Information System for a Volunteer Center: System Design for Not-for-Profit Organizations with Limited Resources by S. Chalasani

This case focuses on the development of information systems for not-for-profit volunteer-based organizations. Specifically, we discuss an information system project for the Volunteer Center of Racine (VCR). This case targets the analysis and design phase of the project using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) methodology, database modeling, and aspects of project management including scope and risk management. Students must decide how to proceed, including recommending an IT solution, managing risk, managing scope, projecting a schedule, and managing personnel. The rewards and special issues involved with systems for not-for-profit organizations will be revealed. This case can be used in a variety of courses, including systems analysis and design, database management systems, and project management.

Here is a GREAT little book I read: Order From Chaos by Liz Davenport

Is your office a mess? Are your files totally disorganized? Perhaps you are setting up your office for the first time?

This book will definitely help you get organized! Keep it close so you can refer back to it often!

Fundraising for Social Change by Kim Klein

Since it was first published in 1988, Fundraising for Social Change has become one of the most widely used books on fundraising in the United States. Fundraising practitioners and activists rely on it for hands-on, specific, and accessible fundraising techniques, and it has become a required text in dozens of college courses around the country. This fifth edition offers the information that has made the book a classic: proven know-how on asking for money, planning and conducting major gifts campaigns, using direct mail effectively, and much more. The book has been significantly changed to include new technology—e-mail, online giving, and blogs—and contains expanded chapters on capital and endowment campaigns, how to feel comfortable asking for money, how to recruit a team of people to help with fundraising, and how to build meaningful relationships with donors. In addition, this essential resource contains new information on such timely topics as ethics, working across cultural lines, and how to create opportunities for fundraising more systematically and strategically

The Grantwriter’s Start-Up Kit: A Beginner’s Guide To Grant Proposals by Successful Images, Inc.

Fundraisers are often intimidated by the prospect of writing grant proposals. But missing a grant opportunity can mean losing important programs and essential services. For the fundraiser in need of practical skills and guidance, The Grantwriter’s Start-Up Kit shows how to prepare for the process of writing a successful grant proposal.

Are you trying to do it all? Are you answering the phones, copying the brochures, scheduling appointments, and taking the minutes at the board meetings? Then you probably need a virtual assistant.

A virtual assistant can take on various tasks such as:
• Meeting logistics (event planning, registration, vendor coordination, etc.)
• Scheduling (appointments, meetings, interviews, and events)
• Website (maintain websites and/or build websites)
• Social networking (creating social media pages, adding business updates, and making business connections)
• Donor database (create, maintain, and update)
• Bookkeeping (sent out end of year donor letters, and maintain financial bookkeeping records)

These are just a sampling of tasks that a virtual assistant can help with. Together you can make your dream wish list of tasks, and your virtual assistant will make find solutions for you.

In my next post, we’ll talk about how a virtual assistant can assist with fundraising efforts.

Too often we try to do it all on our own, and that is a waste of resources. So, take a minute to review what you are spending your time doing, and then consider giving over everything that doesn’t need your personal attention to a virtual assistant.

According to AssistU (the premiere organization for training virtual assistants), a virtual assistant (or VA) is a micro business owner who provides administrative and personal support to clients in long-term and deeply collaborative relationships. A VA frees a client up to do more of what the client loves and does best.

So, how are you overworking yourself? Have you taken on all aspects of the business to get it up and running? If so, what’s lacking? What’s not getting done?

This month, I’ll be writing a few blog posts about the benefits of a nonprofit organization working with a virtual assistant.

AssistU - Looking for a trained Virtual Assistant (VA)? Look no further…

A professional VA is a micro business owner who provides administrative and personal support to clients in long-term and deeply collaborative relationships. A VA frees a client up to do more of what the client loves and does best.

Provided by: AssistU

The Public Relations Handbook for Nonprofits: A Comprehensive and Practical Guide by Art Feinglass

Nonprofit organizations must employ effective, professional public relations techniques in order to get the recognition, support and dollars they need to fulfill their missions. The Public Relations Handbook for Nonprofits offers you the first comprehensive guide to all the practices organizations need to do well in their efforts to do good. This title examines all the elements, tools and processes involved in an effective nonprofit PR campaign.

Offering a combination of theory and practice, it shows you how to market to your key audiences, both inside and outside of your organization. In addition to helping you understand you target markets and shaping your message for your audience, Feinglass discusses all the key public relations vehicles, including:
news releases, press kits, brochures, newsletters, annual reports, direct mail, advertising, the internet, special events

A final chapter walks you step by step through the process of developing your own comprehensive public relations campaign.

NPC: Tell us a little bit about your organization, Children of the Earth. Why was it started?

Nina Meyerhof: I brought young people from around the world together to attend the World Summit for Children that was being held at the United Nations. I’m an educator and something inside of me was touched that the summit wasn’t “of children,” it was “for children.” I wanted to activate young people so they could see that they have a voice in their own future and destiny; they can participate in declarations that pertain to their own life. It was the first time that young people were able to present. They presented to UNICEF, the Dalai Lama, and to the General Assembly.

I’ve always been in education. I use to run a children’s camp called Heart’s Bend, and it was there that I ran leadership programs for 30 something odd years. I was also a Special Ed Director for ten schools. So what emerges is that I finally stepped out into the world and did global education and multi-cultural education. I started peeling the onion looking at what is the inner core that brings us all together as one humanity. Children of the Earth was booked as an understanding that our spiritual nature is universal and all our dreams are the same; we just have different processes that brings us to that goal.

I traveled around the world and started doing programs in different areas. In the last 3 – 4 years, we received a grant and it’s helped build our capacity by allowing us to put the pieces together as an infrastructure and have a way to tally everything we’re doing. Children of the Earth is building the platform for the voices of young people in the consciousness movement.




NPC: Who does it serve?

Nina Meyerhof: Children of the Earth serves young people who feel within themselves a stirring and knowingness that there can be a better world and that there is hope; they want to participate in the process. We formed spiritual hubs and social action chapters around the world so that young people who follow spiritual principles could work towards aiding their country through different projects. Children of the Earth includes approximately 10,000 young people from around the world. Our long-term goal is to build a virtual platform with mentors, books, and blogging–giving voice to young people so they know there is a home for them in the spiritual movement. Our young people range in age from15 – 30.




NPC: How long have you been in operation

Nina Meyerhof: Children of the Earth was formed in 1990.




NPC: How many people did you serve your first year?

Nina Meyerhof: At first young people visiting our website averaged anywhere from 30 – 50. We are now setting up a pyramid of action by training certain young people and in return they train others and it continues. The pyramid creates a ripple effect that helps get more young people involved.






NPC: What is your most difficult challenge as a nonprofit?

Nina Meyerhof: I think everyone would say finances; trying to find means of sustainability. We need to have our hubs and chapters stand on their own. We support them in different manners, and we have a lot of volunteers. However, volunteers come and go. I would love to give stipends to young people so they can see their life work and find means to really focus on it. Our capacity grant has helped us get on our feet and get organized, but it will eventually run out.




NPC: What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a nonprofit?

Nina Meyerhof: The biggest advice is to have a passion for what you’re doing because it’s a long road ahead. The benefits are much more in terms of you fulfilling your destiny and purpose rather than saying I have an income.

NPC: How can people get involved?

Nina Meyerhof: There are so many ways to get involved. Right now we’re setting up volunteer programs in Nepal to help build a school and an orphanage in Rwanda. We’re in need of administrative help and finding young people who are good with social networking. It’s all about volunteering and finding your niche. You have to be strong in what your offering and be willing to work to make it a collective. I’d love to invite young people from the United States to get more involved. We have people all over the world, but the U.S. they come and go like it’s a diversion rather than a life’s work. I have the wonderful opportunity of always presenting at major conferences, and it is my goal to bring young people with me so that they can one day take on that role. It would be really good to have some U.S. contacts.

NPC: Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

Nina Meyerhof: We’re at the point of how we’re defining ourselves as we go beyond religion into not interfaith but intrafaith. We try to weave the understanding of where is the universal human being and what is the goal of life on planet earth so that there is no division but looking at our sameness’s rather than learning tolerance for differences.

Dr. Nina Meryhof is the President of Children of the Earth. For more information about the organization, please visit the website at www.coeworld.org.

How can carpal tunnel syndrome be prevented?

At the workplace, workers can do on-the-job conditioning, perform stretching exercises, take frequent rest breaks, wear splints to keep wrists straight, and use correct posture and wrist position. Wearing fingerless gloves can help keep hands warm and flexible. Workstations, tools and tool handles, and tasks can be redesigned to enable the worker’s wrist to maintain a natural position during work. Jobs can be rotated among workers. Employers can develop programs in ergonomics, the process of adapting workplace conditions and job demands to the capabilities of workers. However, research has not conclusively shown that these workplace changes prevent the occurrence of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Provided by: National Institutes of Health