Special to the Leesville Leader

ALEXANDRIA — Community Development Works, a program of The Rapides Foundation, announces its free skill-building training schedule for residents and nonprofits. Classes run from March 21 through May 16.

The Staffbuilders Training Calendar is a free professional development resource for nonprofit staff and volunteers and for people interested in improving their communities. The schedule consists of workshops held in The Rapides Foundation Building in downtown Alexandria and webinars offered online at BigMarker.com/cdworks. Participants do not need to download software to attend the online courses.

Spring trainings cover three topic areas: starting a nonprofit, fund development and internal operations.

Spring class titles are as follows:

Start-Up Series for Nonprofits: To Be or Not To Be a 501(c)(3); Introduction to Finding Funders; Keeping It Real – Telling Your Story; Nonprofit Fundraising 101.

Fund Development Series: Fundraising During Hard Economic Times; Basic Grant Writing; Readiness for Federal Funding; How to Craft the Evaluation Section of Your Application; Nice or Necessary: Prove Your Program’s Need; Developing Outcomes to Demonstrate Impact.

Internal Operations Series: Bring Back the Joy to Your Nonprofit Team; Introduction to Using QuickBooks Financial Reports; QuickBooks Online for Nonprofits – Part 1; QuickBooks Online for Nonprofits – Part 2.

Participants have the option of attending all trainings in a series or choosing only the ones that interest them. Residents who register for a webinar but are unable to attend at the designated time will be given a link to watch at a later date.

Visit www.communitydevelopmentworks.org/attend-training to find a list of the classes and to register. Call CDW at 318-443-7880 or 800-803-8075 for more information.