Picks of the Week: June 12-18, 2011

Website of the Week – Renaissance Journalism Center

The Renaissance Journalism Center (RJC), a project of San Francisco State University’s Journalism Department, incubates innovative approaches to journalism and storytelling that serve, strengthen and empower communities. Created in 2009, the Center provides grants, technical assistance and training, and forges entrepreneurial partnerships with journalists and their news organizations, ethnic media and hyperlocal news sites, philanthropic and nonprofit organizations, scholars and students. The Center is operated in partnership with ZeroDivide, a foundation that leverages technology to benefit people in low-income, minority and other disadvantaged communities. Go to: http://rjcmedia.org. The Renaissance Journalism Center created a toolkit to help community/ethnic media outlets and nonprofit organizations to become more adept users of new media – from video and audio, to the various social media, blogs, SEO, and monitoring and metrics. To access the Toolkit, go to: http://newmediatoolkit.org.


Publication of the Week -- Fundraising for Social Change, 6th Edition by Kim Klein

From the publisher: New edition! This bestselling book is one of the most widely used in the field by nonprofit organizations across the country. A soup to nuts description of how to build, maintain and expand an individual donor program, this book is often called "the Bible of grassroots fundraising." Since it was first published in 1988, Fundraising for Social Change has become one of the most widely used books on fundraising in the United States. Fundraising practitioners and activists rely on it for hands-on, specific, and accessible fundraising techniques, and it has become a required text in dozens of college courses around the country. This new edition offers the information that has made the book a classic: proven know-how on asking for money, planning and conducting major gifts campaigns, using direct mail effectively, and much more. The book has been significantly changed to include new technology—e-mail, online giving, and blogs—and contains expanded chapters on capital and endowment campaigns, how to feel comfortable asking for money, how to recruit a team of people to help with fundraising, and how to build meaningful relationships with donors. In addition, this essential resource contains new information on such timely topics as ethics, working across cultural lines, and how to create opportunities for fundraising more systematically and strategically. Click to preview this book on Amazon.com.


Trend of the Week – Nonprofits' Use of Facebook

In February 2011, Idealware surveyed 505 nonprofit organizations using Facebook as part of their communications mix in order to answer some of the questions from last year's social media survey and find out where the nonprofit world stands after the Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide. This report sums up the results of the survey, with high-level takeaways of the data, as well as overviews of how much time organizations are spending on Facebook, how many have set goals and how they’re keeping track of their own results. This is all interspersed with case studies and quotes from the interviews to shed light on what success means on Facebook and to provide ideas on how to use the site. Key findings include:

• About 200 of the 505 organizations surveyed reported success converting Facebook fans into donors or volunteers.
• More than 70 percent of respondents saw a significant increase in traffic to their websites because of their Facebook presence.
• About 66 percent of respondents from advocacy organizations saw an increase in people taking some noticeable form of action, like signing a petition.
• 80% of the respondents felt that Facebook helped them enhance their relationship to existing constituents

To access the report, go to: http://www.nonprofitfacebookguy.com.

Resource of the Week – Donated Goods and Services for Nonprofits

Good360, a registered 501(c)(3), is an innovative online marketplace where product donations from America's top brands become goods for the greater good. Register today to browse our online catalog, arrange for direct shipping or pick-ups in your neighborhood, and connect with local donors for recurring pick-ups. Corporate partners include Home Depot, HP, Bed Bath and Beyond and many more. Go to: http://good360.org.


Tech Tip of the Week -- Recolor a Picture or Change the Color or Transparency in Office 2010

In Office 2010 -- Word, PowerPoint and Excel -- you can recolor a picture, adjust the color saturation and tone, and more! Here's how:

• Select the picture you want to recolor
• Click the Picture Tools Format tab on the Ribbon
• In the Adjust group, click Color
• Select one of the many options, for example: