Picks of the Week: December 9 - 15, 2012

Website of the Week --  Serviceleader.org
Serviceleader.org offers specialized resources for volunteers, leaders and managers of volunteers, and instructors and thought leaders. Serviceleader.org is operated by the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. Site content is developed by Center faculty, guest authors, and students engaged in the study of volunteerism. Under the direction of Sarah Jane Rehnborg, Ph.D., ServiceLeader.org has been expanded to include useful articles written by leading practitioners and graduate students studying volunteer administration at The University of Texas at Austin. In 2009, Serviceleader.org was extensively revised and updated. The revisions to the site coincided with a new vision for Serviceleader.org as a resource dedicated to a conceptual and strategic understanding of volunteerism.  Go to: www.serviceleader.org

Publication of the Week -- Extreme Facilitation: Guiding Groups Through Controversy and Complexity by Suzanne Ghais

From the publisher: Extreme Facilitation picks up where other books on the topic leave off to present a revolutionary method that helps large, unwieldy, adversarial, and apparently dysfunctional groups achieve consensus and reach objectives on divisive and contentious issues no matter how long the group has been struggling. Throughout the book, expert facilitator Suzanne Ghais shows how extreme facilitation - which puts on the emphasis on creativity, flexibility, and customization - can change how group members interact with one another and how participants view the issues even in the most challenging and exceptionally difficult situations. Extreme Facilitation covers the preparatory phases of the process, including assessment, convening, and contracting. Ghais also offers vital information on process design and tips for handling situations that many facilitators find particularly challenging.

Click to preview this book on Amazon.com

Trend of the Week – Engaging Board Members in Fundraising

Nonprofit Research Collaborative (NRC) finds a statistically significant relationship between active fundraising by nonprofit board members and the nonprofit reaching its fundraising goals. Sixty percent of organizations where board members help with fundraising met their 2011 fundraising goals, compared with just 53 percent of nonprofits without board member engagement. This study also debunks a common perception that board members help an organization meet its fundraising goal through their own giving. Board member gifts were required at 57 percent of the responding charitable organizations but these gifts made up 10 percent or less of total charitable receipts at most organizations. To download a copy of the report, go to: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412673-The-Nonprofit-Research-Collaborative-Special-Report.pdf

 

Resource of the Week – Take Root: Volunteer Management  Guidebook

Hands On Network has developed this guidebook to help volunteer service programs explore the basics of volunteer management. It is meant to be a user-friendly resource for developing volunteer recruitment, retention, and recognition strategies and methods of offering projects for diverse audiences. This guide does not prescribe how your programs should be structured; it does, however, provide resources you can adapt to meet your local program needs. The goal of this guidebook is to provide information that will help your program take root, leverage volunteers, and grow. To that end, the guidebook contains action-oriented sections to help you recruit, schedule, retain, and recognize volunteers. In addition, each chapter includes an activities and templates section with tools to assist you in applying the guidebook content to your program. To download a copy of the guide, go to: http://www.handsonnetwork.org/files/resources/GB_TakeRoot_Volunteer_Management_unkn_HON.pdf. You can also access free eLearning courses and other valuable resources in the CNCS Resource Center at http://www.nationalserviceresources.org.

 Tech Tip of the Week -- Run PowerPoint 2010 Slide Show in a Window

Have you ever wanted to be able to run a PowerPoint slideshow in a window?  This can be done by adding a button to the Quick Access Toolbar.  Here’s how:

·         Click the File tab on the Ribbon
·         Click the Options button at the bottom
·         Click Quick Access Toolbar in the left pane
·         Under Choose commands from, select Commands Not in the Ribbon
·         Scroll down and select Slide Show in a Window
·         Click Add to add this button to the Quick Access Toolbar
·         Click OK
 
To run a slideshow in a window simply click screen icon button on the Quick Access Toolbar.