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NetSquared enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.
RealTalk | Robert Zacardi, Director of Strategic Partnerships
What's *really* new on the Web, as opposed to buzzwords and soundbites?:
I've been getting a lot of email-based free subscriptions to fundraising events, professional organizations, conference, technology-related events for nonprofits. Some are coming from national organizations, and others are locally based. Here in the nonprofit world, much communication is still rooted in email and that's where I get much of my news.
Which tools best embody the new opportunities from your point of view and why?:
Online research tools:
There's a lot of tools out there for prospecting and doing research for nonprofit causes. Search engines like Google help me to quickly gather relevant, up-to-date philanthropic behaviors of organizations in the New England area. You can check out their interests, activities, and budgetary figures as you develop relationships.
Of course, this online activity doesn't replace the human end of nonprofit work, but helps us with journalism, research and generating civic engagement. If I were to break it down into a ratio, face-to-face interaction helps us in nearly half of our work.
Who's doing the best work with the new tools (technically or in terms of social benefit or both)?:
I'm not the most technically up-to-date, so perhaps I'll do some more research to find the answer to your question!
What's the bad news? What are the greatest barriers preventing web-based technology from producing social change?:
Budget is a big issue within the nonprofit community. Once you've got a quality database, your own listserv and website, it's also important to reach out with conferences, email listservs, etc.
Even a few thousand dollars must be carefully watched when you're a small nonprofit organization with an annual budget of $2-3 million. Communications are a key tool and many people are investing in software that helps them with organizing and executing around communications.
However, a lot of nonprofits still don't have the luxury of time or resources to find the proper software or web-based tools they need. If you've only got 6-7 people in your organization, do you really have enough time to learn about Web 2.0? Nonprofit leaders will need to take classes or receive training about the new technologies and learn about to use them for their work.
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