Picks of the Week: November 27 - December 3, 2011

Website of the Week -- FourthSector.org

Over the past few decades, the boundaries between the public (government), private (business), and social (non-profit) sectors have been blurring as many pioneering organizations have been blending social and environmental aims with business approaches. There are many expressions of this trend, including corporate social responsibility, microfinance, venture philanthropy, sustainable businesses, social enterprise, privatization, community development and others. As this activity matures, it is becoming formalized as a ‘Fourth Sector’ of the economy. This website provides important links to a resource library, a directory of organizations engaged in giving form and direction to the Fourth Sector, a legal document library, and more. Go to: http://www.fourthsector.net.


Publication of the Week -- The Nonprofit's Guide to Human Resources: Managing Your Employees & Volunteers by Jan Masaoka

From the publisher: The nonprofit workplace has a culture of its own, shaped largely by the organization's mission and the staff attracted to the mission, which can include large numbers of volunteers. And with many of today's nonprofits operating on a slim budget, chances are you're fulfilling more than one role in the organization and can use some focused guidance! Geared to this unique culture, The Nonprofit's Guide to Human Resources provides legal and "good practice" information for anyone in charge of HR at small to medium sized organizations. Whatever your title and experience level, you'll learn how to identify, face and resolve daily legal issues related to:

• hiring, including screening, testing, background checks and interviewing
• salaries and benefits, including FMLA and comp time
• firings, layoffs and time reductions
• determining suitable volunteer positions and recruiting and training for them
• employee communications and other administrative tasks
• managing a multi-racial, multicultural and multi-generational workforce
• handling an organization in crisis

The Nonprofit's Guide to Human Resources offers the sound legal information found in Nolo's other books for employers while addressing specific nonprofit issues you're likely to encounter, such as the board of directors' role in HR, and managing volunteers. Throughout the book you'll find helpful tips and lessons learned (the hard way!) from expert advisers in various areas of HR management, from hiring to unions.

Click to preview this book on Amazon.com.


Trend of the Week – Why Americans Use Social Media

Two-thirds of online adults (66%) use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or LinkedIn. These internet users say that connections with family members and friends (both new and old) are a primary consideration in their adoption of social media tools. Roughly two thirds of social media users say that staying in touch with current friends and family members is a major reason they use these sites, while half say that connecting with old friends they’ve lost touch with is a major reason behind their use of these technologies. Other factors play a much smaller role—14% of users say that connecting around a shared hobby or interest is a major reason they use social media, and 9% say that making new friends is equally important. Reading comments by public figures and finding potential romantic partners are cited as major factors by just 5% and 3% of social media users, respectively. To read or download the full report: http://pewinternet.org.


Resource of the Week – Non-Profits: Sample Forms and Policies

The new IRS Form 990 requires the organization to adopt a number of policies in order to comply with the standards of governance, accountability and transparency. The following samples have been compiled and developed by Wegner CPAs based in Wisconsin. Go to: http://www.wegnercpas.com.


Tech Tip of the Week -- Create a List with Checkboxes in Word 2007/2010

Here's an easy way to add a list with checkboxes in Word:

• Create a bulleted list
• Select the list
• On the Home tab, in the Paragraphs group, click the arrow on the Bullets button
• If a checkbox does not appear on the Bullets drop-down menu, click Define New Bullet
• Under Bullet Character, click the Symbol button
• From the Symbol menu, click on a checkbox symbol and click OK
• You can also select another font, such as Wingdings, and choose a checkbox from this font before clicking OK

This is a quick and simple way to create a checkbox list for printing. However, it does not allow you to click the checkbox on the screen and check the item off the list. Next week's tip will cover this more advanced technique for creating checkbox lists in Word.