Picks of the Week: January 15 - 21, 2012

Website of the Week -- The Future of Philanthropy

This website contains the results of a partnership between the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The partnership was initiated by Tom Reis, a program director within the Philanthropy and Volunteerism unit at Kellogg, and by Barbara Kibbe, then the director of Packard’s Organizational Effectiveness and Philanthropy Program and now vice president for program and effectiveness at the Skoll Foundation. As representatives from two of the very few funders doing grantmaking to build the capacity of philanthropy and nonprofits, Reis and Kibbe were troubled by their perception that the U.S. nonprofit sector was not keeping up with the pace of change. This website is designed for individuals who want to do a better job of using their own resources (money, time, expertise) and for those who are employed as philanthropy professionals or advisors. It is primarily constructed to help improve the practice of philanthropy. But it also contains material for those who are working to change philanthropy. Go to: http://www.futureofphilanthropy.org.


Publication of the Week -- The Budget-Building Book for Nonprofits: A Step-by-Step Guide for Managers and Boards, 2nd Edition by Murray Dropkin, Jim Halpin, and Bill La Touche

From the publisher: This best-selling nuts-and-bolts workbook, now in its second edition, has become the gold standard for nonprofit managers and boards who must work through the budget cycle. The book offers practical tools and guidance for completing each step of the budgeting process. Designed to be comprehensive and easy to use, The Budget-Building Book for Nonprofits provides everything budgeters and nonfinancial managers need to prepare, approve, and implement their own budgets. Includes new chapters on Zero-Based and Capital Budgeting as well as a CD with spreadsheets, worksheets and a new budget-building software, the CMS Nonprofit Budget Builder, designed to help you implement the concepts in the book. The software includes an expandable standard chart of accounts (COA) and will aid in building, organizing, tracking and planning budgets.

Click to preview this book on Amazon.com.


Trend of the Week – Foundation Funding for Hispanics/Latinos

According to Foundation Funding for Hispanics/Latinos in the United States and for Latin America, released by the Foundation Center in collaboration with Hispanics in Philanthropy, total grant dollars targeting Latinos in the U.S. between 2007 and 2009 averaged about $206 million per year, while funding for Latin America averaged roughly $350 million per year. Human services (27 percent) and health (26 percent) captured the largest shares of grant dollars awarded for Latinos in the U.S. Of the grants targeting Latin America, Mexico and Brazil received the largest shares. Among other key findings in the report:

• The top 10 funders awarding grants for Latinos in the U.S. from 2007 to 2009 accounted for close to 40 percent of grant dollars.
• Recipient organizations in the Western region of the United States received the largest share (42 percent) of foundation dollars intended to benefit Hispanics. Over 80 percent of this funding went to organizations in California.
• The largest share of grant dollars for Latin America was for the environment and animals (33 percent), followed by international affairs (20 percent).
• Roughly half of funding for Latin America went directly to recipient organizations located in Latin America, while the other half was awarded through U.S.-based international programs.

To download the free report, go to: http://foundationcenter.org.


Resource of the Week – Finding the Right CEO

BoardSource has released a new white paper: Finding the Right CEO. According to this guide, when looking for the next chief executive, the search committee should remember that what counts is the diversity of a candidate’s experience. Qualifications, lists of achievements, proofs of expertise are the facts of an individual candidate’s suitability, and all are important. But the truth behind those lists resides in the character of a candidate’s experience — in the variety and complexity of the situations the candidate has encountered and how the candidate dealt with the encounters. To download a copy of the white paper, go to: http://www.boardsource.org.


Tech Tip of the Week -- Using Excel 2010 Sparklines

A new feature in Excel 2010 called Sparklines can help you spot trends in your data. Sparklines are tiny charts that sit on top of a cell. Here’s how to create them:

• Select an empty cell or group of empty cells where you want to insert Sparklines
• Click the Insert tab on the Ribbon
• In the Sparklines group, click the type of Sparkline you want to create
• In the Data box, enter the range of cells that contain the data to base the Sparklines on