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June 2005
In this issue:
Register for the Summit on Nonprofit Accountability
Stewart's Caring Place Benefit
Getting More out of Microsoft Word
Announcing… THE SUMMIT ON NONPROFIT ACCOUNTABILITY
June 29, 2005 at the Hilton Cleveland South in Independence from 8:00 am to 2:30 pm
Ohio laws for nonprofit accountability are changing... and they will affect you! The Center for Nonprofit Excellence and The Cleveland Foundation invite you to become well-informed on the critical topic of accountability.
In the morning, hear from Diana Aviv, President and CEO of Independent Sector, the national organization leading discussions with legislators on behalf of the nonprofit sector. Participate in breakout sessions tailored to address the impact to both large and small nonprofit organizations. At the luncheon, get the latest input from the State Attorney General’s office on changes Ohio envisions for nonprofit operations. Benefit from a local expert panel of executives, a board member, and a funder who address what they are doing to be prepared for change.
Inform key staff and board members (who are also affected by the proposed law changes) to mark the date now!
Cost is $99 for the day and $49 for the luncheon only. Go to www.cfnpe.org to register or call (330) 762-9670 for more information. Scholarships are available to Summit County based nonprofits with annual budgets under $500,000. Inquire more when you call.
Benefit for Stewart's Caring Place
July 23, 2005
You and your clients are invited to a very special benefit event-- the Annual Butterfly Celebration and Silent Auction. It will include live music, beautiful surroundings, food, drink and fun while benefiting programs for those touched by cancer. The event will be hosted at a local Bath, Ohio, home at 7:00pm on Saturday, July 23rd.
Stewart's Caring Place is a place where those affected by cancer and their families will find support, resource information and an array of programs and services. We are here to walk the cancer journey with you. It was named in memory of Stewart Surloff whom we lost to cancer in 2001.
Go to http://www.stewartscaringplace.org/, click "Downloads" and click on the Butterfly Celebration title to download the reply card. Or call 330-836-1772 for more information.
Publicize Your Fundraising Events
Northeast Ohio has an increasing population of people who help others. To honor these individuals, organizations and their causes, Cleveland Magazine publishes the bi-annual Charitable Events Guide in the January and July issues. The guide and its companion web site serve as a comprehensive guide to galas, walks, runs, balls, auctions and other fund-raising events in the city, so you can get the word out to a large audience about your events.
The Charitable Events Guide is Cleveland Magazine's way of partnering with the community and creating a voice for nonprofit organizations that put forth enormous amounts of time and energy to accomplish their ultimate mission of strengthening our community. Check out events in your area at www.clevelandmagazine.com. Click on the Charitable Events Guide.
The Akron Community Foundation also maintains a calendar of local events. Post your events on the Around Akron Community Calendar. Visit http://www.akroncommunityfdn.org/calendar to find out what's happening this month, or to submit your event.
Both of these are also a great way to see when other nonprofits are planning events, so you can choose your date more effectively!
Online Fundraising - the Easy Way!
Accept donations and event registration fees at your own site by adding a shopping cart. It's not as scary as it seems - reputable carts handle transactions on a secure server, so you don't even need your own SSL certificate. Free carts are available, such as the one from Mal's E-commerce (www.mals-e.com), with setup instructions that are easy to follow - you can be up and running in about an hour. Need help setting it up? Contact Project Connect about our one-time setup charge.
New Products at TechSoup Stock
GrantStation
GrantStation PRO links nonprofits to current sources of grant money and teaches organizations how to secure the available funding they find.
Starting on June 8th at 9am Pacific Daylight Time, all eligible nonprofits may receive a 40% discount on our already discounted GrantStation PRO memberships. Discounted memberships will be available for a special price only of $299 (including admin fee) for just three days -- from June 8th, 9 am PDT to June 10th, 5 pm PDT. Afterwards our usual discounted price of $499 will apply. (This represents a $100 discount off of the standard retail price of $599 and includes the TechSoup Stock admin fee.)
Learn more about GrantStation PRO and place your order at: http://ga0.org/ct/xd1TOrY1fzjW/
QuickBooks
QuickBooks offers tools for fast and easy financial management to boost efficiency and accuracy.
QuickBooks Premier 5-user edition for PC and QuickBooks Pro 6.0 for Mac will be available in the next few business days.
The minute these products become available, they will be listed on the TechSoup Stock web page below and you will be able to place your order. Please check this link frequently, as quantity will be limited. http://ga0.org/ct/x71TOrY1fzjI/
Service Spotlight:
Custom Databases
330-315-1335;
Are you tired of using multiple programs (or, worse yet, scraps of paper) to keep track of your funders, donors, and volunteers?
Project Connect can design a custom Access database that stores all of your information, plus includes reports, mailing labels, and user-friendly interfaces. Or, we can help you tune up your existing Access database to be more efficient.
A one-hour initial consultation is $75, applicable toward the cost of your customization. For more information about this service, or to suggest other services, call us at 330-315-1335 or send an e-mail to .
Amy's PC TIP:
Microsoft Word Shortcuts for Grantwriters (and Others!)
One of the hardest things about preparing grant applications and other highly structured documents is keeping track of all those details, such as word counts, making sure the numbers add up in your financial sections, and more. Here are a few tricks to make your life easier.
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Keeping track of word counts. If the instructions say your application is limited to a specific number of words, woe to those who exceed it! The long way to get a count of the words in your document is to run the spellchecker, with Readability Statistics turned on. This is really tedious, especially if you're already over the limit, and looking to pare things down. For those of us who like near-instant gratification, there's the Word Count toolbar. From the View menu, select Toolbars > Word Count. You can leave the toolbar floating on top of your document, or "dock" it by dragging it to the edge of your screen (top, bottom, left or right). When you're done with it, just go to View > Toolbars and click Word Count again to turn it off. (Note: To count just one section of the document, highlight it, then click Recount on the toolbar.)
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Perform calculations in tables. Tired of manually adding those financial sections? Use a table! Not only will it help line everything up neatly, but Word can also perform basic calculations in tables. For example, if you have an itemized list with details in the lefthand cells, and amounts in the right, click in the bottom cell in the righthand column and go to Table > Formula. Word will suggest the Sum function, but if you need something different, use the Paste Function dropdown. You can also use the Format section to make your numbers pretty.
One caveat: calculation is not automatic, unlike Excel. Before you submit that to the committee, make sure you've updated your calculations. Select the whole table (or the whole document, if you have multiple tables) and press F9. -
Shortcut to Symbols. If you find yourself a frequent user of the Insert > Symbol box, there may be a better way. Many symbols have keyboard shortcuts - check out the bottom of the symbol box when your symbol is highlighted. These include things like the © sign, bullets and more. Any shortcut which is displayed as Alt plus some number (e.g. Alt+0149) means you should hold down the Alt key, then type that number on the number pad (using the numbers above the letters won't work). Laptop users must turn on your number pad shortcut - usually Shift+NumLock or Function+NumLock.
For augmented letters, such as é, you can use the Dead Key feature. Dead keys create the augmentation without advancing the cursor, then when you type the letter itself, it will display on the screen with the augmentation. Here's a list of common dead key combinations:é Ctrl+’ (apostrophe), then press e î Ctrl+^ (caret, or shift+6), then press i ç Ctrl+, (comma), then press c ñ Ctrl+~ (tilda, or shift+`), then press n ü Ctrl+: (colon, or shift+;), then press u -
Better Living through Pasting. So you wrote the perfect program description and staff bios in last year's application? Use it again - with copy and paste. With Office 2003, the clipboard can now hold up to 24 items, so you can keep each section separate and paste it when and where you need it. Start by opening the previous document, then highlight and copy each section you plan to use, one at a time (keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+C). If the Clipboard pane does not open automatically, turn on the Task Pane (View > Task Pane), then select Clipboard from the Task Pane options (click the little triangle at the top of the Task Pane). Thumbnails of each item you copied will appear, making it easy for you to tell them apart. Now, go to the new document and paste away - just click on an item in the clipboard to paste! (Hint: Use the Smart Tag that pops up after pasting to resolve any formatting issues with your pasted item.)
Happy writing!
Register for Upcoming Classess
Join us this spring for a refresher course ... or learn something entirely new! Call 330-315-1335 or e-mail to register or receive a copy of our current schedule. Classes are $40 per person for staff and volunteers of member organizations; $60 per person for staff and volunteers of non-member organizations.
Don't know whether your organization is a member? Visit our members page to find out: Project Connect Members
Not a member? Join Project Connect today and save! Visit infolineinc.org/connect.htm for more info.
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Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Word
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Website Development
Microsoft PowerPoint
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Visit infolineinc.org/connect/training.htm to see our latest training schedule. Or call us at 330-315-1335 and we'll fax you a copy.
Are you getting the best deals for your technology dollar?
Don't buy anything technology-related until you've visited these three websites first!! They offer significant discounts for nonprofits with Microsoft, Dell, CDW, Adobe, and more!
As always, we are interested in hearing from you to learn how we can best meet your technology and connectivity needs. Give us a call at 330-315-1335 or e-mail us at .
Enjoy!
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