Picks of the Week: July 15 - 28, 2012

Website of the Week --  Management Assistance Group (MAG)
The Management Assistance Group (MAG) strengthens visionary social justice organizations, leaders, and networks to create a more just world. For thirty years, MAG has strived to meet its mission by: (1) evolving and utilizing innovative approaches to strengthening organizations, leaders, and networks, (2) conducting research on critical organizational issues faced by social justice organizations, and (3) sharing insights and experiences with the social justice sector and the nonprofit organizational development field. Since 1980, MAP has partnered with thousands of organizations, leaders, networks, movements, and funders to create powerful social justice efforts and lasting change. Go to: http://www.managementassistance.org.

Publication of the Week --  Organization of the Future 2: Visions, Strategies, and Insights on Managing in a New Era

From the publisher:  The world has changed dramatically since the best-selling The Organization of the Future was published in 1999. More than ever before, organizations and leaders need guidance for meeting the challenges of today's complex environment in order to thrive in the future. Filled with wisdom and insight on the most important issues facing organizations today, the twenty six chapters in The Organization of the Future 2 offer the wisdom of some of the most recognized thought leaders of our day. These experts share their unique vision of what the organization of the future should look like and what organizational leaders must do to survive in the tumultuous twenty-first century. The contributors offer varied and diverse views on the organization of the future—for entrepreneurs to large corporations, nonprofits, and universities—including three different yet complementary approaches to inclusion, integration, and horizontal organization. The final section of the book focuses on the leaders of the organizations of the future and shows how they can make a critical difference in the success of their enterprises.

Click to preview this book on Amazon.com.

Trend of the Week – Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates
Giving by U.S. foundations totaled an estimated $46.9 billion in 2011, surpassing the $46.8 billion pre-recession peak recorded in 2008. Yet, after accounting for inflation, contributions by the nation's more than 76,600 foundations were down slightly from 2010. According to Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates (2012 Edition), if the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation were excluded from the totals, 2011 giving would actually have gone down by roughly 3 percent after inflation. Key 2011 findings include: 
·         Independent and family foundations — which represent the vast majority of U.S. foundations — increased their charitable contributions by less than 2 percent to $33.1 billion before inflation.
·         Corporate foundation giving rose 6 percent to $5.2 billion before inflation, surpassing other types of foundations.
·         Community foundation giving declined slightly and totaled $4.2 billion before inflation

To download the report at no charge, go to: http://foundationcenter.org/gainknowledge/research/pdf/fgge12.pdf

Resource of the Week – Certified Nonprofit Accounting Professional (CNAP)

Wegner CPAs, based in Wisconsin is partnering with The FMA Institute to bring CNAP (Certified Nonprofit Accounting Professional), an on-line training course, to nonprofit financial professionals. The Certified Nonprofit Accounting Professional (CNAP) is sponsored by member firms of the National Association of Nonprofit Accountants & Consultants (NPAC). CNAP is a national initiative developed by the member firms of NPAC designed to recognize excellence in the nonprofit industry through comprehensive qualification, training, and examination. Through a minimal time commitment, nonprofit financial managers will receive intensive training from individuals dedicated to serving nonprofit organizations. They do not have to be a CPA to achieve this designation. The CNAP on-line training will be offered for 7 sessions beginning on September 27, 2012. Each session will be held from 1:00 pm to 2:45 pm CST. All the details about the training and registration information can be found at: www.wegnercpas.com/CNAP.pdf.

Tech Tip of the Week -- Change Text Case in Word

To change the case of text in Word, try this:

• Select text
• Press Shift + F3 until it changes to the desired case style

Pressing Shift + F3 toggles the text case between sentence case, UPPERCASE, lowercase, and capitalize each word. Be sure to hold down the Shift WHILE you press F3.  Also, it works in all versions of Word. However, if you include text with punctuation at the end, it will skip the option to capitalize each word. You can also try this in PowerPoint.