Archive for the ‘Helpful sites’ Category
Posted by Jon Howard on March 4, 2011 in Communicating, Helpful sites, Research
Hi! How are you? Actually, don’t tell us. At least not on Twitter, because Twitterfolk just don’t want to know, according to Dan Zarella’s excellent 60-minute presentation on video, The Science of Social Media.
Self-referential tweets aren’t just boring – they drive people away. Zarella calls his blog The Social Media Scientist and he has the data to prove that too many tweets about yourself can lead to fewer followers. He’ll even sell you the T-shirt.
So, what’s left to tweet about? Tweet about me. (That’s “you” to you). Zarella’s research shows that the word “you” is the most common word used in retweets. That’s a reassuring link to our ancestors. “You” has been the number one most motivating word for direct response messages since they were being carved in stone.
For that matter, messages solely about our institutional selves in any medium have always been boring, and worse, unproductive.
Other quick takeaways? Be positive – tweets knocking others don’t get lots of retweets. Fill “information voids” with news people don’t have. And don’t be too smart – tweets with short words get shared far more often than tweets showing off your Ph.D.
You’ll find tons of other insights, surprising findings and useful advice in Zarella’s video as well as on his blog. The video alone is worth any two webinars I’ve taken in the last year. Set aside 60 minutes and check it out.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on September 30, 2010 in Helpful sites
I’d like to give a shout out to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, a project of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, at the Urban Institute. I find that I probably visit the NCCS free Table Wizard at least once a month. (Of course, I’m always scrounging for data).
Maybe it’s just me, but I often overhear conversations among nonprofit executives, service providers, or board members who make statements like “I wish we knew how many nonprofits there were in our state” or “how does our organization measure up to the larger nonprofit landscape in terms of revenues.” I suggest that they check out NCCS.
There’s lots of great data already compiled on the site (like the number of registered 501(c)3 organizations by state). I urge you to look around. I know I’ve barely tapped what is there.
Last month, I was completing a development audit for a provider of adult education services and was interested in where they stood among their state colleagues. So I went to the NCCS Table Wizard and asked for Registered Nonprofits, Total Revenue Levels, the state (let’s try Indiana), Major Category Education and subcategory Adult Education in the NTEE code and then Public Charity.
This is what I got.
Now, the table wizards are only as specific as the data reported on the 990. So while I can get gross revenue breakdowns under the big categories of “Contributions, Gifts and Grants” or “Program Services and Contracts,” the 990s doesn’t tell us whether those contributions were from companies, individuals, private or foundations. For the casual user, it’s a great start in helping you understand just where in the landscape of organizations you might be.
Besides data on nonprofits, you can look at household charitable giving in your state and get some numbers on average gifts and number of itemized returns who make charitable gifts.
Some of the ways I’ve used the tables include looking at the stratification of the sector by revenues and assets, understanding in a gross way how a particular sector receives its income, or what household giving looks like on average in various states by income level.
I know that there are many more uses of the data for serious researchers. I’d love to hear your stories of how you’ve used data from NCCS. Or please share other data sources that you rely on.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on July 14, 2009 in 100 Things We've Learned, Big ideas, Good reads, Helpful sites, Research, Strategic Thinking
Today is definitely a web discovery kind of day. It started this afternoon when I received an email from The TCC Group heralding a new study they released called “The Sustainability Formula.”
The Sustainability Formula is based on an analysis of TCC’s Core Capacity Assessment Tool.
The formula is:
Leadership + Adaptability + Program Capacity = Sustainability.
I really liked this framework (though I think there might be a few missing pieces of the definition, for example, how about something around longevity? Or resilience as in – the ability to bounce back from adversity).
I’m working on a project now with the Rhode Island Foundation’s Initiative for Nonprofit Excellence that enlists an organization assessment tool by the Marguerite Casey Foundation that is framed around the 4 Core Capacities developed by TCC. So I was particularly interested in reading this report.
But my really amazing discovery was captured in one small paragraph at the bottom of page 2. It talked about nonprofit lifecycles and offered a framework that I hadn’t bumped into before. The stages went like this:
“Stage 1: Core program development
“Stage 2: Infrastructure development for the purpose of taking programs to scale
“Stage 3: Impact expansion which is defined as community leadership that changes the systems and policies that affect an organization’s ability to achieve its mission.”
I was floored, I have to admit it. One of those AHA! moments.
Some people have AHA! moments by finding the wreckage of the Titanic on the ocean floor. I have them when I discover amazing new organizational frameworks or research nuggets that challenge our sector’s core assumptions. (Or when I eat some really fabulous dark chocolate)
This was SO MUCH MORE VALUABLE than the typical “Start Up, Growth, Maturity, Decline/Renewal” lifecycle model I see so often. This was a lifecycle framework that was MISSION-focused.
Be still my beating heart.
As someone who tries to pay attention to new literature on nonprofits, I kept scratching my head on how I could have missed this gem. So of course I went on a Google journey to find more details about this model.
After a nonproductive search on TCC Group’s own website (though there are lots of interesting publications there), I ended up on The Philadelphia Foundation’s website where I found the article “Characteristics of High Performing Nonprofits based on Organizational Lifecycle.” Which I spent time reading.
That article referenced a 2005 BoardSource publication, Navigating the Organizational Lifecyle: A Capacity Building Guide for Nonprofit Leaders I had seen the book as a subscriber to BoardSource but I never ordered it because I figured it was just the same old same lifecycle framework. That will teach me to assume!
Yes, you may be asking about now, other than alerting your readers to all these great resources, what is the point of this blog entry?
Okay, here it is.
I regularly encounter individuals, usually good-hearted souls, who have done little research on best practices about how to build a great nonprofit. Or how best to build effective programs that address the problems or needs they’ve taken on. I’m always curious, when there is such great stuff out there usually for free, why they didn’t take the time to look.
Maybe they’ve taken to heart the old adage about curiosity killing cats and been scared away?
My problem is just the opposite. I rarely have difficulty finding really valuable information – besides Google, I’ve got great colleagues and Twitter to keep me busy.
No, my problem is trying to tear myself away from the next great read.
So, a word of advice: Try some research. You can learn a whole lot by looking, to paraphrase the great Yogi Berra.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on April 14, 2009 in Better Boards, Helpful sites, Tidbits
I just stumbled onto the IRS’s “Compliance Guide for 501(c)3 Public Charities” at http://tinyurl.com/22uwe9. This handy guide has all of the various reporting and disclosure requirements all in one place as well as a long list of IRS resources and other issues that all nonprofit boards and leadership should know.
Have I mentioned yet how helpful the Internal Revenue Service website can be? I routinely go to the web site to double check substantiation and disclosure requirements for charitable gifts (IRS Pub 1771) or to check what might be considered unrelated business income (IRS Pub 598 ) or to get a sample conflict of interest policy for the board. They even have a special tab for Charities and Nonprofits, right on the home page.
What could be better than free information, straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.
It’s not often that we get to say thank you to the IRS, so thank you.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on January 6, 2009 in Communicating, Helpful sites
I was cleaning out the flotsam and jetsam that tends to accumulate in a handbag when I came across a card from The OpEd Project. I picked the card up at the Heinz Family Philanthropies Women’s Health and the Environment conference that I attended in Boston on October 31st last fall.
Writer? Catherine Orenstein, founder of the project, was one the panelists at the conference. She started The OpEd Project to reverse the shocking statistic that only 10-20% of newspaper opinion pieces are written by women. Why care? Because, in Catherine’s words, “the op-ed Read More >>
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on September 23, 2008 in Communicating, Fundraising, Helpful sites
I stumbled onto the recording of “Communicate: Think Big and Build Simple for Big Dollars,”? a conversation with Tom Suddes of The Suddes Group through the Network for Good Learning Center. 
Suddes makes the following points:
(Sigh: A man after my own heart… For transformational change is my mantra… that’s why your organization exists. And if your organization doesn’t know what transformational change it is working to create, you’ve got more work to do than just learning how to communicate better.)
You need to first talk about your IMPACT, the transformational change that your organization exists to create.
Then, Suddes implores, you need to communicate toyour donors how their “investments” (aka gifts) make that IMPACT happen.
You need to do it in simple, powerful messages.
Suddes is a big believer in the power of three (e.g. “veni, vidi, vinci”) for making messages compelling, memorable and penetrating. He suggests a 6 word WHY (the impact) a 3 word WHAT and a 3 word HOW.
There’s lots of good stuff in the interview with him. And lots of other great stuff at the Network for Good Learning Center. Check it out… it’s free.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on September 8, 2008 in Communicating, Helpful sites, Nonprofit Highlights
Speaking of Women’s Voices for the Earth, Good Morning America ran the segment on Green Cleaning Parties Sunday morning. People started signing up right away.
Here’s the link to the story:
And the link to get your own Green Cleaning Party kit.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on July 28, 2008 in Helpful sites, Nonprofit Highlights, Tidbits
I’m frequently asked for recommendations of good donor management software. Or I’ll mention eNewsletters as a useful communications tool and small nonprofits don’t know where to start.
Well, thankfully there is a web site that is the “consumer reports” of nonprofit technology. It’s called Idealware.org and it is just an incredibly rich resource.
Got a question about social networking? They can help. Good databases for advocacy? Yep, check out Idealware. They even have online seminars and great articles.
A nonprofit public charity themselves, so far, their reviews are free to all (though you can help them out with a donation.)
Gayle
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on June 1, 2008 in Helpful sites, Public engagement
We just wanted to let you know that you can find a free pdf version of our booklet, Meaningful Participation, an activist’s guide to collaborative policy-making in the products section of our site. Click here to download the file.
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Posted by Gayle Gifford on June 1, 2008 in Helpful sites, Little ideas
A website that I find myself going back to frequently is the Table Wizard at the National Center for Charitable Statistics. Wondering how many nonprofits are in your state? The Table Wizard can tell you. Curious about how nonprofits like yours in your state rank by size or income? The Table Wizard has the answers.
It’s not hard to use once you get the hang of it. You’ll amaze your boss or colleagues with your extraordinary knowledge of the nonprofit community.
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