Monday, July 6, 2009

Picks of the Week: July 5 - 11, 2009

Website of the Week -- Philanthropy Project

The Philanthropy Project is an exciting, ambitious nonprofit initiative funded by the John Templeton Foundation. The mission is to enhance America's culture of generosity by inspiring and enabling every man, woman, and child to become a philanthropist. Philanthropy Project is attempting to accomplish this by using the moving image to tell the untold stories of our nation's 72,000 foundations and their innovative good works ... along with the stories of citizen philanthropists who are "giving and glowing" in their communities nationwide. Philanthropy Project is funding three groundbreaking initiatives:

• An inspiring, philanthropy-themed, family-friendly motion picture that is being produced in partnership with Anonymous Content in Hollywood;
• A Web TV channel in partnership with AOL that aspires to be the #1 destination on the Internet for all things related to American philanthropy;
• A Filmanthropy Scholarship Competition that is being held at six of America's top-ranked film schools.

Go to: http://news.aol.com/philanthropy/philanthropy-mission.


Publication of the Week -- Achieving Excellence in Fund Raising by Eugene R. Tempel

From the publisher: This thoroughly revised and updated edition of the classic book in the field provides a conceptual foundation for the fund raising profession. Hank Rosso's Achieving Excellence in Fund Raising examines the profession's principles, strategies, and methods and is filled with practical examples. Guided by the enduring philosophy of fund raising master Henry A. Rosso, contributors explain the reasoning behind the planning and selection of strategies for all fund raising activities, including building your case for support, approaching donors, managing campaigns, and demonstrating stewardship. Click to preview this book on Amazon.com.


Trend of the Week -- Impact of the 2007-09 Economic Recession

Eighty percent of nonprofit organizations are experiencing fiscal stress according to a survey released today by Johns Hopkins University, and close to 40 percent of them reported that this stress was “severe” or “very severe.” Theaters and orchestras were particularly hard hit, with nearly 75 percent of the former and half of the latter reporting “severe” or “very severe” stress. The 363 organizations that participated in the survey as part of the Johns Hopkins Nonprofit Listening Post differ widely in size, cover all regions, and represent a diverse array of fields, including children and family services, elderly services and housing, community development, education, arts and culture, and others. Despite the dire challenges, more than two-thirds of the organizations indicated that they have been “successful” or “very successful” in coping with the current fiscal crisis. To achieve this result, nonprofits have displayed unusual resolve and launched inventive coping strategies:

• Well over half of all organizations have launched new or expanded fund-raising efforts, targeting individuals, state and local government, the federal government and foundations.
• Substantial proportions of organizations are tightening their belts further, cutting administrative costs, creating collaborative relationships with other nonprofits, instituting salary freezes, postponing new hires, and relying more heavily on volunteers.
• Substantial numbers are also stepping up their marketing and their advocacy.

To download for the full report, go to: http://www.ccss.jhu.edu.


Resource of the Week -- Nonprofit Cost Analysis Toolkit

Bridgespan has developed a Nonprofit Cost Analysis Toolkit. This toolkit is intended primarily for senior leaders (e.g. executive directors, directors of finance, development directors, regional directors) of small to medium nonprofit organizations with multiple programmatic areas or multiple geographic sites. It may also be useful for leaders of larger nonprofits in those cases where this knowledge does not exist already among the organization's staff. Smaller nonprofits with a single program area and a single geographic site are unlikely to require true-cost analysis as offered in this toolkit, which focuses on allocating financials across multiple areas. This toolkit may also prove useful for foundations looking to understand their grantees’ true-cost structure, or to help their grantees gain economic clarity. The toolkit assumes that its users possess a basic understanding of financial concepts and a strategic purview of the organization. To access the Toolkit, go to: http://www.bridgespan.org.


Tech Tip of the Week -- Recording Narrations in PowerPoint 2007

Did you know you could easily record narrations for your PowerPoint slides? Here’s how:

• Click the Slide show tab on the Ribbon
• In the Set Up group click the Record Narration icon
• In the Record Narration dialog box you can set microphone level and change recording quality
• Click OK and choose to start from the current slide or from the first slide
• When you are finished you will be asked if you want to save the timings for each slide

For more information on recording narration for your PowerPoint slides, go to www.office.microsoft.com.

No comments: