Tell me about a time when you took the initiative to improve work related procedures.

"When I worked as a community engagement officer at my previous organization, we faced a dilemma with outdated technology seriously hampering our ability to serve clients in a timely and efficient manner. As a result, we were not able to serve as many clients in a calendar year and lost some funding. When a representative from a FedEx technology team called me to inquire about volunteer opportunities, I asked what the company's requirements were for their day of service. He shared the budget and told me his whole team was required to volunteer for eight hours. I worked with his budget and proposed the team donate five new computers for our Emergency Services staff and help get them set up for immediate use. In turn, we solidified a new partnership with FedEx, increased our ability to serve more clients, and regained the grant funding we had initially lost."

"When I worked as a volunteer coordinator, my organization was still using paper files to keep records on volunteer contact information and other personal information. This was a tedious process, especially in terms of preparing for the annual audit. So, I recruited a volunteer to assist me with the task of scanning each volunteer record into a digital database I designed on our organization's Shared Drive. This was a searchable database, so when the auditor came, I could immediately pull records. It also allowed a greater level of detail to be entered on each volunteer's page."

Nonprofits are always trying to find ways to do things more efficiently to become better stewards of the money they receive. Your answer will be especially intriguing to the interviewer if you give an example of a time when your suggestion for process improvement led directly to saving money or increased funding in some way.