School of Public, Nonprofit and Health Administration

Research & Writing Resources

Meta-Policy Sites

World Wide Web:

Almanac of Policy Issues "Background information, archived documents, and links on major U.S. public policy issues."
OnTheIssues.org "Every political leader on every issue."
PolicyBot "The Internet's most extensive clearing-house for the work of free-market think tanks"
Political Information "A search engine for politics, policy and political news."
Public Agenda "The new PublicAgenda.org is set up to provide both citizens and leaders with the tools they need to tackle tough problems."

GVSU library databases:

Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center "A virtual library of resources designed to aid students in the study of today's hottest social issues."
LexisNexis Congressional "Congressional publications, legislative histories, member biographies, committee assignments, voting records, and financial data; and the full text of key regulatory and statutory resources."

Nonprofit Sector Portals

World Wide Web:

Benton Foundation's Virtual Library "a list of publications and online resources by the Benton Foundation since 1995."
Foundation Center's "Gain Knowledge" page "Stay current on the latest trends. Learn from the experts. Tap into out vast research collection."
Free Management Library "A complete integrated online library for nonprofits & for-profits."
Idealist.org's The Nonprofit FAQ "Based on questions and answers about nonprofit organizations exchanged on the Internet since 1994."
Nonprofit Good Practice Guide "Key information designed to help anyone manage a nonprofit organization efficiently and effectively."
Nonprofit Resource Center "building a strong, vibrant nonprofit community."
University of Michigan's Nonprofit and Public Management Center portal "Nonprofit Support Organizations; publications about and for nonprofits; nonprofit resources."
USA.gov for nonprofits "Official information and services from the U.S. government."

Public Sector Portals

World Wide Web:

Fed Stats "The gateway to statistics from over 100 U.S. Federal agencies"
Fedworld "Making it easy to locate government information." Managed by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS).
Google U.S. Government Search (Formerly Google Uncle Sam) "Offers a single location for searching across U.S. government information, and for keeping up to date on government news."
GovEngine.com "The premier Federal, state, and local government site on the Internet." Operated by GovEngine, Inc., a Florida non-profit organization dedicated to promoting e-Government initiatives.
GPO Access "Disseminating official information from all three branches of the Federal Government." A service of the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO).
GovSpot "A non-partisan government information portal designed to simplify the search for the best and most relevant government information online." Operated by StartSpot Mediaworks, Inc.
SciTechResources.gov "A catalog of government science and technology web sites." Managed by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS).
SourceOECD "The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's online library of statistical databases, books and periodicals."
State and Local Government on the Net "A directory of official state, county, and city government websites." Operated by HelloMetro, Inc.
University of Michigan Library Documents Center "A central reference and referral point for government information, whether local, state, federal, foreign or international."
USA.gov (formerly Firstgov) "Official information and services from the U.S. government." Administered by the U.S. General Services Administration.
Yahoo "Government" category

GVSU library databases:

CQ Electronic Library "The definitive reference resource for research in American government, politics, history, public policy, and current affairs."
United States Government Resources

Scholarly Research Articles

See: SPNA Guide to peer-reviewed journals **

World Wide Web:

If you are on campus, your IP address should be recognized and allow full-text access to journal articles when GVSU has a subscription. (If you are off-campus, you should use the GVSU library databases with you login.) The journal publisher's databases will often have more recent articles than are available in full-text through the library's EBSCO and First Search databases.

GVSU library databases:

The following databases will access most relevant full-text articles available through the library databases. If you desire an article not available on-line, note the name of the journal and look it up in the library catalog. It may be in another database or available in hard copy.

EBSCO Go to "Academic Search Premier," click the "choose databases" tab, check "Business Source Complete," and click "continue." (This will allow a simultaneous search of both EBSCO's relevant, full-text databases.)
First Search Select both "Wilson Select Plus" and "ECO"
ABI/INFORM Global

On-line Books

World Wide Web:

Google Book Search "Search the full text of books and discover new ones."
A9.com's OpenSearch "Search more at once." Note: Check "books by amazon" and enter multiple search terms. The results will allow you to browse the page (and surrounding pages) of books where those terms appear, if the book is in Amazon's "Search Inside" collection.

GVSU library databases:

Net Library "offers approximately 8,000 electronic books in many subject areas in addition to more than 3,000 public domain e-books." Note: Off-campus access requires an individual account. A user may register for a free account from any computer on the GVSU campus.
Oxford Scholarship Online "access more than 1300 books from Oxford University Press in the areas of Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, and Economics and Finance."

Resources for Writing

The following guides and links are provided to assist SPNHA students taking public and nonprofit administration classes. These are general guides and instructions may differ from those given in particular classes. Students should always refer to class material for specific instructions and grading criteria.

Student Guide to Avoiding Plagiarism Sandra Rhoten, California State University, Fullerton

Grand Valley Library "Citing Sources" page

Blogs of Interest

Local

President's Point of View: Diana R. Sieger's Blog Diana Sieger, President, Grand Rapids Community Foundation

Never The Same River Twice Maria Gajewski, MPA '05

English Rules, Karl Swedberg, former owner, Four Friends Coffeeehouse

Grand Rapids Pundit

Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy

Community Research Institute

Rapid Growth

Nonprofit Management & Philanthropy

Nonprofit Law Prof Blog David A. Brennen, Professor of Law Univ. of Georgia School of Law

Seeking Grant Money Today Arlene Spencer, grant writer / consultant. The Grant Plant, LLC

Nonprofit University. A bolg for the business of nonprofits Laura Otten, Nonprofit Center, La Salle University

Nonprofit Leadership, Innovation, and ChangeChristopher Scott, AmeriCorps*VISTA Member in Modesto, CA

Nonprofit Board Crisis Mike Burns, consultant, Brody Weiser Burns.

Nonprofit Leadership 601 Heather Carpenter, nonprofit manager, consultant and trainer

Tactical Philanthropy Sean Stannard-Stockton, principal and director of Tactical Philanthropy, Ensemble Capital Management.

Philanthropy 2173 Lucy Bernholz, founder and President, Blueprint Research & Design, Inc.

Inside Philanthropy Todd Cohen, editor and publisher, Philanthropy Journal

** material is in PDF format. Note that you may need to install a free Adobe Acrobat Reader if you are viewing these materials at home or work. The Acrobat Reader is already installed on PCs in Grand Valley State computer labs.

Page last modified August 22, 2012