RSS Feeds
Creating Public Transparency: Bringing GuideStar to Israel
Debra Askanase, Community Organizer 2.0 In early August, NPTech launched Guidestar Israel. It took almost five years to make GuideStar Israel a reality, and it is an incredible resource for Israeli nonprofit organizations. The GuideStar project was established as an unique cooperative venture by the Ministry of Justice, JDC-Israel, and Yad Hanadiv with the objective of developing civil society in Israel. NPTech (established by JDC-Israel and Yad Hanadiv) is the operating organization behind GuideStar Israel. It provides services and activities designed to help social ...
What Does Your Organization Look Like from the Outside?
Rececca at Wild Apricot has a great post this week on what makes a good nonprofit website. She's assembled some tips from the MojaLink group on LinkedIn. Here are a few of my favorites: Defining the purpose of a nonprofit website is key. Is it to attract donations, or is it to provide information to the individuals and groups seeking your services? Who will use it, why do they use it, [and] what do you want them to do on it? How can design make this easy? Make key information easy to find. If website visitors want to get more detailed info, give them the opportunity, but don't make every ...
Free Webinar from GiftWorks September 9: The 14 Basic Principles of Fund Development
Join Simone P. Joyaux and GiftWorks on September 9 at 2 p.m. Eastern time for a free webinar on the 14 core principles of fund development. Simone (ACFRE, Joyaux Associates) is recognized internationally as one of the most thoughtful, inspirational, and provocative leaders in the philanthropic sector. She's an expert in fund development, strategic planning, and board development, working with all types and sizes of organizations. Simone teaches philanthropy at the university level, speaks at conferences worldwide, and her books and other writings receive rave reviews. She has over 35 ...
50% Discount for Innovative Giving Conference
The Innovative Giving Foundation is hosting the Innovative Giving Conference September 27-28 in Malibu, CA. The conference's theme is Mobile Giving Demystified, and the program looks very promising.
We've just gotten word from IGF that thanks to a donation from Mobilecause, anyone who hasn't registered yet can get 50% off the registration cost. Just use the promo code MC-IGF.
Symantec Backup Exec Story Contest: $30,000 Giveaway
If you're a current Symentec Backup Exec customer (whether via TechSoup's donation programs or elsewhere), tell Symantec how your datacenter has taken advantage of the benefits of the tool — helping your organization save time, money, and the environment, with a reduced environmental footprint through a reduction in tape and disk use. Here's your chance to get creative as your story could win your organization the opportunity to give back. Symantec will make a donation to a nonprofit organization of the winner's choice in the amount of $30,000 USD, and to the choice of the runner-up ...
Mapping with ESRI ArcGIS Software: Newest Version Now Available!
Maps are everywhere these days. You can check them out in your car's GPS system, online, and on your smartphone. They make it easier for us to get around, see things with a different perspective, and understand places we may have never visited. For organizations, using your data to create maps to show your users, supporters, and funders is an important way to visually demonstrate a problem you're working to solve or your impact on a community. Geographic information system (GIS) software takes mapping to a whole new level. With a variety donated GIS software and learning resources from ESRI, ...
Hey Women Who Tech! Get Your Tech On!
As you know, we're just about done collecting your great session ideas for the 11NTC right now (deadline: August 27). After that comes the hard part: figuring out what to put on the final agenda. It's a balancing act -- literally. We're always looking to balance sessions across tracks, open source v. proprietary, sessions for small orgs and sessions for large orgs. Oh, and women vs. men presenters.We don't always succeed at that. Since we're an organization that's also run by a woman, we're very glad to partner every year with with the Women Who Tech Telesummit. The Telesummit was formed ...
11NTC Session Proposals: We Don't Want to Rush You (But Hurry!)
Submit your session idea today!Okay, we hear you. 11NTC is almost a whole month earlier this year (March 17 - 19), which means it's wedged in the middle of SXSW Interactive and AFP -- but we swear we picked the date three years ago when we had no idea. We also understand that because of this, everything we ask from you, our fabulous community, has to happen a whole month earlier than normal too. (Trust us, we know: you should see how much maté Anna's drinking already...) This includes submitting your session proposals by this Friday, August 27th.We know August is generally a ...
How to Buy (New) Green IT Equipment
I thought it was probably a good time to update everyone on what's new in the world of buying new, green IT equipment. Green IT equipment essentially means computers and other electronics devices that have reduced amounts of toxic materials that they're made with (like lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and PVC plastic), that require relatively less electricity to power them, and that have increased amounts of post-consumer recycled plastics and bio-based or biodegradable plastics. It's also good if they're easy to disassemble and recycle, are easily repairable, and have solid ...
CrowdConf 2010 Coming to San Francisco
CrowdFlower has announced CrowdConf 2010, a crowdsourcing conference that will take place in San Francisco in October. Presentation submissions are being accepted through next Wednesday, September 1. (via)
We've talked a lot on this blog about crowdsourcing. NetSquared winners like Ushahidi and Social Actions have been finding new ways to harness the power of the crowd for social change. It will be fun to see what buzz comes from the conference.
Innovative Geocoding Project Maps Aid Data
This post was written by GuideStar International communications manager Keisha Taylor and originally published on the GuideStar International blog. The people at AidData (a program of Development Gateway) have teamed up with the World Bank Institute to complete the first stage of a groundbreaking geocoding project (Mapping for Results Initiative). According to Wikipedia, Geocoding is "…The process of finding associated geographic coordinates (often expressed as latitude and longitude) from other geographic data, such as street addresses, or zip codes (postal codes). With geographic ...
Submit Your Projects to the FACT Social Justice Challenge at NetSquared
This announcement was also published on the NetSquared Blog. The French American Charitable Trust (FACT) and NetSquared are pleased to announce the second annual FACT Social Justice Awards. Submissions are now open for your innovative projects that leverage web and mobile technologies to foster collaboration around social justice issues. Learn more about the challenge and how to participate below. About the FACT Challenge FACT is committed to addressing the fundamental inequalities and injustices in our society by helping develop and sustain networks of community-based groups in the U.S. and ...
Where to Start with Interactive E-Reports
Flickr: Jeff_WernerOver in the Nonprofit Webmasters affinity group, Melissa Barry from the Parkinson's Disease Foundation started a great conversation. She asked for some help in identifying interactive e-book resources that she could then use to create an annual report, referencing the 2009 annual report from VolunteerMatch as an example of what she was looking for. The discussion took a turn, not only answering Melissa's question, but really dissecting when to use an interactive e-book format and when regular old PDF or paper copy works just as well if not better. The important ...
NTEN Member Buzz Round-Up: August 20
(Note: This is a weekly round-up of NTEN members doing and sharing their nptech awesome. Members are in bold. Tag your own news with "nten member" or "nptech" to help us find your awesome online, or contact Annaliese with your updates.) Allyson Kapin offers some good reminders/tips for engaging your supporters. (Hint: it's not just about action alert emails or reminders to sign a petition.)Speaking of online engagement, Amy Sample Ward is planning to integrate "conversation starter" posts into her blog, and this week she's starting off with an article fellow ...
Community Organizers Handbook: Launching a Resource for NetSquared Local and Beyond!
This post was originally posted on the NetSquared Blog and was written by Amy Sample Ward. Over the last few years, the NetSquared Local network (a project of TechSoup Global's) has grown from just a few groups in only a couple countries, to 70+ groups in 21+ countries! Those local groups are organized by volunteers passionate about building community at the intersection of technology and social change. We support organizers with resources, assistance, and other connections, but we believe the most valuable resource comes from organizers having access to each other and sharing between ...
How Big Is Your Moat?
Flickr Photo: Lawrence OPA couple of years ago, I talked to Ed Granger-Happ about his philosophy for running the IT shop at Save the Children. He told me he was always trying to find the next innovation that would help make the field staff more efficient, or would deliver better services to the people they served. The work they do is life-saving, so he felt it was important to be always looking for better ways to get it done. He also recognized that innovation didn't have to be driven by him alone: the amount of innovation is directly related to distance from the home office. In other ...
The Web Is Dead? What Does that Mean (to Nonprofits)?
Wired has a fascinating series of articles up about the future of the Web. Everybody interested in the actual "technology" part of nonprofit technology -- as differentiated from what technology can help your organization accomplish -- should probably give it a read (and not just because Tim O'Reilly compares Steve Jobs to either Gollum or Frodo; I can't tell which).For everybody else, here are some highlights:The web browser may be in decline. The proportion of Internet traffic served through web browsers reached a peak of more than 50% in 2000, but has since declined to less ...
GreenTech Book Review: Green IT for Sustainable Business Practice
In our quest to shine a light on what's going on in green IT for nonprofits, libraries, and really anyone running or working in a small to medium sized office, we'd be remiss to not call some attention to a new book by UK-based author, Mark O'Neill called Green IT for Sustainable Business Practice. The Amazon blurb on this describes it as "a sensible, clear-sighted guide to emerging standards, rules, business processes and best practices in a complex and ever-changing sector." Essentially this small 158-page book is the latest in a somewhat small genre of books on the subject of green IT. It ...
Running Free: Seattle Free School at Craigslist Foundation Boot Camp
One thing I always enjoy about Craigslist Foundation Boot Camp is getting to know very small organizations. A lot of people stopped by our booth and told us about the challenges their one-or-two-person nonprofits are facing. It's an important perspective, and a big part of TechSoup's user base. Working with a tiny staff and budget brings a litany of challenges, but it brings some amazing opportunities too. The low-budget ethos is encapsulated no better than in the Seattle Free School. SFS doesn't accept donations and doesn't apply for grants. Volunteers teach free classes in rooms donated by ...
Top Ten Technology and Social Media Resources for Nonprofits
This post originally appeared on TechSoup's global partner, Connecting Up Australia's website and was written by Shai Coggins.
Everyday, we find great resources on the different uses of technology and social media in the nonprofit sector. We bookmark them, note them, share them, tweet or retweet them, and sometimes, we even blog about them. So, in this post, we thought we'll round up some of the most interesting resources that we think you might also find useful for you and your organization.
