Weekly Picks

Publication of the Week: May 13 - 19, 2012

The Responsible Administrator: An Approach to Ethics for the Administrative Role, 6th Edition by Terry L. Cooper

From the publisher: Those who serve the public trust must take special care to ensure they make ethical and responsible decisions. Yet the realities of bureaucracies, deadlines, budgets, and demands for quick results make the payoffs for dealing formally with ethics seem unclear. Since its original publication, The Responsible Administrator has guided professionals and students alike as they grapple with the challenges of making ethical, responsible decisions in real world situations. This new edition includes information on coping with new demands for accountability, as well as new cases and examples, an examination of current issues relevant to administrative ethics, and supplementary materials for professors. Cooper’s theoretical framework and practical applications and techniques will help you consider all of the factors involved in a decision, ensuring that you balance professional, personal, and organizational values. Case studies and examples illustrate what works and what does not. The Responsible Administrator helps both experienced and novice public administrators and students become effective decision makers, provides them with a solid understanding of the role of ethics in public service and the framework to incorporate ethical and values-based decision making in day-to-day management.

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May 6 - 12, 2012

Performance Measurement: Getting Results by Harry Hatry, 2nd edition

From the publisher: Long before "reinventing government" came into vogue, the Urban Institute pioneered methods for government and human services agencies to measure the performance of their programs. This book synthesizes more than two decades of Harry Hatry's pioneering work on performance measurement into a comprehensive guide. The author explains every component of the process, from identifying the program's mission, objectives, customers, and trackable outcomes to finding the best indicators for each outcome, the sources of data, and how to collect them. He covers the selection of indicator breakouts and benchmarks for comparisons to actual values and suggests a number of uses for performance information. Joseph Wholey contributes a chapter on maintaining the quality of the performance measurement process.

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April 29 - May 5, 2012

The Non Nonprofit: For-Profit Thinking for Nonprofit Success by Steve Rothschild

From the publisher: A top business leader shares the business principles he used to launch both a top company and a thriving nonprofit. Nonprofit leaders know that solving pervasive social problems requires passion and creativity as well as tangible results. The Non Nonprofit shares the same business principles that drive the world's best companies, showing how they can (and should) be applied to the realm of nonprofits. Steve Rothschild personally crossed sectors when he left corporate America to found Twin Cities RISE!, a highly successful poverty reduction program. His honest story, and success and missteps, create an essential roadmap for any social venture looking to prove and boost its impact. The author distills essential nonprofit principles such as having a clear and appropriate purpose, creating economic value from social benefit, and establishing mutual accountability; and shares successful approaches from innovative organizations such as Grameen Bank, Playworks, Common Ground, Habitat for Humanity, Lumni, Caring Bridge, College Summit and RISE!

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April 22 - 28, 2012

Internet Management for Nonprofits: Strategies, Tools and Trade Secrets by Ted Hart, James M. Greenfield, Steve MacLaughlin, Philip H. Geier, Jr.

From the publisher: The rapid onset of increasingly advanced and complex technologies has challenged nonprofits to invest with their sparse resources in attempting, and failing, to keep pace with for-profit companies, with the result that most now cannot compete with new commercial products and commercial applications. Nonprofit Internet Management reveals how current technologies can be utilized in full measure most effectively by nonprofits and addresses how to manage various applications for maximum benefit to internal operations and community service.

	Covers management models, social networking information, case studies, fundraising strategies, collaboration and coordination examples, and sample communications techniques
	Includes chapters written by leading Internet professionals
	In-depth discussion of Website design, technology trends, social networks, managing the organization using online tools, E-governance and board leadership, prospect research and donor modeling, volunteer recruitment and management, mobile technology, stewardship and relationship management, and green technology applications

Filled with case studies, Nonprofit Internet Management also includes screenshots, tables, worksheets and checklists. It's an essential resource for every nonprofit organization operating in our modern wired world.

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April 15 - 21, 2012

The Nonprofit Board Answer Book: A Practical Guide for Board Members and Chief Executives by BoardSource

From the publisher: This third edition of the bestselling book for nonprofit board members and professionals offers a thoroughly revised and updated resource that answers the most-commonly asked question on board governance. The book covers such topics as board structure and process, board member recruitment and orientation, board-staff relations, and financial management. This new edition includes updated information on topics that have recently increased in importance including new Form 990; dealing with the financial crisis, risk management, and mergers.

	Shows executives and board members how to be more effective, meet difficult situations head-on, and deal with commonplace challenges with confidence
	Topics include information on the viability of for-profit ventures, board retreats, board diversity, fundraising, financial oversight, strategic thinking, and the use of technology
	From Boardsource the premier resource for practical information, tools, best practices, training, and leadership development for board members of nonprofit organizations worldwide

Offers insight gained from the BoardSource Governance Index Survey, hundreds of board self-assessments, and questions and challenges heard by BoardSource from thousands of nonprofit leaders.

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 April 8 - 14, 2012

Strategic Fund Development, + WebSite: Building Profitable Relationships That Last by Simone P. Joyaux

From the publisher: Strategic Fund Development became an instant classic the day the first edition was released. Now in this expanded third edition, it has been revised cover-to-cover with relevant new information and useful new tools and resources. The book addresses the needs for fundraisers of every level of expertise. Experienced development officers find this an invaluable reference tool for educating their colleagues and boards. New fundraisers get firm grounding in best practice and what it really takes to do this work. Executive directors learn how fundraising fits into the organization and what it takes to make fundraising productive. The publication:

	Contains in-depth analysis about what makes organizations effective, including things like leadership, organizational culture, decision-making processes, systems thinking, and well-managed change
	Offers comprehensive strategic planning insights, with detailed steps, sample research tools, retreat agendas, and complete plans
	Includes the same tools and resources for fundraising planning

This updated classic provides essential insights, with an extra bonus: purchasers get exclusive access to a website of tools and resources.

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 April 1 - 7, 2012

The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways To Use Social Media to Drive Social Change by Jennifer Aaker, Andy Smith, and Chip Heath

From the publisher: Many books teach the mechanics of using Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to compete in business. But no book addresses how to harness the incredible power of social media to make a difference. The Dragonfly Effect shows you how to tap social media and consumer psychological insights to achieve a single, concrete goal. Named for the only insect that is able to move in any direction when its four wings are working in concert, this book:

	Reveals the four "wings" of the Dragonfly Effect-and how they work together to produce colossal results
	Features original case studies of global organizations like the Gap, Starbucks, Kiva, Nike, eBay, Facebook; and start-ups like Groupon and COOKPAD, showing how they achieve social good and customer loyalty
	Leverage the power of design thinking and psychological research with practical strategies
	Reveals how everyday people achieve unprecedented results-whether finding an almost impossible bone marrow match for a friend, raising millions for cancer research, or electing the current president of the United States

The Dragonfly Effect shows that you don't need money or power to inspire seismic change.

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March 25 - 31, 2012

Breakthrough Nonprofit Branding: Seven Principles to Power Extraordinary Results by Jocelyne Daw and Carol Cone

From the publisher: A hands-on guide to help your nonprofit build its brand, raise its profile, strengthen impact and develop deeper relationships with donors, volunteers, and other stakeholders. Breakthrough Nonprofit Branding is about the power a constituency-focused, compelling brand can have to revolutionize an organization and the way people view and support it.

	Shows how to optimally define what your organization stands for to differentiate, create value and breakthrough
	Explains how to build loyal communities inside and outside of your organization to increase social impact
	Features seven principles for transforming a brand from ordinary trademark to strategic advantage
	Includes case studies of eleven breakthrough nonprofit brands and transferable ideas and practices that nonprofits of any size, scope or experience can implement

A practical road map and essential tool for nonprofit leaders, board members, and volunteers, this book reveals the vital principles you need to know to build and manage your organization's most valuable asset – its brand. In today’s highly competitive nonprofit world, building a breakthrough brand is no longer a "nice to do," but the new imperative.

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March 18 - 24, 2012

Managing to Change the World: The Nonprofit Manager's Guide to Getting Results by Alison Green and Jerry Hauser

From the publisher: A nonprofit manager's fundamental job is to get results, sustained over time, rather than boost morale or promote staff development. This is a shift from the tenor of many management books, particularly in the nonprofit world. Managing to Change the World is designed to teach new and experienced nonprofit managers the fundamental skills of effective management, including: Managing specific tasks and broader responsibilities; Setting clear goals and holding people accountable to them; creating a results-oriented culture; hiring, developing, and retaining a staff of superstars. The book offers nonprofit managers a clear guide to the most effective management skills; shows how to address performance problems, dismiss staffers who fall short, and the right way to exercising authority; gives guidance for managing time wisely and offers suggestions for staying in sync with your boss and managing up. This important resource contains 41 resources and downloadable tools that can be implemented immediately.

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March 11 -17, 2012

Policy vs. Paper Clips - Third Edition: How Using the Corporate Model Makes a Nonprofit Board More Efficient & Effective by Dr. Eugene H. Fram

From the publisher: POLICY vs. PAPER CLIPS is an unusual how-to book. It is a serious subject – improving nonprofit board governance while enhancing a management focus – but it is written in a highly user friendly way. Two old friends with ties to vastly different nonprofit organizations discuss via email what it takes to adopt the Corporate Model, an approach that can position your nonprofit to meet the demanding realities of the 21st century world. Given today’s difficult times for nonprofits, hardly any can continue to operate as they have in the past. For most, it is no longer possible for a volunteer group of directors to be involved in day-to-day operations of the organization. The Corporate Model establishes a framework for separating policy development from operational activities. When customized appropriately to your own nonprofit, the Model promotes growth. This book shows you how to tap the creative energies of the board of directors to address critical issues about vision, direction, assessment of outcomes; how to adapt to new challenges and how to capture emerging opportunities – while turning over day-to-day operational matters to management. The Corporate Model works best for nonprofits that have an annual budget of about $1 million or more and staffs of about 15 or more. However, anyone associated with a nonprofit group can benefit from reading this book. It provides an essential self-examination that can serve as a catalyst for becoming a more dynamic organization.

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March 4 -10, 2012

How Good Board Members Become Great Fundraisers by Bill Young

From the publisher: How Good Board Members Become Great Fundraisers If you are a veteran Board member or volunteer or ready to join a Board of Directors for a nonprofit, Bill Young's book conveys a proven system created over 15 years that will help you transform from a good Board member to a great fundraiser. Steeped in real-world fundraising experience, Bill has logged over 5,000 consulting and volunteer hours with several nonprofit Boards. His book, simple and to-the-point, helps you understand what can inhibit fundraising efforts and guides you through seven innovative strategies with specific steps. How Good Board Members Become Great Fundraisers is a new and innovative approach for nonprofit Board members challenged with raising funds in the marketplace where less money is available and limited time to devote to fundraising.

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February 26 - March 3, 2012

Smart Stewardship for Nonprofits: Making the Right Decision in Good Times and Bad by Peter C. Brinckerhoff

From the publisher: A practical guide to effective decision-making frameworks and tools for nonprofits that ensure successful stewardship. The basic tenets of decision making for nonprofits are similar, whether you're growing, shrinking, or trying to think your way out of a box. Smart Stewardship for Nonprofits provides the tools to make the best stewardship decisions in these varied, but common, situations. Coverage includes the keys to smart stewardship for your nonprofit, the smart stewardship decision tree, understanding capability and capacity, making innovation the norm, understanding the true cost of growth, going to scale, and smart stewardship in bad times.

	Features tools to make the best stewardship decisions in every kind of situation
	Written for executive directors of nonprofit organizations, nonprofit board members, CPAs, and other financial counsel for nonprofits, development directors
	Provides a website hosting a variety of online tools and materials
	Also by Peter Brinckerhoff: Mission-Based Marketing, Mission-Based Management, Social Entrepreneurship, and Faith-Based Management

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February 19 - 25, 2012

Before Onboarding: How to Integrate New Leaders for Quick and Sustained Results by Michael K. Burroughs

From the publisher: Recent studies show that the attrition rates for outside hired executives is high. Some say between 30 and 50%, and many of these failures will occur within the first two years. The statistics are not much better for internally promoted leaders. The first 90 days of a new leader's tenure will often determine ultimate success or failure. Onboarding programs are prolific and helpful, but they are not designed to prepare new leaders to secure early successes while avoiding costly mistakes. Something else has to be done to reduce this alarming attrition rate. The author is a veteran executive recruiter and coach. He has placed leaders from CEO to director level in the US, Asia and Europe. While an organization development executive in the Fortune 500, he developed and refined a New Leader Integration "pre-boarding" process that significantly compresses the time it takes for new leaders to be effective. The new leader arrives on the first day with a "blueprint for success" in hand and has been thoroughly briefed regarding the expectations of the boss, peers and direct reports. The outcome is a new leader who gets the right results quickly and sustains them over the long term. This book provides a template that clearly defines how to implement a New leader Integration program in a variety of organizations. The process is appropriate for leaders at all levels.

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February 12 - 18, 2012

Forging Nonprofit Alliances: A Comprehensive Guide to Enhancing Your Mission Through Joint Ventures & Partnerships, Management Service Organizations by Jane Arsenault

From the publisher: One of the first books published on the subject and it remains among the best. In Forging Nonprofit Alliances, Jane Arsenault draws on her years of experience helping nonprofits join forces to show how nonprofits can use consolidation as a strategic tool to enhance rather than undermine mission. By forging alliances, nonprofits of all sizes can ensure the survival of key programs that may be threatened by shifts in funding and can attain necessary resources to pursue new opportunities. In addition, strategic alliances offer the potential to expand the reach and impact of organizations that already have substantial resources. Whether your nonprofit is ready to embark on an alliance, is considering the possibility, or is trying to evaluate your options, this practical, detailed guide gives you the tools needed to understand and simplify this often contentious and intimidating process-and the means to work through it step by step. In this comprehensive guide to enhancing mission, Arsenault explores the various options for consolidation-including joint ventures and partnerships, management service organizations, parent corporations, and mergers. She also details the negotiation process and demonstrates how to design and frame the consolidation process in a positive and constructive way for staff, donors, and constituents. Written for nonprofit managers and boards, Forging Nonprofit Alliances determines which options are right for an organization and clearly defines the roles and responsibilities of all members of nonprofit board and staff in planning and implementing an alliance. Arsenault's practical advice, along with worksheets, examples, and sample documents, makes Forging Nonprofit Alliances an invaluable hands-on guide to one of the most difficult challenges facing nonprofits today.

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February 5 - 11, 2012

Evaluation Techniques for Difficult to Measure Programs: For Education, Nonprofit, Grant Funded, Business and Human Service Programs by Javan B. Ridge

From the publisher: Evaluation Techniques for Difficult to Measure Programs demonstrates the weaknesses of poorly crafted outcome measures and provides the reader with techniques to strengthen programs and provide clients with the quality services they deserve. Programs with difficult to measure outcomes provide inviting environments for weak evaluations and this book illustrates why typical evaluation methods result in less than stellar results. Examples from difficult to measure programs are used to present techniques that can make any evaluation more rigorous. This book will guide the reader in overcoming inappropriate measures, false perceptions and misconceptions that plague many evaluations. This book provides a new perspective on program evaluation that engages difficult to measure programs, and the aspects of developing an evaluation plan that usually result in a less than stellar result. Agencies settle for “Good enough” because people are not knowledge able enough of evaluation processes to develop something that is more robust. Unfortunately, it is easy to sell a weak evaluation to people who do not know the difference. This modern day Emperor’s New Clothes behavior does little to strengthen the program.

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January 29 - February 4, 2012

Governance for Collaboratives: A Guide to Resolving Power and Conflict Issues by Joan Roberts

From the publisher: In Governance for Collaboratives: A Guide to Resolving Power and Conflict Issues Joan Roberts explores: * Collaboration as a tool for change (not a panacea) * Member self interest * Using collaboratives as a tool to address complex problems * Whether collaboration can provide a critical mass for large scale change * The unique characteristic of a collaborative where "everyone has a stake but no one owns it" * The convening role * The tension for collaborative partners in wearing two hats (their own organization and the collaborative) * Having the right people at the table * Organization policies for collaboratives and its member organizations * How to address power imbalances * Unlearning traditional ways of organizing. Joan Roberts MA is recognized as a leader in the field of collaboration, community development and capacity building. Having spent over 25 years as a grassroots organizer, elected official, consultant, facilitator, published author, speaker and educator, she now assists collaborations, organizations and communities to meet emerging challenges.

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January 22 - 28, 2012

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten

From the publisher: This book is a no-brainer for your bookshelf-it's like having a literate Cliff's Notes guide to all those books you know you should have read by now. More than 11,000 business books are published each year, and hidden somewhere in that overwhelming stack is the solution to your current business problem. For twenty-five years, Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten have made it their job to recommend the best business books, and now they've taken on the ultimate challenge-to reread the classics, the bestsellers, and the sleepers and choose the 100 most relevant, most revealing, most useful books in business history. This collection is more than just a list. Covert and Sattersten highlight important takeaways and put each book in context. Their insights can help anyone cut through the clutter and discover the business books that are truly worth their time and money.

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January 15 - 21, 2012

The Budget-Building Book for Nonprofits: A Step-by-Step Guide for Managers and Boards, 2nd Edition by Murray Dropkin, Jim Halpin, and Bill La Touche

From the publisher: This best-selling nuts-and-bolts workbook, now in its second edition, has become the gold standard for nonprofit managers and boards who must work through the budget cycle. The book offers practical tools and guidance for completing each step of the budgeting process. Designed to be comprehensive and easy to use, The Budget-Building Book for Nonprofits provides everything budgeters and nonfinancial managers need to prepare, approve, and implement their own budgets. Includes new chapters on Zero-Based and Capital Budgeting as well as a CD with spreadsheets, worksheets and a new budget-building software, the CMS Nonprofit Budget Builder, designed to help you implement the concepts in the book. The software includes an expandable standard chart of accounts (COA) and will aid in building, organizing, tracking and planning budgets.

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January 8 - 14, 2012

Impact Investing: Transforming How We Make Money While Making a Difference by Antony Bugg-Levine and Jed Emerson

From the publisher: This is the first book to chart the catalytic path of this new industry, explaining how it is and can be a positive disruptive force. It shows how impact investing is a transformational vehicle for delivering "blended value" throughout the investment spectrum, giving a single name to a set of activities previously siloed in enclaves, revealing how they are linked within what is becoming a new field of investing. Written by two leaders in the growing field of impact investing, the book defines this emerging industry for participants on all sides of the funding equation (investors, funders and social entrepreneurs).

	Filled with illustrative examples of impact investing success stories
	Reveals how the field can expand in order to address the most critical social and environmental issues of our day
	Explores the wide-ranging applications of impact investing as well as entrepreneurial opportunities

The authors do not take a normative approach to argue how investors should behave like an investment guide might but show how entrepreneurial people and institutions are already offering an integrated alternative.

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January 1 - 7, 2012

Giving 2.0 by Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen

From the publisher: Giving 2.0 is the ultimate resource for anyone navigating the seemingly infinite ways one can give. The future of philanthropy is far more than just writing a check, and Giving 2.0 shows how individuals of every age and income level can harness the power of technology, collaboration, innovation, advocacy, and social entrepreneurship to take their giving to the next level and beyond. Major gifts may dominate headlines, but the majority of giving still comes from individual households—ordinary people with extraordinary generosity. Based on her vast experience as a philanthropist, academic, volunteer, and social innovator, Arrillaga-Andreessen shares the most effective techniques she herself pilots and studies and a vast portfolio of lessons learned during her lifetime of giving. Featuring dozens of stories on innovative and powerful methods of how individuals give time, money, and expertise—whether volunteering and fundraising, leveraging technology and social media, starting a giving circle, fund, foundation, or advocacy group, or aspiring to create greater social impact—Giving 2.0 shows readers how they can renew, improve, and expand their giving and reach their fullest potential. A practical, entertaining, and inspiring call to action, Giving 2.0 is an indispensable tool for anyone passionate about creating change in our world.

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