How To Create a Culture of Learning: 5 Tips for Nonprofits
- Nonprofit Learning Lab
- Sep 15
- 5 min read
This is a guest blog.
Nonprofits exist to create change, and change requires knowledge! Whether it’s a board member sharpening their fundraising skills or a community member learning more about your mission, learning fuels progress at every level.
When woven into your organization’s culture, learning becomes a driver of efficiency, innovation, and lasting impact. It empowers everyone you serve, from the people inside your organization to the communities you reach.
To make the most of this potential, your nonprofit needs to be intentional about how it approaches learning. The first step is to determine how you’ll use it to fuel your mission.
Consider How Learning Will Advance Your Work.
Before you invest time and resources in new training, ask: How will this help us fulfill our mission? Purposeful learning starts with a clear link between the opportunity and the outcomes you’re trying to achieve.
Start by mapping the different audiences you interact with and pinpointing their most pressing learning needs. For inspiration, TopClass’s guide to learning management systems (LMS) for nonprofits highlights several ways you can use learning technology in different areas of your organization:
Onboard and prepare volunteers: Use education modules to introduce your mission, values, and programs. Offer role-specific training, like leadership skills for project coordinators.
Train and upskill staff: Create discussion forums to encourage team members to learn from one another and personalized learning paths that help them keep up with workplace demands.
Educate board members: Provide targeted courses on governance and fundraising to build confidence, encourage participation, and improve your board’s effectiveness.
Promote community awareness: Offer publicly accessible courses that align with your mission, such as emergency preparation training for disaster relief organizations.
Deliver on your mission: Use online learning to serve beneficiaries directly. For example, workforce development nonprofits might create courses for improving resume writing and interview skills.
As you can see, nonprofits depend on learning at every level—not just internally, but also in how they serve communities. Once you’ve figured out how you’ll use education, choose the topics that will have the biggest impact on your goals. Focus on opportunities that will strengthen your organization’s ability to solve problems and create lasting change.
For instance, an environmental nonprofit might offer sustainability training for staff, safety courses for cleanup volunteers, and public courses on composting or energy conservation. Every learning initiative here works toward the same goal: protecting the planet.
Make Learning Accessible for All Audiences.
A culture of learning can only thrive if everyone has an equal chance to participate. Accessibility is all about removing barriers so that learning feels approachable, relevant, and doable for all audiences. Their roles, schedule, or location shouldn’t matter.
Make learning available to everyone by:
Offering multiple formats. If you’re implementing a learning management system (LMS), make sure you can provide live sessions, recorded videos, downloadable guides, and self-paced online modules so people can learn when and how it works best for them.
Designing for inclusivity. Materials should be accessible to people with varying levels of tech literacy. You’ll also want to offer closed captions or transcripts for videos, and translate content into other languages when needed.
Making it mobile-friendly. Phones are many people’s go-to devices. There’s a good chance many learners will access content on their phones, especially volunteers or community participants. Make sure your content works on smaller screens and still performs well with lower bandwidth.
When people can access training without hurdles, they’re more likely to complete it, apply what they’ve learned, and come back for more. In the long run, accessibility is a catalyst for deeper involvement and greater impact!
Encourage Knowledge Sharing.
Learning doesn’t only mean formal training. Some of the most valuable insights can come from people involved in your learning program. By giving participants easy ways to share their experiences and insights, you can share skills and spread knowledge across your entire organization.
Here’s how you might accomplish that:
Create peer-to-peer learning opportunities. Host recorded sessions or live virtual meetups where team members teach skills, share best practices, or offer program updates. Upload these recordings to your learning platform so others can revisit them anytime. Some learning technology also allows you to offer cohort-based classes, where multiple learners advance through courses together.
Invite learners to interact with one another. Encourage program participants to share their insights or success stories through discussion boards, user-submitted videos, or collaborative projects.
Encourage mentorship. Use direct messaging tools or discussion forums to connect newer members with experienced mentors. This accelerates onboarding and protects institutional knowledge.
When learners share ideas and experiences, they strengthen your nonprofit’s culture of learning. A sense of community keeps everyone engaged.
Recognize and Reward Learning Efforts.
Acknowledge progress to keep your learners motivated. When people feel that you notice their efforts, they’re more likely to continue building their skills. If your learning platform integrates with your CRM, you can track milestones like people’s completed courses and earned certifications. Use this information to spot achievements worth celebrating.
For example, let’s say a staff member completes a training program for advanced nonprofit grant writing. You could recognize their accomplishment with a shoutout during a team meeting, a feature in your internal newsletter, or a post on your employee intranet.
Or, if a volunteer completes training for event safety protocol, show appreciation by sending a digital certificate, highlighting their commitment in a volunteer newsletter, or inviting them to take on leadership roles at events.
When possible, link the recognition to your mission. You might share, “Because of what Maria learned during her grant writing courses, we were able to secure funding for our new community program.” Beyond celebrating the accomplishment, this also communicates how her learning contributes directly to your organization’s impact, encouraging others to follow her lead.
Share the Impact of Learning.
While recognition keeps individual learners motivated, sharing the broader results of your learning initiatives shows the value to your entire organization, its stakeholders, and the broader community. It transforms training into a visible driver of mission success.
Start by identifying metrics that matter most to your nonprofit, such as:
Improved program outcomes
Higher volunteer retention
Increased fundraising results
Changes in community behavior
Once you have this data, pair it with compelling stories. A statistic like “Within three months of finishing our job readiness training, 65% of formerly incarcerated participants secured stable employment” is powerful on its own. However, imagine pairing it with a personal story from a participant, sharing how they regained confidence, reconnected with family, and built a new future. Blending data with human experience makes your impact measurable and memorable.
How to Share Your Impact
After gathering your stories and statistics, share them! Feature them in newsletters, annual reports, board presentations, donor updates, and on your website to show how learning investments pay off.
For inspiration, look at Cornershop Creative’s list of best nonprofit websites. It highlights The END Fund as a great example of effective web storytelling. While their work focuses on delivering health services, any nonprofit can learn from their approach. They weave stories and statistics throughout their site and even maintain a dedicated Impact Stories page. This makes it easy for visitors to see both the numbers and the people behind them.
Wrapping Up
Creating a culture of learning in your nonprofit means making learning purposeful, accessible, and woven into every part of your mission. Whether you’re training volunteers or developing board members’ governance expertise, each learning experience builds the skills your organization needs to thrive.
Start with one intentional step. Launch a course, open a discussion forum, or share a recent story that links learning to impact. The more your team and community learn, the greater your capacity to create lasting change will become.
