At dinner last night my Dad pulled out costumes his family made when he was a child.  Wow, he was a child, that is funny.  We all laughed.  what I want to say is we looked at how things were made and it was cool.  The duck mask was made from chicken wire with paper over it and then painted, they called it paper mache.  the other mask was a painted milk carton cut in half and with string through the sides.  Except for the paint it was recycled material.  Wow they were for the environment before it was important.

I want to try this for next year.

I looked up how to make paper mache on the web and my papa helped me to copy into here for you.

Materials Needed:
•Water
•Flour

Instructions:
To make this paper mache paste, simply mix together 1 part flour to 2 parts water. You will want it to be the consistency of thick glue, but you also want it to be runny and not thick like paste. Add more water or flour as necessary. Mix well to remove any lumps.

A few helpful tips I have read in regards to using this paste are:

• If you live in an area with high humidity, add a few tablespoons of salt to help prevent mold.
• If you don’t like the smell of the glue mixture you can add a few sprinkles of cinnamon or cinnamon to sweeten it up!
• You should be able to store this glue in a covered bowl or jar, in the refrigerator, for a few days

So everyone have fun this weekend and stop worrying for a day.  I told papa I am putting my worry bag in my desk draw.

Photo by:  Cobalt123

More than 40 members of Congress have signed a letter asking House officials to make sure the final health care bill offers relief to small charities that provide health-care to their employees.  The letter talks about the importance of the the nonprofit workforce.  The President of the National Council of Nonprofits said in a statement that every dollar employers pay in higher premiums is a dollar taken away that could have provided the employees with various everyday needs, especially in this tough economy.  He also said that he hopes the White House will join in with the growing numbers of House and Senate members who are realizing how important nonprofits are.

To read the entire article, please follow then hyperlink to The Chronicle of Philanthropy web-page.

Photo by: afagen

Contracts can be a huge legal problem for non profits that don’t go about the process in the correct way.  So I am going to provide you with a checklist of 6 items you need to make sure you have covered when signing a contract.

1) Offer: First what is the offer being put out there.  Also,  are you the one making the offer or are are you the one who will be accepting or rejecting the offer.

2) Acceptance: This is the next step in the process.  You must make sure that either you communicate the acceptance or have the acceptance communicated to you.

3) Consideration:  In other words this is the value of the contract.  How much you will receive or give for something or a service.  Make sure that this is in the contract.

4) Formality: There needs to be formality in the contract.  This means that it should be in writing.  Even if you are not sure if this needs to happen, it is better to be safe than sorry and have it in writing.

5) Capacity: This means are the parties involved are not intoxicated or on drugs at the time of the contract.  Also make sure neither of the parties are minors or the contract will be void.

6) Genuine Consent:  This is last but not least.  What this means is that both parties have to be willing to enter into the contract.  If someone was threatened for example to enter into the contract then the contract is no good.

If you can fulfill all of these parts, then you have a good contract on your hands.

Photo by: tiarescott

Here’s another great article to add to the collection about non profit CEOs and their salaries.  The only thing with this story is that its actually is one with good news.  Back in early August when Jane McIntyre was a candidate for the CEO position of the United Way of the Central Carolinas, the only question they were really asking was how much would she want to be paid?  What she told them was a number a lot lower than what they would want to pay her.  She said she would ask for a salary of $150,000 a year, compared to her predecessor who received $365,000 a year plus a $2.1 million pension package.  As we can see here, not all the nonprofit CEOs are asking for and receiving such huge salaries.  I guess there is still some good left out there.

 To read the entire article, please follow the hyperlink to the Chicago Tribune page.

Chief Financial Officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation announced on Monday that he will be stepping down early next year.  Alexander Friedman joined the firm in March 2007 ans saw it grow under his command.  A former investment banker, he will likely return to the private sector, but says he has looked at non profit and government work.

To read the rest of this article, please follow the hyper link to the Associated Press web-page.

Photo by: Marco Belluci

That’s the question to be asking as a college student on today’s college campus. It seems that all of the companies and forms of business that are being pushed on the college campuses are all from the for profit sector. This can prove to be quite a problem for today’s generation of people that are graduating college and moving on to the work force. From personal experience, it seems that I have not really heard anything about the non profit sector while in school, and to drive the point home even more, almost all of the companies at career fairs are from the for profit sector. This means that college age students are not getting to see what this area of the work world is like. For some, they may not even know that it exists out there. Now not only does this hurt the students by limiting their chances for jobs, but it also hurts the non profits by not introducing new employees to them. By having the majority of colleges not introduce non profits to their students, it is creating a problem that is going to be huge in about ten to fifteen years. I urge the people of today to go out their and try and do something about it.

Another high paying salary has been uncovered in the nonprofit world. This time it comes from the all ready discussed Individual Development Inc., a Washington D.C. nonprofit that provides housing and care for many of the local developmentally disabled. It has been reported a David W. Wilmot, a well known lobbyist has been paid as much as $300,000 by the nonprofit to help turn them around. He also has been allowed to borrow an additional $300,000 from the organization. Now, IDI is funded about $12 million per year from Medicaid, a government agency that is already paying out extremely high amounts of money every year. The big problem here is that basically, Wilmot is getting his comfortable yearly salary from Medicaid, of which more of that money should be going to the individuals in need.

To read the entire article, please follow the hyperlink to the Washington Post page.

Photo by: jamesfischer

A 97 year old woman and her two sons, both in there sixties have been living in a battered 1973 Chevy Suburban in Venice, California ever since they lost their house in Palm Springs.  But a story published last Friday let L.A. County officials and a nonprofit called Integrated Recovery Network to step up and help.  They have now found all three temporary housing in the California Villa Retirement Hotel in Van Nuys.  Permanent residence and support is being worked on for the three. 

To read the entire article, please follow the hyperlink to the Los Angeles Times page.

pic by magnusmangomango’s

Whether or not you agree with Greenpeace tactics, they are clear; raise the attention of their mission and they have created a solid funding base from individuals. It is fantastic that they are able to charge individuals to cover their expenses to volunteer on some of their missions. The result driven organization gives its supporters the opportunity to see, feel and hear the scope of their mission. The passion throughout the organization of belief to its mission and much of the funds are spent on direct service to that mission have really set the organization apart from other worldwide organizations. Most large worldwide organizations spend millions in overhead to coordinate their organization.

Many of the individuals who work for Greenpeace only ask for what is needed to survive to support the mission. In case your looking to support their efforts here is a link. http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/

I promote Greenpeace as a great case study of how to balance a mission and meet the needs of the support base wanting to be an active participant in its mission.

Space junk may just be the new initiative to clean up and change behavior that Greenpeace takes on.

 pic by glenfairchild

Eight credit unions in Michigan for residents only have come up with a unique idea to promote savings and added a little chance. Open a certificate of deposit of $25 of more and get a raffle ticket.  It gives the account holder a chance at winning a prize of $400 for the month and enters them in an annual $100,000 drawing.   The certificate of deposit is federally insured.   Over a 25 week period it motivated individuals to save over $3 million.  

Now that’s a group of banks who have found a way to increase value for its members.  More money to loan its members and an increased savings rate during a recession.