Nonprofit Harvest

Get More Bang for Your (Volunteer) Buck

Tracking Volunteer Time to Boost Your Bottom Line: A Complete Accounting Guide from Blue Avocado

Tracking volunteer time: sounds like another chore? Actually it can help you meet match requirements, improve your financial statement presentations, and reduce liability.

Read the full article for the whys and how-tos of tracking and reporting volunteer time and get more bang for your (volunteer) buck.

Collaboration

Last week I mentioned the award-wining collaboration between the YMCA and JCC/United Jewish Council of Greater Toledo.  SSIR recently interviewed the Collaboration Prize Co-Winners.

Mission Plus Strategy: What did each agency get from the merger?
Connie: The merger allowed each of our agencies to serve who they serve best, drawing from the strengths of each agency. The YMCA could handle all of the recreation activities, and daycare programs, where we are strong.
Abby: Because the YMCA was handling all the recreation and fitness programs that freed us up to completely focus on Jewish community programming and increase our services from cradle to grave

Read the full interview with Mission Plus Strategy to learn more about how “Two Faith-Based Nonprofits That Trust Each Other and Communicate Honestly Can Do Anything.”

Reconsidering Mission

Responding to the state of the economy and the housing market, Habitat Adds Demolition to Its Mission:

Workers will remove (and resell) reusable housing material rather than send it to landfills, some homeless or unemployed people will be paid to work on the program, and money earned through the demolitions will go toward the organization’s longtime goal of getting poor families into new or rehabbed homes.

“You have to look at the mission; the mission is to make housing more affordable,” said Paul Warriner, the executive director of Saginaw’s Habitat for Humanity affiliate. “And when you think about this, that isn’t too much of a stretch.

Updates from the Cohen Report

The Cohen Report perks up, with a series of new articles.

• Nonprofits Speaking for Themselves: The Impact of the National Economic Tailspin: This article compiles information from a number of surveys, including one by MCN, to gauge how the economy is impacting the nonprofit sector.  The post identifies key trends:
  • Budget deficits
  • Using reserves
  • Funding cuts – including sources of cuts and likely future reductions
  • Personnel cuts
  • Mergers
• How Corporate Giving Will Fare in This Recession 
• Foundation Payout Depends on How You Average

Tips for Your Board

• Board role in crisis from pubTalk
• To Be or Not to Be…High Performing from Greenlights

This Week’s Harvest

• Federal News Update for Your Nonprofit
• Why nonprofits are like so totally out of fashion
• What Social Media Can Teach Us About Sustainability
• Funder/Grantee Relationships: Or, What To Do After You Get That Check
• 25 Random Things that Make the Nonprofit Sector Great

And don’t miss out on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s next live discussion, Managing in Hard Times: How Nonprofit Leaders Can Make the Right Decisions.  Participate Tuesday, March 24th at 11 CT/12 ET or read the transcript.