"Hour Series" of Nonprofit Guides
The award-winning “Hour” Series of Guides to
Nonprofit Management has been developed by Marilyn Donnellan, founder and
president of Nonprofit Management Services. Topic areas are general
administration/management, board/volunteer development, community involvement,
marketing, program evaluation, and resource development. The series includes
assessments, templates and sample policies/procedures. They are especially
geared to smaller nonprofits. For more information, go to
nonprofitmanagementservices.com and scroll down.
May
6 - 12, 2012
Building Capacity to Measure and Manage Performance
Over the last decade, the social sector has witnessed a dramatic shift towards a
focus on measureable results, with nonprofits feeling immense pressure to
demonstrate their impact. Yet many nonprofits appear to be woefully
under-investing in measurement, particularly in their own internal capacity to
measure and manage performance in an effort to improve their organizations.
Based on interviews with nonprofit leaders and more than a decade of consulting
and executive search work, this article from Bridgespan shares five key lessons
that create the underpinnings for how organizations can approach building their
capacities to measure and manage performance to improve impact. To download the
article, go to:
www.bridgespan.org
April
29 - May 5, 2012
100 Ways to Build Your Business in 2012
Verve Marketing, LLC has published an e-book entitled "100 Ways to Build Your
Business in 2012". This e-book includes marketing insights from twenty
forward-thinking, businesses and compiled them in a very accessible publication.
Review and download the full e-book at
l00things2012.squarespace.com
April
22 - 28, 2012
The Nonprofit Social Media Policy Workbook
A good social media policy will provide clear
guidelines as to what staff should and shouldn’t do when posting and interacting
with the community on a day-to-day basis. Your organization can create a policy
to help guide your whole staff simply by thinking about how you would like to
make use of social media. Written using the research from the Nonprofit Social
Media Decision Guide, this workbook is designed to help you, as an organization,
ask the important questions about social media, and take the next steps to
growing a social culture. To download a copy, go to:
www.idealware.org
April
15 - 21, 2012
Executive Transition Monograph Series
The ExecutiveTransitions Mongraph Series is a series of monographs on executive
transitions and executive transition management, funded by the Annie E. Casey
Foundation and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund. The series is a joint
effort of TransitionGuides (Silver Spring, MD) and CompassPoint Nonprofit
Services (San Francisco, CA). Go to:
leadingtransitions.com
April
8 - 14, 2012
The Power of Partnership
Written and developed in partnership with the
Blueshield of California Foundation, The Power of Partnership features four case
studies showing how integrative forms of collaboration have enabled domestic
violence organizations—and their partners—to capitalize on their strengths,
develop new solutions, and more effectively serve the community. To download a
copy of the monograph, go to:
www.blueshieldcafoundation.org
April
1 - 7, 2012
Philanthropic Capacity Building Resources
The Philanthropic Capacity Building Resources (PCBR) database contains 453
descriptions of capacity-building programs being carried out by U.S.
foundations. From this database, you may obtain program profiles and conduct
searches for programs under one or more search categories, as defined below. The
PCBR also contains 32 profiles of intermediary organizations that serve as
bridges between foundations and nonprofits. These intermediaries provide
capacity-building assistance to nonprofits, supported financially by foundations
and others. The PCBR database entered its ninth year of continuous operation in
2011. A complete system upgrade was completed in June 2010, to complement
regular updates done annually, mostly recently in August 2011. The system
upgrade included staff review of every profile, and direct contact with the
sponsoring foundation to update any profiles that required it. To access the
database, go to:
www.humaninteract.org
March
25 - 31, 2012
Resources for Responding to Automatic Revocations by IRS
On June 8, 2011, the IRS posted the first Automatic Revocation of Exemption
List, naming 279,599 non-profit organizations that had had their exempt status
revoked for failure to file required annual returns. The list has been updated
several times, and as of November 9, 2011, the IRS had revoked the exempt status
of nearly 393,000 non-profit organizations. This unprecedented mass revocation
has its roots in laws enacted by Congress as part of the Pension Protection Act
of 2006. The first requires small non-profits, previously not required to file,
to submit an annual return: Form 990-N, also sometimes referred to as the
E-Postcard. The second requires the IRS to revoke the tax exempt status of any
organization that fails to file an annual return for three consecutive years.
Resources for responding to an automatic revocation by IRS are available at
www.501cfreebook.com
March
18 - 24, 2012
A Practical Guide for Engaging Stakeholders in Developing
Evaluation Questions
This practical guide offers best practices that encourage soliciting input from
stakeholders early in the evaluation design process to address specific
stakeholder interests for improving program effectiveness, influencing policy
decisions, and instituting behavioral and organizational change. The guide
describes a five-step process for engaging stakeholders in developing evaluation
questions, and includes four worksheets to facilitate the planning and
implementation of a stakeholder engagement process. Go to:
www.fsg.org
March
11 -17, 2012
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of 360 Degree Evaluations
This article by CompassPoint staff members
Michelle Gislason and Marissa Tirona in The Nonprofit Quarterly thoroughly
discusses the features, pros, and cons of a 360° performance evaluation process.
With careful planning and forethought, this tool can surface powerful insights
on an employee's work patterns that can serve as a springboard for personal
development and new organizational contributions. See if it's right for your
organization. To access the resource, go to:
www.nonprofitquarterly.org
March
4 -10, 2012
25 Tips for Optimizing Online Communication with Volunteers
Energize, Inc. has compiled "25 Tips for
Optimizing Online Communication with Volunteers" into a 5-page booklet. It is
available as a free download at:
www.energizeinc.com
February
26 - March 3, 2012
Beckner Research Digests
The University of Wisconsin Center for Nonprofits
has published a new series of online resources that bridge the gap between
scholarly research and the real world of community organizations. The Beckner
Research Digests synthesize research on topics useful to nonprofit
organizations, public agencies, and other organizations. The first round of 10
Digests present research conducted by faculty in different disciplines across
UW-Madison—for example, Principles for Effective Family and Youth Prevention
Programs by Stephen Small, professor of human development and family studies;
Talking About Race by Katherine Cramer Walsh, associate professor of political
science; A New Approach to Labor – Environment Coalitions by Laura Senier,
assistant professor of community and environmental sociology, and Social Support
for Academic Success of African American Boys by Jeffrey Lewis, UW-Extension,
and Amy Hilgendorf, Kansas State University. One Digest, Tips on Building a
Broad Base of Engaged and Empowered Volunteers, features Christens’ own
research. He describes key implications for community organizations from the
findings he recently published in several journal articles on community
participation and psychological empowerment. Dr. Christens developed the Digests
concept in collaboration with Jeanan Yasiri, executive director of the Center
for Nonprofits. The Beckner Research Digests are available online at the UW
Center for Nonprofits website at
www.centerfornonprofits.wisc.edu
February
19 - 25, 2012
"Building Future Leaders" Diagnostic Survey
According to a Bridgespan Group survey of more than 150 nonprofit leadership
teams, leadership development and succession planning for senior leader
positions is the single greatest organizational weakness nonprofits face. To
help address this challenge, Bridgespan has developed a free diagnostic survey
to help leaders understand where their organizations are strong – and what can
be improved. You can take the survey, see how your organization compares to
others, and jumpstart your thinking on what successful leadership development
could look like in your organization. Go to:
www.bridgestar.org
February
12 - 18, 2012
Sample Personnel Policies
The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits website includes resources and templates,
including sample personnel policies. Go to:
www.mncn.org
February
5 - 11, 2012
CompassPoints of View! Blog
Compasspoint Nonprofit Services has just launched a new blog CompassPoints of
View! Through this blog, CompassPoint staff will share reflections on the
sector, learnings from client work, and big ideas on nonprofit management,
leadership, and strategy. The intent is to thoughtfully explore critical
nonprofit topics and bring in the voices and perspectives of staff experts,
partners in capacity-building work, and clients to help link leaders and fields,
influence the sector dialogue, and guide nonprofits to become better managed,
more adaptive, and achieve higher impact. Go to:
www.compasspoint.org/blog
January
29 - February 4, 2012
E-Book: Event Fundraising Best Practices
Events are not only a great way to raise funds
but also awareness and community support. Unfortunately many events fall flat,
usually due to lack of clear goals and preparation. Sage Publications has
published a free E-Book: Event Fundraising Best Practices. This 25-page resource
guides you step by step through the event process — from planning and promotion
to execution and follow up. The guide includes practical advice as well as
print-ready worksheets and sample documents including:
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Sample Event Timeline — a 28-step
checklist of activities to complete before, during, and after the event.
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Event Planning Worksheet — the questions
you need to answer before you take any action. |
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Post-Event Attendee, Volunteers, and
Staff Surveys — gather input from those who experienced the event first
hand. |
To download a copy of the E-Book, go to:
SageSoftwareIncNonProfitSolutions
January
22 - 28, 2012
The Grantsmanship Center Archives
The Grantsmanship Center publications are packed
with information on how to plan, manage, staff and fund the programs of
nonprofit organizations and government agencies. Archives of these publications
are now available at the Library of Congress. You may also access articles from
recent issues organized under ten categories. Go to:
www.tgci.com
January
15 - 21, 2012
Finding the Right CEO
BoardSource has released a new white paper: Finding the Right CEO. According to
this guide, when looking for the next chief executive, the search committee
should remember that what counts is the diversity of a candidate’s experience.
Qualifications, lists of achievements, proofs of expertise are the facts of an
individual candidate’s suitability, and all are important. But the truth behind
those lists resides in the character of a candidate’s experience — in the
variety and complexity of the situations the candidate has encountered and how
the candidate dealt with the encounters. To download a copy of the white paper,
go to:
www.boardsource.org
January
8 - 14, 2012
GrantWatch.com
GrantWatch.com posts federal, state, city, local
and foundation grants on one website, categorized by type and updated daily. All
our grants are current and expired grants are archived daily. Members can sign
up for free to receive a weekly email of new grants posted. Members can also
tour archives for free. To view complete details of new and current grants,
including the complete application, there is a low subscription rate. All posts
on GrantWatch.com include the important grant information, full applications,
deadlines and contact person information. Go to:
www.GrantWatch.com
January
1 - 7, 2012
Greenlights Nonprofit Management Resource Library
Greenlights for Nonprofit Success is a management
service organization dedicated to improving the management effectiveness of the
Central Texas nonprofit sector. Services include customized consulting and
coaching, organization and board advancement, information and referral,
interactive education, and nonprofit convening events. Greenlights has compiled
an extensive collection of free downloadable resources that will be useful to
all nonprofits. To access the library, go to:
www.greenlights.org
To view 2011
Resources of the Week, click here.
To view 2010
Resources of the Week, click here.
To view 2009
Resources of the Week, click here.
To view 2008
Resources of the Week, click here.
To view 2007 Resources of the
Week, click here. To
view 2006 Resources of the Week, click here. To view 2005
Resources of the Week, click here. To view 2004 Resources
of the Week, click here. |
