Patrick Tewson, our Database Consultant, recently traveled to San Francisco to take part in the 2012 Nonprofit Starter Pack Developer Sprint. Here is his full report and some additional information about the upcoming Salesforce Summer 2012 release.

Laura Meerkatz, former NPower Consultant, and lots of other developers at the Sprint in San Francisco

Salesforce Nonprofit Starter Pack Developer Sprint

During the week of May 14th, I was privileged to take part of the 2012 Nonprofit Starter Pack Developer Sprint in San Francisco. Organized by the Salesforce Foundation, the sprint consisted of three days of intensive coding by a room full of creative, dedicated nonprofit-focused developers from several organizations. We gathered together to create new features for, and extend the capabilities of, the Nonprofit Starter Pack. A series of managed packages that sit on top of Salesforce to better manage individual donors, the Nonprofit Starter Pack is both open source and free for all nonprofits. Kevin Bromer, a former consultant at NPower Northwest, played host to our motley crew, and summarizes the products of the sprint on his blog.

This is a quick screenshot of the Relationship Viewer that Laura and I worked on.

Salesforce Summer 2012 Release

Arriving June 1st is another new development in the Salesforce world - the Summer '12 release. Continuing the emphasis on "The Social Enterprise", this release targets nonprofit and for-profit users alike. However, the focus on driving community connections from the platform should appeal to many nonprofits, allowing users to "Turn weak ties into strong connections". Improvements to reporting and analytics will be good news to fans in the nonprofit community, and continued focus on the Chatter feature (which brings notifications, social interaction, and a window into the workings of the organization to your CRM) are especially exciting.

In the face of these developments, a thriving community of consultants and service providers continues to work to determine the best ways of delivering these tools to nonprofits and how to best unlock the keys to project success. From the sprint in San Francisco to my current projects with NPower clients, I continue to experience enthusiasm for technology as an agent of social change.

For some more detailed information about the upcoming Salesforce release, here are two additional articles: Summer 12 Rapid Reaction and Summer 12 Hard Core.

- Patrick Tewson

The NPower offices will be closed in celebration of Memorial Day. Our amazing support line team will also be enjoying a well-deserved holiday, so our Emergency Support will resume on Tuesday at 8:30am. We hope you all enjoy the 3-day weekend!

Do you love learning new technologies and teaching them to others? Are you a critical thinker with strong organizational skills? Do you have experience with web-related research, cloud computing or tech infrastructure? Are you passionate about the role nonprofits play in transforming communities?

Combine your skills and apply for our 2012-2013 Tech Corps team.

We are looking for a dedicated team of AmeriCorps VISTAs who will take on a year of exciting challenges and opportunities including:

• Implementing a technology assessment and implementation plan to a portfolio of 10-15 local nonprofits.
• Providing one Nonprofit Technology capacity training each month for a minimum of 15 community nonprofit staff, volunteers or board members.
• Engaging Skills Based Volunteers as appropriate to support capacity building in the sector, including local Google staff.

Desired Qualifications for each team member include:

• Bachelor’s Degree or commensurate experience preferred.
• Technical sales, customer support, or consulting experience.
• Experience with tech planning and implementation using cloud and online tools in a nonprofit environment.
• Adaptable, creative, proactive and able to multitask and manage time well.
• Demonstrated commitment to volunteerism and service.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills. Strong ability to communicate technical concepts clearly and effectively and meet aggressive timelines.
• Experience in a web-research related role a plus.
• Demonstrated creative problem-solving approach and strong analytical skills.
• General core competencies in networking/infrastructure, hardware, mobile device management, multi platform system administration, enterprise deployment, communication technology.

For more information about the position, download the Job Description. Application is a two-part process through AmeriCorps and the HandsOn Tech program.

UPDATE: This position is closed for the 2012-2013 year, but check back next year for another chance to join our team!

While good strategy and planning are the foundation for any new tech venture, learning about new available tools in your nonprofit work also plays a vital role. So, our AmeriCorps team is thrilled to announce a Google+ training right here in Seattle. Thanks to Google’s support of the HandsOn Tech program, this seminar will be available for free for all area nonprofits. Check out all the details below and don’t forget to register!

Event Description:

Google+ is the new social layer across all Google products that boasts exciting capabilities, such as video broadcasting through Youtube, social search, and audience specific sharing.  At this Google+ for Nonprofits Seminar we will cover the basics of Google+ tools, give an inside look at how other nonprofits leaders are utilizing Google+, and equip you to leverage Google+ to promote your own nonprofit.

Details & What to Bring:

For the first hour we will be learning the platform and hearing from local nonprofit leaders.  The last half an hour will be reserved for questions and optimizing your nonprofit’s Google+ page.  It is recommended that you bring a laptop for this portion of the seminar.  We will have a limited amount of Chrome books on hand, in case you do not have a laptop available to bring along.

Date: July 12, 2012
Time: 9:00 am - 10:30 am
Location: Google 651 North 34th Street
Cost: Free!

Directions Upon Arrival:

Google reception will allow you access through our main entrance.  We’ll have a name tag ready for you to pick up at check-in.  A light breakfast and coffee will be provided to enjoy during the seminar.

Register Here:

The seminar will be limited to the first 50 registrants, so register now. It's fast and painless!

3 Movement Builders On How To Create Engaged Citizens by Co.Exist (Fast Company)
"If you’re trying to build a 21st-century movement, you really need amazing narrative storytelling to popularize the issue. Then you also need great user-experience design-- a navigable website, an easy-to-share video--to help ensure that your work goes viral."

5 ½ Timeless Commencement Speeches to Teach You to Define Your Own Success from Maria Popova of Brain Pickings
“Across them runs a common thread of what seems to be as much a critical message, the message, for the young as it is an essential lifelong reminder for all: No social convention of success should lure you away from or could be a substitute for finding your purpose and doing what you love.”

Facebook’s Success Hinges on How Much More It Can Learn About Us by Steve Hinn of NPR
“The company has a long history of pushing people to share more than they might otherwise be comfortable sharing. And there is no indication that trend will change. But there is always the risk that at some point millions of people will simply say they've had enough and quit the service. So far, that hasn't happened.”

Measuring the Return on Engagement of Community Commitment by Debra Askanase of Community Organizer 2.0
"The most important metric to consider is whether or not you are building a committed and engaged online community. Once you have built that, you can begin to measure whether or not that community is taking actions you’d like them to take."

Hope you enjoyed these articles and if you want to learn more about my favorite content curation tool (that I used to find these articles and many others), check out this post on 5 Reasons Your Nonprofit Should Be Using Google Reader

We bet you all know that post-party feeling after you sweep up all the confetti and pack home the leftover coasters. Fortunately for us, the Techtacular high is still running strong enough to carry us through to the weekend. Thank you so much to all the wonderful folks who came and walked down our red carpet (including the surprise victims/interviewees of Fred Northup), sipped our Techtonics, ate yummy food and got inspired by the stories from Building Changes, Campfire, our AmeriCorps VISTA team and of course our fearless leader - Alison Carl White.

While we pack away our party hats and name tag holders, we thought we would leave you with a few statistics from last night:

Number of pulled pork sliders eaten: 171.045*
Number of new networking contacts made: 308**
Number of Attendees: 181
Number of Attendees who arrived to the red carpet directly from the airport: 1 (Our very own Patrick Tewson***)
Amount raised through ticket sales and sponsorships: Over $100k to support NPower’s impact maximizing efforts!!

Mark Mendoza and UpBeat Entertainment at Techtacular

Thanks again to all the wonderful people who joined in to make this year’s Techtacular a spectacular success! We couldn’t have done it without you.

*number of attendees minus 10% for non-meat eaters and added 5% for the super hungry among us
**number of attendees x 2, minus 15%, rounded to the nearest integer
***His journey started at the Salesforce Nonprofit Developers Sprint in San Francisco, then he took the BART to the airport, flew to Seattle, hopped on the light rail to SoDo and walked the last blocks to Techtacular!

Twelve participants from the Tech Assessment program came to the NPower Northwest training lab for the second hands-on workshop focusing specifically on free tools available to nonprofits enrolled in the Google for Nonprofits program, as well as free Google tools available to anyone.  The training covered:

• Overview of useful Google products for nonprofits
• Collaboration in real-time using Google Docs
• Hands-on exercises with Google Analytics and Google Forms
• Overview of exclusive tools for Google for Nonprofits enrollees

What does Google provide that can help nonprofits?

In the workshop, we reviewed Google Docs, Google Sites, Gmail, and Google Calendar, which are all are built on the premise that users will collaborate and share in real-time.

There are also many other applications, shown in the picture below, many of which you have probably used (Blogger, News, Picasa, Maps). Since there are quite a few products and services, we tried to focus on ones that we could see small nonprofits utilizing, and gave some real life scenarios and the corresponding Google product that would be useful.

Overview of all Google products

The tools we recommend: game-changers

Google Docs (including Google Forms), Google Analytics, and Webmaster Tools provide individuals and small organizations with the kind of expertise that comes from a complete IT department, for free!

We did hands-on exercises with mock accounts so that everyone could get real experience creating a quick-and-easy survey in Google Forms, and determining web traffic statistics from a live account in Google Analytics.

See what happens when things start getting Real

Focus on: Google for Nonprofits products

The last half hour of the training addressed the products available exclusively to organizations enrolled in the Google for Nonprofits program:

• Google Grants gives access to AdWords, which provides up to $10,000 of free advertising/mo.
• Google Apps for Nonprofits, up to 3,000 free users!  Manages websites, email accounts, etc.
• YouTube for Nonprofits, branded channel with action overlays possible
• Google Earth Outreach enterprise edition available free

Questions on eligibility?  See the eligibility guidelines here.

If you missed the Google for Nonprofits training, or would like additional information, here are some relevant training seminars we’ll be hosting in the near future:

• July 11 - Google Analytics Brown Bag
• July 18 - Search Engine Optimization (briefly covering Google Webmaster tools)

If you’re looking for the slides from Monday’s presentation, head over to our Knowledge Center. Next up for the Tech Assessment Program: Training #3 - Website Creation.

- Elissa Thomas and Stephen Eggers

Techtacular is coming up tomorrow and in addition to our 5 Top Reasons to Come to Techtacular and our Stellar speaker line-up, we are looking forward to mingling with folks from our round-up of wonderful sponsors.

Premier Partner:

• Microsoft

Savvy Partners:

• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• SAP
• Deloitte
• PointB

Community Builder Partners:

• Accenture
• Avanade
• Presidio
• Univar
• West Monroe Partners
• Sprint

Supporting Partners:

• AT&T
• Verizon
• Dell
• Liquid Planner

Start-Up Partners:

• Slalom
• IBM
• Oracle
• KForce
• Cognizant

If you don't want to miss your chance to mingle with some of the finest minds in Seattle, we still have a few tickets left!

Techtacular, a non-traditional nonprofit event, is coming up in only 2 days and we couldn’t be more excited! While the focus of our event is on mingling with other smart folks in the nonprofit technology sphere, we are pleased to have three individuals who will tell the story of how nonprofits are evolving to achieve maximum community impact. Although have no fear, we dislike long-winded speakers as much as the next guys, so this year’s program is modeled after a mini-TED talk style with short presentations that pack a lot of punch. Ranging from a social worker turned Operations Manager to a librarian with a passion for putting technology in the hands of nonprofits, meet the speaker line-up for Techtacular 2012!

Nicholas Merriam

A self-described social evangelist, Nick's career has spanned the nonprofit, for-profit and philanthropic sectors. Nick has always worked at the intersection of innovation and impact, whether it was healthy living for seniors or private equity investing for the environment. Nick is currently the Operations Manager for Building Changes where he leads the IT, HR and administrative functions. He also serves as the Vice-Chair of the Board for Friends of Youth.

Bridgett Chandler

Bridgett is the CEO of Camp Fire USA Central Puget Sound Council (CFUSA-CPSC), which serves nearly 15,000 people in the Puget Sound area with summer camp and year-round activities that connect youth and families to each other and the natural world. Bridgett has put her formidable skills to use at Seattle Public Schools, Talaris Research Institute, Seattle Mayor’s Office, and the University of Washington. Always looking for more ways to give back, Bridgett has served on more than a dozen community and nonprofit boards. And, although she has received many honors over the years, she is especially proud of being the first female valedictorian of Seattle Prep. (Girls rule!)

Abby Nafziger

A recent transplant to Seattle, Abby brings together a strong background in libraries with a love of social media and passion for serving her local community. With five years of experience wrangling students in a high school library and showing them the ropes of good research skills, Abby went on to pursue her Masters in Library Science at Dominican University. Looking for a way to sharpen her tech training and learn more about the exciting world of nonprofits, Abby chose to participate in the AmeriCorps program here at NPower.

Haven’t grabbed your ticket yet? Don’t worry there are still a few left.

As the most popular social network for nonprofits*, Facebook integration is everywhere. However, figuring out how to use Facebook effectively to engage donors, volunteers and other members of your nonprofit community isn’t always easy. On Wednesday, our free brown bag training series continued with Facebook 101, to help dig into this communication channel. We had a good conversation that focused on two main concepts: Facebook Insights and Tactics for Facebook Engagement.

Facebook Insights - What do all those numbers mean?

Our Top 5 Facebook Tactics

1. Create a fully functional Page
2. Ask questions / Elicit feedback
3. Pictures speak louder than words
4. Be responsive
5. Don’t be afraid to re-share interesting content

What more info, check out the full presentation over in the Knowledge Center. Also we have lots more FREE brown bag trainings coming up this summer!

3 Bonus Resources

• John Haydon’s 27 Ways to Increase Engagement on Your Facebook Page - lots of good ideas to help you think outside the box and breathe some new life into your Facebook presence
• The Nonprofit Facebook Guy - created by the very same John Haydon, this site is chock full of helpful information, guides, videos and more all designed to help your nonprofit get the most out of Facebook.
• Nonprofit Tech 2.0’s 5 Nonprofits That Have Found Their Facebook Voice - sometimes it is easiest to learn by example, so check out these nonprofits and how they are using Facebook

*The latest Nonprofit Social Network Report found that 98% of nonprofits have a Facebook Page