studio 501c

fundraiser, poet, friend: Jason Shinder, 1955 to 2008

I don't know anyone who is a better fundraiser than Jason Shinder was.

By being himself -- by connecting with people kindly, authentically, and personally -- he not only made hundreds of friends, he also formed plentiful partnerships and secured dozens of grants to support his vision of integrating arts into YMCAs across the country.

I worked with Jason when I was at the YMCA of the USA, and like so many others who knew him, I know that my life is richer for it.

 

CODA

And now I know what most deeply connects us

after that summer so many years ago,
and it isn’t poetry, although it is poetry,

and it isn’t illness, although we have that in common,

and it isn’t gratitude for every moment,
even the terrifying ones, even the physical pain,

though we are grateful, and it isn’t even death,

though we are halfway through
it, or even the way you describe the magnificence

of being alive, catching a glimpse,

in the store window, of your blowing hair and chapped lips,
though it is beautiful, it is; but it is

that you’re my friend out here on the far reaches

of what humans can find out about each other.

—Jason Shinder

nonprofits, nota bene: As you work for the common good, be sure to take time for art.  Whether it's a poem, or play, or song, art will replenish your spirit for the work ahead.

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techsoup and flickr offer free online photo accounts to nonprofits

One of the most popular online photo sharing services, Flickr, is partnering with TechSoup, a nonprofit that helps other nonprofits use technology, to offer 10,000 free premium Flickr accounts to nonprofit organizations.  Flickr is also starting a new program, Flickr for Good, whereby it will highlight photos of "good works" depicted on Flickr.

Techsoup's suggestions for how nonprofits can use Flickr:

"Uses for Outreach and Community Building: Flickr is a new way for organizations to tell their story. With a Flickr account, individuals can showcase and chronicle their organization's work through their own photography. For example, by creating a group photo pool and encouraging discussions, Flickr members can build awareness of an organization's work. Members can also provide a link to their organization's Web site in their Flickr profiles. Conversely, the organization's Web site can stream Flickr photos...

Uses Within Organizations: Flickr members can store all their photographs of their organization's work in one place if they have the legal right to do so. Account holders can upload photos to Flickr from anywhere in the world. The photos can be organized into sets and collections, and they can be tagged for easy searching. Another tool that organizations can use internally is a Flickr group. In a private group, only group members and those who have been invited can view the group page. Groups can also be completely public or public by invitation only."

Find out how to apply for a free Flickr account here at TechSoup.

nonprofits, nota bene: While you're checking out the free Flickr accounts at TechSoup, take a look at the many other services and products TechSoup offers, including drastically discounted software and other technology products.

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Know some nontechie nonprofit leaders?  This blog, studio 501c, is just for them -– the ones who are brilliant and busy and who want to use the web more effectively to promote their nonprofit but who don’t know where to start.  Use the "email this" button below to tell them about studio 501c.  Don’t forget to add that they can sign up to get the blog's occasional articles via email. Thanks!

pbs to air inspiring new film, american idealist, january 21 (copies available to educators and nonprofits)

Nonprofit leaders, activists, educators, and anyone interested in making our country -- and world -- a better place won't want to miss American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver.  This inspiring new documentary shows how Shriver, though overshadowed by his in-laws, the Kennedys, was the driving force behind many innovative social justice initiatives in the 1960s.  It airs Monday, January 21, 2008 on most PBS stations.  Download a PDF of the air times and dates here and check out some short clips here.

Full disclosure: speaking of in-laws, I must tell you that the director and producer, Bruce Orenstein, is my husband's brother.  Of course I'm biased, but I think it's a brilliant film that is sure to get people thinking differently about the sixties and to inspire young people to get involved in working for peace and social justice. Its emphasis on Sargent Shriver's signature contribution -- the creation of pathways for young people to get involved in public service (Peace Corps, VISTA, Head Start, Youth Corps, and Legal Services) -- could even inspire fresh thinking along these lines in the presidential election.

PBS is broadcasting the film Monday in honor of Martin Luther King's birthday. It offers a powerful new look at one pivotal moment in King's life (as well as, sadly, Coretta Scott King's last recorded interview), and the story of Head Start's struggle in the Mississippi Delta is its dramatic climax. 

While appealing to people of all ages, the film would be great to show to young people -- from junior high to grad school -- in youth programs, service learning and civic engagement programs, history and social studies courses, and the like.  If you are an educator or nonprofit staffer, you can obtain a copy of the DVD from the organizations (such as Facing History and Ourselves) listed here.

Some testimonials about American Idealist:

• "Splendid. The best depiction of the War on Poverty I have ever seen on film. What an amazing man. I never knew how absolutely essential he was to 1960s social change. I want to share this new knowledge with the world." Darlene Clark Hine, Board of Trustees Professor of African American Studies and History at Northwestern University, and past president of the Organization of American Historians.

• "An exceptional achievement.  One of the best documentaries ever made about the history of the 1960s." Michael Kazin, Professor of History, Georgetown University, and author of America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s.

• "American Idealist is wonderful. It should be on the shelves of every schoolhouse in America, for it can awaken in children a sense of hope and possibility." John Bridgeland, Assistant to the President of the U.S.,Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council (2000-2002), and USA Freedom Corps.

nonprofits (and others), nota bene: Please pass the word on to the young people in your life.  Encourage them to help promote American Idealist by writing about it on their blogs and by linking to the documentary's website, MySpace page, or Facebook page.

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take note of these clear and quick explanations on how to use rss and wikis

Thanks to Dissident, a delightful blog discovery, I've also discovered the Common Craft Show and two video presentations -- the best I've ever seen for newbies on using RSS and Wikis.  They're also quite amusing.

Click To Play RSS in Plain English by Common Craft


 

Click To Play Wikis in Plain English by Common Craft

nonprofits, nota bene: If you want tools to improve productivity, learning, and internal communication (including communication with volunteers), run, don't walk, to share these presentations with your colleagues.  Also consider a subscription to the Common Craft blog.  This couple knows how to teach.

 

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nonprofits can use microsoft word templates for better design, communication

The popular Lifehacker productivity blog asked its readers to help Elyse, who works "for an earnest, mission-driven, do-good non-profit organization that, despite the high quality of our project work, has little time or expertise to devote to details such as aesthetics, formatting, and design"  and who is looking for "tried and true design tips to easily spruce up a document and make it more eye-appealing."

I've long been a fan of designer Chuck Green, who created these wonderful Word templates -- for everything from reports to ads to brochures to certificates -- for OKI Printing Solutions.

Another designer produced these, based on Chuck's work.  (Be sure to page down to the marketing materials to find the report template.)

nonprofits, nota bene: After you've reviewed the Microsoft Word design tips that other Lifehacker readers shared with Elyse (through the link above), check out Chuck Green's Ideabook.com and Jumpola.com, and be sure to sign up for the free newsletters he offers on both sites.  Chuck's advice and articles are fun, inspiring, and informative, and much of his guidance, especially the stuff on Ideabook, is geared to non-designers.  In fact, Ideabook is a studio 501c smart pick!   

free guide is a handy tool for nonprofit public relations

Via Steve Rubel, here's a succinct, free 30-page guide from PR firm Shift Communications on how to use the Web for public relations. Written for PR specialists, PR 2.0 Essentials would be just as helpful to nontechies in nonprofits who want to learn how to interact with external audiences through social bookmarking, RSS, blogs, podcasts, and more. Among dozens of ideas and links to resources, it includes good tips on "pitching" bloggers and podcasters with story ideas. Just replace the phrase "your clients" with "your nonprofit" or "your staff and board," and this guide will serve even the smallest of 501c3s very well.

Technorati tags: net2 nptech nonprofit_blogs nonprofit social media pr public relations Web2.0 PR 2.0 Shift Communications Steve Rubel

fake newspaper: a fun, fast way to honor nonprofit volunteers, donors, staff

I discovered fodey.com's newspaper snippet generator via popular blogger Steve Rubel, who always has interesting and instructive posts on marketing and PR.

As the image below shows, this free and easy tool provides a fun way to recognize staff members, volunteers, and donors.  Some ideas:

• Use your nonprofit's name in the name of the newspaper, e.g., "YMCA Times." If it's too long a name, use "Great News" or "Hope Times." (Play around with the text -- long titles get cut off.  You'll also have to play around with the body of the story, as spacing between words can get funky.)
• Use your town's name in the "dateline," as in the example below.
• Include quotes from leaders of your nonprofit, and, with permission, from kids and adults who have benefitted from the work of the person you're honoring.
• Use the story images on your Web site, in email newsletters, and in flyers.
• Create and save your story in a Word or a text editor before generating the image with the snippet generator. You can then re-use parts of it or revise it. (Once you save the story in the snippet generator, you can't edit it.)

Please share your ideas for using the newspaper snippet generator in the comments section below.

Technorati tags: net2 rubel fake newspaper nonprofit nptech fundraising email volunteer staff donor recognition web2.0

convert docs to PDFs for free

Even in well-funded nonprofits, not everybody has access to the version of Adobe Acrobat that allows you to make PDF files from Word and Excel documents.  Using a PDF (which stands for Portable Document Format) is often more convenient -- a PDF with images will be smaller in file size than a Word document, and thus easier to send via email.  And even though some folks have the software necessary to edit PDFs, a PDF is less likely to suffer at the hands of overeager editors than is a Word document.  There's just something much more final about it.

Lifehacker, an incredibly popular blog on productivity and "helpful hints" (read more about the editor here) recommends ExpressPDF, a free Web-based service.  If you have experience, good or bad, with ExpressPDF or the similar services popping up (see the responses in Lifehacker's comments section), please share your thoughts here. (Note that ExpressPDF is not totally secure so find another solution for sensitive documents.)

Technorati tags: net2 nonprofit nptech tools Adobe Acrobat PDF web2.0

foldera: a cool (and free) tool for nonprofit project management

There are tons of good, free Web applications and services available now, but foldera seems especially promising for nonprofits that want to to give staff and volunteers (especially volunteer board members) an easy way to organize their communications, information, documents, and workflow.

Having first learned about foldera.com through one of its contractors, the highly regarded Web designer Emily Chang, I went on to find that it was getting great reviews from many respected bloggers. So, I've signed up for the free beta launch.

I will be curious to see how foldera can contribute not only to project management, but also to the knowledge management function in nonprofits, a function that is often overlooked as they struggle with increasing demands for their services and decreasing sources of funding.

Technorati tags: project knowledge management net2 nonprofit NGO nptech tools web2.0 foldera collaboration

welcome to studio 501c

This is a resource for ordinary people doing extraordinary things -- social entrepreneurs and nonprofit staff and volunteers, i.e., those who work hard every day to make positive change.  I'm a nonprofit professional, too, and I'm interested in the ways that the Internet, personal technology, and other tools can help advance the goals of those in the social sector (which, by my definition, encompasses the nonprofit sector, but also goes beyond it to include those in the private and public sectors who are pursuing social innovation). 

As a result of my interests in personal tech and communications, I often find myself telling friends and colleagues about a Web site for tracking down the address of a prospective donor, or an easy way they can keep up with the issues their nonprofit addresses or a free Web-based calendar, task, and contact management application that can help individuals and teams be more productive.   I hope to do the same thing with this blog -- to share information and tips from time to time that will help people accomplish their social-change goals more effectively.

I won't pretend to be definitive or even authoritative.  In fact, much of the advice here will be pretty basic, as I find that even many brilliant leaders in the social sector know little about RSS, blogs as communications tools for nonprofits, or all that Google can do for them!  (Watch for more info on these tools in future posts.)

I'll just share what has worked for me, as well as what others with far more knowledge and experience are recommending.  I plan to review what experts in personal tech, life hacks, productivity, cool tools, and nonprofit tech are publishing, and then share the best of it here, adding ideas for how nontechies in in the social sector can apply the tips to their particular concerns. In that sense, I hope studio 501c will be a time-saving filter blog.

I also hope that it will offer a practical perspective to current discussions on how nonprofits can use the Internet and technology to further their missions.  These discussions, though well intended, sometimes become unrealistic, especially when they involve nonprofit techies talking with other nonprofit techies.  With studio 501c, I'll aim to address the everyday concerns of nontechies in nonprofits and other social-sector organizations.

I hope that you can help with this effort.  Please post your ideas, advice, and experience in the comments section of this blog so that we can all learn from each other.

Cheers,
Celeste W

Technorati tags: net2 blogging nonprofit NGO nonprofit blogging marketing nptech fundraising social sector social entrepreneur AirSet ZabaSearch small business studio 501c nontechie nontechie