Starlink 91 Web Version

Nonprofit News, Reviews & Resources || Issue 91 August 2012

A diverse 'grab bag' of bits and pieces for you again this month.

And we've initiated a new method for sharing Dates for Your Diary to give us a bit more room for them. Let us know what you think. :)

Cheers
Sue & Chris
BJ Seminars International

Fundraising Institute Australia has launched what it believes to be a world first - a set of definitive best practice guidelines for social media fundrasing.

Australians are amongst the highest users of social media globally and social media is fast becoming one of the easiest and most effective ways to encourage people to donate to a charity, particularly for peer-to-peer fundraising. As the fundraising peak body, FIA was concerned there were no guidelines in place for our members or for the public on this fast-growing fundraising practice.

The new Standard of Social Media Fundraising Practice meets the needs of charities and professional fundraisers by setting out clear and practical guidelines for dealing with social media. All FIA members must now automatically abide by this new Standard.

With thanks to UCLA's Mental Health Project, here are a handful of reports and resource sites that hould be of interest for our readers working in schools. Though US based, they are also relevant for Australia.

Center for Health & Health Care in Schools:Tools and Resources

National School Climate Center

Providing Learning Supports through School Community/Collaborations

School Psychology Resources Online

Student Motivation: An Overlooked Piece of School Reform

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

First published in Psychology Today, Awakening Our Collegial Collaborative Spirit is a fascinating article by Michael Michalko, in which he discusses the ten principles of "Koinonia":

The notion that open and honest collaboration allows thinking to grow as a collective phenomenon can be traced back to Socrates and other thinkers in ancient Greece. Socrates and his friends so revered the concept of group dialogue that they bound themselves by principles of discussion that they established to maintain a sense of collegiality. These principles were known as 'Koinonia' which means spirit of fellowship.

Attractivo, a Sydney based graphic design agency, has launched the Pro Bono Initiative 2012-15. Dedicated to utilising the design team's creative skills to helping others, Attractivo's goal with this program is to support 30+ not-for-profit organisations and charities by the year 2015.

Exclusively for Australian NPOs and charities, part of the Pro Bono Intiative program is the Pro Bono Annual Report Design Service. In 2012, this offer is available for up to three NPOs/charities and allows for pro bono service for the design of the NPO/charity's 2011-12 annual report.

Visit their website if you'd like to register your interest.

Don't miss this inspiring Ted Talk by Neil Harbisson, who was born completely colour blind. Thanks to modern technology and a device attached to his head, since 2004 he has been listening to colour. That's right ... he hears it! The device turns color into audible frequencies and instead of seeing a world in grayscale, Harbisson can hear a symphony of color -- and yes, even listen to faces and paintings.

When Annie Leonard and her friends at Free Range Studios set out in 2007 to share what she’d learned about the way we make, use and throw away Stuff, they thought 50,000 views would be a good result for her ‘20-minute cartoon about trash.’ Today, with over 15 million views and counting, The Story of Stuff is one of the most watched environmental-themed online movies of all time.

Annie founded the non-profit Story of Stuff Project in 2008 to respond to tens of thousands of viewer requests for more information and ways to get involved. We create short, easily shareable online movies that explore some of the key features of our relationship with Stuff—including how we can make things better; we provide high quality educational resources and programs to everyone from teachers and people of faith to business and community leaders; and we support the learning and action of the over 350,000 members of the Story of Stuff community.

As well as a great deal of other information, they now have eight movies on their site, the most recent of which is The Story of Change:
Can shopping save the world? The Story of Change urges viewers to put down their credit cards and start exercising their citizen muscles to build a more sustainable, just and fulfilling world.

Bicycle Nomad Prepares for Reentry

Why Creative Thinking is Inclusive Thinking

Too Many Facebook Friends Bad News for Charities

Giving Wings to Little Prisoners

We have come across so many upcoming events - conferences, workshops, 'awareness weeks', special celebrations and others - that we decided to change the way in which we share these events and their dates with you each month.

Instead of producing what would become an incredibly LONG list here in Starlink, we have instead begun entering events into a special Event Calendar on our website.

We hope this new way of accessing information about events of interest will be even more useful for our readers. Please visit the calendar to browse events that might be of interest to you - and we'd love to hear from you about what you think of this change! :)