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Nonprofit Resources

We've listed below some of the web sites we find especially helpful regarding nonprofit leadership, organizational development, and sustainability.

Board Development

  • Blue Avocado
    http://www.blueavocado.org/

    Blue Avacado is the magazine for people who work and volunteer in the nonprofit sector. You can receive it via email by signing up for a free subscription at www.blueavocado.org

  • Board Café
    www.boardcafe.org
    Column in Blue Avocado magazine put out by Compass Point Nonprofit Services for boards of directors and people who work and volunteer in the nonprofit sector. Dubbed “The newsletter for nonprofit boards short enough to read over a cup of coffee.” New Board Café articles can be read on the Blue Avocado website or can be received via email by signing up for a free subscription at www.blueavocado.org.
  • Boardsource

    www.boardsource.org
    An extensive nonprofit governance resource for nonprofit leaders both online and through a national membership program. Services include online publications, leadership workshops, individualized governance consulting, and an annual nonprofit leadership conference of roughly 1000 executives, board members, senior staff, and governance consultants from around the world.

  • Board Net USA
    www.boardnetusa.org
    A national on-line service where organizations can network and advertise for new board members and leaders. Members include nonprofit resource centers, volunteer centers, leadership & training programs, consulting services, management support organizations, and community foundations.

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Capacity Building

  • Alliance for Nonprofit Management
    www.allianceonline.org
    A member organization of nonprofit leaders that promotes quality in nonprofit capacity building. The Alliance convenes a major annual conference, networks colleagues year-round online, and provides member discounts on books and other publications. Members include consultants, technical assistance providers, training organizations, writers and researchers, educators, grant providers, philanthropic organizations, and a bevy of wide-ranging management support organizations (MSOs).
  • Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA):
    www.ARNOVA.org
    Neutral open forum that brings together researchers, scholars, and practitioners from around the world and works to strengthen the research community in the emerging field of nonprofit and philanthropic studies. Its main forms of outreach are an annual conference, a variety of publications, and electronic discussions and seminars.
  • Bridgespan
    http://www.bridgespan.org/
    Founded in 2000, the Bridgespan Group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps nonprofit and philanthropic leaders in the hard work of developing strategies and building organizations that inspire and accelerate social change.  It aims to support and strengthen the nonprofit sector by enhancing the flow of passionate and highly-skilled leaders into matched organizations. Additional services include strategy consulting, financial advising, and online tutorials for performance/growth management.
  • Center for Excellence in Nonprofits
    http://www.cen.org/
    Established in 1994, the Center for Excellence in Nonprofits in San Jose, California, provides the nonprofit community with leadership development and continuous improvement programs through its innovative Learning Community model. CEN's larger goal is to elevate a whole community of nonprofit organizations into the best-managed agencies in America.
  • CompassPoint Nonprofit Services
    A nonprofit training, consulting, and research organization that provides nonprofits with the management tools, concepts, and strategies to increase their effectiveness and impact.
  • Grantmakers for Effective Organizations
         http://www.compasspoint.org/
    Founded in 1997, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations promotes and advocates for the use of philanthropic resources to advance nonprofit organizational effectiveness and accelerate the development, dissemination, and application of knowledge about nonprofit organizational effectiveness practices by and for philanthropy and nonprofit.
  • The Nonprofit Risk Center
    www.nonprofitrisk.org
    A national organization that monitors, advocates, and educates on liability issues for nonprofits. The center offers consulting services and workshops and produces a variety of publications and electronic materials on legal and insurance topics.
  • Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations
    www.pano.org
    PANO is a Pennsylvania-based membership organization serving and advancing the charitable nonprofit sector through leadership, advocacy, education and services in order to improve the quality of life in the state. Memberships provides access to benefits including insurance products, discounted software and technology, payroll and tax services, discounted office supplies, and admission to educational seminars. The organization runs a quarterly newsletter, “Keynotes,” with information about fundraising, news from the nonprofit sector, and risk management.

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Evaluation

  • American Evaluation Association
    www.eval.org/
    The American Evaluation Association is an international professional conglomeration of evaluators devoted to the assessment and improvement of programs, policies, personnel, technology, products, and organizations in the nonprofit sector. AEA has approximately 5500 members representing all 50 states in the US as well as over 60 foreign countries.
  • Harvard Family Research Project
    www.hfrp.org
    Organization dedicated to helping stakeholders develop strategies to promote the well being of children, youth, families, and their communities. HFRP primarily focuses on early childhood education, out-of-school programming, and community support in education, with services rooted in research, program refinement, and evaluation. The website includes a library of publications and projects developed by the organization that act as a “how-to” guide for other nonprofit groups.
  • Innovation Network
    www.innonet.org/
    National program evaluation service that provides program planning, management consulting, training, and web-based tools tailored to the client’s specific area of nonprofit specialization. The Innovation Network is partnered with the Center for Evaluation Innovation, which focuses almost exclusively on evaluation research and training.
  • The Urban Institute- The Outcome Indicators Projectwww.urban.org/center/cnp/projects/outcomeindicators.cfm
    The Outcome Indicators Project provides a framework for tracking the performance of organizations seeking to develop new outcome monitoring processes or improve their existing systems. The project’s website contains three main sections devoted to measuring program-specific nonprofit performance as well as generic outcome indicators that can be used for any program. Sample tables and charts are available for download, as well as sample data sources, mission statements, and data collection strategies.

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Financial Management

  • Community Accountants (Philadelphia)
    http://www.communityaccountants.org/
    CA teaches small grassroots nonprofit organizations financial oversight, accounting, and bookkeeping services to ensure high standards of financial management to help nonprofit organizations move into the future.On a one-on-one basis, volunteers assist small and medium size groups to develop revised and/or computerized accounting systems. They assist in budgeting, payroll, and almost any other financial management issue. Nonprofit boards apply to CA for financial management professionals who will join their board and or finance committee to provide oversight. Professionals are recruited and referred; CA staff follows up until placement is complete.
  • Nonprofit Finance Fund
    http://nonprofitfinancefund.org/
    The Nonprofit Finance Fund® (NFF) makes millions of dollars in loans to nonprofits and pushes for fundamental improvement in how money is given and used in the sector. It provides a continuum of financing, consulting, and advocacy services to nonprofits and funders nationwide. In addition to loans and lines of credit for a variety of purposes, NFF organizes financial training workshops, performs business analyses, and customizes its services to meet the unique financial needs of each client.

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Fundraising

  • Association of Fundraising Professionals Resource Center
    www.afpnet.org/resourcecenter/
    Internet transaction and fundraising information and legalities for nonprofits. The Association of Fundraising Professionals has 30,000 members in 206 chapters throughout the world working to advance philanthropy through advocacy, research, education, and certification programs.
  • The Foundation Center
    www.foundationcenter.org
    A national nonprofit service established in 1956 and supported by close to 550 foundations that are a part of an online, searchable, Foundation Directory. The website includes links to articles on fundraising and building capital campaigns, and provides introductory information that can help organizations get started.
  • Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training (GIFT)
    www.grassrootsfundraising.org
    Develops and strengthens the grassroots fundraising skills of people working for social justice. The goal of GIFT is to build the capacity of progressive organizations to raise money through a broad base of individual donors and to increase the number of people of color in fundraising. GIFT also publishes the Grassroots Fundraising Journal and their website contains a complete archive of author Kim Klein’s Dear Kim fundraising advice column.
  • GuideStar
    www.guidestar.org
    National database of U.S. charitable organizations featuring data on more than 850,000 IRS-recognized nonprofits. Created by Philanthropic Research, Inc.
  • Network for Good
    www.networkforgood.org
    Nonprofit organization that provides easy and affordable online fundraising services to other nonprofits. Services include custom DonateNow for online donation processing and EmailNow for email outreach and online surveys.

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Jobs

  • Idealist
    www.idealist.org
    A global directory of nonprofit-related information including nonprofit organizations, consultants, products, services, publications, and events.
  • Job Corner, Philanthropy News Digest (PND)
    http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/jobs/
    Features current full-time job openings at U.S. Foundations, grantmaking public charities, and other nonprofit organizations.
  • Philanthropy Careers, The Chronicle of Philanthropy
    http://philanthropy.com/section/Jobs/224/
    Provides a searchable list of current job openings in nonprofits along with related tools and resources for job seeking and career success in the nonprofit sector.

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Legal

  • Nonprofit Issues
    http://www.nonprofitissues.com/

    Nonprofit Issues is a national Web newsletter of "Nonprofit Law You Need To Know." Written for nonprofit executives and their advisors, Nonprofit Issues provides clear, concise and comprehensive coverage of real issues that affect nonprofits every day.Subscribers receive the most recent news twice a month, except January and September. Nonprofit Issues provides direct links to cases, statutes or regulations where available so readers can review the full text of the document. An archives section makes back issues available free to subscribers.

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Technology

  • MAP for Nonprofits:
    Building, Managing, and Promoting Your Site
    http://www.managementhelp.org/infomgnt/web/web.htm
    Basic, helpful information about computer systems, the internet, websites, and more. A great place to start learning.
  • NPower
    www.npower.org
    Network of independent, locally based nonprofits providing accessible technology solutions that strengthen the work of other nonprofits. NPower's strategy is to reach more organizations by engaging more corporate IT leaders and to connect socially responsible companies and their local nonprofits.
  • TechAtlas
    http://techatlas.org/tools/
    Online tool that helps online organizations assess, plan for, and manage the technology they need to make an even greater difference in their communities. TechAtlas walks organizations through the tech planning process from creating a vision of how technology could be more effective for their org to generating a final report that can be shared with board and staff. Additional tools include online inventorying, help desk tracking, and special assessments. Managed by NPower and used by more than 13,000 companies.
  • TechSoup
    www.techsoup.org
    A soup of technology information tailored for nonprofits. Includes tech discussion, tutorials, free webinars, products and product comparisons, and links to external services. The information is presented for all levels of technical expertise and can be applied to organizations of any size. Web materials include original TechSoup content as well as relevant material republished from partner organizations, consultants, and nonprofit leaders.
  • Verizon Foundation Resource Center
    http://foundation.verizon.com/resourcecenter/
    A set of online tools and training partnerships to help organizations use technology more effectively in the areas of planning, communications, fundraising, recruitment, and evaluation.

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Volunteers

  • Corporation for National and Community Service
    www.nationalservice.gov
    Works with governor-appointed state commissions, nonprofits, faith-based groups, schools, and other civic organizations to provide community service opportunities. Includes program information on volunteer opportunities available with AmeriCorps, SeniorCorps, Learn & Serve, and various other internships, fellowships, and service-related jobs.
  • Energize, Inc.
    www.energizeinc.com
    Energize, Inc. is a training, consulting, and publishing company that specializes in voluntarism. Website includes an online resource library organized by subject and linked to articles, guides, and relevant web sites.
  • Service Leader
    www.serviceleader.org
    Information on all aspects of volunteer management, including screening, matching, record-keeping, evaluation, legal issues/risk management, volunteer/staff relations, online activism, and management software.
  • Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN),
    Philadelphia Branch
    www.ynpn.org
    Organizes social, professional development, and networking opportunities for young people involved in the Philadelphia area nonprofit community. YNPN aims to strengthen career support and build a more inclusive nonprofit sector that develops and retains talent from all backgrounds.

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