Another great Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) took place in unseasonably cold
It was great to see many of you from the OneWorld community. Several people from our community served as panelists & moderators, including Tim Fullerton from Oxfam America, Kim Lowery from Kabissa & Marc Sirkin from International Rescue Committee.
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HIGHLIGHTS OF NTC 2007
Some of the buzz words this year included: open source cms & crm tools, social networking, web 2.0, mobile technologies, online fundraising tactics and integrated solutions.
Since sessions were going on at the same time, I was not able to go to everything. If you attended the conference, please share your experience or add resources you learned about by commenting below.
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Announcements
o Join the N-TEN Community
If your organization is not already a N-TEN member or your tech staff are not on the N-TEN Discuss and 501 Tech lists, click here to learn more & sign up. N-TEN is such a wonderful community of individuals and organizations sharing and innovating around nonprofit technology issues. As a member you can also access session handouts that are uploaded to the website.
On April 19 N-TEN will be hosting a free webinar on "Making Online Communities Thrive" presented by Dale McGrew of GoLightly, which provides "social networking tools that give your members the ability to interact with you and each other in powerful new ways."
o Nominate Your Nonprofit
ePhilanthropy Foundation is accepting nominations for the 2007 International ePhilanthropy Awards in the following categories: Best Online Community Building, Best Integrated Online/Offline ePhilanthropy Campaign, Best Online Special Event Registration or Membership Campaign, Best Online Fundraising Campaign & Best Senior-Friendly Website Design. Click here to nominate your organization.
o April 27: Navigating the Open Source Frontier
If you are based in DC, you can sign up for N-POWER DC's upcoming free workshop titled Navigating the Open Source Frontier on April 27.
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Open Source Power
One of the panels moderated by Laura Quinn from Idealware provided a comparison open source cms tools. Here's a link to an article Laura shared during the meeting, Comparing Open Source CMSes: Joomla, Drupal and Plone.
Several groups, including Ashoka & TechSoup, now have Drupal sites. There is a big demand for developers working with Joomla, Drupal & Plone. David Geilhufe, Managing Partner of CivicSpace, said that an alternative to working with expensive developers is hiring a webmaster who can learn the different open source tools. David also hosted a separate session on how organizations can use Civicrm, an open source content management system. He also talked about how Civicrm can integrate into a Drupal site.
For people interested in out of the box Drupal tools, check out Bryght, which provides "hosted content management platform gives you the building blocks to create dynamic websites and interactive online communities."
During the session, Ryan Ozmiek of PICnet talked about Joomla & Nonprofit Soapbox and Patrick Charles Shaw from NPower talked about Plone.
To learn more about Open Source CMS tools, visit http://www.opensourcecms.com/.
Wondering what all this talk of open source is about? In a nutshell, instead of working with companies that use proprietary systems, your organization can download open source tools and work with a techie to customize them for your needs. It's not the best solution for all organizations depending on your budget and in-house tech capacity, but it's worth considering.
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Web 2.0 & Social Networking
All the buzz this year was about how nonprofits can leverage Web 2.0 tools to "online collaboration and sharing among users." Some organizations are using social networking sites, like Care2.com, Change.org, MySpace & Second Life, to do online outreach & promotion.
I was quite impressed with a case study about RelayforLife.org, a project of the American Cancer Society, and how they transformed an annual event into an active online community where people share photos and resources. The site was developed using Drupal. They also have presence on Second Life where they organize a virtual relay and have raised over $40,000.
Engaging Current Supporters
The challenge is using Web 2.0 tools to activate a community of supporters who subscribe to your email newsletter, volunteer or are engaged with your organization in other ways. Find out from them what kinds of things they would like to share, what kinds of online tools they currently use and how they would like to interact with others in the community.
Finding New Supporters
Social networking sites are a great way to find new supporters. First, find out who are your key audiences and which social networking sites they are on. Once you figure out the right sites for you, then you can start setting up a presence on those sites and start creating viral campaigns to generate interest in your work.
Using Video to Share Your Message
Organizations are also starting to use video to communicate about their work. Check out this year's finalists for the NTC Video Contest on DoGooderTV. This year's winner was: Stop the Clash of Civilizations submitted by Avaaz Foundation. It was quite moving & powerful!
Twittering Community
Heard of twittering? I hadn't. It's a "global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing? Answer on your phone, IM, or right here on the web!"
Beth Kanter, winner of N-TEN's Fantasticness award, wrote about twittering in her blog. Also check out her presentation on screencasting.
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Nonprofit Service Providers
Here are a few of the companies and organizations at the conference that provide technology services to nonprofits. Please feel free to comment below to add other companies.
o Antharia
This is actually a nonprofit that provides cms, crm and other solutions to help organizations create an online presence and manage relationships with their constituents. Their core suite of products, also known as FortyFourFish, "helps nonprofits manage and coordinate consistent messages across both the Web and print mediums."
o DemocracyInAction
They provide "a full suite of online organizing tools, called Salsa, to help you build awareness and mobilize members and supporters and keep them engaged.
o ePhilanthropy Foundation
They provide training to nonprofits for using the internet for "philanthropic purposes through education and advocacy."
o PICnet
They "provide custom technology solutions that help each organization harness the power of the Internet and other technologies to benefit their constituents." They are known for the Nonprofit Soapbox,
o Salesforce for Nonprofits
They offer an online crm database tool. Nonprofits can apply to receive free licenses from the Salesforce Foundation.
o Techsoup.org
They offer nonprofits a one-stop resource for technology needs by providing free information, resources, and support. Check out the discussion forums to get your tech questions answered.
o Z2 Systems
They provide a full-scale software suite called NEON, Non-profit Enterprise Online Network, that runs completely online. "Built on top of a single software platform with seamless inter-processing of data across all applications, NEON enables different groups of people including members, fundraisers, donors, volunteers, staff and board members to share information to build a stronger community."
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Share your thoughts about the N-TEN conference by commenting below. Questions about the conference? Chime in below.