TechSoup recently received funding from ZeroDivide, whose CEO I just interviewed, to provide mentors for 4 of their grantee organizations:  Southern California Library, Craigslist Foundation, Women’s Audio Mission and the San Diego Futures Foundation. These organizations need advice on everything from e-commerce, to marketing and communications strategy, to intellectual property issues, to business plan development.

Please take a moment to scan through their projects and mentoring needs to see if you have time and skills to donate to their work. If you're interested in being a mentor, contact Sheetal Singh, NetSquared's Grants Manager, at sheetal@techsoup.org.

Southern California Library
Project: SCL proposes a community enterprise that will use web 2.0 technologies to provide greater access to the valuable historical documents, records, and materials; facilitate on and off-line creation and sharing of community members’ own stories, ideas, and insights; and generate revenue through the sale of Library products and services.

Need: They need advice on generating an e-commerce business plan; legal advice on copyright issues; and assistance identifying technology vendors/services.

Craigslist Foundation
Project: Craigslist Foundation is building a social networking/resource website to benefit the nonprofit community and the individuals they serve. Project Entry Point is designed to enhance the overall goal of the Craigslist Foundation to connect nonprofit leaders and compassionate citizens to the resources they need to fulfill their social impact goals by creating an online resource guide modeled on the existing Craigslist site.

Need: They need advice on creating a comprehensive marketing and communication strategy and calendar. They're also in the middle of a rebranding effort and need support for the launch of a new website.

Women’s Audio Mission
Project: Women's Audio Mission will develop the World Wide WAM Virtual Classroom as a way of providing online, interactive learning activities to women throughout California who are interested in learning digital media technology skills and may not be able to access traditional resources. This project uses a combination of video-on-demand learning units and live, interactive, synchronous lectures, guest speakers, and member meetings that can be accessed on the Internet without any special software applications. Through the use of web streaming video technology and Second Life, WAM will establish new methods of delivering educational video content for nonprofits that may also develop new revenue streams through increased membership dues.

Need: They need advice on hosting video with WebEx, and guidance around intellectual property issues.

San Diego Futures Foundation 
Project: Through their program WhizKidz, at-risk young adults (18-24 yrs old), will develop marketable technical, entrepreneurial, and business skills while teaching small business owners in the San Diego City Heights area to leverage technology to improve productivity and increase revenue. Within 12 months, following thorough market research, WhizKidz will establish a small business to provide web and/or technical services to small businesses in City Heights, thus generating an income stream to support the sustainability of the program.

Need: They need assistance with business plan development for their social enterprise that provides technical services for nonprofits.