NetSquared, an initiative of TechSoup.org - CyberYenta

Is del.icio.us the new Slashdot?

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 12:20:47 -0400

On August 17th, my blog suddenly started receiving an amazing number of hits; its intense popularity lasted a couple of hours.

When I looked at the web analytics, I saw that readers were surfing in from the front page of del.icio.us, because an article of mine ("What do small nonprofits need to know about fundraising for technology?") was featured on the del.icio.us hotlist. I was pretty flattered, because the hotlist usually features web pages that have been bookmarked by thousands of del.icio.us users, while my article has only been bookmarked 64 times as of this writing.

All of this extra traffic inspired me to think about the Slashdot Effect, which is a crash or malfunction that occurs when a link is featured on Slashdot web site and becomes so popular that reader demand far exceeds the web server's capacity. Thanks to my blog host, Tucows, I had no such difficulties. But now I'm wondering whether in the future we'll be speaking of web sites that are "delicioused," just as we now refer to web sites that are "slashdotted."

What do small nonprofits need to know about fundraising for technology?

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 09:22:40 -0400

As I've previously mentioned in my blog, I'm helping out with the Immigrant Organizers Information Technology Network, and the current challenge to create a workshop that will help these small grassroots organizations incorporate funding for technology in their overall development strategies.

This seems to be the most pressing issue for any nonprofit executive - finding the money to support the technology infrastructure that sustains the organization. In small nonprofits, lack of money is the deal-breaker. Before they can make decisions about technology staffing, databases, web sites, network servers, the organization's leaders need to have a plan for paying the bills for these and other mission-critical technology

Unfortunately, I don't have a magic formula for funding technology that I can offer these folks. In the world of nonprofit technology, the rule of thumb is that most donors and grantmakers give money to organizations with great missions; with a few notable exceptions, funders are seldom passionate about writing checks to buy technology products and services.

So that's the bad news.

The good news is that last year I attended a terrific workshop on this topic at the Boston regional N-TEN conference. It was organized by fellow Technobabe Theresa Ellis, so I went to her and requested permission to replicate her idea. She very graciously agreed, coaching me about how to proceed, and encouraging me to recruit as many panelists as possible from the session that she designed.

Here's the plan. Four of our panelists will be from the philanthropic world, folks with plenty of practical experience:

Nonprofit Technology Events, Courtesy of TechSoup

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 13:01:55 -0400

Have I mentioned lately how much I love TechSoup?

The latest reason why I love it is that you can now go to TechSoup to see a list of upcoming nonprofit technology events.

I'm a little disappointed that there isn't a TechSoup RSS feed exclusively devoted to these nonprofit technology events. If one becomes available, I will certainly add it to my blog. And of course it would make a perfectly splendid addition to the NPtech Meta Feed.

Disclaimer: Although I have been a consultant to TechSoup on its NetSquared project, this effusion was not solicited, approved, or subsidized by TechSoup. I am merely writing as a humble fan.

This article was originally published in my blog, "Technology for the Nonprofit and Philanthropic Sector," under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License.

Mixed Reality for Nervous Nonprofit Novices

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 07:21:31 -0400

Image by Beth Kanter

Here's a great new item for the Jargon File: "mixed-reality event." When I first saw this term, I thought, "Hey, isn't that what occurs whenever any two sentient beings interact?"

However, it turns out that according to Wikipedia, mixed-reality "is the merging of real world and virtual worlds to produce a new environment where physical and digital objects can co-exist and interact." For example, a mixed-reality event can take place simultaneously in real life and Second Life.

On July 18th, there will be a mixed-reality mash-up that should be fascinating for all of us who are interested in technology for the nonprofit sector.

In the mix will be:

Integrated workflow management for nonprofit organizations: If you build it, will they use it?

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 13:48:01 -0400

I just love the idea of a workflow management application, especially one that's integrated with filing, calendar, email, and all the other systems that keep my worklife in order.

It so happens that one of my esteemed clients is looking for a way to integrate fiscal sponsorship accounting, document management, digital signature, and workflow management into a seamless system - so I spend a lot of time thinking about the human and technological requirements that might be involved.

For my client's purposes, there are basically two kinds of workflow management - a generic kind that helps any group of people coordinate the actions that need to be taken on any project, and workflow management that is tailored to accounting tasks such as initiating requisitions, approving invoices, and cutting checks. These further sub-divided into those applications that come with document management modules and those that don't. And of course, one can drill down to distinguish between client-server products and web-based service providers.

The ones that I really like allow the user to log in and see a workflow management dashboard, such as the one that ExpenseWatch provides for accountants, with status reports and task lists laid out in a very clear and appealing manner. Furthermore, the really good tools make it easy to set up a queue for passing along the work in progress - so that everyone who needs to contribute to, revise, review, or approve a project can do so - in an order that can be edited to reflect a change in plans. I also like the idea of automatic escalation routines, which alert you if a project has been parked on one person's desk for too long.

The only question is...if you build it, will they use it?

I recently had an experience that shed a little light on this question. An esteemed colleague who has access to my electronic calendar printed out my task list in preparation for a planning meeting. I hadn't added (or checked off) much of anything in months.

I love setting up systems. I love playing with systems. But the empirical evidence shows that when it comes to maintaining a simple online task list (never mind one that's part of a sophisticated workflow management system), I'm not necessarily showing up for it on a day-to-day basis. And if the systems geeks don't do it, how can we expect normal people to be enthusiastic users? We have to think really carefully about building in incentives to participate, and measuring the positive effects that such an implementation actually has on the amount of time, energy, and money that it takes to get the job done.

When we say "technology," we mean "information and communication technology"

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 23:36:14 -0400

In the circles I frequent, we talk a lot about nonprofit technology.

After all, our professional association is the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network, we refer to ourselves as nonprofit technology assistance providers, and this of course blog is called "Technology for the Nonprofit and Philanthropic Sector."

The latest mash-up: Technobabes + meta feeds

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 05:07:47 -0400

Now that I've had a taste of a meta feed for nonprofit technology, I feel compelled to create a meta feed of my own.

So of course it has to be a Technobabe meta feed. You can now go to Feed Jumbler to satisfy your craving for blog articles written by women in the field of nonprofit technology. The official address of the RSS feed is

One feed to rule them all: The NPTech Meta Feed

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 19:55:44 -0400

I enjoy playing with new permutations of the NPtech tagging project. The latest one I've found, the NPTech Meta Feed, is based on a great concept, but it still needs a little debugging.

The feed was created by lazytom (whom I do not know) using FeedJumbler. It draws on all the right sources, plus a few that are new to me:

Consolidate or die: Will it come to that, for small nonprofit organizations?

Deborah Elizabeth Finn — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 19:46:03 -0400

I worry a lot about the technology infrastructures of small nonprofit organizations.

Even though we hear a lot more about national and international organizations such as the Red Cross, in the U.S.A., most nonprofits have fewer than ten staff members, and annual operating budgets of less than US $500,000. (It used to be possible to look up the numbers for free on GuideStar and see this for yourself; now, you need a paid subscription to their service. Alas.)

An amazing number of nonprofit projects are run by one noble soul, working with great dedication from the coffee table in his or her living room. This person hardly has an information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure - never mind an ICT specialist to maintain it!

The plight of this typical one-person-plus-coffee-table organization worries me a lot, and over the last few years, my friend John McNutt and I have often debated whether this organization will be able to survive and be effective in the information age. We both think that the internet is on its way to being the second social welfare delivery system, and that the one-person-plus-coffee-table organization is ill-equipped to do the online collaboration, back office administration, fundraising, and service delivery that will be demanded.

We don't exactly agree about whether it would be a good thing for these small nonprofit organizations to die out, but I won't attempt to do justice to John's point of view here. However, I will admit that I worry a lot.

I really like small nonprofits, and I don't think that answer is wait for harsh reality to force them to choose between shutting down and being assimilated into the Borg. (In the latter scenario, they would be consolidated into a much larger nonprofit entity with a substantial technology infrastructure.)

Surely there's some way for small nonprofits, especially those of the one-person-plus-coffee-table type, to consolidate their technology infrastructures and back office administrative processes, even while each organization retains its hand-tailored (or even quirky) approach to services and programs?

For example, here in Massachusetts, Third Sector New England offers its fiscal sponsorship clients a very full complement of accounting, business planning, and human resources services. One of my other clients (who is not yet ready to unveil its plan) is working on new model for delivering remote technology services to small nonprofits in the region. Naturally, I have taken great cyber-yenta joy in bringing folks in these two organizations together to talk about how their plans can dovetail. The timing may be especially auspicious here in Massachusetts, since another project in progress is the formation of our state's first association for nonprofits. The folks who are thinking about the shared needs and interests of the nonprofit sector in our area are starting to mobilize.

But this isn't just about Massachusetts. It's about best practices throughout our profession.

Globally speaking, I'd like to see those noble souls in very small nonprofits focus their efforts on what they do best - which could be saving the whales, feeding the hungry, organizing youth soccer leagues, ensuring access to health care, or keeping German opera alive in Montana - rather than on tasks such as contract management, accounting, or maintaining a file server. I'd also like to see employees of one-person-plus-coffee-table organizations enjoy some of the benefits that Red Cross staffers can take for granted - such as membership in a group health plan, access to professional development opportunities, and use of up-to-date information and communication technology.

Let's make it happen!