Picks of the Week: March 2 - 8, 2008

Website of the Week -- HR Council for the Voluntary & Non-profit Sector

The HR Council for the Voluntary & Non-profit Sector (HR Council) works with organizations, educators, labor and government to identify and address issues related to paid employment in the voluntary and non-profit sector. The HR Council is funded primarily through the Government of Canada's Sector Council Program. A highlight of the website is the HR Toolkit, a comprehensive online resource designed to help managers, employees and board members better understand, address and manage issues relating to HR in voluntary and non-profit organizations. Whether you're looking for guidance on the hiring process, information about employment legislation or sample HR policies to download, the HR Toolkit's intuitive navigation, plain language and integrated tools and templates make it easy to find what you're looking for.
Go to: http://hrcouncil.ca/home.cfm. To access the HR toolkit directly, go to: http://hrcouncil.ca/hr-toolkit/home.cfm.


Publication of the Week -- Cash Flow Strategies: Innovation in Nonprofit Financial Management by Richard S. Linzer and Anna O. Linzer

From the publisher: Cash Flow Strategies offers nonprofit organizations an innovative approach to financial management. In this companion to The Cash Flow Solution, the authors, Richard and Anna Linzer, reveal their approach—which emphasizes the use of cash flow concepts that enable an organization to have the working capital it needs. The book is filled with illustrative examples and includes the tools and templates needed to make these concepts immediately applicable to any institution. To preview this book, go to: www.amazon.com.


Trend of the Week -- Volunteering Hits a 30-Year High

A report by the Corporation for National and Community Service, Volunteer Growth in America: A Review of Trends Since 1974, finds that adult volunteering rose sharply between 1989 and 2005, increasing more than 32 percent over the last 16 years. Even with the increase, less than a third of American adults give their time. The report analyzes volunteering rates in 1974, 1989 and 2002-2005, using information collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It finds that the growth in volunteering is driven primarily by three age groups: teenagers 16 to 19, Baby Boomers and others age 45 to 65, and older adults 65 and over. Among the findings:

• Older teenagers (ages 16-19) have more than doubled their time spent volunteering since 1989.
• Far from being a “Me Generation,” Baby Boomers are volunteering at sharply higher rates than did the previous generation at mid-life.
• The volunteer rate for Americans ages 65 years and over has increased 64 percent since 1974.
• The proportion of Americans volunteering with an educational or youth service organization has seen a 63 percent increase just since just 1989.

For a copy of the report, go to: http://www.nationalservice.gov/pdf/06_1203_volunteer_growth.pdf.


Resource of the Week -- An Introduction to Information Design

Visualizing Information: An Introduction to Information Design is a booklet written and designed to introduce advocacy organizations to basic principles and techniques of information design. It’s full of examples of interesting design from groups around the world in a variety of media and forms. It has tips, exercises, and even recommended free software packages to help polish up your graphics. This manual offers an introduction to information design. It is intended to provide NGOs with a useful and powerful tool for advocacy and research. The manual was written and designed by John Emerson, Principal at Apperceptive LLC. To download the full booklet, go to: http://apperceptive.com/infodesign.pdf.


Tech Tip of the Week -- Lengthen Your List of Recently Used Documents in Word 2007

To increase the number of documents displayed on the recently used documents list:
• Click the Office button
• Click the Word Options button
• Click Advanced
• Scroll down to the display options and select Show this number of Recent Documents
• Click OK