Picks of the Week: May 25 - 31, 2014

Website of the Week -- Leader-Values

This site aims to provide visitors with cutting-edge resources on leadership and value systems with a special emphasis on the consideration of multicultural, global issues. Resources at the site have been written or selected to assist leaders in all kinds of organization to develop their skills. In addition, the site examines the qualities and behavior of famous leaders throughout the centuries. Thought-provoking feature articles share the limelight with regular sections: 'themes' offers in-depth work on change, knowledge, organization, and value systems and '4Es' discusses the four essential Es of leadership. Go to: www.leader-values.com

 

Publication of the Week --  Donor Cultivation and the Donor Lifecycle Map: A New Framework for Fundraising + Website by Deborah Kaplan Polivy

From the publisher: A guide to better and more strategic fundraising, Donor Cultivation and the Donor Life Cycle Map presents the donor lifecycle map, which is circular in form, revealing how the convergence of the two subject matters—cultivation and the lifecycle map—can lead to better and more strategic fundraising. Author Deborah Kaplan Polivy specifically addresses the topic of cultivation and how, when focused over the donor lifecycle, it can become a logical and focused activity for obtaining increasingly large gifts.

• Step-by-step guidance and practical tools for understanding and making the most of the donor lifecycle
• Coverage includes Introduction to Donor Cultivation, Defining Donor Cultivation, Donor Cultivation Tools and the Donor Lifecycle: How and Where They Intersect, and Impediments to the Implementation Process
• Features a companion website with a variety of online tools to help readers implement key concepts

Donor Cultivation and the Donor Life Cycle Map seeks to change the perspective from transactional fundraising to recurring fundraising, beginning with the first donation and extending to the very last—an endowment that keeps on giving even after death.

Click to preview this book on Amazon.com

Trend of the Week -- Nonprofit-Government Contract and Grant Trends

In 2012, the Urban Institute conducted a national survey, Nonprofit‐Government Contracts and Grants: Findings from the 2013 National Survey, expanding the scope of a previous 2009 study to include most types of nonprofits. The latest survey indicates that nonprofit‐government contracts and grants reached approximately 56,000 nonprofits and totaled $137 billion and that the effects of the recession were still evident. The research reveals that problems reported with government contracts and grants in 2009 are not confined to human services nonprofits, although problems are less pronounced for grants than for contracts. Nonprofit organizations in 2012 were still dealing with many of the same issues as in 2009. This report provides data on government contracts and grants with nonprofits, problems encountered, and the current fiscal situation of nonprofit organizations in each state. This compilation of state profiles provides national and state-by-state snapshots of most types of nonprofit organizations that have contracts and grants with local, state, and federal governments. The individual state profiles are designed to document the extent of nonprofit-government contracting, processes and problems. States are also ranked according to number of grants, types of issues, and actions taken by nonprofits to address the challenges they face. To download the full report, go to: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412949-National-Study-of-Nonprofit-Government-Contracts-and-Grants-2013.pdf

Resource of the Week –  HandsOn Network

HandsOn Network, a Points of Light enterprise,  is a network of 250 local volunteer centers around the world that seek to engage 21st century volunteers to use their time, talent, voice and money to create change in their communities. The HandsOn Network offers volunteer development tools and resources that are accessible, easy to implement and focused on impact. These resources and tools are based on:

• Principles of adult learning
• Practitioner-based best practices
• Interactive design
• Practical resources for innovation, action and impact
• Needs of the target audience

For more information about the resource library, go to: http://www.handsonnetwork.org/tools

Tech Tip of the Week -- Move or Copy Sheets between Workbooks in Excel 2007/2010

• Open the sheet you want to move or copy
• Click the Home tab on the Ribbon
• In the Cells group, click Format
• Under Organize Sheets, select Move or Copy Sheet
• Choose where you want the sheet to be copied or moved to
• Be sure to select the create a copy box if you do not want your sheet moved

Picks of the Week: May 10-24, 2014

Website of the Week -- Philamplify 
Philamplify is an initiative of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy that aims to maximize the impact of our country’s grantmakers. By providing a modern, user-friendly space to gather straightforward feedback from everyone involved in philanthropy, the project brings together voices that have traditionally been unheard. Philamplify combines expert research on the work foundations do with feedback from foundation and nonprofit leaders and staff, issue experts, community members and more. At the center of Philamplify is a series of comprehensive reports conducted by highly regarded researchers assessing foundation grantmaking and operations. Assessments include key findings and recommendations, along with in-depth analysis of foundations’ funding strategies. By keeping these assessments public, Philamplify seeks to build a culture of transparency, mutual accountability and knowledge sharing. Philamplify.org turns the assessments into an interactive experience, giving everyone involved with or touched by philanthropy a chance to comment on each assessment’s key recommendations and each foundation’s overall grantmaking approach. Visitors also can share their stories in text, photo or video, chime in on general issues affecting philanthropy and provide direct feedback about Philamplify itself. Go to: http://philamplify.org 

Publication of the Week --  Arts & Numbers: A Financial Guide for Artists, Writers, Performers, and Other Members of the Creative Class by Elaine Grogan Luttrull 
From the publisher: The creative class—artists, actors, writers, musicians, freelancers, dancers, performers, and the like—are known for applying their passion for creative expression to everything they do. Perhaps the one thing that most fills this group with apprehension is the rigid world of numbers. This leads to problems arising from the unconventional financial and business situations of creative professionals, as well as the nonprofit organizations with which they're often affiliated. Finances, budgeting, and business matters can be dreaded, if not outright ignored, by creatives--to the detriment of their artistic pursuits. Author, artist, and CPA Elaine Grogan Luttrull has written Arts & Numbers to help creative professionals find the same confidence in their financial dealings as in their chosen mode of expression. It is an engaging, accessible guide that covers a variety of must-know topics, such as budgeting, cash management, visual charting, taxes, employment, and business etiquette. In a simple, straightforward style, Luttrull draws examples from smooth-flowing narratives depicting common issues within the arts worlds, as well as from her own personal anecdotes.

Click to preview this book on  Amazon.com

Trend of the Week --  Trends in Corporate Giving 
Developed by CECP in association with The Conference Board, Giving in Numbers: 2013 Edition is based on data from 240 companies, including 60 of the largest 100 companies in the Fortune 500. The sum of contributions across all respondents of the 2012 survey, from which the data is pulled, totaled more than $20 billion in cash and in-kind giving. This report not only presents a profile of corporate philanthropy in 2012, but also pinpoints how corporate giving is evolving and becoming more focused since before the recession of 2008 and 2009. This is the ninth annual report on trends in corporate giving. Key findings of the latest study include: 

• The average company provides most of its giving in cash from corporate budgets and its corporate foundation, with other contributions provided in the form of non-cash resources
• Through matching-gift programs, companies match employee donations of money or volunteer time to eligible nonprofit organizations. In 2012, 181 companies shared details about their matching-gift programs. Among that group, matching gifts comprised a median of 12% of a company’s total cash giving.
• Employee-volunteer programs are planned and managed efforts that enable employees to volunteer under their employer’s sponsorship and leadership. In 2012, 188 companies reported having a formal domestic employee-volunteer program, a formal international-volunteer program, or both. Paid-Release-Time, Dollars for Doers, and Company-Wide Days of Service were listed among the most successful engagement programs in 2012.
• In 2012, 81% of companies reported having a corporate foundation. The most common foundation structure was a pass-through model, wherein the company annually funds the foundation. Education (comprising both K-12 and Higher Education) was the most funded program area (collectively, 29% of average allocations) for the first time since Giving in Numbers was first released in 2006, inching past Health and Social Services for the top spot.

To download the report, go to: http://cecp.co/pdfs/giving_in_numbers/GIN2013_Web_Final.pdf.

Resource of the Week –  How to Establish a Good ED-Board Relationship 

Bridgestar has developed a new resource "Starting Off on the Right Foot: How to Establish a Good ED-Board Relationship" that provides guidance on how boards and new executive directors/chief executive officers (EDs/CEOs) can lay a good foundation for an effective working relationship. The guide is based on interviews with CEOs and board chairs about the preliminary steps they took to ensure their relationships worked from day one. For a copy of the free guide, go to:

http://www.bridgespan.org/Publications-and-Tools/CEO-Executive-Director/Become-a-CEO/Establish-Good-Board-ED-Relationship.aspx#.U2_8bpvYJ14

Tech Tip of the Week -- Creating a PowerPoint Presentation Using Word 2007/2010 
To use a Word document to create a PowerPoint presentation

• Format the document using Word heading styles
• PowerPoint uses the heading styles in your Word document to set up the slides in a presentation  ̶  each Heading 1 becomes the title of a new slide, and each Heading 2 becomes the first level of text
• You must apply a heading format to the text you want to include in a slide
• You can manually insert heading styles or create a document using Word outline

To create a Word Outline

• Click the View menu
• Click Outline in the Document Views group
• Type your outline using Tab to add subheadings (promote)
• Press Shift Tab to decrease the indent (demote)
• You can also use the Promote and Demote buttons on the Ribbon
• Save your outline

To Insert Outline Text from Word into PowerPoint

• In PowerPoint, click the Outline tab in the left pane
• Click the Home tab of the Ribbon
• In the Slides group, click the arrow next to New Slide
• Click Slides from Outline