January 29, 1998 | Read Time: 8 minutes
The Community of the Future
Edited by Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, Richard Beckhard, and Richard F. Schubert
This third book in the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management’s “Future” series begins with a call to non-profit groups to focus their efforts on urban areas.
“What the dawning 21st century needs above all is . . . explosive growth of the non-profit social-sector organizations in the newly dominant social environment, the city,” writes Mr. Drucker in the introduction.
More than 30 authors from academe, business, and non-profit management contributed chapters that examine the structure and values inherent in successful communities.
For example, three professors — Noel M. Tichy and Andrew R. McGill of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and Lynda St. Clair of Bryant College in Rhode Island — provide a history of the Detroit organization Focus: HOPE, which began in 1971 as an emergency-food provider and now trains inner-city residents for jobs that require technological skills. Its success in forging ties to businesses and institutions of higher education make it a model to emulate, the professors write.
Other contributors include Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma; James L. Barksdale, president of Netscape; and the Nobel Peace Prize winner and writer Elie Wiesel.
The book’s six sections focus on trends shaping communities, values, communications technology, communities within organizations, equal opportunity, and global communities.
Previous titles in the series had explored trends in leadership and the characteristics of healthy organizations.
Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 350 Sansome Street, San Francisco 94104-1310; (415) 433-1767; fax (800) 605-2665; World-Wide Web http://www.josseybass.com; 285 pages; $25; I.S.B.N. 0-7879-1006-6.
Donor FocusedStrategies for Annual Giving
By Karla A. Williams
The backbone of any successful non-profit group is its annual-giving program, to which 8 out of every 10 of its donors contribute, writes Ms. Williams. This book offers an 11-step plan for conducting a successful annual fund-raising campaign.
Ms. Williams is the principal of the Williams Group, a fund-raising consulting company with offices in Charlotte, N.C., and St. Paul. She writes that the greatest challenge facing fund raisers in an era of advanced technology is to establish personal ties to donors.
Her strategy employs elements of marketing and customer service to build a donor base, and she details how to create profiles of prospective donors and match them to the organization’s cause; budget and conduct direct-mail and telemarketing efforts; recruit volunteers; plan and hold special events; and work to improve next year’s drive.
She provides sample appeals from such organizations as the Minnesota Zoo, as well as graphs, flow charts, and tables designed to ease planning and to shed light on what motivates donors.
The book is part of Aspen Publishers’ “Fund Raising Series for the 21st Century,” edited by James P. Gelatt.
Publisher: Aspen Publishers, 7201 McKinney Circle, Frederick, Md. 21704; (800) 638-8437; World-Wide Web http://www.aspenpub.com; 287 pages; $59; I.S.B.N. 0-8342-0896-2.
Evaluation With Power: A New Approach to Organizational Effectiveness, Empowerment, and Excellence
By Sandra Trice Gray and Associates
This book outlines a method through which non-profit groups can regularly conduct internal evaluations.
“For many in the non-profit community, evaluation joins audit, biopsy, and subpoena on the list of words they least want to hear or think about,” writes Ms. Gray, vice-president of Independent Sector in Washington.
She attempts to erase the stigma in the book’s Part One, which gives specific steps for evaluations and covers self-assessment methods to be used by staff and board members and volunteers.
Part Two comprises eight chapters by various authors on ways in which evaluations can apply to specific functions within a non-profit group. Topics in this section include human-resource management, information management, and ethics and accountability. Another chapter explores the benefits of using evaluators from outside the organization.
Appendixes include sample evaluation forms for board members. The ideas promoted in the book came from regional and national roundtable discussions that were conducted by Independent Sector in eight cities. Participants included chief executives and board chairs from a cross-section of non-profit groups.
Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 350 Sansome Street, San Francisco 94104-1310; (415) 433-1767; fax (800) 605-2665; World-Wide Web http://www.josseybass.com; 178 pages; $27.95 plus $5.50 postage and handling; I.S.B.N. 0-7879-0913-0.
Family Foundation Library
Edited by Virginia Esposito
This four-volume set is the culmination of a three-year project undertaken by the Council on Foundations to provide guidance to families who engage in organized philanthropy.
Family Issues, by Deanne Stone, offers perspectives on family behavior, explains how to set up a governing board and involve young family members, and takes a look at how to share power and quell philosophical and personal conflicts.
Governance, by Newell Flather, Mary Phillips, and Jean Whitney, provides advice designed to help leaders of family foundations insure smooth operations and compliance with the law. It includes sample documents from existing family foundations that cover articles of incorporation and investment guidelines, among other topics.
Grantmaking, by Joseph Foote and Louis Knowles, advises how to choose a grant-making “style”; monitor, assess, and evaluate grants; and carry on the traditions of the foundation’s benefactors.
Management, by Martha Cooley, covers the nuts-and-bolts operations of a family foundation, such as hiring staff members, accounting, communicating, and employing new technology.
The authors are a mix of foundation managers and consultants and freelance writers who specialize in philanthropy. Ms. Esposito, a former vice-president at the Council on Foundations, is director of the National Center for Family Philanthropy in Washington.
Publisher: Council on Foundations, 1828 L Street, N.W., Washington 20036; (888) 239-5221; fax (301) 843-0159; Family Issues, 141 pages; Governance, 193 pages; Grantmaking, 131 pages; Management, 223 pages; $60 each or $220 for the set.
Fund Raising . . .For the Rest of Us
By Norman H. Hammon
For the emerging or modestly budgeted non-profit group, a large, life-sustaining gift from a kindhearted benefactor is the exception, not the rule, says the author of this book.
“The ones who created the myth of the ‘deserving non-profit’ have never watched the erosion and slow implosion of a dream,” writes Mr. Hammon, a consultant based in Norman, Okla. He offers this guide based on his belief that financial adversity is neither romantic nor rare.
The first part of the book provides a framework for raising money, including sample budgets and an exploration of the attitude that a successful solicitor must adopt. (“Never beg,” advises the author.) The second section covers special events, sponsorship, games of chance, in-kind contributions, volunteers, annual drives, and grant writing.
The book’s tone is breezy and conversational, geared to the charity official who hasn’t had much experience raising money.
Publisher: Lughnasa Press, P.O. Box 2356, Norman, Okla. 73070; (405) 329-8111; fax (405) 360-3390; 214 pages; $19.95 plus $4.50 postage and handling; I.S.B.N. 0-9657989-0-9.
The Non-Profit Internet Handbook
By Gary M. Grobman and Gary B. Grant
This book provides a guide to cyberspace for non-profit organizations. It includes advice on setting up a home page on the World-Wide Web and summaries of many Internet sites that relate to philanthropy.
Part One covers various aspects of using the Internet, from joining mailing lists and newsgroups to exploring the World-Wide Web. Subsequent chapters cover on-line fund raising, advocacy, volunteer recruitment, hiring, research, and ethical and legal issues.
Part Two summarizes approximately 250 sites of interest to non- profit groups, including a “top 20″ list of general interest and sites that pertain to such sub-categories as government, prospect research, and publications.
Appendixes define terms, offer tips on getting the most from the Internet (including how to practice “netiquette”), and provide information on copyright issues.
Mr. Grobman is a contributing editor to the Pennsylvania Non-Profit Report, and Mr. Grant is associate dean for external affairs at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.
Publisher: White Hat Communications, P.O. Box 5390, Harrisburg, Pa. 17110; (717) 238-3787 phone and fax; 216 pages; $32.95 plus $1.98 Pennsylvania sales tax; I.S.B.N. 0-9653653-6-0.
Strategic Management in Public and Nonprofit Organizations, Second Edition: Managing Public Concerns in an Era of Limits
By Jack Koteen
This book describes principles and practices long used by money-making organizations to adapt to increasing competition and dwindling resources.
“We witness the beginning of a widespread movement to practice the private-sector strategic-planning model that gives some semblance of compass and bottom line,” writes Mr. Koteen, aiming his advice at managers and executives of non-profit groups and their counterparts in government.
Sections cover the following topics: practicing sound leadership, establishing an effective system of management, setting an agenda, choosing strategies, employing modern methods of management, and evaluating and monitoring performance.
Mr. Koteen, a management consultant and a former director of the Office of Development Administration at the U.S. State Department, explains such concepts as “total quality management” and the “logical framework matrix,” which businesses have put to use to improve customer service.
The ultimate goal of any plan, he writes, is for an organization to absorb the effects of unexpected change with no decline in service.
Publisher: Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, P.O. Box 5007, Westport, Conn. 06881-5007; (203) 226-3571; fax (203) 222-1502; World-Wide Web http://www.greenwood.com; 376 pages; $75 cloth, $29.95 paper; I.S.B.N. 0-275-95531-1, cloth; I.S.B.N. 0-275-95532-x, paper.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Measuring Up: Assessment Tools for Volunteer Programs, by Steve McCurley and Sue Vineyard, provides a host of checklists, questionnaires, worksheets, and evaluation forms for assessing programs that recruit volunteers. Ms. Vineyard and Mr. McCurley, partners at the management-consulting firm VMSystems, also include forms to use in evaluating an organization and its employees. Those forms include ways to measure productivity and stress. Publisher: Heritage Arts Publishing, 1807 Prairie Avenue, Downers Grove, Ill. 60515; (800) 272-8306; 68 pages; $15 plus $4.50 postage and handling; I.S.B.N. 0-911029-48-6.
