Picks of the Week: March 18 - 24, 2012

Website of the Week -- David Lamb's Prospect Research Page

Lamb, a former development officer at the University of Washington and Santa Clara University, has developed a collection of truly useful Internet sites for researching corporations, foundations, and individual donors. David Lamb's Prospect Research Page includes links to directories of doctors, judges, lawyers, and airplane owners; online news sources; and corporate and public records databases. What's nice about the Prospect Research Page is that Lamb has distilled the vast number of potential sources of information on the Internet into a relatively small selection of annotated sites. Go to: http://www.lambresearch.com.


Publication of the Week -- Managing to Change the World: The Nonprofit Manager's Guide to Getting Results by Alison Green and Jerry Hauser

From the publisher: A nonprofit manager's fundamental job is to get results, sustained over time, rather than boost morale or promote staff development. This is a shift from the tenor of many management books, particularly in the nonprofit world. Managing to Change the World is designed to teach new and experienced nonprofit managers the fundamental skills of effective management, including: Managing specific tasks and broader responsibilities; Setting clear goals and holding people accountable to them; creating a results-oriented culture; hiring, developing, and retaining a staff of superstars. The book offers nonprofit managers a clear guide to the most effective management skills; shows how to address performance problems, dismiss staffers who fall short, and the right way to exercising authority; gives guidance for managing time wisely and offers suggestions for staying in sync with your boss and managing up. This important resource contains 41 resources and downloadable tools that can be implemented immediately.

Click to preview this book on Amazon.com.


Trend of the Week – Charitable Giving Affected by Racial and Age Stereotypes

According to a new report, charitable behavior towards African American children decreases – and negative stereotypical inferences increase – with the age of those children. Using data from an online charity that solicits donations for school projects, we found that proposals accompanied by images of older African American students (Grades 6-12) led to fewer donations than proposals with images of younger African Americans (pre-K-Grade 5), with the opposite pattern for proposals with images of multiples races or of all White students. A laboratory experiment demonstrated that negative stereotypical beliefs about African Americans (e.g., that they are lazy) increased with age more for African American children than for White children, a pattern that predicted decreases in giving. To access the study report, go to: http://www.people.hbs.edu.


Resource of the Week – A Practical Guide for Engaging Stakeholders in Developing Evaluation Questions

This practical guide offers best practices that encourage soliciting input from stakeholders early in the evaluation design process to address specific stakeholder interests for improving program effectiveness, influencing policy decisions, and instituting behavioral and organizational change. The guide describes a five-step process for engaging stakeholders in developing evaluation questions, and includes four worksheets to facilitate the planning and implementation of a stakeholder engagement process. Go to: http://www.fsg.org.


Tech Tip of the Week -- Add a Drop Cap in Word 2010

A drop cap is used to display the first letter of the paragraph in a large font. To add a drop cap to a paragraph in Word 2010:
• Click in the paragraph where you would like to apply a drop cap
• Click the Insert tab on the Ribbon
• In the text group, choose Drop Cap
• From the Drop Cap list, click to select the style or choose options for additional choices