Nonprofit Tech for Good

FEBRUARY 9, 2010

The Facebook of February 2010 is quite different from the Facebook of 2009 especially when it comes to Facebook Fan Pages. If you haven’t yet noticed, three very important changes have been made that significantly effect your organization’s Facebook community: 1) Status Updates are no longer guaranteed to get exposure in the News Feed. There is a mysterious Facebook algorithm at play here and I just don’t know what it is, but I do know that with the launch of new Facebook desig

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Facebook Experiment Organization Feeds 233

Amy Sample Ward

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

The Social Media for Social Good collection from NTEN and NetSquared calls for your case studies in leveraging social media tools in your program work. Social Media for Social Good. Everywhere you turn, you’re hearing about social media. Especially when it comes to fundraising. But at NTEN and NetSquared, we know that social media is good for a lot more than raising money.

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Social Media Case Study Netsquared Social 181

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 15, 2010

New ideas for Benetech projects come to us from interesting people all the time. The challenges that people bring are rarely technology problems: they are market problems. One repeating theme came to me during a recent and fascinating meeting with Professor Rebecca Richards-Kortum, the Director of Rice 360, the Institute for Global Health Technologies.

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Global Technology Marketing Kenya 178

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

FEBRUARY 17, 2010

Although it’s not often used in nonprofit settings, the Drupal module (or, more correctly, a large suite of modules) called “ Ubercart &# is a pretty amazing tool if you need to create a shopping cart system. We’ve implemented it for organizations that want to sell fees for events, sell items, and take donations. It doesn’t have many of the strengths of CiviCRM, but it has a lot of useful features if you want to sell things, or combine selling things with taking donations

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Drupal Module Integration Tech 141

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Robert Weiner

FEBRUARY 1, 2010

I've been waiting for the Palm Pre for nearly a year. Sprint released it last summer, but Verizon waited until January. Why a Palm? I've been a loyal Palm PDA user for over a decade, from the original Pilot through the 700P. I'm also a fan of MS Outlook. I love having all 3,000 of my contacts on my phone, as well as my calendar, tasks, and notes. I want a phone that will sync with a local copy of Outlook (as opposed to an Exchange server), without requiring me to store all my data on Google.

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Calendar Google Music Phone 136

Nonprofit Tech for Good

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

The launch of Google Buzz prompted me to better explore the suite of Google Products , and I have to say I was pretty astounded by what I found. Once I started clicking around and adding Gadgets and experimenting with Buzz, Reader, Themes, Maps, Gmail, Google News and hopefully soon Google Voice , it was immediately clear that I was going to start using iGoogle and Gmail much more often.

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gMail Social Media Myspace Create 206

Amy Sample Ward

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to connect with Colin Rhinesmith , Community Media Coordinator at Cambridge Community Television (Cambridge, MA, USA) and Adjunct Lecturer for the Media and Culture Program at Bentley University. Colin told me that they recently held a very popular social media workshop for seniors at Cambridge Community Television ( @cctvcambridge ) but that it is a topic that would benefit from more coverage – so, I asked if I could interview him!

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

I just finished reading the book Total Engagement. It's rare that I read a book that has me wondering if the authors have caught a glimpse of an unexpected future, and that ten or twenty years from now people will be looking back and saying: that was the book that spotted this crucial trend. Having lived in Silicon Valley for many years, I'm used to having that experience of being exposed to the future ahead of its time.

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Game Roles Virtual Trend 150

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

FEBRUARY 4, 2010

Yammer : Enterprise Microblogging. Git – SVN Crash Course. Pivotal Tracker – Free Lightweight Agile Project Management & Team Collaboration, from Pivotal Labs. Force.com Web Services API Developer’s Guide. SOQL SELECT Syntax. AIM Implementation Guide. gokubi.com » Blog Archive » Using Sites to easily publish data out of Salesforce.

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Drupal API Module Collaboration 135

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

VisionLink

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

'Okay, right off the top we know full well that one click partnership building is not possible. However, during yesterday''s Sprint Review, I was able to see the nearly completed One Click Portal Module. Thanks to some serious development effort, we will be able to launch Community Operating System Portals with a click. This is not a small thing. A CommunityOS Portal provides client tracking and case management, resource directory and asset mapping, content management (everything from calendars

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Community Organization Literacy Module 100

NCE Social Media

FEBRUARY 12, 2010

John Haydon recently completed a 31-day series on how to improve your social media optimization. John, as you know, is a social media strategist who specializes in nonprofits and has an awfully resourceful blog. He kindly put the 31-day series into a zip file that is free and downloadable for the time being. To download it, click on the green button.

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Nonprofit Tech for Good

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

If your nonprofit is experimenting with text-to-give, text alerts and/or smartphone Apps (or planning to), then launching a mobile website is something your organization should seriously consider. If not an entire site, then at the very least your organization should create select web pages that are designed to be easily read on mobile devices. Here are four reasons why: 1.

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Mobile Websites United States Nonprofit 205

Amy Sample Ward

FEBRUARY 9, 2010

Technology for Change. What’s your favorite example of technology helping people create positive change in the world? I think there are too many to count, really. For example, simply review the hundreds of ideas listed in NetSquared ’s Project Gallery and you’ll quickly see that people from around the world are hard at work leveraging all kinds of technologies to create positive change for communities tackling many different issues.

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Contest Change Technology Case Study 143

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

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 17, 2010

A Guest Beneblog by Kristian Lum When I first started my summer internship at Benetech with the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), I learned that my project would involve quantifying the number of deaths and disappearances in the Colombian state of Casanare. I approached this assignment very technically, from my perspective as a somewhat theoretical statistician.

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Colombia Statistics Analysis Data 122

NetWits

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

In my conversations with nonprofits over the past ten years, the single most important need isn’t simply more money or more staff (although those are always helpful)…it’s continued learning. Education is absolutely essential to the millions of nonprofit organizations doing good work in the United States and abroad.

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Learning United States Education Conversation 100

VisionLink

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

'Pleased to report that we are welcoming a new international customer to our VisionLink network. The Salesians of Don Bosco serve almost three million youth in 131 countries. Their 34,000 staff work to improve the lives of poor youngsters through the teaching of skilled trades and scientific agriculture. There are 225 Salesian orphanages and shelters, 216 hospitals and clinics, 850 nurseries and 3,408 schools around the world.

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International Haiti Teach Skills 100

NCE Social Media

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

Back in November, I wrote about the introduction of Twitter lists. I wanted to share this helpful video on Twitter lists. Now that Twitter lists have matured over 3+ months, people are finally figuring out their true impact. Are you on any Twitter lists? Do you use them? Share your experiences with lists in the comments section. Also here is a story by Cindy King on the value of Twitter lists for marketing.

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Twitter RSS Video Feeds 109

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

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

There are currently 133 million blogs worldwide. The world doesn’t need another blogger, right? Wrong. In the short 6 months that I have been blogging, I have come to the conclusion that blogging is the missing piece in a successful social media strategy. Here are five reasons why: 1) Blogging allows your nonprofit to have a consistent stream of fresh, timely new content to Tweet, post on Facebook, etc.

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Amy Sample Ward

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

Last year, NTEN created a scholarship fund program to help support many more people attend the Nonprofit Technology Conference. Donations were matched by Convio and with over $10,000 raised by the community, we had fun at the largest-attended NTC yet! There was even more value for the buck though: NTEN Executive Director put her pride on the line, saying that if the $10K mark was met, she’d perform Put a Ring on It …and boy, did she !

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

FEBRUARY 28, 2010

I just found out that our Bookshare volunteers can sign up to get a free day at a Disney park. Just put in our zip code "94306" at the foregoing link and you should see the opportunity there. Volunteers who do a chapter's worth of image descriptions for a student textbook will get their day pass. The program will stop when a million certificates have been given out for all sorts of volunteer opportunities.

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Volunteer Chapter Student Images 100

NetWits

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

I went to visit a local (to me) historic site recently, Cumbernauld House. This house has been sitting since 1731 and is on the site of a castle which goes back centuries before that. When I went along I realised the house had fallen on hard times. A builders firm had purchased it a few years ago from the local council and had then gone into liquidation and the house had lain empty.

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Facebook Build Local Site 100

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

FEBRUARY 20, 2010

'Compliments to the steering committee, staff, partners, and 1,300 affiliated agencies and organizations of the national Coordinated Assistance Network. In the map below, you will see the number of disasters, by state, to which the partners of CAN provided coordinated relief during the last two years. It''s an honor to support this work--the world''s largest multi-agency, multi-jurisdiction partnership.

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Network Disaster National Model 100

NCE Social Media

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Erik Qualman is a thought leader in the use of social media in business. His website, Socialnomics , has a video about the return on investment (ROI) of social media. You’ve seen a previous video from him on our blog on the use of social media in the world and one of him describing the future of social media. If you use of social media, have you considered the ROI?

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ROI Social Media Media Social 109

Nonprofit Tech for Good

FEBRUARY 10, 2010

Google has been working double-time launching new products over the last few months. From Google Wave to Google Voice , to Social Search and now Google Buzz , I think that now is a good time for nonprofits to reserve a Gmail account if they haven’t already. I haven’t had the chance yet to look too deeply into their products, but I am big believer in nonprofits being proactive and protecting their online brand from squatters.

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Amy Sample Ward

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

I’m so thrilled to share the news with you all that my blog post, Online Community Building: Gardening vs Landscaping , was the most popular blog post on the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s opinion blog in 2009. It is such an honor to me to contribute to the valuable collection of knowledge and insight at SSIR and to have a piece rank so highly is too good to be true!

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