Sheryl’s book is not meant to appeal to all women but is exactly the encouragement I need right now because every day I feel that I’m in boxing match.

I’m personally fighting to do it all.

The reason why I keep fighting is because I love what I do. I feel blessed to have such a strong passion for my work as a professor and as a mother.

I fight to make things work when my daughter is sick and I’ve got five meetings already scheduled for the day. I have a wonderful marriage but I still fight to make sure that we caring for our daughter equally.

My husband is a commercial pilot so I am a “single mother” four days a week. When my husband is gone, I take care of our daughter full-time and when he is home, he takes care of our daughter full-time. I fight internally to not tell him how to take care of our daughter and to not take over when my daughter wakes up in the middle of the night. I fight to stay awake in the evenings after my daughter goes to sleep to get my grading done. I fight to not let my mother-in-law dictate how I will feel about my choice to be a working mother, even though she tells me over and over again how she wishes she spent more time with her children instead of working and she doesn’t want me to make the same mistake she did.

I fight to do a great job…an excellent job as BOTH a professor and a mother!

Students interested in pursuing graduate degree’s for good tend to pursue master’s degrees in Nonprofit Management, Public Administration, Social Work or Business. However, there are many other graduate degree programs such as Master’s in Public Policy, Arts Administration, Museum Studies, Sociology that also have a “for good” emphasis.

The issue I’ve had is there isn’t one specific site that lists ALL these graduate degrees for good.

Roseanne Mirabellla’s website lists Nonprofit Management education graduate degree programs.

The National Association for Schools of Public Affairs Administration provides a directory of schools that offer Master’s of Public Administration, Master’s of Public Affairs and Master’s of Public Policy.

The Council on Social Work Education provides a directory of accredited schools that offer a Master’s of Social Work.

I have yet to find a directory that lists ALL the business schools that offer MBA’s with a social enterprise concentration. There have been several articles about the “best social entrepreneurship programs.”

The Smithsonian provides a list of schools that offer graduate degrees in Museum Studies.

The association of Arts Administration Education provides a list of schools that offer graduate degrees in Arts Administration.

Let me know what lists I’ve missed. I am sure there are many other “for good” graduate degree programs out there!!

Do you want to pursue a “do gooder career” but don’t know what undergraduate degree to choose? Have you visited sites like The Princeton Review or The College Board but haven’t found what you are looking for?

Then look no further — here’s a brief overview of majors/degrees you can choose from!

Typical do gooder undergraduate degrees include:

• Business Administration
• Public Administration
• Public Policy
• Social Work
• Philanthropic Studies
• Nonprofit Administration
• and the list goes on.

I’ll focus on describing the types of courses offered in four specific degree programs:

1) Business Administration

A typical undergraduate degree in Business includes courses in business administration, management, finance, organizational theory, marketing, human resources, economics and information technology. The good business schools are accredited through The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools in Business.

Recently business degree programs started offering “do gooder” courses in social entrepreneurship, social investing and B corporations (corporations that make a profit but are certified as being social responsible). They also offer clubs like net impact where you can do volunteer work in local organizations.

A great overview of social responsible businesses are discussed in Berrett-Kohler Publishers Social Venture Network series.

2) Public Administration

A typical undergraduate degree in Public Administration includes courses in public service, public finance, human resource management and organizational theory. The good public administration schools are accredited through the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration.

Public administration programs with the “do gooder” option offer courses in nonprofit management and leadership and fundraising.

3) Social Work

A typical undergraduate degree in Social Work includes courses in social welfare, social work practice, research methods and human behavior. The good schools are accredited through the Council on Social Work Education.

I believe all social work programs prepare students for do gooder careers.

4) Nonprofit Administration

A typical undergraduate degree in Nonprofit Administration includes courses in nonprofit management, fundraising, board of directors, finance, advocacy, public policy and human resource management. A list of universities that offer undergraduate degrees or certificates in nonprofit management can be found here.

Although there is no official accrediting body for nonprofit administration programs, many nonprofit administration programs follow curriculum guidelines prescribed by the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council.

Do one these degrees look interesting?  I encourage you to visit the accrediting website for a list of universities.  Then visit those university website and see what courses they offer.

Next post – Education for Good: Master’s degrees

I believe there needs to be several versions of the NPT Power and Influence Top 50 list that go beyond CEOs of national organizations. These lists should be:

• NPT Power and Influence: The Next Generation
• NPT Power and Influence: Community and Grassroots

In 2009 I wrote a blog post titled: My NP Times Top 50: The Next Generation of Nonprofit Leaders You Should Know. In this blog post I also emphasized the importance of creating a NPT Power and Influence list for the next generation.

Since that blog post was published many organizations have created programs to recognize and support the work of the next generation of nonprofit leaders.  One organization in particular, the Independent Sector created the NGen program.  NGen awards American Express NGen fellowships each year and the American Express NGen Leadership Award that “honors one accomplished nonprofit leader age 40 or under who has already demonstrated significant impact in addressing society’s critical needs.”

Other organizations such as StayClassy recognize the efforts of community and grassroots nonprofits and their leaders.  StayClassy has many different awards categories that recognize many different types of nonprofit organizations and many leaders within those organizations.

Over the years people have asked me to update my previous NP Times Top 50 blog post but I don’t think I need to because of organizations like IS NGen and StayClassy. These organizations go beyond the NPT Power and Influence and provide awards to nonprofit leaders who are not the CEOs of national organizations.

By working in a field I am passionate about, my work doesn’t feel like work at all.  When I wake up in the morning I love going to work.  I strive to be an Olympian in my job – that is – I strive to do the best I can!

If you’re reading this and you get frustrated by my last sentence then I encourage you to find a job and a career you are passionate about! For some of you this may be spending every day in the outdoors or for others it might be spending everyday with your family!

For me, my Olympics are spending everyday in the university setting, researching nonprofits and teaching nonprofit managers. What are your Olympics?

The reason why I wrote this post is because I get frustrated when people make sweeping statements like this: “Your life is not defined by jobs, degrees, or number of Facebook friends.”  Ok, sure that might be true for people who really dislike their job, don’t like school, or detest interacting on facebook. But we certainly wouldn’t say that statement to an Olympian. We would just sound stupid — Hey Olympian, “There’s more to life than the Olympics. Or, your life should not be defined by the number of medals you win!”

Way to be a downer.

Just like we encourage our Olympians to be all that they can be and train like mad for winning those medals, we need to also follow our passions and strive to be Olympians in our jobs! Even though we don’t get physical medals as a reward, our medals are the personal satisfaction from pursuing our passions EVERYDAY and enjoying the work that we do!!

Formed in the 1980′s, the Institute for Nonprofit Organization and Management housed the FIRST nonprofit master’s degree program in the country and was one of the first organizations to receive major capacity building grant funding.  Although USF’s nonprofit master’s degree program still exists, the nonprofit research center does not.

Over the years we’ve seen organizations struggle to shift their funding sources as nonprofit capacity building funding dries up.  I believe this is why a lot of organizations (to remain nameless) have their own capacity issues even though they are supposed to provide capacity building training and research.  Nonprofit capacity building funding was available until the mid-2000′s when there was a major shift in funding priorities.  For example, the Aspen Institute’s funding dried up as well as a couple of years ago Idealist.org’s funding almost dried up.

I am thankful that in this time when major capacity building funding has dried up that organizations are still striving, such as CompassPoint. CompassPoint has managed to sustain itself through a variety of funding sources, in a time when similar organizations across the U.S.A. are going out of business. CompassPoint is a example nonprofit that many organizations can learn from.

On August 3rd, I’ll be attending CompassPoint’s Nonprofit Day Conference in the San Francisco Bay Area. This one-day conference is the major conference for Nonprofit managers throughout the Bay Area and Western United States for that matter.  I don’t miss this conference due to its high quality nonprofit capacity building curriculum (see my previous posts about Nonprofit Day).

Then from August 8-10th I’ll be attending the Alliance for Nonprofit Management annual conference. The Alliance for Nonprofit management is a membership association made up of consultants, researchers, and organizations who build the capacity of nonprofits.  The Alliance is practically an all volunteer organization so it doesn’t get much national attention but offers amazing professional development opportunities through its annual conference and webinars.  What set’s the Alliance apart from other nonprofit conferences?  The Alliance brings researchers and practitioners together about nonprofit capacity building issues such as leadership development, evaluation and collaboration. Here’s this year’s list of conference sessions:

• From Output to Impact: Defining and Measuring the “So What” for Organizations
• The Matrix Map for Sustainability Planning: Learnings from 2 Years of Implementation
• Nonprofit Leadership Development: Letting Leaders Lead
• From Strategy to Evaluation to Impact
• One Community’s Response to Nonprofit Realignment
• Challenges Facing First Time Executive Directors – Research and Applied Lessons Learned
• CCAT Data and Emerging Implications for Capacity Building Practice
• Collaboration on Steroids: The Role of Third-party Facilitation in Developing Nonprofit Strategic Alliances
• Our Leadership Pipeline: Preparing and Supporting Emerging Capacity Builders

The Alliance, like many other organizations, is in the process of shifting their funding sources to be more sustainable.  They are looking to organization’s like CompassPoint for guidance.

I will be volunteering at these two conferences by providing social media coverage.  I believe these two conferences are important to sustaining the field of capacity building and provide trainings on how to build the capacity of the capacity builders.

I read many books before and after becoming a mom including:

• Mothers on the Fast Track: How a New Generation can Balance Family and Careers
• Mama PhD
• Getting It Right: How Working Mothers Successfully Take Up the Challenge of Life, Family, and Career

I was determined, probably stubborn in the fact that I was not going to give up my career when I had a baby.  I admit it, I was ONE of those people who made judgements about my friends and colleagues who had children.  Now that I’m a mom, I GET IT!  Every mom needs to make their own choices and every situation is different.  I choose a career and many of my wonderful friends choose to be stay-at-home moms.

So it makes me wonder, why are there still mommy wars?  I understand why people who don’t have kids make judgements against people who do, but those of us who are mommy’s why do we make judgements against each other? I am still very passionate about women/mothers being successful in the workplace and there have been some amazing articles recently about women working issues such as:

• ‘I’m Not Your Wife!’ A New Study Points to a Hidden Form of Sexism
• Networked moms are the new soccer moms – and they’re not on the sidelines

Even though I’m passionate about these working women/mother issues doesn’t mean that I think less of stay-at-home moms.  Stay-at-home moms are vital to our workforce as well.  My wonderful friends who are stay-at-home moms are vibrant volunteers in our churches, schools, and community–they keep the nonprofit sector going!  We need BOTH working moms and stay-at-home moms in our society, one is NOT any more important than the other.  So, let’s stop the mommy wars, we’re ALL moms and we’re in this together!!

Why is interpersonal relations so difficult for people/managers? Because it requires us to look at ourselves and how we interact with other people. If supervisors or employees don’t understand themselves and what makes them tick, they will create a poor working environment for their employees.

One my students last night shared how she went to an intensive supervisory training where she had to do a series of personality assessments and learn how she interacts with her employees.  That’s awesome!  I’d like more organizations to do this type of training.

Let’s take the TIME (I know this is very difficult to do) to find out why our employees are really performing badly.  Is it because they have personal issues going on at home? Are they having a conflict with one of their co-workers? Do they need to be challenged more? Or (can you truly ask yourself) Are you as a manager not communicating with them effectively so they can perform their jobs to the level they are expected to perform at? Or are is your employee just a poor performer?

It’s difficult, I know, but if we take the time to learn about ourselves and how we interact with other people as well as get to know our employees’ interpersonal skills, we can create a more productive and healthy work environment.

Initially 14 candidates applied for board positions and the nominating committee narrowed the field to 6. Now the members will vote and select 2 final candidates to serve on the board.

I’m excited and honored I’ve made it this far for I’m competing against some super talented people in the sector.

I would like to join the board of the Alliance for Nonprofit Management board to further the mission of the Alliance, more specifically:

Programming that enables Alliance members to meet the highest standards of capacity building and professional assistance.

• I’ve created both credit and non-credit nonprofit curriculum for several universities including (the University of San Diego, Rice University, and Grand Valley State University) and I would utilize my curriculum development expertise in future program planning for the Alliance.

Advocacy to enhance the capacity building field specifically and the nonprofit sector generally.

• Previously I served on the NGen Advisory Board (a program of the Independent Sector), the Nonprofit Workforce Coalition and I lobbied congress for nonprofit capacity building funding.  My previous experience supporting capacity building at the national level would help in future advocacy efforts of the Alliance.

Research, development, and dissemination of cutting-edge theory and practices.

• As a nonprofit pracademic I’ve conducted several national studies of the nonprofit workforce that were thoughtfully disseminated to the nonprofit community. I want to work with the Alliance to create strategies to improve research dissemination methods between nonprofit academics and the nonprofit community.

Generation of provocative dialogue for social change.

• I’ve developed and implemented social media strategies for several national nonprofit conferences. I would like to work with the Alliance to implement key social media strategies that would promote the Alliance, increase its membership, and further the dialog for social change. In addition, I have over 2.5k twitter followers and over 2k followers on my blog.

Please read a few of my linkedin recommendations — and you’ll see — I’ll make a great Alliance Board member!

Thanks for voting!!

In 2007 I wrote a post titled Tips for Moving to a New City.  When I moved to Grand Rapids, MI in August 2011 I followed the steps listed in my blog post, plus a few more steps listed below.

Here’s what I’m doing to get connected professionally and personally.

1) I wrote a list of organizations I want to join and participate in their local networking meetings (here are my top 3).

• Society of Human Resource Managers Grand Rapids
• Young Nonprofit Professionals Network Grand Rapids
• Association of Fundraising Professionals West Michigan

2) I am following GR now events calendar on facebook to find out about local charity events I want to attend and meet new people.

3) I am cold calling/emailing/connecting through linkedin CEO’s and senior staff members of local nonprofits I want to get to know and be guest speakers in my class.

4) I am setting up meetings with people I already know from my work on national committees and asking them to recommend people I should speak to or get to know.

Personally

5) I joined a local mom’s group.

6) I connected with a local scrapbooking consultant so I can continue to pursue my scrapbooking hobby.

7) My husband and I joined the local YMCA — best investment ever! We workout at our Y 2-3 times a week and our baby goes to daycare there.

8) We attended Art Prize an art competition that brings hundreds of thousands of visitors to Grand Rapids each year.  We were able to explore the Grand Rapids Public Museum, the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum, the Art Museum and other amazing sites throughout the city of Grand Rapids for FREE during the Art Prize festival!

One of the areas they really liked was the real life examples I provide in the classroom and the guest speakers I have brought into the classroom.  I was so happy to hear this because I’ve always believed that college professors need to have real world work experience they bring with them.  Being in the College of Community and Public Service we emulate this every day—the school of criminal justice (police academy) social work, and hospitality and tourism management are also all in my college and the majority of their professors worked in the field before getting a job as a professor at GVSU.

One of the main reasons why I moved to Grand Rapids was because of the Johnson Center on Philanthropy.  The Johnson Center is an academic center focused on increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the charitable sector. Their work involves conducting research, teaching effective practices, and providing pathways to service.

The Johnson Center provides professional development workshops for nonprofit organizations throughout the state of Michigan, it publishes the Foundation Review an awesome practitioner oriented journal, it houses the Grantmaking School, and is nationally know for its work with family foundations.  The Johnson Center will celebrate their 20th Anniversary starting in the fall and there will be awesome events and speakers coming to town for the celebration.

I’ve already presented one workshop “Starting a Nonprofit” and I look forward to presenting more in the future. I appreciate how I can stay connected to practice through my work with the Johnson Center.

What will happen in October (breast cancer awareness month) and all the pink products come out — will there be less donations, less support for breast cancer research? My students have asked me in class — will the Koman foundation recover?  I think a bigger question to ask is — will the color pink recover? Most importantly, will support for breast cancer research and awareness recover?

In this weeks finance class my students will be analyzing the financial statements of the Hull House Association.  I believe there were hard decisions the board of directors could have made to prevent this closure from happening.  In their 2008 990 (the only 990 available) they had a net income of 1mil and negative unrestricted net assets of $4.5mil.  I don’t even know how they got to be so in the red but clearly–they spent money that wasn’t available.  I am looking forward to a lively discussion with my students!

The biggest issue I’ve encountered while working in nonprofits is the lack of planning for volunteer management.  Like the case with nonprofit operations in general, many nonprofits don’t make the time to strategicly plan their volunteer recruitment and retention efforts.  All volunteers should be managed just like another member of the staff and should be able to:

1. Complete an volunteer application
2. Receive a job description
3. Be oriented and trained on the job
4. Receive communication on a consistent basis from the staff and board
5. Be evaluated and recognized for their efforts

I learned this the hard way t0o — its not “oh we need some volunteers this week so lets recruit them” but let’s plan in advance the volunteers we need this years, the skills we are looking for from those volunteers, and how we are going to recruit them.

One of the required readings for this section was the Strategic Volunteer Engagement Handbook. This helpful handbook lays out how nonprofits can effectively manage their volunteers.

Then there was the Nonprofit Workforce Coalition and spent a year working to develop a campaign to promote careers in the nonprofit sector.  We hit a wall when we realized that funding for the campaign would take away from funding for our organizations.

The I joined the Next Generation Leadership Forum, a committee aimed at documenting and replicating nonprofit leadership best practices. This Forum was started by the Craigslist Foundation but also dissolved when continued funding could not be obtained for the forum.

Now — there is the Initiative for Nonprofit Talent and Leadership started by the Independent Sector and supported by many national nonprofit organizations.

The Initiative for Nonprofit Talent and Leadership aims to create a set of goals and strategies that will serve as the foundation for a national cross-sector effort to better prepare, train, and sustain leaders to constructively and collaboratively address the complex challenges our society faces.

I hope this initiative is different than the other forums and committees that I described above.  I hope funders and the coalition members work to sustain this initiative long enough to influence leadership practices in the nonprofit sector. In addition, I hope this initiative builds on the work that has already been done to document nonprofit leadership best practices.

The first session I attended was the Teaching pre-conference workshop. The workshop was coordinated by Mary Ann Feldheim.  Mary brought together representatives from nonprofit academic organizations including:

• Dr. K. Tom Liou from the American Society for Pubic Administration (ASPA). The mission of ASPA is to advance the art, science, teaching, and practice of public and non-profit administration. Liou – ARNOVA Presentation

• Roseanne Mirabella, President of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) & Will Brown, create of NERF – Nonprofit Education Resource and Forum Website –to share resources and syllabi.  Will is part of the ARNOVA educational committee that created a teaching resource website.  Nonprofit faculty members submit syllabi, cases and other teaching resources.Mirabella and Brown ARNOVA Presentation

• Katherine Campbell, Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration.  CCVA advances the profession and practice of volunteer resource management. CCVA Resources – ARNOVA pane. CCVA Slides – ARNOVA panel

• Laural McFarlend, members of National Association of School of Public Affairs Education (NASPAA). The mission of NASPAA is to ensure excellence in training for public service and to promote the ideal of public service. NASPAA also serves as the accreditor tor for public service degree programs.NASPAA Presentation on Nonprofit Standards

• J. Patrick Murphy and Sean Shacklett, the Nonprofit Academic centers Council (NACC).  NACC is a membership association comprised of academic centers or programs at accredited colleges and universities that focus on the study of nonprofit organizations, voluntarism and/or philanthropy. Established in 1991, NACC is the first group entirely dedicated to the promotion and networking of centers that provide research and education in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector.

• Marcia Cross, Nonprofit Leadership Alliance. The mission of the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance is a national alliance of colleges, universities and nonprofit organizations dedicated to educating, preparing and certifying professionals to strengthen and lead nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit Leadership Alliance – ARNOVA Presentation 2011

These organizations have many nonprofit management education resources available to faculty, students, practitioners and funders.

The panel discussion mostly focused on the pros and cons of standardizing nonprofit curriculum. Some were in support of standardization and others had hesitations.  Several panelists and participants emphasized the importance of sharing learning outcomes and rubrics.

There was agreement that there are silos in nonprofit management education and work needs to be done to identify the common threads and skills that help people cope with the realities of nonprofit management.

• @CGCareers It’s not just about the ED, it’s about every single leader in your organization. John Ryan at Center for Creative Leadership. #nplead
• @CGCareers ”If we’re not developing leaders FROM w/in communities, I fear that we will not actually solve pressing problems.- John Rice #nplead“
• @RafaelLopez2 Disconnect b/w intent of #nonprofit sector & practice real, esp around racial and gender diversity- @echoinggreen Cheryl Dorsey #nplead
• @StephenBauer: Because we have under-invested in nonprofit talent we are not benefiting from top talent – Melody Barnes #NPLead
• @StephenBauer “Spriggs – How do we convince the public that human service infrastructure is worth investing in for our long-term sustainability? #NPLead“
• @kcambell We need to add human capital when talking ab jobs infrastructure. Its more than physical capital, we need training & skills -Spriggs #NPLead
• @saif305 “Nonprofits contributed over $779 Billion to US GDP – American Urban Institute”Melody Barnes – WH Domestic Policy Council #nplead
• @paulschmitz1: Dr. William Spriggs asst sec of labor, nonprofits 3rd largest employment sector after retail & manufacturing #nplead
• @RafaelLopez2 “Nonprofits employ over 13.5 million people in US, 10%of the American workforce. #nplead“

Yet, people are excited and acting like this is new information.  I have come to the conclusion it doesn’t matter what is being said in the sector but who is saying it.  Hopefully now that members of the white house are saying nonprofit leadership is important — things will really change and ALL funders and the general public will support nonprofit leadership, capacity building, and infrastructure.  As I’ve said before the culture of the nonprofit sector needs to change.  I personally am excited to teach Human Resource Management to nonprofit graduate students at Grand Valley State University in January and equip them to be better leaders, support and develop all the staff within their organizations, and not just value diversity — but practice cultural competency!

In the last ten years I’ve seen funders (foundations, corporations, individuals) stop funding organizations like VSD because it isn’t trendy.  Funders are obsessed with seeing the return on their dollars that needed infrastructure and capacity building organizations get pushed aside.   I’ve seen popular nonprofit management support organizations and nonprofit university programs go out of business due to lack of funding.  Some might argue that this is the natural life cycle of organization, however I disagree.  There will be a clear void in San Diego nonprofits with the closing of VSD and will be difficult for other organizations to take up the slack.  When will funders and the general public see the need to fund infrastructure and capacity building? Few foundations like the Community Foundation of New Orleans, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, and the Boston Foundation get it and provide general funding to infrastructure organizations.

1. Identify an issue
2. Research the issue
3. Create a fact sheet
4. “Brand” the issue
5. Map the possible supporters and detractors
6. Form a coalition
7. Develop educational materials
8. Launch a media campaign
9. Approach elected officials
10. Monitor progress on the issue

Students enrolled in her Nonprofit Advocacy course provided context and real life case studies in the book.  I especially enjoyed reading about her students who passed a “Breaking the Tire Cycle” Bill to clean up the Tijuana River Valley.

Pat will be visiting the Johnson Center on Philanthropy on Wednesday, October 12th to speak at the Nonprofit Lobbying Symposium.

I read two amazing books this summer that I will be using in my classes — these two books are Darian Rodriguez Heyman’s book Nonprofit Management 101: A Complete and Practical Guide for Nonprofit Managers and Professionals,  and Dalya Massachi’s book Writing to Make A Difference.

Starting with Nonprofit Management 101–I love this book for several reasons.  First, because it is written by leading experts in the field.  A few years ago I wrote a blog post: My NP Times Top 50: The Next Generation of Nonprofit Leaders You Should Know and I feel like Darian did the same thing with his book.  He went to his vast network and he recruited the leading experts in all areas of nonprofit management to write the chapters in the Handbook — for example he turned to Kivi Miller – expert in Communications and nonprofit newsletters, Kay Sprinkle Grace–expert in Fundraising and individual giving, Pamela Davis–expert in Risk Management and Insurance.  Being a great nonprofit manager is not just about having the necessary skills sets, it is also about the networking and knowing who or where to go to for further resources. When I teach nonprofit finance, fundraising, human resources, or information technology, I want my students to know the leading experts in the field of nonprofit management and to read chapters in Nonprofit Management 101.

Another reason I like the book is because it is practical.  I have been using Josey-Bass’s Handbook of Nonprofit Management and Leadership for many years now but it is primarily theoretical, so I am pleased to add Nonprofit Management 101 to my students’ reading list.  The only critique I have about this book is some nonprofit management subjects cover more chapters  than others. For example: fundraising received 6 chapters devoted to the subject and nonprofit finance and hr both only had one chapter each devoted to those subjects.  I would have liked to have more chapter coverage on those subjects as well.

The next book I read over the summer was Writing to Make A Difference by Dalya Massachi. This book provides practical writing tips and writing exercises for nonprofit employees at ALL levels of an organization. I WISH this book was around when I started working in the nonprofit sector.  I’ve worked very hard over the years to improve my writing skills and I am thankful that Dalya’s practical book will strengthen the quality of written work in the nonprofit sector.

I apologize to Darian and Dalya its taken me so long to write these book reviews!!

When the new Executive Director came on board, he/she announced the new name change (to the surprise of the members) and added new programming that would draw in new revenue but not directly benefit the members. As a result of these changes, the members were furious, they voiced their opinions at the annual membership meeting and threatened to pull out from the organization. But to the members dismay, the Executive Director and board did a series of things to not include the members in the changes ahead.

Members are struggling with how to proceed. They want to pull out, but the organization offers some unique programming that they feel they cannot get elsewhere. The members also like the bonds that they have formed with one another.

What should they do? 

Update-The Executive Director recently resigned and the board announced they will be returning back to their original mission and focus as a membership organization.

What should the members do?

Should they stay or should they go.

The report received a variety of press coverage:

• Chronicle of Philanthropy
• Nonprofit Times
• Forbes Blog

Key findings from the 2011 report include:

1. Although the HR function is viewed as critical within many organizations, it still remains a low priority for most organizations. Eighty-four percent of nonprofit respondents agreed that the HR function is critical to their organization’s ability to fulfill its mission, yet few prioritize the HR function within their organizations. The majority of respondent organizations (52 percent) do not have a dedicated HR professional and 55 percent rely upon existing staff to handle new programs and or initiatives.
2. Nearly a quarter of nonprofits lost staff in 2010. However 60 percent of those organizations indicated that they intend to hire or are considering the creation of new positions in 2011. This finding was consistent irrespective of the size of the organization.
3. When nonprofits lay off staff, 81 percent report using existing staff to fulfill the duties of the eliminated position. This is a worrisome trend as it could lead to
   burnout and premature turnover.
4. Turnover remains low. Economic improvements are not being realized as quickly as anticipated. Findings from this year’s survey revealed that turnover remains low within nonprofit organizations. Turnover rates for respondent organizations were calculated at 13 percent compared to last year’s rate of 21 percent. This low turnover rate is an indication that the economy might not be improving as quickly for nonprofits as it is for other sectors.
5. It’s still “who you know” when it comes to nonprofit recruitment. Nonprofits primarily use in person networking and newspapers to recruit job candidates. This is surprising considering the rapid growth and affordability of social networking tools over the past few years. This practice also has the potential to negatively impact diversity efforts.

The Caster Center co-organized three symposia around the country to present these key findings to the general public and bring in experts on the topic of human resource management and risk management.  Last Friday, over 75 people attended the San Diego symposium.  As part of the planning process, I collected best practice nonprofit HR resources and presentations from the presenters.  These resources and presentations are available through USD’s IdeaEncore online library.

This is exactly what the IRS has been doing — and I’m happy about it.  I think it is great that the IRS added an e-postcard filing system for small nonprofits.  I also think it is about time that the IRS clean its database.  Yes, there may be a few organizations that slip through the cracks that didn’t realize their tax exempt status has been revoked — if so, that is sad — because these organizations don’t know how to manage their paperwork to run a proper nonprofit organization.  Oh, and I realize there are some mistakes that the IRS has made on the list.  But instead of freaking out that there are $275 fewer nonprofits in the USA, let’s focus on the fact that the IRS is cleaning “house” and keeping track of the real nonprofits out there.

I’ve often thought about writing a post but then was reminded of that looming deadline I have approaching.  In less than 3 weeks I will defend my dissertation and if all goes well, I will become a Ph.D!!  It has been a long road to get here but a wonderful one.  I am so thankful for my amazing professors and mentors I have encountered along the way.  All four years have led up to this moment — where I will defend my dissertation study and then be sent out into the world.

Words cannot express how grateful I am for this experience and how my PhD program has prepared me for my future endeavors.   If you or anyone you know is interested in pursuing a Ph.D. with a specialization in nonprofit and philanthropic studies, please have them contact me. I’d be happy to share with them about my experience and the various programs that offer a similar type of experience!  Each year that I’ve been in the program I’ve written about my experiences:

• Confessions of a first year doctoral student
• Confessions of a second year doctoral student
  • Learning to write all over again…
  • Advice for PhD students: preparing for a career in academia
  • Being a Nonprofit Researcher in the 21st Century
• Confessions of a Third Year Doctoral Student: Interpersonal Skills Matter the Most
• Confessions of a Forth Year Doctoral Student: Persistence Pays Off
  • Choosing a Dissertation Topic
  • So you want to teach at the university level…here are some strategies I’ve learned

A lot of exciting things have happened in the past couple of months including, my first peer reviewed article was published in the Journal of Public Affairs Education!  It is titled: How We Could Measure Community Impact of Nonprofit Graduate Students’ Service-Learning Projects: Lessons from the Literature.

I love this work and I am really excited to see where it takes me next.  I’ve been interviewing for faculty jobs in nonprofit-focused master’s degree programs — so we’ll see!!

On another note,  I organized the social media team for the BenchMark 3.5 conference: The 4th Conference on Nonprofit and Philanthropic Studies.  BenchMark 3.5 was designed to consider the development of nonprofit/nongovernmental management, voluntarism, social entrepreneurship, and philanthropy as a field of study in higher education.  I am so thankful for the team, which was primarily made up of graduate students from DePaul University.  The social media team wrote over 30 blog posts from the conference – I’m still putting them up on the conference blog!  The social media team also took numerous videos throughout the conference, which are also posted on the blog, and they tweeted the conference using the hash tag #benchmark3  If you are interested in learning more about the field of nonprofit management and philanthropy as a field of study in higher education please check out the conference coverage!!