Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Picks of the Week: January 27 - February 9, 2013

Website of the Week -- The Aspen Institute
The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues. The Aspen Institute carries out its mission in four ways:
·      Seminars, which help participants reflect on what they think makes a good society, thereby deepening knowledge, broadening perspectives and enhancing their capacity to solve the problems leaders face.
·         Young-leader fellowships around the globe, which bring a selected class of proven leaders together for an intense multi-year program and commitment.
·         Policy programs, which serve as nonpartisan forums for analysis, consensus building, and problem solving on a wide variety of issues.
·         Public conferences and events, which provide a commons for people to share ideas.


Publication of the Week -- Social Change Anytime Everywhere: How to Implement Online Multichannel Strategies to Spark Advocacy, Raise Money, and Engage your Community by Allyson Kapin and Amy Sample Ward
From the publisher:  Social Change Anytime Everywhere was written for nonprofit staff who say themselves or are asked by others, “Email communications, social media, and mobile are important, but how will they help our nonprofit and the issues we work on? Most importantly, how the heck do we integrate and utilize these tools successfully?” The book will help answer these questions, and is organized to guide readers through the planning and implementation of online multi-channel strategies that will spark advocacy, raise money and promote deeper community engagement in order to achieve social change in real time. It also serves as a resource to help nonprofit staff and their boards quickly understand the evolving online landscape and identify and implement the best online channels, strategies, tools, and tactics to help their organizations achieve their missions.
 


Trend of the Week – 2013 Nonprofit Communications Trends
The  2013 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report from Kivi Leroux Miller’s Nonprofit Marketing Guide surveyed 1435 nonprofits. Responses revealed trends based on questions like: In what shape is your marketing plan for 2013?  Which social media channel are you most likely to add or experiment with in 2013? How often do you plan to email the typical person on your email list? How often do you plan to send direct mail?  What excites you about your work in 2013? Key findings include:
·         Only 1/3 of nonprofit marketers have written and approved plans for 2013.
·         Top goals for nonprofit marketers in 2013 include acquiring new donors, engaging community, general brand awareness
·         Nonprofit marketers with fundraising goals work differently than those with community or branding goals.
·         Social media is starting to edge out email in importance to nonprofit marketers In-person events and media relations growing in importance to nonprofits; print marketing falling

To download the free report, go to: http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/resources/book/2013-nonprofit-communications-trends-report/#

Resource of the Week – Building Capacity in Cultural Competence
Organizational Development & Capacity in Cultural Competence: Building Knowledge and Practice is a monograph series produced by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services with support from The California Endowment. This series articulates several approaches to organizational development and capacity building in cultural competence.  Its purpose is to promote learning and strengthen the effectiveness of both theorists and practitioners in the field. It explores a variety of frameworks for organizational development or capacity building and their implications for practice, taking on a number of issues that arise in real world practice. At essence, the basic questions explored are “Where are we going?” “How do we get there?” and “How do we know when we’ve made progress?” Its audience is not the unconvinced; rather it is aimed at those people who are working as change agents within health organizations. It is assumed that the reader acknowledges the importance of this work and wants to look deeper into the complex issues that arise in practice. Though the focus is health organizations, the series will be of use to a broad range of organizations.  To view and download the monographs, go to: http://www.calendow.org/uploadedFiles/Mayeno.pdf

Tech Tip of the Week -- Using the Data Analysis ToolPak in Excel 2007/2010
Most people are not aware of the Data Analysis ToolPak in Excel. This feature is disabled by default. To use the Data Analysis ToolPak you need to be familiar with Engineering and Statistical terminology. To enable it: 
·         Click the File tab (2010) or Office Button (2007)
·         Click the Options button at the bottom of the menu
·         Click Add-Ins in the left pane 
·         Click Go 
·         Select Analysis ToolPak
·         Click OK

You can now access the ToolPak from the Data tab in the Analysis group.

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