Picks of the Week: November 4 - 10, 2012

Website of the Week -- Social Impact Exchange
The Social Impact Exchange is a community of funders, advisors, wealth managers, intermediaries, nonprofits and researchers interested in funding and developing practices for scaling-up social solutions. The Exchange’s purpose is to establish a marketplace ecosystem that consistently enables effective social interventions to achieve scaled impact. The Exchange has three main functions:

·         Facilitate increased funding of nonprofit scaling initiatives through funder networks and growth capital markets in specific issues and geographies.

·         Develop and share knowledge, including research, information and education that leads to more effective scaling efforts
·         Build Field Infrastructure to enable a capital marketplace to emerge, including standards, funding platforms, and distribution channels to efficiently connect funders with growth initiatives

 Go to: http://www.socialimpactexchange.org/exchange/about-us.

 

Publication of the Week --  The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World by John Elkington  and Pamela Hartigan
From the publisher:  Renowned playwright George Bernard Shaw once said "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." By this definition, some of today's entrepreneurs are decidedly unreasonable - and have even been dubbed crazy. Yet as John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan argue in "The Power of Unreasonable People", our very future may hinge on their work. Through vivid stories, the authors identify the highly unconventional entrepreneurs who are solving some of the world's most pressing economic, social, and environmental problems. They also show how these pioneers are disrupting existing industries, value chains, and business models - and in the process creating fast-growing markets around the world. By understanding these entrepreneurs' mindsets and strategies, you gain vital insights into future market opportunities for your own organization. Providing a first-hand, on-the-ground look at a new breed of entrepreneur, this book reveals how apparently unreasonable innovators have built their enterprises, how their work will shape risks and opportunities in the coming years, and what tomorrow's leaders can learn from them. Start investing in, partnering with, and learning from these world-shaping change agents, and you position yourself to not only survive but also thrive in the new business landscape they're helping to define.  

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Click to preview this book onAmazon.com.

Trend of the Week – Charitable Giving Trends in 2012

The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving is a broad-based fundraising index that reports total giving trends of 2,878 nonprofit organizations representing $8.3 billion in yearly giving on a monthly basis, both offline and online. The Index is based on actual giving statistics from nonprofit organizations of all sizes representing arts, culture, and humanities; education; environment and animals; healthcare; human services; international affairs; public and society benefit; and religion sectors. The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving reports that overall giving decreased by 3.1 percent for the 3 months ending September 2012 as compared to the same period in 2011. The Index also reports that online revenue increased by 2.7% for the three months ending September, as compared to the same period in 2011. For more information, go to: https://www.blackbaud.com/nonprofit-resources/charitable-giving-index.aspx.

Resource of the Week – All Hands on Board: The Board of Directors in All-Volunteer Organizations
This booklet by Jan Masaoka was originally published jointly by Boardsource and CompassPoint Nonprofit Services. Board members of an all-volunteer organization (AVO) know the important, but often unrecognized, role that the board plays. In addition to taking responsibility for the organization’s legal and ethical obligations to donors, clients, and the government, AVO boards shoulder the responsibility of providing guidance to the organization by managing the organization and leading the other volunteers with their hands, minds, and spirits. This handbook explains the two types of responsibilities that AVO boards have and provides a checklist that helps assess the work of the board. Like most all-volunteer organizations, the board can be so involved with getting the work done that it seldom finds the time to examine how the board itself is working, or to celebrate and appreciate the board’s hard work and achievements. To download the fee guide, go to: http://blueavocado.org/sites/default/files/All-Hands-on-Board-3.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.