6 posts tagged “nonprofit technology”
At today's Managing Nonprofit Technology Projects conference, I facilitated a session on Collaboration and Management in Cross-Departmental Web Projects. We focused on techniques to implement successful projects which involve staff from multiple areas within an organization, most who don't directly report to the project manager.
Some major points:
- Although many projects involve web sites or other technology implementations, project management is more about 'soft' skills in winning cooperation from team members who are often assigned to a project while having to manage their already overburdened task list
- Nonprofit organizations rarely embrace project management principles as set forth by the Project Management Institute, nor do they develop internal structures such as a project management office.
- Assigning a team or task force across department lines can be utilized as a way to give team members an identity separate from their usual work responsibilities.
- The basic definition of project management should include an informal toolkit of 'soft' tools such as finding evangelists to help drive project progress, ways to win stakeholder cooperation and addressing organizational culture challenges.
Carie Lewis, Internet Marketing Manager at the Humane Society recently blogged about her organization's success in using Facebook on Wild Apricot's non-profit technology blog. Major points:
- Through collaboration with Project Agape, which runs the Facebook Causes application, they've had success in connecting with constituents who are active in other nonprofit organizations with similar missions
- MySpace or Facebook? Although it's a bit early to know for sure, so far they've had more success with fundraising on Facebook and advocacy on MySpace.
- In addition to Facebook Causes, they've also participated in applications available at Change.org and Care2
Many specific suggestions in getting the most in engaging constituents through Facebook are in the blog posting, Using Facebook to Spread Your Message.
An interview with Project Agape staff about Causes Facebook is available on the Non-Profit Tech Blog. Causes has raised over $300,000 in only a few months of operation!
Spent some time recently at the Foundation Center (a great resource for information about nonprofits) and scanned articles from the Chronicle of Philanthropy. (While the web is wonderful, sometimes it's nice to be able to read through a written publication.) Below are some organizations using technology in interesting ways, some which have been around for many years and others that are new:
- Change.org – 2007 – social network for variety of causes
- Donors Choose - 2000 – helps school teachers
- Genocide Intervention Network – 2004 – end genocide
- Give Meaning – 2005 – donations for specific projects
- Invisible Children – 2004 – helps kids in northern Uganda
- Kiva – 2005 – small loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries
- Nothingbutnets – 2006 – 'send a net to save a life' in Africa
- Rednoseday – 1988 – comic relief in UK & Africa
- Takingitglobal – 1999 – online community for young people
Also see Squidoo's list of the 59 Smartest Organizations Online, which includes some of the above nonprofits.
These are great examples of how to raise money and support social causes with technology in new and exciting ways. Take a look.
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.
GetActive, NetSquared and Squidoo have combined to put together a list of the 59 Smartest Organizations Online, nonprofit organizations that are using the latest technologies to engage their constituents. There are undoubtedly many NPOs that will be familiar to you, but many that were completely new to me. Squidoo was created by Seth Godin, who has authored several fascinating books, such as Purple Cow.
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.
