Picks of the Week: October 11 - 17, 2009

Website of the Week -- Energize, Inc.

Energize, Inc. is an international training, consulting and publishing firm specializing in volunteerism. Founded in 1977, Energize has assisted organizations of all types with their volunteer efforts--whether they are health and human service organizations, cultural arts groups, professional associations, or schools. Energize, Inc has just launched their redesigned Website. All the volunteer management resources, advice, and help it has always provided are now easier to find. Go to: http://www.energizeinc.com.


Publication of the Week -- Embracing Cultural Competency: A Roadmap for Nonprofit Capacity Builders by Patricia St. Onge, Beth Applegate, Vicki Asakura, and Monika K. Moss

From the publisher: No “how-to” manual exists on cultural competency. And, compared to other topics in nonprofit management, little exists on the skills and strategies needed to address racism and inequity. Building cultural competency is an ongoing journey that nonprofit leaders choose to take because they know the end result will be a more inclusive, connected, and effective organization. Patricia St. Onge and her contributing authors help readers grapple with the urgent issues that can transform capacity builders into change agents in the nonprofit sector. Embracing Cultural Competency starts the dialogue on how organizations can start building capacity. Nonprofit capacity builders will:

• Discover a framework to help discuss issues related to cultural competency
• Learn about methods, practices, and values that define cultural competency and cu culturally based work in nonprofit capacity building
• Understand the complexities within ethnic communities
• Gain insights into the nature of institutionalized racism

Through a range of methods—literature review, personal interviews, peer dialogue, insights of contributing authors—readers get a mosaic of perspectives that surround cultural competency. Click to preview this book on Amazon.com.


Trend of the Week -- Nonprofit Employment Trends

The 2009 Nonprofit Employment Trends Survey is a national survey of nonprofit employment practices. This survey has been produced annually by Nonprofit HR Solutions since 2007. In January 2009, Nonprofit HR Solutions invited over 3,000 nonprofit organizations from across the country to participate in a survey of employment trends within the sector. The survey focuses on four key areas: staff size and projected growth, recruitment strategies and budgeting, staffing challenges, and staffing resource management. In many cases, responses to the 2009 Nonprofit Employment Trends Survey mirrored the current state of the economy and the state employment climate across all industries. Nonprofit organizations, like nearly every other employer type, anticipate less hiring and more downsizing in 2009. Appropriate resource allocation for staffing and human resources lags when compared against its proportion in most organizational budgets. With the exception of questions regarding adding and eliminating positions, most responses remained relatively consistent from 2008 to 2009. Among the key findings, some 58.4% of respondents indicated that they anticipate no change in staff size in 2009 compared to 2008. Comparatively, 49.7% of respondents to the 2008 survey had anticipated no change in staff size compared with 2007. Compared to 2008, in 2009, there was an 8.7% drop in the anticipation of hiring new staff. To download the executive summary of the report, go to: http://www.nonprofithr.com/documents/09EmploymentTrendsSurveyReport.pdf.



Resource of the Week -- Social Media Resources for Your Nonprofit Job Search

Nonprofits are increasingly incorporating social networking tools-such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter-into their marketing, fundraising, advocacy, and recruiting efforts. To learn more about the role that social networking can and should play in a professional's search for a nonprofit management position, Bridgespan talked with Beth Kanter, the author of Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media. She explains how to get the most out of social networking during your job search-even if you're a new-media novice. Go to: http://www.bridgestar.org/Library/LeveragingSocialMedia.aspx.


Tech Tip of the Week -- Change Default Paste Setting in Word 2007

Did you know you can change the default paste option in Word 2007? If you constantly find yourself choosing Paste Special and then Unformatted Text to avoid copying the format when copying text from another source, here’s a time saving solution:

• Click the Office Button
• Click the Word Options button at the bottom of the menu
• Click Advanced in the left pane
• Click the drop-down arrow next to the Cut, Copy and Paste options
• Choose Match Destination Formatting
• Click OK when finished to keep your changes