The image above is some of the feedback from asking my friends on twitter how Groundwork might use the service.   The group I was working with were a little surprised (“wow”) by the speed and quality of the input from a network tool like this – so to Laura, Michael, Jon, Dave, Alice, Katie, Paul and Charlotte thank you – even amongst your number there was evident support and affection for the major national community and environmental charity. The session was a general get-the-juices-flowing

John Merritt, YMCA of San Diego County In every successful recipe there are key ingredients. Too much of one ingredient or too little of another can have very interesting effects on the outcome of the dish. It’s no different when it comes to technology. In today’s world, business is driven by technology; the days of seeing technology merely as a necessary evil have long passed. Networking technologies are used to move and access information quickly, we analyze our stored data to make soun

What is it about nonprofit blogs? So many of them are so incredibly boring. It' not like they're about boring things -- the problem is something else. The Reuters AlertNet Blog noted this among the blogs of international relief organization in DEBATE: Are aid agencies ready for the blogosphere? Some of the problems: Open and frank discussion is rare. Many blogs read more like press releases, crammed with acronyms and technical aid-speak. Others are just plain boring, or so thoroughly vetted b

Not from a nonprofit as such, but this interesting article gives an insight on how Ning was used as a project management tool and how it was used in such as way, that the CEO became the facilitator, rather than the more usual barrier for speed and safety. Read the upbeat article at Using social media (Ning) to manage a social project. Visit Laura's Notebook to read more articles or to leave a comment.

Social Actions has launched a widget that recommends to readers of your blog or website related ways to take action. The widget automatically identifies the keywords on any page and lists social change campaigns related to the stuff you’re writing about. These campaigns are gathered from social action platforms like Kiva, DonorsChoose, Change.org, GlobalGiving, Care2, Idealist.org, and fourteen others. You can read more about the widget and see examples on the launch article on the Social Acti

I’ve been following unfolding of the excellent We Are Media project which is a community of people from nonprofits coming together curated by NTEN who are interested in learning and teaching about how social media strategies and tools can enable nonprofit organisations to create, compile, and distribute their stories and change the world. Working together the network aims to help identify and point to the best how-to guides and useful resources that cover all aspects of creating, aggregating, a

Should funders reward nonprofits for how much they communicate in new media? If the more you communicate, the more impact you can have, the more you potentially can create more support for your cause, get donors, etc, should funders look at nonprofits who are communicating more in a more favorable light? And should every facebook event post, every myspace friend, be counted towards that communication quota? Or are nonprofits in new media investing program money in something that has yet

Can you get in the game? -Using video to connect Engaging the youth! What does it take? Whether you're on the board, on staff, or a volunteer, this is on every nonprofit's mind. And if you're looking around yourself at all, you're attempting to plan ahead. Developing support for your nonprofit means communicating. A lot. What about making people laugh? http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=529102816568&ref=nf

Marshall Kirkpatrick, ReadWriteWeb It can be hard to convince leadership that working with social media doesn't mean they've been paying you to catch up with friends on Facebook. You've probably heard some of the objections. But there are ways you can respond. Here's a list of common objections, along with suggestions for countering them: 1. I suffer from information overload already. Possible replies: Try just skimming messages in some fora. You may need to look closely at every email yo

Michaela Hackner, World Learning So, you think you've figured out the best way to use new media in your organization -- that blog you've always daydreamed about, or that Facebook fan page that's just got to be made. You're ready to take this new media blitz public and make your website the one that everyone on Progressive Exchange and Twitter is talking about. You think you've got the perfect proposal... but you know the reality of the nonprofit technology world, and all those grubby littl

Elissa Perry, Leadership Learning Community "When knowledge gained somewhere doesn't move elsewhere, that's not a learning organization; that's just a bunch of projects." - The Saratoga Institute It can be difficult to encourage new ideas and innovation from people who aren't in positions with leadership titles or much technical authority. People fear speaking up for reasons tied not just to personal style, but also -- and perhaps more commonly -- to organizational culture. There are a nu

Dahna Goldstein, PhilanTech You’re a leader of an organization, about to begin a new technology project. Getting buy-in for a technology change can be essential to the success of the initiative. Here are some things to think about when approaching a technology change for your organization: Set a clear direction from the top. All too often, technology changes are seen as the purview of just the technology staff (or accidental techie). People in the rest of the organization can feel discon

AdWords-Style Widget Recommends Related Ways to Take Action - Social Actions AdWords-Style Widget Recommends Related Ways to Take Action - Social Actions: "Social Actions is proud to announce the launch of a revolutionary widget that recommends to readers of your blog or website related ways to take action. The widget automatically identifies the keywords on any page and lists social change campaigns related to the stuff you're writing about. These campaigns are gathered from social action p

Access to the Internet is one of the issues we care about most here at NTEN. The United States is a lowly 15th in the world when it comes to broadband access, and that's almost certainly having an adverse effect on how thousands of nonprofits are able to serve their clients and stakeholders. It's so bad, FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps has admitted, "America's record in expanding broadband communication is so poor that it should be viewed as an outrage by every consumer and businessperson

Hello NetSquared. Joe, Eric, Christine, and I wanted you all to be among the first to know about the latest web application from Social Actions. This one is a biggy. It would never have come together without the support and connections we made at N2Y3. Below is a excerpt from the launch announcement, called AdWords-Style Widget Recommends Related Ways to Take Action read more

nonprofit voterWe don't have to tell you how important it is to vote this Fall, but we keep hearing about great resources for nonprofits working to get out the vote in their communities. We want to make sure you have them at your fingertips. The Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network is a national nonpartisan effort providing resources to America’s nonprofits to help their communities participate and vote. You'll find a wealth of resources designed specifically for nonprofits to encourage voter

"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." -Bertold Brecht It's now been three and a half years since DemocracyInAction and I got together -- three and a half years of change and growth and learning on the fly. We got to thinking ... why not try out a long-distance thing? So I'm excited -- and, yeah, a little nervous -- to announce that next week, yours truly will shake the Beltway dust off his heels and open up DemocracyInAction Midwest. (That name could b

The NonProfit Times -"Stretching Laptop Run Time The NonProfit Times - The Leading Business Publication For Nonprofit Management: "Stretching Laptop Run Time By Ted Needleman You have to wonder sometimes. As laptops get smaller and lighter, their run times often suffer due to fact that smaller laptops have smaller batteries. Improvements in battery technology and the development of power-sipping CPUs help somewhat, but it’s rare to find a laptop that can run much more than two-and-a-half to

So NTEN decided not to include CiviCRM as a listing in their Donor Management Survey. On the face of it, that was an OK decision because CiviCRM wasn't specifically designed as donor management software. That kind of made sense to me, plus we have plenty enough users that use CiviCRM that we'll have just as many responses as the named systems. [If you use CiviCRM for donor management, Vote Now!] Then they modified the front page of the survey to define donor management and I started thinking t

Steve Dale is pleased to report that the Office of the Third sector is to create online Communities of Practice to help Local Government and the Third Sector work together. To support local authorities and their partners, OTS and IDeA will be establishing an on-line Community of Practice and linking with work of the Government Offices in the regions and Regional Improvement & Efficiency Partnerships. The on-line Community of Practice will allow members to share good practice and ideas, discuss