Nonprofit Tech for Good

MARCH 24, 2010

“A survey of 200 charity and foundation professionals revealed that nonprofits are finding it difficult to determine how valuable social media tools are for their organizations. Seventy-nine percent said they hadn’t found ways to do so.” – Chronicle of Philanthropy, November 12, 2009. For those 79% of nonprofits out there, I have listed 10 social media metrics below that can be easily tracked and plotted on a Social Media Return on Investment (ROI) Spreadsheet ( Download ).

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Social Media Metrics Track Myspace 238

Amy Sample Ward

MARCH 14, 2010

I’m really excited and honored to be speaking today at the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, TX, on a panel with Beth Kanter, Dave Neff, Holly Ross and Kari Saratovsky. We’ll be facilitating a conversation, more than doing a formal presentation, and will focus on the power of crowdsourcing (using our own case study from conducting the Social Media for Social Good case study competition) and the application of social media in nonprofit program delivery.

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Community Case Study Haiti Social Media 207

NetWits

MARCH 22, 2010

I spent some time with Randi Zuckerberg while at South by South West Interactive 2010. Randi works on a number of initiatives for Facebook – one of those being focused on Facebooks involvement in helping nonprofits. She also works on things related to marketing, politics and current events. All the while she acts as the unofficial Facebook correspondent for CNN.

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Facebook Interview Video Nonprofit 191

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 7, 2010

The reason I post these is because 1) I think they might be helpful resources, and 2) you can get a feeling for what I’m working on, or thinking about (or wishing for.) For instance, the reason there are so many links about Amazon is that we are now beginning a project that uses amazon in earnest, with some others possibly on the way. PolicyTool for Social Media.

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Ubuntu Georgia Amazon NPO 153

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Robert Weiner

MARCH 4, 2010

I received the following phishing email today. It's a variation on the "your email inbox is too large" scam I posted in June. It plays Habitat's name, Haiti relief, and pure greed -- it claims you can earn big tax-free commissions as a fundraiser. There are so many things wrong with this pitch. Fundraising (at least in the U.S.) doesn't work this way -- commissions violate the Association of Fundraising Professionals' code of ethics.

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Haiti Fundraising Spam gMail 122

Nonprofit Tech for Good

MARCH 4, 2010

Over the years I have stumbled across countless Internet gems, but the 10 below are those that I regularly and repeatedly return to. These resources are invaluable when looking for quality content to utilize and share on social media sites. If you have any favorites that you would like to share, please add them in a comment below. Thanks. 1. Worldometers : Provides world statistics updated in real-time. tweeting powerful stats is guaranteed to get your organization ReTweeted!

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Resource Fun Alexa Stats 213

Amy Sample Ward

MARCH 24, 2010

I recently had the opportunity to connect with Ricard Espelt to learn more about the various projects he’s working on in Spain leveraging new technologies for public engagement, government transparency and community building. Learn more in the interview below. In Richard’s words: “I am a lucky man, and basically because I do not dare make mistakes, so correct.

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Interview Government Proposal Spain 155

NCE Social Media

MARCH 18, 2010

Here’s a video that explains how to set up an event on Facebook at a fairly basic level. If you’ve done this previously with with success, please feel free to share your experiences in the comments section. Tags: Education and Training Facebook Video events facebook.

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Facebook Video Train Training 109

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 23, 2010

As most of you know, I’m a very long time veteran of web application building. I’ve been involved in web application development basically since they started – when, when a cgi-bin folder with some perl scripts to process simple forms was the norm. Until just a few years ago, there was very little sophistication about the user experience in web applications – what mattered most was functionality. and to make sure there weren’t too many errors when users did unexpect

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Speaker: Joe Sharpe and James Carlson

Payroll optimization can be one of the most time-consuming and complex factors of small business management. Yet, organizations that crack the code on streamlining employee compensation often discover innovative avenues for growth. With the right strategies in place, outsourcing and streamlining payroll processes can result in substantial time and resource savings.

Foundation

Robert Weiner

MARCH 5, 2010

I've had my Palm Pre Plus for a little over a month now. I wrote up my initial impressions after having it for a week. Overall, I love it except for Outlook sync. Sync. My major problem with the Pre is due to its lack of a built-in sync with a standalone/desktop copy of Outlook. If you don't use Outlook, or use it on an Exchange server, you might not have these problems.

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gMail Flash Music Calendar 112

NetWits

MARCH 30, 2010

While at South by South West Interactive (SXSWi) Amy Sample Ward spent some time talking with me about how NetSquared ( about ) serves the nonprofit industry. NetSquared is focused on the intersection of technology and social impact. Their mission is to help hundreds of thousands of non-profit organizations utilize the community empowering capabilities of the Internet to achieve social change.

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Netsquared Sample Interview Video 105

Nonprofit Tech for Good

MARCH 2, 2010

Over the last few weeks I have been running a Facebook Advertising experiment for the Nonprofit Organizations Facebook Page. While the ad itself produced little-to-no results, some unexpected Facebook insights did come out of running the ad. The results are below: 1. Purchasing advertising did not increase my fan base or help my Status Updates show up in the News Feed > Top News.

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Facebook Results Experiment Organization 207

Amy Sample Ward

MARCH 16, 2010

This is cross-posted from the #4Change blog here. From the newest member of the #4Change team, ChristinasWorld : In the wake of South by Southwest in Austin, and in anticipation of some exciting social media and social change gatherings coming up on the 2010 events calendar, we thought it could be useful to explore How Social Media Can Enhance Events as the topic for the March #4change chat.

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Social Media Media Social Offline 135

Speaker: Tim Sarrantonio, Director of Corporate Brand

Is your organization ready to build a recurring giving program that not only sustains but also propels your mission forward? 🚀 In this new webinar with industry visionary Tim Sarrantonio, we’ll guide you through the critical steps to establishing and scaling a successful recurring giving program. Whether you’re starting fresh or enhancing an existing program, this session will provide the strategies you need to deepen donor relationships and secure long-term support!

Giving

NCE Social Media

MARCH 1, 2010

Temple Grandin has been in the news recently because of the HBO movie about her life. She recently gave a talk as part of the TED series discussing how her mind and the mind of people with autism spectrum disorder works and what makes them tick. Are you allowing people with disabilities, the people you serve, to help you in your on-line efforts? Are you using them in a focus group to get their feedback on the marketing you do?

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Hints Movie Mind Train 109

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 24, 2010

Lobo’s comment on my post yesterday prompted me to complete this blog entry that I’ve been ruminating on for a while. I wrote a blog entry a while back on the state of Drupal/Salesforce integration. What I didn’t say is that a number of shops that have done Drupal/SF integration for production sites chose not to use the contributed modules – they built (or are building) their own custom Salesforce/Drupal integration modules.

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Module Drupal Open Source Integration 141

VisionLink

MARCH 30, 2010

'We are pleased to welcome 211 San Diego to our VisionLink network. It will be an honor to support their work! If you are planning on attending this year''s AIRS conference you will be able to enjoy a number of worthwhile workshops from these good folks at 211 San Diego. For that matter, if you have not yet registered for the conference, here are 7 more reasons to do so: Managing Disaster Relationships Presenter: Thomas Bennett, 211 San Diego, California This course will provide an overview of g

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San Diego California Disaster Virginia 100

NetWits

MARCH 18, 2010

We Can End This is a yearlong initiative focused on sparking innovation and broader engagement in the movement to end hunger in America. It's official kickoff went down at South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive 2010 much like the Pledge to End Hunger did in 2009. On top of unvailing the new movement at SXSW a new website was launched and a frontpage promotion was put on Mashable.com.

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Hunger Pledge America Picture 105

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

Nonprofit Tech for Good

MARCH 10, 2010

When I bought my first iPhone in June 2009 I was absolutely blown away. Love my iPhone. What a miraculous little tool of technology. I immediately downloaded the Apps for the social networking sites that I regularly use as well as the few Apps that were available from the nonprofit sector. In the months following my mind was ruminating and imagining nonprofits throughout the world launching iPhone Apps.

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Mobile Websites Blackberry United States 198

Amy Sample Ward

MARCH 29, 2010

It’s that time again: time to meet up at the Nonprofit Technology Conference! This year it’s taking place in Atlanta, GA and I’ve got such a long list of people to meet, talk to, and learn from. This year’s event will have me quite busy so I’m hoping that by putting out some of my plans, we can find time to connect so I can learn more about your work!

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NTC Netsquared NGO Atlanta 126

Judi Sohn

MARCH 29, 2010

via youtube.com. Tomorrow is butt-in day! Even with health care reform, and no matter how you feel about that, we still need action. Please do me a big favor and call your Rep tomorrow. We're looking for House co-sponsors for HR 1189, a bill that will extend Medicare benefits for colorectal cancer screening and treatment to those who are low income and/or under-insured.

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Cancer Sponsor Model Comment 100

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 16, 2010

I’ve been doing a bit of playing around with Drupal 7 in my copious spare time (not a whole lot of that!) I’ve also been keeping track, a bit of how the development process is going, and what things will look like. One thing to say – it feels like as big an improvement as Drupal 6 was to Drupal 5. Of course, mostly, Drupal is only as good as it’s contributed modules (that’s a bit more of a stretch, now, because many of the key contributed modules, like CCK, are now

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Drupal Module Open Source Site 141

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

VisionLink

MARCH 28, 2010

'We are pleased to announce another tool for those managing Homeless Coalitions, funded by HUD (US Department of Housing and Urban Development). The AHAR now allows users to run the report for Veterans Only (or, as previously, for all non-veterans as well. The AHAR tool is designed to assist Continuum of Care jurisdictions in preparing data to submit to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for their annual report to the US Congress.

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Homeless Management Integration Software 100

NetWits

MARCH 1, 2010

Blackbaud is offering a free web seminar series to help nonprofits build strategies for mobilizing, soliciting, and stewarding supporters during and after times of disaster. Blackbaud experts and partners developed the seminars based off of their work with nonprofit customers who responded to the Haiti earthquake. The series, entitled “Lessons Learned from Haiti,” includes five seminars that will take place March through May.

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Blackbaud Web Haiti Disaster 102

Nonprofit Tech for Good

MARCH 1, 2010

March’s theme is Modern and Contemporary Art. Below are 5 museums throughout the world that are creatively utilizing social media: Twitter: Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Lima. Facebook: Moscow Museum of Modern Art. YouTube: Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. MySpace: Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. Flickr: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The nonprofits above are featured throughout the month of March on the Nonprofit Organizations Twitter Profile , the Nonprofit Organizations Facebook Pag

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Arts San Francisco Myspace Museum 179

Amy Sample Ward

MARCH 30, 2010

The SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, TX, was a blast this year, due in no small part to the huge honor of speaking on a panel with Beth Kanter, Dave Neff, Holly Ross and Kari Saratovsky. Beth facilitated a conversation, among the panelists as well as the standing-room-only room of participants, that focused on the power of crowdsourcing and the application of social media in nonprofit program delivery.

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Change Austin Netsquared Social 123

Advertiser: Syncrony

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Nonprofit