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Personal Democracy Forum Call on Thursday: "It Gets Better" Project
If you pay attention to the news, you've likely heard reports in the past few months of a handful of young LGBT people taking their own lives after various experiences with bullying because of their perceived sexual orientation. Out of these tragedies came the It Gets Better Project, which was lead by one of my favorite taboo-topic funny guys, Dan Savage. Once he and his partner created an initial video talking about how they met, how miserable their high school lives were, and how much better life gets as you grow out of the world of adolescent name-calling and into adulthood where you can ...
Voices from the TechSoup Community: Accounting Tools
Voices from the Community is a new series of blog posts culling popular topics of interest from the TechSoup Community Forums and other online community channels. This post was penned by TechSoup forum host, contractor, and head of Coyote Communications Jayne Cravens. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to accounting software. In addition to the variety of packages available, nonprofits use packages differently, per their unique work, sizes and approaches. In addition to TechSoup community forum discussions about accounting software at and use by nonprofits, such as this one, ...
Engaging Community Collaboration: 3 Things Community Managers Can Do to Help Communities Be Heard
This blog post was written by Susan Chavez. Susan is a nonprofit consultant and social media manager for The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. March's TechSoup Online Community Meetup, featured Jeska Dzwigalski of Wikia addressing the topic of online community management. Jeska's presentation, "Engaging Community Collaboration: Three Things Community Managers Can Do to Help Communities be Heard," provided straightforward and practical advice on community management. The presentation addressed how to encourage and manage community collaboration by keeping the ...
15 Questions to Ask Green Web Hosting Services
GreenTech has done a bit to explore green web hosting in our How to Choose a Green Website Host piece, but we thought we’d deepen the discussion a bit by profiling Enviromedia's quest to find a green host that is affordable, dependable, and that truly uses renewable energy. These days there is probably too much information on the web listing green web hosts. Websites like Hosting Review, and others offer listings of the top green web hosts. Places like ThinkHost, GreenGeeks, Sustainable Websites, and Green Web Host all claim to be number one green hosts. Back in 2007 TreeHugger did a piece ...
11NTC: Reflections on NTEN's 2011 NTC
With over 2000 attendees NTEN’s NTC conference was abuzz with lots of exhibitions displaying technology on offer as well as workshops and side events (which even included free massages provided by PICnet!). It provided a great opportunity for the American nonprofit sector to engage with the technology sector, as well as each other, to improve the use of technology for social benefit. TechSoup Global had an exhibition at the Science Fair and many nonprofits in attendance expressed thanks for donations they received from our donor partners through TechSoup, while others asked for more ...
Four Accounting Tools for Your Nonprofit or Library
TechSoup serves nonprofits and libraries of all shapes, sizes, and budgets. Most of our member organizations have budgets under $250,000 a year, but managing finances is essential to all of them, regardless of size. Whether your organization is looking for help paying the bills or tracking grants, we have the financial management tools to get the job done. And, don't forget that in addition to software, we have great learning resources for your nonprofit-specific financial needs: Join the live chat with TechSoup and accounting experts next Wednesday, March 30 at 11 a.m. Pacific time. Ask ...
New Google for Nonprofits Website
Last week, Google unveiled a new portal site geared towards U.S. nonprofits. While many nonprofits are probably using tools like Google Docs or YouTube in their organizations, Google for Nonprofits attempts to consolidate the many different parts of the Google portfolio into one site, and simplify the process to receive a donation of YouTube for Nonprofits, Google Grants, Google Apps, and Google Earth Outreach.
11NTC: Reporters Are People Too
In his talk, If a Press Release Falls in the Forest, Does it Make a Sound?, Matt Denner of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement gave a crash course on free ways to monitor media coverage of your nonprofit. At the beginning of the session, Matt polled the audience in ways that we were currently monitoring media coverage. Many mentioned paid media monitoring agencies, and a few mentioned free tools like Google Alerts. Matt posited that although no solution is perfect, you can build your own media-monitoring solution for free that's almost as good as — or maybe even better ...
11NTC: Change One Person
During the opening plenary at the Nonprofit Technology Conference, NTEN executive director Holly Ross demonstrated the biggest problem facing people who work in nonprofit technology. She asked how many people in the room report to their organizations’ leadership. In a room full of IT staff as well as fundraising, communications, and social media professionals, less than half of the attendees raised their hands. When nonprofits don't recognize technology as an important component of their work, what hope is there to make substantial change in how organizations use technology? Holly responded ...
11NTC Highlights from a First-Time Attendee
Guest blog post by Laura Jones, who volunteers with HorseNet Horse Rescue and Nonprofit Commons. This year’s Nonprofit Technology Conference was my first, and as a scholarship recipient from a small, all-volunteer-run nonprofit, I had a fantastic time. I made a point to attend as many sessions and events as possible, and want to share some of my highlights with the TechSoup community. Keynotes, Awards, and Other Main Events I found Dan Heath’s keynote on his book Switch inspiring, and Moira Gunn’s keynote and interview with Congresswoman Donna Edwards on Net Neutrality helped me to ...
Power Outage at TechSoup Offices
Due to a local power outage at TechSoup in San Francisco, our client services phone lines are currently unavailable.
We hope to be back online soon.
Update: Thanks for your patience. Our client services phone lines are now available.
How Safe Is the Cloud?
This is the last of a three-part series about cloud computing as it relates to civil society organizations (CSOs) by Keisha Taylor, Communications Manager at TechSoup's GuideStar International. You can also read the first post, TechSoup Global: Teaching CSOs About the Cloud, and the second post What Is the Value of the Cloud for CSOs in the Developing World? Information held by and about a CSO in the cloud can be requested by governments for a variety of reasons and this can be done without the CSO's knowledge. As one TechCrunch blogger Paul Carr noted on his post Why I'm ...
Nonprofit Accounting Solutions Fireside Chat with TechSoup - March 30
With April 15 fast approaching, there's always extra attention and discussion around accounting and finance. Join TechSoup for a live-streamed, interactive interview with nonprofit financial experts to answer your questions and learn more about accounting software and online accounting tools for nonprofits. You will be able to see and hear the presenters, and type in your questions for their answers in real time. Nonprofit Accounting Solutions Fireside Chat with TechSoup Wednesday, March 30 11 a.m. Pacific/ 2 p.m. Eastern This Is a Great Opportunity to: Ask about different software ...
Now Available on TechSoup: Windows MultiPoint Server 2011
Not long after Microsoft made Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 available to nonprofits and libraries late last year, the updated 2011 version is now available through TechSoup. Additionally, Microsoft donations through TechSoup come with Software Assurance, so those who have requested the 2010 version would be eligible for the free upgrade within a two-year period. Using desktop virtualization, MultiPoint Server allows for multiple stations using a single computer. This new version includes more interactive features that are designed for classrooms, such as the ability to project one station to ...
Say "No" to Money (to Raise More Money)
This post originally appeared on the NetSquared Blog and was authored by Shachar Kariv, whose full bio is at the end of this post. Say "no" to money. We dare you. Believe it or not, sometimes saying "no" to money, helps the money pour in. Counter-intuitive? Yes. But does it work? Yes! Based on 10+ years of game-theoretic research and live lab experiments, conducted by two of the company's U.S. founders, NYU and UC Berkeley economics professors, give2gether has built an online fundraising platform, that also introduces some brand new line of thought on crowd and donor ...
Two Earth Day 2011 Green IT Conferences
There are two interesting Earthday 2011 green IT conferences coming up that may interest you. They're at opposite ends of the US. The Green IT Summit will be in Washington DC on April 20 and 21, and GigaOm is sponsoring Green:Net 2011 on Thursday, April 21, 2011 in San Francisco. The Green IT Summit is a new conference that is sponsored by the new trade association for green IT, the Green IT Council. It will be in Northern Virginia at the Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner on April 20 and 21. The conference focus is green IT and cloud computing and is a good place to meet green IT experts like the ...
Connect with TechSoup at 11NTC!
Are you headed to Washington for the Nonprofit Technology Conference? Several of us from TechSoup Global will be there, and we'd love to see you! Here's a rundown of where to find us.
The State of the Jewish Digital Nation
Thursday, March 17, 8 a.m.
Rachel Weidinger will lead a resource-matching and problem-solving session as part of this affinity group meeting.
International Nonprofit Organizations
Thursday, March 17, 11 a.m.
Shai Coggins from Connecting Up Australia (TechSoup's Australian partner) will host this get-together for international NGOs.
Updates from TechSoup's Partner and Friends in Japan
Words cannot describe the devastation that has engulfed Japan, and pictures paint a grim scenario that will affect the region for years to come. Having many ties to Japan and having visited the afflicted area in the past, I am certain that in spite of this tragedy, the spirit and resilience of the Japanese people will prevail. We are relieved to have heard from our TechSoup Global Network colleagues in Japan, who are safe in Tokyo, though rolling blackouts, public transportation interruptions, and threats of radiation from devastated nuclear plants are certainly impacting their day-to-day ...
How Will 3D Printing Affect NPOs and NGOs?
3D printing is an emerging technology that's generating increasing excitement among technologists and trend watchers so I'd like to speculate briefly about its possible impact on nonprofits and the communities they serve. While the precise technique differs somewhat from model to model, all 3D printers create objects by stacking layers of material (usually a liquid or powder) and using some energy (such as a laser or electron beam) and binding materials to solidify the layers and fuse them together resulting in the precise, rapid creation of objects of almost any size and shape. It's easy to ...
New TechSoup Blog Coming Soon!
Later this month, the TechSoup Blog will be getting a major facelift, a few major tweaks, and a handful of improvements and enhancements. The biggest of these is that it will now share the same backbone as our Community Forums, so connecting your discussions in the forum threads to new commenting features on the blog will be a snap.
We'll keep you posted on here about upcoming features, freezes, and launches so that you're in the know before anything changes. Here are some of the improvements you can expect:
