Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

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Evaluation and being a learning organization

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

In this article, Gale points to an interesting shift within her organization (the Packard Foundation): “Over the past four years we have been shifting from evaluation for proof or accountability (“Did the program work?”) to evaluation for program improvement (“What did we learn that can help us make the program better?”).&#.

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Evaluation and being a learning organization

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

In this article, Gale points to an interesting shift within her organization (the Packard Foundation): “Over the past four years we have been shifting from evaluation for proof or accountability (“Did the program work?”) to evaluation for program improvement (“What did we learn that can help us make the program better?”).&#.

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Can open source software save organizations money?

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

Next year, given what is likely to be a grim funding year, nonprofit organizations are going to be hunting for ways to save money on technology. There are, of course, arguments that IT budgets should be, at least, level funded during slim times, but the reality is that organizations are going to reduce budgets across the board.

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Social Media ennui

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

I certainly have followed and friended lots of organizations on these networks (particularly on Twitter, but also some more personally relevant to me on Facebook.) It doesn’t help organizations bridge the huge data and workflow gap present between their traditional CRM/Donation management systems and their social media interactions.

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Got Research?

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

One of the great things about the nonprofit technology field is the collection of nonprofit organizations that provide what is often called “Intermediary&# services to other nonprofits: information and resources that help nonprofit organizations do the work they do in the world, by helping them make good technology decisions.

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I’m not changing the world

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

I’ve been working with nonprofit organizations on technology issues (strategy, implementation) for about 15 years now. Conservative causes of all sorts have discovered the power of the kinds of technologies I’ve been helping nonprofits with, and are au courant. I still think I’m doing good.

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The evolution of web hosting

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

I even remember writing a grant to some federal agency that probably no longer exists to help create a local infrastructure to get nonprofits online. But it’s only been in the last few years that mega storage, and mega processing power were available to organizations to power big web applications and the like. Be Helpful.

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