NPower Northwest will be closed on Monday, September 5th in observance of Labor Day. We hope you all enjoy the sunshine this long weekend. We'll see you Tuesday!

With free licensing for nonprofits from the Salesforce.com Foundation, Salesforce has become a popular CRM system in the sector. For that reason we wanted to give you all a little heads up on a change that’s brewing with Salesforce and their Recycle Bin. I know – a strange topic for a blog post, but an important tip nonetheless.

Starting with the winter 2012 release, the Recycle Bin will have smaller storage capacity and a lower retention period. To provide their customers with a faster user experience, Recycle Bins will only hold up to 25 times your storage space (down from 250 times), and will permanently delete items after 15 days (instead of 30). These may seem like small changes, but if you’re anything like me you often find yourself digging in the Recycle Bin looking for items that you thought you’d never need again.

If you have questions about the upcoming changes, you can contact Salesforce.com customer support.

- Mandi Moshay

Hey NPower Northwest blog readers! We're NPower's new VISTA volunteers. As the new faces around the office we wanted to take this time to introduce ourselves. A branch of the Corporation for National Community Service, VISTA volunteers serve communities all over the U.S. with the goal of helping to alleviate poverty through capacity building. We've been at our host site, the lovely NPower Nothwest office, for just about one week. So far, we've been excited to get to know the staff and learn more about our mission for the coming year. In addition to contributing to NPower's community education efforts via this blog and brown bag seminars on a range of technology-related topics, we'll also be involved in creating and implementing a Best Practices for Nonprofits project.  We're also very excited to spend the upcoming week at Google Headquarters (!!) in Mountain View, CA, receiving tech training and learning more about nonprofit needs.

VISTA Volunteers Stephen Eggers, Abby Nafziger, and Elissa Thomas

Allow us to briefly introduce ourselves:

I am Abby Nafziger and as a recent transplant from Chicago, I am enjoying learning all about my new home town of Seattle.  So far I've learned not to expect this lovely August weather to last, to eat lots of sushi, and to step my appreciation for coffee up a notch. I come to VISTA and NPower Northwest from a library background with a strong appreciation for the many ways technology can be a positive tool in individuals’ and organizations’ lives.  Much of my librarian training has been focused on connecting more technical aspects of cutting-edge technology with people who may not have the same level of technological proficiency, and I look forward to continuing to act as a translator for technology within the nonprofit world. In my spare time I enjoy baking, jam-making, walking, commuting by bus, and laughing with friends while watching nerdy TV shows and movies.

My name is Stephen Eggers and I am excited to be participating in HandsOn Tech in Seattle. After receiving a B.S. in Optics and working for various small technology companies in my hometown of Rochester, NY, I decided to return to the community and help bring technology to the nonprofit sector. Technology has the fundamental ability to create change and bring power to those who embrace it. I hope to see the many ways nonprofits can leverage the tools, software, and services that have recently come into existence to maximize their missions’ impact.

Hi, my name is Elissa Thomas, and I made my way to Seattle from Baltimore via about 20 cities, towns, and campgrounds across the country. My hobbies include poring over thousands of pictures of moose, mountain ranges, and national monuments.  Like Abby, I have a library science background. Most recently I was working as a public librarian in Baltimore, where I provided introductory computer training and helped to maintain an online presence for my branch through blogging, tweeting, and making use of social networking sites. After living and working for years in under-served urban neighborhoods, I am more committed than ever to supporting nonprofits serving low-income communities. I'm extremely excited about the growing impact of technologies to advance nonprofit objectives, and I am really looking forward to connecting more Seattle organizations to beneficial online communications resources during my year at NPower Northwest!

We look forward to sharing more of what we learn via the NPower blog!

Since launching our new website about three months ago, we’ve re-examined the web development process a handful of times, reflecting on our experience and its implication for the way we approach future web work with clients. I recently sat down with our Director of Community Engagement, Peg Giffels, to write a case study about our project and the impact our new site has had on our organization. We realized through the course of our discussion that we’d learned a lot of things that would be helpful to pass along to anyone considering a website development project.

Failing to plan is planning to fail: Our project had a tight timeline as we were planning to unveil the new site at our annual fundraising event – the timing of which was set in stone. We never would’ve been able to execute if it were not for careful planning, the development of a detailed timeline with clear benchmarks, and a project manager that kept us accountable (thanks, Kate!)

Know your audience (and what you want to say to them): NPower’s web development followed a strategic planning process, which meant that we were clear on our communications objectives and who we perceived our online target audience to be. We also had a detailed messaging framework that provided a foundation for the way we wanted to talk about ourselves and our services. These tools made it simpler to develop a framework for the website and come up with the content that would fill each page. As the primary writer for our website copy, I could not have done it without having such clear guidelines, especially since I was relatively new to the organization when the web work began!

Get everyone on the boat before you set sail: By getting executive level buy-in (meaning the support of both leadership staff and the board), we were able to bypass several potential road-blocks. Having decision-makers engaged early on meant that the web and community engagement teams were clear on their expectations and could make well-informed decisions, preventing us from forging paths that would ultimately lead nowhere. Your ED and board don’t have to be consulted on every little decision, but getting their input on high level goals, functional requirements, and basic site architecture will save you a lot of potential headaches.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention how much we learned about working with the NPower Northwest web team. It was fun to engage with our colleagues in a new way and sit on the “other side of the table,” so to speak. But, being able to see first-hand our web team’s patience, thoughtful approach, and nonprofit expertise was invaluable. We know we’re biased, but we think our team is the best around.

For more information on NPower’s web consulting work, check out…

Our Web Consulting services page for an overview of the services we provide,

The Website Portfolio, including screen shots and tech specs for ten of our recent web project, and/or

Web-related case studies detailing in-depth the challenges our clients faced, the work we did, and how our project has positively impacted their organization: Catalyst Kitchens, Cancer Lifeline, I-TECH, and, of course, NPower Northwest.

- Mandi Moshay

If you follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or subscribe to our eNews, then you’ve likely seen blurbs about our social media coaching project for the United Way Day of Caring on September 16. We’re pairing 25 social media mavens with 25 lucky nonprofit organizations for a day of coaching and burning-question-answering on all things social media.

We’ve had a pretty overwhelming response thus far, and with just under a month to go until the big day we have room for just three more nonprofit organizations and five more social media coaches. If you or someone you know is interested in coaching or being coached, then head on over to the volunteer program page on our website for more information and links to the applications.

We’re excited to start pairing up volunteers and organizations in the next couple of weeks, and look forward to filling up the few remaining slots. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at mandim@npowernw.org or holler at me on Twitter @mandimoshay.

-Mandi Moshay

NPower client NCB Capital Impact made big news last week when they announced they were being awarded a $2 million grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service. The grant comes from CNCS's Social Innovation Fund which aims to improve the lives of individuals in low income communities.

NCB Capital Impact was awarded the grant for their Cornerstone Partnership Initiative, a network of sustainable homeownership programs that preserve long–term affordability and community stability, helping more hard–working people buy homes today, maintain those homes and keep them affordable in the future. NPower is working with NCB Capital Impact’s Cornerstone Partnership Initiative to develop HomeKeeper, a Salesforce-based application that affordable-housing organizations use to manage their properties and track program outcomes. Part of this grant will help bring HomeKeeper to more organizations, which supports Cornerstone’s efforts to track outcomes nationwide.

For more details on the project and what the grant will make possible, read the full press release. Congratulations to NCB Capital Impact!

As a global management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company, Accenture helps corporations along the same lines that NPower Northwest does for nonprofit clients. So it’s a natural fit for the company to support NPower and our mission to catalyze innovation and drive adoption of technology solutions to strengthen the nonprofit sector.

“I think NPower has a great mission in what it’s doing to bring technology to small organizations and the community so that they can work better and smarter,” says Greg Luethe, Accenture Partner and member of NPower Northwest’s CIO Council. “By volunteering at NPower I bridge the gap between my work helping big companies with technology, and what NPower is doing helping nonprofits.”

Ali Piyarali, Senior Executive at Accenture and longtime NPower Northwest Board member, concurs. “Volunteering with NPower is a rewarding experience. You learn a lot, both professionally and on the people side as you come to understand how nonprofits really work.” Ali feels the work is more important than ever. “We have a lot to do. The need for services at the nonprofit level is stronger now than ever before. Capacity building with NPower is a fantastic way to do more with less.”

Ali and Greg have big visions for what’s possible for the Accenture-NPower partnership. “If I were king for a day,” says Ali, “I would create a pool of people that NPower can draw upon to provide services. It would be a win-win-win for Accenture, NPower and nonprofits.” Greg agrees, adding, “I envision an Accenture team that feels connected to NPower in the same way that Ali and I are now.”

Thank you Ali and Greg for your support and partnership!

(Note: Accenture joins NPower again in 2012 as a sponsor of our Techtacular 2012 event. Thank you Accenture!) To discuss sponsorship and other partnership opportunities for your company, please contact Jenna Barrett at jennab@npowernw.org at 206-957-7742.

To keep up to date about NPower's volunteer program and opportunities to participate, sign up for our Tech Do-Gooder eNewsletter, a quarterly publication for our donors and volunteers on NPower's work and the impact of your support.

- Peg Giffels

This is one of those full circle events: I'm writing a blog post about a blog post about how to help others write blog posts. Actually, now that I think about it that full circle makes me nervous - maybe I won't do it "right!"

The post that caught my eye this week was one shared by Alysson Kapin of RAD Campaign on the the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) LinkedIn group. The post, So You Think You Can Blog by Avi Kaplan, offers great advice and a solid starting point for providing support to your staff members who have volunteered (or been volunteered) to write for your organization's blog. The article emphasizes the importance of setting clear expectations and offers a collection of tips or "sage wisdom" for good nonprofit blogging. It was refreshing to see advice aimed directly at nonprofit writers, and the article gave me a starting point for encouraging my colleagues at NPower Northwest to contribute more often to our blog.

A couple of my favorites:

Set expectations: Explain why you blog at your organization, what you'll be measuring to evaluate success, and what the time commitment is.

Sage wisdom: Add value, there is no delete, be human, and stay true to yourself.

If you're looking to expand the number of voices on your nonprofit blog, take a moment to read So You Think You Can Blog.

Thanks Avi for a great post, and thanks Alysson for sharing it.

- Peg Giffels

Ronald McDonald House Charities of Western Washington & Alaska (RMHC) supports seriously ill children and families, providing a “home-away-from-home” to help families through difficult times. The House becomes a safe haven for families affected by illness, allowing them to surround themselves with supportive staff and volunteers, and other families who understand exactly what they’re going through. Part of RMHC’s efforts to build up a sense of community includes serving meals several nights a week. The meals are prepared by volunteers, sometimes for as many as 75 people.

To help ensure that every dinner was a successful, enjoyable experience, RMHC Communications Manager Julianna Ross was in search of a tool to help guide the volunteers through meal preparation for these large groups. She had the brilliant idea to compile a recipe book with volunteer-contributed recipes. Julianna recognized the need for additional technology training to be able to develop the professional-quality recipe book that she had envisioned, and she turned to NPower for help.

Having attended NPower trainings in the past, Julianna was confident that she would be able to gain the necessary skills to successfully complete this project. She brought the beginnings of the recipe book to an educational coaching session and worked one-on-one with an NPower trainer, and was able to get all of her specific questions answered. The training resulted in a significant time-savings and Julianna was able to complete the recipe book and make it available for volunteers. It has since become a very popular tool for volunteer groups. You can view a copy of the recipe book on their website. For more detail on the impact this recipe has had on RMHC, you can read the full case study on our website.

Are you or someone you know facing a roadblock with an InDesign or Photoshop project? We’ve got several training classes coming up for individuals at all skill levels. The next educational coaching session is planned for November 16. Check our training calendar frequently to see what classes we have available. We also do private training, including the option for customized content. See the private training page on our website for more info.