Nonprofit Tech for Good

JULY 20, 2010

There are now over 143 million blogs on the Internet and when I launched Nonprofit Tech 2.0 in September of 2009, I had very low expectations. I wasn’t convinced at all that the world needed another blogger. But within a few months it was clear that blogging was the missing piece in my online communications strategy. 80% of my ROI (Return on Investment = webinar registrations, new clients, speaking engagements) comes from my e-Newsletter, and thanks to blogging my e-Newsletter list has jum

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Content Ideas Organization New York 234

Robert Weiner

JULY 25, 2010

I get a lot of emails like the following from small nonprofits: We desperately need to get a new donor database and most of them are totally unaffordable!! Looking at the Idealware Low Cost Database report , I find that there are so many considerations that it is quite complicated to make a choice. I am tending towards (system x) because it would seem to match what we need right away, and we could afford it.

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Database Donor System Test 180

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

JULY 22, 2010

This has been a really exciting week in Washington, DC, with the focus of today's 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It's hard to imagine a world without the ADA, which was passed during my first year in the disability field. It became a model of civil rights legislation for people with disabilities, and I'm sure paved the way for the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

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Amy Sample Ward

JULY 21, 2010

This afternoon I had the pleasure and honor of spending a few hours with members of the Charity Technology Trust/Charity Technology Exchange team, part of the TechSoup Global network , exploring their options for creating programs or services to build and foster community throughout their network. Below you can find notes and ideas from today’s session – would love to hear your thoughts and feedback!

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Case Study Studies Charity Community 162

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

JULY 2, 2010

I’ve been working with nonprofit organizations on technology issues (strategy, implementation) for about 15 years now. I remember the heady days, when most nonprofits didn’t even have networks, and some of them still didn’t have internet access. In those days, most nonprofit techies were progressive, and we were sure that what we were doing was going to change the world for the better.

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NetWits

JULY 15, 2010

We recently released a pretty cool resource for the nonprofit industry – The Blackbaud Index ! It contains both The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving and The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving. The charitable giving index reports that overall revenue increased by 6.2 percent for the 3 months ending May 2010 as compared to the same period in 2009 while the online giving index reports that online revenue increased by 23.0 percent for the 3 months ending May 2010 as compared to the same period in

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NCE Social Media

JULY 6, 2010

Online applications are very helpful tools. The programs are based online and can allow you to do work just by plugging in basic information. Once example is Mention Map. It is an application that shows you current connections for any Twitter username (including your own). Here’s an example: Mention Map for ACHIEVA’s Twitter feed. It works by looking as hastags you use and connections your Twitter account has to create a visual image of your “map&#.

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VisionLink

JULY 13, 2010

'We are pleased to welcome another new customer to the VisionLink network. This is the Crisis Call Center of Nevada, established as an outreach effort of the University of Nevada, Reno, due to the high rates of suicide across the state. The center is supported by individual donations, government sources, corporate and foundation grants and the United Way.

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Amy Sample Ward

JULY 28, 2010

Last month, I moderated the June #4Change chat with the topic of “community building&#. There were some excellent ideas and tips, and generally great conversation. The problem for me with the chat was twofold: 1. Twitter fail. It has become a regular occurrence for our monthly #4change chats to find Twitter not even working. This has meant some chats haven’t happened, some have stopped early or operated on a very slow conversation, and others (like last month’s chat) have moved

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JULY 19, 2010

As you know, I left twitter 3 months ago today. I figured it was a good time to do a reflection of my experiences over this time – what I miss, and what I don’t miss. What I don’t miss. Distractions: I find myself more productive, for sure. I never was very disciplined about turning twitter off, so I was constantly distracted. The lack of distraction has been a really good thing.

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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

NetWits

JULY 28, 2010

On May 18th, 2007 at 5:18pm I tweeted for the first time, saying "@Ruby. I vote teleporting." I was at the 2007 Personal Democracy Forum , and if memory serves correctly, I was replying to a general question another attendee, Ruby Sinreich, was asking of other attendees. Twitter was a backchannel for conversation throughout the day's activities, and I met many new colleagues and friends via this channel.

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Learning Channel Conversation Twitter 130

Nonprofit Tech for Good

JULY 7, 2010

I like to think of group text messaging campaigns as the e-newsletter of the Mobile Web – just much shorter. Over the last decade nonprofit communicators have been perfecting e-newsletters to drive traffic to their organization’s website, blog, Facebook Page, etc. and to keep supporters informed and engaged. Now that same concept is emerging in mobile communications.

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Group Campaign Free Mobile 210

Wild Apricot

JULY 30, 2010

Ready for a bit of professional development, before Labor Day brings the start of another busy fall season? August is a great time for online learning – in fact, this month we’ve rounded up more free online seminars than ever before! There’s something for everyone from board members and administrators, to fundraisers and volunteer coordinators, to active members of all interests and levels.( read more ).

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VisionLink

JULY 30, 2010

'When disaster strikes, trying to find out how your friends and family are doing can be agonizing. Not knowing is an awful feeling. To meet this need, the American Red Cross offers Safe & Well. Those who are hit by a disaster large or small can register on the Safe & Well site, and then their friends and family can search the database and receive information about a loved one''s most recent status.

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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

Amy Sample Ward

JULY 29, 2010

I’m really excited to [finally] announce that I’m going to be redesigning this blog/website. And, I hope it will come as no surprise to any of you when I say that I’m hoping to make it an open process! Why. This website has been a great place for me to post ideas and share lessons learned, store content from presentations, and share resources.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

JULY 19, 2010

I became sold on version control fairly far back in my programming life. Back when CVS (C0ncurrent Version System) was the standard. I learned it, although there were varied gaps in my use of it, so it never became second nature. As I learned more about newer version control systems, I tried them out. For a while, I was using SVN (Subversion), which is similar enough to CVS, but has some nice improvements.

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Open Source Comparison Life System 120

NetWits

JULY 20, 2010

You may have inherited a vast pool of web content written “before your time” … or you frequently receive lengthy “expert” articles and other contributed pieces to add to the web site you now manage. Not every expert who contributes to a web site is also an expert in writing for the web. Fortunately, in most cases it’s easier to “clean up” existing writing than to create the original piece.

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Nonprofit Tech for Good

JULY 2, 2010

Peak water is reached when the rate at which water demanded is higher than the rate at which the supply is replenished. By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions. The nonprofits below are committed to reversing this trend through education and conservation in hopes of preventing the looming global water crisis: Twitter: Water.org.

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China Conservancy Linkedin Flickr 200

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

Judi Sohn

JULY 23, 2010

I don't know exactly what they're called, but I hate those new Facebook auto-bot-stupid generated pages. No one creates them, they're just generated by Facebook around a term or idea and it auto--bot-stupid aggregates content around the topic or idea and it auto-bot-stupid suggests to folks (who are neither bots nor stupid) to like the page. . Long ago I submitted the official page for the auto-bot-stupid page created for C3.

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VisionLink

JULY 30, 2010

'VisionLink has completed another review of our compliance with the Alliance for Information and Referral Systems (AIRS) standards, version 6.0. We are pleased to report that we are just so slightly shy of the 100% benchmark. We''ll have the last bit taken care of very soon. We strongly endorse operational, technical, and data exchange standards as each increases the efficacy with which information and referral organizations can connect needs and assets across communities and states.

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Taxonomy Benchmark Test Review 100

Amy Sample Ward

JULY 30, 2010

Beth Kanter and Allison Fine ‘s book, The Networked Nonprofit , is now out and starting lots of conversations. But what’s everyone talking about? Below I’ve shared some excerpts and resources to get you started and ready to join in! Getting Started. Let’s start at the beginning: what is a “networked nonprofit&# anyway? As Beth and Allison explain: Networked Nonprofits are simple and transparent organizations.

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Wild Apricot

JULY 12, 2010

Volunteers will stay longer and work better for your non-profit organization if you can match their personalities and passions with appropriate tasks. Could a simple quiz help you to ensure your volunteers are matched up with the kind of work they'll enjoy for the long haul? ( read more ). Tags: Non-profit technology General non-profit interest nptech Volunteers.

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Volunteer Profit Nptech Tag 118

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

NetWits

JULY 22, 2010

The question “how do I put a video into an email?” comes up from time to time in discussions with clients. This question inspires me to set down some basic “how to” recommendations (since a full video really can’t/shouldn’t be put into an email!).

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Nonprofit Tech for Good

JULY 28, 2010

Social networking communities are migrant communities. They move with you to The Next Big Thing i.e., from MySpace to Facebook to Twitter to Foursquare. Social media skeptics often say that it’s a waste of time to utilize social networking sites because they are here today, and then gone tomorrow. While it is definitely true these sites could be here today, and gone tomorrow, your supporters will indeed migrate with you on to The Next Big Thing.

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Social Network Community Network Myspace 192

Judi Sohn

JULY 23, 2010

After my old self-hosted WordPress blog hosted by MediaTemple was compromised over the weekend ( one of many )*, I exported the content (and removed the malicious injected link that started all the trouble) and redirected all traffic to judisohn.com and momathome.com to come here to my Posterous blog. It was a hasty decision that I don't regret, but I had some debris to clean up that I didn't get around to doing until today.

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WordPress Files Hosting Images 100

VisionLink

JULY 29, 2010

'We are very pleased to announce another new customer among the VisionLink network, Complete College America. Funded by Gates, Ford, Carnegie, Kellog and the Lumina Foundations, this is a nation wide initiative building voice and capacity to increase college completion rates, with a state by state strategy. The president of the National Governor''s Association has adopted this as a primary issue for the NGA, and in a very short time, this alliance has grown to more than 25 member states.

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America Denver National Rate 100

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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.

Nonprofit

Amy Sample Ward

JULY 28, 2010

This morning I had the great pleasure and honor to present at Amplified Leicester about Community-Driven Social Impact, and run a short strategy-building workshop. Amplified Leicester is managed by the Institute of Creative Technologies, De Montfort University in partnership with the DMU Centre for Social Action and Phoenix Square Digital Media Centre.

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Wild Apricot

JULY 25, 2010

Facebook has just added 3 new features to the ‘Like’ button that hold a promise of greater connectivity and better analytics. Not unusual for Facebook, the release came on a weekend, so no real chance yet to thoroughly explore the bells and whistles – and the implications. And there’s a lot to take in! ‘Like’ acts more like ‘Share’; Facebook analytics are beefed up; and Facebook Pages get to pipe their content right into the newsfeeds of all who ‘Like’ them.

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Analytics Profit Facebook Nptech 115

NetWits

JULY 6, 2010

One of the key messages your organization should convey when fundraising is clearly establishing the need – or the solution to a challenge you’re trying to address. As nonprofits have gotten increasingly creative with fundraising, some pretty amazing marketing has emerged. With increasing competition for limited dollars, getting attention for your cause is more important than ever.

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Organization Attention Challenge Causes 101

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

JULY 8, 2010

Source: Valdis Krebs. For the past few years whenever I doing a training or speak about nonprofits and social media and more recently when we’ve presented about the book, The Networked Nonprofit , someone always raises this concern: “Social media is a time suck.&#. Networked Nonprofits are not only experts in using social media, but they know how to streamline their work flow often based on an understanding of applying network theory to their practice.

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Twitter Network Tips Influence 107

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