Picks of the Week: February 17 - 23, 2013

Website of the Week --  Social Compact
Social Compact is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization formed by coalition of business leaders from across the country committed to promoting successful investment in lower-income communities. Working in close partnership with community and corporate leaders over the past decade and a half, Social Compact has pioneered the DrillDown™, a methodology to analyze inner-city markets and create accurate, business-oriented profiles of “emerging” neighborhood markets. Drawing on business disciplines and community strength, these DrillDown profiles have a strong track record of catalyzing sustainable, private investment, benefiting communities and businesses alike. Social Compact’s innovative research seek to fill a void in the market: replacing outdated, deficiency-based data on lower-income communities with reliable market analysis to drive better investment decisions in underserved communities. The goal: safe and healthy neighborhoods in which to live and do business. Go to: http://www.socialcompact.org.

Publication of the Week -- Social Business by Design by Dion Hinchliffe and Peter Kim

From the publisher:  Social Business By Design is the definitive management book on how to rethink the modern organization in the social media era. Based on their research and work through the Dachis Group, thought leaders Dion Hinchcliffe and Peter Kim deftly explore how the social, cultural, and technological trends provoked by the social media explosion are transforming the business environment. Designed as both a strategic overview and a hands-on resource, Social Business By Design clearly shows how to choose and implement a social business strategy and maximize its impact. The book:

·         Explains the mechanisms, applications, and advantages of a strategic array of social media topics, including social media marketing, social product development, crowdsourcing, social supply chains, social customer relationship management, and more
·         Features examples from high-profile companies such as SAP, Procter & Gamble, MillerCoors, Bloomberg, HBO, Ford, and IBM who have implemented social business strategies
·         Draws on the extensive research and expertise of the Dachis Group, which has helped numerous Fortune 500 clients plan, build, and activate effective social business solutions

Click to preview this book on Amazon.com

Trend of the Week – Philanthropy and the Social Economy: Blueprint 2013
Philanthropy and the Social Economy: Blueprint 2013 is an annual industry forecast written by leading philanthropy scholar Lucy Bernholz about the social economy — private capital used for public good. The Foundation Center and the European Foundation Centre are pleased to partner with Ms. Bernholz to offer the Blueprint as a GrantCraft guide. The Blueprint provides an overview of the current landscape, points to major trends, and directs your attention to horizons where you can expect some important breakthroughs in the coming year. Key trends include:
·         Congress will change the rules on tax deductions. Congressional hearings on charitable tax deductions will occur in the first half of 2013. They will set lower limits for charitable deductions for the wealthiest donors.
·         The Affordable Care Act will reveal new opportunities for communities. States and counties will spend much of 2013 designing and implementing the new systems of health care delivery and insurance made possible by the Affordable Care Act. The year provides a good planning opportunity for all social service funders, organizations, and entrepreneurs to plan for the major shift in the social safety net that will become real in 2014.
·         Crowdfunding will go mainstream. People will use crowdfunding sites, like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Crowdrise, and others more than ever, and they will be used for an ever-wider range of funding activities.
·         Civic crowdfunding will grow and may exacerbate inequality. Crowdfunding is not only expanding from independent and nonprofit projects to commercial businesses, there is also a rise in crowdfunding of civic projects, from parks and playgrounds to streetlights. Examples of these sites include Citizinvestor and Neighbor.ly, which allow neighbors to promote and choose civic projects to fund. While there is great excitement about these methods as a way for taxpayers to have choice and a say over the infrastructure in their city, there is concern about the potential of these sites to further divide our communities into “haves” and “have nots.”

To download the guide at no charge, go to:http://www.grantcraft.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.ViewPage&pageId=3744

Resource of the Week – Resource Library from LaPiana Consulting
Founded in 1998, La Piana Consulting is a national firm dedicated to strengthening nonprofits and foundations. A large part of the firm's ongoing mission to advance the nonprofit sector has included developing an extensive library of tools, resources, and publications, specifically tailored to nonprofit leaders. Go to: http://www.lapiana.org/research-publications/publications

Tech Tip of the Week -- Using Screenshot in Office 2010
Screenshot -- a new feature in Office 2010 -- allows you to capture images from your screen.
·         Click the document that you want to add the screenshot to
·         Click the Insert tab on the Ribbon
·         In the Illustrations group, click Screenshot
·         To add the whole window, click the thumbnail in the Available Windows gallery
·         To add part of the window, click Screen Clipping, and when the pointer becomes a cross, press and hold the left mouse button to select the area of your screen that you want to capture
·         If you have multiple windows open, click the window you want to clip from before clicking Screen Clipping. When you click Screen Clipping, the program you are working in is minimized and only the window behind it is available for clipping
·         After adding a screenshot, you can use the tools on the Picture Tools tab to edit and enhance the screenshot

You can use Screenshot in Word 2010, PowerPoint 2010 and Excel 2010.

Picks of the Week: February 10 - 16, 2013

Website of the Week --  The Communications Network
Formed nearly 20 years ago as a membership association, the Communications Network today is a stand-alone nonprofit organization that promotes the use of consistent, strategic communications as an integral part of effective philanthropy. The Network connects communications professionals working in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector to each other for guidance and mentoring and regularly sponsors learning and networking opportunities through webinars and the annual conference. Today, the Network’s membership represents a wide range of foundation communications leaders and consultants who work to advance communications strategies and practices in all mediums. Go to: http://www.comnetwork.org.

Publication of the Week -- Building a Rock-Solid Partnership With Your Board: A Real-Life, Practical Guidebook for Nonprofit and Public CEOs by Doug Eadie
From the publisher:  In Building a Rock-Solid Partnership With Your Board, author Doug Eadie draws on his work with hundreds of nonprofit and public organizations of every size and purpose to explain how board-savvy CEOs effectively manage the human dimension of the governing board-CEO relationship. Using real-world case studies, he outlines five keys to builidng a rock-solid partnership between the organization's CEO and its board of directors: 1.) bring the right mindset to the governing arena; 2.) make the board chair a close ally; 3.) turn board members into strong owners; 4.) make the board's work more interesting and enjoyable; and 5.) put in place a well-designed CEO evaluation process. CEOs who want their nonprofit organizations to thrive in difficult times will learn how to create an empowered board that collaborates effectively with the chief executive in such key areas as strategic and operational planning; performance monitoring; and external relations. Readers will learn to harness the extensive knowledge, experience and outside connections that governing boards can bring to the organization's Strategic Governing Team, helping to assure the nonprofit's long-term success and job security for the board-savvy CEO.

Click to previewthis book on Amazon.com

Trend of the Week – Most Facebook Users Have Taken a Break From the Site, Survey Finds

A new survey by the Pew Research Center‘s Internet and American Life Project, conducted in December, found that 61 percent of current Facebook users admitted that they had voluntarily taken breaks from the site, for as many as several weeks at a time. The main reasons for their social media sabbaticals were not having enough time to dedicate to pruning their profiles, an overall decrease in their interest in the site, and the general sentiment that Facebook was a major waste of time.  About 4 percent cited privacy and security concerns as contributing to their departure. Although those users eventually resumed their regular activity, another 20 percent of Facebook users admitted to deleting their accounts. Of course, even as some Facebook users pull back on their daily consumption of the service, the vast majority — 92 percent — of all social network users still maintain a profile on the site. But while more than half said that the site was just as important to them as it was a year ago, only 12 percent said the site’s significance increased over the last year — indicating the makings of a much larger social media burnout across the site. The survey teases out other interesting insights, including the finding that young users are spending less time overall on the site. The report found that 42 percent of Facebook users from the ages of 18 to 29 said that the average time they spent on the site in a typical day had decreased in the last year. A much smaller portion, 23 percent, of older Facebook users, those over 50, reported a drop in Facebook usage over the same period. Go to: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Coming-and-going-on-facebook.aspx

Resource of the Week –  Jargon Finder
The Jargon Finder is an online collection of foundation and nonprofit jargon. Click on any word to see it defined and discussed. Most of the examples are excerpted from Tony Proscio's three book-length essays on jargon that were originally published by The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation: In Other Words, Bad Words for Good, and When Words Fail. To access the Jargon Finder, Go to: http://www.comnetwork.org/category/jargon.

Resource of the Week –  Jargon Finder

The Jargon Finder is an online collection of foundation and nonprofit jargon. Click on any word to see it defined and discussed. Most of the examples are excerpted from Tony Proscio's three book-length essays on jargon that were originally published by The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation: In Other Words, Bad Words for Good, and When Words Fail. To access the Jargon Finder, Go to: http://www.comnetwork.org/category/jargon.

 

Tech Tip of the Week -- Add a Watermark to a Word 2007/2010 Document

Watermarks are text or pictures that appear behind the text. They can add interest or identify the document's status, marking a document as a draft, for example. You can use graphics or text as watermarks.

·         Open a new, blank document, or open an existing document.
·         Click the Page Layout tab on the Ribbon
·         In the Page Background group, click Watermark
·         Click a design in the gallery or create a custom watermark
·         Select the Picture, if you are creating a Picture watermark
·         Enter the Text, if you are creating a Text watermark
·         Use Print Layout view to view a watermark as it will print

The watermark displays on the background of each page

Picks of the Week: January 27 - February 9, 2013

Website of the Week -- The Aspen Institute
The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues. The Aspen Institute carries out its mission in four ways:
·      Seminars, which help participants reflect on what they think makes a good society, thereby deepening knowledge, broadening perspectives and enhancing their capacity to solve the problems leaders face.
·         Young-leader fellowships around the globe, which bring a selected class of proven leaders together for an intense multi-year program and commitment.
·         Policy programs, which serve as nonpartisan forums for analysis, consensus building, and problem solving on a wide variety of issues.
·         Public conferences and events, which provide a commons for people to share ideas.

Go to: http://www.aspeninstitute.org.

Publication of the Week -- Social Change Anytime Everywhere: How to Implement Online Multichannel Strategies to Spark Advocacy, Raise Money, and Engage your Community by Allyson Kapin and Amy Sample Ward
From the publisher:  Social Change Anytime Everywhere was written for nonprofit staff who say themselves or are asked by others, “Email communications, social media, and mobile are important, but how will they help our nonprofit and the issues we work on? Most importantly, how the heck do we integrate and utilize these tools successfully?” The book will help answer these questions, and is organized to guide readers through the planning and implementation of online multi-channel strategies that will spark advocacy, raise money and promote deeper community engagement in order to achieve social change in real time. It also serves as a resource to help nonprofit staff and their boards quickly understand the evolving online landscape and identify and implement the best online channels, strategies, tools, and tactics to help their organizations achieve their missions.

 

Click to preview this book on Amazon.com

Trend of the Week – 2013 Nonprofit Communications Trends
The  2013 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report from Kivi Leroux Miller’s Nonprofit Marketing Guide surveyed 1435 nonprofits. Responses revealed trends based on questions like: In what shape is your marketing plan for 2013?  Which social media channel are you most likely to add or experiment with in 2013? How often do you plan to email the typical person on your email list? How often do you plan to send direct mail?  What excites you about your work in 2013? Key findings include:
·         Only 1/3 of nonprofit marketers have written and approved plans for 2013.
·         Top goals for nonprofit marketers in 2013 include acquiring new donors, engaging community, general brand awareness
·         Nonprofit marketers with fundraising goals work differently than those with community or branding goals.
·         Social media is starting to edge out email in importance to nonprofit marketers In-person events and media relations growing in importance to nonprofits; print marketing falling

To download the free report, go to: http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/resources/book/2013-nonprofit-communications-trends-report/#

Resource of the Week – Building Capacity in Cultural Competence
Organizational Development & Capacity in Cultural Competence: Building Knowledge and Practice is a monograph series produced by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services with support from The California Endowment. This series articulates several approaches to organizational development and capacity building in cultural competence.  Its purpose is to promote learning and strengthen the effectiveness of both theorists and practitioners in the field. It explores a variety of frameworks for organizational development or capacity building and their implications for practice, taking on a number of issues that arise in real world practice. At essence, the basic questions explored are “Where are we going?” “How do we get there?” and “How do we know when we’ve made progress?” Its audience is not the unconvinced; rather it is aimed at those people who are working as change agents within health organizations. It is assumed that the reader acknowledges the importance of this work and wants to look deeper into the complex issues that arise in practice. Though the focus is health organizations, the series will be of use to a broad range of organizations.  To view and download the monographs, go to: http://www.calendow.org/uploadedFiles/Mayeno.pdf

Tech Tip of the Week -- Using the Data Analysis ToolPak in Excel 2007/2010
Most people are not aware of the Data Analysis ToolPak in Excel. This feature is disabled by default. To use the Data Analysis ToolPak you need to be familiar with Engineering and Statistical terminology. To enable it: 
·         Click the File tab (2010) or Office Button (2007)
·         Click the Options button at the bottom of the menu
·         Click Add-Ins in the left pane 
·         Click Go 
·         Select Analysis ToolPak
·         Click OK

You can now access the ToolPak from the Data tab in the Analysis group.