Just Do It!

Welcome back!

"While an occasional disinclination to exercise is exhibited by all age cohorts, the likelhood of positive health outcomes makes even mildly strenuous physical activity all the more imperative"

If the Nike corporate slogan had been written by a nonprofit executive or consultant according to Cause Communication Toolkit.

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Cause Communications

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Benjamin Rodriguez did a presentation on Publicity for nonprofit organizations at the Tools for Transformation training this past week in Los Angeles and Pomona.

He suggested a free publication from Cause Communications, "COMMUNICATIONS TOOLKIT: A guide to navigating communications for the nonprofit world," that is available for free as a .pdf download here.

I have downloaded the document and started to read it. I believe that it will be a valuable resource to your nonprofit organization. This is what they say in the introduction:

We believe in the power of nonprofits to transform society. And we believe in the power of well-crafted communications to transform nonprofits. Effective communication can target the right message to the right audience at the right times. And an investment in appropriate, well-planned communications can increase rather than detract from the bottom line when resources and staffing are tight.

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New Information about QuickBooks

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A 2007 edition of QuickBooks Premier for Nonprofits is available on the Intuit website. Intuit is the manufacturer of QuickBooks. When I looked this morning, the price listed is $399. There is also a 2007 QuickBooks Pro for $199.95. Nonprofits with which I have worked have successfully used either one successfully to track the financial progress of their organizations. If you are planning to do your own payroll, I understand that the newest version may be worth the extra expense. For most of my clients, I recommend they use a payroll service to manage the withholding taxes, FICA and other payroll related functions. It is best to look to your own financial expert for the best solution for your organization.

QuickBooks Premier 2006 Edition is still available from Amazon.com for $334.99. That price is up substantially from one month ago.








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CCDA in Philadelphia--The Leadership Challenge

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I will speak to the Tools For Transforming Communities group at Pomona First Baptist Church in Pomona on Thursday, September 21, 2006; 6:30 - 9:30 PM. I'll give a 75 minute version of the same workshop in Philadelphia at the Christian Community Development Association confernce on Friday, September 29, 2006 at 2:45 PM. If you are going to be at the CCDA conference, come and see me at the workshop. I will arrive at CCDA in Philadelphia after 6 PM on Thursday, September 28. I leave early morning on Saturday. If you'd like to meet with me or talk about governance give me a call or leave me a message on this blog.

After I gave this talk to the Los Angeles T4TC group in Los Angeles last week, I got this message via email from one of the participants:

I wanted to mention that I really enjoyed your training on Thursday night. I thought it was one of the better ones and am hopeful that we can still get you for another board session. I went through my board hell back in 2001 and it struck me that it would probably have never happened had the board had a written set of policies.

My workshop in Philadelphia is titled: Board Leadership - Goverance Excellence

What does a real board do? A real board needs to know its job and have the right tools. Real governance is the highest level of organizational leadership. The job of governance is about values, vision, empowerment of both the board and staff, and the strategic ability to lead leaders.
Friday 29-Sep - 2:45-4:00

Please come by and see what we can learn together.

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Book Titles about Christian Community Transformation and Development

Welcome back! These titles are recomended in World Vision's internal literature about community transformation which are foundation to the Tools for Transforming Communities work that I do in Los Angeles and Pomona.



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Book Resources for the Christian Faith Based Community

Welcome back! The conversation was about the theological foundations for churches to be involved in community transformation and development. Someone mentioned Robert Linthicum's books.



I will put up some of the other publication links soon.

UPDATE: Amy Sherman was at our discussion group in Charlottesville.




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Daring to Lead by CompassPoint

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Daring to Lead study[links to a pdf]: A study by Compasspoint Nonprofit Services and The Meyer Foundation of executive leadership at community-based nonprofits might be of interest to you. It is "based on nearly 2,000 surveys ... [and] provides current data on executive turnover, compensation, career plans, and retirement. It also explores leading causes of executive burnout--in particular, widespread frustration with boards of directors and funders."

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Value of Volunteer Contribution

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According to Independent Sector, the average value of volunteer hours for non-profit organizations is $18.04 per hour in 2005. There is more detail

Further information on wages for specific functions and skill areas can be found at the US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What can you do with this kind of information? Here is a start:

Charitable organizations most frequently use the value of volunteer time for recognition events or communications to show the amount of community support an organization receives from its volunteers.

According to the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the value of volunteer services can also be used on financial statements-- including statements for internal and external purposes, grant proposals, and annual reports-- only if a volunteer is performing a specialized skill for a nonprofit. The general rule to follow when determining if contributed services meet the FASB criteria for financial forms is to determine whether the organization would have purchased the services if they had not been donated. Accounting specialists, may visit FASB's website for regulations on use of the value of volunteer time on financial forms: http://www.fasb.org/pdf/fas116.pdf.

You may need to give your accounting professional this kind of information, especially if they do not already specialize in nonprofit accounting.

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Some interesting books that I'd like to read

Welcome back!

I have clients who are all over this topic in a way that has immobilized them for some time.



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World Vision ad banned in England

Welcome back! Timely story about soccer as World Cup 2006 fires up in Germany on Friday.

If you are in the advert business (as the call it in the UK) you would be glad that your work gets attention. It is just hard to imagine what the British Advertising Clearance Centre's (BACC) ban on the airing of World Vision's new TV advert would accomplish. Apparently it was found to be "unfair to football." You can read about the advert here, and see it here.

It is good to work with the likes of these controversial people.


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Good to Great for nonprofits

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I had the opportunity to read Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don'tby Jim Collins with folks at MEDA a couple of years ago.

Now, on a recommendation from friend and fellow blogger Rudy, I will order and read Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great which addressess the nonprofit sector and addresses whether or not the business model is the solution for nonprofit sector organizations.



According to Collins, “…the inherent complexity [of nonprofit organizations] requires deeper, more penetrating insight and rigorous clarity than in your average business entity.”

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Comparing Accounting Software for Nonprofits

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I am often asked about entry level accounting or fiscal management software--either entry level or how to move to something more specialized to solve a special need or issue. This article, A Few Good Accounting Packages: Nonprofit consultants recommend accounting software packages, from techsoup.org, confirms what I have told many of our clients and expands the list of potential products and lists some features and benefits of the various products.

Most of the clients with whom I speak, choose QuickBooks as their entry level accounting software. If your organization needs to develop a system for fiscal management, reporting you may want to consider whether QuickBooks Premier Non-Profit Edition 2006is right for you. Click through to the link and read some of the details.






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Compassion Capital Fund (CCF) Targeted Capacity Building Program

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The announcement for Targeted Capacity Building Grants for faith-based and community based organizations was released tody by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Organizations with the current group of sub-awardees, trainees, and coaching client organizations MAY qualify to apply for such a grant. Click on the title of this post to read the announcement and let's talk about the possibilities.

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What is Cultural Competency?

Welcome back! My own framework for what is cultural competence starts with this:

"Do to others as you would have them do to you."

--Jesus

"…love your neighbor as yourself."

--Moses
In a world of may cultures that is shrunk by communication, travel and migration, in order to reach across cultural divides we need to understand the point of view of other cultures around us.

Often talked about in academic circles and health care fields cultural competency, from Georgetown University's National Center for Cultural Competence:

Community Engagement

• Cultural competence extends the concept of self-determination to the community.
• Cultural competence involves working in conjunction with natural, informal support and helping networks within culturally diverse communities (e.g. neighborhood, civic and advocacy associations; local/neighborhood merchants and alliance groups; ethnic, social, and religious organizations; and spiritual leaders and healers).
• Communities determine their own needs.
• Community members are full partners in decision making.
• Communities should economically benefit from collaboration.
• Community engagement should result in the reciprocal transfer of knowledge and skills among all collaborators and partners.

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Meeting the Collaboration Challenge

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Financial Reporting and QuickBooks for Nonprofits

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If your organization needs to develop a system for fiscal management, reporting you may want to consider whether QuickBooks Premier Non-Profit Edition 2006is right for you. Click through to the link and read some of the details. If you are a World Vision CCF organization, you may want to talk to your coach/mentor to help you make the right decision.



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Yahoo Group Now Available

Welcome back!

You may now sign up for the World Vision CCF Yahoo Group. The CCF sub-award application and financial survey documents are available there for download.

You have to sing up and be approved as a member to access the information there.

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Ten Questions about Public Funding

Welcome back! If you are thinking about competing for public funding, check out the article--click to link to it:

10 Questions to Determine Whether Your Congregation is Ready to Compete for Public Funding

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Correction to Los Angeles Zip Codes that qualify

Welcome back! 90047 in Los Angeles is qualified to apply in a competitive process along with the others for a subaward grant. Here are some other details:

World Vision plans to make

• 20 to 25 awards in Pomona (zip codes 91766 and 91768) and South Los Angeles (zip codes 90008, 90043, 90047, and 90062)
• The range of awards will be $5,000 to $15,000
• Proposal Deadline is July 14, 2006
• Announcements planned September 1, 2006
• The sub-award grant period is September 1, 2006 through February 28, 2007

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World Vision Tools for Transforming Communities 2006 CCF Grantee Sub-Award Information

Welcome back! Theresa Lu was using information from this text in a handout that I used in the various orientation meetings in both Los Angeles and Pomona. This should help you conceptualize a project for the sub-award program.

World Vision in Los Angeles (WVLA) will provide several capacity-building grants to competitively selected grassroots organizations in parts of Pomona and South Los Angeles that participate in the Tools For Transformation project to help build their capacity to serve their communities.

The sub-awardees will be faith-based (FBO) and community-based (CBO) organizations that provide services including programs for the homeless, re-entering prisoners, children of prisoners, at-risk youth, addicts, elders in need, families transitioning from welfare to work, and healthy marriage programs. These sub-awards will increase capacity and sustainability by building infrastructure. Ideas for use of sub-award funds:

Capacity Areas and
Examples of Potential Sub–awards

• Leadership Development

Funds for board development training, volunteer training or development of standard operating procedures, succession plan development

• Community Engagement

Funds to support a process to develop cultural competency, community needs assessment or asset mapping

• Program/Service Development / Management

Funds to help set up evaluation / monitoring systems, training to enhance programs/services

• Organizational Development

Funds for a financial review or audit, assess financial/accounting systems, upgrade software and/or equipment, long range strategic planning, 501(c)(3) application, formal organizational audit

• Funding/Sustainability

Funds for a consultant to assess/recommend fund development strategies, to support a new communication / cooperative network among service providers

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Coming Soon to your computer screen!

Welcome back!

Watch here for upcoming information about how to join a Yahoo list serve so you can communicate wiht other CCF beneficiaries.

From Yahoo groups I will be able to upload the handouts from session and the application for subaward document. Please feel free to communicate by leaving a comment here.

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Fundraising Training--More Information

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On Friday, May 5 (in Los Angeles) and Friday, May 12 (in Pomona), 2006 I am the trainer for the Tools for Transforming Communities program at World Vision, funded by the Compassion Capital Fund.

I have more information than can possibly be communicated in the 3 hour session, and there is plenty that can best be seen on the internet, rather than printed on paper.

This post will direct those interested in more information to the source of the material. After the session, I may post another entry with answers to questions that come up during the trainings. Please feel free to post a question here using the comments feature.

I found this interesting piece on running a successful carwash at the City of Los Angeles' website: HOW TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL CAR WASH FUNDRAISER, By Lance Winslow III, February 1999, This edition is a product of
The City of Los Angeles, Department of Public Works, Storm Water Management Program and The Car Wash Guys, For more information, please call the City of Los Angeles, Stormwater Hotline at: (800) 974-9794 Or visit us at: www.cityofla.org/san/swmd. You can download a 45 page document that helps you organize a carwash to raise funds. Interesting.

For more information on the California Nonprofit integrity Act of 2004 (SB ) you can read Charitable Trusts--California Department of Justice--Office of the Attorney General and you can download an informative summary from that website.

Information about getting a permit to do fundraising events and mailing in the City of Los Angeles is available from the Los Angeles Police Department. Interestingly, it took about 8 telephone calls to the mayor's office, city council districts 10 and 8, county supervisor's office, county public affairs office,several searches on the City's web site. None of these found the information that was needed. A google search with: "fundraising permit Los Angeles" is what got me to the Los Angeles Police Department's information here.

Information about nonprofit management and resources from the City of Los Angeles.

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Meeting the Collaboration Challenge

Welcome back! Collaboration is an important component of fundraising. These two books give excellent background and solid framework for how your nonprofit can partner with business to generate income: philanthropic, transactional, and integrated support.



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Community Reinvestment Act

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Go a call today from an agency who remembered something I had said in a conversation about why a financial institution, such as a bank, would have an interest in the work of a community development organization in the same community that the bank wants to do business.

In part the answer has to do with good business practice and maximizing profits. A secondary incentive might be the Community Reinvestment Act (1977) which is legislation that regulates the relationship between a financial institution and its community. For further information, click here.

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Vision in a village in Uganda

Welcome back!

The video about the football (soccer) player named Stone from Uganda is from this book:

The 8th Habit : From Effectiveness to Greatness, by Steven Covey.



If you'd like to read that book, I'd recommend you start with the foundational The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

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Quotations of note from my visioning workshop tonight in south Los Angeles

Welcome back! As promised, here are some of the quotations that I used in tonight's session at Lincoln Memorial Church in South Los Angeles for World Vision's Tools For Transforming Communities, funded by the Compassion Capital Fund:

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly proclaiming . . .
'Wow! What a ride!'

“…whenever there is emergence of the new we confront the recalcitrance of the old.”

--Dr. King

“If the leader’s vision is clearly articulated it will be most effectively realized by others who share it, and bring their own creativity to it.”

“There is nothing in the world that makes you feel more connected and more understood than having other people creatively enhance your own ideas with theirs.”

“People don’t need to be controlled and manipulated to commit themselves to a heartfelt vision, and being controlled and manipulated tends to destroy that commitment.”

Philip Slater, “Leading Yourself,” page 115
The Future of Leadership, Bennis, et al, 2001

From an article, "Why Vision Matters" by Robert Knowling

“In business, as in life, good intentions are often lost. Our everyday practices, not our espoused values, define who we are. To align good intentions with effective practice, leaders need to define a vision, articulate values, and infuse both into every aspect of the business.

Robert Knowling is chairman, CEO, and president of Covad Communications, a national provider of high-speed Internet access. Previously he led large-scale change efforts at U. S. West and at Ameritech. He also leads the Digital Opportunity Initiative to increase minority participation in the high-tech workplace. Knowling has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, Business Week, and The Industry Standard. (9/2000)

Watch for more later on this. Thanks for the opportunity to learn with you.

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Multi-donors and cynicism

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A helpful article from the NonProfit Times can be found here that helps those who desire to keep individual donors over time. Thanks to one of my clients for the tip on the article.

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Sabbatical Program from the California Wellness Foundation

Interestingly, the following was left as a comment to another post. I will be happy to post opportunities such as this. Just contact me through the contact form on my capacitypartership.com website. Thanks.

Applications are now available for The California Wellness Foundation Sabbatical Program. The program offers $30,000 grants to nonprofit health organizations, to provide their executive directors with a paid leave of up to six months. The organizations will also receive up to $5,000 each for the professional development of managers and staff who will assume extra responsibilities in the absence of the sabbatical awardees. Deadline for applications is March 24, 2006.

Based on a model established by the Durfee Foundation in Los Angeles, The California Wellness Foundation Sabbatical Program was founded in 2003 to keep burnout, stress and fatigue from undermining the effectiveness of the leaders of nonprofit organizations. Since the inception of the program, the Foundation has given 20 sabbatical awards.

To learn more about The California Wellness Foundation Sabbatical Program, or to receive an application, please visit the following sections on our website.

The California Wellness Foundation Sabbatical Program

Frequently Asked Questions

Application (a pdf)

All applications must be received at our office by March 24, 2006. If you have a question, please leave a message at (818) 702-1970, and you will receive a response within 48 hours. Or e-mail sabbaticalprogram@tcwf.org. Grant recipients of the 2006 TCWF Sabbatical Program will be announced in October 2006.

Opportunity for trainers and coaches in Los Angeles and Pomona

. . . for non-profit organizations. Welcome back! You belong here.

This informaiton is from World Vision's Tools for Transforming Communities Manager in Los Angeles.

The Tools for Transforming Communities Program is a new Compassion Capital Funding working to support and build capacity in organizations serving communities in zip codes 90008, 90043, 90047, and 90062 (South Los Angeles) and 91766 and 91768 (Pomona). Over the next year, the Tools for Transforming Communities Program will be providing small grants, and intensive training and technical assistance to a selected group of organizations.

Therefore, World Vision through the Tools for Transforming Communities Program is taking the lead in compiling an updated culturally competent consultants and trainers database. Through this database, we will invite consultants and trainers to be part of a group of professionals teaching and coaching selected organizations.

If you would like to be included in the list of individuals and firms in this database, please fill out the attached form as soon as possible and attend the orientation on February 14 from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM at 3055 Wilshire Blvd Conference Room in the 12 Floor. Resumes acceptable, however, if you could add the information from the form that may not be included it would be most appreciated.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this request.

If you'd like to put yourself on the list by completing the form, leave a comment here with your contact infromation. I will forward it to you.

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Presentation Remote Control Device

Welcome back!

In the past week or two I have had the opportunity to use my own computer and a remote control device when using a Power Point presentation. Clearly some products are better than others. This Honeywell PowerPresenter is clearly the leader. What it does really well--two simple buttons: forward and back; rf technology means no aiming the hand held piece to the plugged in device; plug it in and it works! I recommend the thing. And, I am going to buy one soon.







Who would have guessed that you'd get this kind of value from visiting this blog today.

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Community Economic Development 2006 Grant Applications for Operational Projects

The RFP for next year's operational grants has been published by HHS.

We are now considering client projects to develop for the Community Economic Development Discretionary Grant Program--Operational Projects. If you have some project ideas or would like to discuss some of those projects, please contact us imediately to schedule a consultation. We would like to talk with you. We are currently talking with prospective clients in Los Angeles and Pasadena, CA and Miami, FL.

Your ideas matter here! Please leave a comment--your comment is delivered directly to my email. We will contact you with further information is you provide your contact information. You can also use www.capacitypartnership.com to contact us.

Teaching Position in Bangladesh

Welcome back!

Are you:
a qualified teacher?
feeling called to overseas work?
looking for an opportunity to support the mission, aid and development community?
wanting to help the people of Bangladesh?

Friend Kevin Stout who works for Compassion International in Bangladesh has the information on his blog here.

"Please pass this on two any teacher friends you have. It is a great experience!!"

Grace International School
Dhaka, Bangladesh

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