PANO is a statewide organization strengthening the charitable nonprofit sector through leadership advocacy and education in order to improve the quality of life for Pennsylvania's people.
Each month, PNR delivers state and national news that affect the nonprofit sector—original and unbiased, with regular columns and features by nonprofit experts in their fields, including White Hat Communications' Gary Grobman.
Among the features you can find are—
Nonprofit Issues offers clear, concise and comprehensive
coverage of real issues that affect nonprofits every day. They
select from current federal and state cases the issues of critical
importance to nonprofit executives and their advisors— federal
tax law, employment law, board liability, volunteer law, corporate
governance, foundation rules, charitable
giving, insurance, copyright trademark, plus more.
Nonprofit Issues is a national 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. They select from current federal and state cases the issues of critical importance to nonprofit executives and their advisors such as:
- federal tax law
- employment law
- board liability
- volunteer law
- corporate governance
- foundation rules
- charitable giving
- insurance
- copyright
- trademark
They put it all in a format that is quick to scan, easy to read and sometimes fun. Every issue includes a Ready Reference Page summarizing some aspect of the rules and regulations that control nonprofit activity.
Visit KDV's online library of Nonprofit Management Tips. Topics include new regulations, tax legislation, UBIT, finance, nonprofit management, fund raising, technology compliance and employee compensation. Free membership!
Chronicle of Philanthropy
http://www.philanthropy.com
The site provides highlights from this publication, which is the trade journal for America's charitable community. The tabloid format biweekly is the number one source for charity leaders, fund-raisers and grant makers, and the Web site provides more than just a taste of what its subscribers receive in snail mail every two weeks. The site is updated every other week at 9 a.m. on the Monday before the issue date, and job announcements are updated on the Monday following that. The principal categories of this site are gifts and grants, fund-raising, managing non-profit groups, and technology. Each of these headings is further divided by a news summary, workshops and seminars, and deadlines. Also on the site are front page news stories, a news summary, conferences, Internet resources, products and services, and jobs. Most of the articles consist of one-sentence summaries but are still useful, particularly if you don't have the $69 in your budget to subscribe to the publication for a year. The "Jobs" button transports you to a searchable database of hundreds of positions available. In some respects, this searchability makes the Internet version of the Chronicle more useful than the conventional version. There is also a handy directory of "Products and Services."
The Contact Center's IdeaList
http://www.idealist.org
This site is a great resource. It contains a searchable database of 10,000 non-profit organizations (you can click on a form to add your organization to the database), a page on "Computing and the Internet" with links to free and low cost servers, publications on Web site development, HTML tutorials, and a list of organizations that offer free products and services to charities. The "Tools for Nonprofits" button transports you to the Computing and the Internet page, Employment and Internship Opportunities, and Fundraising. The fund-raising page includes application forms for several grants and a "Proposal Writing Short Course." There are plenty of links to other organizations, although they are not attractively organized. The directory is organized geographically and by the organizations' areas of focus. Non-profits that ask to be included in the directory are requested to make a $25 voluntary contribution, but otherwise the site is free.
The Council of Better Business Bureau's Philanthropic Advisory
Service
http://www.bbb.org
The mission of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) is to "promote and foster the highest ethical relationship between businesses and the public." This site has a searchable database, as well as a resource library of publications and other files with links to other organizations. There are on-line complaint forms, files relating to marketplace ethics, "Standards for Charitable Solicitation," a Code of Advertising, and a directory of local BBB Councils. The "Reports on the Most Asked-About Charities" (124 of them as of September 1997) provide in detail how they meet the standards of the Council's Standards for Charitable Solicitation. Also included is information about the charity's programs, governance, budgets, staff, and sources of funding. There are alerts about the latest scams. We found this site interesting, if not fascinating. Put this on your "must visit" list.
Council on Foundations
http://www.cof.org
The Council on Foundations, founded in 1949, is a non-profit membership organization of approximately 1,500 grant-making foundations and corporations whose members control $139 billion in assets. The site has a Community Foundation Locator, which includes a map of the United States that permits you to identify the name and location of approximately 300 of the 400 community foundations that are COF members. Clicking on the Headlines icon links to Legislative and Public Policy Watch issue papers (unfortunately the one we found was almost a year out-of-date). The site offers information about the Council's useful, but pricey, publications. Most of the files are directly useful to foundations, but should be of interest to those who seek grants from them as well. At the time of this review, there were files entitled "Developing a Travel Policy," "First Steps in Starting a Foundation," and "Foundations and Lobbying: Safe Ways to Affect Public Policy," for example. The site is searchable, and has been redesigned since our initial review.
The Foundation Center
http://fdncenter.org/
The Foundation Center is an independent non-profit information clearinghouse established in 1956. The Center's mission is "to foster public understanding of the foundation field by collecting, organizing, analyzing, and disseminating information on foundations, corporate giving, and related subjects." It is the recipient of NetGuide's Gold Site award and several other prestigious accolades. Our only complaint is that there are large files for its graphics, so the pages tend to load more slowly than most others. But they must have heard us kvetching, because unobtrusively, there is a place to click for the "no frills" low bandwidth site, which makes the pages fly like an arrow. If you are looking for grants, this site may be the number one resource on the 'Net (look under "Grantmaker Information"). You can perform searches (by subject or geographic keyword) relating to foundations and corporate and charitable grantmakers and get links to these organizations. The Foundation Center has information on more than 40,000 grantmaking foundations and corporate programs in its database. Subscribers can access this on-line. In addition, there are links to more than 180 foundations with Web sites.
Click on the home page's "Reference Desk" and see: "Welcome to the Foundation Center's Electronic Reference Desk. This is the section of our site where we answer your questions about foundations, nonprofit resources, and our own services." Almost as friendly as our neighborhood librarian. The Reference Desk has three components: a list of frequently asked questions, an On-line Librarian, and a comprehensive directory of links.
The FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) file answers 26 general questions of interest with not only good information but also links to additional resources on the WWW (such as "Where can I find information on volunteerism?"). There are questions and answers that directly relate to the Foundation Center, and many more of general interest to grantseekers.
Links at the reference desk are organized by the categories of: General Resources, Nonprofit Resources, Nonprofit Resources by Program Area, International Resources, Philanthropy Resources, Nonprofit Management, Nonprofit Fundraising, and Government Resources.
Also on the site is an abridged version of The Foundation Center's Grants Classification Manual and Thesaurus, (Internet Edition) and e-mail access to Philanthropy News Digest, the Foundation Center's award-winning on-line publication. This publication includes abstracts of philanthropy-related articles and feature stories. Current and back issues are available at this site.
Among other files are a Prospect Worksheet, a Proposal Writing Short Course, a Glossary, and Common Grant Application Forms. If we were giving out awards, this would get the highest one. Also, in order to assist small foundations in getting started on the Web, the Foundation Center provides Web space and assistance in building a Web page.
Goodwill Industries of America
http://www.goodwill.org/
Goodwill Industries is one of the world's largest providers of employment and training services for people with disabilities and barriers to employment. The searchable site links to its local affiliates, non-profit information sources, other charities, government offices, organizations and offices related to disabilities, and computer/Internet technical assistance and information. The president is well-known-Fred Grandy, who was a Gopher Server on The Love Boat. One of the most useful pages on the Internet is Goodwill's Estate Planning Menu. The Goodwill Industries Estate Planning Web site provides information on each of scores of topics of interest to fund-raisers, including, for example, those with the headings of Federal Estate Tax, Living Revocable Trust, Charitable Remainder Trust, Power of Attorney, and additional topics that serve as a veritable encyclopedia for charitable fund-raisers and their donors.
GuideStar
http://www.guidestar.org
GuideStar, administered by the Williamsburg, VA-based Philanthropic Research, Inc., publishes comprehensive reports about individual American charities. Its purpose is "to bring the actors in the philanthropic and nonprofit communities closer together through the use of information and communication technologies. GuideStar collects and analyzes operating and financial data from the IRS Form 990 and from voluntary submissions from the charities themselves." The database consists of more than 600,000 reports on individual charities, and the site is colorful, accessible, and well-designed. The database can be searched, at no charge, by any number of parameters, such as name, location, or type of charity. This is simply the best site on the 'Net for finding financial information about charities. Charities can provide their reports and update them on-line at no charge. The site also includes links of interest to charities, and essays about philanthropy via the "GuideStar Forum" button.
HandsNet
http://www.handsnet.org
Founded in 1987, HandsNet links 5,000 public interest and human services organizations using the Internet to promote collaboration, advocacy, and information-sharing by the sector. The public pages are updated daily, and the members-only pages are considered to be the most valuable around for non-profits that engage in advocacy. The organization offers a free trial membership for 30 days. The subscription fee is much less for organizations that choose to access the service through the Internet site rather than through a separate dial-up service. The site's Action Alerts provide lots of government links, state-of-the-art information on current issues (most of which is provided by member organizations whose niche includes that particular public policy issue), capsule summaries, sources to find more information about the issue, sample advocacy letters, and information about new legislation. The pages are colorful with excellent graphics, but there is no sacrifice on substantive content. The Weekly Digest includes samples from hundreds of policy, program, and resource articles posted by members. The "Welfare Watch" button is a must-click for those interested in this hot issue, as it leads to information on the latest developments including public policy alerts, analyses, notices of new bills, rules and regulations, legislative studies and reports, new programs, Federal Register notices, funding information, and daily summaries of newspaper and wire services articles. The site also links to the Training and Resource Center, whose mission is to "provide leadership in helping human services organizations use new information technologies to embrace communication, information sharing and collaboration." If your organization can afford it (the basic annual membership fee is $300), joining should be a top priority. You will be returning several times each day, not only to access information, but to meet and begin collaborations with others.
Independent Sector
http://www.indepsec.org
Founded in 1980, Independent Sector is a national coalition of 800 voluntary organizations, foundations, and corporate-giving programs that encourages philanthropy, volunteering, and citizen action. The site begins modestly with a simple home page with nine buttons: Members, Leadership, Research, Advocacy, What's New, Feedback, GIVE 5, About IS, and Links. The members-only links require a password, but there is plenty of useful material for non-members. The Leadership button links to documents on ethics and accountability, including a "Political Checklist of Accountability." While the Research button links to publications (most of which are for sale), there is also a file called "Did You Know" that has useful and informative general information about the non-profit sector, with links to other organizations that can provide more information. The Advocacy link takes you to press releases, public policy analyses, and useful links to government relations publications such as lobbying guides, information about permissible political activity by tax-exempt organizations, justification of the charitable tax exemption, and summaries of the new lobbying law. The Links button is a good place to start for finding other resources. The links are categorized by Advocacy and Public Policy, Philanthropic Research, Non-Profit Management, General Nonprofit Resources, and Other. The What's New button, at the time of this review, contained speeches about the sector, which we found current and useful. We recommend that every charity visit this site, which is in the process of being totally redesigned as we go to press, at least once a month.
The Internet Nonprofit Center
http://www.nonprofits.org
This site has been available since 1994 and was initially sponsored by the American Institute of Philanthropy. It has spun off as an independent non-profit corporation. The home page boasts that it has "information on more nonprofits than any other site in the world!" This is not hyperbole. It is clearly one of the most comprehensive and esthetically pleasing Internet Web sites for non-profits. The home page is divided into four sections:
Gallery of Organizations-features a non-profit locator to find almost any charity in the United States, a site for home pages of many non-profits, and information on how new non-profits can join.
Library-includes publications and data about non-profits and the non-profit sector compiled by third parties, and also includes files of ethical standards published by the National Charities Information Bureau and the New York Philanthropic Advisory Services organization.
Parlor-links to a site for live "chat," back issues of Non-Profit News, files on how to prepare World Wide Web pages, and how to find free or reduced space to post non-profit home pages.
Heliport-provides links to other Internet sites useful to non-profits.
MAP Blast
http://www.mapblast.com
Vicinity Corporation is the sponsor of this free mapping service. MapBlast! allows you to create, customize, and save easy-to-read digital maps pinpointing almost any location within the United States (except Alaska). You specify the location and MapBlast! launches the map. The resulting map can be zoomed in for detail, zoomed out for more geographical area to appear, and printed out. The maps include landmarks and can be e-mailed to anyone with a simple click of the mouse and filling out a form. The applications for non-profit organizations range from letting people know where your office is for a meeting to providing your staff with a helpful guide in navigating for home visits. The site's management permits its maps to be viewed and printed out for personal, non-commercial use. Read the license agreement for details. The Webmaster encourages you to Save the map, which provides you automatically with an HTML fragment to insert into your home Web page's files. "When you copy it to your Website, it will display your map and provide a hotlink to the Vicinity MapBlast! server, so you and your users can jump into the map and look around," promotes part of the MapBlast! page. The server says that the company is in the process of acquiring international maps. Detailed road maps are expected to be available by the time you read this. Of the more than 300 sites considered and/or reviewed for this book, this is the one that actually got an audible "cool" from us.
Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
http://www.mncn.org
While much of this site is targeted to the needs of Minnesota non-profits (such as local grant information), it is an excellent resource for all. There is a Non-profit Job Board and a Non-profit's Yellow Pages. There are numerous and useful links to outside organizations that make this site an excellent resource for those interested in grants, foundations, government information, and general information useful to non-profits. The site also boasts a New Federalism Web page featuring topical discussion on welfare reform. MCNP can take pride that its site gives the major national non-profit advocacy organizations a run for their money in staking a claim to being the best gateway for valuable and current information, particularly with respect to how to start a new organization.
National Center for Nonprofit Boards
http://www.ncnb.org
The National Center for Nonprofit Boards (NCNB), is "the only nonprofit organization dedicated to building stronger nonprofit boards and stronger nonprofit organizations." This site has an FAQ (the answers to some of the questions, in our judgment, take a middle road on many controversial issues faced by boards, thus not satisfying anyone), an on-line form to raise additional questions to its Board Information Center with no charge (or access its 800 number), information about publications and membership, and information about the organization's workshops and courses. We recommend everyone involved in a non-profit read this FAQ, because even if it doesn't satisfactorily answer the questions, it raises the right questions and gives the pros and cons of various strategies to find an answer.
The NonProfit Gateway Network
http://www.nonprofit.gov
We were told about this site, initially dubbed the U.S. Nonprofit Advisor, during a visit to the White House in late 1996 to meet with the director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, Doris Matsui. We get the impression that this site will be perpetually under construction and will become much more useful in the near future. This site's strength lies in its convenient and user-friendly links to federal departments and agencies-executive, legislative, and judicial- and an easy-to-use guide to access publications of importance to non-profits, such as the Federal Register, the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, and access to the General Services Administration. The home page has a search form that permits more than 300,000 federal government Web pages to be searched by keyword or phrase. A search of the term "Independent Sector" did not get a single hit, to our chagrin. But the term "unrelated business income tax" did register, albeit modestly. The White House Office of Public Liaison has assigned one person in each Cabinet Department and in many independent agencies to serve as an official Federal "Nonprofit Liaison" and serve on the Task Force that created the site. We'll go out on a limb and include this in our top 20, and hope the White House doesn't disappoint us with its plans to make this site the gateway of choice for the national non-profit community.
Nonprofit GENIE of the Support Center for Nonprofit Management
http://www.supportcenter.org/sf/genie.html
The Support Center for Nonprofit Management "is a consulting and training organization with a regional focus and a national reach. Through consulting, workshops, publications, and special management programs, we seek to help non-profits utilize the best management tools and concepts to help them best serve their communities." This site features the G.E.N.I.E., (Global Electronic Nonprofit Information Express), with a frequently asked non-profit questions file focusing on fund-raising, financial management, strategic planning, and board development. The answers are comprehensive; there are 15 answers to questions about strategic planning alone. What makes this site particularly valuable is that permission is given for copying and distribution of these files, provided the copyright notice is included. This page has a link to the on-line newsletter Food for Thought with (mostly) San Francisco Bay Area information of interest to non-profits. The "Marketplace of Ideas" page has links to book reviews categorized by usefulness to each of 12 non-profit job titles, a monthly interview with a local grantsmaker, a page devoted to fund-raising software and other software that is non-profit specific (see Technology Forum area on this site), and lots of national, regional, and local links to government and private organizations.
Research-It!
http://www.itools.com/research-it/research-it.html
This site is like having your own research librarian 24-hours/day in your computer room, only this one knows how to conjugate French verbs and doesn't say "shhhhhh" when you talk. The site scrolls to forms that permit searches to find word meanings, spellings, and translations to and from almost two-dozen languages. There is a thesaurus, a quotation finder, a biographical dictionary, stock quotes, maps, a rhyming dictionary, acronym dictionary, a place to look up telephone numbers, and scores of other useful reference materials that individually can be found throughout the Internet but not, to our knowledge, at a single site. As one of the promotional lines on the site says about itself, why not "Give it a whirl!"
Switchboard
http://www.switchboard.com
This is one of the most useful sites on the Web and, not unexpectedly, has become one of the most linked-to sites (more than 15,000 links to it from other Web sites and counting). What can it do? Type in a name of a company, hit the search button, wait a few seconds, and the name, address, and telephone number of the company appear. Click on the map icon, and a color map of the company's location appears, which can be zoomed in or zoomed out. Trying to read the address of someone who scrawls illegibly? Type in as much data as you can read and let a computer do the rest. Why pay $100 or more for those CD-ROMs with telephone book data when you can have free access to (as we write this) 106 million residential listings and 11 million business listings? Our advice is to bookmark this site immediately!
Yahoo!
http://www.yahoo.com/
Yahoo! is both a search engine and a directory. If you are trying to find something on the Internet, Yahoo! provides a one-two punch, and automatically searches Alta Vista if a search of Yahoo! does not turn up much. With news, weather, sports, people finder, maps, and other services, this site is simply one of the best for finding information on the Internet.
Return to THE ONLINE NONPROFIT INFORMATION CENTER home page.
Go to The New Social Worker Online, the online version of White Hat's magazine for social work students and recent graduates.
This page updated January 12, 2000.