Today, social media offers an alternative broadcast and communication medium for nonprofit advocacy organizations. At the same time, social media ushers in a "noisy" information era that renders it more difficult for nonprofits to make their voices heard. This book seeks to unpack the prevalence, mechanisms, and ramifications of a new model for nonprofit advocacy in a social media age. The keyword for this new model is attention. Advocacy always starts with attention: when an organization speaks out on a cause, it must ensure that it has an audience and that its voice is heard by that audience; it must ensure that current and potential supporters are paying attention to what it has to say before expecting more tangible outcomes. Yet the organization must also ensure that advocacy does not end with attention: attention should serve as a springboard to something greater. The authors elaborate how attention fits into contemporary organizations' advocacy work and explain the key features of social media that are driving the quest for attention. Developing conceptual models, they explain why some organizations and messages gain attention while others do not. Lastly, the book explores how organizations are weaving together online and offline efforts to deliver strategic advocacy outcomes.

Learn how to manage and leverage risk

Like all organizations in today’s volatile marketplace, nonprofits are under tremendous pressure to be more accountable for their operations, specifically to funders, donors, clients, and the public at large. Proper risk management can not only help nonprofits create a sound and transparent financial structure, but also exploit new development opportunities that may not otherwise be realized. Managing Risk in Nonprofit Organizations shows managers how to implement sound risk management procedures in every aspect of their organization.

The authors divide their guide into three sections–The Nature and Purposes of Risk Management, Recognizing the Context for Risk Management, and Risk Financing for Nonprofits. A large array of potential risks is covered, including:

• Human resource issues
• Fundraising
• Internet use
• Mergers
• Volunteer management

Senior level managers and executives at nonprofits, board members, and professional risk managers will find Managing Risk in Nonprofit Organizations to be an invaluable guide to this vital topic.

There are an estimated 40,000 international Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), working in an enormous global aid industry; official development assistance alone reached GBP90bn in 2014. This is supplemented by huge voluntary giving - the UK public, for example, give around GBP1bn a year to overseas causes. These organisations face a unique challenge from fraud and corruption. Operating in the world's most under-developed and fragile environments, with minimal infrastructure and trust-based cultures, the risk is high. And, being wholly reliant on donors and supporters for income, so are the stakes. Researchers make different estimates of the scale of the problem facing the sector. Some research implies that losses to the global aid budget caused by occupational fraud and abuse may be in the billions of pounds, while those to the British public's voluntary overseas donations could be in the tens of millions. For many sector professionals working in the developing world, these estimates are readily believable. Fighting Fraud and Corruption in the Humanitarian and Global Development Sector by Oliver May is a timely, accessible and relevant how-to guide, which explores the scale and nature of the threat, debunks pervasive myths, and shows readers how to help their NGOs to better deter, prevent, detect and respond to fraud and corruption.

At a time when boundaries between the nonprofit, business, and public sectors have grown increasingly confused and contested, this volume by leading experts on nonprofit organizations offers new ideas and frameworks for understanding the terrain that lies between the state and the market. The chapters span a broad range of emerging issues including nonprofit commercialism, sector-bending hybrid organizational forms, increasingly sophisticated nonprofit advocacy activities, newly hatched forms of volunteerism and philanthropy, tensions in public-nonprofit contracting, and new roles for faith-based nonprofits in social provision. Contents include: Peter Frumkin, "Charity and Philanthropy After September 11th"; Joseph M. Knippenberg, "Faith, Hype, and Charity: Constitutional Controversies over Charitable Choice"; Leslie Lenkowsky, "The Bush Administration's Civic Agenda and National Service"; Mark E. Warren, "What is the Political Role of Nonprofits in a Democracy?"; Steven Rathgeb Smith, "Government and Nonprofits in the Modern Age: Is Independence Possible?"; Amy L. Sherman, "Faith in Communities: A Solid Investment"; Stephen V. Monsma, "Nonprofit and Faith-Based Welfare-to-Work Programs: Government's Partners or Government's Captives?"; Thomas H. Jeavons, "The Vitality and Independence of Religious Organizations: A Once and Future Trend"; Estelle James, "Commercialism--Does It Help or Hurt the Nonprofit's Mission?"; J. Gregory Dees and Beth Battle Anderson, "Sector-Bending: Blurring the Lines Between Nonprofit and For-Profit"; David Reingold, "Scaling-up National Service in an Era of Performance Measurement and Accountability." "In Search of the Nonprofit Sector" will be essential reading for scholars and practitioners interested in the pressing management and policy challenges facing nonprofit organizations today.

Winner of the 2002 Skystone Ryan Research Prize from the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Sponsored by the prestigious Council on Foundations, Opening Doors is a down-to-earth guide for fundraising practitioners who want to broaden their funding base and reach new donors or improve the diversity of their existing development programs. Based in solid research, Opening Doors provides information about the cultural and charitable practices of four broad groups: African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. It is filled with illustrative personal stories, real-life examples, and proven strategies. In addition, this hands-on resource:

• Helps readers understand the rich philanthropic traditions in diverse American populations
• Shows how to encourage prospects to become donors through personal meetings, house parties, special events, and direct mail
• Presents practical ideas for seeking gifts from business owners of diverse cultural backgrounds
• Describes ap propriate and effective ways to encourage small donors to become large donors

Philanthropy - the use of private resources for public purposes - is undergoing a transformation, both in practice and as an emerging field of study. Expectations of what philanthropy can achieve have risen significantly in recent years, reflecting a substantial, but uneven, increase in global wealth and the rolling back of state services in anticipation that philanthropy will fill the void. In addition to this, experiments with entrepreneurial and venture philanthropy are producing novel intersections of the public, non-profit and private spheres, accompanied by new kinds of partnerships and hybrid organisational forms. The Routledge Companion to Philanthropy examines these changes and other challenges that philanthropists and philanthropic organisations face. With contributions from an international team of leading contemporary thinkers on philanthropy, this Companion provides an introduction to, and critical exploration of, philanthropy; discussing current theories, research and the diverse professional practices within the field from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. The Routledge Companion to Philanthropy is a rich and valuable resource for students, researchers, practitioners and policymakers working in or interested in philanthropy.

The voluntary and non-profit sector is an important and emerging feature of Japanese society. It is a response both to the changing nature of this society and to political and social trends that have encouraged the Japanese government to see this sector as a potential provider of public services. It is also part of the emergence of 'civil society' in Japan. This book explores the roots of the societal challenges that voluntary and non-profit organisations face in Japan and evaluates their future impact on Japanese society. It is an essential text for any student of Japanese studies or the international non-profit sector.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203472004

This book is a practical, how-to guide for those interested in writing, procuring, and implementing grants. The second edition has also been expanded to include a new chapter on how to become a grant writer. From gathering basic information about an organization through accepting and implementing the grant award, expert advice is provided then illustrated through step-by-step guides along with numerous examples. This publication is designed to be used by those writing grants on behalf of libraries as well as nonprofit organizations. Information about types of grants available through government agencies and foundations as well as how to locate funding opportunities has all been updated in this second edition. The process of identifying a fundable project and how to carefully select potential sources of funding are explained. Proven writing strategies show how to make your grant application stand out from the rest. Making sure that program implementation is as smooth as possible is shared in order to eliminate any potential obstacles that may arise. Several appendices show samples of strategic plans, narratives, budgets, needs assessments, evaluations, and much more! Examples are tailored to libraries and nonprofit organizations. The author has shared her 20+ years experience successfully procuring and implementing foundation and government grants. It is the most current and practical publication of its kind available today and will prove to be enormously useful in these tough economic times when decreased available funding opportunities are resulting in increase competitiveness. (n.b., This book is not intended for those seeking funding for science-based or social science-based projects that involve experiments and may involve human and/or animal subjects.)

A collection of the best articles from past 20 years of the Grassroots Fundraising Journal offering nonprofit organizations a wealth of tips, strategies, and guidance on how to raise money.

Part of the new Kim Klein's Chardon Press Series from Jossey-Bass which focuses on providing fundraising and organizational development tools for community-based and social change organizations.

Learn step by step how to craft a winning case statement!

This tool in the Excellence in Fund Raising Workbook Series offers you a practical, hands-on guide to creating the cornerstone of any successful fund raising program--an effective case for support. Written by Tim Seiler--a leader in the field of fund raising and a disciple of master fund raiser Hank Rosso--Developing Your Case for Support provides you with a complete framework for bringing together all the reasons nonprofits know they are worthy of support, and shows you how to develop a case that makes those reasons concrete and real for donors. Filled with helpful worksheets and examples, the workbook features a step-by-step methodology for gathering, organizing, and using the information essential for developing a compelling case statement.

Boards play a crucial role in ensuring that public and non-profit organizations are publicly accountable and perform well. Following various failures and scandals they face increasing scrutiny, pressure and expectations. Serious questions have been raised about the ability of boards to govern effectively. This book brings together analyses based upon some of the best recent empirical studies of public and non-profit governance in the UK.
The book will be essential reading for academics and students with an interest in the governance and management of public and non-profit organizations. It will also be of value to policy makers and practitioners who wish to gain a deeper understanding of how boards work and what can be done to improve their performance.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203167570

This book endeavors to take the conceptualization of the relationship between business, government and development in African countries to a new level. In the twenty-first century, the interests and operations of government and business inevitably intersect all over the African continent. No government, federal or state, can afford to ignore the needs of business. But what are these needs, how does business express its needs to government and what institutions organize government-business relations in African countries? How should government regulate business, or should it choose to let the markets rule? Government and Business Relations in Africa brings together many of sub-Saharan African leading scholars to address these critical questions. Business and Government Relations in Africa examines the key players in the game-federal and state governments and business groups-and the processes that govern the relationships between them. It looks at the regulatory regimes that have an impact on business and provides a number of case studies of the relationships between government and economic development around the African continent, highlighting different processes and practices. It shows the latest state of knowledge on the topic and will be of interest both to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners. It addresses the topics with regard to business-government relations and will be of interest to researchers, academics, policymakers, and students in the fields of African politics, comparative politics, public policy, business and politics, sustainable development and sustainability, economic development, and managerial economics.

Step-by-step guidance, insider tips, and all the tools you need to create budgets and financial plans that win grants

Grants are a major source of funding in the nonprofit sector, and nonprofits invest considerable time, effort, and resources into obtaining them. A key aspect of any successful grant application initiative is budgeting and financial planning. A well-crafted budget, clearly delineating when, where, and how grant moneys will be applied, goes a long way toward selling a grantor on an applicant’s vision. Unfortunately, many nonprofit professionals lack the know-how required to create budgets that instill grantors with confidence. This book fills that much-needed gap. Authors James Aaron Quick and Cheryl Carter New walk you through the entire budgeting process, providing invaluable insider tips, guidelines, and rules of thumb. More importantly, they provide you with indispensable guidance including a complete, step-by-step budgeting system, with each step fully documented and accompanied by an arsenal of powerful tools, plus much more to help you transform your organization’s vision–and mission–into reality.

The well-being of any nonprofit organization rests first with its volunteer board of directors. This book offers board members the guidance they need to successfully govern their organizations--no matter what type or size of nonprofit they may lead.

Written by Candace Widmer and Susan Houchin, The Art of Trusteeship shows you how to fulfill ten key trustee responsibilities and includes much-needed detail on defining mission, strategic planning, executive selection and evaluation, fundraising, financial oversight, and board self-assessment. This hands-on guide is filled with illustrative case studies and real-life examples that clearly show how a variety of creative boards have tackled challenges and strengthened their organizations.

"At last, a book that doesn't take a one-size-fits-all approach! The authors recognize that the huge diversity among nonprofits calls for multiple ways of fulfilling basic board responsibilities. The book allows a board member to dive in at any point and find a concise, clear set of options for handling the challenges of trusteeship. It will help even first-time board members find firm footing on the path to effective governance."
--Sara L. Engelhardt, president, The Foundation Center

Contents:
1. An Introduction to Strategic Management and the Non-profit Sector 2. The Development of the Non-profit Sector 3. Professional Management in the Non-profit Sector and it's Critics 4. What is the Non-profit Sector 5. The Development of Strategic Planning and Strategic Management Concepts 6. What is an Excellent Organization? 7. What is Strategic Management and is it Effective? 8. The Use of Strategic Planning and Management in the Non-profit Sector 9. Strategic Planning Models and Techniques in the Non-profit Sector 10. Strategic Options for Non-profit Organizations 11. Evaluating Organizational Effectiveness 12. Summary and Conclusions.

"Although nonprofits have adopted a team approach in program delivery and even management, many nonprofits have not used this same successful approach in fundraising. This friendly guide argues for creating a fundraising team that involves board members, executive staff, line staff, and volunteers and gives examples of how such teams can operate effectively. Along the way, the author makes fundraising seem less mysterious and intimidating, and lead the reader to feel confident and enthusiastic about creating a successful fundraising team--no small achievement."--Jan Masaoka, executive director, CompassPoint Services

Many nonprofits rely on a lone staff member or volunteer to raise the money they need to sustain or grow their programs. In this insightful resource, leading fundraiser Mim Carlson presents a practical approach to involving the entire organization in fundraising. In doing so, she helps board members, executive directors, and development directors turn their staff and volunteers into a cohesive team with clearly defined goals, specific roles, joint accountability, diverse talents and skills, and strong leadership.

In Team-Based Fundraising Step by Step, Carlson draws on popular team-building theory and successful techniques--as well as on her years of fundraising experience--to offer a fresh framework for helping teams become more unified in their fund development activities. She argues that individuals who act alone cannot make the most of fundraising strategies and instead advises readers to include the board of directors, the executive director, staff, and other volunteers in strategic planning and development.

This practical, step-by-step guide shows readers how to develop and implement a whole-organization approach. Providing both a rationale for this novel approach and illustrations of how it has produced successful results, Carlson offers important tools for effective collaboration:
• Detailed implementation strategies
• Sample forms
• Checklists
• Worksheets
• Summaries of roles and responsibilities

At last, nonprofit managers, board members, development professionals, and fundraisers at all levels of experience have a dynamic guide to making the most of fundraising opportunities through effective collaboration.

The voluntary sector contains over 50,000 organizations, 320,000 paid staff, and 3 million volunteers. Financial Management in the Voluntary Sector focuses on the distinctive aspects of financially managing a voluntary organization.
While there are many similarities to the management of the private sector, in particular, financial management of small businesses, this book identifies and explains the specialist aspects of charity finance.

The voluntary sector contains over 50,000 organizations, 320,000 paid staff, and 3 million volunteers. Financial Management in the Voluntary Sector focuses on the distinctive aspects of financially managing a voluntary organization.

While there are many similarities to the management of the private sector, in particular, financial management of small businesses, this book identifies and explains the specialist aspects of charity finance.

Until very recently, popular belief held that business skills were not needed at charitable organizations. No longer. Far from interfering with an organization’s ability to provide needed services, techniques such as marketing, cash flow analysis, property management, and good use of technology all contribute to a charitable organization’s mission capability. Unlike a not-for-profit that thinks of itself as a charity, the successful not-for-profit is really a mission-based business. In an era of rapid change, increasing competition, and the need for more accountability to governments, foundations, insurers, and donors, knowing how to innovate, compete, and take reasonable risks on behalf of the mission is critical. It is, in short, the era of the social entrepreneur.

The skilled social entrepreneur has the ability to get the most mission out of the resources at hand–including traditional business techniques. Finally, here is a book that will help you learn their techniques. In Social Entrepreneurship, you will learn how successful social entrepreneurs:

• Focus on community wants and needs
• Match those with core competencies to provide the quality services
• Assess risk and gauge opportunity
• Develop new project ideas and test their feasibility
• Write a business plan
• Project finances in the plan
• Tap into new sources of funding
• Develop the idea of social entrepreneurship throughout the organization
• Make sure that mission, not money, is the bottom line

Also included are the seven essential steps of the not-for-profit business development process, real-world case studies, sample business plans, and a self-assessment process to determine if your organization is ready for social entrepreneurism. In addition to entrepreneurs, middle managers, policy setters, volunteers, and a host of other important staff members will get value from the mission-beneficial information in this book. Most important, Social Entrepreneurship will help you to help your organization succeed and thrive–and make your job more interesting and productive.

Praise for Social Entrepreneurship
The Art of Mission-Based Venture Development

"A great read . . . contains both the theoretical underpinnings and practical applications that those of us in nonprofit leadership badly need. I will share it with my management team and board."–Joseph M. Hafey, President and CEO, Public Health Institute

"A sound, practical guide for developing social entrepreneurs. Brinckerhoff makes taking mission-related business risks on behalf of the people served less risky with the step-by-step application of business ideas and techniques. Warnings, real-world examples, and hands-on advice keep the reader on track to sensible risk taking."–Connie Kirk, President and CEO, Tommy Nobis Center

"Peter C. Brinckerhoff’s new and masterfully written book has a lot of practical information in it for any organization that wants to learn how to become and stay entrepreneurial. Brinckerhoff provides the right kind of information to any organization interested in succeeding in a highly competitive and service-oriented environment . . . [and] stresses the importance of an organization’s encouraging innovation and risk only if it does not lose sight of its core values, its strengths, and its mission. That is excellent advice for any organization and for anyone who ventures into entrepreneurial waters."–Andrew H. Souerwine, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Management and Organization The School of Business Administration, University of Connecticut

Sponsored by The Management Center

At last, busy nonprofits can produce their own employee handbooks without the usual worries or frustrations. And employees can finally look to a single source for all the policies and procedures that bear on their day-to-day work. This unique book-and-disk set has everything you need to craft an employee handbook that is tailored to your organization's mission, culture, and goals. It is The Management Center's most comprehensive human resources toolkit for nonprofits across the country--filled with sample policies and examples of how to adapt each policy to your specific objectives.

Flexible and user-friendly, Creating Your Employee Handbook offers a unique three-level approach, capturing the complexity and diversity of your nonprofit. Many of the sample policies appear in versions that correspond to large, medium-sized, or small nonprofits. Sample policies also reflect different organizational cultures. For each policy,you can choose--mixing or matching as needed--the language, form, and style that best reflect your purpose and work culture. Topics include: employment and employee development, benefits, workplace healthy and safety, standards of conduct, work hours and pay, and much more. You can create a new employee handbook from start to finish, update existing policies, or identify new ones.

This hands-on manual can also help you gain insight into why certain policies are legally necessary. Such important policies are tagged throughout the handbook and there is even a state-by-state listing of specific statutes and mandates to help broaden your knowledge of employment law. Above all, Creating Your Employee Handbook shows how to make your handbook an effective employee communications tool.

Use the Disk for Easy Customization and Implementation

The do-it-yourself kit includes a computer disk complete with all of the sample policies in PC format. The policies are organized into folders that correspond to the size of your nonprofit. You can select or combine the policies according to your specific requirements. Also included are sample forms that can be copied or saved for future use. The guide and disk make the normally daunting task of creating an employee handbook that simple!

* Invaluable handbook for all voluntary and charitable organizations on raising money* Sets out the strategies and tactics for mobilizing resources from available sources* Published with the Aga Khan FoundationA clear and practical guide aimed at the managers of non-governmental and civil society organizations, primarily in developing countries, on how to raise funds for themselves and become financially self-reliant. The author examines all the options - accessing existing wealth, generating new wealth, and mobilizing non-financial resources - and shows how to identify funding opportunities and how to maximize results. He covers earned income, local foundations, governmental sources, foreign agencies, the corporate sector, micro-credit, the internet and social investments. He sets these within a strategic overview of planning and management effectiveness.

This volume provides new perspectives on assessing the performance of non-profit organizations whilst meeting the information needs of decision-makers, both internal, such as resource-providers, regulators and clients, and external, including boards, managers, staff and volunteers.
Whilst most discussions of accountability focus exclusively on financial accountability, this title offers a significant contribution to a relatively untouched area by combining the treatment of both evaluation and accountability from a managerial perspective.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203461363

Social Innovation: Comparative Perspectives investigates socio-economic impact. Since it is hard to establish causality and to measure social properties when investigating impact, especially at the level of society, the book narrows down impact to one priority aspect: social innovation - understood as organizations' capacity to generate novel ideas, ways and means of doing things, of addressing public and social problems of many kinds. This volume's primary assertion is that the Third Sector, specifically through stimulating civic involvement, is best placed to produce social innovation, outperforming business firms and state agencies in this regard. By investigating actor contributions to social innovation across seven fields of activity, Social innovation: Comparative Perspectives develops our understanding of why and how the Third Sector is central to functioning, cohesive and viable societies. This volume is based on contributions of the project "ITSSOIN - Impact of the Third Sector as Social Innovation" funded by the European Commission under the 7th framework programme. It will be of insight across disciplines, in particular to the growing social innovation community, innovation researchers more generally and to non-profit scholars. The practical relevance of the book will be of interest to European and national policy makers and practitioners across different sectors.

Global movements and protests from the Arab Spring to the Occupy Movement have been attributed to growing access to social media, while without it, local causes like #bringbackourgirls and the ice bucket challenge may have otherwise remained unheard and unseen. Regardless of their nature - advocacy, activism, protest or dissent - and beyond the technological ability of digital and social media to connect support, these major events have all been the results of excellent communication and public relations. But PR remains seen only as the defender of corporate and capitalist interests, and therefore resistant to outside voices such as activists, NGOs, union members, protesters and whistle-blowers. Drawing on contributions from around the world to examine the concepts and practice of "activist," "protest" and "dissent" public relations, this book challenges this view. Using a range of international examples, it explores the changing nature of protest and its relationship with PR and provides a radical analysis of the communication strategies and tactics of social movements and activist groups and their campaigns. This thought-provoking collection will be of interest to researchers and advanced students of public relations, strategic communication, political science, politics, journalism, marketing, and advertising, and also to PR professionals in think tanks and NGOs.

Originally published by Stevenson, Inc., this practice resource provides readers with a wide assortment of strategies aimed at increasing attendance for special events. It includes a variety of techniques to promote events and strategies for attracting the intended constituents. Important topics covered include: * Marketing and promoting events * How to increase ticket sales * Broadening an event's appeal * Market special events with new mobile applications * Offering transportation to increase attendance * Social media promotion * Event organization * Guidelines for hosting record-setting events * Entertainment * Donor attraction * Appreciation-themed events * Schedules and timing * Celebrity/VIP involvement * Pre-event coverage * Partnering/collaboration Please note that some content featured in the original version of this title has been removed in this published version due to permissions issues.