Tag Archives: nptech

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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Usability testing is a great way to find out how well your web site is really meeting the needs of your audience.  Take a look at Userfly and how Beaconfire is helping Nten to redesign its web site.

Often projects fail because of a breakdown in communication.  No Surprises: The Key to Good Communication offers suggestions on how to keep all stakeholders on the same page.

Need a general list of online services?  Try 100 Online Tools for Non-Profits.

Beth’s Blog consistently offers wonderful material, even when she’s not the author – 4 Keys to Building a Successful Nonprofit Web Site.

Blackbaud is offering a good review of online strategies in a webinar series later this month.  Registration and details.

Some great Nten offerings coming up in September, offering an online version of events usually held live:

Personally, my wife and I are finally moving into our new home Monday, Aug. 17 after living in temporary quarters for the last month.  We’re looking forward to entering the next stage of our lives together.

The Importance of Training

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At many organizations that I’ve worked at, projects often don’t meet expectations not because of a bad product but more due to a lack of staff training.  Many nonprofits have a high turnover rate, so training becomes an ongoing need, not something that you can just schedule once in a while.  Some recommendations:

  1. Take advantage of web / phone conferencing software to offer classes regularly.  But make sure that participants are encouraged to ask questions at any time, not just at the end of the session.  Especially when you can’t visually see others’ reactions, it’s important to make sure everyone is absorbing the material.
  2. Offer recorded classes on your intranet, but don’t use this as an excuse not to provide live classes.  You can only get so much benefit from a class where you can’t ask questions.
  3. Give participants an incentive to fill out evaluations immediately after the class, and pay attention to their comments.
  4. Timing is important.  Don’t offer a class a month before a new product is available.  But also don’t wait until the product has been rolled out before classes are offered.
  5. When hiring new staff, knowledge of specific applications is helpful, but more useful is selecting employees that are comfortable with learning.  Most jobs change significantly after someone is hired, so choose candidates that are comfortable with learning new technologies.
  6. When budgets are tight, it’s tempting to cut training first.  Change how training is offered if you must, but don’t eliminate it completely;  staff productivity will be directly affected.
  7. Provide  ‘quick start guides’ to help participants retain skills, but don’t be surprised if you need to often a refresher class periodically.

One last poin:  Take advantage of free / low-cost training offered by organizations such as Nten, Network for Good and Idealware. For example, Kivi Leroux Miller’s recent 7 Steps to Better Email Fundraising and Communications session and accompanying Nonprofit Email Marketing Guide are wonderful resources for those new and old in ephilanthropy.  Personalized training by your nonprofit staff  is optimal but don’t forget to take advantage of other online options.

Web Applications, Benefits of Collaboration, Online Communications

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While the daily newspaper may be a dying breed, I still find reasons to read the Wall Street Journal on my daily commute.  A few interesting items from yesterday’s edition:

  • Tech Giants Ramp Up Their Online Offerings – Many large technology companies have resisted the move to online applications since they are often less profitable than traditional software.  It also requires firms to incur expenses (e.g. servers) that previously were paid by customers.  Unlike installed software, revenue from online products is spread over longer time periods, but may not last if customers don’t continue to use the product.  Except for financial software (Quicken) and sometimes MS Office, I use almost all online software now, yet online software still represents a small piece of the market.  But similar to the case of online donations vs. offline contributions, the market share is increasing rapidly – online software sales are rising more than 40% annually compared with 3.4% for all software.  Ultimately, companies will have to adapt since this is what many consumers want.
  • Playing Well with Others -  While this article focuses on the relationship between marketing and R&D, its principles also relate to the benefits of collaboration which I’ve discussed previously, especially important when implementing online campaigns.  For example, does your nonprofit “make sure that everybody recognizes the value that each department brings to the process – and how one side complements the other”?  In many organizations, each department has its own goals and staff are evaluated by how well those objectives are achieved.  But the most important goals usually require many areas to collaborate, something which is still not a part of many organization environments.  It’s important to “get out of your silos” and “focus on the customer.”  In nonprofits, this can easily be translated to viewing your organization as the constituent does – as one.

Finally, are you making the most of your online communications channels?  Nten offers some useful examples of organizations that are doing it right in Online Communications That Don’t Suck. If you decide to embark on a web site redesign, Tech Soup offers Tips for Designing (or Redesigning) a Nonprofit Web Site.  My tip – even though it can be challenging to get everyone to work together (see above), make sure you include all stakeholders throughout the process.  Otherwise, you’ll end up with a site that no one is really happy with.  (And don’t forget to ask real constituents to provide input and feedback, don’t just ask others in your office.)

Report from 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference

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Thanks to Holly Ross and the entire Nten staff for last week’s annual Nonprofit Technology Conference, held in New Orleans.  With so many worthwhile sessions taking place during the three days, the hardest part was choosing which sections to attend.  I was also fortunate to receive what was clearly the most valuable prize at the Sponsor Fair, a $1000 donation to any nonprofit of my choice, generously contributed by Jay Frank of Nice Touch Communications and Telecom for Charity.

Kudos also to Beth Kanter who organized the Day of Service to assist local nonprofits in New Orleans on the first day of the conference.  Working with Nancy Schwartz, (who writes Getting Attention to help nonprofits with marketing tips), I gave a quick ephilanthropy tutorial to Casa New Orleans.

I also participated in two conference sessions:

Tug of War or Pulling Together? Building Teamwork for Better Online Campaigns, David Hollender, Jed Cohen and I reviewed strategies for how an organization can work collaboratively instead of in silos.  Sharing information regularly can help, as well as a current intranet site and ‘lunch and learn’ where departments are invited to learn about each other’s projects.  While it is helpful to build relationships with those in other departments before you are assigned to work on a project with them, it’s also important to make sure that your own department’s goals are met.

The Joy of CMS: Implementing Sustainable Content Management Systems (The Painless Way to Keep Your Web Site Current): I moderated a panel of three CMS experts: Andrew Cohen, Nathan Gasser and Jeff Herron.  Instead of focusing on available products (of which there are many), we discussed how the idea of content management can be successfully deployed.  Having a current web site is easier when the responsibilities are shared throughout the organization, and when management accepts this as part of everyone’s job.  We also discussed work flow – how web pages are reviewed and released, and how to insure that web content is consistent with other communication vehicles.

I also want to commend Laura Quinn and Dahna Goldstein who moderated two sessions on data integration which I attended.  Since most of us have data in many locations, it is always challenging to share information between multiple products.  Memorable takeaways: when evaluating products, data integration must be on the list of requirements, and it may be best to consider vendors who have been ‘open’ from the start rather than those who have changed mostly due to market demands  Let’s keep this discussion going on Nten’s Data Standards & Integration affinity group!

It was also wonderful to return to New Orleans, which clearly is still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.  My wife and I were serenaded one night by a couple who lost their home and were struggling to make ends meet.

Will You Be at Nonprofit Technology Conference?

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If you’re planning to attend, please consider participating in the two sessions I’ll be participating in:

  1. The Joy of CMS: Implementing Sustainable Content Management Systems (The Painless Way to Keep Your Web Site Current). I will ask three experts in building web sites how nonprofit organizations can build a culture which supports up to date online content.
  2. Tug of War or Pulling Together? Building Teamwork for Better Online Campaigns. We will discuss how departments can work together within a nonprofit organization to develop and implement online strategies.

Nten’s Annual Nonprofit Technology Conference, expected to attract over 1,000 nonprofit staff members, consultants and vendors from across the United States, will take place in New Orleans, LA from Wed, Mar. 19 – Fri, Mar. 21.  It is always a wonderful event.,  Hope to see you there.

In addition, here is a useful resource on creating online donation pages and forms

Report from Nonprofit Technology Conference & Penguin Day

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Spent most of last week joining over 1,000 nonprofit techies from across the US as well as other countries at the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference in Washington DC.  I also spent the following day at Penguin Day, a celebration of open source software.

As usual, the educational sessions at NTC were great.  Despite the large crowd, the many sessions planned concurrently helped keep the crowd size small – but made it harder to select which session to attend.  Some takeaways:

  • much to my surprise, many sessions focused on the challenges of data integration and using APIs.  I have joined NTen’s affinity group to help further these efforts
  • an interesting summary of how web 2.0 tools (e.g. blogs, wikis, SecondLife etc.) have been ‘smuggled’ in to organizations that originally resisted them
  • a ‘nonprofit soapbox’ that allows nonprofits to take full advantage of open source content management with some technical assistance
  • importance of the IA (information architecture) in web project management
  • open source software has become more mature – and is even more of an attraction for nonprofits, although having a relationship with a consultant or other support network is essential.

I also moderated a session on online registration tools.  Thanks to Mark Becker (Event 360), Cary McQueen Morrow (Center for Arts Management & Technology) & Eric Leland (Leland Design) for joining the panel.

Nonprofit Technology Conference – April 2007

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I’ve attended this conference for several years, but this is the first time I’ll be presenting a session.  You can view details here.  My session will cover online registration forms and how they can be used for both pledge-based (e.g. walk-a-thons) and non pledge-based (e.g. education) events.  I’m still deciding on speakers, so if you have a lot of experience to share on this subject, please contact me.

Last year’s event was held in the state of Washington while this year it will be held in Washington D.C (not quite as interesting a locale).  It’s a rare opportunity to exchange ideas with 1000+ people from across the country who help nonprofits implement technology.   I also enjoy the chance to meet people that I otherwise only know through email or group lists.