Membership management, event registration and website tools

How Do You Thank Your Volunteers?

Rebecca — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:11:00 GMT

Thank you. It’s a powerful pair of words, and that simple statement of appreciation, spoken one-on-one, can go a long way to tell volunteers how much their work is valued — but you want to do more. A special effort or long-term commitment, in particular, calls for a special acknowledgement. What does your organization do to thank its volunteers? CASA of Camden County acknowledges its volunteers by sending birthday, anniversary, holiday, and thinking-of-you cards at intervals through the year — not...(read more)

Selling Nonprofits to Generation Y - on Paper

Rebecca — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:55:00 GMT

Nonprofits often take lessons from corporate research into what drives the "citizen-consumer" — especially teens and young adults, the first generation born into this high-speed, high-tech world. Miriam Kagan (GenerationYGive) has been wondering, along those lines, could catalogs be Gen Y’s version of direct mail?...(read more)

Will Digg Make a Category for Nonprofits?

Rebecca — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:15:00 GMT

Arguably the most influential of social bookmarking sites, Digg.com is often both criticized and commended for having a narrow topic focus. With big changes in the works at Digg right now, what are the odds that the site might broaden its horizons, and add a separate category for nonprofits and social change? A fair number of solid stories from the nonprofit sector are submitted to Digg every day — but those stories tend to get lost in the crowd. Why? Demographics , to begin with. High visibility...(read more)

Case Study: Calgary Meals on Wheels Takes Campaign Online

Rebecca — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 06:53:00 GMT

Many of us are familiar with the Meals on Wheels concept - to deliver nutritious and affordable meals to people in need: seniors, convalescents, and people living with disabilities. In desperate need of a new facility in which to prepare all those meals, Calgary Meals on Wheels has just launched a major capital campaign - and a new website. We asked Leann Hackman-Carty to tell us about it......(read more)

How to Learn More about Your Website Audience

Rebecca — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:54:00 GMT

Are the people who are visiting your website really the audience that you're trying to target? The more you know about your website visitors, the better you can tailor your content to attract the audience you want to reach — but for nonprofits and associations with a limited budget, market research can be a tough challenge. One way to learn more about your website readers is to ask them directly about their purpose in visiting the site, their background, their expectations of your organization, and...(read more)

270+ Web-Based Business Tools

Rebecca — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:21:00 GMT

Hundreds of new web-based applications come on the market every year, so there's likely to be an affordable application for almost any administrative task -- with no need to download, install, maintain and update the same software on each of the computers in your organization. It's an approach that makes sense for many small and medium-sized businesses, and perhaps even more so for nonprofits and associations with limited resources. But how do you go about finding the tools you need? Mashable.com's...(read more)

Social Innovation Camp: What's Your Big Problem?

Rebecca — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:45:00 GMT

Social Innovation Camp — “an experiment in using social techology for social change” — will be bringing together some of the UK’s best software developers and designers with social innovators, for one weekend in December. Looking for new ways to use technology to create positive social change, they're calling for your ideas: What are the big problems we can solve by starting small? Send us your idea for a web tool to create social change and you could be joining 80 other participants to try and make...(read more)

Business and Nonprofits Find Value in Twitter

Rebecca — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:11:00 GMT

The original intention of sites such as Twitter may have been purely social, but like many Web 2.0 tools, it has evolved in the hands of its users. This time last year, the Canadian Marketing Association saw Twitter as a new toy for the tech savvy Millennial , “an easy, non committal way to keep tabs and staying emotionally close to our friends with low effort, risk and intrusion.” Within a few months, however, that tune had changed to How Tweet It Is . As a channel of communications that manages...(read more)

Case Study: Mamapreneurs on Growing Membership Site for Business Moms

Rebecca — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:07:00 GMT

Award-winning public relations professional and former broadcast journalist, Marlynn Jayme Schotland created Mamapreneurs Inc. to provide support and networking opportunities to business owners who are also mothers. Based in Portland, Oregon, the organization reaches out online to “mamapreneurs” anywhere in the world. Here, Marlynn talks about strategies for growing an active membership web site, and shares her top 5 tips for online community building....(read more)

Set Up for Google Adwords Success with NTEN Webinars

Rebecca — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:31:00 GMT

Have you ever wanted to try online advertising to promote your organization, but weren’t sure how to get started? Starting tomorrow, NTEN.org (The Nonprofit Technology Network) will be hosting a series of webinars aimed at teaching you how to get the most out of Google Grants, a program that offers free online Google Adwords advertising to select non-profits....(read more)

Online Donations: Survey Shows Potential for Growth

Rebecca — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:42:00 GMT

The American Express Charitable Gift Survey , released late last year in partnership with the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University , sought to answer two key questions: “How do people give online?” and “How much do they give per donation?” The study reports that the average gift size is $172, but most gifts are less than $100, suggesting that most nonprofits rely on large numbers of small donors rather than on the headline-making major bequests. Six percent of donors give online, and there...(read more)

3 New Ways to Target Your Audience with Facebook Pages

Rebecca — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:15:00 GMT

We’ve talked before about how nonprofits are using Facebook to connect with their supporters online, figuring out ways to work around the “closed door” model of the popular social-networking site. For example, setting up a nonprofit Facebook Page that can be viewed by anyone on the Web is often more effective than just having a Profile page only other Facebook members can see. So, why would you want to limit access to your nonprofit’s Facebook Page? Now that you’ve taken the time and effort to set...(read more)

What's Turning Off Your Donors?

Rebecca — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:31:00 GMT

"As a donor to charity, what do we nonprofits do that irritates you? What’s caused you to stop giving to a charity?" Marc Pitman asked the tough questions on LinkedIn , a social-networking site with a business/professional focus where the demographic is likely to be a close match for many nonprofits’ donors. And the answers are very educational... Telemarketing annoyances are very high on the list of pet peeves, not surprisingly. All the complaints that go along with commercial telephone solicitations,...(read more)

44% of Donors Check Out Your Nonprofit Online

Rebecca — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:19:00 GMT

When your nonprofit sends out its next fundraising direct mail appeal, how many potential donors will be heading to the Internet before they decide if they want to donate? The number of people checking out your organization online may be higher than you think! According to a new study by The NonProfit Times , the number of potential donors using the Internet to find out more about the nonprofits who contact them has jumped from 25% in 2005 up to 44% in 2008. Even more significant, perhaps, is the...(read more)

Wild Apricot Updates August 2008

Chief_Apricot — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:07:00 GMT

The most recent Wild Apricot update was released on August 11th — see more in our July blog post and on the Wild Apricot release history page . The update went without much trouble. The biggest challenge was to reconcile our HTML code changes with some very complex CSS customization some of our clients have done on their sites. We have been working behind the scenes to review and update each and every client site that uses CSS customization — one by one — but we still missed a few sites where the...(read more)

6 Sources for Free Map Graphics

Rebecca — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:59:00 GMT

No budget for custom graphics — yet you need a map for your website or presentation, to help show your membership reach or the areas in which your organization does its work? No problem. The internet offers a variety of free map graphics, many of which you can customize as needed. To get you started, here are 6 useful sources for different types of maps that are available online, free of charge: 1. Vectorportal’s free maps are mostly in EPS format, for editing with a vector-based graphics program...(read more)

Tech Support for Free and Open-Source Software

Rebecca — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:55:00 GMT

This is the third part of our series on free and open-source software and the resources to help your organization make the most of what FOSS has to offer. When you need to know the meaning of a word, you flip open a dictionary. It’s a trusted authority. It gives the information you need to use an essential tool (language) more effectively. Wouldn’t it be great if support for free and open-source software (FOSS) was just that easy? Users of open-source software — and particularly those users without...(read more)

A Closer Look at Facebook Events

Rebecca — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:16:00 GMT

Facebook is fast becoming a popular way to publicize an organization's event, invite guests, and track who plans to attend. Facebook Events may be just what your group needs -- but could you be shutting out some of the people who might support your event? The fact is, for non-members of the site, Facebook can feel like a frustrating series of closed doors......(read more)

Does Open-Source Software Fall Down on Usability?

Rebecca — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:34:00 GMT

This is the second part in our series taking a closer look at free and open-source software : the real costs, the barriers, and the trade-offs; the best FOSS alternatives to “brand name” software; and the resources to help you make the most of it. One of the on-going criticisms of free or open-source software (FOSS), as a general class of software, is that it’s lacking in usability . But what does “usability” really mean — to software developers and to those of us who depend on a collection of software...(read more)

An Introduction to Free and Open Source Software

Rebecca — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:07:00 GMT

As more cash-strapped non-profits, businesses, and individuals turn to free or open-source software to stretch their budgets, the open-source movement is booming. There may be no better time to talk frankly about the realities of using free or open-source software in your organization. For just about any type of “brand name” software you can name, there are FOSS alternatives available or in development. Some of the open-source software is remarkably sophisticated, too; as feature-rich as their commercial...(read more)

Statistics for Good

Rebecca — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:14:00 GMT

A great deal of reliable statistical data has long been available to the public eye — but it’s often been a challenge for resource-strapped nonprofit organizations to track down the information you need for policy development or to support your fundraising appeals with cold hard facts. UNdata has just made that research task a bit easier. A replacement for the old and unwieldy United Nations Common Database, the new UNdata website brings together all the major United Nations databases and those of...(read more)

Techsoup Site Security Breach: Visitors Urged to Take Precautions

Rebecca — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:02:00 GMT

Techsoup.org , one of the best non-profit resources online, has suffered an SQL Injection attack. The site was taken down promptly when suspicious activity was identified, but Techsoup account holders and anyone who has visited the site in the past few days are urged to take security precautions immediately. These types of attacks are known to exploit website vulnerabilities with the intent of distributing viruses and malware. We do not yet know all the details of this attack at this time. We do...(read more)

Email-to-Snail-Mail Online Postal Services

Rebecca — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:21:00 GMT

Has this ever happened to you? The printer jams, just as you’re trying to rush out a newsletter. Or you come up short on stationery and stamps, a few letters short of your mailing list run. Or you’re on the road with only a web-enabled phone at hand, when you remember an urgent note that must go out by mail… Some days, we can’t help wishing that everyone had an email address! The plain fact is, every organization has at least a percentage of contacts on our mailing list who can only be reached by...(read more)

Does Your Nonprofit Need an Email Newsletter Service?

Rebecca — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:27:00 GMT

Why would your organization want to pay for an email marketing service, instead of simply using Outlook and your regular email server to contact your members? There are a number of compelling reasons why even a small e-newsletter subscription list might best be handled by a dedicated email marketing service, starting — first and foremost — with reliable delivery. ...(read more)

How to Make Your Own Custom News Page

Rebecca — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:55:00 GMT

RSS is a very powerful technology , useful for anyone to gather and digest many information sources in one place — and even more useful for nonprofits to get their information out to their members and supporters. If you were to put all of your most important news sources onto a single web page, what a useful resource that could be! Remember when we mentioned the launch of Alltop.com , earlier this year? Alltop collects the most recent stories from the RSS feeds of selected sites, and shows the headlines...(read more)