Picks of the Week: September 25 - October 1, 2011

Website of The Week -- Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy

Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP) is a national network of young people professional s and people involved in the work of organized philanthropy. EPIP's mission is to support and strengthen the next generation of grantmakers in order to advance social justice philanthropy. Go to: http://www.epip.org/index.php.


Publication of the Week -- Twitter for Good: Change the World One Tweet at a Time by Claire Diaz-Ortiz

From the publisher: As recent events in Japan, the Middle East, and Haiti have shown, Twitter offers a unique platform to connect individuals and influence change in ways that were unthinkable only a short time ago. In Twitter for Good, Claire Diaz Ortiz, Twitter’s head of corporate social innovation and philanthropy, shares the same strategies she offers to organizations launching cause-based campaigns. Filled with dynamic examples from initiatives around the world, this groundbreaking book offers practical guidelines for harnessing individual activism via Twitter as a force for social change.

• Reveals why every organization needs a dedicated Twitter strategy and explains how to set one
• Introduces the five-step model taught at trainings around the world: T.W.E.E.T. (Target, Write, Engage, Explore, Track)

Author @claired is the head of corporate social innovation and philanthropy at Twitter, collaborating with organizations like Nike, Pepsi, MTV, the American Red Cross, charity:water, Room to Read, the Gates Foundation, the Skoll Foundation, the Case Foundation, National Wildlife Federation, Kiva, the United Nations, Free the Children, Committee to Protect Journalists, Partners in Health, FEMA, Ushahidi, The Acumen Fund. With more than 200 million users worldwide, Twitter has established itself as a dynamic force, one that every business and nonprofit must understand how to use effectively. Click to preview this book on Amazon.com.


Trend of the Week – High Levels of Civic Engagement Builds Economic Resilience of Communities

A report released today by the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) finds that states with higher levels of civic engagement are more resilient in an economic downturn. The report identifies five measures of civic engagement – attending meetings, helping neighbors, registering to vote, volunteering and voting – which appear to protect against unemployment and contribute to overall economic resilience. Of these five civic health indicators, working with neighbors was the most important factor in predicting economic resilience, as an increase of one percent in neighbors working together to solve community problems was associated with a decrease of .256 percent in the unemployment rate. Public meeting attendance emerged as the second most important factor, followed by volunteering and registering to vote as top important predictors of unemployment change. The NCoC report found that of the states with the highest rates of volunteering and working with neighbors, Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and South Dakota had the smallest increase in unemployment between 2006 and 2010. Of the states with the lowest rates of volunteering and working with neighbors, Alabama, California, Florida, Nevada and Rhode Island had the highest increase in unemployment. The report calls on community and business leaders to use these findings to inform a public discussion of how civic health can help improve the economy. For more information, go to: http://www.ncoc.net/unemployment-release.


Resource of the Week –Tools and Resources for Assessing Social Impact (TRASI)

TRASI is a project of the Foundation Center, developed in partnership with McKinsey & Co. and with input from experts in the field, to address the growing interest in measuring impact. The TRASI database of tools and resources includes information on approaches to impact assessment, guidelines for creating and conducting an assessment, and ready-to-use tools for measuring social change. You can browse over 150 tools, methods, and best practices in the TRASI database. Sort by name, sponsor, or approach type. For a complete overview of an approach, click on its name. For more information, go to: http://trasi.foundationcenter.org/browse.php.


Tech Tip of the Week -- Compress Pictures in PowerPoint 2010

If you’ve ever tried to email a PowerPoint presentation containing several pictures, you have probably discovered that the file size can be quite large. There is a way to reduce the file size. Here’s how:
• Select a picture to display the Picture Tools Format tab
• In the Adjust group, click the Compress Pictures button to display the Compress Pictures dialog box
• If you want ALL pictures compressed make sure the Apply only to this picture box is NOT selected
• In the Target Output section there are three compression options
• Choosing the last option, Email (96 ppi), will result in the smallest file size
• Click OK to apply the settings and close the dialog box

Remember that the more you compress the pictures the less quality there is for printing. But if you just want to share these photos online, give it a try. The procedure in PowerPoint 2007 is nearly identical.

Picks of the Week: September 18 - 24, 2011

Website of the Week -- ArtsReady

Premiering Fall 2011, ArtsReady is a web based emergency preparedness platform designed to provide arts organizations with customized business continuity plans for post crisis sustainability. A national initiative of South Arts, the ArtsReady readiness, response and recovery tool was developed in partnership with the University of California/Berkeley and Fractured Atlas with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Henry Morrison Flagler Museum, Mississippi Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts. For more information, go to: http://www.artsready.org.


Publication of the Week -- Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement, 3rd Edition by John M. Bryson

From the publisher: When it was first published more than sixteen years ago, John Bryson's Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations introduced a new and thoughtful strategic planning model. Since then it has become the standard reference in the field. In this completely revised third edition, Bryson updates his perennial bestseller to help today’s leaders enhance organizational effectiveness. This completed updated 3rd edition:

• Features the Strategy Change Cycle—a proven planning process used by a large number of organizations
• Offers detailed guidance on implementing the planning process and includes specific tools and techniques to make the process work in any organization
• Introduces new material on creating public value, stakeholder analysis, strategy mapping, balanced scorecards, collaboration, and more
• Includes information about the organizational designs that will encourage strategic thought and action throughout the entire organization
• Contains a wealth of updated examples and cases

Click to preview this book on Amazon.com.


Trend of the Week – Dramatic Affect of Recession on Nonprofit Executive Compensation

GuideStar-- a leading source of nonprofit information--today published its 2011 GuideStar Nonprofit Compensation Report, the only large-scale analysis of its kind that relies exclusively on data reported to the IRS. The report, which was GuideStar's first look at how the "Great Recession" affected salaries and benefits across the nonprofit sector, showed that the economy undoubtedly played a role in lessening compensation. In 2008, median increases in incumbent CEO compensation were generally 4 percent or higher. In 2009, increases were generally 2 percent or less. Highlights of the 2011 report include:

• Median compensation of females continued to lag behind that of males when considering comparable positions at similar organizations. The gap ranged from 13.4 percent for CEOs at organizations with budgets of $250-$500 thousand to 24.6 percent at organizations with budgets of more than $50 million. Since 1999, though, these gaps have narrowed for most sizes of organizations. The notable exception is organizations in the $1-$5 million range, where the gap has actually increased.
• Since 1999, the percentage of female CEOs has increased for organizations of all sizes. The majority of organizations with budgets of $1 million or less have women as CEOs, although female representation in that role declines as budget size increases. Only 16 percent of organizations with budgets of more than $50 million have female CEOs.
• As usual, health and science organizations had the highest overall median salaries. Food, religion, and youth development organizations brought up the rear.
• For the sixth straight year, Washington, D.C., had the highest overall median salaries of the 20 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSA), and Riverside-San Bernardino, California, had the lowest. Adjusted for cost of living, New York replaced San Francisco as the MSA where nonprofit executives had the lowest median buying power, whereas those in Boston had the highest.

For more information, go to: http://www2.guidestar.org.


Resource of the Week – Nonprofit Voter Engagement Webinars

Nonprofit VOTE hosts webinars on a variety of voter engagement topics, designed specifically with the 501(c)(3) nonprofit community in mind. Topics range from how to plan and execute voter engagement activities at your nonprofit to best practices for encouraging clients and constituents to vote on election days. Use the links provided to watch the recorded webinar online, or download each webinar's PowerPoint presentation and associated audio file. Select a topic from the menu provided or simply browse through the webinar offerings. Go to: http://www.nonprofitvote.org.


Tech Tip of the Week -- Disable Auto Resize of Fonts in PowerPoint 2007/2010

In PowerPoint 2007/2010 Auto Resize intentionally shrinks the size of text as large amounts are added to a slide. One of the top complaints about PowerPoint slide presentations is that text is too small. PowerPoint Design Themes were created to force good design by setting font size automatically. The AutoFit feature defeats this purpose and actually encourages too much text on slides by shrinking it as you type, allowing people to use fonts too small to be seen. To turn this feature off:

• Click the Microsoft Office Button in 2007 or the File tab in 2010
• Click the PowerPoint Options button
• Click Proofing
• Click AutoCorrect Options
• Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab
• Click to clear the check boxes for AutoFit Body text to placeholder and AutoFit title text to placeholder if you want to disable both the body text AND the title text from auto sizing

Picks of the Week: September 11-17, 2011

Website of the Week -- Nonprofit VOTE

Founded in 2005, Nonprofit VOTE partners with America's nonprofits to help the people they serve participate and vote. The organization is a leading source of nonpartisan resources to help nonprofits integrate voter engagement into their ongoing activities and services. Nonprofit VOTE's goals include:

• Providing high quality resources for nonprofits and social service agencies to help them incorporate voter engagement activities into to their ongoing work.
• Building lasting capacity for nonpartisan, nonprofit voter participation.
• Promoting sustained increases in voter participation, especially among voters new to the process or with a recent history of lower participation.
• Engaging voters where they gather to work, learn, advocate and receive services.
• Broadening support for the revitalization of democracy and election reforms; and
• Strengthening the nonprofit sector and encouraging new civic leadership.

Nonprofit VOTE partners with state nonprofit associations, national service provider networks, foundations and other nonprofit conveners. We provide partners with programmatic support as well as access to our online resources, free printed materials and other voter engagement resources. Go to: http://www.nonprofitvote.org.


Publication of the Week -- The Nonprofit Outcomes Toolbox: A Complete Guide to Program Effectiveness, Performance Measurement, and Results by Robert M. Penna

From the publisher: The Nonprofit Outcomes Toolbox identifies stages in the use of outcomes and shows you how to use specific facets of existing outcome models to improve performance and achieve meaningful results. Going beyond the familiar limits of the sector, this volume also illustrates how tools and approaches long in use in the corporate sector can be of great analytical and practical use to nonprofit, philanthropic, and governmental organizations . An outstanding resource for organizational and program leaders interested in improving performance, there is nothing else like this work currently available.

• Shows how to identify and set meaningful, sustainable outcomes
• Illustrates how to track and manage with outcomes
• Offers guidance in assessing capacity, and using outcome-based communications
• Features a companion Web site with the tools found in this book

Providing the tools and explanations needed to achieve program success, this book is a complete resource for the nonprofit, governmental, or philanthropic professional striving for greater effectiveness in programs or organizations.

Click to preview this book on Amazon.com.


Trend of the Week – Use of Mobile and Location-based Services Rising

According to a new Pew Internet Project report, more than a quarter (28%) of all American adults use mobile or social location-based services of some kind. This includes anyone who takes part in one or more of the following activities:

• 28% of cell owners use phones to get directions or recommendations based on their current location.
• A much smaller number (5% of cell owners) use their phones to check in to locations using geosocial services such as Foursquare or Gowalla. Smartphone owners are especially likely to use these services on their phones, with 12% doing so.
• 9% of internet users set up social media services such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn so that their location is automatically included in their posts on those services.

Taken together, 28% of U.S. adults do at least one of these activities either on a computer or using their mobile phones—and many users do several of them. These figures come from a new national survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and represent Project’s most expansive study of location services to date. To read or download the full report, go to: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Location.aspx.


Resource of the Week – Nonprofit Law Blog

The Nonprofit Law Blog Is published by Gene Takagi and Emily Chan of the NEO Law Group. The blog includes a number of nonprofit law articles and resources that will be of great use to staff and board members of nonprofit organizations. Go to: http://www.nonprofitlawblog.com/home.


Tech Tip of the Week -- Creating a PowerPoint Presentation Using Word 2007/2010

To use a Word document to create a PowerPoint presentation:
• Format the document using Word heading styles
• PowerPoint uses the heading styles in your Word document to set up the slides in a presentation ̶ each Heading 1 becomes the title of a new slide, and each Heading 2 becomes the first level of text
• You must apply a heading format to the text you want to include in a slide
• You can manually insert heading styles or create a document using Word outline

To create a Word Outline:
• Click the View menu
• Click Outline in the Document Views group
• Type your outline using Tab to add subheadings (promote)
• Press Shift Tab to decrease the indent (demote)
• You can also use the Promote and Demote buttons on the Ribbon
• Save your outline

To Insert Outline Text from Word into PowerPoint:
• In PowerPoint, click the Outline tab in the left pane
• Click the Home tab of the Ribbon
• In the Slides group, click the arrow next to New Slide
• Click Slides from Outline