NPowering

Brave ED's in a new social media world

Peg Giffels — 2012-02-21T23:48:54Z

I had the opportunity to facilitate a discussion on Social Media Return on Engagement last week at an Executive Director Roundtable hosted by the Alliance for Nonprofits and 501 Commons. In the ED Roundtable format, participants rotate between three topics, so I saw three different groups for 1/2 hour each. In those 30 minutes the Executive Directors expressed diverse feelings about social media, including confusion ("What is the difference between Facebook and Twitter?") and delight at the possibility of reaching new audiences. I was impressed by the high rate of adoption of social media across different types and sizes of organizations, and also by the outright courage nonprofit leaders are showing by trying it out.

I shared some tips from my own experience and from NPower's Knowledge Center, including a new flier on Return on Engagement. One of the key differences between social media and traditional media is the shift from monologue to conversation. That means giving up a little bit of control over your organization's message, in trade for a chance to better engage with and learn from your clients, donors and other "constituents". It's the difference between posting a carefully crafted summary of your fundraising event on your website (a one-way broadcast), and giving a shout out to event volunteers on Facebook and tagging them to encourage comments back. Both communications have their uses, but without the Facebook update you miss giving your volunteers a chance to appreciate you back, and to share their enthusiasm with all of their friends.

The ED's I met with on Friday were not worried about control in the same way that nonprofit leaders were just a few years ago. I credit these leaders with "getting it" that the advantages outweigh the discomfort, and with being willing to bravely enter a new world of figuring out how to use the tools in service of their missions. One participant shared that she keeps a list of "Twitter mavens" to whom she feeds updates and news. They in turn share the information with their followers, increasing the chance for donations and volunteer engagement for her organization. Now that's smart and brave!

Thanks to the Alliance for Nonprofits and 501 Commons for the opportunity to share some tips and to learn from the group on Friday. For more conversation about technology for mission impact, check out the brown bag sessions listed on our Training Calendar. Our brown bags are free and chock full of useful info. We offer a brief presentation and plenty of time to learn from your peers, with cookies and coffee to fuel the conversation. Next up on social media: Social Media Intermediate on March 7, and Social Media Content Curation on March 28th.

Announcing our AmeriCorps Free Tech Assessment Project

Abby Nafziger — 2012-02-17T15:20:00Z

Our AmeriCorps VISTA team is excited to announce the launch of our Tech Assessment Project. This pilot program gives small nonprofits working in the area of poverty alleviation a chance to assess their technology, receive tech training and create a strategy map to guide their operations planning, grant-writing and volunteer recruitment.

As newcomers to Seattle, our VISTA team is excited to have this opportunity to get to know many of the amazing nonprofits in the area who are doing great work everyday to help alleviate poverty. If your nonprofit is interested in this free program, here are all the details about about eligibility and project outcomes, and a link to the application form.

Applications are due by March 23rd, so if you're interested let us know soon!

Why do we love NTC?

Mandi Moshay — 2012-02-15T17:00:00Z

NTEN's Nonprofit Technology Conference is just weeks away: April 3-5 in San Francisco. There's so much to love about NTC 2012. The networking opportunities alone are worth the trip, but the schedule of sessions is enough to set even the most accidental of techies swooning.

Did we mention that our very own Alison Carl White and Peg Giffels will be presenting? It's true! In their session "Taking Action, Making Change" Alison and Peg will introduce the NPower Northwest Technology Theory of Change and how it helped us envision the capacity, people and processes we need in order to reach our goals.

Check out this post from NTEN's blog featuring videos from Alison and Peg, as well as a few other NTC presenters sharing what they love about the conference. Register before February 17th and you'll save a hundred bucks! What's not to love?

See you there!

- Mandi Moshay

Another great perk for NPower clients

Mandi Moshay — 2012-02-14T19:13:00Z

Being an NPower client comes with lots of perks – friendly consultants, reliable support, and the peace of mind from having a trusted technology partner. And we're happy to highlight yet another benefit from working with us – discounts from Microsoft!

Through the Microsoft Direct Donations Program (MSDDP), NPower clients receive a code that allows them to request Microsoft products through TechSoup without paying administrative fees. This includes Windows PC operating system upgrades, server software licenses, Microsoft Office, and more. That’s not all - because of the long-standing partnership between NPower and Microsoft, we’re also able to facilitate discounts of up to 75% for our clients on Office 365 and Dynamics CRM hosted licensing.

You can learn more about MSDDP and the related products and information on techsoup.org. All of the aforementioned discounts are available for NPower consulting clients.

If you have any questions or would like to take advantage of these killer deals, contact us at consulting@npowernw.org.

- Mandi Moshay

Welcome Dennis Henderson

Mandi Moshay — 2012-02-08T17:00:00Z

NPower is pleased to welcome the newest member of our staff, Dennis Henderson. Dennis joined our team earlier this week and his work will be focused on providing fast, effective help desk service for our Managed Service clients.

Dennis will be with us for six months as part of his work with Year Up, a fabulous technical and professional training program based here in Seattle. He’ll be helping triage support requests as they come in and learning the tech ropes with our consulting team.

Welcome, Dennis!

A search engine designed for nonprofit needs?

Mandi Moshay — 2012-02-13T17:05:00Z

This is a guest post from Matt Fikejs, Information & Referral Program Manager at 501 Commons. Matt writes periodically writes for the NPower Northwest blog to share updates from the Statewide Nonprofit Resource Directory.

In the age of Internet search engines, what could be simpler than typing in the services your nonprofit needs and combing the results? The problem is, with traditional search engines, the results can be overwhelming or biased toward those that appear on the first page. Worse, what you’re really looking for may not be there at all or buried so far down the list that you never see it. And then there’s the issue of quality. When it comes to consultants and other service providers that appear, what would their clients say about them?

All due respect to Bing, Google, and others, there’s a better way to find nonprofit resources and referrals, especially here in Washington State. 501 Commons’ Statewide Nonprofit Resource Directory takes the hunt for nonprofit help to a whole new level with a nonprofit topic-based search tool and webpages specific to nonprofit issues. We also require that listed providers who offer consulting services or products have at least three years experience serving nonprofits and come recommended by at least three nonprofit clients. And we do reference checks to ensure this standard.

In future posts, I’ll describe the carefully curated resources and original content you can find through the Directory. Today, though, the focus is on the many types of nonprofit specialists who are listed…that is, approved, then listed:

Consultants and consulting firms, like fundraisers and accountants
Other providers/companies, such as graphic designers and technology services
Nonprofit capacity-building organizations (e.g., NPower Northwest)
Associations, networks, and volunteer centers
Educational programs and resource centers

So the next time you’re looking for help from experienced, skilled, and recommended service providers – or seeking valuable online resources – start with the Directory. Better yet, bookmark it now and jot down my contact info (matt@501commons.org, 206-682-6704) in case you still have questions.

We all know that time is precious and time is money. Here’s to quick and successful searches!

- Matt Fikejs, Information & Referral Program Manager, 501 Commons

5 simple search engine optimization tips

Stephen Eggers — 2012-02-09T17:00:00Z

Have a website or create content for the web? Do you want people to discover it, read it, interact with it, and use it? You can improve your chances of discovery through search engine optimization - the process of making your web content discoverable to those searching for it. Here are five quick tips to increase your website’s prominence with search engines.

1. Use a unique, descriptive article title and URL

Avoid something like: www.npowernw.org/node/2842/fa8ccd103ex.htm

And instead provide a more descriptive URL such as: www.npowernw.org/knowledge-center/planning-a-website-project or www.npowernw.org/blog/for-your-next-remote-troubleshooting-session

Descriptive URLs allow potential visitors (and web crawlers) to get rough idea of what lies beyond the hyperlink.

2. Use a hierarchical structure to organize your site

As you can see in the above descriptive URL examples, you can imagine where other articles might fall. For example, helpful resources on topics (such as website project planning) would fall under the /knowledge center/. Time-dependent blog posts or short articles would appear under the /blog/ section. Information about NPower’s staff and board would probably appear after /about-us/.

3. Create and submit an XML Sitemap

An XML Sitemap is a tool for web crawlers. Similar to a human-readable site map, it actually shows the hierachical structure of your entire website. This is useful if web crawlers are having a hard time discovering parts of your site because it tells them exactly what is where. You can create an XML Sitemap using Google’s free tools and can submit it to search engines to notify them of your content.

4. Avoid large pictures in lieu of actual text and HTML

This is a pretty common mistake. Organizations and companies that don’t have the time or know-how to build a proper site or page with HTML will often just upload a single large image composed of text and smaller images all in one. Other times the article header (with the article’s title and description) is entirely one image. Unfortunately, while humans can read and navigate these images with little trouble, web crawlers are nearly blind to the text on an image. An imperfect solution would be to include the text as the image’s description or alt-text field. However this doesn’t always weigh the components of an article properly (headers and paragraphs should really be placed in their appropriate

and
tags) in calculating the web page’s score.

5. Read Google’s SEO Starter Guide and attend one of our brown bag presentations

Most of the tips in this article came from Google’s own SEO Starter Guide (.pdf) which contains detailed instructions and advice to make your website and content more discoverable. Though Google is the number one search engine used to direct visitors to websites, many of the ideas contained in Google’s SEO starter guide are written and helpful even if you are targeting other search engines such as Bing or Yahoo.

If you’d like more information on how to optimize your website, bring your lunch and join us on February 22 for a free brown bag workshop on Search Engine Optimization. The workshop includes time for a presentation and discussion/Q & A. See our training calender to register.

- Stephen Eggers

Sunday Supper: Learning through discussion

Abby Nafziger — 2012-02-02T17:00:00Z

This past Monday, I had the chance to host a Sunday Supper as a part of Points of Light Foundation’s National Day of Service to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. As a part of my AmeriCorps VISTA assignment, it is a high priority to identify opportunities to educate myself and others on poverty-alleviation issues. Postponed due to Seattle’s epic snow storm two weeks ago, the evening was a great chance to gather friends together to share a potluck supper, watch a documentary, and discuss the issues facing public education in the US. We selected the film Waiting for Superman to jump-start conversation about the importance of education to help improve lives, end poverty, and restore neighborhoods.

Directed by Davis Guggenheim, Waiting for Superman examines the public school system in the US. The documentary follows five kids who are all hoping to improve their education by entering the lottery for high-performing charter schools in their cities. The real story, however, is in the failing schools the kids are hoping to escape. The documentary teaches us that US public education has fallen behind many other developed countries (now ranking 20th out of 28 reporting countries in drop-out rates). In addition, reading and math scores have remained mainly stagnant for the past 50 years, meaning that many students continue to fall through the cracks and miss out on all the benefits of attending college.

After watching the documentary together, we discussed many of the difficult issues raised by the film including the challenging balancing act of teacher’s unions, the achievement gap, and the high number of high school drop-outs who end up in prison. It was a good evening and chance to talk and think with friends about ways we can work toward improving public education and making it possible for every and any student to their fullest capacity.

- Abby Nafziger

Resources available to help you choose a database

Elissa Thomas — 2012-01-31T17:00:00Z

Thankfully the crazy winter weather is behind us and we were able to get back to normal last week and hold the next brown bag workshop in our free series: Choosing a Database. The brown bag conversation centered around the processes that are most crucial to selecting new database software. The focus was on assessing organizational needs and identifying technology goals in order to better serve your organization's mission. This means that the tool you select should support existing processes, not the other way around.

Attendees received worksheets to assist with organizational process mapping, developing an outline of functional requirements, and software feature prioritization. We'll be hosting another brown bag on this topic on April 11. In the meantime, the slides and resources from the presentation are available in the knowledge center on our website.

Thanks to representatives from the Church Council of Greater Seattle, Washington State Child Care Resources & Referral Network, Page Ahead Children's Literacy Program, and the League of Women Voters of Washington for your thoughtful questions and active participation!

The next installment of our free brown bag series takes place this Wednesday, February 1, with Twitter 101 (rescheduled from February 18 due to snow and ice). For information about other upcoming trainings, check out the online training calendar and the 'new in 2012' training flier for details.

- Elissa Thomas

Ready to do away with double donation data entry? There’s an app for that.

Mandi Moshay — 2012-01-26T17:00:00Z

Have you ever found yourself entering donation data into your database, and then having to enter it again into your financial management software? Duplicative data entry is not only frustrating, but it creates a higher risk of human error, and takes you away from doing more important, mission-focused work. That is exactly why NPower designed the CRM to QB Link app. Thanks to generous funding from Microsoft, CRM to QB Link was created as part of Tech Soup's App It Up program.

You might be asking, what is an app? Short for “application,” an app is essentially a piece of software with limited functionality, usually developed for a special purpose. Most of us think of mobile apps when we hear the term, bringing to mind games like Angry Birds or mobile music apps such as Spotify. Apps can also be plug-ins that add functionality to existing technology.

TechSoup and Microsoft set out to learn more about nonprofit app use to determine what it would take for nonprofits to utilize apps, and what apps would be most useful for the average organization. TechSoup kicked off the process by conducting a survey to determine how many nonprofits are using apps, what the barriers to use are, and what sort of apps organizations would like to see developed.

In response to an expressed need, TechSoup and Microsoft worked with NPower to develop the CRM to QB Link app. The app converts and integrates data from Microsoft Dynamics CRM into QuickBooks financial management. Data can be entered into Dynamics CRM (or other software) and quickly imported into QuickBooks. The app is available for $100 with a low $10/mo support fee that includes standard upgrades and up to three incidents per month. Visit the database consulting page of our website to learn more about app pricing and availability.

Be sure to check out TechSoup’s App It Up Showcase to learn about the latest and greatest apps by and for nonprofits. And stay tuned with the App It Up program as TechSoup continues to explore their role in supporting app use.

- Mandi Moshay

Our dream for the sector in 2012

Mandi Moshay — 2012-01-25T17:00:00Z

I think we can all agree that 2011 was a really hard year - for nonprofits, for community members and, as we’ve become fond of saying, to just be a human. The political and financial instability at home and across the world has made for lots of feelings of anxiety, leading many of us to reflect on our values and our work. It can be easy to focus on the negative aspects of life - complaining about how hard it is, wishing for the good ol’ days. But, really, that isn’t much of a strategy. We, at NPower, believe that the genius is in action forward. Of course, we don’t have all the answers. But we’re willing to contemplate this big question: What is our role in creating a thriving community?

NPower had some great accomplishments in 2011 including the creation of our own technology theory of change, the development of our IT best practices models, significant expansion of our free community education resources, and some great momentum-building in our quest to position technology as a key driver for nonprofit capacity-building. It was hard work that we did on top of serving our 200+ clients and continuing to find ways to collaborate with our colleagues across the country. And yet, it was hard to feel content with last year when we continue to see so much suffering in our community.

We know this will be another hard financial year and that the economy will continue to affect our community. We know we won’t be able to buy our way out of the social challenges. But what we can do is attack 2012 with new vigor to create organizational efficiency and reimagine how we do our work. I’m convinced that disciplined operational processes and effective utilization of technology will create a deeper impact. Streamlining, eliminating duplication, and creating a more productive work environment for our nonprofit staffers will help us accelerate down the path to meet our missions.

Ever the optimist, I’m hopeful for 2012. Let’s not let a good crisis go to waste. Join me in dreaming big to find ways to insure that everyone in our community has a safe place to sleep, enough to eat, access to healthcare, equality, and lifelong learning.

- Alison Carl White

AmeriCorps team in the community

Elissa Thomas — 2012-01-27T17:00:00Z

Seattle was home to several service activities and events leading up to and inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. Day. My fellow AmeriCorps VISTA, Abby and I participated in the Community Resource Exchange, an annual event organized by United Way of King County. Service providers filled the CenturyLink Event Center to provide information and basic resources to over 1,500 homeless guests.

I was amazed at the wide range of services available: haircuts, job placement, a computer lab, a mobile dental clinic, shoe giveaway, legal experts - even a foot-washing station! A large section of the massive conference hall was dedicated to an improvised dining area, where guests could rest and enjoy a meal provided by FareStart. Abby volunteered at the greeting desk, while I was stationed at check-out and conducted exit interviews with the guests. The event was very well-received and, aside from a few constructive suggestions, every person I spoke with praised the day's programs.

The hands-down hit of the day were the brussel sprouts, followed distantly by the lasagna, then the free shoes. Several attendees expressed feeling blessed to be around so many kind, smiling faces and were happy to see community member taking care of each other. With over 10,000 volunteers assisting with over 400 projects, it was a tremendous collaboration on the part of the Washington State government, local nonprofits, and the Seattle business community. The comprehensive approach taken ensured that basic needs were met while, at the same time, resources were shared that have the potential to generate a positive, long-term improvements for the state's homeless population.

- Elissa Thomas

Local investment creates a national impact

Mandi Moshay — 2012-01-24T17:00:00Z

You may have read on our site, or heard one of our staff members say that NPower strives to create a sector-wide impact through effective use of technology within nonprofit organizations. What do we mean by that, exactly? How can a small Northwest nonprofit help to change the face of the entire nonprofit sector? We’re trying a few things: innovative thinking, a strong belief in the power of technology, and (because we can't do it alone) strong collaborations with community partners...

The work NPower has been doing in recent years with a subset of community land trusts (CLTs) exemplifies the potential for one technology tool to change the way nonprofits do their work. CLTs are nonprofit organizations that acquire and manage land on behalf of community residents in order to increase and preserve the stock of affordable housing. A few years back, three local CLTs approached NPower Northwest with an idea to create a database that would serve them collectively. "The project represented a unique new way for NPower to do business, as we generally undertake projects with one organization at a time," says Alison Carl White, Executive Director of NPower Northwest. "These three similar organizations recognized a need for a system that would improve their ability to deliver services, and saw several benefits to making the collective investment in the development of customized tool that would meet specific needs [of community land trusts]."

NPower was up to the task, and began the process of developing a CRM system on the Salesforce.com platform that would work for all three local organizations. As the project progressed, it caught the attention of a national funder who saw a greater need for a shared-measurement system that would allow organizations across the country to track the same metrics, compare themselves to their peers, and articulate the impact of the community land trust model on a national scale. "We were so lucky to work with a funder like NCB Capital Impact because they really care about the work being done and really understood the need for this tool." says Alison.

The result is HomeKeeper, a CRM system that has been rolled out to several pilot organizations nationwide, with the system launching at several additional locations this year.

The hope is to utilize the pilot program to solicit feedback from organizational staff and improve the user experience. By 2013, an improved version will be made more widely available on the Salesforce App Exchange, allowing virtually any CLT in the nation to utilize it. The more land trusts that utilize HomeKeeper, the more these organizations can learn from each other, improving the way they manage data, serve their clients, and impact their communities.

How's that for sector-wide impact? To learn more about this project, check out the case study on our website. If you would like additional information on our database services, including the HomeKeeper system, check out our Database Consulting page, or contact us at consulting@npowernw.org.

- Mandi Moshay

Welcome new staffers!

Mandi Moshay — 2012-02-01T17:00:00Z

NPower is excited to announce the arrival of three new staff members. Read on to hear why they came to NPower and get links to their full bios...

Dave Forrester: "I'm excited to be back at NPower Northwest at this critical point in its growth. I've been involved with just about every aspect of our services in one way or another in my prior work with this great organization: with stints in technology training, technology strategy consulting, and database and website development. I even set up a few peer-to-peer networks for clients back in the day. In my new role, I'm looking forward to working with my colleagues here to leverage our core competencies in technology to build capacity and adaptability in the nonprofit sector."

View Dave's full bio here.

Pallavi Garg: "It is a challenging yet exciting time for nonprofits. Organizations that can rally support, cultivate meaningful relationships, and demonstrate operational excellence have the ability not just to survive, but to thrive. The right technology strategy deployed well, opens up immense possibilities for nonprofits to excel. I feel privileged to join the dedicated and talented team at NPower Northwest that is committed to helping nonprofits in our community achieve scale and capacity expansion, and hope to leverage my past experience in the corporate and non-profit sector to serve diverse organizations."

View Pallavi's full bio here.

Jenna Barrett: "I'm delighted to join the team at NPower Northwest. As a former client and believer in the power of technology to advance communities I’m inspired by NPower's mission. Putting my administrative and nonprofit experience to work for the staff at NPower is a great way to help ensure everyone has the tools they need to do great work. I look forward to helping support a mission-driven and positive office environment for NPower staff, clients and partners."

View Jenna's full bio here.

NPower is open, Friday 1/20

Peg Giffels — 2012-01-20T16:20:00Z

And the forecast today in Seattle calls for...slush. NPower is officially open for business today at 23rd and Jackson, however our consultants will be using their best judgment about travel.

If you have an in-person meeting or a Managed Services visit with an NPower consultant today, please email ahead of time to confirm.

Stay warm and dry!

- The NPower Staff