eLearning for nonprofits: 8 Essential Features to look for in an LMS

Summary: Nonprofit organizations can be learning organizations. In this article, we’ll talk about the importance of eLearning for nonprofits and the essential features to look for when choosing an LMS for your organization.

There are many different types of non-profit organizations out there. Some focus on education while others help children or animals. There are even some that provide medical care. But what do they all have in common? They can be learning organizations, or yet use eLearning as a strategy to attract more members to support their mission.

Non-profit organizations often struggle to find ways to get new members and donors involved in their cause. What's worse is, they may even lose money because they can't grow their impact and members.

eLearning for Nonprofits: As a Learning Organization

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In this case, nonprofits should actively involve new volunteers, members, and donors by offering online training, online courses, and resource libraries to provide knowledge about their mission and impact goals.

Let's see what are the advantages of using eLearning for nonprofits, plus why you should use an LMS to become a learning organization.

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Once you use eLearning for nonprofits as a strategy to grow your impact, the result can be massive. Here are the advantages of why you should turn your nonprofit into a learning organization:

1. Attracts potential members and donors

In today's world where learning is a part of our daily life & work, using eLearning for your nonprofit may attract potential members and supporters. In other words, it's a way for you to educate people about your mission, impact goals, and core values.

For instance, if people would know that you are building skills through providing training materials for your volunteers, members, and supporters, it is more likely you can attract them to join and support your cause.

2. Makes the onboarding process scalable

After receiving several volunteer applications, the next step to get them on board is to provide training content. By creating a series of training programs for your new volunteers, members, and donors, you are likely to make your onboarding process scalable.

Say no to training or onboarding your newbies one by one or manually. Later, we will show the key features of how you can make your training scalable.

3. Creates an open space to share information and experiences

As a member of your organization, they need to be informed by the latest news of what's happening in your organization and by sharing their experiences with other members. Using eLearning for your nonprofit organization can create an open space for a collaborative learning community where everyone share, contribute and learn from each other.

Why do nonprofit organizations need an LMS?

1. Offers courses and training programs that are relevant to your members

eLearning makes it possible for nonprofits to create learning content that is relevant to their target audience. This means that they can offer courses that will appeal to their members and supporters. Using an LMS makes their content accessible to everyone who supports their cause.

2. Saves time and resources

Another benefit of using eLearning for non-profit organizations is that it saves time and resources. For example, if you want to train your staff and volunteers, you don't need to hire expensive trainers. You just need to pay for an LMS subscription and set it up.

3. Increase the organization's impact and volunteer engagement

In some nonprofit organizations, volunteers are the core of their workforce. Using an LMS for your organization can help to increase volunteer engagement and your organization's impact. LMSs can manage and engage thousands of volunteers in just one platform without putting on manual work.

8 Essential Features to look for in an LMS for Nonprofits

Now let's take a look at the essential features to look for when choosing an LMS for your organization. This is necessary as you don't want to waste your time and energy using a platform that doesn't grow your organization and its impact.

1. Easy navigation & user-friendly LMS

When you start using eLearning for nonprofits as a strategic plan, make sure to choose an LMS that is easy to navigate. If not, you, your employees, and your stakeholders will spend too much time trying to figure out where things are located.

Another thing to check is, to make sure that its user interface is intuitive. Otherwise, you'll waste time figuring out how to navigate through the system.

2. Customization & White-label solution

As a non-profit starting its learning organization, customization is highly important. The good thing is, most LMSs are offering customization features with a lot of flexibility. Another way to call it is the white-label solution where you can customize your platform according to your organization's branding requirements.

3. Multiple Integrations & Authoring tools

If your organization is using other tools and apps, you may want to choose an online platform with multiple integrations and authoring tools. It should allow you to integrate and embed tools such as Miro, Slack, and other online apps. Or even upload a SCORM file in just one click!

4. Social Learning

The idea behind social learning is to have your employees, volunteers, and other stakeholders work together on projects, share their knowledge with each other, and learn from each other. This can be done through access courses, forums, dialogues, blogs, discussion boards, etc.

If you want to inhabit social learning among your stakeholders, look for an LMS with advanced features such as peer review, instructor review, and a chat feature where everyone can easily engage with each other through the online platform.

5. Built-in Nonprofit Community

A community is one of the most important aspects of any online learning platform for nonprofits. The reason is simple: community is what drives learning outcomes. Without a real community of peers, there’s no point in using eLearning for nonprofits as a strategy.

So make sure you look for basic features of a built-in community such as discussion boards, chat features, forums, and group messaging where your stakeholders can connect.

6. Global Accessibility

The ability to make your content available to users around the world is one of the most important aspects of any LMS. This means that you can have a library of courses, nonprofit resources, modules, quizzes, etc., accessible in one place across mobile devices and desktops.

Since most nonprofits are operating in different parts of the world, it would be highly useful for you to choose an online platform where everyone, no matter their location, can access your training materials, content, and bundle courses in an all-in-one eLearning platform.

7. Affordability

Let's face it. Nonprofits always have limited budgets due to funding scarcity. Not all of them are highly funded by the government, philanthropists, and other donors. So mostly, they have a limited budget, and the affordability of these learning platforms should be extremely considered.

The good news is, there are online platforms for nonprofits that have all of these essential features and won't let you go over your budget limitations.

These online learning platforms offer an exclusive discount for nonprofits. Teachfloor is a very good example where it allows you to scale your learning organization by using its learning platform without breaking the bank.

8. Scalability

The concept of scalability might be new to some organizations, however, it should be important when you are investing in a strategic plan for the growth of your organization.

In short, the strategy should work. And eLearning for nonprofits should be scalable because you are using technology to increase the impact of your organization.

It's important to choose an LMS that allows you to scale and give you a fast ROI that will make your board of directors and donors happy. 

eLearning for nonprofits should use an LMS that fits the needs of their organization

Teachfloor is a cloud-based eLearning platform that allows you to build basic to advanced courses, manage your nonprofit community in one place.

It lets you create online training such as employee training, onboarding training, compliance training, and other organization training that will help your organization reach your yearly goals and increase your impact.

In addition, Teachfloor is designed for scalability at an affordable price of a $59/month Pro plan.

We certainly give away exclusive deals for nonprofits that have limited budgets. All you need to do is to get a quotation from us and you're set to start your learning organization.

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