Whether it is for your boss, your colleague, or your cousin, here is a holiday list of books for you.
For your favourite volunteer
Chris Snyder believes there is much more good in the world than bad. And, in Creating Opportunities—A Volunteer’s Memoir, he takes us on a tour through the streets of Bombay, rural Malawi and high-powered boardrooms to tell us why. Chock full of interesting people and compelling anecdotes, it is one book everyone involved in charity, whether staff, donor or volunteer, should read.
“Not only is volunteering for every age, but it is also for every stage of life,” Chris says. The book outlines volunteer activities as they coincide with life milestones “be it as a young person just starting out, expanding one's experience from a boring job or keeping active, young and useful in retirement.” And at the end of every chapter, he asks questions to encourage further thought, discussion and action. Creating Opportunities—A Volunteer’s Memoir is a fascinating trip through time and place, but it also provides advice for those who’ve found meaning—or would like to find meaning—in volunteering. Chris Snyder’s generous heart and good humour shines through every page of Creating Opportunities—A Volunteer’s Memoir.
For that colleague who is new to management
In Retain and Gain: Career Management for Non-Profits and Charities, author Lisa Taylor identifies 40 low-cost tips, activities and actions that non-profits and charities can take right now (some in only 10 minutes a day) to attract, engage and retain staff. Written in an innovative "travel guide" format, author Lisa Taylor includes special sections on new graduates, the aging workforce and precarious employment, and provides planning templates and links to unique resources. The Playbook, published by CERIC, also features research, facts and statistics that shed new light on Canada's non-profit workforce. Career management - even for the smallest non-profits - offers a strategic lever for stronger performance. Indeed, career management affects more than just employee satisfaction and loyalty. It drives better client service, faster identification of ways to deliver on your mission and increased opportunity for growth - for staff as well as for your organization. If as an Executive Director or people manager, you worry about any of the following, this Playbook is for you:
The Playbook shows you how to address your most critical employee challenges by debunking the common misconception that non-profits with flat organizational structures, and limited time and resources, can't establish good career practices. It provides practical career management tools for you to use with employees in ways that advance thriving careers and build the capacity of the non-profit. sector.
For your boss
Here’s a seemingly obvious truth: You don’t reinvent the wheel around the core activities of fundraising. Instead, what is important is to first understand what the wheel looks like and then to manage the process with vigilance. Through years of experience, George Stanois has identified 12 steps for an effective fundraising program. In The Vigilant Fundraiser, George and a team of highly-skilled contributors share how you can look for opportunities within the 12 steps to set your organization apart from all the others who do what you do. As George notes, “Being vigilant means using all the steps; executing 7 steps out of 12 isn’t going to cut it.” This excellent resource provides the full picture on fundraising – and will become the go-to tool for fundraisers looking to “up their game” and find new ways of successfully tackling resource development challenges.
For the person who has everything
In The Hole in the Middle, author and former fundraiser Kate Hilton, has written a novel about the challenges of balancing charity and family. In the book, Sophie Whelan is the kind of woman who prides herself on doing it all. In a single day, she can host a vegan-friendly and lactose-free dinner for ten, thwart a PTA president intent on forcing her to volunteer, and outwit her hostile ‘assistant’ in order to get her work done on time.With her fortieth birthday looming, and her carefully coordinated existence beginning to come apart at the seams, Sophie begins feeling like she needs more from her life—and especially from her husband, Jesse.The last thing Sophie needs is a new complication in her life. But when an opportunity from her past suddenly reappears, Sophie is forced to confront the choices she’s made and decide if her chaotic life is really a dream come true—or the biggest mistake she’s ever made…
Books are a great gift. The beauty of books is that they are always the right size, they keep giving.
