Flickr Photo: kirstenv If there are any Laws of Blogging, then posting consistently is one of them. One of the keys to retaining and even increasing your readership is to post regularly. My own personal experience with the NTEN blog is that more IS better. The more we post, the more traffic we have, period. I m sure there s going to be some point when this will no longer hold true, but for now, that s our reality. Which ...

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Flickr photo: victoriapeckham We talk a lot about the nonprofit technology community here at NTEN. After all, that s why we re here: to support the community of nonprofit and technology professionals. But who makes up that community? Over the years, we ve seen many familiar names at the core of this community, but we ve also seen a lot of new people join the ranks of nptechies and accidental techies -- all with the goal of furthering their respective ...

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Last Tuesday, Portland, Oregon saw the launch of a new wiki by Meyer Memorial Trust . Marie Deathridge, Director of Communications and Learning, explained that MMT wanted to share resources within the foundation but was questioned why this information should be kept within the organization s walls. The goal became to help other organizations openly share knowledge. What was created is more than just a wiki: it is an integrated non-linear tool for foundations, nonprofits, and citizens to share information ...

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Flickr Photo: jillj14 Summer reading may not bring back the most pleasant childhood memories -- think forced reading over school vacation. But we hope that you want to join us this summer for the new NTEN Book Club. The NTEN Book Club is another way we hope to give you the knowledge you need to excel in your work environment. It s also a great reason to get away from your computer screen and put some real paper in your ...

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In case you hadn t noticed, NTEN s been growing: in content , services , community and membership . In fact, we are very happy to announce today our 1500th NTEN member for 2008, Claire Murray , who joined NTEN over the weekend. Welcome, Claire, and thank you to all our members, newly joined or with NTEN from the beginning, in 2000, when membership was a proud 150 in count. In 8 years we ve grown by 10 times our ...

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Flickr Photo: hekman2007 i just finished a whirlwind two days at the NetSquared conference in San Jose.  As always, the TechSoup folks did a great job, and I m truly amazed and inspired by the creativity and passion of the community.   While everyone was excited, I felt that there was one big disconnect, though it s not unique to NetSquared.  I see this a lot.  Lots of folks got up and showed off social media tools and strategies, telling the ...

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Michelle Murrain, NOSI Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) tools are one of the bread and butter tools of nonprofit organizations: tracking donations, constituents, activities and the like are critical to accomplishing mission. It makes sense then, that CRM and fundraising software are the most plentiful and mature software product vertical in the nonprofit sector. There is also an increasing amount of change and innovation in this realm, from open APIs on such stalwarts as Convio and Kintera, to newer open source ...

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When I worked in West Africa a few years ago, GeekCorps Mali had just started on the project that became MoulinWiki , an offline version of Wikipedia that could be burned onto a CD and taken to schools and villages without Internet access. (I didn t work on it; I was just visiting because GeekCorps had a pool and it was incredibly hot out.) The project was possible because the software that runs WikiPedia is Open Source, and so freely ...

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Here s a riddle for you: what s plastic, in your pocket right now, and ruins bar trivia nights around the country? A mobile phone! Your mobile can help you do all kinds of interesting things, from finding directions, to finding trivia answers (aka cheating), to finding potential new friends . One thing you couldn t do -- until today -- was easily give to the charity of your choice. Exciting news nonprofiteers: mGive now allows you to collect $5 ...

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Flickr Photo: Robjtak The leadership gap: wherever I go in the nonprofit world these days, the leadership gap comes up in conversation. Lots of research by lots of smart people points in one direction -- nonprofit leaders are leaving the sector at an increasing rate, and their staff don t feel ready or aren t interested in replacing them. (Get the specifics from Bridgespan s Leadership Deficit report and Ready to Lead from the Meyer Foundation , Idealist and Compasspoint ...

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It had been awhile since I d played with Google Earth, but Jim Prosser at Direct Relief International gave me a good reason this morning: DRI has used GE to map the official health clinics and hospitals in Myanmar. When you first access their KML overlay , it looks like Myanmar is stuffed with health clinics, but zoom in a bit, particularly on the hard-hit Irrawaddy Delta region, and you ll get some small idea of the miles and miles ...

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Flickr Photo: hyku If you live or work in the Philadelphia area, set aside some time on the evening of June 3 for a public forum on the future of wifi in that city. The event is organized by the Media Mobilizing Project and Temple University s School of Communications and Theater and will feature several speakers as well as an open forum for discussion. I could preach again about why I think muni wifi is so vital to the ...

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Does this chart make you want to rethink your Facebook strategy? Facebook Apps

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Charles Lenchner, DemocracyInAction Online advocacy at its best is about giving more citizens more power to act together in creating social change. At its worst, online advocacy is a fundraising technique and promotional strategy that can work, while generating some very negative inadvertent outcomes. Organizers working for the common good should do a better job of articulating good online advocacy strategies and resisting demands that our work be measured in dollars raised or a higher public profile. What we have ...

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Katya Andresen , Network for Good and Mark Rovner, Sea Change Strategies The NTC in New Orleans was full of fantastic, sparkly, shiny new technology tools. And then there was our session: No winsome widgets, no witty Twittering, no Dopplr-found Doppelgangers. And that was the point. What makes technology tools great is not the technology. It’s the people behind them. Successful technology is about bonds, not wires. It’s human connections that matter. “Social media” is about “social” more than it’s ...

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I came across a blog post today that made me smile (and not just because of the justgiving.com great vocabulary used across the Pond). It s a simple and straight-forward example of how easy it is for someone to use free, fast, online tools to raise money for his or her favorite cause. Here s an excerpt: I ve just had a rather intense week of trying to use social media to raise funds and by and large succeeding. Inevitably ...

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Are you paid what you re worth? It s an interesting question. I think most of us in the nonprofit sector -- especially on the tech side of things -- know that it wouldn t be too hard to walk out the door and find a higher paying job. But does that mean you aren t being paid what you re worth? Last week, we had an interesting exchange on the NTEN Discuss list about this and other salary related ...

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Flickr Photo: Vin Crosbie If you ve ever used a Content Management System, we want you to share your opinion. Building on the success of our 2007 CRM Satisfaction Survey , NTEN is gathering information from the NPTech community about CMS providers. Tell us what you love -- and what frustrates, irks, and just generally annoys you -- and we ll compile the results into a handy report. Rate your CMS today! This short survey will deliver both quantitative and ...

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The Case Foundation-sponsored Make It Your Own Awards just announced the 20 finalists.  In a sign that I m not the only NPTechie who likes watching basketball, they even have a Final Four theme. Vote for your favorites According to Rich D Amato of the Case Foundation, Make It Your Own is another of the Case Foundation s efforts to introduce the use of new technologies to NPOs, to do so by incentivizing the use of the technologies with grants, ...

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At the close of his session at the 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference on Thursday afternoon, Google Adwords Evangelist Frederick Vallaeys announced a new partnership between Google and NTEN. Due to our similar goals in supporting the non-profit community, particularly through technology, Google Grants and NTEN are partnering to enhance their impact on non-profits. We would like to invite all qualifying NTEN organizations to apply to Google Grants and we will expedite the review of those that apply. How cool is ...

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