Wild Apricot Blog


	This blog is for volunteers, webmasters and administrators of associations and nonprofits. We discuss issues and trends in web technologies that help your organization do more with less. The blog is brought to you by Wild Apricot. Our web software helps you manage the 'boring stuff' like membership and contact records, payments, donations, website updates, event registrations, mass emails and more. Wild Apricot starts at just $25 a month (flat monthly fee; tech support and version updates are free). Take 10 seconds to sign up for a free trial and see for yourself.

30 July 2010

42+ Free Nonprofit Webinars for August 2010

Ready for a bit of professional development, before Labor Day brings the start of another busy fall season? August is a great time for online learning – in fact, this month we’ve rounded up more free online seminars than ever before! There’s something for everyone from board members and administrators, to fundraisers and volunteer coordinators, to active members of all interests and levels... Read More...

Posted Friday, July 30, 2010 9:09 AM by Rebecca | 0 Comments

Filed under: Non-profit technology, General non-profit interest, Fundraising, Marketing, Volunteers, Non-profit Communications, event management, Membership management, Donor management, webinar, social media

27 July 2010

Best of Association Jam for July 2010

Blog posts and articles on Fundraising, Leadership, and Membership topped the active topics at AssociationJam.org this month, in terms of the numbers of submissions, views and reader votes, while the Volunteers, Technology, and Social Media came in almost as strong. Best of all, you’ll find a number of brand new faces here, among the excellent content submitted to and voted up in “AJam” through July 2010. Read More...

Posted Tuesday, July 27, 2010 9:09 AM by Rebecca | 0 Comments

Filed under: Associations, General non-profit interest, nptech, online community, Non-profit Communications, Association Jam

25 July 2010

Facebook’s New ‘Like’ Button Features

Facebook has just added 3 new features to the ‘Like’ button that hold a promise of greater connectivity and better analytics. Not unusual for Facebook, the release came on a weekend, so no real chance yet to thoroughly explore the bells and whistles – and the implications. And there’s a lot to take in! ‘Like’ acts more like ‘Share’; Facebook analytics are beefed up; and Facebook Pages get to pipe their content right into the newsfeeds of all who ‘Like’ them. Here’s a quick first look at two of those Read More...

Posted Sunday, July 25, 2010 2:53 PM by Rebecca | 3 Comments

Filed under: Non-profit technology, nptech, Marketing, Web 2.0, Facebook, Non-profit Communications, websites, social media

22 July 2010

Social Media Contests a Big Risk for Small Non-Profits?

A tweet or status update is so easy to publish – and “Please vote” is such a small favor to ask of your social network. It’s just a quick click, right? But as Chris Brogan points out, in The Problem with Social Only Nonprofit Campaigns,there’s a cumulative effect of all those social media requests. Read More...

Posted Thursday, July 22, 2010 6:00 PM by Rebecca | 11 Comments

Filed under: Non-profit technology, Fundraising, nptech, Social networking, crowdsourcing, social media, contests

21 July 2010

Best Practices for Contest Campaigns: AGC Lessons Learned

Results of a detailed evaluation of the 2009 America’s Giving Challenge competition have been released in the “must-read” 2009 AGC Assessment and Reflection Report. The best part? Lessons learned can be replicated by other non-profits, both for contest campaigns and for general social media outreach. Read More...

Posted Wednesday, July 21, 2010 3:42 PM by Rebecca | 0 Comments

Filed under: Non-profit technology, General non-profit interest, Fundraising, nptech, Marketing, Best practices, Social networking, case studies, Non-profit Communications, research, social media, contests

19 July 2010

Movie Mondays for Fundraisers

Movie Mondays is a free weekly series of video interviews with fundraising professionals – a mix of practical tips, in-the-trenches experience, and creative ideas to help you meet all kinds of fundraising challenges. Read More...

Posted Monday, July 19, 2010 2:59 PM by Rebecca | 0 Comments

Filed under: Fundraising, nptech, training, Videos

15 July 2010

Free PDF Converter Keeps Your Clickable Links

The ability to retain hyperlinks when you convert documents to PDF format has been missing from most of the free or low-cost web-based PDF tools to date. Finally, here’s a free online document converter that can keep those clickable links working in your PDFs. Thanks to Donnie Maclurcan of ProjectAustralia for the tip on this useful free tool! Read More...

Posted Thursday, July 15, 2010 5:02 PM by Rebecca | 2 Comments

Filed under: Non-profit technology, nptech, PDF, application

14 July 2010

What's Your Non-Profit's Content Marketing Strategy?

Six out of 10 professional marketers are spending more on content marketing in 2010, for the third year in a row. The rise of blogs and other social media makes online content creation a growing focus for non-profit sector, too. Why? Because content marketing works. Read More...

Posted Wednesday, July 14, 2010 4:55 PM by Rebecca | 0 Comments

Filed under: nptech, Marketing, Best practices, Blogging, case studies, Non-profit Communications, websites, publicity, social media, content, website

12 July 2010

8 Quick Quizzes for New Volunteers

Volunteers will stay longer and work better for your non-profit organization if you can match their personalities and passions with appropriate tasks. Could a simple quiz help you to ensure your volunteers are matched up with the kind of work they'll enjoy for the long haul? Read More...

Posted Monday, July 12, 2010 3:02 PM by Rebecca | 5 Comments

Filed under: Non-profit technology, General non-profit interest, nptech, Volunteers

08 July 2010

32 Free Online Tools to Create Infographics

A while back, we looked how your non-profit can use visualization tools to help tell the human story behind your data and statistics, along with some free tools and inspiring examples to make your own infographic . If you’re still seeking that one perfect free tool to transform your numbers into pictures, however, take a look at the 32 online tools for creating diagrams, flowcharts, charts and graphs from designer Daniels Mekšs . Yes, you’ve seen some of those visualization tools reviewed here already Read More...

Posted Thursday, July 08, 2010 6:22 PM by Rebecca | 0 Comments

Filed under: Non-profit technology, nptech, Non-profit Communications, application

06 July 2010

One-Page Social Media Strategy

Overwhelmed by the task of developing a social media strategy for your non-profit organization? Don’t know whether you ought to “friend” or “like” or tweet” to get the best mileage for your message in the social networks? Jumpstart the planning process with Jay Baer’s smart one-page Social Media Strategy Worksheet. Read More...

Posted Tuesday, July 06, 2010 3:15 PM by Rebecca | 4 Comments

Filed under: Non-profit technology, General non-profit interest, nptech, Social networking, Non-profit Communications, social media

03 July 2010

Bullying in the Non-profit Workplace

You’re working or volunteering with a non-profit organization, not in the dog-eat-dog business world. So the dynamics in your office should be all about happy teamwork and selfless cooperation towards a common cause, right? Not necessarily so. The reality is, any workplace will bring together good guys and trolls alike – people of differing strengths and weaknesses, all types of personalities, each with her or his own personal and professional agenda to pursue as well as your common mission. Non-profit Read More...

Posted Saturday, July 03, 2010 2:58 PM by Rebecca | 0 Comments

Filed under: General non-profit interest, nptech, Volunteers, Staffing, careers

01 July 2010

Apply for NTEN’s Technology Leadership Academy

The Technology Leadership Academy is a 9-week online training program from NTEN, sponsored by Microsoft, that's designed to help non-profit leaders learn to use and manage technology more effectively to meet their organizations' missions. Read More...

Posted Thursday, July 01, 2010 9:27 AM by Rebecca | 0 Comments

Filed under: Non-profit technology, nptech, Microsoft, Twitter

30 June 2010

Managing Your Membership - Nonprofit Blog Carnival

Wild Apricot is delighted to host the Nonprofit Blog Carnival for June 2010. Big thanks to all who sent in their blog posts for consideration! Here for your reading (and thinking) pleasure are five great blog posts that really meshed with this month’s theme – Managing Your Membership – Tips, Tools & Tactics. Read More...

Posted Wednesday, June 30, 2010 5:16 PM by Rebecca | 0 Comments

Filed under: Non-profit technology, nptech, online community, Non-profit Communications, Membership management, nonprofit blog carnival

29 June 2010

25+ Free Nonprofit Webinars for July 2010

There’s no more convenient way to brush up on your skills than to do your professional development online - and July 2010 brings us lots of free online presentations and seminars for fundraisers, board members, administrators, active volunteers, volunteer coordinators, and other non-profit folks. Read More...

Posted Tuesday, June 29, 2010 10:30 AM by Rebecca | 7 Comments

Filed under: Non-profit technology, General non-profit interest, Fundraising, nptech, Marketing, Volunteers, events, Social networking, Non-profit Communications, training, Membership management, Donor management, webinar, social media

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