December 2003

Hello! Can it be that we haven’t done a newsletter since June? As you can tell from one of our featured articles this month, life has been filled-to-overflowing here at Help 4 NonProfits & Tribes! And so to make up for lost time, we have a number of new things to share!

1) Featured Article: Recruiting Your Organization’s First Board (or, if you’ve already started, how to move on to your 2^nd or “real” board)

2) Featured Article: The Sound a “Thank You” Makes

3) Board Special: GREAT price on our Board Recruitment Workbook for your whole board!

4) A Holiday Treat and Great Gifts: At Our Kitchen Table

5) Another Treat - a great movie!

6) Don’t Let Money Stop You: Creative Ways to Bring the Help 4 NonProfits Team to Your Organization!

7) Sharing this Newsletter

8) Sneak Preview: A Year Filled with Surprises!

Please read and enjoy, and pass these new items along! We know it will help you improve the quality of life in your community. And isn’t that really why we all do the work we do?

Read the text version of the newsletter below.

Or if you want to view the entire newsletter with photos and other graphics, Click here

Featured Article: Recruiting Your Organization’s First Board (or, if you’ve already started, how to move on to your 2^nd or “real” board)

The ultimate NonProfit Catch-22: How do you build a board when you don’t really have an organization yet? And if you’ve already started your board, and are now regretting your choices, how do you prevent those problems in the future? (Click to article)

Featured Article: The Sound a “Thank You” Makes

Whether their gift is $5 or $5million, thanking donors makes them feel good AND makes you feel good. How good? (Click to article)

Board Recruitment Workbook Whole Board Discount $8.99

Every month or so, variations on the following comment accompanies an order for our Board Recruitment workbook:

“Every time I lend your book to someone, I never get it back. Usually the person sheepishly tells me they’ve already used it and marked it up! So this is the 4^th copy I’m ordering. Don’t be surprised if I’m back in a few months, ordering my 5^th copy!”

In response to this recurring theme, we’ve created a “Whole-Board Discount”. Buy a workbook for each of your board members and the price is only $8.99 per book, regardless of the size of your board! (Click Here))

At Our Kitchen Table

If you haven’t visited the Kitchen Table portion of our website, give yourself a holiday treat. This is the part of our site where we relax a bit, telling stories and sharing photos of our adventures. Folks tell us this is one of their favorite spots on our site! (Click Here)

And if you’re looking for a unique gift that gives a sense of life’s possibilities, our photos are among the most popular items at the site - we never seem to be able to keep them in stock! (Click Here)

A Great Holiday Movie - And a Special Treat for Tucson!

We have found a movie that truly inspires. This film will remind social workers of the difference we can make! It will remind arts organizations how the arts can save lives - how art is the language of the soul! And all in a short 76 minutes!

The movie is OT: Our Town - a documentary about high school kids in Compton performing the Thornton Wilder play “Our Town”, and making it relevant to THEIR town. Unlike “Stand and Deliver” that is “based on a true story,” OT: Our Town IS the true story - a documentary showing real kids dealing with the realities of life.

Tucson subscribers are lucky. OT: Our Town is playing at the Loft Cinema until Friday of this week. (Note: the teacher - Catherine Borek - is a graduate of Canyon del Oro High School!) If you’re not already a member of the Loft’s Film Society, this movie may just inspire you to join! For more info http://www.loftcinema.com/.

If you don’t live in Tucson, watch for this amazing documentary at your local independent theater, or rent it on video. More on OT: Our Town at

http://www.thefilmmovement.com/film_library/learn_more/OT.aspx

Don’t Let Money Stop You: Creative Ways to Bring the Help 4 NonProfits Team to Your Organization!

The charitable sector has always had to scrimp and save, but these days, it seems money is even tighter. And if it's harder to fund your programs, it's getting even harder to fund training and technical assistance!

But if there is one thing we teach at Help 4 NonProfits, it's that there are always creative ways to do what you think you can't afford to do. So if you really want to bring the Help 4 NonProfits team to your community, Click Here and let us help you figure out how to do just that!

Share this Newsletter With a Friend!

Every month we get hundreds of new subscribers, most of whom learn about our site from a friend or colleague. Here's just one of the comments we received this month, from Julie Condy of Stage to Stage in New Orleans:

As new board members join your board, don’t forget to sign them up for this newsletter. Board members so rarely receive information on how to do their job better, so please - pass this newsletter along to them!

Sneak Preview:

Oh the plans we have for 2004! Two new workbooks and a book outlining the governance model we have perfected. A new software package to make your whole NonProfit more effective. Dozens of new articles to write. A complete re-do of our website, to make it more user-friendly for you. And it is our hope that life will settle down enough that we can get back to publishing this newsletter more often!

That’s it for this month - and this year! As always, we wish you all the possibilities life holds, because your community is counting on you.

Have a great holiday season and a great New Year.

Hildy and Dimitri

Help 4 NonProfits & Tribes

http://www.Help4NonProfits.com