This article is courtesy of Idealware, which provides candid information to help nonprofits choose effective software. For more articles and reviews, go to www.idealware.org.

So you want to be able to take credit cards. Perhaps you?re hoping to process credit card donations based on phone calls from donors, or allow on-site registration at your next conference. Perhaps you want to take credit card payments at a T-shirt booth at a concert, or at your organization's gift shop.

How do you get started? The world of credit cards is a complicated one. There are a number of different possible methods for taking credit cards, which may require different types of hardware, software and relationships. While it's beyond the scope of a single article to tell you everything you might want to know about every method, it can be useful simply to have a view of what's possible. We talked to six different nonprofit staff members and consultants with a lot of experience in credit card processing to help you understand the high-level options.
Complete Article


A Few Good Tools for Online Data Backup   (Added: 3/19/10)
What are the best hosted backup options for nonprofits?

This article is courtesy of Idealware, which provides candid information to help nonprofits choose effective software. For more articles and reviews, go to www.idealware.org.

Youre already aware of the importance of backing up your organizations files and data, and with any luck, you didnt have to learn it the hard way at best, recovering from that kind of loss can be arduous and expensive. By now youve also figured out that backing up your data remotely is an excellent solution, especially when its done as one part of a backup strategy that also includes regularly scheduled local backups.

We asked a number of industry experts and nonprofit technology professionals with experience in this area about what works for their organizations, and what to consider when shopping for a remote data backup solution. We then combined their thoughts to come up with a set of tools that might work for you.
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Adventures in Executive Dashboards   (Added: 2/2/100)
Three examples of how nonprofits used executive dashboards to maximize data and help refine goals

Nonprofits track all sorts of information, from financial data like fundraising success and year-to-date spending, to data on event participation, volunteers, new supporters, and more. While it is difficult enough just to track the data, its much easier to understand and take action on this information if its pulled together with easy-to-understand visuals. With the right display, organizational metrics can be pulled out of a data-heavy realm that only an analyst could love to an organization-wide communication method that can be used for internal goal-setting, board meetings, reporting to funders, or executive decision making. Executive dashboards can provide just that perspective.

A good dashboard pulls together a number of different, perhaps disparate, metrics into a visually-appealing, easy to understand interface. Often, these dashboards show indicators to make it easy see progress against a goal for instance, a traffic light icon with a green, yellow, or red light might show whether or not fundraising revenue is proceeding according to plan.
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Google Apps
Getting Started with Google Apps Webinar

The recording of our Get Started with Google Apps Webinar is now online.

Hosted by Josh Feinberg of VerticalResponse and Austin Wang of Google, this Webinar focused on how to:

- Use Google docs, calendars, and sites alongside VerticalResponse.
- Collaborate with coworkers on email newsletter content.
- Create and host a site with Google Apps
- Develop a list of your most valuable customers / donors - it's easy to do with Google Apps!

Learn more about all the features in Google Apps and how you can use them to effectively manage your organization.
Complete Article


TechSoup Stock
Resources to help your nonprofit solve its technology problems from TechSoup

TechSoup Stock is an online product donation service that connects nonprofits with technology product donations from more than twenty leading providers. All products are available either for donation, or for prices that are deeply discounted just for nonprofits.

We currently serve U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofits, Canadian nonprofits and charitable organizations, and libraries.
Information on the TechSoup Stock Program


Quickie Technology Assessment

This is a Basic Technology Assessment site....you answer the questions and then review the recommendations.

The site is part of the TechAtlas program developed by NPower. This is a good introduction to the full-blown TechAtlas assessment application. Easy and quick...give it a try!
Basic Technology Assessment


What are some key nonprofit Internet and technology resources? Take a look at: Resources