Advocacy
Advocacy is a broad term covering a range of activities that seek
to bring about systemic social change. Advocacy often seeks to
address the root causes, as well as the symptoms, of social and
economic problems. Advocacy by 501 (c)(3) organizations may
include community organizing, public policy and lobbying,
litigation, or nonpartisan voter engagement.
The Bolder Advocacy
initiative from Alliance for Justice, a leading expert in
nonprofit advocacy law, offers tools and training to help your
organization be a more effective advocate.
In addition to complying with federal tax law and California
state law regarding lobbying activities, organizations must know
that certain cities, counties and special districts have
separatelaws regulating lobbying activities.
CalNonprofits helps build a unified voice for the sector, tracks
and analyzes state and federal legislation, and offers members
only Monthly Legislative Briefing Call Updates.
Ken Larsen
CalNonprofits Director of Public Policy
(916) 402-1335 | email
The National Council of Nonprofits offers these tools to help you
create a high functioning board. They have the following
suggestions for the process of shaping your nonprofit’s board
into an effective force for good governance. Get the
details on their
website.
1. Find the “right” board member.
2. Decide whose job it is to recruit new board members
You know the board matrix: it has a list of skills and
competencies that are “supposed” to be on the board, such as
legal, marketing, HR, fundraising, finance. And typically there
are also demographic qualities, such as gender, race, age. The
board matrix then shows what boxes you presumably need to fill.
What’s wrong here is that these board composition matrices
focus our attention on what people are, rather than on what the
organization needs board members to do.
Demonstrating
Value offers simple management solutions that enable you to
use information and data more effectively to run your
organization, plan for the future and show your value to the
community. DV combines business performance monitoring with
social impact evaluation in a compact and powerful communication
tool. The tangible result of using Demonstrating Value is
the Performance Snapshot: an interactive, at-a-glance report that
efficiently communicates organizational impact.
The California
Cultural Data Project (California CDP) is a powerful online
management tool designed to strengthen arts and cultural
organizations. This project gathers reliable, longitudinal
data on the sector.
Working Hard—and Working Well gives away David Hunter’s
secret recipe for his renowned tough-love workshops that have
sparked transformation for many of the country’s top nonprofit
organizations. A sleeves-rolled-up companion to the 2011 book
Leap of Reason, the book is a resolutely practical guide
to developing the discipline and culture of performance
management.
Could you use more help thinking through how to use data to help
your organization make decisions? If so, you’re not alone. NTEN’s
recent report on how nonprofits are using data showed that
although some organizations are relying heavily on data, a number
were doing very little to actually measure their work or use the
data to inform other decisions.
Are you prepared for your financial audit? The National Council
on Nonprofits recently published the Nonprofit
Audit Guide to take you through an audit! This free, online
resource is useful for newbies and veterans alike. It answers
questions about state laws as well as federal requirements and
covers everything from choosing an independent auditor to
preparing for the audit to what to do after the audit. It also
includes a glossary for those who don’t speak finance!
The California
Cultural Data Project (California CDP) is a powerful online
management tool designed to strengthen arts and cultural
organizations. This project gathers reliable, longitudinal
data on the sector.
This Nonprofit Quarterly Reprint offers a summary of the eight
key business principles that should guide an executive director’s
financial leadership practice.
Tracking volunteer time: sounds like another chore? Actually
it can help you meet match requirements, improve your financial
statement presentations, and reduce liability. In this article
from Blue Avacado, CPA Dennis Walsh of North Carolina explains
why and how to include volunteer time in your budgets and
financials.
As a Regional Partner of the survey, we are pleased
to convey the following announcement from Nonprofit Compensation
Associates.
Time to purchase the just-published “Fair Pay for Northern
California Nonprofits: The 2013 Compensation and Benefits Survey”
report – the best survey of its kind in the country.
With 434 participating agencies, reporting on over 20,000 jobs,
the 2013 survey report is the largest and most robust in the
survey’s 35-year history.
All organizations have people — they have human resources.
Regardless of the size of an organization or the extent of its
resources, the organization survives — and thrives — because
of the capabilities and performance of its people. The
activities to maximize those capabilities and that performance
are necessary regardless of whether the organization refers to
them as Human Resource Management, Human Resource Development
or Human Resources — or has no formal name for those
activities at all.
The
Bridgespan Group offers these resources to those who wish to
transition from a for-profit to a nonprofit career. You will find
tools, resources, and helpful articles to help you through the
transition.
Pro bono legal services are offered to nonprofits serving
low-income communities in Northern California by the Community Organization Representation
Project (CORP) at the Volunteer Legal Services Program of the
Bar Association of San Francisco. Visit their website or contact Doan Nguyen at
415.782.9000, ext. 8758 or
email so they can evaluate how they may help you address your
legal needs.
Stay up-to-date with the IRS. Bookmark their recently
updated webite www.irs.gov/charities or
select “Charities & Non-Profits” in the “Information For”
drop-down menu in the top right corner of the home page.
The National Association
of State Charity Officials (NASCO) is an association of state
offices charged with oversight of charitable organizations and
charitable solicitation in the United States. The requirements
and procedures for forming charitable organizations differ from
state to state, as do the registration and filing requirements
for organizations that conduct charitable activities or solicit
charitable contributions. Consult the US Charity Offices listed
on this website for links to state-specific information.
Infographics–essentially any combination of information and
image used to tell a story by visually representing data–help us
make sense of all the data we’re tracking and share the
conclusions we draw with others. Sometimes an infographic can
present your argument in a more appropriate way than a report, an
email, or other written communications.
Seeing
is Believing, Resource Media’s new best practices guide on
visual storytelling, gives you the latest research and tools to
address this communications blind spot. Download the free guide
to learn how you can put pictures to work for your organization
or your cause.
The California
Cultural Data Project (California CDP) is a powerful online
management tool designed to strengthen arts and cultural
organizations. This project gathers reliable, longitudinal
data on the sector.
Infogr.am is a free web-based
data visualization tool that allows users to upload data files to
create interactive charts and tables that you can embed on a blog
or web page. The site is extremely easy to use, with Facebook and
Twitter sign in and a simple user interface that gives you the
ability to create a variety of professional-looking line, bar and
pie charts. In addition, the tool provides five standard
templates for displaying your charts in an infographic format.
The California
Cultural Data Project (California CDP) is a powerful online
management tool designed to strengthen arts and cultural
organizations. This project gathers reliable, longitudinal
data on the sector.
Could you use more help thinking through how to use data to help
your organization make decisions? If so, you’re not alone. NTEN’s
recent report on how nonprofits are using data showed that
although some organizations are relying heavily on data, a number
were doing very little to actually measure their work or use the
data to inform other decisions.
The Free Management
Library provides free, easy-to-access, online articles to
develop yourself, other individuals, groups and organizations
(whether the organization is for-profit or nonprofit). This
comprehensive resource, curated by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD,
Authenticity Consulting, LLC, is a large, well-organized
collection of articles and resources covering all aspects of
management. The list below includes the most popular
topics:
Risk management is a tool to help nonprofit organizations like
yours deal with the uncertainty of possible risks related to your
work.
A Nonprofit’s Guide to Risk Management and Insurance, a
publication you can download for free, will help you better
assess and reduce your risk and understand how to get the kind of
insurance you will need.
The Nonprofits’
Insurance Alliance of California (NIAC) is a liability
insurance pool which was established in 1989 exclusively for
501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organizations in California. NIAC
is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit itself, whose mission is to be a stable
source of reasonably priced liability insurance coverages
tailored to the specialized needs of the nonprofit sector and to
assist these organizations to develop and implement effective
loss control and risk management programs.
Completing the Risk
Management Tutorial is an easy way to begin integrating the
principles of risk management into the day-to-day operations of
your nonprofit.
NTEN is the membership
organization of nonprofit technology professionals. Our members
share the common goal of helping nonprofits use all aspects of
technology more effectively.
NTEN facilitates the exchange of knowledge and information within
our community. We connect our members to each other, provide
professional development opportunities, educate our constituency
on issues of technology use in nonprofits, and spearhead
groundbreaking research, advocacy, and education on technology
issues affecting our entire community.
This “map app” finds social enterprises that are nearby, in other
cities, or online. It provides information about their products,
their social impact and their location, and can be used with any
major PC or Mac browser except Internet Explorer. Social Impact
App also works on iPhones and some Androids, using the phone’s
browser. The goal is to expand the market for social
enterprises, by making it easy for socially-minded customers to
find them. Social
Impact App is now on the web.
TechSoup is a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit with a clear focus: connecting your nonprofit,
with technology products, plus the learning resources you need to
make informed decisions about technology. Our free learning
resources are available to all users. Once registered and
qualified with TechSoup, nonprofits can access donated
and discounted products and services, including high-quality
refurbished hardware, and software from partners like Microsoft,
Adobe, Cisco, Intuit, and Symantec.
Idealware, a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit, provides thoroughly researched, impartial and
accessible resources about software to help nonprofits make smart
software decisions. Idealware is an authoritative online
guide to the software that allows U.S. nonprofits—especially
small ones—to be more effective.
May 1, 2013NPQ Newswire | Rick Cohen | May 1, 2013
Independent Sector’s latest annual calculation of the value of
volunteers’ time is out. For 2012, the value of an average
American’s one hour of volunteer time was $22.14.
VolunteerToday
The Electronic Gazette for Volunteerism provides free
information on the engagement of volunteers through (1) pertinent
information on recruiting and engaging volunteers; (2)
information and promotion on professional development
opportunities for those who work to engage volunteers.
Energize, Inc. is an
international training, consulting and publishing firm
specializing in volunteerism. Their information rich
website aims to connect leaders of volunteers with resources,
information and ideas generated from around the world.
Corporations across the U.S. are estimated to provide more than
$15 billion in pro bono volunteer services to nonprofits across
the country in 2012, according to the Taproot Foundation, and 66
percent of nonprofits in America say they need pro bono volunteer
services more than any other kind of volunteering.
We express our gratitude to Wells Fargo for providing the funding
for our new website. The goal of this project has been to create
a highly accessible resource for all nonprofit organizations in
the region, providing information at the fingertips of executive
directors, staff and board members.
Wells Fargo has been a partner in the project from the beginning,
helping us to leverage the website grant into a regional resource
hub, and we appreciate their dedication.
Advocacy & Lobbying
Advocacy & Lobbying
Advance your cause and mission by educating government officials, organizing community support, and influencing public policy.
Fast Facts about Advocacy & Lobbying
Advocacy
Advocacy is a broad term covering a range of activities that seek to bring about systemic social change. Advocacy often seeks to address the root causes, as well as the symptoms, of social and economic problems. Advocacy by 501 (c)(3) organizations may include community organizing, public policy and lobbying, litigation, or nonpartisan voter engagement.
Bolder Advocacy Initiative
From the Alliance for Justice
The Bolder Advocacy initiative from Alliance for Justice, a leading expert in nonprofit advocacy law, offers tools and training to help your organization be a more effective advocate.
California Local Lobbying
California City, County and Special District Local Lobby Ordinances
In addition to complying with federal tax law and California state law regarding lobbying activities, organizations must know that certain cities, counties and special districts have separatelaws regulating lobbying activities.
CalNonprofits
California Association of Nonprofits
CalNonprofits helps build a unified voice for the sector, tracks and analyzes state and federal legislation, and offers members only Monthly Legislative Briefing Call Updates.
Ken Larsen
CalNonprofits Director of Public Policy
(916) 402-1335 | email
Boards
Boards
The board of directors oversees the activities of a nonprofit organization, and is accountable to its owners, the public.
Guidelines for Recruiting New Board Members
Your board deserves highly skilled and participative board members
Don’t erode your goals and believe that you are lucky to get anyone at all. Carter McNamera offers these guidelines for finding great board members.
Board Recruitment
Wondering how to get new, better, richer, younger people on the board?
This Board Leadership Tool from Governance Matters offers excellent advice on how to recruit the board members you need.
Board Development
How to identify, recruit, and orient Your board members
The National Council of Nonprofits offers these tools to help you create a high functioning board. They have the following suggestions for the process of shaping your nonprofit’s board into an effective force for good governance. Get the details on their website.
1. Find the “right” board member.
2. Decide whose job it is to recruit new board members
3. It’s more than just a nominating committee.
4. Onboard with vigor.
Board Composition Matrix
A contrarian view
Evaluation & Outcomes
Evaluation & Outcomes
Evaluation covers both program and organizational effectiveness.
Demonstrating Value
Using data to gauge impact
Demonstrating Value offers simple management solutions that enable you to use information and data more effectively to run your organization, plan for the future and show your value to the community. DV combines business performance monitoring with social impact evaluation in a compact and powerful communication tool. The tangible result of using Demonstrating Value is the Performance Snapshot: an interactive, at-a-glance report that efficiently communicates organizational impact.
California Cultural Data Project
The California Cultural Data Project (California CDP) is a powerful online management tool designed to strengthen arts and cultural organizations. This project gathers reliable, longitudinal data on the sector.
Working Hard—and Working Well
A free, practical guide to performance manangement
Working Hard—and Working Well gives away David Hunter’s secret recipe for his renowned tough-love workshops that have sparked transformation for many of the country’s top nonprofit organizations. A sleeves-rolled-up companion to the 2011 book Leap of Reason, the book is a resolutely practical guide to developing the discipline and culture of performance management.
Getting Started With Data-Driven Decision Making
A Workbook
Could you use more help thinking through how to use data to help your organization make decisions? If so, you’re not alone. NTEN’s recent report on how nonprofits are using data showed that although some organizations are relying heavily on data, a number were doing very little to actually measure their work or use the data to inform other decisions.
Financial Management
Financial Management
Skillful financial management is essential to a viable organization.
Audit Guide for Charitable Nonprofits
Free online tool from the National Council of Nonprofits
Are you prepared for your financial audit? The National Council on Nonprofits recently published the Nonprofit Audit Guide to take you through an audit! This free, online resource is useful for newbies and veterans alike. It answers questions about state laws as well as federal requirements and covers everything from choosing an independent auditor to preparing for the audit to what to do after the audit. It also includes a glossary for those who don’t speak finance!
California Cultural Data Project
The California Cultural Data Project (California CDP) is a powerful online management tool designed to strengthen arts and cultural organizations. This project gathers reliable, longitudinal data on the sector.
An Executive Director’s Guide to Financial Leadership
This Nonprofit Quarterly Reprint offers a summary of the eight key business principles that should guide an executive director’s financial leadership practice.
Tracking Volunteer Time to Boost Your Bottom Line
A Complete Accounting Guide
Tracking volunteer time: sounds like another chore? Actually it can help you meet match requirements, improve your financial statement presentations, and reduce liability. In this article from Blue Avacado, CPA Dennis Walsh of North Carolina explains why and how to include volunteer time in your budgets and financials.
Human Resources
Human Resources
Resources and guidance for managing your employees
Fair Pay for Northern California Nonprofits
2013 Compensation and Benefits Survey published, available for purchase
As a Regional Partner of the survey, we are pleased to convey the following announcement from Nonprofit Compensation Associates.
Time to purchase the just-published “Fair Pay for Northern California Nonprofits: The 2013 Compensation and Benefits Survey” report – the best survey of its kind in the country.
With 434 participating agencies, reporting on over 20,000 jobs, the 2013 survey report is the largest and most robust in the survey’s 35-year history.
All About Human Resources and Talent Management
Free Management Library
Transitioning from a For Profit to Nonprofit Career
The Bridgespan Group offers these resources to those who wish to transition from a for-profit to a nonprofit career. You will find tools, resources, and helpful articles to help you through the transition.
Plan A: How Successful Nonprofits Develop Their Future Leaders
Legal & Regulatory
Legal & Regulatory
IMPORTANT: This information should not be deemed legal advice or be acted upon without prior consultation with appropriate professional advisors.
Understand your legal responsibilities and stay on top of new ones.
LawforChange
The legal forum for social innovators
LawForChange® is a unique legal resource for people and organizations dedicated to improving lives and bringing about positive social change.
You will find information on the following topics with legal information appropriate for California based organizations.
Community Organization Representation Project (CORP)
Pro bono legal services
Pro bono legal services are offered to nonprofits serving low-income communities in Northern California by the Community Organization Representation Project (CORP) at the Volunteer Legal Services Program of the Bar Association of San Francisco. Visit their website or contact Doan Nguyen at 415.782.9000, ext. 8758 or email so they can evaluate how they may help you address your legal needs.
IRS Tax Information for Charities & Other Non-Profits
Updated website
Stay up-to-date with the IRS. Bookmark their recently updated webite www.irs.gov/charities or select “Charities & Non-Profits” in the “Information For” drop-down menu in the top right corner of the home page.
National Association of State Charity Officials
The National Association of State Charity Officials (NASCO) is an association of state offices charged with oversight of charitable organizations and charitable solicitation in the United States. The requirements and procedures for forming charitable organizations differ from state to state, as do the registration and filing requirements for organizations that conduct charitable activities or solicit charitable contributions. Consult the US Charity Offices listed on this website for links to state-specific information.
Marketing & Communications
Marketing & Communications
Strong communication and marketing are essential for a healthy nonprofit organization.
Infographics for Outreach, Advocacy and Marketing: From Data to Design
A new report from Idealware
Infographics–essentially any combination of information and image used to tell a story by visually representing data–help us make sense of all the data we’re tracking and share the conclusions we draw with others. Sometimes an infographic can present your argument in a more appropriate way than a report, an email, or other written communications.
Seeing is Believing
Best practices guide on visual storytelling
Seeing is Believing, Resource Media’s new best practices guide on visual storytelling, gives you the latest research and tools to address this communications blind spot. Download the free guide to learn how you can put pictures to work for your organization or your cause.
California Cultural Data Project
The California Cultural Data Project (California CDP) is a powerful online management tool designed to strengthen arts and cultural organizations. This project gathers reliable, longitudinal data on the sector.
Data Visualization Tool
Infogr.am
Infogr.am is a free web-based data visualization tool that allows users to upload data files to create interactive charts and tables that you can embed on a blog or web page. The site is extremely easy to use, with Facebook and Twitter sign in and a simple user interface that gives you the ability to create a variety of professional-looking line, bar and pie charts. In addition, the tool provides five standard templates for displaying your charts in an infographic format.
Organizational Management & Planning
Organizational Management & Planning
Nonprofit management supports continuous improvement of individuals and their organizations to better serve their communities.
California Cultural Data Project
The California Cultural Data Project (California CDP) is a powerful online management tool designed to strengthen arts and cultural organizations. This project gathers reliable, longitudinal data on the sector.
Getting Started With Data-Driven Decision Making
A Workbook
Could you use more help thinking through how to use data to help your organization make decisions? If so, you’re not alone. NTEN’s recent report on how nonprofits are using data showed that although some organizations are relying heavily on data, a number were doing very little to actually measure their work or use the data to inform other decisions.
Free Management Library
Articles on all aspects of nonprofit managment
The Free Management Library provides free, easy-to-access, online articles to develop yourself, other individuals, groups and organizations (whether the organization is for-profit or nonprofit). This comprehensive resource, curated by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC, is a large, well-organized collection of articles and resources covering all aspects of management. The list below includes the most popular topics:
Wishlist of Books for Nonprofits
Recommendations from nonprofit professionals
You’ll find some excellent books on this list by Marion Conway, a nonprofit consultant. Good reading for the new year.
Risk Management
Risk Management
Risk management helps identify, assess and control risks that may be present in operations, service delivery, staffing, and governance activities.
A Nonprofit’s Guide to Risk Management and Insurance
A free publication from the Public Counsel Law Center
Risk management is a tool to help nonprofit organizations like yours deal with the uncertainty of possible risks related to your work. A Nonprofit’s Guide to Risk Management and Insurance, a publication you can download for free, will help you better assess and reduce your risk and understand how to get the kind of insurance you will need.
Nonprofits’ Insurance Alliance of California
Find insurance for your nonprofit organization
The Nonprofits’ Insurance Alliance of California (NIAC) is a liability insurance pool which was established in 1989 exclusively for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organizations in California. NIAC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit itself, whose mission is to be a stable source of reasonably priced liability insurance coverages tailored to the specialized needs of the nonprofit sector and to assist these organizations to develop and implement effective loss control and risk management programs.
Nonprofit Risk Managment Center
Helping nonprofits cope with uncertainty
The Nonprofit Risk Management Center provides clear, concise and credible information on risk management and insurance. Their services include:
Risk Management Tutorial for Nonprofit Managers
From the Nonprofit Risk Management Center
Completing the Risk Management Tutorial is an easy way to begin integrating the principles of risk management into the day-to-day operations of your nonprofit.
Technology
Technology
Technology supports greater social impact by increasing organizational capacity, enhancing effectiveness, or reaching new audiences.
NTEN
Where the Nonprofit Technology Community Meets
NTEN is the membership organization of nonprofit technology professionals. Our members share the common goal of helping nonprofits use all aspects of technology more effectively.
NTEN facilitates the exchange of knowledge and information within our community. We connect our members to each other, provide professional development opportunities, educate our constituency on issues of technology use in nonprofits, and spearhead groundbreaking research, advocacy, and education on technology issues affecting our entire community.
Social Impact App
Finds social enterprises that are nearby, in other cities, or online
This “map app” finds social enterprises that are nearby, in other cities, or online. It provides information about their products, their social impact and their location, and can be used with any major PC or Mac browser except Internet Explorer. Social Impact App also works on iPhones and some Androids, using the phone’s browser. The goal is to expand the market for social enterprises, by making it easy for socially-minded customers to find them. Social Impact App is now on the web.
Techsoup
Access to donated & discounted software and hardware
TechSoup is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a clear focus: connecting your nonprofit, with technology products, plus the learning resources you need to make informed decisions about technology. Our free learning resources are available to all users. Once registered and qualified with TechSoup, nonprofits can access donated and discounted products and services, including high-quality refurbished hardware, and software from partners like Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco, Intuit, and Symantec.
Idealware
Helping nonprofits make software decisions
Idealware, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, provides thoroughly researched, impartial and accessible resources about software to help nonprofits make smart software decisions. Idealware is an authoritative online guide to the software that allows U.S. nonprofits—especially small ones—to be more effective.
Volunteer Management
Volunteer Management
Volunteers are the heart of many nonprofits and are often vital to an organization’s success.
What’s an Hour of Volunteer Work Worth?
VolunteerToday.com
The Electronic Gazette for Volunteerism
VolunteerToday The Electronic Gazette for Volunteerism provides free information on the engagement of volunteers through (1) pertinent information on recruiting and engaging volunteers; (2) information and promotion on professional development opportunities for those who work to engage volunteers.
Energize Inc.
Resources, information & ideas for leaders of volunteers
Energize, Inc. is an international training, consulting and publishing firm specializing in volunteerism. Their information rich website aims to connect leaders of volunteers with resources, information and ideas generated from around the world.
Readiness Roadmap
Helping nonprofits navigate skills-based volunteering
Corporations across the U.S. are estimated to provide more than $15 billion in pro bono volunteer services to nonprofits across the country in 2012, according to the Taproot Foundation, and 66 percent of nonprofits in America say they need pro bono volunteer services more than any other kind of volunteering.