Technology for the Nonprofit and Philanthropic Sector

Ten things (just ten!) that every nonprofit executive needs to know about information technology

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:46:31 -0400

1. Very little technical knowledge is required in order for nonprofit CEOs to participate actively in strategic IT planning.

As long as you thoroughly understand your organization's overall mission, strategy, and tactics and (are willing to learn a little bit about the technology), you can keep your information technology infrastructure on target...

Improving my working conditions and staving off madness with a little help from the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:14:16 -0400

As most readers of my blog know, I don't like working from home. Although I love my clients and the projects I do with them, there's a downside to being a solo practitioner. I yearn for an office to go to, a nonprofit environment, a sense of continuity with a team.

Fortunately, the good folks of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War have some spare office space and a need for an online strategy adviser, so they have very good-naturedly offered me a barter...

Test driving the 2008 NTC Widget

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:35:55 -0400

I'm not sure whether the 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference widget is going to work with my Blogware platform, but I'm giving it a shot. (If you see a big block of white space above this paragraph, then it hasn't worked.) I wish that there were a version of this widget that would fit into the righthand column of this page.

Ethos Roundtable - what a line up!

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:00:26 -0500

Ok, I just have to boast. At the Ethos Roundtable, we have some exciting featured guests scheduled...

Search engine optimization for nervous nonprofit novices

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:55:09 -0500

Some colleagues of mine, fellow nonprofit technology assistance providers, recently asked me to draft a guide to search engine optimization strategy for their clients. They very kindly granted me permission to publish a version of it to my blog. I am eager to elicit feedback from SEO mavens, and would like to encourage readers to post comments here...

Feet on the street with the Gentilly Project

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:10:08 -0500

Photo at left by RubyJi; photo at right by SteveGarfield

What's not to love? They are using geographic information systems to facilitate the rebuilding of a New Orleans neighborhood that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina...

Oops! I did it again!

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:05:32 -0500

Photo by democracyinaction.org

I have just been notified by Annaliese Hoehling of the Nonprofit Technology Network that I will be receiving another NTENny Award this year at NTC...

The Information Systems Forum at NTC

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:14:27 -0500

For the first time in its nine year history, the Information Systems Forum will meet as a face-to-face affinity group at the Nonprofit Technology Conference!...

NTC in New Orleans

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 14:28:08 -0500

Here are some items on my Nonprofit Technology Conference wish list...

Happy birthday to a social media goddess

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 07:59:33 -0500

Today is Beth Kanter's 51st birthday, and she's taking this opportunity to raise money online for The Sharing Foundation. Her goal is to persuade 51 people to give $10.00 each...

What technophobic social workers can teach geeks

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 17:27:59 -0500

Two words: community organizing...

Q: Are the social media needs of nonprofits all different or all the same? A: Yes.

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:02:24 -0500

Beth Kanter has tagged me with the topic, "Four Lessons Learned: Social Media and Nonprofits Meme"....

Remembering Wayne Glynn

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 10:56:47 -0500

Wayne F. Glynn junior, esteemed colleague and friend, died on Monday, November 26th, 2007. This is a terrible blow for his partner, family, friends, and colleagues.

May his memory be a blessing to us all...

Keith Taylor: Beyond distributed philanthropy and into micro donor advised funds

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:41:33 -0400

On October 30th, the Ethos Roundtable had the incomparable privilege of playing host to Keith Taylor of the Modest Needs Foundation...

Is Facebook becoming the default front end for nonprofits?

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 19:21:21 -0400

I like online social networking, and I like e-philanthropy, but I'm not crazy about Facebook...

Hire these Boston Technobabes!

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 12:49:39 -0400

Really and truly - I'm not a professional headhunter or employment broker. However, I do like to see nonprofit organizations find the technology staff that they need. And when it comes to the Boston Technobabes, you can hardly do better...

Technology assistance for people who are smart about other things

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:56:57 -0400

We often deal with executive directors who cope with technology by groveling and apologizing for their ignorance, or by developing elaborate rationales for why they shouldn't need to know this stuff. My sympathies are entirely with them. Nobody is born knowing this stuff, and executive directors are often busy figuring out entirely other stuff. I laughingly suggested that we need a series of technical reference books that are titled, "...For People Who Are Smart About Other Things"...

Ok, it isn't exactly life in hell, but I don't like working from home.

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:50:36 -0400

Perhaps I can persuade a nonprofit or philanthropic organization that it's worth it to have me around, so that they can pick my brains for free?

There aren't enough hours in the day to track all the nonprofit tech jobs out there

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:23:54 -0400

It's beginning to seem like one of those good news / bad news jokes. I'm glad that there are lots of jobs out there in our field, but it's getting to be more than I can handle by myself...

Chatting about e-philanthropy with the monks of the 21st century

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:40:17 -0400

Can you visualize Anglican monks as poster boys for ePhilanthropy?...

A shameless plug for a free online fundraising opportunity

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 20:09:15 -0400

I am far from objective about ChangingThePresent.Org's model for channeling online donations. In fact, I think it's one of the greatest concepts in ePhilanthropy that's come down the pike, comparable in brilliance to ModestNeeds. (Which, for me, is saying a lot!)

It's now possible for nonprofit organizations in the U.S.A. to register without charge for an enhanced account with ChangingThePresent.Org, and I want to urge them to do it...

Traveling extensively in Boston

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 09:52:21 -0400

"I have traveled extensively in Concord" - Henry David Thoreau

Although it doesn't quite have the cachet of Thoreau's boast about Concord, I can at least report that I have been traveling extensively in Boston...

The Ethos Roundtable meets SocialMarkets.Org

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:14:45 -0400

Jeff Tuller and Allan Benamer were in Cambridge yesterday to give a presentation about Social Markets.Org at the Ethos Roundtable, to schmooze it up with the Boston 501 Tech Club, and to visit with some nonprofits that might become pilot programs for their initiative. Oh, my - such naches for the cyber-yenta!...

Uh-oh, Cyber-Yenta comes to town

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 14:17:54 -0400

New York Cit y will be my destination next week, and I'm hoping to have some face time with some of my delightful nonprofit technology colleagues there...

Good online meeting tools with weird names: Yugma and DimDim

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 21:04:47 -0400

Two very interesting online meeting tools that fall into the "Inexpensive, Moderately satisfactory" category are Yugma and DimDim...

Caturday

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 08:47:47 -0400

I would just like to point out that the internet meme of Caturday is alive and well in the nonprofit sector. Enjoy!

A sustainable nonprofit: It's what we all want, right?

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 08:17:25 -0400

Pat Weaver of Mission Research recently called my attention to Sustainable Nonprofit, a web site that her organization has been developing. I've been surfing through it, and here are my questions...

Good news: I'm available for new projects!

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 18:47:09 -0400

As I've previously mentioned in my blog, I've been devoting nearly all of my professional time to Third Sector New England. At the end of July I'll be scaling back to just a couple of exciting projects there, and will be available to take on some new initiatives. My reason for scaling back at TSNE is the best in the world...

Competition and online social giving and outcomes measurement - oh, my!

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 23:32:55 -0400

SocialMarkets.Org is a very cool idea that will probably upset a lot of veterans in the nonprofit sector...

E.One.Caribbean, online tools, and the immigrant diaspora

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 07:50:17 -0400

"The E.One.Carriban project seeks to connect the human, intellectual, and financial resources of the region and global Caribbean diaspora with Caribbean nonprofit organizations in order to help them address growing community needs..."

The Mass NPtech plot thickens

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 20:18:47 -0400

Our newly formed nonprofit technology conspiracy for Massachusetts had its first face-to-face gathering on Tuesday evening...

Is the web ready for lol nptech?

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 07:57:32 -0400

Original photo by Wayne Glynn

"LOL" is a common internet abbreviation for "laughing out loud," and a bunch of web sites have emerged to display funny photographs of cats, presidents, walruses, and other inherently humorous animals. The photos are accompanied by highly idiomatic captions.

I find myself speculating about the next development: a lol nptech web site...

Beth Kanter uses social media to explain social media

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 21:00:46 -0400

Photos by Beth Kanter

Beth Kanter's workshop on social media for nonprofits was a high point of the Boston Nonprofit Technology Conference on Tuesday...