For nonprofits, libraries, and their constituents, training is esse ntial to keep knowledge and skills up to date. Whether your organization is training its own staff in nonprofit management, or teaching others technical skills, TechSoup can help you get started.

Train on Over 150 Products with Atomic Training

You can use Atomic Training to help your organization maximize its tech tools and software products. New staff members can learn the basics of the applications your organization uses, while more experienced users can increase their knowledge. The training is available to both your staff, and your constituents. This makes Atomic Training ideal for:

• General workforce development (the work that Goodwill does, for example)
• Job training for at-risk youth, veterans reentering the workforce, or even homeless populations
• Build your social media presence with training on Twitter and Facebook
• Learn to use Apple products like iPads and iPod Touch
• Organize software trainings for your library computer lab

Whether your organization is training its staff and volunteers to use Windows 8 or FileMaker, or teaching others technical programs like Excel, the new Atomic Training Donation Program at TechSoup can help you get started. Plus: Check out Atomic Training's top-12 training series of the past year.

Train Nonprofit Managers

Develop cost-effective marketing strategies, learn to acquire new donors, and get a handle on your planning process with the Learning Institute program from the Society for Nonprofit Organizations (SNPO). These courses, intended specifically for nonprofit professionals, are prepared by academics, practitioners, and consultants, to help your organization accomplish its mission. Take just the individual courses you want or take all eight in the Certificate Series.

The Learning Institute Certificate Series

Accomplish More with Less

Combat information overload — and accomplish more in less time and with less effort and stress — with this donated three-part webinar series from People-OnTheGo. New at TechSoup, these webinars will show you and your staff how to better manage interruptions, work more strategically, and collaborate more effectively. This offer includes three 90-minute sessions for you and your staff.

Enroll in Online Courses from easyLearning

Online courses from easyLearning by Serebra provide busy nonprofit and library staffers with access to more than 1,500 technical and professional courses. And, organizations that provide workforce and job skills training can share easyLearning courses with constituents.

Courses are all self-paced and online, so you can learn at your convenience: take them at the office, at home, or even at a coffee shop. Courses are also pre-recorded, generally run two hours, can be paused as needed, and usually include small assignments and suggested reading to reinforce what you’ve learned. Check out a previous blog I wrote on easyLearning and what it has to offer.

Train Constituents Anywhere

Whether you’re training team members, constituents, or members of other organizations, nonprofits can use ReadyTalk's audio and web conferencing services to record audio and video for tutorials and educational webinars hosting up to 25 free attendees at a time. Through online events, you can bring a worldwide audience together to increase membership, develop strategy, and increase your organization’s visibility. And, since ReadyTalk’s services are entirely web-based, no downloads are required for your audience to join in. For examples of training webinars held on ReadyTalk, check out previously-recorded webinars from TechSoup.

Conduct training sessions on the road, or bring constituents to you, through Citrix Online's remote web conferencing services. These programs make it easier to hold meetings or training sessions by allowing staff or constituents from around the world call in to your conferences and presentations. Once a Citrix Online program is installed on the presenter’s computer, users anywhere can join your online meeting with any browser through the GoToMeeting or GoToWebinar websites, as well as over the phone. Meetings and webinars can also be recorded for future use.

Up to 15 users can meet and collaborate in secure online web and phone conferences with GoToMeeting. GoToMeeting even lets you change presenters mid-meeting, or transfer control of the keyboard and mouse to other presenters, allowing them to work off of your computer remotely.

Bring your presentations to a bigger audience GoToWebinar. Up to 1,000 users can participate in your training sessions or webinars, either online or over the phone. In addition to having all of the functionality of GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar lets you keep track of webinar registration and attendance, and its polling and survey features help you get audience feedback.

Host training sessions, teach online classes, and give presentations with GoToTraining. With GoToTraining, an instructor can share his or her desktop and presentation with up to 25 participants in a secure online conference session. GoToTraining includes all the features of Citrix GoToMeeting, and also allows your organization to design tests, build libraries of training materials, and to charge participants a course fee.

Train Others to Manage Finances

If your organization provides workforce training, personal finance training, or small business development training, you're most likely eligible to receive Intuit's Quicken software for use in training and for distribution to your clients. And, best of all, you can request as many copies of the software as you need.

Quicken Deluxe takes the easy-to-use accounting tools of Quicken Starter Edition and adds additional features to plan financial strategy, build long-term savings plans, and visualize monthly and annual incomes and expenses. Available in bundles of 25 and 100.

Organize your finances, from balancing the books to tracking investments with Quicken Premier. Also includes features aimed at your tax-related and investment needs. Available in bundles of 25 and 100.

Train on QuickBooks with QuickBooks Made Easy

Learn to correctly set up your organization’s books, enter transactions, and create nonprofit-specific reports with training CD-ROMs from the QuickBooks Made Easy Donation Program. Each lesson is designed specifically for nonprofits and led by CPA Gregg Bossen, who's been teaching QuickBooks for over ten years. These lessons will show beginners how QuickBooks works and help those already familiar get a better understanding of the software.

Learning Resources from TechSoup

• Browse articles, how-tos, and guides on dozens of topics in our Articles and How-Tos section.
• Hear what other nonprofits and libraries are saying in our Community Forums and on the TechSoup Blog.
• Check out guides to available online tools for training staff.
• Read our testimonials to see how organizations are putting these tools to work.
• Virtually every library provides technology training in one form or another. TechSoup for Libraries rounded up a list of resources for developing a training program at your library.
• Discover more resources, workshops, and do-it-yourself training options from TechSoup.

Don't forget! You can watch more than 70 free webinars on everything from social media, to marketing and outreach, to technology planning in our webinars and events section.

Teach Typing Skills

Learn typing with UltraKey 6 by Bytes of Learning. This motivational program lets you, your students, staff, or volunteers learn typing from a range of tutorials using voice response, 3D animation, video, and virtual reality. It provides you with many options you can adapt to a broad range of age groups and special needs, such as visual impairment and ADD.