How can today's nonprofits demonstrate effective use of funds? How can they motivate employees and volunteers and combat burnout and high turnover? How can they ensure that they are performing in accordance with their mission and purpose? Author Stephen J. Gill answers these questions and more in Developing a Learning Culture in Nonprofit Organizations. Filled with practical tips and tools, the book shows students and managers of human services, arts, education, civic, and environmental agencies how to implement a learning culture with individuals, teams, the organization as a whole, and the larger community. Key Features Draws on the author's more than 25 years of consulting experience Demonstrates how to create a culture of intentional learning that uses reflection and feedback, focuses on successes and failures, and builds a strong organization that motivates employees and volunteers Offers specific, hands-on tools for each level of the organization, from the individual and team to the whole organization and the community Discusses not only the need for a learning culture but also the barriers that may stand in the way Takes a step-by-step approach that facilitates managers' and students' understanding and learning Incorporates practical tools that can be used in nonprofit management and in actual field instruction Developing a Learning Culture in Nonprofit Organizations is appropriate for courses in Social Work Evaluation, Public and Nonprofit Management, and Evaluation.
"A fantastic book. . . .A major contribution! Stories of Transformative Leadership in the Human Services is an extraordinary book by two highly accomplished social work educators and consultants. Based on years of experience in the classroom and in the field,Steve Burghardt and Willie Tolliver blend their "best practices" into a pedagogically creative and lively text that students and human service professionals alike will find engaging and invaluable. Social service agencies and workers are under siege, especially now in our global economic crisis, but this book is guaranteed to help in the struggles ahead for a more humane and just social service practice." -Robert Fisher, University of Connecticut, author of The People Shall Rule: ACORN, Community Organizing, and the Struggle for Economic Justice (Vanderbilt University Press, 2009.) "A must read for directors, executives, funders, and board members! Given today's economic climate, there may not be funds for the hiring of consultants. Read Stories of Transformative Leadership in the Human Services and engage as an organizational team in their activities instead. You, your staff and the culture of the organization will be transformed. As Ghandi said, "Be the change you want to see.' The paradigm that Burghardt and Tolliver introduce will have you do just that." -Claudette C'Faison, Cofounder and President of NY Youth at Risk, Inc. Certain to excite and inspire both students entering the human services field and seasoned non-profit professionals, Stories of Transformative Leadership in the Human Services: Why the Glass Is Always Full is the first full-length leadership book to focus on the unique challenges of the public and non-profit executive, manager, and educator. Written in a lively story-telling style, the book develops a leadership model for those who inspire without bonuses and seek a powerful legacy through people's lives. Authors Steve Burghardt and Willie Tolliver convey the stories of two social service agencies struggling to survive in a world of shrinking budgets, increasing needs, and lack of resources. While both agencies are run by hard-working managers, one is in constant crisis mode (racial tensions that simmer and boil over; professionals who end up exhausted and overeating after a crisis-filled day . . . every day), while the other, operating with no greater resources, lacks tension and turmoil as its managers respond to similar demands and client needs. Using real-life vignettes drawn from actual experiences, the stories distill important lessons and unfold in a powerful manner that will resonate with any professional asked to work harder . . . with a smaller budget. Questions woven through each story connect to the book's more theoretical material on leadership, personal mastery, and community-building. Steve Burghardt, MSW, PhD, and Willie Tolliver, MSW, DSW, are professor and associate professor of Social Work at the City University of New York (CUNY)-Hunter College School of Social Work and partners in the Leadership Transformation Group, LLC. Authors of numerous works on organizational change and strategic development, they are award-winning teachers of human behavior, policy, and community organization. They have worked with thousands of human service and educational staff on new models of leadership, personal well-being, spirituality, collaboration in times of crisis, and how to sustain conversations on race and oppression for lasting change at work and in one's life.
The Glass is Always Full: Lessons for Managerial Excellence in the Human Services is a creative approach to helping students understand some of the most common dilemmas faced in nonprofit agencies and organizations. It is a unique book that conveys the challenges in human service agencies via two stories of nonprofit organizations. One is constantly dealing with one crisis after another and is usually in a reactive mode. The second story tells of an organization that is run as a learning organization and thus is more effective in running efficiently, as it is in a constant state of evaluating and learning from its mistakes. At the end of each chapter are reflective questions and finally after both stories are two theoretical models that help explain what is happening in these organizations.
Says that not only are Latinos a religious community, but their religious institutions inform daily life and politics in Latino communities to a considerable degree. This work shows that Latino religious institutions have played a significant role in the poor and urban communities where Latinos live.
The idea of need is politically controversial. Debates on the subject intensified during the 1980s as some western governments reduced programmes which had enabled many of their citizens' needs to be met. This book is about the idea of need and how needs can be, and are, met in western societies. The idea of need and its relation to the provision of welfare are explored in the first part of the book. The major theoretical traditions are reviewed and the idea of need as absolute is contrasted with the idea that needs are relative. The provision of welfare by the state and the rights of citizens to welfare are the focus for the second section of the book. Different models of welfare provision are examined both in theoretical terms and through two case studies: of models of pension provision and of the connection between the satisfaction of needs and electoral success for governments. The final section looks at the other side of the mixed economy of welfare - the provision of welfare by private and voluntary organizations. Can the market provide when the state withdraws from welfare provision? What should be the role of the state in such a market-based model of welfare?
Civic Charity and the Making of America--Winthrop, Jefferson, and Lincoln
Notions of Christian love, or charity, strongly shaped the political thought of John Winthrop, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln as each presided over a foundational moment in the development of American democracy. This title examines how each figure interpreted and appropriated charity.
The idea of need is politically controversial. Debates on the subject intensified during the 1980s as some western governments reduced programmes which had enabled many of their citizens' needs to be met. This book is about the idea of need and how needs can be, and are, met in western societies. The idea of need and its relation to the provision of welfare are explored in the first part of the book. The major theoretical traditions are reviewed and the idea of need as absolute is contrasted with the idea that needs are relative. The provision of welfare by the state and the rights of citizens to welfare are the focus for the second section of the book. Different models of welfare provision are examined both in theoretical terms and through two case studies: of models of pension provision and of the connection between the satisfaction of needs and electoral success for governments. The final section looks at the other side of the mixed economy of welfare - the provision of welfare by private and voluntary organizations. Can the market provide when the state withdraws from welfare provision? What should be the role of the state in such a market-based model of welfare?
At a time of increasingly curtailed school budgets, this book identifies potential funding sources for schools in the United States faced with the challenge of securing money from outside agencies to support innovative educational programmes. The authors also offer useful advice to teachers and administrators involved in each stage of the grantwriting process.