management systems are completely detached from your day-to-day operations, documents, and communications. This means your volunteers, employees, and board members are forced to hop between platforms to ask for support, reference knowledge base articles, and read through policies. Beyond reducing the effectiveness of your training, this puts your workforce at risk of ‘tool fatigue’ and burnout.
The solution to this problem is to find a more comprehensive, centralized software. One that provides LMS and intranet functionality in conjunction.
This is precisely what Claromentis delivers. Our LMS package boasts a built-in intranet, available at no extra fee. This allows you to consolidate your nonprofit operations and augment your training efforts using:
Plus, you have the option to bolt-on a dynamic no-code business process automation platform, too. Allowing you to streamline your operations and training workflows with ease.
Simply put, Claromentis provides every tool you need to strengthen training, compliance, and culture across your nonprofit locations, packaged into one convenient software.
If this sounds like the perfect tool for you, we’d recommend booking a quick 10-minute call with one of our experts. We’ll walk you through our complete nonprofit management solution, discuss packages and discounts, and arrange a bespoke 30-day demo.