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Rating: 
Summary: For boomers who want to give back
Review: As a consultant I am often skeptical of every new management/organization 'change' book. Too often, these books are trite and simplistic, and don't convey a sense of HOW a manager/analyst can add genuine, lasting value to an organization. This book did not disappoint me. It is so chock-full of examples that almost any person who is in an organization (whether it be a hobby, a church group, a non-profit, a business, a consultancy) can richly benefit from making application of principles in this easy-to-digest book. If you are interested in fostering realistic, undeflatable growth in your organiztaion, get Ramsey and Hecht's book.
Rating:
Summary: very impressed
Review: I have been involved with non profit work for as long as most people can remember, and I have to say that Ben Hecht and Rey Ramsey have done the unthinkable. I gave this book to my law school class to read, and they sucked it up like a sponge. I simply could not believe what these two have done. Mr. Hecht and Mr. Ramsey are extremely credible, and have written numerous books in the past. Overall, I would say that this book has been one of the most helpful that I have read, in this genre.
Rating: 
Summary: A simplistic primer for nonprofits past their prime
Review: If you have to read one book on nonprofit technology and management, don't read this one. This book has all the hallmarks of having been rushed to press. There are innumerable spelling, grammatical and other errors that make reading the text painful. These live side-by-side with painfully mixed metaphors (repeated ad nauseam) like "you have to take the pulse of the organization by holding a mirror up to it." The glossary reads like a litany of misunderstood and outdated concepts. Even though the book was published in 2002, and regardless of my profound gratitude to the developers of early protocols, Gopher is listed as a cutting-edge technology which is only possibly being superseded by the Web for document retrieval. You'd think that Hecht and Ramseywould have at least given the glossary to someone reasonably competent in information technology to look over. Alas, the whole of the book displays this sort of shoddy research and shallow thinking. The body of the book reads like a warmed-over review of insights that Drucker had in the 1970s, mixed in with some watered-down ideas from Tom Peters. The authors try to come up with a cool name for their hodgepodge mixture of leftover management fads. They come up with "Dyanmic Management", which is irregularly capitalized. Next to a powerful Tom Peters phrase like "Liberation Management", Dymanic Management strikes one as a poor attempt at creating a powerful phrase. On top of all this, the book uses Hecht's own company as its primary case study in a startling display of corporate narcissism. In short, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, in this book that could not be more satisfyingly obtained from reading Drucker or Peters. There is no thesis in "ManagingNonprofits.Org". The book exists as proof that better thought needs to be applied to the question of nonprofit technology management. The book's good reviews from nontechnical nonprofit folks (I'm a CTO of a nonprofit myself), merely indicates the narrow reading habits of the reviewers as pertains to management literature. If anything, this book serves as a wakeup call to thoughtful people to write better books of their own. In my case, I have been moved by this book's remarkable dullness and ineptitude to write one of my own. I may not be a good writer, but apparently, based on the existence of "ManagingNonprofits.Org" (what the hell is with the lack of spaces, anyways?). you don't have to be a good writer anymore to get a book published.
Rating:
Summary: very impressed
Review: The is not another book about management. This is not a book just about technology. This is a book about management and technology and much more. I will hit some of the highlights of what the "much more" is. What I have to say up front is that the book has excitement! It is alive with real people doing real things. It is more than I expected because it inspires and moves me. I came away with an experience and not only a lesson. The authors talk about people and activities that matter to me and I appreciate that. The book lives on into the present and the future because the thrust of the story is now in real time and not ended. I will have more on that later. The authors set the tone of the book in the first 25 pages. They offer a map for dynamic managers and leaders of nonprofit organizations to pursue. The map is an inverted pyramid, standing on its point. This outline can only give a hint at the concepts, but the top of the pyramid, the widest portion, works down to a pointed base - - Organizational Context - What's going on? Look in the mirror.
- Corporate Culture, Vision, Values and People - Who are we?
- The Business Model - Customers and Content - Who do we serve and what do we do?
- Infrastructure - Operations - Are we supporting our culture and business model?
- Alignment - Are our resources being properly aligned? These match the chapter headings. In my view they make their case. I found words and concepts dear to my heart and life's work illustrating the theory - staff people, vision, values, low-income people, dreaming, change, corporate culture, diversity, partnerships, training, literacy. They show their theory in a clear, logical and personal fashion. This is not a professional dissertation or beta testing schematic. They illustrate each point and feature nonprofits that have changed with technology having a role, from the National Center for Victims of Crime to the Pet Shelter Network to Netwellness and Calvary Bilingual Multicultural Learning Center (the URL in the book for Calvary is incorrect .... They have real stories about real people trying new methods and new beginnings from mergers to reconciliation of competition in what they call "Digital Spotlights". Each account indicates how and why technology is a part of the changes that occur and how that was managed. They show the work being done, the failed steps and the work still to be accomplished. Ultimately Hecht and Ramsey talk about their own dream, passion and their pursuit living the map of the inverted pyramid. The vision includes residents of low-to moderate-income housing, tenants and owners alike. They took the nonprofit route and partnered with other nonprofits and for profits. They created One Economy Corporation ... around a mission that "grows out of our vision of an all inclusive economy in which all people have an equal opportunity to meet their full potential". Page 197. They are honest. They did not do everything in order. Not everyone thought the dream achievable. They were told to get real. They kept going. They established a role for technology. The One Economy Corporation is aimed at helping the customer, tenants and landlords, have hardware and software, access to the Internet and training to use it all. A second corporation, the Beehive ... was established as a suite of web-based products and services for customers - jobs, health care, finances and so on in English and Spanish. They used the map to manage the developing action steps. The book is fascinaing in part because it is moving in real time with action and web sites that continue the story and which remain subject to review and revision. The book is a prologue to action that is underway. There is discussioin about technology and its place in nonprofits. There is discussion about on-line fundraising and other means to secure funds for a dream. Each chapter ends with a useful outline of issues to reflect and to reposition thought and an outline of guiding principles. It is a book to read and it causes the reader to pause, to think and to dream. I recommend this book. Read and let it challenge you. It has given me a change in thinking. And the pages are still turning in peoples' lives.
Rating:
Summary: Management and Technology Made Alive and Personal
Review: The is not another book about management. This is not a book just about technology. This is a book about management and technology and much more. I will hit some of the highlights of what the "much more" is. What I have to say up front is that the book has excitement! It is alive with real people doing real things. It is more than I expected because it inspires and moves me. I came away with an experience and not only a lesson. The authors talk about people and activities that matter to me and I appreciate that. The book lives on into the present and the future because the thrust of the story is now in real time and not ended. I will have more on that later. The authors set the tone of the book in the first 25 pages. They offer a map for dynamic managers and leaders of nonprofit organizations to pursue. The map is an inverted pyramid, standing on its point. This outline can only give a hint at the concepts, but the top of the pyramid, the widest portion, works down to a pointed base - - Organizational Context - What's going on? Look in the mirror.
- Corporate Culture, Vision, Values and People - Who are we?
- The Business Model - Customers and Content - Who do we serve and what do we do?
- Infrastructure - Operations - Are we supporting our culture and business model?
- Alignment - Are our resources being properly aligned? These match the chapter headings. In my view they make their case. I found words and concepts dear to my heart and life's work illustrating the theory - staff people, vision, values, low-income people, dreaming, change, corporate culture, diversity, partnerships, training, literacy. They show their theory in a clear, logical and personal fashion. This is not a professional dissertation or beta testing schematic. They illustrate each point and feature nonprofits that have changed with technology having a role, from the National Center for Victims of Crime to the Pet Shelter Network to Netwellness and Calvary Bilingual Multicultural Learning Center (the URL in the book for Calvary is incorrect .... They have real stories about real people trying new methods and new beginnings from mergers to reconciliation of competition in what they call "Digital Spotlights". Each account indicates how and why technology is a part of the changes that occur and how that was managed. They show the work being done, the failed steps and the work still to be accomplished. Ultimately Hecht and Ramsey talk about their own dream, passion and their pursuit living the map of the inverted pyramid. The vision includes residents of low-to moderate-income housing, tenants and owners alike. They took the nonprofit route and partnered with other nonprofits and for profits. They created One Economy Corporation ... around a mission that "grows out of our vision of an all inclusive economy in which all people have an equal opportunity to meet their full potential". Page 197. They are honest. They did not do everything in order. Not everyone thought the dream achievable. They were told to get real. They kept going. They established a role for technology. The One Economy Corporation is aimed at helping the customer, tenants and landlords, have hardware and software, access to the Internet and training to use it all. A second corporation, the Beehive ... was established as a suite of web-based products and services for customers - jobs, health care, finances and so on in English and Spanish. They used the map to manage the developing action steps. The book is fascinaing in part because it is moving in real time with action and web sites that continue the story and which remain subject to review and revision. The book is a prologue to action that is underway. There is discussioin about technology and its place in nonprofits. There is discussion about on-line fundraising and other means to secure funds for a dream. Each chapter ends with a useful outline of issues to reflect and to reposition thought and an outline of guiding principles. It is a book to read and it causes the reader to pause, to think and to dream. I recommend this book. Read and let it challenge you. It has given me a change in thinking. And the pages are still turning in peoples' lives.
Rating:
Summary: A simplistic primer for nonprofits past their prime
Review: The world of managing nonprofit organizations has often been described as 'soft', 'unbusinesslike', unfocused and....above almost all other things....bureaucratic. Those who choose to sink their professional roots into such organizations, too, are sometimes branded with the same adjectives. At last....at long last...comes a 'how-to' book that elevates and dignifies the practice of nonprofit management....and tells us in the most up-to-date, practical ways how to get the job done most effectively. Hecht and Ramsey are credible, readable and experienced. They've drawn on real-life experience, refined and distilled it, and organized it into a guide to doing the job right. Whether you're running a nonprofit, sitting on the board of one, funding or contributing to one, or thinking about going to work for one...this is the one book you should read.
Rating:
Summary: Next Generation Thinking
Review: You do not have to work in the nonprofit world to appreciate the management lessons in this book. It is a thoughtful, analytical book that also takes care to make itself an accessible and enjoyable read. People who run small businesses should read this book to rejuvinate their businesses and bring them into the 21st Century.
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