Nonprofit Tech for Good

JUNE 8, 2011

Written for the June 2011 issue of Fundraising Success Magazine , where I am writing a quarterly column throughout 2011. For the past six years I have spent 50 to 60 hours a week utilizing Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Foursquare to promote nonprofits. I’ve watched the early adopters of MySpace in 2005 propel themselves into the national and international spotlight using social media, and I’ve seen latecomers begin to dabble with Facebook and Twitter just

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NetWits

JUNE 20, 2011

Subscribe to the RSS feed ›. This is a guest post by the one and only Nonprofit Facebook Guy – John Haydon (also a good buddy of mine). Make sure to check out his blog [link]. — Facebook Pages include a reporting module called “Insights&# which enables Page admins to understand how to better use their Page to market their cause and organization.

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Amy Sample Ward

JUNE 6, 2011

Today, at the 2011 MyCharityConnects Conference in Toronto, I had a ton of fun leading a session and discussion around making the most of social media in just 30 minutes a day. Ultimately, it’s less about the amount of time and more about the consistency – and planning, tracking, and everything else! Here are the slides from the session and links to get you started: Social Media in 30 Minutes a Day.

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Judi Sohn

JUNE 17, 2011

In 2012, Salesforce's huge and wonderful conference, Dreamforce , will be held September 18-21. In 2012, September 18th is the 2nd day of Rosh Hashanah , a Jewish High Holiday. The first day of Dreamforce is typically the welcome events, some breakouts, extra training and the like. The conference really begins the next day with Marc Benioff's keynote but since the holiday ends at sundown on the 18th cross-country travel will be difficult.

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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.

Donor

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JUNE 2, 2011

I’ve been a user of a ton of operating systems over time. In the past ten years, I have been an everyday user of the big three, Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, for long stretches of time. I switched from Apple to Windows/Linux last year , and I’ve largely been OK with it, but I’ve complained enough about all three that I realized that they all suck.

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Robert Weiner

JUNE 21, 2011

Sender : I love McDonalds (helping@mcdonalds.com). Subject : We are fond of you and thus invite you for free helpings. Attachment : Invitation_Card_37021.zip. Hello. McDonalds invites you to The Free Dinner Day which will take place on 25 June, 2011, in every cafe of ours. Free Day’s menu! - Angus Chipotle BBQ Bacon. - Chicken McNuggets. - Premium Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken. - Strawberry Triple Thick Shake. - McCafe Iced Mocha.

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NetWits

JUNE 30, 2011

I volunteer with a small nonprofit called Fields to Families. We work with local farmers to distribute excess produce to families in need. Brilliant, right? Have you grabbed your credit card yet? Well, I wish more of our constituents did the last time we sent an email appeal! It was beautifully crafted (or at least I thought so.) The returns were less than mind-blowing.

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Amy Sample Ward

JUNE 30, 2011

Google+ , the latest iteration on social networking from Google, is here. There are bound to be many, many versions of this blog post as people from around the world start investigating the tool and sharing their impressions. As always, when it’s just the first trickling of people joining up, the way the tool is used, the depth of some functionality, and the technical issues are all a bit out of proportion.

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Judi Sohn

JUNE 17, 2011

In 2012, Salesforce's huge and wonderful conference, Dreamforce , will be held September 18-21. In 2012, September 18th is the 2nd day of Rosh Hashanah , a Jewish High Holiday. The first day of Dreamforce is typically the welcome events, some breakouts, extra training and the like. The conference really begins the next day with Marc Benioff's keynote but since the holiday ends at sundown on the 18th cross-country travel will be difficult.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 16, 2011

Statement of Benetech to the 22nd Session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights at the World Intellectual Property Organization June 15, 2011, Geneva, Switzerland • Greetings from California’s Silicon Valley! I’m a high tech engineer and the founder of Benetech, one of Silicon Valley’s leading nonprofit technology companies, dedicated to seeing that the benefits of technology help all of humanity, not just the richest 10% • As a nonprofit charity, we focus on areas of market

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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.

Donor

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JUNE 5, 2011

CodeChix. tags: toblog women technology developers. Fluxx | Open Source Grants Management. tags: grants CRM opensource toblog nptech. cryptocat. tags: cryptography secure communication toblog. Catch My Fame » jQuery Before/After Plugin. tags: jquery plugin image toblog. Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Nonprofit Tech for Good

JUNE 15, 2011

Lately I have been receiving a lot of requests from nonprofits in New Zealand, Australia, and East Asia for recorded versions of my social media webinars. However, I don’t record my webinars and the current schedule is not compatible with nonprofits located in New Zealand, Australia, and East Asia since most nonprofit staff are still sleeping (and dreaming) when they are being presented live to nonprofits in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and Western Europe.

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NetWits

JUNE 23, 2011

Special thanks to Brian Winters at Adcieo for authoring this guest post. We’re looking forward to the webinar Brian! — When creating any fundraising campaign there are two items that should always be on your short list list. In fact, without the two we’ll cover in this post you’re guaranteed to finish your campaign, review the results, and be left wanting.

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Amy Sample Ward

JUNE 8, 2011

Yesterday, I had a very fun time presenting with my friend and colleague Debra Askanase at the 2 011 National Conference on Volunteering and Service. We focused on principles for community building and community organizing, as well as examples of both short-term and long-term engagement. Here are the slides! Would love to hear if you have examples or tips to share!

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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.

Nonprofit

Judi Sohn

JUNE 30, 2011

For a while yesterday, Google turned on the spigot and folks were able to freely invite others to Google+. In that window of opportunity, I snagged an invite from NTEN’s Amy Sample Ward and have spent the last day playing around with it in between other projects. Most posts and conversations today in my circles have been focused around making sense out of it all.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 10, 2011

The centerpiece of our Benetech board of directors meeting this week was the Benetech Human Rights Program. Each of our quarterly meetings tends to focus on big strategic issues facing Benetech. Last quarter Betsy Beaumon presented the future of our Literacy program including Bookshare. Next quarter will be our new projects meeting, where we talk about the pipeline of new ideas for Benetech social enterprises.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JUNE 12, 2011

A web-focused Git workflow | Joe Maller. tags: git workflow toblog. The Agile NonProfit: A Quick Start Guide to Iterative Web Development | Ian Rhett | CivicActions. tags: nptech toblog webdevelopment. Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Nonprofit Tech for Good

JUNE 1, 2011

As I have said many times, I was a reluctant blogger. I did not think the Internet needed another blogger. But I was wrong. So wrong. Blogging has transcended my ROI (return on investment) , primarily from simply featuring my e-newsletter “Subscribe&# option and social networking icons in the upper right column. Sadly, the vast majority of nonprofit blogs do not feature on their blog the three must-haves listed below: 1. e-Newsletter sign-up. 2. “Donate Now&# button. 3.

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Advertiser: Syncrony

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Nonprofit

NetWits

JUNE 2, 2011

Looking for additional resources like this? Register for our Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Events Newsletter and get a monthly dose of quality content. At this year’s SXSW conference, keynote speaker Seth Priebatsch said the next 10 years will be the decade of games. He talked about the importance of motivated players, challenges, rewards, levels and incentives in our everyday activities.

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Amy Sample Ward

JUNE 8, 2011

My latest contribution to the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s opinion blog is up – you can read the post and contribute to the conversation on SSIR , or read it in full below. —– In a previous post, I discussed some of the highlights from recent reports about the impact of celebrities and data on Millennial donors. The conclusion was that building trust with your constituents is the closest you can come to a silver bullet for fundraising – not slick online tools

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Judi Sohn

JUNE 6, 2011

I think Google Chrome is a fantastic browser. I've been using it as my default on my MacBook and iMac for quite some time now. Every time Firefox or Safari comes out with a new bell or whistle, I try it for a few minutes and then go running back to Chrome. I live in Google applications (Gmail, Google Reader, Calendar, etc.) so it's almost a no-brainer for that reason alone.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 13, 2011

Our Nonprofit Legal Expert Continues to Offer Wise Advice My last post mentioned our recent Benetech board meeting. This seemed like a great moment to introduce our newest board member, Robert Wexler. Rob has a deep understanding of what makes nonprofits successful. He’s a principal at Adler & Colvin, San Francisco's top law firm specializing in nonprofit law.

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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!

Donor

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JUNE 19, 2011

Welcome – Synergy. tags: toblog kvm software opensource. 5 Innovative Ways to Teach Your Skills Online. tags: teaching tools toblog. Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Nonprofit Tech for Good

JUNE 7, 2011

The time is ripe for the early adopters in the nonprofit sector to embrace m-Advocacy, otherwise known as mobile advocacy. Odds are a year from now pitches to subscribe or join “Mobile Action Networks&# will be commonly seen in Facebook Status Updates, Tweets, blogs posts, homepages, and e-newsletter subject lines. As social media taught us, those nonprofits who act quickly and embrace emerging trends tend to experience the highest success rate, and similar to the rise of e-advocacy and &

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NetWits

JUNE 9, 2011

Guest post by David J. Neff – Author of The Future of Nonprofits: Thrive and Innovate in the Digital Age. Hey online fundraisers! Time flies when you are having fun right? Or maybe time flies when your not having fun in light of the recent economic woes? Predicting the future can be a scary thing for nonprofits and the scariest part of it can be thinking about where, who and how they will receive funding in the future to continue their mission.

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Amy Sample Ward

JUNE 6, 2011

This morning, I had the huge honor of presenting the keynote at the 2011 MyCharityConnects Conference in Toronto, ON. I am so thrilled to have the chance to participate in this event and thankful for the invitation. The full keynote and presentation are below. Whether you were here in Toronto or not, I’d love to hear your ideas, feedback, and goals for change!

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Judi Sohn

JUNE 26, 2011

My old zip code in Stamford was 06902. My current zip code also has a leading zero. It happens, and it can be frustrating when you’re working with spreadsheets that will eventually be merged to mailing labels. I’ve helped a number of folks who aren’t Google/Excel pros who struggled with this issue so I thought it might be a good time to blog my simple fix.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JUNE 3, 2011

Longtime Beneblog readers may remember my visit five years ago to Bangladesh, where I was able to visit and write about a cool tech social enterprise, bracNet. They were going to bring Bangladesh better wireless internet than exists in California, and they’ve done it. I recently had the opportunity to visit with one of their main funders, George Hara, in San Francisco.

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Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JUNE 2, 2011

This post summarizes some findings from a recent research report about increasing engagement on Facebook and a couple of conversations about applying the research over on my blog Facebook page. I also tested some of the tips suggested by the research. Here’s what I learned: After Hours Posting. I have been looking at different research studies, like this one “ Posting Strategies That Encourage Engagement on Facebook &# to see if there were more tactics to try.

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Nonprofit Tech for Good

JUNE 20, 2011

Email is still queen. No doubt about it. The vast majority of online donations come from a click in an e-newsletter, as do most new Facebook Fans, Twitter Followers, and text alert subscribers. It’s even the number one activity on the Mobile Web. E-newsletters will likely be eulogized at some point, but for now and in the near future, nonprofits that do not publish e-newsletters are definitely at a disadvantage.

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