"Amy Eisenstein, MPA, ACFRE, has written a brilliant development planning tool designed to help nonprofit professionals and board members raise more money for the organizations they love. She provides easy-to-implement strategies and tips that you can implement immediately, without any additional staff or resources. If you are working in a small development shop—or if you ARE the small development shop—you want this book! By "small development office," Eisenstein means an organization with a budget of under $3 million, and/or less than three paid development staff members. This includes a "zero" development staff shop, which is an organization with no paid development staff member and where the executive director/CEO, program staff, and/or volunteers are responsible for all the fundraising.

Research on evaluation shows that low-use and non-use of evaluation is common, yet evaluation is hailed as beneficial and worthwhile. The worth of evaluation is tied to its utilisation, presenting a paradox if evaluation is both revered and underutilised. This book investigates this paradox in the under-researched context of small development non-profit organisations, which have specific resource constraints and ‘bottom up’ community development values that complicate their ability to do and use evaluation in line with top down directives. The book examines the utility, meaningfulness, and purpose of evaluation from small non-profit perspectives, and explores whether evaluation has value for these organisations. For development practice, it presents evaluative alternatives that reconceptualise evaluation as part of the active process of development rather than as an interval-based add-on. For evaluation theory, it highlights a historical preoccupation with improving evaluation without assessing its inherent worth, and considers alternative ways to enhance the value of evaluation for small non-profits.

Focused on the interpersonal aspects of internal evaluation in non-profit organisations, this book presents practice-based discussions centred on six key topics identified through the authors’ experience as evaluation practitioners. Internal Evaluation in Non-Profit Organisations: Practitioner Perspectives on Theory, Research, and Practice is not a step-by-step how-to guide; instead, each chapter unpacks an aspect of internal evaluation in non-profits that is paid insufficient heed in the existing literature. Written by and for internal evaluation practitioners, the book contains a plethora of practical strategies and critical analysis of thought-provoking topics that are of particular interest and importance to internal evaluators in non-profit settings. The authors understand the pressures facing practitioners and non-profit organisations and share their insights around improving evaluation’s ability to be efficient, embedded, useful, and meaningful. This book will be of interest to researchers, scholars, and students focusing on non-profit management and will hold specific value for internal evaluators who want to harness their unique and influential position to help organisations achieve their goals. Further, this book is ideal for individuals wanting to think critically about evaluation and improve evaluation utilisation by developing their professional capability, building teamwork skills, using informal everyday data, incorporating theory, and developing fruitful relationships with external evaluators.

Organizational behavior is an important and growing field in leadership and management studies, yet it has been largely overlooked by leaders of churches and other Christian ministries. Franklin Markow, who has been teaching leadership and organizational studies for 25 years, believes a comprehensive understanding of organizational behavior is essential for effective leadership. This introduction to the topic accounts for the unique dynamics of Christian organizations, gives theological foundations, and provides key insights and guidance to those studying or practicing leadership in churches and ministries. Markow proposes and explains organizational behavior using a comprehensive "Five-Level Model," which encompasses the 1) individual, 2) interpersonal, 3) group, 4) organizational, and 5) interorganizational perspectives of organizations. Readers will gain a better understanding of their organization and how people relate to it and to one another. The goal is to help people and organizations thrive and fulfill their God-given missions. Besides utilizing seminal and current sources from the field of organizational studies, Markow draws on interviews with senior-level leaders in churches and nonprofits for fresh and ministry-focused insights. Each chapter includes review questions, case studies, further reading suggestions, and current issue sidebars, making it a perfect textbook for college or seminary leadership classes. It is also a helpful resource for those in church administration and for all leaders who want to broaden their perspective and improve their practice.

Within the framework of organizational behavior and organizational psychology, organizational climate and culture conceptualize how employees experience their work settings. Thus, organizational climate refers to the shared perceptions and meaning attributed to policies, practices, and procedures experienced by employees and the behaviors they observe that are rewarded, supported, and expected. On the other hand, organizational culture may be defined as the collection of values, expectations, and practices that guide and inform the actions of all team members. Climate offers an approach to the tangibles on which managers can focus to generate the behaviors they require for effectiveness, and culture offers the intangibles that likely accrue to produce the deeper psychology of people in a setting. These two concepts complement each other and can be mutually useful in practice.

Level Best offers guidance that demystifies evaluation and takes into account the unique challenges and realities of grassroots nonprofit organizations. It provides a new framework for thinking about evaluation and tools for measuring and sharing results in ways that are practical, efficient, and meaningful.

Leap of Reason is the product of decades of hard-won insights from philanthropist Mario Morino, McKinsey & Company, and top social-sector innovators. It is intended to spark the critically important conversations that every nonprofit board and leadership team should have in this new era of austerity. The authors make a convincing case that the nation's growing fiscal crisis will force all of us in the social sector to be clearer about our aspirations, more intentional in defining our approaches, more rigorous in gauging our progress, more willing to admit mistakes, more capable of quickly adapting and improving--all with an unrelenting focus on improving lives.