How do you decide which trainings in your library still deserve a spot, and which ones are just taking up space?

In this episode of Learning for Good, I walk through five strategic questions nonprofit leaders can use to decide when to retire a training program to build a stronger learning portfolio.

Many nonprofits build a training toolbox one request at a time, until the toolbox is packed with tools nobody stops to evaluate. That toolbox turns into an endless menu instead of a strategy, and it gets harder to tell which trainings are still earning their place.

Keeping a training isn't about whether people liked it or whether it's always been offered, it's about whether it's still moving the mission forward.

▶️ Key Points:

00:00 When Should You Retire a Nonprofit Training Program?

03:15 How the Nonprofit Training Toolbox Fills Up Over Time

05:32 Five Questions to Decide Whether to Retire a Nonprofit Training Program

08:19 Building a Curated Nonprofit Training Toolbox

Your Nonprofit Training Library

Open your LMS right now and count how many courses, workshops, and toolkits are sitting in there. Chances are, you’ll find modules nobody has touched in over a year, a workshop built for a team structure that no longer exists, and at least one “quick request” that turned into a permanent fixture. None of it got there by accident. Someone asked, you delivered, and it stayed.

But it doesn’t have to live in your LMS forever. It’s taking up space and using valuable resources. That’s why it’s important to look back at what already exists and ask whether it still earns its place.

And that’s exactly what I’m talking about on episode 199 of the Learning for Good podcast.

How Training Libraries Get Built

Think about how most training libraries actually get built. A request form comes in asking for customer service training, so it gets created and added to the collection. An email arrives asking for something on time management, so that gets built too. Someone stops you in the hallway because their team’s meetings have gone off the rails, so you put together a workshop. A new leader joins, senses tension on their team, and asks for a session on difficult conversations so that gets added as well.

None of these requests seem unreasonable. But stacked together over a few years, they turn into a training toolbox stuffed with every tool you’ve ever picked up, whether or not it still fits the job in front of you. Instead of a curated set of offerings that map to where the organization is headed, you end up with a sprawling menu that maps to where it’s been.

But if those trainings never get revisited, that doesn’t create an effective training library.

Why Retiring a Training Requires as Much Rigor as Creating It

Building something new costs time, budget, and credibility. So does keeping something old around simply because it exists. Every training you maintain competes for the same attention, LMS space, and facilitation hours as the ones that could actually move the organization forward right now.

Retiring a training isn’t an act of subtraction; it’s an act of focus. It’s how you move from a never-ending menu of options to a short, credible list of offerings you can stand behind. And it’s one of the clearest ways to show up as a partner who’s managing a strategy, not just a request queue.

This kind of decision also isn’t one L&D should be making alone in a vacuum. Bringing a manager, a department head, or an executive sponsor into the conversation about what stays and what goes does two things at once: it grounds the decision in what the business actually needs right now, and it signals that L&D is thinking about the organization’s priorities, not just protecting its own catalog. You don’t need permission to start this process. You just need a framework you can walk someone else through with confidence.

Five Questions to Consider when Cleaning Up Your LMS

Here are five questions worth running every training in your library through before you decide what stays and what goes.

1. Does This Training Further the Mission?

Start with where your organization is headed, not just where it’s been. Does this training connect to your organization’s current strategic priorities? If it disappeared tomorrow, would your mission actually suffer, or would anyone notice?

If a training is aligned to where the organization is going and losing it would genuinely hurt your ability to deliver on that mission, it earns a spot on your keep list. If it doesn’t tie back to anything the organization is trying to accomplish right now, that’s a signal it may be time to let it go.

2. Does the Training Build Organizational Capacity?

Look at the capabilities your staff actually need, both today and as the organization scales. Does this training build skills people will use again and again, not just once? Does it strengthen your leadership pipeline or make managers more effective at their jobs?

Training that builds capacity and helps the organization grow into what it’s becoming is worth protecting. Training that builds a one-time skill for a moment that has already passed is a candidate for retirement.

3. Does the Training Change Behavior?

Consider: What was this training actually trying to change, and is that still the behavior your organization needs? More importantly, is it working? Are you seeing the shift in performance you’d expect if the training were doing its job?

If a training is producing measurable behavior change, that’s strong evidence to keep it. If it’s simply generating completions with no real shift in how people work, it isn’t pulling its weight, no matter how well-liked it is.

4. Does the Training Generate Revenue?

Not every nonprofit runs training as a revenue line, but for those that do, this question matters. Does this particular offering bring in revenue directly, or does it enable other people or programs in the organization to generate revenue? If the answer is yes, that’s a strong argument for keeping it, even if it doesn’t score perfectly on the other four questions.

5. Is This Training Still the Best Solution?

Even a training that once solved a real problem can be overtaken by a better approach. Does this offering still meet the actual needs of the people completing it and the parts of the organization it’s meant to serve? Is it still the most effective and efficient way to close that gap, or has something better come along since it was built?

If it’s still the sharpest tool for the job, keep it. If a better option now exists, that’s your cue to redesign or retire.

Reviewing Your Training Catalog

Once you’ve run your library through these five questions, you’ll likely end up with a keep pile and a retire pile. Resist the urge to stop there. Go back through both piles a second time and look at each training through a different combination of lenses, because the real picture is rarely as clean as “keep” or “retire.”

A training might be deeply strategic but consistently fail to change behavior. Another might generate solid revenue but no longer align with where the organization is headed. Neither of those is a simple keep-or-retire decision — they’re candidates for redesign or for pairing with additional support that helps close the gap.

A quick example: Say your organization built a manager coaching workshop two years ago. It’s clearly tied to your leadership pipeline and strategic priorities. It passes the mission and capacity questions easily. But when you look at behavior change, managers who complete it aren’t coaching any differently three months later. Retiring it outright would mean losing something genuinely strategic. Redesigning it, or adding coaching practice and follow-up accountability into the mix, is a far better use of the insight than simply cutting it from the catalog.

Why Training Audits are Essential

Picture a contractor who shows up to a job with every tool they’ve ever owned crammed into their truck, unsure which one they actually need. You don’t think they have more expertise because they have more tools. You think they have more expertise because they know which tool is right for the job.

The same is true for a training library. A sprawling menu of offerings doesn’t signal that L&D is thorough. It signals that no one has made the harder decisions about what actually matters. A curated set of training that moves the mission forward, builds lasting capability, drives real behavior change, and can prove its value is what earns L&D a seat at the strategic table.

There’s also a hidden cost that rarely shows up in a budget line: every outdated training you keep live is competing for the same LMS space, facilitation calendar, and staff attention as the offerings that could actually move the needle this year. Every hour spent maintaining, updating, or defending a workshop that no longer fits is an hour not spent on the work your organization needs most right now. Retiring training isn’t just about tidiness. It’s about protecting the capacity you have for the work that matters.

To learn more about retiring your training, tune into episode 199 of the Learning for Good podcast.

Additional Resources Just for You

Other Helpful Podcast Episodes:

Subscribe to the Nonprofit L&D Insiders.

Join the Nonprofit L&D Collective.

Support the Learning for Good Podcast

Become a sponsor.

Ask a question or suggest a topic.

We love hearing from listeners!