Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 11, 2009

This morning, I looked at both Salesforce.com, with the second nonprofit template, and CiviCRM with a small group of colleagues. All of us implement, or have used, one or both of the systems. But each of us has expertise in only one of the systems.(I’m one of the CiviCRM folks). It’s pretty interesting to compare them. The nonprofit template has certainly helped to make it easier for nonprofits to do the brain surgery required to use a for-profit sales tool for nonprofit CRM purposes

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Template Brain Registration Nptech 168

Amy Sample Ward

MARCH 2, 2009

Many organizations struggle with the idea of ROI and metrics when it comes to social media because so much of it feels, well, untouchable. It’s soft and maliable and relative, pretty much all of the time. So, how do identify if you are succeeding or evaluate if you are improving? Here are some steps that you can walk through either as an individual looking at this process, or as a team in a workshop setting.

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ROI Case Study Metrics Student 135

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 18, 2009

I'm getting ready to head to the Social Enterprise Summit 2009 next month in New Orleans. I'm especially excited about the significant focus on public policy and advocacy for social entrepreneurship. We were lucky to have the support of the Surdna Foundation for a policy-specific conference track. Experienced practitioners tend to engage at levels above their specific organization.

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VisionLink

MARCH 31, 2009

'You asked for it--you got it. Be sure to check our recent HMIS upgrades--and once again, thanks for your input! With this HMIS upgrade come new data validation tools, pre-entry duplicate checking, Agency and Demographic reporting, GNIS coding, and improved overall performance. The data validation module focuses on fields such as Date of Birth, Social Security Numbers and so forth, where a specific format needs to be followed.

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Module Demographics Report Data 100

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NetWits

MARCH 31, 2009

If you are like most marketing communications professionals across the nonprofit space, you wear many hats and have limited time to analyze all aspects of your marketing campaigns. You spend time analyzing the impact of your email campaigns – monitoring overall success rates, opens, clicks, actions taken and dollars raised. You’ll even spend time trying to understand those emails that did not reach the intended recipient – how many hard failed and soft failed and what triggered the failure.

Rate 100

Rate Campaign Professional Raise 100

Robert Weiner

MARCH 27, 2009

The Nonprofit Finance Fund just published a survey on how the economic downturn is affecting nonprofits’ current and long-term finances. Their conclusions are scary. According to the executive summary, Only 12% expect to operate above break-even this year. Just 16% anticipate being able to cover their operating expenses in both 2009 and 2010. 31% don’t have enough operating cash in hand to cover more that one month of expenses, and another 31% have less than three months’ worth. 52% of res

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Survey Summary Nonprofit Sound 100

Amy Sample Ward

MARCH 31, 2009

That’s right: this is your last week to submit ideas to the N2Y4 Mobile Challenge ! Submissions can be for any mobile platform, at any stage of development (whether it is an idea, a prototype or a working application). Plus, there’s $50,000 on the table for the winners! There are some excellent submissions coming in already, be sure to add your idea to the mix!

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NCE Social Media

MARCH 25, 2009

RSS - Really Simple Syndication, can be a great time saver. RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format (from Wikipedia ). Ideaware has an outstanding article on how to harness RSS to benefit your information needs. I would recommend reading it.

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VisionLink

MARCH 20, 2009

'VisionLink releases a new document storage report--and this makes for a great reminder about the Document Manager and Fax to File components. Can you or your agency partners make use of document management? Any electronic file can be uploaded and attached to a specific client records quickly and easier. If you are looking for something closer to the magical, try our fax to file system.

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Report PDF Files Module 100

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

NetWits

MARCH 23, 2009

Is Traditional fundraising via direct mail and email slowly fading away?… more and more nonprofits are engaging their constituents through the power of social media. I’ve been watching the world of fundraising take on a new shape over the past year. In recent months, some incredible examples of this new form of fundraising have been happening on Twitter.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 16, 2009

Bookshare looks for publishers to partner with us to make books more available to people with disabilities. It's very exciting that we can announce that one of the largest book groups in the United States has just made the commitment: Hachette Book Group Partners with Bookshare To Make Thousands of Books Available to People with Print Disabilities. Hachette Book Group publishes under quite a number of famous imprints, such as Little Brown and Company and Grand Central.

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Robert Weiner

MARCH 27, 2009

I just received two identical messages with the following text. There’s no URL — the only way to respond is to reply to the message. Replies go to updatweb1 at aol.com I hope no one’s foolish enough to fall for this. —–Original Message—– From: apache@net.lg.ua [mailto:apache@net.lg.ua] On Behalf Of Webmail Support.

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Amy Sample Ward

MARCH 23, 2009

Social Actions has created an open database of 60,000+ actions from 40+ sites — including GlobalGiving, Change.org, DonorsChoose.org, Kiva.org, NABUUR, TakingITGlobal, Idealist.org, and VolunteerMatch. Through a search engine, Open Actions XML micro-format, an open API, and third-party tools and widgets, you can find and share ways to get involved in the causes you care about.

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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 25, 2009

Holly Ross, Executive Director of NTEN, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting technology use by nonprofit organizations recently made a presentation at an event hosted by Google , Facebook , and the Salesforce.com Foundation. The presentation focused on using the cloud for nonprofit technology needs. While the cloud poses interesting prospects for us, it is the near future of computing as computer memory continues to get cheaper and more memory can be stored in smaller spaces.

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Benefit Slideshare NTEN Awareness 100

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 16, 2009

Home About Me Subscribe Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology Thoughtful and sometimes snarky perspectives on nonprofit technology CRM & CMS Integration: Plone and Salesforce.com March 16, 2009 Today, I was reading up on what the Plone community has done with integrating their CMS with Salesforce.com. I am thinking that this might be a good model for how we can do it with Drupal, but that’s a subject for another post.

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Integration Drupal Open Source Module 100

NetWits

MARCH 20, 2009

If you're reading this, there's a good chance that you're a social media hipster doofus internet geek just like me. If that's the case, go ahead and make your plans for next year's SXSW Interactive Festival , because it's the one event you simply cannot afford to miss.

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Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

MARCH 15, 2009

A Guest Beneblog by Ann Harrison (Benetech Communications Director) I watched a person in a wheelchair the other day navigate a tricky curb cut while crossing the street. The young man moved along skillfully without the need for assistance, but the scene brought back memories of a day in January when I accompanied a friend in a wheelchair to inauguration of President Barack Obama.

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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

Robert Weiner

MARCH 26, 2009

Care2’s Allyson Kapin just published an analysis of Convio’s online fundraising study (which I mentioned earlier this week ). She interviewed me, so of course I think the article is good. But in particular, check out the advice from online marketing consultant Katy O’Neal about how nonprofits should focus their marketing and engagement efforts.

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Analysis Studies Online Fundraising 100

Amy Sample Ward

MARCH 23, 2009

iE Boston Marketing and TiE Boston Social Entrepreneurs present: The 140-Character Mission: How Social Media Revolutionizes Social Entrepreneurship. Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2009. Location: MIT room 3-270 (click for map). 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139. Time: Networking and dinner begins at 6:00pm. Register: to save your spot. The question is: Are the two disciplines of “Social Media&# and “Social Entrepreneurship&# friends on Facebook?

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Boston Massachusetts Social Media Broadcast 100

NCE Social Media

MARCH 17, 2009

Here is a great story from CIO.com that details how to launch your presence on Twitter. It includes a definitive reading list, examples of how others have done it. Also, read the reader feedback about launching your presence for smaller organizations and companies. They refer you to TwiTip which provides a bevy of information you can harness for your own agency.

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Twitter Awareness Business Tag 100

Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

MARCH 16, 2009

Today, I was reading up on what the Plone community has done with integrating their CMS with Salesforce.com. I am thinking that this might be a good model for how we can do it with Drupal, but that’s a subject for another post. (from Plone/SF Integration group ). There’s a good overview of the integration on the developerforce wiki. There are 5 components to the integration: a couple of toolkits that provide the basic back-and-forth between Plone and Salesforce.com (they talk to Pyth

Integration 100

Integration Drupal Paypal Wiki 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

NetWits

MARCH 20, 2009

“The sure thing boat never sails far from shore” sure wouldn’t describe SXSW Interactive’s show in Austin Texas. Returning home and reflecting, Cutting edge, new technology, smart people, networked and ideas more radical than you’d find at other shows is what comes to mind. To get a glimpse at the look and feel of the show from the nonprofit angle watch Chad Norman’s great animoto clip here.

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Chad Austin Texas Reflection 100

VisionLink

MARCH 13, 2009

'With a click, make client data entry easier for those with accessibility needs. Form Builder provides many options--and now among the navigation button options is an accessibility button which you can deploy or not with a click. Deployed, it allows someone to override graphics and layout components that complicate the view for text readers and similar tools.

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Accessibility Data Tools Giving 100

Robert Weiner

MARCH 25, 2009

Convio has released a new online fundraising benchmark report that is based on data from 600 of Convio’s nonprofit clients from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008. The study reports: Positive year-over-year growth in all of the key areas of online success. Compared to 2007, results for online fundraising were up 14 percent, email file growth was up 28 percent, and Web site traffic was up 20 percent.

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Benchmark Report Online Fundraising 100

Amy Sample Ward

MARCH 20, 2009

Edward Harran is a blogger and nonprofit technologist I have connected with through NetSquared, this blog, and of course Twitter. He and I have had terrific idea swaps and brainstorms and I can only imagine the conversations he will spark in person at NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference. Below is the blog post from him, calling for help. He is based in Australia, a far way from San Francisco.

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Advertiser: Syncrony

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