CONTENTS:

• GeographyIQ
• Anybirthday.com
• Free Complete Toolkit for Boards

This is a nifty site for gathering background information on the home countries of international prospects. Find out some of the socio-economic and other factors that may have shaped a prospect's life and include them in your profile. Just click the world map to navigate by continent or choose a letter from the alphabet list. Then, click the country you want to visit.

In the Facts at a Glance box on the right of the screen, just click a category to get the basics on People, Economy, Government, Geography, Communications, Transportation and the Military. The Rankings link has details of the country's international rank in sub-areas of all the Facts at a Glance categories. The Notes and Commentary box, found under the Facts box, offers links to a bit more detail on People, the Economy and Government and a Brief Historical Overview, as well as notes on Foreign and U.S. Relations.

There's even a currency converter if the development staff is going visiting!

http://www.geographyiq.com/

ANYBIRTHDAY.COM

This is a helpful and free site if you want to find out prospect birthdays to send cards or do some planned giving prospecting. A simple name search could yield a person's birthday. You can even refine your search by zip code to help make sure you have the right person. The dates are gathered from public databases, so there is no guarantee of accuracy.

However, there is no free way to absolutely confirm the information is for the right prospect. From the resulting names list, it looks like you can click a link to see the address for the person. Unfortunately, before you can see the results you are asked for a hefty payment.

As Internet privacy issues generate more public debate, sites like this may face challenges about the information they provide. As a researcher, you may want to consider your own stand on the information provided. Here are two questions to ponder. Are you willing to be listed there too? Are you willing to disclose the truth to donors who ask how you found out their dates of birth?

http://anybirthday.com/search.htm

FREE COMPLETE TOOLKIT FOR BOARDS

Carter McNamara, co-founder of Authenticity Consulting, LLC, and an expert in nonprofit organizational development, developed the Complete Toolkit for Boards. The information presented is adapted from a number of sources, which he is careful to credit.

The Toolkit covers a full range of board building topics. Broad categories include board roles and responsibilities, how to evaluate the board and how the board should evaluate an organization's top officer, tips for successful meetings and committees, board documents, staffing the board and board and staff relations. There are more detailed links under each category.

Each topic on the main page has links to articles offering additional perspectives and to other topics in McNamara's Library. This is an extensive site and very helpful to anyone in development who works with boards.

Find the Toolkit at:

http://www.mapnp.org/library/boards/boards.htm

Also check out McNamara's Free Management Library, which offers a large and tempting variety of topics to explore.

http://www.mapnp.org/library/

Chris Mildner

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