Nonprofit Tech for Good

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

Websites like Ustream.tv and Justin.tv allow individuals and brands to launch their own Web-based “TV&# channels. Currently, these channels can not easily be viewed on the digital TV sets in our living rooms, kitchens, and bedrooms, but it’s just a matter of time. Think about that for a second. Nonprofits will soon be broadcasting their own live TV programs to households around the world simply with a Ustream channel and a smartphone.

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Amy Sample Ward

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

The monthly Community Builder chat series is part of the #4Change community of regularly scheduled chats, bringing together people from around the world to talk about examples, practices, tips and more as we all explore the way technology can be used for social change. This is the second in what will be a monthly series of chats specifically focused on Community Building.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

Salesforce is a very powerful platform onto which one can build a large variety of interesting kinds of custom applications. I’ve already talked on this blog about Salesforce integration with Drupal , Plone , and others. Today I’m going to delve into Salesforce-based CMS systems – systems build as applications on top of the Force.com platform.

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Drupal Open Source Comparison Application 150

NCE Social Media

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

A new report by Sysomos has found that when you send a tweet it will mostly likely be retweeted within the first hour of posting. After that it likely will not be retweeted. Apparently, after an hour it’s old news and you can use it to line the bird cage. Are you measuring how people are retweeting your own tweets? Do you find that they retweet it within an hour?

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Twitter Images Social Media Measure 136

Advertisement

Managing HR tasks like payroll, compliance, and employee data can overwhelm small businesses. That’s where a Human Capital Management (HCM) solution comes in. Our eBook, Why Every Small Business Needs an HCM Solution: A Comprehensive Guide , shows how an HCM system automates tedious processes, ensuring your business stays compliant and efficient. You’ll learn how to simplify payroll, eliminate costly errors, and empower your employees with self-service tools.

Business

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

We've worked with O'Reilly Media for a long time. They were the first publisher to sign on to deliver their books electronically to Bookshare back in 2003, and gave us permission to provide their books outside the U.S. We take their files and convert them to the DAISY format which is a digital format designed specifically to create accessible materials for people with print disabilities.

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Nonprofit Tech for Good

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

The advent of the Mobile Web is slowly starting to permeate and transform nonprofit communications. Just like social media transformed the nonprofit sector and how it communicates with its supporters, so will the Mobile Web (even more so). The best new media managers, online community builders, bloggers, and activists will be connected and communicating with their supporters from anywhere, at any time when the need arises.

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Blackberry Tools Media Management 212

Amy Sample Ward

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

Yesterday was the 3rd annual Women Who Tech Telesummit , bringing together over 600 women (and men) from for-profit and nonprofit organizations and technology start, connecting developers and techies with those new to the field, igniting conversations and long-term collaborations. I have always been proud to support WWT both during the telesummit and during the rest of the year with other offline meetups, online content, and more.

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Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

I know for many of you this is old news. But since I’m not on twitter anymore, and I don’t read my RSS feeds as often as I should. In July, Idealware published the Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide. It’s great – chock full of good information, and some very, very interesting research. One of the most interesting tidbits of data to me was the large gap between people who “thought&# social media of varied types either helped them reach new audiences, or helped the

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NCE Social Media

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

Facebook recently added a feature called Places. It is a geo-location application similar to Gowalla and Foursquare in that it allows you to share where you are with your friends via social media. These programs use the GPS in your phone to pinpoint your location to within 300 meters. Most geo-tagging applications are currently set up as games, where you can earn badges and points.

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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

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010

When Bookshare was first created, we conceived of the concept of a digital library built by the people who use the library, instead of solely by librarians deciding what people with print disabilities should read. Using a provision of U.S. copyright law, our volunteers scanned the books they wanted to read and then were able to upload them to Bookshare so that others could enjoy these books as well.

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Volunteer Library Teen Copyright 113

Wild Apricot

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

October 2010 is notable for the variety of topics in the free nonprofit webinars on schedule – both recurring events and special one-time opportunities for professional development. If you don’t find exactly the kind of training you’re looking for today, do check back here as the month goes on – any late-arriving webinar announcement will be added in the comments thread, below.

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Nonprofit Tech for Good

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

Using SwebApps.com , I quickly threw together and launched an iPhone App for Nonprofit Tech 2.0 in the fall of 2009. Once it was available in iTunes , I quickly moved on to other tasks and quite honesty, paid no attention to it for almost a year. Then when searching for “nonprofit&# Apps in iTunes last month, I was surprised to see that the Nonprofit Tech 2.0 App had been downloaded almost 1,000 times and came up rather high in iTunes “nonprofit&# search results.

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Tech Blackberry Mobile Nonprofit 172

Amy Sample Ward

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

My latest contribution to the Stanford Social Innovation Review is now posted, you can visit the SSIR blog to read it there or read the full text below. —– Lately, I’m thinking about the topic of cross-platform community building. I’ve written about it , submitted a session proposal with colleague Debra Askanase to the 2011 NTC, and recently had the opportunity to start a conversation on the topic of engaging your community across platforms in a GroupVine message (more in

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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

NetWits

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

I got to thinking the other day about how many times I’ve been asked for my opinion or assistance from the nonprofit organizations I support. Outside of donation asks, I can only think of enough instances to fit on one hand. I’m a loyal supporter, donor, and volunteer to various organizations but rarely am I asked for much more than my money.

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Money Volunteer Donation Donor 108

NCE Social Media

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

Are you using video and movies to share your story? Is it on YouTube or Vimeo ? Are you combining still photos together with music or a voice over on MS Movie Maker ? Are you using Miro or Ustream or any other of the multitude of sites that allow you to share videos online? This video from FilmAid briefly explains how you can use film (and video) to educate and move people to action.

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Impact Movie YouTube Music 109

Beneblog: Technology Meets Society

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

I recently was sworn in by Undersecretary of Education Martha Kanter as one of nineteen people serving on the Advisory Commission on Accessible Instructional Materials in Postsecondary Education for Students with Disabilities. The Commission has one year to do research, hold public hearings and make recommendations to Congress on what should be done to make higher education materials more accessible to students with disabilities.

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Instructional Instruction Law Student 100

Wild Apricot

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Showcasing your non-profit’s history helps to establish its stability, to build trust, and to communicate the general development of the organization and its mission. But let’s face it, those “Our History” pages can be deadly dull! What if your website visitors could explore by clicking around a colorful timeline, instead? ( read more ). Tags: application Non-profit technology nptech open source timeline website websites Widgets.

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History Interaction Open Source Widget 125

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

Judi Sohn

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

It's been a little over a year since I fully deployed Convio Common Ground at the Colorectal Cancer Coalition. Still no regrets. It's a great fit for us. A few months ago, we started using Common Ground's GL Export utility to align Salesforce/Common Ground data with QuickBooks. Finally. I don't have the resources to hire anyone or purchase a tool to automate a sync between Salesforce/Common Ground and Quickbooks, so it's a manual download file/upload into QuickBooks process for now.

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Convio Pledge Contact Gift 100

Amy Sample Ward

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

I come across so many great conversations, ideas, and resources all over the web every day. Here are some of the most interesting things I’ve found recently (as of September 16th). You can join the conversations in the comments, or click through to the original posts to find what others are saying. To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

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Web Bookmarking Social Media Delicious 131

NetWits

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

Yesterday, Chris Clark, product manager for Blackbaud Internet Solutions , shared the highlights of Blackbaud NetCommunity version 6.25, generally available in October. More than a dozen features have been added or significantly enhanced in the new version, including improvements to the way photos are managed, the ability to copy sites, and transaction management capabilities that go even further in serving donors by intuitively blurring the lines between online and offline giving.

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Content Blackbaud Offline Photo 105

NCE Social Media

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

Ever wonder if you should create an application, i.e. an app, related to your organization for people to use on their phones? The answer is maybe or maybe not just yet. Let’s look at the current market of people who use apps. A Pew Internet Study found that. 82% of adults surveyed used cellphones. Out of those 82%, only 35% have apps on their cell phones.

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Phone Survey Application Internet 109

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

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

'Kudos to the United Way of Denver and their Colorado 2-1-1 partners. We are pleased to support their work with our Community Operating System (formerly Tapestry) and wanted to do a shout out about their excellent reporting. Note in particular the clearly presented information about top met and unmet needs, presenting needs, the monthly snapshot, and trend data.

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Report Denver Colorado Trend 100

Wild Apricot

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

You've heard about some time-saving free Google Docs templates that can save time for non-profits creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations – but did you know Microsoft.com has a bundle of free Office Suite templates that are designed especially for non-profits? ( read more ). Tags: collaboration documents event management General non-profit interest Microsoft Non-profit Communications Non-profit technology nptech office print productivity project management publicity spreadsheets Staff

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Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

SEPTEMBER 29, 2010

Malcolm Gladwell’s article “Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted,&# brings the slacktivism , social media for social good or evil , strong and weak ties , and organizations vs networks debates to a mainstream audience. He tries to make the point: “Social change has been happening before the creation of Twitter four years ago&# but disappoints.

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Offline Social Media Network Org 119

Amy Sample Ward

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Tonight was the 2nd monthly Community Builder chat ; and I had a great time! There was some really rich conversation with lots of great ideas shared and best practices recommended. Get the full transcript here! Question 1 : asked about migrating a community from one tool to another, specifically from listservs to a website/forum. Some of the responses highlighted the need to understand what was currently working for the listserv conversations and what would be a valuable hook to move people to t

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Advertiser: Syncrony

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Nonprofit