January 28, 1999 | Read Time: 6 minutes
Handling Problem Volunteers
By Steve McCurley and Sue Vineyard
Dealing with troublesome volunteers requires managers of non-profit organizations to keep a cool head and a firm hand, say the authors of this guide.
The first thing to learn is that not all volunteers deserve the benefit of the doubt, say Mr. McCurley, author of Volunteer Management and 12 other books, and Ms. Vineyard, who has written 20 books on volunteer management and training.
“We need to admit that there are some nasty people with less-than-honorable reasons to volunteer,” they write.
The duo begins by providing two methods for assessing a volunteer’s performance. One is a graph that charts a volunteer’s enthusiasm for and knowledge of the job, and if both traits are found wanting, the chart points to a corrective course: more training, for example. The second model is a flow chart titled the “Coaching Analysis,” which guides the manager through options for dealing with a volunteer who isn’t passing muster, starting with an informal interview to identify potential causes of the problem.
The chapters that follow deal with how to confront three types of problem volunteers: the “somewhat annoying,” the “seriously disruptive,” and the “dangerously dysfunctional.” The first category includes prima donnas and people who are overly critical; the second category encompasses liars and bigots; and the third category covers blackmailers and emotionally disturbed people.
Though most of the book has a light-hearted tone, accented by humorous drawings of people under various forms of duress, the authors provide stern advice on dealing with people who fall into that third category, or who are dangerous criminals.
The book also suggests standards to adopt on absenteeism, criminal-records checks, and other issues, and concludes with a bibliography of magazine articles on managing volunteers.
Publisher: Heritage Arts Publishing, 1807 Prairie Avenue, Downers Grove, Ill. 60515; (630) 964-1194; fax (630) 964-7338; 60 pages; $17.95 plus $4.50 postage and handling; I.S.B.N. 0-911029-47-8.
The 1999-2000 School Technology Funding Directory
Edited by Rebecca Flowers
Though President Clinton has urged that all U.S. schools be wired for the Internet by 2000, Congress has chopped away at the sources of funds needed to meet that goal, say the compilers of this guide.
This book provides information on approximately 150 government and private grant makers that collectively have set aside $30-billion for school-technology programs, says Ms. Flowers.
Private, community, and corporate foundations make up the majority of the entries. Each profile contains contact information (including e-mail and World-Wide Web addresses), geographic giving areas, restrictions, a summary of the education-technology programs the foundation supports, financial information, and application information and deadlines.
The federal entries include similar information for such agencies as the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Education.
Appendixes include essays on grantsmanship written by contributors to eSchool News, an Internet news source for educators, and a list of companies that donate computer equipment. The directory was published under the auspices of eSchool News.
Publisher: IAQ Publications, 7920 Norfolk Avenue, Suite 900, Bethesda, Md. 20814; (301) 913-0115 or (800) 394-0115; fax (301) 913-0119; World-Wide Web http://www.eschoolnews.com; 216 pages; $145; I.S.B.N. 1-890773-03-4.
Nonprofit Sector Yellow Book, Winter 1999
Edited by Michele A. Barile
Its pages are white, but this directory provides a service similar to the phone book’s business listings by cataloguing more than 40,000 names and numbers of non-profit managers.
A new volume in the publisher’s “leadership directory” series, this book lists the top officials and the trustees of foundations, colleges and universities, museums, performing-arts groups, medical institutions, libraries, private schools, and other non-profit organizations. Other volumes in the series focus on such areas as government, law, corporations, and the news media.
A typical entry provides the address and other contact information for the organization, a list of the organization’s administrators and their office phone numbers, and the names of board members. Some of the board listings contain phone numbers and business affiliations; occasionally a photograph of the organization’s chief executive appears in an entry.
Publisher: Leadership Directories, 104 Fifth Avenue, New York 10011; (212) 627-4140; fax (212) 645-0931; World-Wide Web http://www.leadershipdirectories.com; 1,048 pages; $215 for an annual subscription, $204 for renewal; I.S.S.N. 1520-9148.
The Second Legal Answer Book for Nonprofit Organizations
By Bruce R. Hopkins
In this book, the tax lawyer Bruce Hopkins shares his views and advice on topics ranging from “intermediate sanctions” to the rules governing private foundations. Through a question-and-answer format, he provides responses to roughly 500 queries posed to him by colleagues, clients, and conference attendees.
Mr. Hopkins, a lawyer in Kansas City, Mo., who specializes in representing non-profit organizations, writes that his goal is to provide practical advice, not formal legal guidance.
“The purpose here is to explain the law…to the non-lawyer,” Mr. Hopkins writes.
The book’s first chapter examines the questions raised by the Internal Revenue Service’s August 1998 publication of proposed intermediate-sanctions rules. Intermediate sanctions are fines that can be levied by the tax agency against charities’ top executives or board members who receive unreasonably high salaries or other inappropriate financial benefits.
Other chapters deal with partnerships and mergers, tax-exempt status, ownership of interests in business ventures, and annual returns, among other topics.
Mr. Hopkins occasionally interjects opinions and further insight into his answers under the headings of “cautions,” “comments,” “tips,” “notes,” “explanations,” and “observations.” He also includes cross-references to other questions.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 605 Third Avenue, New York 10158-0012; (800) 879-4539; fax (212) 850-6135; World-Wide Web http://www.wiley.com; 303 pages; $79.95; I.S.B.N. 0-471-29612-0.
Small Nonprofits: Strategies for Fundraising Success
Edited by Mary Louise Mussoline
This edition of the quarterly journal New Directions for Philanthropic Fundraising offers seven essays on how to raise money for non-profit groups that operate on a shoestring budget.
Most of those organizations, which the editor says number approximately 550,000 in the United States, run on less than $100,000 annually and compose what Ms. Mussoline calls “the heart and soul of the independent sector” due to their willingness to tackle new problems and controversial issues.
Among the essays: Frank Martinelli, president of the Center for Public Skills Training, in Milwaukee, explains how a small charity that relies heavily on its board of directors can better define the board’s obligations in fund raising and oversight; Kim Klein, owner of Chardon Press, in Oakland, Cal., explores how to dip into a more diverse pool of prospective donors; and Michael Page Miller, founder of a fund-raising and management-consulting firm in Putnam Valley, N.Y., delineates the types of problems that he says will cripple a small non-profit organization and provides examples of help available from larger organizations.
The series, which is sponsored by the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, is edited by Dwight F. Burlingame, Timothy L. Seiler, and Eugene R. Tempel. Ms. Mussoline is a fund-raising consultant who teaches at the center.
Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 350 Sansome Street, San Francisco 94104-1310; (415) 433-1767; fax (800) 605-2665; World-Wide Web http://www.josseybass.com; 109 pages; $25 plus $5.50 postage and handling; $67 for a one-year subscription for individuals and $115 for organizations; I.S.B.N. 0-7879-4270-7; I.S.S.N. 1072-172x; ask for PF20.
