Picks of the Week: October 12 - 18, 2008

Website of the Week -- Leadership Learning Community

The Leadership Learning Community (LLC) is a national organization of people who run, fund, study, and provide services to leadership development programs in the belief that leadership can change our communities, organizations, and the world. The aim of the LLC is to strengthen collective and individual capacity to transform society by connecting the learning, practice and resources of those committed to leadership development. To this end the Leadership Learning Community continuously documents learning and knowledge development to share with the field. LLC also encourages others in the community to do the same and contribute documents to the knowledge and resources available on the website You will find documents in Adobe PDF format that include program materials, evaluations, meeting notes, scans, reports, guidelines, and learning reflections as well as links to videos, images and other websites relevant to the field. You can browse all documents or search by key word, tag, or author below. Go to: http://www.leadershiplearning.org/about#what.


Publication of the Week -- The Charismatic Organization: Eight Ways to Grow a Nonprofit that Builds Buzz, Delights Donors, and Energizes Employees by Shirley Sagawa, Deborah Jospin and Jonathan M. Tisch

From the publisher: The authors offer a framework that allows organizations to go beyond quick fixes and fundraising strategies to a broader paradigm that encompasses community and organization building. What if every person involved with an organization was fully engaged and shared a common goal? What if the efforts of a relatively small ring of staff and board members were amplified by everyone touched by the organization, including current and former volunteers, staff, board members, clients, constituents, funders and supporters? That, the authors show, is the way a charismatic organization operates. The book provides numerous examples of how successful organizations have made this shift, as well as action steps that all organizations can take to perform better. Click to preview this book on Amazon.com.


Trend of the Week -- Younger Prospects for Planned Giving

Recently, The Stelter Company combined forces with the research firm Selzer & Company Inc. to provide new research into who names charities in their wills, when and why. According to the new report, “Discovering the Silent Giver”, fundraisers should be targeting a younger age segment than is traditionally the case for planned giving. The researchers found that 41% of adults prepare a will by the time they reach age 40, and that the percentage bumps up to 84% for those age 40 and younger with average annual incomes over $100,000. Key findings of the report include:

• 7% of Americans have currently made a bequest to charity in their wills. In addition, another 10% are good prospects
• 5% of Americans have wills and say they will definitely or probably make a bequest to a charity.
• 5% of Americans do not have wills but say they will definitely or probably make a bequest to charity when they have this document in place.

To download a summary of the report, go to: http://www.stelter.com. (Note: You will have to register at the website to access the report summary)


Resource of the Week -- Research Summary on Nonprofit Sector Workforce

Workforce Issues in the Nonprofit Sector: Generational leadership change and diversity authored by R. Patrick Halpern and published by American Humanics is a topically organized report that highlights much of the research regarding the nonprofit sector workforce. The paper is intended to serve as a resource for practitioners, researchers, funders, and advocates within the nonprofit sector by providing a point-in-time snapshot of nonprofit sector workforce issues. Research on the sector constantly is revealing new insights and accepted best practices. This study should not be considered a comprehensive overview of workforce issues within the sector. The paper reviews a selection of existing literature covering workforce issues within the nonprofit sector from 1995 to the present. Additionally, considering the enormous diversity within the sector in terms of organizational size, scope, sub-sector, etc., the studies included in this analysis may not be applicable to or representative of all organizations operating within the sector. However, the paper provides relevant, general insights into the current state of the nonprofit workforce, especially insights related to executive turnover, diversity, and the next generation of nonprofit employees. Go to: http://www.humanics.org/site/c.omL2KiN4LvH/b.1537171/ and click on “Literature Review and Bibliography.”


Tech Tip of the Week -- Use Text-to-Speech in Excel 2007

Text-to-speech was not included in the Excel 2007 Ribbon. To use this feature in Excel 2007 you must first add it to the Quick Access Toolbar. Here’s how:

• Click the Customize Quick Access Toolbar arrow
• Click More Commands from the drop-down menu
• From the Choose commands from list, select Commands Not in the Ribbon
• Scroll down and select the Speak Cells commands you want to use and click Add
• Click OK when you are finished adding commands to your Quick Access Toolbar