Picks of the Week: August 14 - 20, 2011

Website of the Week – GrantStation.com

GrantStation.com, Inc. (GrantStation) offers nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and government agencies the opportunity to identify potential funding sources for their programs or projects as well as resources to mentor these organizations through the grantseeking process. GrantStation provides access to a searchable database of private grantmakers that accept inquiries and proposals from a variety of organizations; federal deadlines, which are updated twice a week; links to state funding agencies; and a growing database of international grantmakers. In addition, GrantStation publishes two e-newsletters highlighting upcoming funding opportunities; the weekly GrantStation Insider, which focuses on opportunities for U.S. nonprofit organizations; and the monthly GrantStation International Insider, which focuses on international funding opportunities. Go to: http://www.grantstation.com.

Publication of the Week -- You and Your Nonprofit: Practical Advice and Tips from the CharityChannel Professional Community by Norman Olshansky and Linda Lysakowski

From the publisher: You And Your Nonprofit has been written for those who want to learn more about the nonprofit sector or improve their knowledge and skills related to nonprofit leadership, management and fundraising. Peer-reviewed articles selected for inclusion in this book have been contributed by nationally known experts within the nonprofit sector, all of whom participate on CharityChannel.com as part of its distinguished professional community. You And Your Nonprofit explores planning issues that are often a challenge to nonprofit organizations; provides models for improvement of management, governance and leadership; presents best practices related to the science and art of fundraising; addresses many of the day-to-day issues that confront nonprofit leaders and professionals; and provides practical and replicable problem-solving suggestions. You And Your Nonprofit is one in a series of IN THE TRENCHES books published by CharityChannel Press. In his foreword to the book, Bob Carter, CFRE, Chair-Elect of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, wrote, "This is surely the book I wish I had decades ago."

Click to preview this book on Amazon.com.


Trend of the Week – Under 40 Leaders' Perspectives on Cross-Sector Collaboration

A new report summarizes findings of a survey sponsored by Independent Sector and the American Express Foundation. The report highlights the potential power of an emerging group and an important approach for improving lives across the country and around the world. The group is NGen—people under 40 who are America's next generation of leaders. The approach is collaboration—the ability to work across sectors in order to combine the resources and skills of the nonprofit, for-profit, and government sectors. Both have already made substantial contributions to enriching lives and solving problems in communities everywhere. But this
report — based on the survey that asked more than 2,000 NGeners for their perspectives on leadership development, cross-sector collaboration and how to solve society’s most pressing problems — suggests that with more opportunities for leadership training and further engagement across sectors, that impact can be much greater. The five key findings of the survey are:

• Ngeners mostly agree on the top issues facing communities, the nation, and the world
• Ngeners feel collaboration across sectors is very important but do not know the people, the leaders or the methods to facilitate collaboration
• The majority of Ngeners could not identify a single leader under the age of 40 who is effectively solving a societal problem
• Ngeners believe the nonprofit sector is best positioned to take the lead in engaging other sectors to solve problems
• Ngeners believe they need more, organized leadership development opportunities

For the full report, go to: http://buildingmovement.org.


Resource of the Week – Red Beans & Rice Newsletter

Red Beans & Rice is a weekly e-mail of interesting articles, funding resources, professional development opportunities and other areas related to the nonprofit and philanthropic sector. The newsletter is edited by John Brothers, Principal of Cuidiu Consulting. An excellent resource! Go to: http://archive.constantcontact.com.


Tech Tip of the Week -- Using Section Breaks in a Word 2007/2010 Document

Section breaks are used to:

• Change the layout from a single-column to two columns
• Change the orientation from portrait to landscape
• Separate chapters/sections of a document to control page numbering
• Create a different header or footer for a section of your document

To insert a section break:

• Click where you want to insert a Section Break or select a portion of the document around which to insert a pair of section breaks
• Click the Page Layout tab on the Ribbon
• In the Page Setup group, click Breaks