Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology
FEBRUARY 15, 2011
As a user and developer of WordPress since 1.x something, and a developer and user of Drupal since 4.7, I figured that with the release of Drupal 7, this would be a great time to do a comparison of the two. If you want a really detailed look, please read the very exhaustive, recently released, updated Idealware report on OpenSource CMS , which includes Drupal, WordPress, Joomla and Plone.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
FEBRUARY 14, 2011
People are often surprised when I say that if given the choice, I would choose 10,000 e-Newsletter subscribers over 10,000 Followers on Twitter, 10,000 Fans on Facebook, or 10,000 Friends on Foursquare… combined. Any day of the week and without hesitation. And though some reports claim that email use is dropping , others claim its use is steady and even on the rise.
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NetWits
FEBRUARY 2, 2011
Building your online presence can be difficult. It takes patience, diligence, perseverance, some technical know-how and a lot of time. When you take a minute to think about all the hours you’ve put in you begin get an idea of what it’s costing you. With that in mind I’m sure you’d like to make sure you’re focusing your efforts in the right direction in order to achieve the best possible return on the investment of your time and money.
Amy Sample Ward
FEBRUARY 1, 2011
Last year, I had the unique privilege to help facilitate The Local Philanthropy Workshop with the TechSoup Romania team. It was a lot of fun, and as much as I was asked to share some of my knowledge and ideas, I learned a great deal from the local participants. The social media/technology landscape in Romania is very interesting – with a diverse set of issues, struggles and opportunities.
Speaker: Andrew Olsen, CFRE - EVP, Fundraising Solutions at DickersonBakker | Kat Landa, CFRE, CSD - SVP, Talent Solutions at DickersonBakker
Across the nonprofit sector, organizations invest heavily in donor retention efforts, yet the struggle of cultivating lasting relationships remains. While attracting new donors is crucial, the lack of repeat donors poses significant financial risks. Through a comprehensive analysis of industry data, experts argue that there is a direct correlation between donor burnout, donor retention, and the talent retention crisis.
Robert Weiner
FEBRUARY 11, 2011
A member of the PRSPCT-L listserve (for prospect researchers) asked "What do other institutions do to regulate or “police” data entry work, specifically when you have multiple users with authority to make updates?". It's a tough problem. Here are a few approaches (other than locking down data entry): Policies. You need clear data entry standards. Security.
Beneblog: Technology Meets Society
FEBRUARY 4, 2011
Guest Beneblog by Megan Price I recently had the opportunity to present several of HRP’s projects to the local San Francisco chapter of the American Statistical Association (SFASA). Despite an audience of fellow statisticians, I chose to focus my talk more on the research questions and challenges posed by our work in human rights and less on the nuts and bolts of our statistical methods (though I did include a few equations and Greek letters!).
Nonprofit Technology brings together the best content for nonprofit technical enthusiasts from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
FEBRUARY 8, 2011
First impressions are very important online, and the four nonprofits listed below have gone out of their way to make a strong one upon potential new Facebook Fans. Beyond the obvious graphic design work, what’s exceptionally clever is that they have created long vertical profile pics that when cropped in Status Updates produce a solid, square avatar that’s seen by their Fans in their News Feeds.
NetWits
FEBRUARY 16, 2011
The day or week after a website launch, someone will inevitably notice that they can’t find the site on Google, Yahoo, or Bing. This might seem comical since there are thousands of websites launched each day, but it also shows a underestimation of what is required to be found online. However, this isn’t as funny when your organization’s site has been online for a while and is still not being found.
Amy Sample Ward
FEBRUARY 21, 2011
My friend, Mazarine Treyz , is an accomplished woman: She is passionate about life and supporting nonprofit organizations. She’s worked in development offices of all sizes and has recently put her years of experience and training down on paper in The Wild Woman’s Guide to Fundraising. I’m also excited to announce that I’ll be giving away a copy of the book for free to a reader!
Robert Weiner
FEBRUARY 1, 2011
I just wrote a guest blog post for NTEN on the topic of moving from an accidental techie role to a leadership role. Last July, Holly Ross wrote that it was time to retire the phrase "accidental techie". She said, "it's not very nice to call anyone an accidental anything. What's really gotten under my skin lately, though, is that as long as someone is an 'accidental' techie, they're going to have a heck of a time being taken seriously.".
Speaker: Tim Sarrantonio
The average nonprofit uses five or more different software platforms to create their donor’s journey, making the experience clunky and disjointed. If you want to design a magical online giving experience for donors, making their journey as seamless as possible is key. In this webinar with expert Tim Sarrantonio, you’ll learn the fundamental steps to create an immersive and personalized online giving experience for your donors.
Beneblog: Technology Meets Society
FEBRUARY 20, 2011
Elaina Todd, an environmental planner who develops social marketing campaigns with the nonprofit conservation group Rare, is profiled in our most recent case study for Benetech’s Miradi software. Miradi, is used by nature conservation practitioners around the world to design, manage, monitor and learn from their projects. The free and open source software, which is a joint venture between Benetech and the Conservation Measures Partnership (CMP) , guides users through a series of step-by-step int
Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology
FEBRUARY 19, 2011
This epic battle between Open Source software (or Free software) and proprietary software is coming to a close. Some might argue that FOSS won the battle. Others would argue that proprietary software won. I’m going to argue that both won, and both lost. The Desktop. About 10 years ago, the very big FOSS vs. Proprietary battle was between Linux and Microsoft.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
Nonprofits have been utilizing social media for five years now (beginning with Myspace and YouTube in 2006), and while most at this point have invested the time and resources into designing a solid, visually distinct, social media-compatible avatar, many nonprofits still make the very common (yet completely obvious) mistake of using a cropped logo as their avatar in their social media campaigns.
NetWits
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
We wrapped up the “ 9 Essential Elements for Online Success ” webinar series this week and are thrilled at the level of participation we received! By popular demand, here are the presentations for you to review and download: 1. Target and Connect (Email, SEO, and Mobile). Check out the associated blog posts: The Big 3: SEO, Email and Social. Download Slides. 2.
Advertiser: Digital Ocean
Effectively managing cloud technology is getting more complex. From cybersecurity concerns, vendor lock-in, cost increases, or lack of transparency on costs, it can quickly get out of control. Knowing what you can control and finding a platform that’s built with nonprofits in mind is key.
Amy Sample Ward
FEBRUARY 19, 2011
Today I’m in San Antonio, Texas, for the American College of Preventive Medicine annual conference. I’m joining a panel to talk about the response for support after the Haiti earthquakes last year. My contribution to the panel is to provide context about the use of social media in emergency and disaster response as well as an overview of some of the tools we saw deployed last year and we may see in the future.
Robert Weiner
FEBRUARY 1, 2011
Idealware is updating its 2009 report on low-cost donor databases. If you're a database vendor and want to be considered, fill out the survey at [link] I assume their criteria will be similar to what they used last time, which was a starting cost of less than $4,250 in the first year and at least 100 active clients (see the report for the full criteria).
NCE Social Media
FEBRUARY 4, 2011
Here are 10 commandments of posting to social media. If you follow them you will avoid trouble (most of the time). 10. Thou shall not post someone else’s content as your own. 9. Thou shall not complain about work online. Everyone has a bad day at work but bad days last forever online. 8. Thou shall segment your feeds as appropriate so your posts only go to those you want to see them. 7.
Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology
FEBRUARY 21, 2011
I hope that everyone reading this blog has heard of OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice.org is a free and open source cross-platform office suite, which can read and write MS Office.doc,xls, and.ppt files. It actually has more to it than that, there is a drawing program, a database, a math equation editor and more. It has been in development as OpenOffice.org since 1999, when Sun Microsystems bought the code from a company called Star Division (remember StarOffice?
Advertiser: Syncrony
Looking for cost reductions for your nonprofit? Why not consider modernizing with a digital board management system that's designed to work with remote meetings, with immediate cost reductions if you still distribute paper packets to members? Get going in less than an hour on a fully hosted cloud solution built on the latest technology that runs on any device - from desktops to tablets and smartphones - without any installation.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
FEBRUARY 28, 2011
Many nonprofits are experimenting with text-to-give fundraising, but thus far results have been mixed. Nonprofits that have the resources or connections to tap into media, celebrity or large e-mail lists have done well, but many others are simply breaking even (or not). One reason may be that the online promotions of text-to-give campaigns have been mostly limited to text-only KEYWORD and SHORTCODE pitches, such as “Text TIGER to 20222 to donate $10!
NetWits
FEBRUARY 1, 2011
Given the amount of communication platforms that are available these days, how much time are you devoting to putting together your email content? Do you have a habit of simply copying some direct mail text and wacking the whole thing out the door? If you’re not taking the time to consider the message as well as the medium, your emails may not be conveying the messages you think they are.
Amy Sample Ward
FEBRUARY 1, 2011
Have you ever heard the phrase “herding cats&# used for our work? There are definitely times when community building and even campaigning or organizing feels just like that! But, operating as a community organizer or manager is such a filling and critical role for programs, platforms and even campaigns to be successful that the idea of herding cats turns into searching youtube for cutest kitten videos.
Wild Apricot
FEBRUARY 22, 2011
Here is our round-up of free webinars for non-profits and other membership organizations that we've gathered for the month of March. We found over 24 webinars on topics such as: building capacity with Boomer volunteers; social media metrics and benchmarking; project management for non-profits; and numerous leadership and fundraising sessions. So be sure to look through the list to see what might interest you or others in your organization.( read more ).
Advertiser: DonorDock
Are your donors your biggest fans, or are you lacking donor loyalty? The truth is, your donors have expectations of what their relationship with your organization should look like. This ebook will help you learn how to live up to those expectations!
Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media
FEBRUARY 11, 2011
Note from Beth: Alison Zarella is the co-author of the recently published “ The Facebook Marketing Book.&# I received a review copy from O’Reilly. The book is not only an excellent reference for many Facebook questions, but also provides tactical recommendations for an effective Facebook content, engagement, and measurement strategy.
Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology
FEBRUARY 16, 2011
As most of you know, I’m a writer. I write a fair bit of science fiction, and also write other stuff. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to do to get my novels out in the world, and have been greatly influenced by Cory Doctorow in terms of copyright (or, more accurately, copyleft ). Obviously for me, publishing eBooks is going to be something I do at some point, perhaps sooner rather than later.
Nonprofit Tech for Good
FEBRUARY 21, 2011
Odds are your nonprofit has a “Company Page” on LinkedIn. If any of your past staff, interns, or volunteers have a personal profile on LinkedIn and they have added their position at your nonprofit to their work “Experience,&# then your nonprofit does indeed have a LinkedIn Company Page. If not, then you can easily create one. Either way, LinkedIn is now the 12th most visited website in the United States and with almost 100 million active users, you should claim, enhance, and monitor your nonprof
NetWits
FEBRUARY 6, 2011
There’s been a lot of talk about mobile throughout the last few years, but it seems that many of us still struggle when it comes to creating a website that can be read easily by mobile browsers. If you are looking to create a site that can be easily read by mobile surfers, take a quick peek at the following checklist to make sure that you’ve got everything covered: Create a seperate mobile site.
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Organizations like yours are increasingly realizing that technology adoption is only as good as the technology you choose. Statistics from a 2014 NTEN study show that seriously investing resources in training for your staff corresponds to higher adoption and ultimately technology effectiveness. In this report, we’ll give you a high-level overview of how to get your organization in shape for technology adoption and best practices for facilitating this critical process.
Amy Sample Ward
FEBRUARY 10, 2011
Here’s my latest contribution to the Stanford Social Innovation Review – you can read the post and join the conversation on the SSIR Blog or below. —– The Electronic Resources and Libraries Conference takes place Febrary 28-March 2 in Austin, TX, and I’m SO honored to be a keynote speaker! I’m gathering my thoughts to start putting together my slides and presentation and wanted to stop for reflection and sharing.
Wild Apricot
FEBRUARY 11, 2011
There are 77 million Baby Boomers in the US and another 10 million across Canada. "Boomers" are generally well educated, wealthy and skilled individuals who have already proven their willingness to volunteer - with nearly a third of Boomers volunteering for formal organizations. But to take advantage of this "untapped resource of extraordinary proportions" organizations need to rethink how they attract and utilize Boomer volunteers.( read more ).
Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media
FEBRUARY 19, 2011
Back over the summer, I wrote a post called “ What was your worst social media mistake? What did you learn? “ If you read through the comments, misdirected tweets (tweets sent to an organizational account, not a personal account or private message sent out to all) were the most common. These ranged from tweeting about a favorite television show to much worse, tweeting the “ c-word &#.
Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology
FEBRUARY 23, 2011
This is an issue I’ve been struggling with for a long time. I’m an unrepentant, unabashed technophile. OK, well, not so unrepentant or unabashed since I’m writing this post on the varied factors around technology and the environment, and have been thinking about this issue for myself for a long time. And I will start this post off by being clear – this is as much of an internal, personal conflict for me, and a way in which I see my own behavior and my values diverge at ti
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