At NPower Charlotte Region's Digital Ball this year, the Carolina Raptor Center won the 2011 Technology Innovation Award, which will help fund a technology solution promoting nonprofit transparency for their organization to the general public and funders.  This prestigious award, presented by Accenture, provides $10,000 in cash plus $20,000 in technology consultation services to help Carolina Raptor Center more effectively fulfill their mission of environmental stewardship and conservation of birds of prey with the help of technology.

With the help of this award, the Carolina Raptor Center is creating an online business metrics dashboard that will make it easy for its donors and potential donors to understand how their money is being spent. The dashboard will present important information about the organization to the public through their web site and social media sites.  The solution will pull data from all areas of its organization - educational programs, bird rehabilitation, research, number of visitors, volunteer involvement, etc.

It will be easy to see how the organization is spending their money and how those allocations are making a positive impact.  The solution will provide a level of transparency that consumers need to make the decision to support the organization.  It also gives the same transparency to potential large funders and corporate supporters, who want to know if their investment is making a difference.

By supporting the Carolina Raptor Center on this project, NPower is helping the nonprofit industry as a whole take a step toward greater transparency.  The solution and its results will be shared with the larger community.  And, the general public will get a chance to easily see the complete picture of the organization when determining how to invest their resources.

For more information about Carolina Raptor Center's Award, watch this video.