Picks of the Week: September 28 - October 4, 2008

Website of the Week -- Community Tool Box

The Community Tool Box bills itself as the world's largest resource for free information on essential skills for building healthy communities. It offers more than 7,000 pages of practical guidance in creating change and improvement, and is growing as a global resource for this work. The Table of Contents on the site lists 46 Chapters through which you can reach nearly 300 different sections providing practical, step-by-step guidance in community-building skills. Go to: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/.


Publication of the Week -- Yours for the Asking: An Indispensable Guide to Fundraising and Management by Reynold Levy

From the publisher: Yours For the Asking is a how-to guide for anyone with an instinct to raise funds who has fears, qualms, or hesitancies to do so. It explains in easy to understand language how to reach wealthy people face to face, in writing, in large groups, at special events, and over the Internet. And—once their attention has been gained—how to bring home the bacon. It solves the mystery of fundraising from foundations, those notoriously elusive entities that seem to house experts in closing doors, ignoring solicitations, and, when pressed for an answer, saying no. It also demonstrates how many ways there are to tap the resources of donors—large and small—for the institution that commands your respect, affect, and attention. Click to preview this book on Amazon.com.


Trend of the Week -- Bequest Giving Trends

According to a study conducted by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and funded by Campbell & Company, individuals aged 40 to 60 and those with at least a bachelor’s degree education were the most likely to be willing to consider naming a charity in their will. Key findings include:

• Individuals with a charity in their will donated more than twice as much money (over $2,000 more on average) in any given year than those who do not have a charity in their will.
• People with a charity named in their will tended to be between 40 and 50 years of age, indicating that fundraisers should focus on younger individuals for charitable bequests. Individuals between 40 and 60, the Boomer generation, are a significant proportion of the population. This group was also found to be a significant share of those who have already named a charity in their will and also those who are willing to consider making a bequest (50% and 51% respectively).
• The three most likely motivations for charitable giving, selected by people with a charity named in their will, were “helping others;” “religious beliefs;” and “giving back to society.”
• Income was not found to affect the likelihood that a donor would bequest, or consider the bequest of a charitable gift in his/her will. This finding indicates that fundraisers should not focus only on those with high incomes, regardless of income, fundraisers have between a one-in-three and one-in-four chance of speaking with an individual who would consider giving to a charity in a will.

For an executive summary of the report, go to: http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/Research/Bequestgivingstudy-CampbellCompanyFellow.pdf. To request a copy of the full report from Campbell & Company, send an email to study@campbellcompany.com.


Resource of the Week -- Governance Policies the IRS Thinks Your Organization May Need

Effective for tax years beginning after January 1, 2008, the revised Form 990 requires most tax-exempt organizations to make new disclosures regarding certain governance policies and practices. In order to respond fully to the policy questions asked on the revised form, an organization generally must review its existing policies and consider whether it is appropriate to amend them or adopt new ones, in many cases by December 31, 2008. The law firm of Quarles & Brady has prepared a briefing paper that summarizes the policies focused upon within the revised Form 990. These policies can be used by tax-exempt organizations as a basic checklist in reviewing their existing policies and in considering whether additional policies should be adopted before year-end. Go to: http://www.quarles.com/publications/detail.aspx?publication=405.


Tech Tip of the Week -- Display Tabbed Documents in Access 2007

A new feature in Access 2007 is the option to use a tabbed interface. This allows you to open multiple objects (tables, forms, reports, or queries) at once. Each object is a separate tab so you can easily see the available objects and click on the one you want. To use this feature:

• Click the Office button in the left corner of the screen
• Click the Access Options button at the bottom of the window
• Select the Current Database in the left pane
• Under Document Window Options, select Tabbed Documents