Common Ground
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Foundation Group Blog  Info and tips for nonprofit formation and compliance.

Johns Hopkins Listening Post Project Monitoring in a systematic and timely way what is happening to nonprofit organizations in the U.S.

Social Media 4 Nonprofits An idea exchange on how social networking tools can help nonprofit organizations increase advocacy & fundraising.

StayExempt.org Web-based mini-courses on tax basics for Tax Exempt Organizations from, yup, the IRS.

For more info: WNA Career Center

Vice President, Lending, Forward Community Investments, Madison

Teacher, Milwaukee Teaching Fellows, Milwaukee

Nonprofit Accounting Intern, Community Shares of Greater Milwaukee, Milwaukee

Community Relations Coordinator - Hospitals/Hometown, Kohl's Corporation, Menomonee Falls

Our purpose is to increase the effectiveness, visibility, and credibility of Wisconsin's nonprofits through advocacy, resource sharing, and technical support.
We find common ground for common good to offer a collective voice for nonprofits.

Call for Presentations - due Jan 15: We're looking for a few more hot topics for our Summit workshops! Our growing Summit is a key venue to connect with nonprofit leaders from across Wisconsin. If you've got knowledge to share in an engaging way on current trends in the nonprofit sector or on issues specific to nonprofit management, send a short description of your proposed presentation by January 15 at 5pm to Summit2010@WisconsinNonprofits.org.

Sponsors and Exhibitors: Yes! We welcome your support. For information on how you can get involved, contact Mary Riordan (or at 608-772-5962).

Members - be part of Summit planning: Be on the inside track – Help us finalize our Summit and develop the networking activities that we will all enjoy and remember. You can be geographically independent; we will share ideas via email and ReadyTalk conference calls. Contact Mary Riordan (or at 608-772-5962)

Members:
Join a Committee or Work Group -
Get More Than You Give

Congress Agrees to $50 Million for Social Innovation Fund, Cuts Volunteer Fund
Congressional negotiators have agreed to allocate $50 million in the 2010 fiscal year for the new Social Innovation Fund, which will provide grants to help promising nonprofit groups expand effective programs — the full amount requested by President Obama. However, in a deal [Dec 8] on the Corporation for National and Community Service budget, a House-Senate conference committee decided to trim spending on two other programs designed to help nonprofit groups — the Volunteer Generation Fund and the Nonprofit Capacity Building Program.

IRS Announces 2010 Standard Mileage Rates
The IRS has lowered the standard mileage rates used to deduct costs of operating an automobile for business, medical, and moving purposes. The standard mileage rate for employees - including nonprofit employees - will decrease effective January 1, 2010, from 55 cents per mile to 50 cents per mile. The rate for driving for medical or moving purposes will decrease from 24 cents per mile to 16.5 cents. The IRS has authority to change those rates to reflect costs incurred. But Congress set the mileage for charitable volunteers in statute and locked in the rate at just 14 cents a mile and has not adjusted the rate in the last 12 years. Because it costs volunteers as much to fill up their gas tanks as it does employees, the National Council of Nonprofits continues to advocate that Congress eliminate this unfair  treatment of nonprofit volunteers.

Arts Organizations - Make Sure You're Counted
Wisconsin is home to 10,571 arts-related businesses that employ 44,895 people. These for-profit and nonprofit businesses employ a creative workforce, spend money locally, generate government revenue, and are a cornerstone of tourism and economic development. Do these stats include you? Make sure you're counted in the Wisconsin edition of the annual Creative Industries: Business & Employment in the Arts report by Dun & Bradstreet. This report offers a research-based approach to understanding the scope and importance of the arts to the nation's and Wisconsin's economy. If you have a Dun and Bradstreet (DUNS) number, you will be counted. If you do not have a DUNS number, find out why and how HERE. 

Down but Not Defeated: Results of GuideStar's Eighth Annual Nonprofit Economic Survey
A survey of public charity and private foundation employees was conducted online from October 1, 2009, until October 15, 2009, the eighth annual nonprofit economic survey conducted by GuideStar, and the third of three such surveys conducted by GuideStar in 2009. The purposes of the survey were to compare how charitable organizations fared during the first nine months of 2009 to previous years and to try to gauge the effect of the downturn in the economy on the American nonprofit sector

Entrepreneurship: strategy for nonprofit success?
The Listening Post Project’s survey (pdf) on the economic downturn’s effects on nonprofits found that more than half of respondents increased their fundraising efforts and decreased their administrative costs in an effort to keep their organizations afloat. Less than half pursued entrepreneurial strategies such as expanding their marketing and advocacy efforts or starting a for-profit subsidiarity. However, these respondents were more likely than all organizations to report “successful” or “very successful” financial performance.

Diversity & the Nonprofit Ecosystem: Part 2 in the 3-Part Diversity Series
This article -- Part 2 of 3 on nonprofit diversity -- looks more broadly at how diversity is understood for the nonprofit sector as a whole. Here we speak especially to foundations, consultants, capacity builders, and observers of the nonprofit sector.

New Wisconsin Law Loosens Requirements for Nonprofits to Hire Minors
This month Governor Doyle signed into law Senate Bill 349 (pdf), which allows nonprofit organizations to employ a minor 12 years of age or older without a permit to work in and around the home of an elderly person or person with a disability.

[opinion] Learning from Experience
As our country prepares for the annual holiday where Americans predictably over-indulge, I’ve been reflecting on an important concept in risk management: the role of experience. As I’ve told many audiences, experience is an invaluable risk management tool available to every nonprofit leader. Yet as Paul J. H. Schoemaker reminds us, “Experience is inevitable. Learning is not.”

The IRS View of Nonprofit Governance
With recent substantial changes to Form 990, the Internal Revenue Service has taken the position that good governance is of paramount importance to nonprofit organizations. Its Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division (TE/GE) has identified what constitutes good governance—an engaged, informed, and independent board; defined policies and practices; and transparency—and is focusing agency resources on enforcement of compliance with these standards.

[podcast] On Being Board
Pat Wyzbinski shares her thoughts about nonprofit boards and challenges associated with governing nonprofit organizations today and in the future.  Drawing upon more than three decades of experience as a management consultant, Pat reflects on board composition, public scrutiny, complacency, and communication inside and outside the boardroom.  This episode of BoardStar: On Being Board marks the conclusion of the free podcast series.

Word of Mouth Marketing
Word of mouth. It is the holy grail of marketing. It's effective and inexpensive. Everyone dreams of achieving it, but few organizations are truly able to make it work. Most likely it's because they are not ready for word of mouth. Before you get started on this journey, look in the mirror and ask yourself a few questions. Answer them honestly; if you don't answer Yes to these questions, you may need to address some internal challenges first.

Optimizing Your Donation Landing Pages to Increase Giving
Only 20% (sometimes as few as 10%) of the people who come to a donation page actually complete the transaction. Learn best practices to optimize your nonprofit’s donation page and increase online giving!

The Language of Change For Nonprofits
Your nonprofit’s message should be simple, fit on a napkin, clear, concise, compelling. Learn how to make your potential donors understand that he/she can SAVE LIVES. Learn the language of change and your organization will benefit greatly.

See Full Calendar for More

Webinar: Introduction to Website Analytics, 1/7, 12-1:30p. How many people visit your web site every day? What are visitors doing when they get there? Which features are most popular? Learn tools and strategies to get the answers to these questions. Includes demos of free tools such as AWStats and Google Analytics, what these tools can tell you, and what the statistics mean. For more info/to register. (WNA Members receive a discount for this Idealware webinar when using the special Members-only link)

Workshop: Fundamentals of Nonprofit Management, Eau Claire. 1/12, 8:30a-4p.  Learn the fundamental elements of a successful nonprofit as well as some historical perspective on the nonprofit sector. Topics include: human resource management, negotiation and conflict resolution, staff diversity, volunteer recruitment and management, and budgeting in these economic times and beyond. (#1 of 6 in the Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Series from UW-Eau Claire Continuing Education. Register for some or all of the workshops.) For more info/to register.

Our online Career Center is aimed specifically at the Wisconsin nonprofit job market. It is  free to Job Seekers and offers value pricing for Employers that are WNA Members.

Job Seeker features include:

• Anonymous resume posting and control over the amount of information available for viewing by prospective employers
• Job Alert System automatically emails new job postings that match seekers' criteria - no need to monitor the site constantly
• Save searches, store and keep notes on jobs, communicate with employers within the Career Center, and more.

Employer features include:

• Create a free company profile, with logo and detail of your organization and work environment
• Free browsing of all anonymous resumes; pay for only those of candidates who also want to connect with you.
• Job postings are also broadcast directly to job seekers according to their search criteria - so you reach active and passive candidates

Our Career Center was designed in partnership with Job Target, a leading career site services company that has access to large pools of qualified candidates.

The Arc Fox Cities, Menasha
Big Picture Events, Ashland
Community Shares of Greater Milwaukee, Milwaukee
Portage County Literacy Council, Stevens Point
Step Industries, Neenah
Wisconsin Youth Company, Madison
YWCA of Greater Milwaukee, Milwaukee
Michael Zahn, Glendale

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