Does your organizations give an individual a sense of trust? Do you have the right message? The four organizations below have found the right manner to deliver their brand and build trust. Check them out and see what you can learn.

Edmunds: automobile specification data to help shoppers compare and price new and used cars. 16 million potential buyers. http://www.edmunds.com

Consumer Report: http://www.consumerreports.org

AARP: http://www.aarp.org

AAA: http://www.aaa.com

Holidays are here and the strain and negative feelings can take a toll on peoples health.  In the past year a number of articles have found that positive relationships can aid health.  They have also shown that domestic conflict can harm the body especially the heart.   Those individual who have persistent conflict are more at risk then others to have heart disease.  Your organization can improve the lives of its employees and volunteers by making them aware.

To lower a persons risk check out Williams Lifeskills.  Redford Williams is a behavioral scientist at Duke University.  http://www.williamslifeskills.com/

Recent court rulings are showing that a person mortgage sold to an investor may not truly be own by the investor since they never truly took possession of the loan.  The term is called an assignment which is a transaction that a buyer of the mortgage securities has to do for each loan.  Courts have ruled that unless the assignment document was completed the entity filing for foreclosure may not have the right to do so.

In addition, the federal government is trying to have the industry freeze rates of individuals who meet certain guidelines.  This bailout does not attack the problem in which loans were provided that should not have been created.  If the terms of a loan are bad and the entity knowingly is processing them should that be allowed?

Foreclosure is a punishment to the investor and to the degree it hurts all the better when the terms were inappropriate.   However, if the owner of the property could have afforded said property under the right conditions and those conditions result after a foreclosure, I would suggest to the many housing advocates, buy the properties cheaply and provide affordable loans to the families and individuals.

The vacant buildings shows that  the nonprofit housing community, federal and state governments are providing more talk then housing.  Talk is cheap.  Let the investors take the losses and gain affordable housing.

Nonprofits who have the funds, invest in housing that is affordable for your employees.

Businesses, cities, towns and states help support teachers and nonprofits provide affordable housing to these employees in the community in which they work.

From 2007- 2012 the federal government has projected 14,027 employees will retire from the Social Security Administration, 4,815 from the Commerce Department and 19,757 from the Treasury Department.

These retirees become a great pool of experience individuals to bring into the nonprofit work force.  Every organization has to deal on some level with a state and federal organization.   Usually an organization has to file a report or form annually for the IRS,  the relevant Secretary of State,  the relevant Attorney General, sometimes the relevant state Department of Revenue, and sometimes if employees the unemployment office of the relevant state.  If you ask why would our organization, you should check your state’s reporting requirements.

For the new year replace all conventional light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.

Have the cooling and heating thermostats on timers.

Build breezeways to the outdoors to prevent heat or cool air from escaping from the building.

Have lights on motion detectors and timers.

Use newsprint to wrap gifts.

Buy preused or returns products. Usually save a minimum of 25%. Most of time the item was just not wanted, wrong size or was a duplicate.

Most musuems have a free time, call them and find out. Arrange for your organization to attend during that time.

I have been a subscriber of US Immigration Support, an independent organization dedicated to help immigrants and employers through the United States immigration process by providing the most current information available. You can access any of the process and their newsletter is very helpful to keep your organization up on the current rules,when problems occur, what to expect and at times solutions. You may find the newsletter very useful to post for employees and for recruitment. With many nonprofits utilizing various forms of work employment options for overseas workers and for entry level positions this a great source. It has been useful for my college interns and recruiting for nonprofits I work with. Check them out at: http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org

For those of you thinking of a new career and making a difference there are many nonprofits within five miles of your home.  Check out www.guidestar.org and type in your zip code.

The largest area where there are plenty of paid positions across any field of experience is in the health and human services field. For positions check out  www.idealist.org, www.craigslist.org and www.nonprofitjobs.org.

Be patient, read carefully and look at what the organization offers you to meet the goals you wish to achieve in the next career.  Use the interview to probe and ask the tough questions.  Think of yourself as interviewing the organization to meet your needs.

Organizations whom are willing to be questioned by candidates will find an employee that understands what they have committed to and know the expectations for both parties.

For my spouse, five and nine year old the setting was all set for Sunday to watch the football game with popcorn. We were to watch the New England Patriots against the Superbowl Champs the Colts. Both teams are undefeated for the season.

Wrong: First commercial, I am scrambling to stop the showing of a advertisement of an R rated film of about a killer. The first time was a big surprise, the second and third time just got me me to have to rethink what to have as the family event. It is not my intent to subject my children to watching over and over images of someone creating massive amounts of killing.

So instead of a relaxing family time I had to manage someones lack of judgement and inattentiveness to children for an event I thought was for families. This is not the first time major league football has been broiled in controversy of whether an action is family appropriate. If you take the track record of the commercialization of the football event I would advocate that it be given a rating of PG-13.

Family events are important to instilling values into each other as a family unit. Children learn from their parents. Violence is not a value I wish to instill to my children.

I want to instill the positive aspect of sports, such as working as a team, the use of strength, thinking and outwitting the opponent as positive. The constant message of conveying excitement to seeing “The Killer” was just way inappropriate. Which impression does the football wish to leave on a child? Violent actions are not. Youth violence is up. Who is to blame? What is the Cause? Which image does the football league want children and their families to remember?

I have already decided that the Football games are inappropriate for the five and nine year old due to the uncensored nature of the commercialization. Trust is an important condition a customer should be able to have from a business and the National Football League does not take that seriously enough.

I challenge the National Football League and its teams to make a difference among their fan base as well as their home states to support youth violence and domestic violence prevention programs.

Credit Unions are nonprofits and owned by their members. These organizations, while functioning as banks, are not making business decisions to maximize investors’ returns. They are making business decisions to maximize their ability to serve their members.

Micro-lending by banks is a profitable area. It is even more profitable overseas. The interest being charged approaches in many cases 80% plus with fees. Micro-lending is projected as an option to help out individuals who are motivated to break out of poverty.

Credit Unions should get into the field and make a difference for many people and provide more reasonable rates. The nonprofit community is especially use to many of its employees sending money to their overseas family members. The nonprofit community knows what it takes to make a difference with those in poverty looking to start small businesses or buying an item. Many individuals in poverty pay cash and do not carry credit cards. Credit history is their word and reputation. Today, traditional banks have lost the “know your neighbor” banking.

Credit Unions are the institutions closest to the true meaning of community banking.

A nonprofit according to the IRS is expected to raise funds to lower the costs of providing their services.  More and more funders and government are requiring a match by the nonprofit to programs the funder supports.

Track the use of donated space and know the market rate for similar space.  Staff out-posted to another location assign a value to that space.

Provided free advertising, assign a value to it and document it.

Provided goods, place a value on them and document it

Volunteer help, use minimum wage and keep track of the hours.  If the individual is doing a credentialed required service use the Department of Labor salary schedule.

Keep track of those travel and transportation costs employees and volunteers provide to the organization.

You will find it all adds up to thousands of dollars.