December
23, 2012 - January 5, 2013
Board Placement: A Candidate’s Checklist
It can be very flattering to be invited, whether
the recruitment occurred through a formal process or because someone you know is
already on the Board and thought you might like to join them. Often, the
knee-jerk reaction is to accept the position. However, once you have been
approached about joining a Board of Directors in the Nonprofit Sector it is
worth taking a step back and considering the role you may be taking on. The
following is a checklist developed by BoardStar of some of the questions to ask
yourself and the organization you may be joining. There are no right and wrong
answers, here, and there is no magic scoring mechanism that will tell you
whether to accept the role of Board Director or not. Instead, this is intended
as a process to help you ask questions, and make a considered choice. To
download the checklist, go to:
www.boardstar.org
December
16 - 22, 2012
Calculating The Economic Impact Of Volunteers
How does one put an economic value on the time
volunteers give to an organization? The Economic Impact Of Volunteers Calculator
created by the Points of Light Foundation estimates the appropriate wage rate
for volunteer time based on what the person does, the value of specific tasks
according to market conditions as reported by the US Department of Labor.
Organizations can use the Calculator to determine the value of the time their
volunteers give doing a wide variety of volunteer jobs.
www.handsonnetwork.org
December
9 - 15, 2012
Take Root: Volunteer Management Guidebook
Hands On Network has developed this guidebook to
help volunteer service programs explore the basics of volunteer management. It
is meant to be a user-friendly resource for developing volunteer recruitment,
retention, and recognition strategies and methods of offering projects for
diverse audiences. This guide does not prescribe how your programs should be
structured; it does, however, provide resources you can adapt to meet your
local program needs. The goal of this guidebook is to provide information that
will help your program take root, leverage volunteers, and grow. To that end,
the guidebook contains action-oriented sections to help you recruit, schedule,
retain, and recognize volunteers. In addition, each chapter includes an
activities and templates section with tools to assist you in applying the
guidebook content to your program. To download a copy of the guide, go to:
www.handsonnetwork.org. You can also access free eLearning courses and other
valuable resources in the CNCS Resource Center at
www.nationalserviceresources.org
December
2 - 8, 2012
“How To” Guides For Leadership Program Staff
As part of the Leadership for a New Era (LNE)
initiative – a collaborative research initiative that seeks to promote more
inclusive, networked and collective leadership models – the Leadership Learning
Community (LLC) has generated a series of “how to” guides for leadership program
staff. The guides are supported by funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The
guides, which can be read separately or as an interconnected series, offer
recommendations on these important topics:
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How to use action learning to achieve
your results |
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How to recruit to maximize the value of
your cohort |
|
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How to cultivate and activate your
network |
To download the entire report go to:
www.leadershiplearning.org
November
25 - December 1, 2012
Pro Bono Readiness Roadmap
The
Nonprofit Collaborative, consisting of Points of Light, the Taproot Foundation,
and Common Impact, was initially convened by Capital One in February 2011. The
Collaborative came together to identify, organize and share resources that will
help the nonprofit sector be ready to engage in and benefit from pro bono
professional services. By bringing these three organizations together, the hope
is to identify and assess existing pro bono readiness support, understand areas
of additional need, and encourage efficiency by reducing redundancy. As a
response to the initial convening, over the past year the Collaborative
identified the strategic value in building out a Pro Bono Readiness Roadmap to
index the existing resources and services that support nonprofits in navigating
how to become ready to engage in pro bono consulting services. The Roadmap will
allow nonprofits nationwide easy, online access to navigate resources from
Common Impact, Points of Light, and Taproot Foundation, among others, to help
them prepare for pro bono services. For more information, go to:
readinessroadmap.org
November
18 - 24, 2012
Sample Request for Proposal for Audit Services for Nonprofit
Organizations
Wipfli, Ullrich & Company is one of the largest CPA and consulting firms in the
United States, with offices across Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington,
and India. The firm offers a Sample Requests for Proposal - Audit Services for
Nonprofit Organizations available at no charge. This document is designed to
simplify the process of going out for bid, creating a scoring system, and asking
the right questions of CPA firms. To download the sample RFP, go to:
www.wipfli.com
November
11 - 17, 2012
Speak For Yourself: Nonprofit Public Policy Toolkit
The Colorado Nonprofit Association has created a free toolkit for nonprofits’
advocacy efforts. The toolkit provides information about what 501(c)(3)s can do
as far as legislative and media advocacy and voter engagement activities and
pointers for how to effectively work with public officials and the media. Go to:
www.coloradononprofits.org
November
4 - 10, 2012
All Hands on Board: The Board of Directors in All-Volunteer
Organizations
This booklet by Jan Masaoka was originally published jointly by Boardsource and
CompassPoint Nonprofit Services. Board members of an all-volunteer organization
(AVO) know the important, but often unrecognized, role that the board plays. In
addition to taking responsibility for the organization’s legal and ethical
obligations to donors, clients, and the government, AVO boards shoulder the
responsibility of providing guidance to the organization by managing the
organization and leading the other volunteers with their hands, minds, and
spirits. This handbook explains the two types of responsibilities that AVO
boards have and provides a checklist that helps assess the work of the board.
Like most all-volunteer organizations, the board can be so involved with getting
the work done that it seldom finds the time to examine how the board itself is
working, or to celebrate and appreciate the board’s hard work and achievements.
To download the free guide, go to:
blueavocado.org
October
28 - November 3, 2012
Tutorials on Social Media
SocialBrite has prepared a collection of online guides on how to use blogs,
Facebook, Twitter & more. The tutorials help show nonprofits, cause
organizations, businesses and individuals how to effectively use social media,
divided by subject area: • Social media, Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Video &
multimedia, Fundraising, Mobile, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Pinterest and more. Also
see the Sharing Center listing of posts on resources, tools and video
interviews. Go to:
www.socialbrite.org
October
21 - 27, 2012
A Short Guide to Consensus Building
Robert's Rules of Order is a fine way to run a formal meeting or a town hall
vote, but too rigid for a business meeting where the agenda is to build
consensus behind decisions. This is a freely available excerpt from the 1999
book, The Consensus Building Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Reaching
Agreement, by Lawrence Susskind, Sarah McKearnan, and Jennifer Thomas-Larmer,
and posted by the Public Disputes Program at Harvard Law School. This chapter,
"Short Guide to Consensus Building," provides a no-frills, step-by-step approach
to running a creative, productive meeting, down to the level of how to invite
participants who might be assuming a legal liability by attending. Go to:
web.mit.edu
October
14 - 20, 2012
Essential Guide to End-of-Year Fundraising
The Essential Guide to End of Year Fundraising
e-book is available as a free download The book takes basic fundraising
principles to the next level with practical advice and effective tips for using
online resources to enhance any end-of-year giving campaign. Employing email,
social media and other online tactics, nonprofit organizations can gain insight
on:
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Making the ask with direct, powerful
content |
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Three key dates for reaching supporters |
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Integrating messages across multiple
channels |
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The importance of repetition in messaging
and response |
A quick read with easy to understand language and
advice you can start using immediately,
The Essential Guide to End of Year Fundraising will help your campaign be a
success. To download the guide, go to:
www.salsalabs.com. You will be asked to provide contact information.
October
7 - 13, 2012
Guiding Principles and Practices for
Nonprofits
Over the last several years, state associations
of nonprofit organizations have embarked on a thoughtful process of identifying
and recording the principles by which nonprofits in their state should operate.
Some state associations have adapted principles developed in other states for
use by the nonprofits in their own states. Others have developed not only
principles of practice, but also workbooks for use in introducing and raising
awareness among board and staff members about their state’s principles. While
there is no single standard of “best practices” that applies to all nonprofit
organizations, these state by state efforts offer important resources to most
nonprofits, regardless of location. The National Council of Nonprofits has
gathered together in one place such efforts by 19 state associations. Go to:
www.councilofnonprofits.org
September
30 - October 6, 2012
More Money for More Good - Free Nonprofit Fundraising
Guidebook
To raise more money, nonprofits need to tell donors how the organizations’ work
is making a difference, counsels a new fundraising guide. The guides More Money
for More Good gives nonprofits concrete ways to put Money for Good II findings
into action and raise more money. The manual is based on a study that found
donors would be willing to shift $15-billion in giving to high-performing
nonprofits if they had easy access to good information about the organizations’
work. The study, conducted by GuideStar, the nonprofit online publisher of data
on charities, and Hope Consulting, was based on surveys of more than 5,000
donors, 875 donor advisers, and 725 foundation officials. To download the free
guide, go to:
www.guidestar.org
September
23 - 29, 2012
The Nonprofit Website Project Handbook
An organization’s website should highlight its
mission and inspire supporters to take action. But where does one begin in
building a website? Is your organization ready for a new website project? Who
will work on this team, and what is the time and effort required to build a
quality website? Does a website fit into this year’s budget? The Handbook offers
an overview of the website design and development process and information
helpful to nonprofit staff during a website project. From the organization’s
capabilities to design and from launch to post-launch training, this handbook
provides essential steps and real-life examples to guide you in what can
sometimes be a confusing process. Go to:
www.smartcausedigital.com
September
16 - 22, 2012
Nonprofit Good Practice Guide: Human Resources
The Nonprofit Good Practice Guide is a project of
the Philanthropic and Nonprofit Knowledge Management Initiative (PNKM) at the
Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership. The Guide is
designed as a one-stop shop for widely-accepted and innovative nonprofit
practices offering Preferred Practices and Pitfalls, Glossaries, Resources,
Trends and Web site Profiles within the topic area of human resources. Go to:
www.npgoodpractice.org
September
9 - 15, 2012
Nonprofit Collaboration Database
The Nonprofit Collaboration Database was originally developed by Lodestar as
part of its work related to The Collaboration Prize competition, which it
launched in 2008. Capitalizing on the wealth of material created through the
collaboration prize nomination process, the Nonprofit Collaboration Database
provides access to more than 650 entrants including all of the relevant
information about and documents from the collaborations. The Foundation Center
is now the new home of the Collaboration Database. The database has been
organized so that you can search for information from a variety of access points
allowing you to customize your search a variety of ways. For example, you can
find all mergers among arts and culture organizations, or all administrative
consolidations in Ohio and Arizona, or only those joint programming
collaborations among state health organizations that were initiated by funders.
The ability to search by multiple criteria, including key words, provides the
opportunity to explore the database using factors that are most relevant to your
needs. To access the Collaboration Database, go to:
collaboration.foundationcenter.org
September
2 - 8, 2012
Online Diagnostic Tool for Leadership Development
Bridgespan has released an online diagnostic tool to use as a first step in
understanding an organization’s relative strengths and weaknesses in leadership
development. As valuable as these Bridgespan resources are, I feel compelled to
share some additional perspective that I hope the Bridgespan team will
incorporate in future iterations: It’s hard for me to imagine a better path for
developing great leaders within an organization than putting those people in
positions that move them out of their comfort zone and into situations that
require growth; set a clear expectation for what is to be achieved; and ensure
there are people (ideally their managers) with the explicit purpose of
supporting and stretching their growth. To access the tool go to:
www.bridgestar.org
August
26 - September 1, 2012
Free Business E-Books from Bookboon.com
Bookboon.com, founded in Denmark in 1988, publishes education related books
for business professionals and students. In 2005 the company made a strategic
leap and became the first book publishing company in the world to focus 100% on
free eBooks. The books are about 50 pages long and they are tailored to be read
in two or three hours, which is the available time a reader has on a flight, a
train journey, an evening in a hotel or at home after the kids are put to bed.
The books have a hands-on approach: you can read them today and use them
tomorrow. The books, like many print an online publications, contain some
display advertising To access the 500+ business book collection, go to:
http://bookboon.com
August
19 - 25, 2012
Leadership Development Toolkit: Creating Your Nonprofit’s
Plan A
The Bridgespan Group has prepared a guide to leadership development at
nonprofits, Plan A: How Successful Nonprofits Develop Their Future Leaders. This
kit features a growing list of materials through which you can explore the
topic. The goal is to help you create a proactive, systematic approach to
leadership development that can be considered within your nonprofit’s day-to-day
operations. To access the leadership development kit, go to:
www.bridgestar.org
August
5 - 18, 2012
Basics in Internal Organizational Communications
This section of the Free Management Library is geared to provide practical
suggestions for nonprofit leaders and managers to ensure sufficient
communications within their nonprofits. Topics include: common causes of
problems in internal communications; key principles to effective internal
communications; basic structures/policies to support effective internal
communications; supervisor and employee communications; develop a basic
communications plan. Go to:
managementhelp.org
July
29 -
August 4, 2012
Annie E. Casey Foundation Knowledge Center
The purpose of the Knowledge Center is to provide advocates, policymakers,
practitioners, the media, researchers, and community members with a range of
Foundation resources developed either by Casey or one of our grantees. These
resources capture the experience and learning of the Foundation in our efforts
to improve outcomes for vulnerable children, youth, families, and communities
The Annie E. Casey Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the
nation, with assets of more than $2.3 billion. The Foundation provides about
$190 million in grants each year and is ranked among the top philanthropies for
charitable giving. Established in 1948 by Jim Casey, one of the founders of UPS,
the Foundation’s primary mission is to foster public policies, human services,
and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of vulnerable
children and families. Go to:
www.aecf.org
July
15 -
28, 2012
Certified Nonprofit Accounting Professional (CNAP)
Wegner CPAs, based in Wisconsin is partnering with The FMA
Institute to bring CNAP (Certified Nonprofit Accounting Professional), an
on-line training course, to nonprofit financial professionals.The
Certified Nonprofit Accounting Professional (CNAP) is sponsored by member firms
of the National Association of Nonprofit Accountants & Consultants (NPAC). CNAP
is a national initiative developed by the member firms of NPAC designed to
recognize excellence in the nonprofit industry through comprehensive
qualification, training, and examination. Through a minimal time commitment,
nonprofit financial managers will receive intensive training from individuals
dedicated to serving nonprofit organizations. They do not have to be a CPA to
achieve this designation. The CNAP on-line training will be offered for 7
sessions beginning on September 27, 2012. Each session will be held from 1:00 pm
to 2:45 pm CST. All the details about the training and registration information
can be found at:
www.wegnercpas.com
July
8 - 14, 2012
Continuity Of Operation Plan For Nonprofit Human Services
Providers
This document is intended to be a guideline for developing a Continuity Of
Operation Plan (COOP) plan for nonprofits. It is strictly a template to guide
one through the steps needed to begin the process of developing a comprehensive
COOP plan for the organization. Much of this template model can be attributed to
Miami-Dade County’s Office of Emergency Management’s Guidelines for Developing
an All Hazards Continuity of Operations Plan for Businesses, the Bay Area
Emergency Preparedness Coalition for Seniors & People with Disabilities, and the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Sample Emergency Plan. Go to:
www.virtualcap.org
July
1 - 7, 2012
Grantsmanship Center Magazine Archive of Articles
The Grantsmanship Center, Inc. (TGCI) was founded in 1972 to offer grantsmanship
training and low-cost publications to nonprofit organizations and government
agencies. At first a local project in Los Angeles , TGCI expanded rapidly and
today, TGCI conducts some 200 workshops annually in grantsmanship, enterprise
development and fundraising. TGCI is also active in publishing. The
Grantsmanship Center Magazine is mailed to the staff of 200,000 nonprofit and
government agencies in the U.S. and 58 other countries. An archive of articles
organized into 10 categories is accessible at no charge at
www.tgci.com
June
24 - 30, 2012
New Guides On Boards, Strategic Planning, And Managing People
The Management Assistance Group (MAG) strengthens visionary social justice
organizations, leaders, and networks to create a more just world. MAG has
released three practical, easy-to-use guides on boards, strategic planning, and
managing people. The guides are downloadable at no charge. Go to:
www.managementassistance.org
June 17 -
23, 2012
Retaining and Developing High Potential Talent: A Toolkit
Among the best strategies for developing
diversity in human services is to retain and develop talent within your
organization. The National Human Services Assembly's toolkit, Retaining and
Developing High Potential Talent, focuses on onboarding, employee mentoring and
succession planning as key levers for advancing diversity and inclusion through
talent management. The guide offers a quick and accessible overview of key
elements for building a successful Diversity & Inclusion approach to your
organization’s talent management, followed by a closer look at how to build
effective onboarding, mentoring and succession planning programs. To download
the guide, go to:
nationalassembly.org
June
10 - 16, 2012
Emergency Succession Plan Template
The Center for Nonprofit Advancement has developed an Emergency Succession Plan
Template. The purpose of the template is to define the contents of such a plan,
and make this essential document easy to adapt and implement. The template
includes plans for short-term, long-term and permanent executive director
changes. The template includes a specific name or selection criteria would be
established to select an acting executive director, a communications plan to
notify board members, funders and other key stakeholders. The template also
includes a thorough contact inventory. This will allow your organization to take
important scattered information and place it all in one document, vital
information in case of an emergency. The Center advises that this template
should be built and reviewed annually with your organization’s board of
directors. Go to:
www.niqca.org
June 3 - 9, 2012
W.K. Kellogg Foundation Logic Model Development Guide
Nonprofits today are being pressed to demonstrate the effectiveness of their
program activities by initiating and completing outcome-oriented evaluation of
projects. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation Logic Model Development Guide was
developed to provide practical assistance to nonprofits engaged in this process.
In the pages of this guide, we hope to give staff of nonprofits and community
members alike sufficient orientation to the underlying principles of "logic
modeling" to use this tool to enhance their program planning, implementation,
and dissemination activities. To access the guide, go to:
www.wkkf.org
May 27 -
June 2, 2012
Free-Range Thinking Journal
Free-range thinking is a monthly journal on public interest
communications published by a goodman, a communications consulting firm that
helps public interest groups, foundations, and progressive businesses reach more
people more effectively. free-range thinking includes information on best
practices and resources for public interest communicators. To read the latest
issue, access the archives, and request a free subscription, go to:
www.agoodmanonline.com
Week: May
20 - 26, 2012
Outsourcing Back-Office Services in Small Nonprofits:
Pitfalls and Possibilities
The Management Assistance Group (MAG), based in Washington DC, has published a
guidebook entitled Outsourcing Back-Office Services in Small Nonprofits:
Pitfalls and Possibilities. Leaders of smaller nonprofits know that attending to
their back-office needs is critical but frequently lack the time or expertise to
address these needs in addition to their programmatic work. At the same time,
they also have difficulty finding appropriate, affordable, quality outsourced
services. In this study, Mark Leach explores outsourcing as a solution for
helping to improve small nonprofits’ back-office functions. To download a copy
of the free guide, go to:
www.managementassistance.org
May 13 - 19, 2012
"Hour Series" of Nonprofit Guides
The award-winning “Hour” Series of Guides to
Nonprofit Management has been developed by Marilyn Donnellan, founder and
president of Nonprofit Management Services. Topic areas are general
administration/management, board/volunteer development, community involvement,
marketing, program evaluation, and resource development. The series includes
assessments, templates and sample policies/procedures. They are especially
geared to smaller nonprofits. For more information, go to
nonprofitmanagementservices.com and scroll down.
May
6 - 12, 2012
Building Capacity to Measure and Manage Performance
Over the last decade, the social sector has witnessed a dramatic shift towards a
focus on measureable results, with nonprofits feeling immense pressure to
demonstrate their impact. Yet many nonprofits appear to be woefully
under-investing in measurement, particularly in their own internal capacity to
measure and manage performance in an effort to improve their organizations.
Based on interviews with nonprofit leaders and more than a decade of consulting
and executive search work, this article from Bridgespan shares five key lessons
that create the underpinnings for how organizations can approach building their
capacities to measure and manage performance to improve impact. To download the
article, go to:
www.bridgespan.org
April
29 - May 5, 2012
100 Ways to Build Your Business in 2012
Verve Marketing, LLC has published an e-book entitled "100 Ways to Build Your
Business in 2012". This e-book includes marketing insights from twenty
forward-thinking, businesses and compiled them in a very accessible publication.
Review and download the full e-book at
l00things2012.squarespace.com
April
22 - 28, 2012
The Nonprofit Social Media Policy Workbook
A good social media policy will provide clear
guidelines as to what staff should and shouldn’t do when posting and interacting
with the community on a day-to-day basis. Your organization can create a policy
to help guide your whole staff simply by thinking about how you would like to
make use of social media. Written using the research from the Nonprofit Social
Media Decision Guide, this workbook is designed to help you, as an organization,
ask the important questions about social media, and take the next steps to
growing a social culture. To download a copy, go to:
www.idealware.org
April
15 - 21, 2012
Executive Transition Monograph Series
The ExecutiveTransitions Mongraph Series is a series of monographs on executive
transitions and executive transition management, funded by the Annie E. Casey
Foundation and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund. The series is a joint
effort of TransitionGuides (Silver Spring, MD) and CompassPoint Nonprofit
Services (San Francisco, CA). Go to:
leadingtransitions.com
April
8 - 14, 2012
The Power of Partnership
Written and developed in partnership with the
Blueshield of California Foundation, The Power of Partnership features four case
studies showing how integrative forms of collaboration have enabled domestic
violence organizations—and their partners—to capitalize on their strengths,
develop new solutions, and more effectively serve the community. To download a
copy of the monograph, go to:
www.blueshieldcafoundation.org
April
1 - 7, 2012
Philanthropic Capacity Building Resources
The Philanthropic Capacity Building Resources (PCBR) database contains 453
descriptions of capacity-building programs being carried out by U.S.
foundations. From this database, you may obtain program profiles and conduct
searches for programs under one or more search categories, as defined below. The
PCBR also contains 32 profiles of intermediary organizations that serve as
bridges between foundations and nonprofits. These intermediaries provide
capacity-building assistance to nonprofits, supported financially by foundations
and others. The PCBR database entered its ninth year of continuous operation in
2011. A complete system upgrade was completed in June 2010, to complement
regular updates done annually, mostly recently in August 2011. The system
upgrade included staff review of every profile, and direct contact with the
sponsoring foundation to update any profiles that required it. To access the
database, go to:
www.humaninteract.org
March
25 - 31, 2012
Resources for Responding to Automatic Revocations by IRS
On June 8, 2011, the IRS posted the first Automatic Revocation of Exemption
List, naming 279,599 non-profit organizations that had had their exempt status
revoked for failure to file required annual returns. The list has been updated
several times, and as of November 9, 2011, the IRS had revoked the exempt status
of nearly 393,000 non-profit organizations. This unprecedented mass revocation
has its roots in laws enacted by Congress as part of the Pension Protection Act
of 2006. The first requires small non-profits, previously not required to file,
to submit an annual return: Form 990-N, also sometimes referred to as the
E-Postcard. The second requires the IRS to revoke the tax exempt status of any
organization that fails to file an annual return for three consecutive years.
Resources for responding to an automatic revocation by IRS are available at
www.501cfreebook.com
March
18 - 24, 2012
A Practical Guide for Engaging Stakeholders in Developing
Evaluation Questions
This practical guide offers best practices that encourage soliciting input from
stakeholders early in the evaluation design process to address specific
stakeholder interests for improving program effectiveness, influencing policy
decisions, and instituting behavioral and organizational change. The guide
describes a five-step process for engaging stakeholders in developing evaluation
questions, and includes four worksheets to facilitate the planning and
implementation of a stakeholder engagement process. Go to:
www.fsg.org
March
11 -17, 2012
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of 360 Degree Evaluations
This article by CompassPoint staff members
Michelle Gislason and Marissa Tirona in The Nonprofit Quarterly thoroughly
discusses the features, pros, and cons of a 360° performance evaluation process.
With careful planning and forethought, this tool can surface powerful insights
on an employee's work patterns that can serve as a springboard for personal
development and new organizational contributions. See if it's right for your
organization. To access the resource, go to:
www.nonprofitquarterly.org
March
4 -10, 2012
25 Tips for Optimizing Online Communication with Volunteers
Energize, Inc. has compiled "25 Tips for
Optimizing Online Communication with Volunteers" into a 5-page booklet. It is
available as a free download at:
www.energizeinc.com
February
26 - March 3, 2012
Beckner Research Digests
The University of Wisconsin Center for Nonprofits
has published a new series of online resources that bridge the gap between
scholarly research and the real world of community organizations. The Beckner
Research Digests synthesize research on topics useful to nonprofit
organizations, public agencies, and other organizations. The first round of 10
Digests present research conducted by faculty in different disciplines across
UW-Madison—for example, Principles for Effective Family and Youth Prevention
Programs by Stephen Small, professor of human development and family studies;
Talking About Race by Katherine Cramer Walsh, associate professor of political
science; A New Approach to Labor – Environment Coalitions by Laura Senier,
assistant professor of community and environmental sociology, and Social Support
for Academic Success of African American Boys by Jeffrey Lewis, UW-Extension,
and Amy Hilgendorf, Kansas State University. One Digest, Tips on Building a
Broad Base of Engaged and Empowered Volunteers, features Christens’ own
research. He describes key implications for community organizations from the
findings he recently published in several journal articles on community
participation and psychological empowerment. Dr. Christens developed the Digests
concept in collaboration with Jeanan Yasiri, executive director of the Center
for Nonprofits. The Beckner Research Digests are available online at the UW
Center for Nonprofits website at
www.centerfornonprofits.wisc.edu
February
19 - 25, 2012
"Building Future Leaders" Diagnostic Survey
According to a Bridgespan Group survey of more than 150 nonprofit leadership
teams, leadership development and succession planning for senior leader
positions is the single greatest organizational weakness nonprofits face. To
help address this challenge, Bridgespan has developed a free diagnostic survey
to help leaders understand where their organizations are strong – and what can
be improved. You can take the survey, see how your organization compares to
others, and jumpstart your thinking on what successful leadership development
could look like in your organization. Go to:
www.bridgestar.org
February
12 - 18, 2012
Sample Personnel Policies
The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits website includes resources and templates,
including sample personnel policies. Go to:
www.mncn.org
February
5 - 11, 2012
CompassPoints of View! Blog
Compasspoint Nonprofit Services has just launched a new blog CompassPoints of
View! Through this blog, CompassPoint staff will share reflections on the
sector, learnings from client work, and big ideas on nonprofit management,
leadership, and strategy. The intent is to thoughtfully explore critical
nonprofit topics and bring in the voices and perspectives of staff experts,
partners in capacity-building work, and clients to help link leaders and fields,
influence the sector dialogue, and guide nonprofits to become better managed,
more adaptive, and achieve higher impact. Go to:
www.compasspoint.org/blog
January
29 - February 4, 2012
E-Book: Event Fundraising Best Practices
Events are not only a great way to raise funds
but also awareness and community support. Unfortunately many events fall flat,
usually due to lack of clear goals and preparation. Sage Publications has
published a free E-Book: Event Fundraising Best Practices. This 25-page resource
guides you step by step through the event process — from planning and promotion
to execution and follow up. The guide includes practical advice as well as
print-ready worksheets and sample documents including:
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Sample Event Timeline — a 28-step
checklist of activities to complete before, during, and after the event.
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Event Planning Worksheet — the questions
you need to answer before you take any action. |
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|
Post-Event Attendee, Volunteers, and
Staff Surveys — gather input from those who experienced the event first
hand. |
To download a copy of the E-Book, go to:
SageSoftwareIncNonProfitSolutions
January
22 - 28, 2012
The Grantsmanship Center Archives
The Grantsmanship Center publications are packed
with information on how to plan, manage, staff and fund the programs of
nonprofit organizations and government agencies. Archives of these publications
are now available at the Library of Congress. You may also access articles from
recent issues organized under ten categories. Go to:
www.tgci.com
January
15 - 21, 2012
Finding the Right CEO
BoardSource has released a new white paper: Finding the Right CEO. According to
this guide, when looking for the next chief executive, the search committee
should remember that what counts is the diversity of a candidate’s experience.
Qualifications, lists of achievements, proofs of expertise are the facts of an
individual candidate’s suitability, and all are important. But the truth behind
those lists resides in the character of a candidate’s experience — in the
variety and complexity of the situations the candidate has encountered and how
the candidate dealt with the encounters. To download a copy of the white paper,
go to:
www.boardsource.org
January
8 - 14, 2012
GrantWatch.com
GrantWatch.com posts federal, state, city, local
and foundation grants on one website, categorized by type and updated daily. All
our grants are current and expired grants are archived daily. Members can sign
up for free to receive a weekly email of new grants posted. Members can also
tour archives for free. To view complete details of new and current grants,
including the complete application, there is a low subscription rate. All posts
on GrantWatch.com include the important grant information, full applications,
deadlines and contact person information. Go to:
www.GrantWatch.com
January
1 - 7, 2012
Greenlights Nonprofit Management Resource Library
Greenlights for Nonprofit Success is a management
service organization dedicated to improving the management effectiveness of the
Central Texas nonprofit sector. Services include customized consulting and
coaching, organization and board advancement, information and referral,
interactive education, and nonprofit convening events. Greenlights has compiled
an extensive collection of free downloadable resources that will be useful to
all nonprofits. To access the library, go to:
www.greenlights.org
To view 2011
Resources of the Week, click here.
To view 2010
Resources of the Week, click here.
To view 2009
Resources of the Week, click here.
To view 2008
Resources of the Week, click here.
To view 2007 Resources of the
Week, click here. To
view 2006 Resources of the Week, click here. To view 2005
Resources of the Week, click here. To view 2004 Resources
of the Week, click here. |
