Tag Archives: Nonprofits

How to start a nonprofit…

Posted on May 19, 2010 | Leave a comment

In these economic times (imagine the ponderous voice intoning), people often dream about starting something new. A nonprofit seems like a good choice because you can also do some good in the world and it seems like you may not need a lot of money to get going. This got me thinking about what it would take to get a nonprofit off the ground and whether it would be worth it. Here are some of the resources I found to answer those questions.

First, it is useful to know what a nonprofit is exactly and how they work.

The next question is whether to start a nonprofit at all. Is there something more productive you could be doing instead?

If you decide to go ahead, here are some steps to get started. Here are some instructions for getting on the web at very little cost. And the most important thing, what you need to know about raising money.

The Resources:
About.Com: Nonprofit Charitable Organizations
Don Griesmann’s Nonprofit Blog
Foundation Center
Free Management Library
Non-profit Tech Blog

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How to use tagging to make connections in the nonprofit web

Posted on October 1, 2008 | 4 Comments
A tag cloud with terms related to Web 2.

Image via Wikipedia

Probably one of the best innovations of the whole Web 2.0 phenomenon is tagging. A tag is “a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information” (source). Tags can be used to identify blog posts, bookmarks, photos, videos, presentations, events, etc., and are supported by pretty much every Web 2.0 tool. Tags are generally assigned informally and without regard to a structure of categories; they are more like annotations and are often assigned in addition to categories, such as on blog posts.

The genius of tagging is that it organically builds connections over time between seemingly unconnected content. If my blog post and your video and his bookmark and her photograph all have the same tag, then we can start to see how they are related in some way. This leads to a bottoms-up classification system for web content that is often called a folksonomy.

The problem is that tags are arbitrarily decided on by the content creator, and with language being what it is, one tag can mean many different things to many different people. Take the word development, for instance. In my own little industry, it can refer to the process of creating software or giving aid to low-resource countries. In other contexts, it might refer to child development or personal development or a large and ugly subdivision.

The nonprofit field has bypassed this limitation by coming up with some unique tags to identify our content. If we use these tags consistently, we can easily locate a wealth of content in our particular niches. Here are some of the most useful tags I’ve come across:

nptech: Short for “nonprofit technology,” this tag refers to nonprofits’ use of technology, mostly internally rather than as part of the program offerings.

Examples:

ict4d: Stands for “Information and Communication Technologies for Development.” Refers to groups that are using technology in their development programs, usually international development.

Examples:

web4dev: Using Web technologies, mostly Web 2.0, for supporting international aid and development.

Examples:

km4dev: Stands for “Knowledge Management for Development.” Using knowledge management tools and techniques to support international development.

Examples:

m4dev or m4d: Using mobile technology to support internatonal development.

Examples:

I’m sure I haven’t discovered all of the tags being used by nonprofits using technology, especially in international development. If you know of any other good ones, please leave a comment.

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Nonprofits using Twitter?

Posted on January 25, 2008 | Leave a comment

NetSquared posted this intriguing question: How can nonprofits use Twitter? Since I’ve been getting into Twitter lately, I’ve been thinking about its work-related applications. Unfortunately, Twitter already has a bad reputation as a time-waster overcome by noise about what people had for breakfast and similar daily minutiae. I’ve already found it to be a good place to get news and links of interest to me, though, just by following people who are luminaries in the nptech and social media worlds. And I think it has a lot of potential for geographically dispersed teams to report on their work without the annoyances of IM interruptions. I want more ideas on this, so I’m going to be looking for NetSquared’s follow-up to their question.

Here is a nice list from the blog The Big Picture: How Associations Can Use Twitter. There are a lot of practical ideas in this list.

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What are blogs? And how can we use them? Resources list

Posted on December 17, 2007 | 6 Comments

This is a list of resources I have collected to supplement a presentation I’m giving at work on the subjects: what are blogs, how can our nonprofit blog effectively, and what is Web 2.0 anyway? These resources include many of the examples in the actual presentation as well as supplementary reading materials.

View the presentation

About Web 2.0

Blogging Tools

Nonprofit Blogs

Blogs About Nonprofits Using Web 2.0 Technologies

The Blogosphere (finding blogs of interest)

Into Web 2.0

  • Tumblr – microblogging site
  • Twitter – microblogging site that integrates with text messaging and instant messaging (IM)
  • del.icio.us – Tag, organize and share bookmarks
  • Stumble Upon – review and rate web content
  • Digg – read and vote on web content
  • NGO Post – read and vote on web content discussing social welfare initiatives
  • Flickr – share, view and comment on photos
  • YouTube – share, view and comment on videos
  • SlideShare – share, view and comment on presentations
  • Wikipedia – world-famous collaboratively written encyclopedia built with a wiki
  • Wikibooks – collection of collaboratively written textbooks written using wikis
  • Facebook – well-known social networking site originally focusing on college students
  • LinkedIn – professional networking site
  • Dogster – social networking site for dogs
  • Causes on Facebook – nonprofits using Facebook to promote causes and raise money
  • IntraHealth Informatics’ Flickr site – nonprofits can share interesting photos to generate interest
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How can nonprofits effectively use social networks?

Posted on October 24, 2007 | 2 Comments

I was asked to put together a list of resources about nonprofits using social networks like Facebook and MySpace, because some forward-thinking folks here are thinking of tapping into these resources. It seemed like a valuable list, one worth sharing, so here it is.

General Resources for Nonprofits Using Web 2.0

Resources for Nonprofits Using Facebook/MySpace

Examples of Nonprofit MySpace Sites

Essential Blogs to Read

The conversation on this subject is hot and heavy, and more are joining in everyday. It’s a good idea to keep up on what others are thinking and doing, and to join in the conversation. I’ve found the following blogs to be great resources for that.

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Open Source information for nonprofits

Posted on October 16, 2007 | 1 Comment

I work at a nonprofit that develops Open Source software. We do this to provide low-cost human resource information systems to Ministries of Health in low-resource countries that they can then take ownership of and customize for their own needs. All the costs are for infrastructure, training and maintenance — none for software. In the world of human resource information systems, that’s a big savings.

But our nonprofit, I have to confess, doesn’t always use Open Source software internally. This is has been a subject of much debate. There are cultural issues — how do you take away Microsoft Office from employees who have been using it productively for most of their careers and ask them to learn something new? There are also support, administration and compatibility issues. We take the same attitude internally that we do when we begin a software implementation project in one of our client countries — we choose what is most appropriate for the context in which we are working, even if that means choosing proprietary software in some cases.

I confess, though, that I wish that we adopted more Open Source programs internally. We do use them where it makes sense, such as for web servers and applications (blogs, CMS, online databases) where there are lots of choices and support is well-established. And I am proud to say that we are using our own Open Source HRIS internally, with plenty of customizations, of course.

I’ve dug up a few links that can help a nonprofit move to Open Source, if it so inclined:

  • Choosing and Using Free and Open Source Software is a primer for nonprofits from the Nonprofit Open Source Initiative. The updated version was just released in October. It includes case studies, a suggested evaluation process, tips for finding support and some software toolkits.
  • NGO in a Box is a collection of Open Source tools, already culled and evaluated, that a nonprofit can begin using right away. It includes everything you need to set up a small or medium-sized office, plus tools for publishing, producing multimedia and using mobile phones for advocacy. If you use this resource, a lot of the hard work has been done for you.
  • Open Source Software for Public Health – If your nonprofit operates in the public health arena, this wiki is a great resource to identify tools and resources specific to public health work.

Open Source software makes sense for nonprofits. It’s low cost, getting involved connects you to communities of volunteer support and development, and using it promotes values of openness, collaboration and giving back.

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