Here are his recommendations. For the full list, click here.

Guy Kawasaki

Kawasaki is a well known venture capitalist, speaker, blogger and author. He was also the first evangelist for Apple’s revolutionary Macintosh. His book Rules for Revolutionaries was very important in the formation of Resonate and his book, Selling the Dream was the seed that got the Resonate Greenhouses started. We asked Guy what books he would suggest for people starting non-profits with very little money. He didn’t list his latest book, The Art of the Start but we will for him.

1. The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
2. Uncommon Genius by Denise Shekerjian
3. If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland
4. Influence by Robert B. Cialdini
5. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore

“The newest crop of potential volunteers–baby boomers–is the most educated and driven in history, with a volunteer rate among the highest. But many boomers plan to keep working even as they start doing community service. So their time will remain dear. Unless they feel they are making a difference, they’ll walk.”

The point is that non-profits will need to take a hard look at how they do things. There is a tremendous potential to tap into some free expertise.

The danger is that the meanial tasks will be pushed forward as the only thing a non-profit has to offer. That will mean the loss of this expertise. And the meanial job may not be done either.

Part of the group’s purpose is providing training and education for non-profit organizations, and on this occasion we will discuss web site do’s and don’ts thanks to a worksheet prepared by Todd Hiestand.

web design non-profit vermont

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In addition, the NNN web site has a great event analyzer developed by some of the groups members. It’s the perfect way for a non-profit organization to evaluate the effectiveness of special events. Check it out here.

non-profit vermont

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Christine has a lot of experience with non-profits and has published a wide array of books, newsletters, and other materials. She describes herself on the web site as the following:

“Through CPG Enterprises, Inc., Christine Graham offers fundraising advice, support and training to a wide variety of nonprofit organizations. Services include consultation, workshops, and publications. The goal is always to identify and meet the goals of the organization with careful attention to the culture and needs of its community.”

non-profit, fund+raising

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I think this group is a wonderful element in the Northshire region. There is nothing better than sitting down and comparing notes with people who are confronting the same struggles and issues as yourself. The focus is on collaboration and group learning, two things that I think we are all grateful to have

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In any case, there appears to be some movement toward a compromise according to the Rutland Herald:

“State tax officials have compromised on a plan to change the tax-exempt status of Hildene, one of this town’s biggest tourist attractions.

Instead of considering all but 50 acres of the 400-plus acre estate, plus the former home of Robert Todd Lincoln, President Abraham Lincoln’s son, to be taxable, only about 25 acres of meadowland are still being challenged, said Seth Bongartz, Hildene’s executive director.

“That’s still significant to us,” Bongartz said. “We made the point that it is 412 acres, period — this is an estate we’ve struggled to hold together against all odds for 28 years.”

The concession followed a two-hour meeting Thursday between Bongartz, town officials, representatives of the Southern Vermont Arts Center — another property appealing an earlier decision on its tax status — as well as officials from the state Tax Department’s Division of Property Valuation and Review.

Hildene, SVAC and several other high-profile and previously tax-exempt properties in Manchester came under state scrutiny in recent years because of concerns that not all of the property they owned was central to the educational purposes justifying the tax exemption.”
Read the rest of the article.

The Bethany Network

Promoting spiritual and physical wholeness.

• Partnering with non-profits who provide essential social services. When we address physical needs, we open the door for spiritual healing to occur.
• Providing free and lot cost administrative support such as creating flyers, newsletters, and web content.
• Providing tips and reviews of books, software, movies and other products relevant to non-profit organizations.

Recharge, refocus, refresh

The Bethany Network is a different kind of non-profit. Working from the grass roots up, the Bethany Network seeks to support non-profits on a shoe-string through networking and an open source approach.

Read more about the Bethany Network and its services.

This can be especially helpful when trying to plan an event. Typically the volunteers are all spread out. One person edits a document, passes it around, everyone else edits it, and then mayhem ensues. Who has the real document??? Online wiki’s and other content programs can provide a simple, no-cost solution.

There are plenty to check out, but I’m going to look at Basecampe and Jotspot today. Keep in mind that Basecamp has several versions that you must pay for. For more on content management systems, see Jordon Cooper’s blog.
Basecamp

Here’s what they have to say about themselves:

What is Basecamp?

Basecamp is a unique project collaboration tool. Projects don’t fail from a lack of charts, graphs, or reports, they fail from a lack of communication and collaboration. Basecamp makes it simple to communicate and collaborate on projects.

It’s elegant, easy, and web-based. You don’t need to download, install, or configure anything (no IT department required!). All you need is a web browser and an internet connection. And don’t worry, your data is safe with us.

How can Basecamp help us?

Basecamp makes it easy to centralize group communication with co-workers and clients.

Assign to-dos and tasks
Post messages and gather feedback
Simple scheduling and permissions
Share files internally or with clients
Track people’s time

My thoughts about the free version:

Basecamp is light on features, but is fairly easy to figure out. You can develop simple to do lists or create projects in a simple word processing format. You’ll be up and running in minutes, but first give it a good long look. Make sure that Basecamp has all of the features you need before investing a lot of time and entering a lot of data.
Next Up . . .

Jotspot

Here’s what Jotspot has to say about itself:

What can you do with our wiki?

Whether you’re at work or at home, you can use the JotSpot wiki.

The JotSpot wiki allows free-form collaboration, but you can also collaborate using structured applications from our application gallery.

Here are some things our customers have done:

• Create an intranet
  Publish company information, such as news or employee guidelines. See an example.
• Project management
  Schedule project deadlines, assign tasks, and define product specifications
• Document collaboration
  Multiple users author documents with aid of version history and MS Word integration
• Coordinate a non-profit agency
  Utilize event calendars, discussion forums, blogs and other apps
• Collaborate with virtual teams
  Communicate with remote contractors or clients
• Track software bugs
  Log defects and build custom queries
• Call center support
  Access case histories and increase customer support

My Thoughts:

Jotspot has quite a few impressive features:

Collaboration & Community
* Blog
* Forum
* Group Calendar
* Meeting Manager
* Simple Poll
* Personal To-Do Lists

Business Productivity
* Project Manager BETA (New!)
* Bug Reporter (New!)
* Company Directory
* Knowledge Base
* Contact Manager
* Recruiting
* Call Log Manager

While you will probably never use all of these at once, the options it presents are tremendous. The number of options make jotspot a little bit more daunting to the inexperienced user. There is a lot of stuff that you can have on your homepage at once.

Basecamp’s basic package has a few simple tabs to manage, while Jotspot has all kinds of links to click on. Yet, having said that, all of the tools on Jotspot seem to be useful and simple to set up. Having discussion forums, a contact manager, writing board, and file uploader can put all essential info in one easy to access place. The file uploader is the selling point for me, but whatever the case may be, there is a lot to like about jotspot and it’s my choice for the best free collaboration program.

technorati tags: collaboration, management, jotspot, basecamp

Though the title is somewhat provocative, the subject material is essential for every business, especially non-profits to consider. Non-profits cannot afford to miss out on blogs. Since they rely so heavily on relationships, service, and donations, there is no such thing as too much trust or too much communication.

Technorati Tags: naked+conversations, blogging

The concept of Writely is clever. Here’s the jist of it:

• Share documents instantly & collaborate real-time: Pick exactly who can access your documents.
• Edit your documents from anywhere: Nothing to download — your browser is all you need.
• Store your documents securely online: Offsite storage plus data backup every 10 seconds.
• Easy to use:Clean, uncluttered screens with a familiar, desktop feel.

This could be very helpful for non-profits with volunteers and employees working different schedules at different locations. I know that it can be problem to have several people using and editing the same document. It is such a hassle to know who has the most up to date draft. I think that I will use this program for the Northshire Non-Profit Network in the near future for some of our projects.

There is a waiting list currently for a Writely account, but I think it will be worth the wait.

If you need something that is a bit more extensive for your document creation and editing, you can create your own wiki at jotspot. Jotspot is an easy way to creatively work together on a variety of projects. The web site says:

What can you do with our wiki?

Whether you’re at work or at home, you can use the JotSpot wiki.

The JotSpot wiki allows free-form collaboration, but you can also collaborate using structured applications from our application gallery.

• Create an intranet: Publish company information, such as news or employee guidelines. See an example.
• Project management: Schedule project deadlines, assign tasks, and define product specifications
• Document collaboration: Multiple users author documents with aid of version history and MS Word integration
• Coordinate a non-profit agency: Utilize event calendars, discussion forums, blogs and other apps

The Southern Vermont Arts Center will be needing some help in a variety of unexpected positions this summer. My notes about one volunteer’s experience in a middle school and another’s Masters Degree in Art History have been a great asset and make it much easier to pin-point the right person for the job.

So what is the big deal exactly with team players? Why is the value of team so important?

There is much to say about working as a team, but I think that it is most important to note that certain skills can be learned and perfected, but an ability to work well with others does not come as easily to some. Finding someone who is committed to building relationships and maintaining them is an essential quality to look for.
This is not to mention that you can have perfectly competent and otherwise nice people who can fight like cats and dogs. Unless they are committed to working at a team, they can make for a stressful and unproductive work place. Such disputes can be even more devastating in non-profits where the staff is typically small and each employee typically wears several hats.

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Typically we find where we are hitting the wall, and then draw a target around that spot. It is too easy to assume that we are hitting the mark, when we are really settling for whatever the status quo has been.

Most organizations would benefit by sitting down and hammering out their unique qualities and gaining a firm grasp on their own identity. That would be immensely helpful in focusing energy and effort. Such a focus may have some interesting implications on the services your provide and the events you host.

via: the Non-Profit Blog Exchange

Technorati Tags: blogging, non-profit

The meeting today covered the topic of events. It was a great discussion that resulted in some great collaboration ideas. I hope to post more on that on the NNN web site. If you are interested in this group and live in the Northshire region of Vermont (the greater Manchester area), I highly recommend attending a meeting. Come prepared to listen and to share. It’s a great way to get all of the non-profits working together.

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