Nonprofit Technology Consulting

It's an open secret that George Lucas based much of Star Wars on Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces. By using archetypes, Lucas tapped into something elemental in human psychology and created a cultural phenomenon.

So, why don't we try the same thing? At our upcoming webinar, "Using Brand Archetypes to Find Your Voice in Social Media", we'll help you match your organizational voice to one of the 12 major brand archetypes. By focusing your voice, you'll strengthen your brand and better engage your supporters.

This is going to be a fun one, so why don't you:

Learn more and register today >>

In this webinar, you'll learn:

• How to identify the 12 major brand archetypes
• How to find which archetype best matches your organization
• How to tap into the power of the archetype to strengthen your voice in social media

And did you know that The Matrix followed the same basic blueprint? I'm beginning to think all movies should be based on Campbell's work.

Keisha Taylor Communications Manager TechSoup Global & GuideStar International The Cloud is channelling the creativity of developers in the developing world despite the absence of sufficient infrastructure.

There has been a lot of talk lately about the benefits of Cloud computing to the nonprofit sector, but many CSOs in the developing world are unaware of how important this technology is quickly becoming. This is in part because developing countries face additional constraints which limit its adoption, though the benefits that can be derived from its use are somewhat unparalleled. CSOs in developing countries may arguably not be as worried about security and privacy, (though this too is by no means of little importance!) because infrastructure problems like lack of a reliable electricity supply, limited internet access and slow broadband are issues they must still overcome if they want to adopt many ICT services and truly take advantage of services like the Cloud.

When it comes to technology, it's often assumed that smaller organizations just don't have the resources to use the tools and services that larger nonprofits do. Fancy databases? Too expensive. Up-to-date computers on a working network? Not enough tech savvy staff to keep it going. While there are exceptions to the rule – and cloud services are helping make more of those exceptions – it's generally the case.

We see it year after year in our IT Staffing Survey – unless, as it turns out, you are talking about social media.

In the recently released Nonprofit Network Social Network Survey, we see that when it comes to social media, smaller nonprofits are keeping pace with their larger counterparts, adopting and using social media at similar rates. It helps, of course, that Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest are all free to use. But it still takes an investment of time, and small nonprofits are making it.

Melissa Barber, Electronic Communications Specialist with Death with Dignity National Center, agrees. Her organization is committed to social media “because our constituency tends to skew a bit older. Social media has been a huge help for us to reach a younger group of potential supporters.”

More impressively, they plan to maintain the investment. The vast majority of smaller nonprofit respondents reported that they will continue or increase their level of staffing for social media in the coming year.

So how do small nonprofits make the most of their investment? And what returns can they expect? Let's take a look at some of the data and find out.

Focus. One of the perceptions of social media is that you have to be in a thousand places at once. Not true. You have to be in the RIGHT place for your needs. We asked which factors contributed to the success of respondents' social media efforts and learned that developing a strategy is the most important, even for small organizations.

Barber agrees with this point. “We’re a very small nonprofit, and in order to get the most value out of social media, we have to think strategically about where potential supporters are likely to be, and how we can interact with them on different platforms.”

Allocate staff time. In smaller nonprofits, it's tough to find budget for a staff member that's dedicated to any one thing, let alone social media. It's clear however, that most nonprofits aren't funding a full time staffer to social media anyhow, and the vast majority allot only about one-quarter of a Full Time Equivalent (FTE). But being purposeful about staffing - ensuring that someone has social media built into their formal job description - is an important part of success.

Barber has found this to be true at DDNC as well. “Our staff is simply too small to allocate all of one staff member’s time to social media. It’s actually hard to break out exactly how much time I spend only on social media because I try to integrate it into all our communications.”

Smaller is, well, smaller. Though small nonprofits are investing in social media like the big guys, the numbers do look different. The average number of Facebook fans from survey respondents at large organizations was roughly 2.5 times higher than the average for responses from smaller nonprofits.

That doesn't mean that smaller nonprofits aren't succeeding. Respondents to the survey indicated that the top two methods for reporting social media channels is "Placement on Our Website" (82%) and "Emailing Our List" (65%). Smaller nonprofits tend to have less web traffic and smaller email lists, leading to smaller social networks.

Death with Dignity is a small nonprofit that also sees smaller numbers of followers and interactions. But, says Barber, “the numbers are increasing steadily.”

Good things come in small packages. Just because small nonprofits have smaller social networks doesn't mean that those networks are less valuable than the big guys. Small nonprofits respondents saw just as much value in their social networks as the rest of the respondents, There was no statistical difference between small nonprofits and the average.

How does this measure up to your experience? Share your perspectives with us in the comments!

By John Hoffman, Director of New Markets, ZeroDivide

Since the moment that President Obama stated that he supports same-sex marriage, there’s been a flurry of social media activity, both pro and con, on the issue. It’s obvious by now that social media has played a huge role in shaping Americans’ attitudes toward LGBT issues. But I would go a step further. Despite the unavoidable struggles and setbacks that lay ahead, the inherent qualities of social media make the passage of same-sex marriage and equal rights for LGBT individuals and families inevitable. Here’s why:

1. Social media is about storytelling, and so is the movement toward LGBT equality.

“Harvey Milk knew it was imperative to tell our stories—that people would change their attitude about gays and lesbians if we were out,” says Shaun Osburn, deputy director of online content at Equality California. “We don’t always agree with the politics of the people on our friends list, but we can relate to each others’ families and the desire to love and be loved.”

Opponents of marriage equality can say that traditional marriage is under attack, but it’s almost impossible to imagine a personal, heart-rending story that supports this line. Through the It Gets Better Project, LGBT people have been able to share their individual coming-out stories.  Personal stories of same-sex couples are all over social media (see, for instance, this one). A few years ago, I was able to share my own personal coming out story via social media with high school friends I hadn’t seen in years.

“Seeing photographs of families in timelines, hearing about milestones in each other’s families and seeing the hardship faced by loving and committed couples has an incredible impact on how people think about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people,” says Osburn.

2. The friend of my friend is...gay?

Facebook literally puts a human face on the LGBT civil rights movement. When I share photos of my partner and I and a far-flung friend “likes” those posts, her entire network of friends now knows that she knows (and apparently likes) someone who is gay. This network effect breaks down barriers between gay people and those whom we can enlist as allies, or at the very least, as friends.

“Instead of just posting a story about President Obama’s statement on same-sex marriage, I’m able to add a comment on what this means to me personally,” says Tony Pham, vice president of marketing at Life360, a mobile app with more than 15 million users. “Social media encourages people to create their own editorial, which then allows others in their network to participate in this dynamic conversation. The more that you talk about an issue like same-sex marriage, the more that it’s in the public domain and discourse, and the more that people outside of your own social circles will be exposed to opinions different from their own.”

3. Civil rights movements require mobilization of diverse groups and social media excels at this.

Well-coordinated social media campaigns have been instrumental in mobilizing diverse groups of LGBT supporters. Equality California, for example, uses different social media channels to engage different audiences. The organization uses Twitter for live updates from events such as bill hearings or marches. Facebook acts as more of a community hub where supporters can engage with Equality California directly, and allows the organization to target specific information to specific geographic regions. YouTube is often underutilized by nonprofits and is frequently viewed solely as a repository for videos about the organization. But Equality California has also found that YouTube can be a great way to tell personal stories of people affected by the work the organization does.

It’s true that groups who oppose gay rights measures can also employ all of these social media strategies. But LGBT and progressive groups, such as the Human Rights Campaign and Netroots Nation, have had a head start in using these tools, and are now becoming more adept at engaging small, grassroots organizations in using them as well.

4. The kids are alright, and the kids are on social media.

As Pew Research has shown, 63 percent of Millennials support same-sex marriage, while 30 percent of people born between 1928 and 1945 support it. The generation gap in support for same-sex marriage persists even among conservative political and religious groups. Nearly half of Republican Millennials favor allowing gay and lesbian people to marry, compared to less than one-third of all Republicans.

For the upcoming generation of digital natives, these attitudes have been shaped in large part through personal relationships with openly gay peers who connect via Tumblr, Instagram, Viddy, and other social networking platforms. As Sarah Audelo, senior manager of domestic policy at Advocates for Youth, states, “The thought that [LGBT] people should somehow be denied the same rights and privileges that straight members of our society often take for granted is a moral outrage. I think I am like the majority of my generation in that I don’t arrive at this position via ideology or politics: I arrive at this position from my personal experience with people around me and the core assumptions of empathy, equality and social justice that are the hallmarks of my generation.”

5. Hope is viral.

Harvey Milk said, “You gotta give ‘em hope.” While content that inspires strong negative emotions—such as anger or anxiety—can go viral, the stories with the greatest virality are those that inspire awe, which behavioral economists define as “an opening and broadening of the mind.” And positive content has been shown to be more viral than negative content.

Stories of righteous indignation in defense of the status quo may invoke strong emotions, but they lack the opportunity for emotional communion embodied in stories of personal transformation, such as President Obama’s retelling of his changing attitudes toward same-sex marriage. In other words, hope is more viral than hate.

For the LGBT movement, inspiring, affirming content has been instrumental in helping people evolve in their attitudes toward gay people and toward gay rights. There’s the story about the grassroots movement of LGBT supporters buying Girl Scout cookies in response to a Colorado troop’s decision to allow a seven-year-old transgender child into its troop. Or the backlash against J.C. Penney protestors, who threatened a boycott when the company chose Ellen DeGeneres as its celebrity spokesperson and ran ads featuring lesbian couples; the protests have actually helped the brand.  Or any number of viral memes and images that inspire laughter, joy, and hope.

“Social media helps people connect with others who are experiencing common situations and those connections foster hope,” says Jackie Cohen, director of social media and communications at Ticular, a consultancy. “We see examples of this in the LGBT community every time there’s major news on the same-sex marriage front. Posts on the topic fill up people’s news feeds, as everyone applauds the wins and boos the losses.”

There’s still a long way to go in the march toward the national legalization of same-sex marriage, let alone national LGBT equality. According to Equality California’s Osburn, “Both progressive and conservative movements are using social media, and quite effectively as well. While progressives seemed to have had the upper hand about five years ago, we’re finding that the gap has rapidly been closing.” Nevertheless, the tide on public opinion has shifted and will continue to shift. For LGBT equality, the writing is on the wall.

What are your thoughts? Does social media bolster the LGBT civil rights movement? Or could this tool just as easily be co-opted by opponents of LGBT civil rights?

John Hoffman is director of new markets at ZeroDivide, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization. He has more than 15 years of experience in marketing and development within the high-tech and nonprofit sectors.

This article originally appeared on NPQ's homepage and is reprinted by permission. To receive NPQ free in your inbox go sign up here.

TJ Rainsford Chief Technology Officer 501cTECH Google Drive is still brand new and not without limitations, but its capabilities are pretty hard to ignore.

On April 24, Google announced the much anticipated Google Drive service, a cloud-based "disk drive" where individuals and organizations can store there documents, spreadsheets and a host of other electronic files. That may sound like a big deal but organizations and individuals with Google accounts could do that already using Google Docs. So does Google Drive really matter?

In short, the answer is yes!

Flickr:MarkusramWe can feel it - the season is changing! How do we know? NTEN members are providing more educational opportunities, asking for more help on amazing projects, and announcing even more technology tools than ever before. With all the change going on, make sure you learn about all the ways NTEN members are making a difference in the world. 

Have more news to share? Drop us a line or include your links in the comments!

Women rule! And Women Who Tech just created an awesome infographic that details exactly why women rule. For example, did you know that women represent 56% of the professional workforce?

Have you met David Krumlauf at an NTEN or nonprofit event? David is the Chief Technologist at the Pierce Family Foundation, where he helps grantees with their IT needs. Community TechKnowedge just featured a great piece on David and his work on their blog.

The Health Equity Initiative is searching for a New York City videographer! They want to develop a 10 minute documentary surrounding health equity and what it means to NYC’s diverse population. If you’re interested in helping a great nonprofit, send them an email expressing your interest.

Blogs and social media are critical communication tools for nonprofits. It isn’t a surprise that many NTEN members were listed among the world’s best nonprofit blogs by Schaefer Marketing Solutions.

Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) announced the 2012 Producers Institute for New Media Technologies and call for entries. BAVC will select at least six of the world’s most promising social issue documentary projects to participate in a week-long new media and social impact laboratory in San Francisco. (And did you know that BAVC members are eligible for a complimentary NTEN membership?)

Feel the love at the Nonprofit 2.0 Unconference on June 15th, 2012 – it's DC's only unconference dedicated to the social cause space. This event is being hosted by some amazing NTEN members, and even more members will be speaking throughout the day.

TechChange is offering a four-week online professional development certificate course, which will evaluate case studies of new technologies that have been employed for effective change. Apply now to be part of their program, May 14 - June 8!

Geographic data can help us understand our communities, our society, and our planet. On May 3rd, Azavea announced its newest open source product, GeoTrellis, a high performance geographic data processing engine. It’s free to download.

Anything we missed? Share your links in the comments!

Would you trust a volunteer to help maintain your organization's servers? Okay, probably not, but what about taking out an iPad to collect constituent data? Or setting up wi-fi hot spots after a disaster.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of many a nonprofit, and there are many ways you can engage them in technical roles – but it requires a special skill set to manage them. We'll explore the pros and cons of a volunteer workforce supporting technology at our upcoming webinar, "Engaging Volunteers in Technical Roles".

Learn more and register today >>

In this webinar, you'll learn:

• How to train IT leadership on how to manage volunteers and plan what will be done before the volunteers come knocking
• How to vet volunteers the same as paid staff
• How to empower (and contain) the volunteer with job descriptions, responsibilities and accountability

I've seen so many political activist volunteers out with clipboards this month. Simply having a tablet to collect information would make them stand out. Then, they could tag the location, even accept on-the-spot donations – and not worry about transcription errors when they get back to the office.

We need to help these people out!

Matthew Eshleman Director of Professional Network Services Community IT Innovators The promise of the cloud is that you don't have to worry about servers anymore. The reality of the cloud is that you have a lot of other things to think about.

We may have jumped the gun a little by discussing what systems to migrate in part 1 of this look at developing a cloud migration strategy, but now we're going to ask and answer the question of How to Migrate.

Migrating to a cloud based application or service is different from installing some software or server in your office. It is imperative that you read and understand the legal agreement you're signing because governs the business and service relationship you are establishing.

Cloud service providers are looking out for their best interests in these agreements and you should too.

Here are some typical questions you should answer as part of evaluating a new solution:

Our friends over at Blackbaud, in association with Constant Contact, have been running a great series on email marketing, Putting the Puzzle Pieces Together. There are still two live events left (and they're free):

• Effective Marketing Tips and Tricks for Clicks (on May 16 at 2:00 ET)
• Making the Most of Email Marketing (on June 14 at 3:00 pm ET)

Seats are going fast, so be sure to head over and check them out.

They've also made the recordings of the past events available for free, and assembled a host of resources centered around a live seminar they ran in San Francisco, "A Communication Plan and Tactics to Engage Supporters Online". And I know how you feel about free resources.

photo from Broken Banjo Photography

We've already established the successes and failures of the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference, but what about the straightforward facts? In the interest of maintaining transparency (and fueling our nerd fire), we thought we would give everyone more of what we all love: data!

1772 NPTechies registered for 2012 NTC. With a limited number of early bird tickets this year, we were unsure how the registrations would come in, but it followed a similar pattern as previous years, with 50% of attendees registering in the first 3 months. Regardless of when you registered, on Tuesday, April 3, we snatched up 755 rooms at the Hilton. That's 40% of the hotel.

This year, 137 of you tuned in to the Online NTC, representing 30 states, 6 countries, and 3 continents. Beyond the live streamed sessions and plenaries, with the help of Maddie Grant, we managed to pull in 28 rock star community members to share their knowledge and observations in short interviews between the sessions. You can watch all those interviews here.

Perhaps it was the stable Internet connection, but this year saw the highest number of 12NTC mentions on social media, totally 16,897 mentions throughout the three days of the conference - 5,495 more than 11NTC. The majority of the online conversation, 98%, happened on Twitter. In fact, we trended globally all 3 days of the conference.

Speaking of the Internet, we spent over 20 hours in pre-event meetings to ensure it worked this year - and trust us, every minute was worth it. Over the three days, our average bandwidth was 28.24 MB. On the last day of the conference we saw 1740 unique devices access the network, just about 1 per person.

There were 153 sessions this year in 38 different meeting rooms across 2 hotels. With each session lasting 90 minutes, that's 229.5 hours spent sharing and collecting knowledge. Individual session hashtags (not included in the mentions above) were used 7,921 times April 3 - 5. The most talked about session was Picturing Your Data is Better than 1,000 Numbers with Beth Kanter, Brian Kennedy, and Johanna Morariu, mentioned 803 times online during the NTC.

Each year, the NTC is made possible by our generous sponsors and exhibitors. At the 2012 NTC, we had 109 of them, with 91 booths in the Science Fair - our largest yet! This year, the Kindle Fire ousted the iPad as the most popular tech giveaway at the event: 5 were handed out during raffles.

If you used myNTC to find your sessions and meet other attendees, you weren't alone. 71% of you logged in to the system ,which tracked 11,280 check ins, 1,297 messages sent and 132 meetings created.

The love didn't stop when the conference was over, either. So far, we've counted 67 blog posts about the event; you can view links to them, and add any we missed, here. 658 of you filled out the conference evaluation, where 73.4% thought the NTC was "well worth" the 3 days away from the office.

What does it take to make this all happen? Well, this time aroun,d it took 12 NTEN staff members, a crew of 7 from our amazing production team at Groundswell Marketing, 5 internet wizards (their new official NTC title) from Mariette Systems, 3 live stream experts from Peach New Media, 6 dedicated hotel event staff, 8 temps, 36 incredible volunteers, 12 months of planning, and 312.5 gallons of coffee. That's right, 5,000 cups.

Last but not least, it takes all of you - the 11,000 NTEN Members and 50,000 community members across the globe who continue to inspire us, surprise us, and show up to make each NTC more awesome than the last.

Matthew Eshleman Director of Professional Network Services Community IT Innovators While it may be tempting to move to the cloud because of your free 10 Salesforce licenses or free Google Apps account, it's critical to answer the question: Why migrate?

At its core the “cloud” is a scalable architecture that allows data to be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. Having that basic definition in mind, it's important to recognize that the cloud, or perhaps more accurately cloud services, is just another IT resource.

There are certain obvious benefits that the cloud can provide: scalability, high availability, and low recurring pricing. On the other hand there are also some downsides to moving to the cloud: vendor lock in, complex terms of service, and unexpected additional costs.

In today’s digital world, the question is no longer “What is the cloud?”, but “How do I choose cloud tools that will help us do our work more efficiently?”

Our latest Nonprofits & Cloud Computing webinar series tackles the issue of how to choose and leverage cloud tools for a variety of different uses in your organization: fundraising, communications, programs, and operations.

In “Fundraising Tools, Services, and Opportunities in the Cloud,” Ira Horowitz, of Firefly Partners, walked through how to think about and approach choosing the right tool. There are a lot of tools out there, and every organization has a unique set of needs, so you need to know what to ponder and look for in order to pick a tool that works for you.

We dove into the nitty-gritty of fundraising tool elements, with questions specific to each one – but starting your search doesn’t have to be that hard. Ira concluded the webinar with some simple first steps for your decision making process.

Where do you start?

• Make a Feature Wish List (must haves, and nice to haves)
• Make a budget (how much can you spend?)
• Make a short list of tools (5-8)
• Get demos
• Ask questions!

Defining what features you need and want your tool to have, and how much you can spend, will help you narrow your search considerably. From there, it's a question of trying out the various tools and discovering what works best for your organization.

To learn more about cloud fundraising features, and examples of successful cloud fundraising campaigns, check out the recording of “Fundraising Tools, Services, and Opportunities in the Cloud”.

If you're considering adopting cloud fundraising tools - or you have already run a cloud fundraising campaign - we’d love to hear about what questions you have, and what challenges your organization has faced. Tell us about your experience in the comments below!

MLAP wanted their website to help improve the visitor experience at the park – and their website strategy to help guests plan and to improve their overall experience at the park seems to be working.

About a year ago, the Michigan Legacy Art Park (MLAP), an outdoor art and sculpture collection of more than 40 pieces displayed in a wooded setting, redesigned

Kimberlee Roth Owner Out-Word, LLC

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When all of our supporter data was on 3x5 cards or in a couple of spreadsheets, a lot of the fundraising work we did involved educated guesswork, by necessity.

With the data available to us now, we can segment, slice, dice, even predict future donor behavior, all without a statistics degree.

Join Josh Birkholz, author of the top-selling nonprofit book, Fundraising Analytics: Using Data to Guide Strategy at our upcoming webinar, "Fundraising Analytics for Campaign Planning", for a look at what's possible.

Learn more and register today >>

Event Details  

When: Tuesday, May 8, 11:00 am Pacific Time / 2:00 pm Eastern Time  

Cost: $35 for NTEN Members, $70 for non-members  

Presented by: Josh Birkholz, author of Fundraising Analytics: Using Data to Guide Strategy

 

In this webinar, you'll learn:

• Why quantitative analysis is a strategic difference-maker in campaign preparation
• Examples of measurements in areas of giving trends, production yields, engagement, and goal forecasting
• How in-house analytics capacity is within reach for most major gift fundraising programs

Learn more and register today >>

I promise we will not advocate for a return to 3x5 cards.

Each month, NTEN’s Membership team hosts a phone call for new Members. We introduce ourselves, talk a little bit about NTEN’s resources, and then open the conversation up to learn about all of those on the call.  

This month, our new Members were interested in ways to engage the community and access our resources on databases. Keep reading to learn more about the topics we discussed on the call!

Resources on Databases

One member on our call was interested in database management, and meeting other nonprofit database managers. We’d like to take this opportunity to highlight a few of NTEN’s recent educational resources on databases.

• Free Report: 2011 Consumers Guide to Low Cost Donor Management Systems Report
• Blog Post: WordPress vs Drupal... Fight!
• Webinar: Salesforce + CMS Integration Showdown: Plone, Drupal, and Joomla

501 Tech Clubs

Did you know that in cities across the country, NTEN supports local groups meeting every month? These groups are informal, and the structure varies by city, but they're a great place to connect to other nonprofit professionals and learn about technology. All of the groups are free to attend, and open to everyone.

>>Find a 501 Tech Club near you!

If you don’t see your city on the list, and are interested in starting a Tech Club, contact Sarah, NTEN’s Community Manager.

Communities of Practice

Our Communities of Practice are the perfect place to engage the nonprofit technology community and learn online. They are focused groups that have an online discussion forum and a shared resource library – and also hold monthly webinars or calls. You can see the list of these groups and join in from the community tab on the website as well. Like the 501 Tech Clubs, these groups are free and open to everyone.

Here are a few examples of our Communities of Practice:

• IT Directors
• Mobile for Nonprofits
• Nonprofit Blogging

Although the New Member Calls are designed for new Members, NTEN also hosts Office Hours every week! Office Hours are hosted Tuesdays at 9am PST/12pm EST. They are the perfect opportunity to ask questions about resources, meet members, or just say "Hi!" Don’t forget, we’d love your feedback about Office Hours!

Eric Segal President Data Collaborative With a Cloud Platform, you can build a web application that will allow you to enter the exact data that is appropriate for your program, and then produce the exact reports, charts, emails and other output that you need.

Ten years ago, if you had standard database needs (like CRM) you could use a desktop-based application like ACT or the Organizers DataBase – but if you had needs that were not served by a shrink-wrapped product, you would buy MS Access or Filemaker and someone would build a special database for you.

Today, with the world moving to the cloud, the situation is similar, but the names are different. If you have standard database needs (like fundraising) you might choose Etapestry or Raiser's Edge, but if you have unique needs, you can build any kind of database application you want on cloud platforms like QuickBase, Zoho, Force.com, and others.

After catching up on our email and our sleep post-2012 NTC, we started reading blog posts from attendees and speakers, and we've been amazed by the insights and ideas you all took away from the conference this year! We wanted to round up all your posts and resources in one place, so you can continue to collaborate and learn from each other. Hopefully, you will find any posts that we've missed and add them in the comments, so we can create a comprehensive list together!

If we missed your blog post, we're sorry! We'd love to check it out, so please post the link in the comments, or add it to this open Google spreadsheet.

Session Blog Posts

• 12NTC: Engaging Youth Using Social Media, Ariel Gilbert Knight
• 12NTC: Nonprofits and the Future of Internet Rights, Carlos Bergfeld
• Balancing "Hard" and "Soft" Technology Costs, Nicole Wallace
• Chief A**hole, Brian Reich
• Curation at NTEN, Evonne Heyning
• How Non-Profits Can Protect Digital Rights and Themselves in the Post-SOPA Era, Rob Cottingham
• How technology for nonprofits is like Alcatraz Island, James Howe
• How to Tell A Compelling Nonprofit Story: Part 1 (#12NTC), Nancy Schwartz
• Let's Get Local: Using Social Media in State and Local Campaigns, Ted Fickes
• More than Apps: Mobile Tips from 12NTC, Ariel Gilbert Knight
• Nonprofits and Innovation at NTC12, Beth Kanter
• Nonprofits: Are the Numbers Stacked Against Us?, Garrett Bradford
• Nonprofits Chalk Up Big Gains in Social-Network Followers, Derek Lieu
• Nonprofit storytelling tips from the pros, Debra Askanase
• Reflections from 12NTC Panel on Data Visualization, Beth Kanter
• Reflections from NTC Plenary Panel on Innovation, Beth Kanter
• Socialbrite strategists' sessions at NTC, JD Lasica
• Social media policy: cartoon-blogging, Rob Cottingham
• Why Fundraisers are Failing at Storytelling -- and What They Need to Change, Lori Jacobwith
• Why I don't "Like" You: Strategies and Tactics for Successful Social Engagement, Jennifer McNabb

Conference Blog Posts and Articles

• #ntcfail, Holly Ross
• #ntcwinning, Anna Richter
• 12 Nonprofit Technology Conference -- An Outsider's Perspective, Alicja Peszkowska
• #12NTC - What an adventure!, Ben Teoh
• 5 (RAD)Takeaways from 12NTC, Avi Kaplan
• 6 Nonprofit Technology Takeaways and One Killer Find from #12NTC, Frank Barry
• 7 Thoughtful Take-Aways from My #12NTC, Robert Rosenthal
• Best tweets of #12NTC so far, Part 1 and Part 2, Annie Lynsen
• Care2 Impact Prize Awarded to Vinay Bhagat of Convio, Clint O'Brien
• Greenpeace Experiments With Technology Team Structure, Derek Lieu
• GroupMe: Keep in touch with your team members, JD Lasica
• Free Access to State Legislative Information Paves Way for Political Action, San Francisco Chronicle
• Fresh from NTC 2012: Web Design Sessions Digest, Katya Issaeva
• From the front line at NTC, Pat Callihan
• Highlights from the Nonprofit Technology Conference, JD Lasica
• In Defense Of Serious Fundraising Dialogue, Roger Craver
• Microsoft at the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference, Angela Yu
• More about that book, Michelle Murrain
• Moving Forward from NTC 2012, Chris Bernard
• My Top Five Takeaways from NTEN's Drupal Day, Melissa Anderson
• Non-profit Data Headaches, Captricity
• Nonprofit Investment in Social Networks and Membership Continue to Grow, Business Wire and 4Traders 
• Nonprofit Technology Conference, Rally Blog
• Notes from #12NTC, Teva Harrison
• NTEN 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference, Michael DeLong
• NTEN Trends, Cloud Reality, & More, Matthew Eshleman
• PEW Center for Arts & Heritage NTC Blog Posts, Nicole Steinberg
• Reflecting on the #12NTC Nonprofit Technology Conference, Lauren Girardin
• Shai's #12NTC Summary, Shai Coggins
• Singing the post-conference blues, Shannon Doolittle
• Social goldmine: NTEN's crowdsourced conference notes, Denise Graveline
• Socially-Conscious Businesses and Nonprofits Find Common Ground at 12NTC, Alexis Raymond
• Takeaways from 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference, Norman Reiss
• TechSoup Roundup of 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference, Becky Wiegand
• The Dangers of an Inactive E-Mail List, Nicole Wallace
• Visual Thinking: A Challenge for Our Sector, Emily Comisar
• Wake Me When NTEN's Over, Roger Craver
• Website Design Done Right, ecwwblog.org
• What we learned at NTEN's 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference, Farra Trompeter

Other Resources

• 12NTC Collaborative Session Notes, NTC Community with special organizing help from @lalexanderson, @fitz350, and @WendyRosov
• 12NTC Hiring Spreadsheet, Avi Kaplin
• Look! Up in the sky! Air travel cartoons!, Rob Cottingham
• Monday morning after NTC . . . time to tackle that in-box, Jeff Tuller
• 12NTC Session Materials

Flicker Sets

• 2012 NTC Days of Service, TechSoup
• NTC 2012, JD Lasica
• And just for fun, here are all the photos on Flickr tagged 12ntc!

Can Cloud-based tools make your nonprofit more efficient? Join us for this free 3-part webinar series to explore the options in three of your nonprofit's core function areas.

Thanks to the generous support of Google, we're able to offer you these awesome series for free!

> Free for everyone! Learn more and register

Webinars in this free series include:

May 7 - Fundraising Tools, Services & Opportunities in the Cloud

Before you can fundraising, you need the right online tools. Learn about the latest and greatest online fundraising platforms and how to leverage them to raise money for your organization. We'll also present best practices for using these online tools and how to operate fully integrated, multi-channeled communications and fundraising programs.

May 14 - Communication Tools, Services & Opportunities in the Cloud

What tools in the cloud can be employed for Collaboration, Social Media, Marketing, Website/Content Management and more? In this webinar, you'll learn about tools for Communicators.

May 21 - Tools, Services & Opportunities in the Cloud for Operations and Programs

Learn about some of the most popular cloud-based tools that support programs and operations, including Document Management, Online Storage/Backup, Constituent Management and more. We'll show you how these tools can be used and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. Tools covered include: Box.net, Cloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Docs, Office 365, and iBackup.

Top experts in the sector will help us discover the tools to consider, show us what they can do, and give us examples of how they are used. Learn about the new opportunities these tools present and how other nonprofits are using them.

This series is geared towards nonprofit organizations investigating cloud-based solutions and want to learn more about their options. For information on the strategies for using cloud-based tools, see our recent series Nonprofits & Cloud Computing: A Guide to Navigating the Nonprofit Cloud, which will help you gain an understand of the cloud, learn to assess risks and opportunities, and navigate the ins and outs of financing cloud solutions.

A few months back, the NTEN Membership Team started running weekly Office Hours. Open to the whole community, the online chats are a way for anyone in the community to ask questions about NTEN, NTEN Membership, resources, research, or anything else related to nonprofit technology. You can even join in just to say "hi" and meet some NTEN staff.

At first, the office hours were held via CoverIt Live in a live chat. The chats were rarely attended – but we just answered emails while we patiently waited for our adoring fans and curious community members to show up.

Then, along came Google+ and hangouts. We thought, let's try holding our Office Hours in a Google+ hangout, that's sure to draw a crowd; at the very least people will stop by to try out the new technology. The next step, to paraphrase the immortal words of Ray Liotta: we built it... but very few of you came.

Now you have us wondering: is this a service you're interested in? Is the time of day bad? Are we in the wrong space? My inner socially anxious 12 year old could keep going, but instead, I'll let you tell us: Why don't you come to NTEN Office Hours?

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Please use the comments below to share your experiences & ideas for NTEN Office Hours.

Flickr: NTEN: Nonprofit Technology

We're still catching our breath from the NTC earlier this month, but the nonprofit technology community is as active as ever this week! Learn more about these stories and all the ways NTEN Members are amping up the awesome.

Have more news to share? Drop us a line or include your links in the comments!

If you attended the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference, our amazing photographer may have snapped your photo. Review all the photos from the conference, including all the fun moments captured in the old technology photobooth.

The 4th annual Women Who Tech TeleSummit will take place on May 23, 2012. Women Who Tech brings together talented and renowned women who use their tech-savvy skills to transform the world and inspire change. WWT is a telesummit, meaning you can participate from your home, office, or anywhere else that you have phone and Internet access!

Face Off Against Tobacco is a campaign designed to raise awareness about the dangers of tobacco and show support for increasing the price of these products. According to the campaign, headed by Nancy Marks, studies show that tobacco price increases are one of the most effective ways to reduce the use of tobacco, especially among youth. Check out the campaign’s use of Flickr and Tumblr!

There is an amazing position open with an even more amazing company! Idealware is searching for a Senior Nonprofit Software Researcher.

Too many NTEN members to name were interviewed in Convio’s recent video survey. The results of the survey are compiled in a new report which highlights fundraising and constituent engagement as the biggest hurdle for the nonprofit sector.

If you’re headed to the National Conference on Volunteering and Service, don’t miss out on NTEN’s pre-conference event on Social Media. Holly Ross and Amy Sample Ward will be hosting the fun on June 17th.

Funding Mobile Strategies for Social Impact is ZeroDivide’s newest white paper, a great look into nonprofits' uses of mobile technologies. They hope their new white paper will help ramp up the conversation among nonprofits and funders on how grantees can use mobile technologies more efficiently to reach their missions.

Lastly, I’d like to share some news that is bittersweet. After four and a half years, NTEN’s Program Director, Anna Richter, will be leaving NTEN for new adventures. While we are excited to see her move on to new things, we are sad she will not be in the office laughing with us every day. May the force be with you! That said, we’re looking for an amazing Program Director.

Anything we missed? Share your links in the comments!