From finances and fundraising to managing your board and your brand, the 21 leading-edge workshops at MNN's annual conference on October 29 will be led by experts who are at the forefront of nonprofit strategy and authorities on the most effective tools, practices, and resources for mission-based organizations. You'll gain everything you need to be more effective and efficient. 

Registration closes next week- register now.

If you're looking to bolster your leadership, coaching, and management abilities choose from: Coaching Early Career Professionals: A Tool for Staff Performance and Retention; Developing 21st Century Leaders: Leadership Challenges and Opportunities; and Preparing Your Organization for the Future: Executive Succession Planning.

Expand your marketing skills in Video Storytelling and Social Media: A Match Made in Heaven or The Brand IDEA: A New Framework for Managing Nonprofit Brands.

If governance and/ or strategy is more your thing don't miss Maintaining Continuity, Inspiring Change: Best Practices for Board Recruitment.

The Spectrum of Collaboration-to-Merger Options and Collaborative IT for Small Budgets will both show you what all the buzz is about.

Head in the Clouds: Choice and Lessons in Moving Nonprofit Data and Technology to the Cloud will help find the techie in all of us.

If you want (or need) to learn more about development check out Donor Cultivation Events that Engage and Attract or Show and Tell: Using Data and Language to Write Powerful Grant Proposals.

View the entire list of workshops, along with presenters, and see which ones are right for you.

How We Give: MA and the U.S.  

A special report from the Chronicle of Philanthropy "How America Gives," highlights who in America is giving and just how much. Along with state-by-state data, the report points out that in the wake of the Great Recession, the wealthiest Americans are giving smaller portions of their income to charities, while those with smaller incomes are giving bigger shares. 

Some highlights from the report:

• Americans donated $180 billion in 2012
• Massachusetts residents donated $4,344,977,000- that's an average $2,000 contribution/ 2.19% of their income (the nationwide average was $3,176/ 3% of income)
• Massachusetts ranked 46 out of all 50 states, plus DC; Boston also ranked 46 when compared to the nation's 50 largest cities (Utah and Salt Lake City were #1 on both lists)

You can explore the data by state, county, metropolitan area, and ZIP code with the Chronicle's interactive tool, which also lets you view religion, politics and age of residents.

"We know that Massachusetts residents are generous, but we cannot continue ignore the fact that we are consistently near the bottom when it comes to charitable giving as a percentage of our annual income," said Rick Jakious, CEO of the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network. "The state's large and vibrant nonprofit sector has long led the way in innovative thinking and practices. Hopefully this data will encourage nonprofits and funders to apply some of that creativity to growning citizen philanthropy."

(Read what the editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy suggests leads to low rankings in New England.)