Archive for 2007

Wired Fundraising - technology making fundraising ‘good to go’

Network for Good has produced a new study report - The Wired Fundraiser: How Technology is Making Fundraising Good to Go (downloadable as a PDF document). The article gives a great insight into what a ‘wired fundraiser’ is and how fundraisers and those passionate about a cause can use the internet to help raise awareness and funds.

Fundraising for non profits can be achieved by using technology to spread the word about your cause. Beth Kanter recently and very successfully used social networking tools with the aim of sending two young people to college in Cambodia (you can still donate!)

Key findings from the report:

• When Wired Fundraisers Talk, People Listen: The messenger matters even more than the message.
• Not Every Wired Fundraiser Is a Champion: The successful Wired Fundraiser has a relatively rare combination of true passion and a means to lend a sense of urgency to their cause.
• Technology Makes a Difference: Widgets and social networks make existing personal fundraisers more effective.
• Smart Charities Embrace the Wired Fundraiser: And they find their own, “inner” Wired Fundraiser.

The report is only 8 pages long and gives some great examples with statistics of use of online giving tools such as SixDegrees, ChipIn, Firstgiving and JustGive.org, and shows the increase in response rate compared to traditional online fundraising methods.

The report also gives tips and inspiration, I recommend that you pass a copy of this report to your trustees and team to see and learn how using social media tools can help benefit your fundraising campaigns.

If you are in a non profit organisation and are planning to use social media tools or are already using them for fundraising, I’d love to hear from you to hear about your experiences. Leave a comment!

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How our information and knowledge management has evolved

For those that can access and watch video clips, head over to YouTube to see a short video exploring the changes in the way we find, store, create, and share information. Information R/evolution was created by Michael Wesch.
Thanks to Luis Suarez of the the Elsua Blog for spotting this!

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Women working in non-profit technology - are we visible?

A couple of days ago, Beth Kanter put a shout out to help her with a session she’s running at the forthcoming She’s Geeky Conference. Her session will be directed at women who might be working in the corporate or business sector and are thinking of switching to the nonprofit sector. Beth asked a series of questions including:

• What are the opportunities and challenges of being the techie in a nonprofit organisation?
• If you’re a techie in the nonprofit sector, how and why did you land in the nonprofit sector?

Head over to Beth’s article to see some interesting responses, you can add your comments there too, and I’d welcome any comments you may have too on my blog. I look forward to seeing the outcomes of the discussions that happen at the conference and hope to see events like this for women in technology over here in the UK one day soon.

Interestingly, the results of Web Design Survey which took place in April 2007. A List Apart and An Event Apart conducted a survey of people who make websites. Close to 33,000 web professionals answered the survey’s 37 questions, providing the first data ever collected on the business of web design and development as practiced in the U.S. and worldwide.

As soon as the results were published I was keen to see the outcomes. I wasn’t surprised to see the low numbers of women responding to the survey, and have seen some great conversations about women in web design and also the nonprofit angle about these results unfolding.

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New resource to help use the media to find your volunteers

With a rising interest in Web 2.0 and media skills amongst non profit organisations here in the UK, many groups are learning that there are a variety of ways available to communicate and market the work of their organisation to potential supporters and funders. One area which many small groups have difficulties with, is knowing how to find new ways to attract new volunteers for their cause.

Volunteer Genie is a bright and welcoming resource for organisations to help them to learn how to use the power of media to help find and recruit volunteers.

As well as information sections on understanding volunteers, and working with traditional media forms such as radio and with journalists, the website helps to guide you with inspiration to create your own campaign. The site shows successful case studies of charities who have used innovative ways to reach out to new audiences with a variety of media as their tools to find new volunteers.

The section on New Media Adventures is also really informative and well worth a look to understand how you can use social networking and blogs to share your stories. It also gives guidance to other web 2.0 tools so you can make your own news too.

I really feel that 2008 will be a great year to see lots of innovations with use of modern technologies to help with communications and information sharing for non profits here in the UK.

Many of the tools available can be used quickly and easily without lots of technical knowledge or cost which is a big plus. Small and under resourced organisations now have an ever growing supply of these tools, and communities to tap into for support and knowledge to help them to spread their message.

All they need now is a strategy to help guide them in what they plan to do and how to do it. Thankfully, the Volunteer Genie website offers advice in doing just that!

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Video’s of assistive technology in use

Take a look at the AssistiveWare website to see videos on assistive technology in use for computer accessibility. Providing a useful insight and understanding, the video’s show real life experiences by users using a wide range of technologies, enabling them to work, enjoy their leisure and manage their daily life with the use of computers.
Source: 456 Berea Street.

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My Environment - Blog Action Day

Across the globe, bloggers are writing articles for Blog Action Day. This years theme for the event is to write about the environment. I’m not going to write about global warming, carbon footprints, green technology, video conferencing or social communities on the net, but write a bit about ‘my’ environment instead.

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Bristol Wireless technology travels far…

After a plea for help, Bristol Wireless has sent a laptop to Sarajevo to help a young civil war victim to enable him to turn his life around and help him gain the qualifications to find work. Read the story to see how they are using free and open source software to help Amir.

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Free tools to test your site for accessibility

Following on from my posting earlier in the month where a US court issued two landmark decisions that the Target Corporation has to make their website accessible to blind people, web accessibility is an area which many nonprofits and charities still find difficult to implement on their sites.
In this article I’m going to show a few of the free easy to use tools available which can help you with testing your website not only for accessibility but also usability and web standards too. Later in the article, I’ll list some other useful resources and services that are available to help charities and organisations.

Accessibility and usability are key to a successful site. You will want your site to be accessible to the widest possible audience regardless of ability or browsing technology, including those who have visual, hearing, motor and cognitive impairments. Conformance to the W3C guidelines helps to make the Web more accessible to users with disabilities and benefits all users. In short, it makes the web a better place for everyone.

If you are the person responsible in your organisation for creating or updating your website, there are some free easy to use tools to help you test and examine your site.

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Choosing and Using Free and Open Source Software - new guide available

Many organisations and charities are increasingly becoming interested in free and open source software (also known as ‘Foss’) and wanting to learn about the benefits it can bring to their organisation. But where do you go to find out more, understand what it all means and discover what is available to your group?

Nosi, the Nonprofit Open Source Initiative has launched its new primer for nonprofit organisations - Choosing and Using Free and Open Source Software. An essential guide which helps groups to understand more about open source technology.

On the Nosi website introduction to the primer guide, it says that:

“It includes:

• case-studies of nonprofits of various sizes that are using open source software,
• a process for evaluating whether or not open source is right for an organisation,
• a live feed of Social Source Commons FOSS toolkits
• and useful resources and information.

Written primarily in non-technical language, the Primer is accessible to a wide audience, including nonprofit managers with little hands-on technical expertise.”

The guide can be read on the Nosi website or downloaded for reading later. One of the features that I like about the guide is that it is presented in an understandable language, includes lots of helpful information and lists useful links to organisations that can support with training and support for your organisation.
Good to see my friends at M6-IT listed there too!

There are also exciting developments taking place here in the UK in this area too, with circuit rider projects developing support for Foss in the voluntary and community sector, and I hope to be reporting about those very soon.

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Free Burma!

Free Burma!

I’ve joined with over 4,600 bloggers across the globe on 4th October. You can find out more at Free Burma!

Picture courtesy of Nickjais.

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