Technology Resources

If you’re like most non-profit professionals, your focus is on your mission, which is making the world a better place. Computers, databases, websites and other technological innovations are all just tools to get the job done. We sift through news and information from the world of technology to bring you these resources, which will help you and your nonprofit think ahead about important strategic questions.

Articles & Reports on Non-profit Technology

• 8 New Rules for Green Computing
• 10 Things Every Nonprofit Executive Needs to Know About IT
• 2008 NTEN Conference and Social Media
• Before Calling Tech Support
• The Business Case for Videoconferencing
• Creating Online Surveys
• Email Marketing
• Extend Your Computer’s Life
• How’s Your Web "Sight"?
• Internet Relationship Management
• Integrating Online and Offline Fundraising
• New Ways to Collaborate and Innovate at a Distance
• Open Content for Nonprofits
• Power Corrupts and PointPoint Corrupts Absolutely
• Promising Practices in Electronic Advocacy
• Resources for Nonprofit Podcasting
• RSS: Best Practices
• RSS: Demystifying RSS Technologies
• Top the Web Search Lists, Pt. 1
• Top the Web Search Lists, Pt. 2
• Top the Web Search Lists, Pt. 3
• Understanding Web Analytics
• Use Opt-In Email So You Won’t Lose Out
• Writing for the Web

Links on Non-profit Technology

Following is a comprehensive list – put together by Deborah Elizabeth Finn, IT consultant to nonprofits – of resources available to help non-profit executives, managers, staff and “accidental techies” avoid the bumps and potholes in the information technology highway.

Free Information, Advice, Peer Learning or Product Reviews

• Capaciteria
• dotOrganize
• Coyote Communications
• Idealware: Candid Reviews of Nonprofit Software
• Information Systems Forum
• N-TEN (Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network)
• TechSoup

Discounted Technology Products

• Consistent Computer Bargains
• TechMarketplace
• TechSoup Stock

Directory of Nonprofit Technology Assistance Providers

• TechFinder

Books About Technology Strategies

• The Accidental Techie: Supporting, Managing, and Maximizing Your Nonprofit’s Technology
• Wired for Good: Strategic Technology Planning for Nonprofits
• The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change

Online Articles About Technology Strategies

• What’s Involved in Technology Planning? Seven steps to a better technology plan
• Technology Triage: Keeping mission-critical technology running
• The eRider Starter Kit

Free Online Tools

• CitizenSpeak (email campaigns for organizers and activists)
• Grassroots.Org (web hosting)
• Guidestar (information about nonprofits filed with the Internal Revenue Service)
• LinkedIn (social networking for professionals)
• Massnonprofit.Org (news about the nonprofit sector in Massachusetts)
• Nonprofit FAQ  (answers to many frequently asked questions)
• Nonprofit Tech Jobs (postings of job announcements)
• PledgeBank (online management of community-oriented pledges to take action)
• Second Life (web-based virtual reality environment)
• Source Forge (open source software that you can download)
• Wikipedia (online encyclopedia)
• Word of Blog (to create an ad for your organization that stakeholders can place on their websites)
• Yahoo Groups (to start your own email distribution list)

Blogs on the Topic of Nonprofit Technology

• Beth’s Blog (Beth Kanter)
• Confessions of a Non-Profit IT Director (Allan Benamer)
• Ext 337 (Marne Webb)
• Michael Stein's Nonprofit Technology Blog
• NetSquared Blogs
• Nonprofit Blog Exchange
• Technology for the Nonprofit and Philanthropic Sector (Deborah Elizabeth Finn)
• Today I Cried (Anonymous)
• Vermont Nonprofit CommunIT (Sonny Cloward)
• Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology (Michelle Murrain)

Folksonomies

• Del.icio.us NPtech tagging project
• Social Source Commons