Picks of the Week: April 8 - 14, 2012

Website of the Week -- Youth Service America

Youth Service America (YSA) is a resource center that partners with thousands of organizations committed to increasing the quality and quantity of volunteer opportunities for young people, ages 5-25, to serve locally, nationally, and globally. Founded in 1986, YSA’s mission is to expand the impact of the youth service movement with communities, schools, corporations, and governments. YSA envisions a global culture of engaged youth who are committed to a lifetime of service, learning, leadership and achievement and works toward that mission through four core strategies:

• Organizing public policy and awareness campaigns
• Convening the field
• Offering incentives and recognition
• Providing information and educational resources

Go to: http://www.ysa.org/about.


Publication of the Week -- Strategic Fund Development + WebSite: Building Profitable Relationships That Last by Simone P. Joyaux

From the publisher: Strategic Fund Development became an instant classic the day the first edition was released. Now in this expanded third edition, it has been revised cover-to-cover with relevant new information and useful new tools and resources. The book addresses the needs for fundraisers of every level of expertise. Experienced development officers find this an invaluable reference tool for educating their colleagues and boards. New fundraisers get firm grounding in best practice and what it really takes to do this work. Executive directors learn how fundraising fits into the organization and what it takes to make fundraising productive. The publication:

• Contains in-depth analysis about what makes organizations effective, including things like leadership, organizational culture, decision-making processes, systems thinking, and well-managed change
• Offers comprehensive strategic planning insights, with detailed steps, sample research tools, retreat agendas, and complete plans
• Includes the same tools and resources for fundraising planning

This updated classic provides essential insights, with an extra bonus: purchasers get exclusive access to a website of tools and resources.

Click to preview this book on Amazon.com.


Trend of the Week – Nonprofit Fundraising Study: 2012 Outlook

The Nonprofit Research Collaborative (NRC), through its Nonprofit Fundraising Survey, offers the largest national survey of charitable receipts available in the United States and covering an entire calendar year. More than 1,600 organizations answered survey questions in early 2012 about charitable receipts from January through December 2011. Responding groups included large and small organizations (by budget size) and organizations from every subsector, from Arts, Culture & Humanities to Religion. Key findings are summarized here:

• Charitable receipts rose in 2011 at more than half of surveyed organizations
• Six in 10 respondents met their fundraising goal in 2011
• Respondents showed diverse use of fundraising approaches and methods
• Board members at responding charities are usually engaged in fundraising in numerous ways. Several survey respondents offered examples of successful strategies they have used for engaging board members in fundraising.

Survey respondents remain optimistic about prospects for fundraising in 2012, with 71 percent expecting to raise more this year than in 2011. However, when asked about the most important trends or issues that could affect fundraising results either positively or negatively, nearly one-third (31%) mentioned local, national, or global economies as a challenge to raising funds this year. To download a copy of the study, go to:

http://www.nonprofitresearchcollaborative.org.


Resource of the Week – 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: http://www.blueshieldcafoundation.org.


Tech Tip of the Week -- Insert Time/Date in Excel or Access

Here are a few keyboard shortcuts you can use to insert the current time and date in a Microsoft Access table or Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

• Current date: Press CTRL+SEMICOLON
• Current time: Press CTRL+SHIFT+ SEMICOLON
• Current date and time: Press CTRL+ SEMICOLON then SPACE then CTRL+SHIFT+ SEMICOLON

In Access, this keyboard shortcut only works if you are entering data in the Datasheet or Form view.

Editor's Note: When you insert the date and time using this tip, the information remains static. To update this information automatically, you must use the TODAY and NOW functions. To learn how to do this, search for Insert the current date and time in a cell in Excel Help and then click Insert a date or time whose value is updated.

This tip comes to us from www.microsoft.com, courtesy of Kimberly Schenk, Smyrna, Tennessee.