The year 2007 is winding to a close, finishing up one of the most exciting chapters in nonprofit technological achievements. It was the year that brought about greater acceptance of the newer Web 2.0 applications, such as Kintera’s Sphere platform, that allows non-profits to reach thousands of constituents and contributors in a single forum and to create communities in unheard of numbers in real time.

It was the year that vendors brought about advanced offerings that simplified fundraising and contributor research making the Web a powerful ally to even the smallest nonprofits on the planet. NOZA’s free foundation grant database, released in October, immediately comes to mind. It was the year that non-profits  began to show up at the social computing events of the decade.

“The popularity of YouTube and social media sites has companies and non-profits alike wondering how they can use video and social media to get their messages out,” says Rick Whittington, president of Rick Whittington Consulting. “Some forward-thinking organizations are already using these media to promote their causes.” Read more...

With the increasing availability of Web-based fundraising software, also known as software as a service (SaaS), non-profit groups now have the option of paying a monthly fee to use fundraising software rather than having to purchase the software and install it, maintain it, and support it themselves.

"We don't have an IT department, and we can't afford to hire someone to take care of our software," says Donna Salacuse, donations manager for Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic lay organization based in Newton, Massachusetts. Previously, before installing DonorPerfect Online, the fundraising database had been written in Microsoft Access, "and we had constant problems backing up the server. We decided we really needed to move to the online hosted application." Read more...

"The nature of the model depends on the kind of animal we are."
--Evolutionary Biologist Richard Dawkins, TED Conference, 2005

It's hard out there for a nonprofit that's trying to make decisions about what kind of computer systems to buy. Every nonprofit, ranging from local organizations with staffs numbering in the single digits to large, relatively well-funded international organizations such as the Red Cross, has unique technology needs. But the basic priniciples for making technology decisions are similar, as is the big challenge: keeping expenses as low as possible. Smaller organizations may simply not have very much money to spend; larger ones have to keep a close eye on the bottom line because donors want to know that most of their money is being spent on the mission, and not the machines. Read more...

Given the phenomenal successes of non-profits online such as cancer.org, aspca.org and aclu.org, few can argue the impact and import of tapping the Web to move any given cause ahead, both in terms of brand viability and fundraising. Even with these pay-offs from online activities, there are even more resources to be profited from. These include CRM (Customer Resource Management) for improving donor relationships and follow-throughs, and BPM (Business Process Management) for service management to prevent embarrassments in delivery such as those that beset the Red Cross in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath. Unfortunately, too few non-profits know these tools exist, where to find them, and more importantly how to rake money in from the web… Read more...