Hooray to all those hard working Admin/Operations/HR/IT/Finance staff within nonprofits. This is your week to celebrate and appreciate your role in the organization!

Why isn't there a holiday for program staff or executives—you say?

Because we as admin/operations/hr/finance staff do the grunt work that no one else likes to do!

Specifically, we:

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007.  Join us for an interactive Nonprofit Operations Brown Bag Lunch discussion about best practices for creating and maintaining an Operations Manual.

We'll be discussing what are standard sections in an Operations Manual as well as provide an Operations Manual sample/template.

No need to RSVP—just come and join the discussion.

During the past few months I've been learning a lot about GIS (mapping) software. I've also spoken to quite a few nonprofits who would like to use GIS software to map out their constituents and relevant data, but don't know what steps to take.

As the lone accidental techie at the SF Tech Center, I am no means an expert on this subject, however I thought I'd share what I'm learning about GIS for Nonprofits.

Since our year end is December 31st, I'm currently working with our Accountant to file our 990 for 2006—which is due June 15th. It is rather fitting that while I was attending the West Coast Nonprofit Data Conference over the weekend, I learned about the Urban Institute's Electronic Filing Service for Nonprofits.

I'm hosting the blog carnival nonprofit consultants this week; however postings were few—possibly due to spring break? So, I decided to pull some great posts from other bloggers in the sector.

1. Ken Goldstein of the Nonprofit Consultant blog has a great post this week about the importance of having nonprofits using an emotional hook in a fundraising pitch and/or proposal.

I admit it, I am a pretty optimistic person. I love what I do and I love working and studying about the nonprofit sector. However, lately I've become saddened by all the reports, weekly articles and blog posts about the looming leadership deficit in the nonprofit sector.

Enough is enough, I have an opinion in this matter! We are going to survive, the nonprofit sector is going to be alright. We've seen hardships before, we tend to work through a lot of crisises and there are actually leaders in the pipeline.

Wow! I attended the Nonprofit Technology Conference last week in DC and I have to say it is the most exhausting conference I attend all year. I think the exhaustion stems from the combination of attending great workshops during the day, then social events in the evening, and preparing for Aspiration's Penguin Day which occurs immediately following the NTC each year.