Monthly Archive for January, 2008

Online fundraising making the news

Published
by
amysampleward
on January 31, 2008
in fundraising
. 0 Comments

Two great stories have surfaced involving online fundraising. What do you think?

PayPal has just released its PayPal Kit for Nonprofits which claims to take only 45 minutes to set up (even for people knew to the world of online fundraising and widgets)! Also, they are giving away $50 to the first 1,000 nonprofits that use the kit to generate $500 in donations by March 31st. Check it out and share your experience!

Kiva, an organization that lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world, has come up with a big problem! Potential donors are being turned away because there are no groups left who need loans! This is certainly not the case in the world, but for their website it is. These would-be donors are stunned at the idea of an organization saying, “No thanks; we have all the money we need!”

What is the real problem? Just like with many organizations, there is a lag in the process of connecting potential organizations needing funding with those to fund them. It is definitely a refreshing thought, though, that the number of donors and dollars is more than the need. If only!

Another thought about the Kiva crisis, is on timing. It is January, the month following a string of “giving-oriented” holidays. Could the higher-than-usual giving time of year been enough to fulfill Kiva’s needs? Once a new set of needy groups are up on Kiva’s site, it will be interesting to see if once again they are all taken care of!

Did you give to a charity online? Was it because of the holidays? Do you give more in the holiday season or all through the year - why?

Only hours left!

Published
by
amysampleward
on January 31, 2008
in fundraising
. 1 Comment

If you haven’t already done so, this is a last call to participate in the America’s Giving Challenge. A donation of $10 makes a huge difference! It is quick, easy, and very painless :)
Donate now!

A round-up for a busy week

Published
by
amysampleward
on January 24, 2008
in roundup
. 2 Comments

Everybody else is just as busy as I am, I always tell myself. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to share some of the great resources I come across!

Here are a few items that I have recently found and hope to talk more about soon:

  • Open Source opportunity: Learn about OpenOffice, a free, open source alternative to Microsoft Office applications, in this webinar from NTEN!
  • Video submissions: Video Party, the Montreal-based organization, wants to know how you would change the world, in video form. Submissions are due February 7th. Learn more about the contest on their website.
  • Political voice: Nonprofits are now able to hear from and track political candidates’ responses to questions about nonprofit partnership and participation in government affairs. Check out the V3 Campaign to learn more and see what your politicians have said!
  • New blog: Nonprofit University, the blog from the Nonprofit Center at La Salle University, recently started. I am excited to follow and participate with Laura Otten and hope you will join me!

What have you come across this week so far that you don’t want to fall through the cracks?

Just $10 to help the Sharing Foundation!

Published
by
amysampleward
on January 22, 2008
in fundraising
. 2 Comments

Beth Kanter has been calling on the interwebs community to give small donations to help the Sharing Foundation win $50,000 in America’s Giving Challenge.

You can donate here and follow the Twitter trail of donations on Beth’s blog, too!

Ins, outs and curlicues of RSS

Published
by
amysampleward
on January 16, 2008
in events and socialmedia
. 3 Comments

Marshall Kirkpatrick helped us start the 501 Tech Club series in Portland with a bang. The notes certainly do not demonstrate accurately the amount of information Marshall presented and the incredible dynamics of RSS, but here are some highlights:

DEFINITION: RSS readers pull in new content from pages you have selected. Instead of you visiting many of your favorite sites and blogs all the time to see if there is anything new, your reader will frequently check those sites and pull back all of the new content for you to browse/read in one convenient place, either on your desktop or in a browser.

POPULAR READERS: Bloglines, Google Reader, Net News Wire, and more

IDENTIFICATION: When you see the RSS icon (orange, soundwave looking image) on a web page or in your browser address bar, you know you can subscribe to that page just by clicking on it. You can either choose your reader from the set of options when clicking on the RSS icon, or you can copy and paste the feed’s subscribe link (that shows up in the browser when you click on it) into the reader of your choice. Different readers have different steps to add a subscription.

READING TIPS: RSS is not like email: you do NOT have to read everything. Just skim headlines for the important bits. Also, It can be helpful to use social bookmarking in partnership with RSS feeds. You can share news you found interesting. Popular social bookmarking sites include del.icio.us and ma.gnolia. (You can create a tag for yourself or your organization, then subscribe to the feed for the tag on the social bookmarking site to see what every else finds!)

REPUBLISHING: Social bookmarking also lets you create a newswire on your site or blog. Marshall publishes a “to share” feed on his blog at marshallk.com.

SEARCHING: Google blog search is like using Google News alerts with your email. You can subscribe to the RSS feed of search results from this and most other search sites.

I will be sure to let you know when February’s 501 Tech Club meeting will take place and what the topic will be. You should be sure to come to learn and connect!

Opportunities for learning and sharing

Published
by
amysampleward
on January 16, 2008
in community and events
. 1 Comment

There seems to always be a plethora of great opportunities available to nonprofits for learning and engaging with each other and the technology field. A couple recent things to mention:

1. 2nd Annual DoGooderTV Nonprofit Video Awards
See3Communications and NTEN are co-sponsoring the video awards for a second year. The theme this year is, “From the Ground Up: Using Technology to Engage Constituents and Make the World a Better Place.” Entries can include video, animation, or mash-up from a nonprofit organization or in support of one. The entry must have been released originally in 2007. Visit DoGooderTV for more information about the awards.

2. Open Source Software Series from NTEN
The Nonprofit Open Source Initiative has partnered with NTEN to bring a monthly series of webinars on open source technology for nonprofits. The first one is: “The Key is the COmmunity: How to Get Support for Open Source Software.” You can see the 12 events’ details on the NTEN site and register!

3. Portland area gatherings
On Monday, we had a terrific start to the 501 Tech Club Brown Bag Lunch Series with Marshall Kirkpatrick sharing many ins and outs of RSS. This coming Tuesday, January 22nd, is the first Portland Net Tuesday. If you missed Monday’s event, do not fear! There are notes available here.

Happy Birthday, Beth!

Published
by
amysampleward
on January 11, 2008
in fundraising and otherblogs
. 1 Comment

Beth KanterToday is Beth’s birthday; congratulations on another great year! If you aren’t yet, you should be reading her blog because she offers terrific advice, asks important questions, and ignites great conversations about nonprofits successfully using social media.

For the past month, I have been part of a team of bloggers supporting the Sharing Foundation in America’s Giving Challenge. For Beth’s birthday present, I donated $10 each for my husband and I to the Sharing Foundation via this widget.

America's Giving Challenge - Give now!I hope that you can give Beth the same birthday present (she has been asking for $10 donations all week!) today and in doing so help us get $50,000 for the Sharing Foundation!

Happy Birthday, Beth! Give $10 to the Sharing Foundation for her here!

How can nonprofits use twitter?

Published
by
amysampleward
on January 10, 2008
in issues and socialmedia
. 2 Comments

NetSquared’s monthly Net2ThinkTank question this month is: How can nonprofits use twitter? Should they even bother?

My first response is, “Sure! Totally! Maybe!” :)
So, my second thought is really the more important one. I have said it before and I will probably say it a million more times, but, nonprofits need to use the tools that will best help them reach goals for projects and the organization. Not everyone needs a facebook profile. Just because of that though, not everyone needs a facebook group. Some organizations don’t need some tools at all but could benefit a great deal from others.

How do you know if it is right? Use the POST method!
I blogged about POST before and still think that it is one of the best ways to approach new media planning (thanks, Forrester!). If you have identified your goals and hoped-for outcomes and Twitter is then identified as something to use to meet those goals, then dive right in!

How could Twitter help? By helping you listen and learn!
Twitter is a terrific tool for listening to and gauging the conversation of your audience (and with Twitter, you can sprawl out to hear voices beyond the community you may think you are in). You can ask questions, make comments, and otherwise participate with Twitter in the conversation like anyone else, of course. But it offers a window into live conversation about your industry, organization, or niche that you would probably miss if you weren’t using it.

Still nervous about jumping in? Use it yourself!
Twitter is just like all of the other available tools online when it comes to getting started: You should really use it yourself, in a non-organization-realted way first. This will let you feel out how it works, how to make connections and participate in conversations. Figure out areas you don’t understand and how to get answers down the road when new things come up that you may not understand. Most of all, using the tool personally will let you better visualize how it can be used most effectively and efficiently for the organization, and who at the organization would be the best to handle it (maybe you!).

Thanks to NetSquared for the great question this month! Are you using Twitter personally or is your organization tweeting away? You can also follow me to get started!

Do you have cold feet for social media?

Published
by
amysampleward
on January 10, 2008
in marketing and socialmedia
. 1 Comment

Lisa McNeill, over at the Ignite Social Media blog, posted great list of five steps to get over the cold feet you may have about social media marketing. Her list includes:

  • Set up and RSS Feed Reader and Subscribe to Feeds
  • Start Twittering
  • Start Studying
  • Start Filtering
  • Start Social Bookmarking

My favorite part of the five steps is the emphasis on learning and listening. Social media tools are really great BECAUSE of the opportunity to hear from and learn from your community and the larger community you probably didn’t realize you had.

So, warm up those feet and jump right in! Have you already checked of some of these steps? Which ones did you do first?

New media trainings and gatherings starting in Portland

Published
by
amysampleward
on January 8, 2008
in community and events
. 1 Comment

I am still so thrilled at the high turnout and positive response we received from our three-part series on Communicating in the Age of New Media from 2007. While I hope that your year is off to a great start so far, I also hope that continuing your new media education is on your resolution list! There are two monthly gatherings starting this month to help you meet that resolution and stay connected to others in the area involved with using new technologies in nonprofits.

501 Tech Club - Brown Bag Series
I am working with NTEN to build a 501 Tech Club (http://nten.org/techclub) and make it the hottest new place to learn, connect, and CHANGE within the Portland community! To get started, you can join the Portland 501 Tech Club online to connect with all the other local folks who are talking about technology in nonprofits. The first event is coming soon: January 14th.

  • Topic: Organizing your Information: RSS readers!
  • Presenter: Marshall Kirkpatrick
  • Location: Northwest Health Foundation, 221 NW 2nd Ave, Suite 300 (in Bamboo room) Portland, OR 97209
  • Time: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
  • Food: Bring your own lunch and we’ll bring some goodies!

Portland Net Tuesdays
A friend and I have teamed up to sprout a Net Tuesday monthly event here in Portland. The fourth Tuesday of each month, social changemakers and web innovators can get together to network, mix, swap stories and ideas, build new relationships and learn at these Net Tuesdays, produced by NetSquared, http://www.netsquared.org a project of TechSoup, http://www.techsoup.org. All those interested, involved, or employed in nonprofits and that recognize the importance and utility of technology in the sector are invited to join us for discussion and exchange. The first event is this month: January 22nd.

  • Topic: Introductions, goals, topics, and open source
  • Presenter: Everyone!
  • Location: AboutUs.org, 107 SE Washington, 5th Floor (SUite #520), Portland, OR
  • Time: 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
  • Food: We’ll see what we can do, feel free to bring something to share!

I hope that you will be able to attend both and I can’t wait for these engaging monthly events to start!

Let me know if you want more information on either event. I hope you are as excited as I am!