Who gives a.....?

Again, I'm amazed by how long its been since I posted. Busy, busy with family, holidays, and even some work.

I'm really intrigued by a new book that I ordered over the weekend entitled "Who Really Cares: America's Charity Divide....Who Gives, Who Doesn't, and Why It Matters", by economist Arthur C. Brooks.

I saw Brooks on C-Span over the holidays, and his brief discussion of his research and findings was really, really interesting. As with all data and interpretation, I want to see the book and see if there are underlying prejudices or errors, but if his data backs up his oral assertions on TV, the work is groundbreaking and very, very important.

I'll post more on this when the books comes and I work my way through it.

In other news--and forewarning future posts, my newest book comes out in March, and I'm really excited about the reviews and feedback. The book is called Generations: The Challenge of a Lifetime for Your Nonprofit, and it deals with the myriad of issues around the retirement of the boomers, the rise of the next two generations, and implications for service, marketing, staff and board recruitment, technology, and finance.

More on it in a few weeks.

Tech---with Microsoft Vista (finally) coming out, I am reminded of the availability of good open source software that rivals if not exceeds the stuff MS sells. I've used Firefox for a browser, Thunderbird for email, and NvU for HTML work for years, and love them. Regular readers have seen my suggestions on this for some time.

If you are thinking about specific office software, take a look at the very good TechSoup article on OpenOffice versus Microsoft Office. Worth the read.