This blog is for volunteers, webmasters and administrators of associations, clubs, charities, communities and other groups. We discuss issues and trends in modern web technologies that help your organization achieve more with less. This blog is sponsored by Wild Apricot membership software: a set of tools for membership administration, event registration, website management, online fundraising - with friendly and knowledgeable tech support. See for yourself how affordable and easy it is to use: - Take a tour!

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• 26 May 2008

  Easy Embedded Tables for Your Website or Blog: Part 2 

  In the first part of this article, we talked about various ways to show data in tables on your website or blog -- their strengths and their limitations. Here, we'll take a closer look at how to use Zoho Sheet, Google Spreadsheets, or DabbleDB to create a searchable, interactive table that you can easily embed in your web page, and update as easily as you update the original spreadsheet. Read More... Posted Monday, May 26, 2008 8:04 PM by Rebecca | 1 Comments Filed under: Non-profit technology, nptech, Web 2.0, Blogging, Google, collaboration, database, websites, Zoho, spreadsheets, tables, DabbleDB

• 15 May 2008

  Easy Embedded Tables for Your Website or Blog: Part One 

  Some kinds of information are best presented in table form: school alumni lists, genealogy data, annotated lists of resources, survey results and statistical data, and so on. When you have several data fields for each item, a simple list won't cut it. Here are 5 methods you might choose to show a table on your web page. Read More... Posted Thursday, May 15, 2008 7:30 PM by Rebecca | 1 Comments Filed under: Non-profit technology, nptech, Web 2.0, Google, websites, Zoho, spreadsheets, tables, DabbleDB

• 01 April 2008

  Campaign Maps: How 3 Nonprofit Organizations use Online Maps to Send a Message 

  Maps have come a long way from the traditional classroom wall map that many of us grew up with. Online, maps have taken on added dimension with multimedia mashups and a new level of interaction: the information they can deliver goes far beyond topographical features and geo-political boundaries. Here are three maps from three different nonprofit websites: all deal in some way with food sources, but each sends its message in a very different way. Read More... Posted Tuesday, April 01, 2008 2:29 PM by Rebecca | 6 Comments Filed under: Non-profit technology, General non-profit interest, nptech, Web 2.0, Google, case studies, Non-profit Communications, maps

• 18 March 2008

  Google Portal for Non-Profits Launched 

  Billed as a "a one-stop shop for tools to help advance your organization's mission in a smart, cost-efficient way," the newly launched Google for Non-Profits portal offers quick links to the most commonly used tools in the Google suite of services. It also highlights some cost-saving benefits that are available only to nonprofits. Read More... Posted Tuesday, March 18, 2008 11:58 PM by Rebecca | 4 Comments Filed under: Non-profit technology, General non-profit interest, nptech, Web 2.0, Google, Non-profit Communications, websites

• 05 March 2008

  Microsoft Office Live Workspace takes on Google Apps 

  Microsoft's Office Live Workspace – just launched – is a free web-based service that lets people organize documents and projects online, access their documents via the web, and share them with others who may view and comment on shared documents. It's been described as an online extension of MS Office desktop software, Microsoft's answer to Google Apps for document sharing and online collaboration. But which service would best meet the working needs of your organization? Read More... Posted Wednesday, March 05, 2008 12:25 PM by Rebecca | 1 Comments Filed under: Non-profit technology, nptech, Google, Non-profit Communications, office, collaboration, Microsoft

• 29 February 2008

  Team Web Publishing Tool added to Google Apps 

  JotSpots, the wiki site acquired by Google almost 16 months ago, has just relaunched as Google Sites, a quick and simple self-service tool to enable non-technical people to collaborate and publish online. As TechCrunch notes, however, "Google Sites looks absolutely nothing like Jotspot, other than the fact that both are hosted wikis." Read More... Posted Friday, February 29, 2008 5:11 PM by Rebecca | 3 Comments Filed under: Non-profit technology, nptech, Google, Non-profit Communications, collaboration, websites, wiki

• 29 February 2008

  NetSquared Mashup Challenge Helps Nonprofits to Create New Tools for Change 

  Do you have an idea for a mashup? Can you imagine a way to to combine data from more than one source to make a web tool that can help nonprofits change the world? The NetSquared Mashup Challenge may be for you. You don't need to have the tech skills — just a great idea. Read More... Posted Friday, February 29, 2008 2:41 PM by Rebecca | 3 Comments Filed under: Non-profit technology, nptech, Web 2.0, Google, Conferences, net2mashup

• 08 February 2008

  Data Collection Made Easier with Google Forms and Spreadsheets 

  The more you know about your members, the better your organization can serve them. As we've mentioned, a variety of free tools for online polls are available to answer the simple questions -- but sometimes you need more detailed information from your members. Would you like to be able to track each individual's response, instead of seeing only the simple percentages for each answer choice? That could certainly be very useful. And what if you also had an easy way to collect those responses in a spreadsheet? Read More... Posted Friday, February 08, 2008 5:28 PM by Rebecca | 4 Comments Filed under: Non-profit technology, General non-profit interest, nptech, E-mail marketing, Google, membership, database, surveys

• 25 January 2008

  How to Use Gmail Filters to Organize and Manage your Email Accounts  

  One of the coolest things about Gmail is its filters.They are a simple way to organize your messages automatically by providing a set of rules. It’s a way to set up your e-mail and have control of information going in or out. Like most email, Gmail applies the rules to the messages you receive and to the sent mail but this way you are able to customize your e-mail. When set up properly, filters add loads of functionality to your already-powerful Gmail account. Save time and space, rid your inbox Read More... Posted Friday, January 25, 2008 2:41 PM by Creative Apricot | 1 Comments Filed under: Associations, Non-profit technology, General non-profit interest, nptech, Web 2.0, Google

• 10 January 2008

  Website Charts and Graphs Made Easy with Google Chart API 

  The Google Chart API lets you dynamically generate charts and graphs, and easily include those images in your webpage. Several types of image can be generated — line, bar, and pie charts for example. For each image type you can specify attributes such as size, colors, and labels. Include a Chart API image in any blog or website page simply by embedding a URL within an <img> tag, in the same way you would place any image that’s hosted on the internet. When the webpage is displayed in a browser, Read More... Posted Thursday, January 10, 2008 10:20 AM by Rebecca | 6 Comments Filed under: Non-profit technology, nptech, Google

• 14 August 2007

  Free and great email service via Google - on your own domain 

  There are many free or very cheap email hosting services you can use today. One of the best - and free! - email services is offered by Google. Many people have been using Google's Gmail for a while - with addresses like <name>@gmail.com - but now Google also offers a free email service on your own domain: <anything>@<yourowndomain.org> The reliability, spam filtering and other characteristics of this email service are probably better than the ones thrown in by your ISP or included Read More... Posted Tuesday, August 14, 2007 9:00 AM by Creative Apricot | 2 Comments Filed under: Associations, Non-profit technology, General non-profit interest, nptech, Web 2.0, Google