Picks of the Week: February 14 - 20, 2010

Website of the Week – BEST Project

BEST (Building Excellence, Sustainability and Trust) is a comprehensive, capacity building program in Flint and Genesee County Michigan. The BEST Project is an initiative of the Flint Funders Collaborative (FFC). FFC members include the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Community Foundation of Greater Flint, the Ruth Mott Foundation and the United Way of Genesee County. BEST brings together regional funders, consultants, technical assistance providers, and nonprofit agencies to achieve a more viable, sustainable and effective nonprofit community. The Case Studies and Resource links will be of interest to many nonprofits. Go to: http://www.bestprojectonline.org.


Publication of the Week -- The Power of Collaborative Solutions: Six Principles and Effective Tools for Building Healthy Communities

From the publisher: In this groundbreaking book, Tom Wolff spells out six proven principles for creating collaborative solutions for healthy communities. The Power of Collaborative Solutions addresses contemporary social problems by helping people of diverse circumstances and backgrounds work together to solve community challenges. Filled with clear principles, illustrative stories, and practical tools, this book shows how to make lasting change really happen. Tom Wolff, Ph.D., is a community psychologist and expert committed to issues of social justice and building healthy communities through collaborative solutions. He is the founder of Tom Wolff & Associates and a fellow of the American Psychological Association. Wolff is a nationally recognized consultant on coalition building and community development, and he has a lifetime of experience training and consulting with individuals, organizations, and communities across North America and internationally. Click to preview this book on Amazon.com.


Trend of the Week – Nine of Ten Small Business Owners Say They Give to Local Non-Profits

Small business owners are active in their communities and generous with charitable contributions, according to the latest Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index. Almost nine of every ten small business owners responding to the recent national survey say they give money to non-profits in their communities and almost six of every ten say they contribute their time. The survey also found that four of every ten small business owners say they’re more likely to become even more involved in their communities in the coming year. More than half say a crisis or natural disaster would increase their level of community involvement. Eight of every ten small business owners surveyed say they believe their community efforts, whether money or time, benefit the communities they serve more than their own business. More than half say they participate in community outreach because they personally enjoy the activity and another 43 percent because “it’s the right thing to do.” Only six percent do so because of potential business benefits. Go to: https://www.wellsfargo.com/press/20051115_nineoften.


Resource of the Week -- HBR IdeaCast™

The HBR IdeaCast™ is a free weekly podcast featuring breakthrough management ideas and commentary from the editors and authors of Harvard Business School Publishing. To access this free service, go to: http://blogs.hbr.org/ideacast.


Tech Tip of the Week -- Long Text Entries in Excel 2007

To break a long text entry into separate lines, position the insertion point in the cell entry or on the Formula bar where you want the new line to start and press Alt + Enter. Excel expands the row containing the cell when it starts a new line. Excel automatically wraps the text in the cell when you press Enter to complete the entry, according to the cell's column width and the position of the line break.
Here is another method for dealing with long text entries in Excel 2007:

• Select the cell containing the long text entry
• Click the Home tab on the Ribbon
• In the Alignment group, click the Wrap Text button

Or you can right click the text entry and:

• Select Format Cells from the shortcut menu
• Click the Alignment tab
• Click to select the Wrap text option