Helpful Nonprofit Tech News

More than any other time of the year it's time for charities to tell their compelling story. To quote a somewhat recent YouTube blog piece, "if a picture is worth a thousand words, then is a video worth a million?" May well be. TechSoup has some tools that may come in handy. Storytelling with Mobile Video Here's an idea for using smartphones with good cameras and video capability like the Dell Venue Pro touch screen phones for digital story telling: Send someone out to video compelling work that your nonprofit or library is doing out in the field for your holiday message. ...

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This guest post was authored by Zuzanna Stańska, an art historian interested in museums, education, and new technologies. She has created educational mobile apps for teaching art history and is the organizer of the Polish edition of Free Arts Day. This article originally appeared in Polish on Fundacja TechSoup, TechSoup's European partner in Warsaw, Poland. According to a statistic, 35 percent of Poles own a mobile phone. That's quite a lot, isn't it? Smartphone sales keep rising: Since the first quarter of last year, sales increased by 18 percent. More and more ...

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We released our report on the 2012 TechSoup Global NGO Cloud Survey in September; we've now had several months to consider the findings and talk to some of you about what you think. In this post, I'll share our thoughts on what should be done next. This post is the first of a series. Is the Cloud Really Here? Our survey found that current usage of the cloud among survey respondents was very high, with 90 percent of respondents indicating they use at least one cloud-based service. While usage varies by region, the range is relatively narrow, with a high of 93 percent in Australia/New ...

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Recently, TechSoup added the new PayAnywhere donation program to its lineup, providing another option for mobile payment processing services to eligible nonprofit organizations and public libraries throughout the U.S. When a nonprofit selects PayAnywhere for use at a fundraising event, they instantly add convenience and lessen their work load. PayAnywhere helps put the "fun" in fundraising by empowering fundraising staff to accept credit card payments for any kind of product or service, purchases from live and silent auctions, day-of-the-event ticket sales, or raffle ticket sales, ...

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This guest post was authored by Declan Murphy, GiftWorks marketing and social media coordinator. Visit the GiftWorks donation page to learn more about their offering for eligible organizations. You can also try GiftWorks free for 30 days. What's the point of having an e-newsletter? How do you improve your email campaigns each time to achieve better results? And how should e-newsletters change in this new age of social media and sharing? Join James Li from Encore and GiftWorks for a free webinar on Making Email Newsletters Valuable Again on Thursday, December 20 ...

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It can be hard trying to get people in your network and community to donate or get involved in fundraising activities. This is especially true if you only reach out to them when you need something from them. There are three obvious and often forgotten tricks to having a successful fundraising event. Nurture your donor base consistently not just when you want a donation. When you reach out, create a relationship with them, and highlight how they, as an individual, made a difference in the cause. Do include a way to donate even when you are not asking, and they just might. Ask again. Do not ...

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We're all familiar with it, a message saying "Help the recovery from Hurricane Sandy. Text MUTUALAID to 69866 to donate $10." New at TechSoup: Your 501(c)(3) nonprofit, library, or foundation can now collect donations by text message — and develop your own mobile site — with discounted and donated services from Connect2Give. Mobile giving is a low-cost way to raise funds on an ongoing- or campaign-based basis. It's also a good way for your organization to attract new donors, and an incentive to keep contact information up to date. You can use Connect2Give to: ...

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Allison Schwalm is Marketing Engagement Manager at Network for Good and a new guest blogger on the TechSoup.org blog. We're Network for Good and it's a pleasure to meet you! In 2001, tech giants AOL, Cisco, and Yahoo! got together to form our organization. Nowadays, we offer a suite of fundraising services (plus, lots of training that will make you a fundraising superstar) to small- and medium-sized nonprofit organizations. We're committed to helping nonprofits (just like yours) raise more money online. The Broken Button In 2007, a member of our staff had the opportunity to lead ...

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You backup your organization's computers, so why shouldn't you backup your staffs' smartphones or tablets? It can be a tedious chore, but if you use mobile devices at your organization, it is likely there is valuable data stored on them. And unlike a desktop computer, it is pretty easy to misplace or drop (and subsequently destroy) a smartphone or a tablet. Fortunately, backing up your contacts, photos, and apps is easier than ever. In this three-part series, we'll walk you through backing up your mobile device. We'll start with Windows devices, but posts on Android and ...

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