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Nonprofit Technology Assistance Project Helping those Who help others | |
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Resources - Advice, Information, Templates, etc.:
Is Salesforce.com right for your Nonprofit?OneNorthWest
This document is meant to be a short starting point for nonprofits to make a decision if Salesforce.com is a good choice for their nonprofit. It will give some introduction to what Salesforce.com does, and the benefits and risks involved in using it.
What is Salesforce.com?
Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) is a San Francisco company that makes an online database available to nonprofits. The database is very flexible, and that allows a nonprofit to use Salesforce.com for tracking donor management and other activities.
The Salesforce.com Foundation, which has overseen the donation of Salesforce.com cash, staff time, and products, currently donates 10 user licenses of Salesforce.com to any qualifying charitable organization.
CDNTAP is currently involved with a local nonprofit that is customizing Salesforce for use in a Client / Case Tracking and Management implementation.
If you would like information on this local effort please contact me: Contact Form
Read the complete Salesforce article (New 7/20/08)
by Marnie Webb, Director of Consulting Services, CompuMentor ( originally posted on TechSoup)
Here's how technology projects work: plan, implement, support, plan, implement, support. Ad infinitum.
Sure, that's the best practice. And those three words stand for a heck of a lot. They stand for technology asset inventory, needs assessment, and gap analysis. They stand for testing, QA, and bug fixes. They stand for troubleshooting, adding new users, reconfiguring workstations, and updating software. And they stand for doing it all over again.
So what happens when your printer is broken? Or when two users have been having a problem getting onto the Internet since 2002? What happens when you know your technology isn't working as well as it could for your staff, for your mission, for your constituency? Do you always have to start at zero and work your way through a file cabinet full of best practices?
No.
I'm a consultant, I do this for a living, and I'm going to say it again: you don't have to do it all every time.
You can't. Project management, planning, implementation, and support take a lot out of your organization. They take time and money. And then they take more time and money.
It's not that this isn't valuable work. It is. Best practices are important and useful. However, many best practices work well in an ideal world, and that world may not be the world of your organization.
Read more about Technology Triage
A Few Good Tools: Low Cost Constituent Databases
From: www.idealware.org
Idealware intends to provide rigorous reviews of many different kinds of nonprofit software. However, it will take some time to create all these detailed reviews. Our A Few Good Tools series provides some thoughts in the meantime by recommending software that is used and liked by the Idealware community. They may not be the very best of their kind, but they have worked well for us. Perhaps they will also work for you.
A three-person organization is looking for a better way to track people. They currently store data on about 600 volunteers, donors, partners, and other constituents in a series of spreadsheets. They want to consolidate this information into a central place so they can find people, understand what contact they've had with them, run mailing and email lists, and keep on top of who is doing what. They have very little money for this, and are hoping to find something inexpensive and easy to use.
Does this sound familiar? Many small organization are looking for an inexpensive way to manage constituent data. Thirteen nonprofit technology professionals recommended tools that have worked well for them in similar circumstances.
Read more about Low Cost Constituent Databases
Good Advice on Technology Planning
Tips for planning and implementing new projects
By: Alexandra Krasne and Kathy Crabb
Implementing new technologies at your nonprofit is no easy feat. You must understand what you're asking of a given technology, budget for it, put a risk management plan in place, and be prepared to evolve.
Here's a list of planning tips to help you get started. These tips came from stories told by technology managers in the article "Does Your Reach Exceed Your Grasp?" originally published in the California Association of Nonprofits' Alert May/June 2005 newsletter. The stories represent a wealth of experiences and expose lessons that other nonprofits can learn from when jumping into a new technology project.
Read more about Technology Planning
Short-term assignments for Tech Volunteers
There are a variety of ways for mission-based organizations to involve volunteers to help with short-term projects relating to computers and the Internet, and short-term assignments are what are sought after most by potential "tech" volunteers. But there is a disconnect: most organizations have trouble identifying such short-term projects.
Below is a list of short-term projects for "tech" volunteers that was brainstormed by myself and by members of TechSoup's Volunteers and Technology online discussion group. These one-time, short-term assignments might takes days, weeks or just a couple of months to complete.
Short-term assignments for volunteers relating to computers and the Internet:
- cleaning spyware and viruses off of an organization's computers, and installing or configuring software to prevent such events in the future
- updating virus software (this needs to be done frequently, as new viruses are created every day)
- checking for the latest updates of software your organization uses frequently, and evaluating whether or not the updates are a good idea for the organization
- installing more memory on the computers
- developing a technology plan for the organization, to define paid staff and volunteer training needs, and to anticipate future training and equipment needs
- evaluating your organization's web site or new web pages regarding their accessibility, and making recommendations regarding such issues
- holding in-house workshops for paid staff and volunteers on a variety of topics e.g., using software already on an organization's computers (particularly under-utilized software, like the graphics software that's already installed on most computers but rarely used), managing large amounts of email, using of free online services, like Yahoo Groups etc.
Page Updated: 7/20/08