nptech.info

I heard about this amazing project in Detroit called Loveland on NPR. You can hear the full story here but here it is in the compressed version.

Jerry Paffendorf bought a relatively useless plot of land in Detroit and then portioned the entire thing up into 10,000 square inch plots of land. He sold the plots to people (inchvestors) who wanted to own a piece of Detroit. Technically they don’t “own” anything. They don’t get to vote in Detroit or pay taxes, but still the sense of ownership is real. There’s a Facebook page, a Twitter page, Vimeo channel, Google maps pinpoint plot locations, and the whole thing is quickly turning into an active virtual world where people can interact with “superfunexcitementoffandonlineadventure”…

People from all over the world bought 1-2 or several square inches. One of the biggest investors bought 1,000 squares. All in all he sold 10,000 inches to  588 inchvestors. Some had lived in Detroit or had fond memories of a visit there. Some had family and some just thought it would be a cool thing to own a piece of “Motor City”.

So what’s this got to do with social media? What, I need to hit you with a brick??

Something like this is a perfect example of creating an idea and letting the community run with it. That’s what makes community work. It’s almost never the person who came up with the idea that makes it a success. It’s the community adding their love, their money and their ideas it suddenly becomes something bigger, more interesting and more valuable than the original owner could conceive.

That’s what you need to do with any social community you create. You need to be a catalyst and allow reactions to happen and things to evolve organically. Come up with ideas sure, nurture the relationships, especially with the ones who become passionate about what it is you’re doing.

Then let the community guide where you go with it and what it becomes. The people who can express their passion through your community will pay you and the community back for all you do in ways you simply can’t predict.

pAuthor: Jordan Viator/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/jordan-viator-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / pItrsquo;s less than 24 hours until the masses start filling the Austin Convention Center for one of the biggest and best Interactive conferences of the year: a href="http://sxsw.com/interactive" target="_blank"South By Southwest/a. /p pa href="http://sxsw.com/interactive" target="_blank"img src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/blog-images/sxswi2010.gif" style="float: right; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px;" alt="SXSW 2010" //aMy favorite part of SXSW in recent years is the a href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/a2z/Interactive/Panel/Greater%20Good" target="_blank"flood of nonprofit and socially conscious topics, speakers and movements/a that are becoming more prevalent on the line-up. And for anyone attending the event and looking for some insight into how to get in on the philanthropic and social advocacy action, here are some of my recommendations on sessions, events and activities that have gold stars next to them on my personal event agenda. (For news and happenings from the live event, feel free to follow me at a href="http://www.twitter.com/jordanv" target="_blank"@jordanv/a on Twitter)/p p1.nbsp;a href="http://sxsw.com/interactive/web_awards/" target="_blank"SXSW Web Awards/a: Last year was the first year SXSW introduced the Advocacy award and this year there are some amazing nominees up to be recognized for their creative and effective use of interactive for social good. /p p2.nbsp;a href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/6118" target="_blank"The Nonprofit Technology Bash/a will be the best place to mingle and meet with folks from all across the nonprofit technology sector, as well as kick back and havenbsp;some fun on the last night of the Interactive conference.nbsp;And for all you people using a href="http://foursquare.com/" target="_blank"Four Square/a, it's alsonbsp;one of the officialnbsp;Check-in for Charity locations (hint: new badge anyone?)/p p3.nbsp;a href="http://sxsw.com/node/4245" target="_blank"The Beacon: Lounge with a Conscience!/a Beaconfire Consulting will be hosting the ldquo;Lounge with a Consciencerdquo; throughout the Interactive festival.nbsp; The lounge will be the place to meet the best and brightest socially-conscious Geekeratti at SXSW and catch some unplugged local music.nbsp; /p p4.nbsp;The HardlyNormal Cup of Coffee, Social Media for Social Good series. For three mornings (Saturday, Sunday andnbsp;Monday)nbsp;in the BeaconFire Lounge, respective leaders and experts in the field of using social media for social good will be speaking and recording an a href="http://invisiblepeople.tv/blog/" target="_blank"online tv series/a. Chris Brogan, Beth Kanter, Jeff Pulver, Kari Saratovsky and LifeChurch.tv will all be featured and sharing their standards of ldquo;now communicationrdquo; with a href="http://twitter.com/hardlynormal" target="_blank"Mark Horvath/anbsp;who is leading the discussions. /p p5.nbsp;a href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/5071" target="_blank"Games for Good panel Monday, March 15 at 12:30 PM/andash; ldquo;You made an amazing, educational, and progressive game using the latest in gaming technology- now how do you get people to actually play it? Hear from the nonprofits that have made it happen.rdquo;/p p6.a href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/787" target="_blank"Technology For Results Not Profits panel Saturday, March 13 11:00 AM/andash; ldquo;When technology is leveraged around passion and purpose for the sake of results not profits, powerful things can happen. While most non-profits are not known for technology, some are, and they are defying the traditional business models that drive technology.rdquo;/p p7.nbsp;a href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/457" target="_blank"Crowd Sourcing Innovative Social Change panel Sunday, March 14 at 03:30 PM /andash; ldquo;Social media builds buzz and raises money, but what about real, on-the-ground change? The Social Change Challenge will crowdsource innovative ideas from nonprofits to change the world. We'll share big ideas for using social media for nonprofit program delivery and some good tips for crowdsourcing for social change.rdquo;/p p8.nbsp;a href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/469" target="_blank"Digital Marketing for Non-Profits panel Saturday, March 13 at 03:30 PM/andash; ldquo;How to work with limited marketing budgets and a failing economy to build an online brand, raise awareness of a cause and fundraise effectively.nbsp; We'll also talk about how you can get sizeable online grants and free/discounted help from key professionals.rdquo;/p p9.nbsp;a href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/841" target="_blank"Change the World, Lives, with Bikes core conversation Tuesday, March 16 at 11:00 AM/andash; ldquo;This core conversation will talk about how cycling, the bike, and social media are changing the world and lives. You'll learn about Livestrong's community and Bike Hugger's blog, events like the Mobile Social, and the millions who follow Lance Armstrong on Twitter. It's a discussion of bike and pop culture and socializing the good with these Interweb toolsrdquo;/p p10.nbsp;a href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/704" target="_blank"Uprising Tide panel Saturday, March 13 at 03:30 PM /a- "Inciting Online Communities into Offline Movements - Ready to put your tech community on the map? Some unlikely instigators from New Orleans did just that with little more than passion, a bus, T-shirts, and some duct tape. Let them show you how to create an organic net-roots movement that upends traditional power structures br /and galvanizes your community."/p p11.nbsp;a href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/735" target="_blank"Yes Mr. Lessig we can Change Politics panel Sunday, March 14 11:20 AM/a- "Last year at SXSWi, Larry Lessig introduced Change Congress, a movement to clean up corruption in Congress. But that's only the beginning. All elected offices (local, state, and yes even Congress) need more techies, scientists, and engineers. Now! Why techies should run for office -- and how they can win."/p p12.nbsp;a href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/550" target="_blank"I Donrsquo;t Trust you One Stinking Bit panel Saturday March 13 12:30 PM/a- ldquo;What gives people confidence on the web? Bringing together experts in social capital and online trust, we help you build the company your users can love and call their own.rdquo;/p p13.nbsp;a href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/553" target="_blank"In code We Trust: Open Government Awesomeness panel Friday March 12 2:00 PM/a- "In Code We Trust" is the new motto for Government in the 21st century. Across the country, geeks inside and outside of government are developing a new model for a participatory and transparent Federal, State and Municipal governments. Built upon open-source tools, open standards, and best practices, this panel will highlight practical examples of initiatives from private, public and government sectors."/p p14.a href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/4520" target="_blank"Don't Stop Believin: Singing our Way to Changing the World Monday, March 15 at 05:00 PM /a- "Karaoke came on like a ninja...stealthily entering North American pubs and Koreatowns. But it wasn't here to enterain, no. Karaoke came to unite us in song. In fact, Karaoke is a core part of our reMix culture and this panel will show you how. This stellar group of speakers (some of whom wrote books on the subject) will uncover the real impetus behind the karaoke revolution."/p p15.nbsp;a href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/889" target="_blank"The Future of Influence Saturday, March 13 at 11:00 AM/a- "The ability to share online has allowed consumers to control and filter the web. For brands and publishers, tapping into Influence is critical to social media's future. What is influence and how is it measured? Leading voices in social media from multiple backgrounds will define the value of influence, discuss best practices, and predict future impact. Data will be shared! This panel is sponsored by ShareThis."/p p16.nbsp;a href="http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/723" target="_blank"Why Gen Y Wants to Wrok ldquo;Withrdquo; You , Not ldquo;Forrdquo; You Monday, March 15 at 03:30 PM/a- "Put aside the negative stereotypes of entitled, rebellious 20-somethings and take a minute to dig deeper and see what makes us tick. At almost 80 million strong, the Gen Y workforce is shaping the cubicle nation and the way brands are forced to engage consumers. It's more than a desire to wear t-shirts and jeans to work; it's a new mindset. As we digital natives migrate into a workplace full of Boomers and Gen Xers, worlds collide. Truly learn the concept of ''with'' vs. ''for'' straight from the minds of 5 diverse and successful Gen Yers!"/p pOf course there are a TON more sessions, events and yes, parties I'm looking forward to but these are all the to-dos on the top of my list so far. Looking forward to seeing all you other do-gooders and techies out and about it the coming days. I'll be posting from the event, and if you see me around the convention center stop by and tell say hi!/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=BABKoElU2DM:dUbnZgttbz4:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=BABKoElU2DM:dUbnZgttbz4:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=BABKoElU2DM:dUbnZgttbz4:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=BABKoElU2DM:dUbnZgttbz4:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=BABKoElU2DM:dUbnZgttbz4:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=BABKoElU2DM:dUbnZgttbz4:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=BABKoElU2DM:dUbnZgttbz4:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=BABKoElU2DM:dUbnZgttbz4:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

p emEd. Note: As we prepare for the a href="/ntc"2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference/a, we wanted share a wee bit of the wisdom our speakers will be serving up, so as not to overwhelm you when you get to Atlanta. We're asking them all to share their answers to five very important questions./em /p p span class="inline inline-left"img src="http://nten.org/sites/nten/files/images/debra.thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" class="image image-thumbnail" width="100" height="100" //spanstrongSpeaker:/strong Debra Askanase, a href="http://www.communityorganizer20.com/"Community Organizing 2.0/aa href="http://netsquared.org/"/a /p p strongSession: /stronga href="https://www.ntenonline.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?webcode=SessionDetailsamp;ses_key=9e27f6a5-1720-4ad1-8ee0-058a2260bcbb"Bringing Community Organizing Into Online Campaigns/aa href="https://www.ntenonline.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?webcode=SessionDetailsamp;ses_key=9e27f6a5-1720-4ad1-8ee0-058a2260bcbb"/a /p p emstrong1. What's the most important trend in nonprofit technology for 2010?/strong/em /p p To sum it up: the rise of mobile technology. I think that the rate of smartphone adoption worldwide will continue to grow tremendously, and with that, the rise of smartphone mobile apps and use. I believe that nonprofit organizations should begin to plan now for how they will utilize the mobile web for good (such as smartphone apps, mobile text campaigns, mobile fundraising strategy, and so much more). Understanding the implications and opportunities in the areas of mobile search, use, and technology will be important for nonprofit organizations in 2010, and beyond. /p p emstrong2. Why do you think your session topic is important for nonprofits to address?/strong/em /p p No one is talking about the relationship between community organizing and online organizing, and yet they are absolutely interrelated. If you work at a nonprofit, or are running an upcoming cause or fundraising online campaign, our session will help you understand how to leverage community organizing principles for your campaign, and use them to inform campaign design. All three session designers (myself, Ivan Boothe, Amy Sample Ward) have a background in community organizing, have run successful community organizing campaigns, and offer expertise in the field of social media.  /p p emstrong3. What's the one thing you want attendees to remember from your session?/strong/em /p p How to design your online campaign using the five basic principles of community organizing. /p p emstrong4. Which Muppet do you most identify with and why?/strong/em /p p Doesn't everyone identify with Kermit? He's the cute green frog you just want to hug. He loves to talk to people, and he's always working so hard to bring the gang together to accomplish things. That about sums up my life  as a social media consultant! /p p emstrong5. Where can people follow you online (twitter, blog, etc.)? /strong/em /p ul li I blog about the intersection of social media, nonprofits and technology at a href="http://www.communityorganizer20.com"Community Organizer 2.0/a /li liI love chatting on twitter: a href="http://twitter.com/askdebra"@askdebra /a/li liI have a Google profile, if you want to connect on Google Buzz /li liYou can follow my slide decks at a href="http://www.slideshare.net/debask"www.slideshare.net/debask /a/li /uldiv class="image-clear"/divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nten/~4/2z0D9KajEq8" height="1" width="1"/

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_AFv8j8HY5eE/S5lQ6XpF_UI/AAAAAAAABZA/b99Af2St2Xo/s1600-h/villagecmap.jpg"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 173px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_AFv8j8HY5eE/S5lQ6XpF_UI/AAAAAAAABZA/b99Af2St2Xo/s200/villagecmap.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447474187990334786" //abr /br /This a href="http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_case_for_stakeholder_engagement/"article/a on the Sspan style="font-style:italic;"tanford Social Innovation Review/span illustrates a challenge we face of connecting the different stakeholders in the Chicago region with the information we host on the T/MC and Cabrini Connections web site. br /br /Visit the a href="http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/servlet/SBReadResourceServlet?rid=1247940604000_2131905363_145977partName=actualhtmltext"VILLAGE map/a to see what we mean when we talk about getting people connected. br /br /The May 27 and 28 a href="http://www.tutormentorconference.org"Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference/a which will be held at Loyola University in Chicago is one opportunity for the members of this village to connect.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12044401-7249751860416631834?l=tutormentor.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

pAuthor: Seth Merritt/pimg src="http://www.connectioncafe.com/assets/author-photos/seth-merritt-thumb.jpg" style="float:left; margin:5px;" alt="" / pBombers, biopsies and brown Mamp;Ms ndash; what do they all have in common?nbsp; They each tell an interesting story about checklists, a simple notion whose time has come, according to Atul Gawande in his recent book a href="http://gawande.com/the-checklist-manifesto"The Checklist Manifesto/a. /p pGawande is a surgeon who, as leader of a World Health Organization taskforce, developed a general checklist for surgery that has prevented thousands of deaths and reduced complications by more than a third.nbsp; Using examples from aviation, construction, and finance, he shows that checklists, when developed thoughtfully and used with discipline, can avoid errors and free us to perform with greater confidence in almost any field. In effect, strongchecklists can be a critical bulwark against information overload and complexity that challenge all of us/strong.nbsp; /p pThe book is a quick read, with several engaging stories.nbsp; For example, one of the icons of the Allied victory in World War II was the B-35 strongbomber/strong.nbsp; It was a big leap in aviation technology at the time, with 4 engines, long range, and large payload capacity ndash; the war probably couldnrsquo;t have been won without it.nbsp; However, I didnrsquo;t know that this airplane was almost rejected by the US military when it was first tested in the 1930s, when it failed catastrophically during its first public test.nbsp; The military cancelled their order and Boeing nearly went bankrupt. However, a group of pilots and engineers worked to develop a set of checklists that helped prevent pilot errors. It was primarily the adoption of checklists, not major technological changes that made the difference. /p pThese checklists are a critical part of aviation today. Anyone who has flown a commercial flight has probably heard the cabin crew running through cryptic elements of a larger pre-takeoff checklist with the pilots.nbsp; Remember the ldquo;miracle on the Hudsonrdquo; last January?nbsp; Gawande reviews the important role pilot checklists made in saving all the passengers and crew./p pOK, strongbiopsies/strong is an alliterative stretch here, but Gawande discusses his development of a surgical checklist, based largely on the successes of Dr. Peter Pronovost in reducing hospital infections. Pronovost reveals some interesting points about institutional and individual resistance to change in his a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/science/09conv.html"recent NYT interview/a. /p pThe ldquo;strongbrown Mamp;M/strongrdquo; story is a classic rock and roll urban legend ndash; one which a href="http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/vanhalen.asp"turns out to be true/a.nbsp; Van Halenrsquo;s contract with venues and promoters included a clause that there would be ldquo;no brown Mamp;Ms in the backstage areardquo;.nbsp; This is typically explained as adolescent ego-tripping, but it turns out it was part of a checklist./p pAs the band explained it, their touring show required a lot of technical support ndash; heavy equipment, lots of electricity, sturdy stages, etc.nbsp; They had been burned a few times where concert venues promised to have everything needed for Van Halen to put on their show, but when the band arrived, there were serious issues ndash; a door on the loading dock not being large enough, for example.nbsp; To solve this, they put a clause in the fine print requiring the brown Mamp;Ms. They didnrsquo;t really care about the candy, but it was a proof point that the venue was serious about meeting their conditions./p pMost of us already use checklists in some form. As a personal example, I have adopted two checklists that have made my life much easier.nbsp; I adapted a version of a href="http://www.davidco.com/tips_tools/tip3.html"David Allenrsquo;s Travel Checklist/a for work trips, and then created a separate list for things I take to the gym.nbsp; Each is just a list of things I should think about bringing ndash; the actual contents will vary from trip to trip.nbsp; The list helps me pack more quickly, avoids (or mostly avoids) forgetting important items, and helps keep me calm and focused./p pThe point of Gawandersquo;s book (and this post), is to think more creatively about the challenges of complexity in our life and work, and how we can in effect ldquo;avoid the avoidable errors.rdquo;nbsp; Checklists are one important tool we can all use to standardize and ldquo;error-proofrdquo; our work and life. How are you managing complexity?nbsp; Are you using checklists?/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=zZAbBpdV5zU:hIE_WN9ZYYw:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=zZAbBpdV5zU:hIE_WN9ZYYw:V_sGLiPBpWU"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=zZAbBpdV5zU:hIE_WN9ZYYw:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=zZAbBpdV5zU:hIE_WN9ZYYw:F7zBnMyn0Lo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=zZAbBpdV5zU:hIE_WN9ZYYw:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=zZAbBpdV5zU:hIE_WN9ZYYw:gIN9vFwOqvQ"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?i=zZAbBpdV5zU:hIE_WN9ZYYw:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?a=zZAbBpdV5zU:hIE_WN9ZYYw:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ConnectionCafe?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /div

Social Media can be time-consuming and confusing, so what is the best way to make effective use of your limited resources? Have a plan! Join me on Wednesday March 31st in San Rafael, CA for my workshop Social Media 201... John Kenyon

object data="http://video.fastcompany.com/plugins/player.swf?v=0fd64afa78711amp;p=fc_social" height="235" id="embedded_player_0fd64afa78711" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="384"param name="movie" value="http://video.fastcompany.com/plugins/player.swf?v=0fd64afa78711p=fc_social"/param name="allowfullscreen" value="TRUE"/param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/param name="base" value="http://video.fastcompany.com"//objectbr / br / This awesome video from Fast Company says a lot in just a few minutes. nbsp;I know I could not have said it better.br / br / And I dont think this just applies to our mission statements. nbsp;I think you can use the ideas in this video to apply to a lot of the content, messaging and stories we write. nbsp;How many times have you written something that you think is great, only to have it edited so much that you cant even remember why you wrote it.br / br / We try to appeal to too many audiences, make sure all of our bases are covered. nbsp;By covering all the bases, you are diluting the message.br / br / Lets all try to be more concise and say what we mean, skip the buzz words and trying to say it all. Say what is important and end it.div class="blogger-post-footer"If you like this post, subscribe to my blog.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2411109339520612489-5429957365639584894?l=steveheye.blogspot.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Heye-tech/~4/c6tMWxVq0Z8" height="1" width="1"/

p So, apparently, there are a whole host of new tools available through YouTube that can help you engage your audience. /p p You can drive sign-ups and donations straight from your videos, find skilled video-makers through the Video Volunteers program, and even create a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFVkzYDNJqo"choose-your-own-adventure style videos/a. (Just imagine: quot;You see a polar bear balancing on a small iceberg. Do you: a) Offer it a ride to the South Pole, b) enter the two of you in the pairs figure skating competition at the 2014 winter games, or c) step up the fight against global climate change.quot;) /p p In partnership with a href="http://youtube.com/nonprofits"YouTube/a and a href="http://readytalk.com"ReadyTalk/a, we've enlisted Ramya Raghavan, Nonprofits and Activism Manager at YouTube, to run you through the possibilities at our (free for everybody!) a href="/ntc"2010 NTC/a preview session, quot;a href="https://ccpreview.readytalk.com/r/g2y3ayqgsapn"Activating Your YouTube Audience/aquot;. You should join us! /p p stronggt; You should register for this FREE workshop a href="https://ccpreview.readytalk.com/r/g2y3ayqgsapn"here/a./strong /p p strongWhen:/strong Thursday, March 18th, 11 am Pacific Time / 2 pm Eastern Time /p p strongCost:/strong FREE! /p p strongPresenter/strong: Ramya Raghavan, YouTube /p p Incidentally, the correct answer is, of course, c). Given the lack of drive-thrus in South America, the polar bear would devour you before you reached the South Pole -- and no way could a polar bear land a triple lutz, /pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nten/~4/cCBpauU17dw" height="1" width="1"/

Professionals for Nonprofits has just released their 2009 data on nonprofit salaries for three metropolitan areas: New York, New Jersey, and Washington, DC.  While many of the jobs in the surveys command a competitive salary on average, it’s obvious that not all locales pay their nonprofit staff at New York levels. In fact, it’s pretty much an accepted truth that most nonprofit professionals (of all ages) don’t make very much money.

Is that true for you? If so, what kind of salary would you be happier with? Would you be happier with your salary if you had more benefits? Which ones?

I want to know where all of you dear readers stand on this. Let’s talk.

Photo credit: Call Centre Helper

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• Working at a Nonprofit Does Not Equal Social Change

pOur Student Billing Roundtable yesterday was a great success. Thanks to everyone who participated! If you missed it, check out the a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/files/support/downloads/sb/sb031010.wmv"recording/a and the a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/files/support/downloads/sb/sb031010.ppt"Powerpoint presentation/a. nbsp;/p pWe#39;re having another roundtable on Tuesday, April 13 at 2:00 p.m. ET so a href="https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/1100003672/Registration.aspx?pageName=nrbw438pj2xgc15x"register today/a! We hope to see you there!br //p img src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=91053" width="1" height="1"

pHere are the most popular Forums posts as well as unanswered posts from last week:/p pbMost Popular Topics:/b/p ul lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14460.aspx" target="_new"report/query format/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14484.aspx" target="_new"Email Types/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14284.aspx" target="_new"Cumulative query omitting certain appeals/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14424.aspx" target="_new"Best practice for solicit codes?/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14457.aspx" target="_new"duplicate criteria specified in configuration/a/li/ul pbUnanswered Posts:/b/p ul lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14448.aspx" target="_new"Windows 7/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14493.aspx" target="_new"Reporting on Total Gift Amount/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14470.aspx" target="_new"Email donor acknowledgement letters/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14439.aspx" target="_new"Volunteer Job Record - add time frame and # of volunteers?/a/li lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/t/14467.aspx" target="_new"How to pull constituents who have a relation with a specific Constituent attribute?/a/li/ul pbNew Shared Client Documents:/b/p ul lia href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/forums/p/14450/83997.aspx#83997" target="_new"Donor Update Form/a/li/ulimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=90386" width="1" height="1"

p span class="inline inline-left"img src="http://nten.org/sites/nten/files/images/allyson_kapin.gif" alt="Allyson Kapin" title="Allyson Kapin" class="image image-_original" width="61" height="66" /span class="caption" style="width: 59px;"strongAllyson Kapin/strong/span/span nbsp; nbsp; nbsp; span class="inline inline-left"img src="http://nten.org/sites/nten/files/images/jocelyn_harmon.gif" alt="Jocelyn Harmon" title="Jocelyn Harmon" class="image image-_original" width="61" height="66" /span class="caption" style="width: 59px;"strongJocelyn Harmon/strong/span/spanYes, the iPad is small, lightweight and slim. But can you swim with it? /p p You remember the a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/01/women-mock-the-ipad-calling-it-itampon.html"flap over the iPad/a, right? Most women certainly do. It's a clear reminder that technology is a man's world. /p p Of course, it shouldn't be, especially in the nonprofit sector. Our workplaces should reflect the values we're working for -- because it's the right thing to do. It's also the sensible thing to do. Diversity in your teams will ensure you're not alienating the very people you're trying to include. /p p What's the right way to approach diversity in our tech teams? Lucky for us, Allyson Kapin and Jocelyn Harmon put together a great session for the a href="/ntc"2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference/a: quot;a href="https://www.ntenonline.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?webcode=SessionDetailsamp;ses_key=f4b88cff-ccf8-436d-8a0d-3eed2593fe87"Diversifying Your Tech and Online Communications Teams/aquot;. I had a great chat with them where we covered everything from quot;the massesquot; to quot;quotas.quot; /p p Take a listen: /p p /p p a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=308734429"img src="/sites/nten/files/images/itunes.gif" border="0" alt="Subscribe to the NTEN Podcast" title="Subscribe to the NTEN Podcast" width="155" height="50" /br / strongSubscribe to the NTEN Podcast/strong/a /pdiv class="image-clear"/divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nten/~4/UrceeIwSzL0" height="1" width="1"/

p div class="posterous_bookmarklet_entry" pa href="http://www.paulmyoung.net/2010/03/my-parents-doctor.html"From Paul Young's blog/a:/p blockquote class="posterous_medium_quote" p...today, the family doctor needs to have the ability to ldquo;fixrdquo; everyday problems, but even more importantly, to know when it is in everyonersquo;s interest to engage a specialist for the good of the patient./p pIn the care of people, the family doctor is a highly skilled diagnostician, excellent basic caregiver, and able to coordinate treatment in the same way a conductor leads the orchestra. Thatrsquo;s the role for the person who was once a generalist in regards CRM systems./p pIf yoursquo;re a specialist, I salute you and your dedication to your craft. If yoursquo;re like me however, donrsquo;t be ashamed. Just like a hospital full of surgeons, oncologists, and ophthalmologists isnrsquo;t the optimal mix for life long health care for people, integration specialists and coders need people like us who can see the big picture. Hold your head high and go read the new release notes so you can keep everyone on the same page!/p /blockquote pGreat post. Even though I'm not a Salesforce consultant and only serve as an administrator for one organization, I can so relate to this./p /div /p pa href="http://judisohn.posterous.com/seize-the-future-by-the-throat-my-parents-doc"Permalink/a | a href="http://judisohn.posterous.com/seize-the-future-by-the-throat-my-parents-doc#comment"Leave a commentnbsp;nbsp;raquo;/a /pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/viewfromhome?a=6wcmbwRRJVY:gGKzrqJCNrs:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/viewfromhome?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/viewfromhome?a=6wcmbwRRJVY:gGKzrqJCNrs:RpyxPU2o2ec"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/viewfromhome?i=6wcmbwRRJVY:gGKzrqJCNrs:RpyxPU2o2ec" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/viewfromhome/~4/6wcmbwRRJVY" height="1" width="1"/

p emEd. Note: As we prepare for the a href="/ntc"2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference/a, we wanted share a wee bit of the wisdom our speakers will be serving up, so as not to overwhelm you when you get to Atlanta. We're asking them all to share their answers to five very important questions./em /p p span class="inline inline-left"img src="http://nten.org/sites/nten/files/images/gergory.heller.thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" class="image image-thumbnail" width="100" height="67" //spanstrongSpeaker:/strong Gregory Heller, a href="http://civicactions.com/"CivicActions/aa href="http://civicactions.com/"/a /p p strongSession:/stronga href="https://www.ntenonline.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?webcode=SessionDetailsamp;ses_key=35a34547-6891-46cb-8bed-84ccdc585b0b" Working with Open Source Software and Vendors/aa href="https://www.ntenonline.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?webcode=SessionDetailsamp;ses_key=73de6fd5-7da7-47cc-880b-ca4cc6e0da17"/a /p p emstrong1. What's the most important trend in nonprofit technology for 2010?/strong/em /p p Free and Open Source Software. Whether it is on the desktop like Firefox and Open Office or the Ubuntu Linux operating system, or on servers (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and running CMSs and CRMs (like Drupal and CiviCRM). I think that many nonprofit organizations are looking at these open source tools as they have really matured and been adopted by government and big companies including many fortune 500s. The late 2009 release of the Open Government Directive is really exciting and I'd like to see an analog in the nonprofit community -- an Open Nonprofit Directive if you will, to encourage transparency, participation and collaboration. Of course Twitter and social media in general will continue to be big, and we may see advanced collaboration tools like Google's Wave gain adoption in 2010 as people figure out how to use it. /p p emstrong2. Why do you think your session topic is important for nonprofits to address?/strong/em /p p We're in a deep recession. Nonprofit funding is not what it may have been 2 or 3 years ago. When you don't have to pay for proprietary software licenses, or work with only a small group of vendors providing proprietary tools, I think there are great values to be found. Last year's Keynote speaker Eben Moglin talked about the morality of free and open source software and what he really identified as a moral imperative for nonprofit organizations to spend their limited resources advancing FOSS rather than boosting profits at proprietary software companies. My session, quot;Working With Open Source Software and Vendorsquot;, will give non profit decisions makers an idea of how to identify and work with open source vendors and tools and provide an opportunity for them to ask questions of vendors, software project developers and people like them who have gone down this road already. /p p emstrong3. What's the one thing you want attendees to remember from your session?/strong/em /p p Free and Open Source Software is mature, robust and enterprise ready. Choosing the right vendor for your organization is important as your vendor will, in a big way, define your experience of the tools. That's two things, and they should remember them both! /p p strong4. Which Muppet do you most identify with and why?/strong /p p Gonzo. Gonzo is an entertainer, a showman, and a daredevil. I like to take the stage, show off new and exciting technologies, and every once in a while, get fired out of a cannon. Gonzo was also a traveling plumber, and that is something I can identify with. Over the last four years or so, I've traveled to work with many clients helping them unclog the the internet strategy quot;tubesquot; and get things flowing. /p p strong5. Where can people follow you online (twitter, blog, etc.)? /strong /p ul liBlog: a href="http://www.CivicActions.com/blog"http://www.CivicActions.com/blog/aa href="http://www.seachangestrategies.com/blog"/a/li liTwitter: a href="http://twitter.com/gregoryheller"@gregoryheller/a/li liDelicious: a href="http://delicious.com/GregoryHeller"http://delicious.com/GregoryHeller/a/li /uldiv class="image-clear"/divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nten/~4/je98hU3PZa8" height="1" width="1"/

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_5Yu11Uvgrlo/S5e9SJjTIfI/AAAAAAAAAy4/v580rnLVxQA/s1600-h/KimberlyWilsonJenniferLee.jpg"img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 208px; height: 156px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_5Yu11Uvgrlo/S5e9SJjTIfI/AAAAAAAAAy4/v580rnLVxQA/s320/KimberlyWilsonJenniferLee.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447030393827172850" border="0" //aLast night I had dinner at Cafe Gratitude with a href="http://www.lifeunfoldsblog.com/"Jennifer Lee/a, creator of the a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=118533amp;c=ibamp;aff=102494amp;cl=26337%22%20target=%22ejejcsingle"Right Brain Business Plan/a and a href="http://www.kimberlywilson.com/blog/"Kimberly Wilson/a, the creator of the eco-fashion line, a href="http://www.tranquilit.com/idevaffiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=175"TranquiliT/a. They're also two of my three co-collaborators on the a href="http://havefundogood.blogspot.com/2009/12/creative-women-entrepreneur-survey.html"creative women entrepreneurs retreat/a. Very inspiring ladies!br /br /I am just finishing up Jenn's Right Brain Business Plan e-course, a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=118533amp;c=ibamp;aff=102494amp;cl=26337%22%20target=%22ejejcsingle"img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 144px; height: 216px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5Yu11Uvgrlo/S2caiuzcafI/AAAAAAAAAxY/GX3_uJhGK8E/S220/rbbp-badge-bookcover.jpg" alt="" border="0" //awhich was super fun, interesting and clarifying for me as I chart out the next phase of my business, a href="http://brittbravo.com/"Big Vision Consulting/a. I highly recommend you take her e-course the next time she offers it, and look for the Right-Brain Business Plan full-length and full-color book that will be published in early 2011. She also sells a a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii=118533amp;c=ibamp;aff=102494amp;cl=26337%22%20target=%22ejejcsingle"Right Brain Business Plan e-book/a.br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.tranquilit.com/images/banner-rect.jpg"img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 180px; height: 150px;" src="http://www.tranquilit.com/images/banner-rect.jpg" alt="" border="0" //aWhile at dinner, Kimberly showed me one of the very pretty pink infinity scarves that will be a part of the a href="http://www.tranquilit.com/idevaffiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=175"TranquiliT Spring collection,/a that a href="http://www.kimberlywilson.com/blog/2010/03/ballet-inspired-spring-sneak-peek.html"you can see a sneak peak of here/a. In addition to being an eco-fashion designer, Kimberly is also an author of two books. She was in the Bay Area to promote her newest book, a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.tranquilista.com/"Tranquilista: Mastering the Art of Enlightened and Mindful Play/a, which I enjoyed very much.br /br /a href="http://havefundogood.blogspot.com/2010/02/supporting-have-fun-do-good-with.html"As I mentioned last month/a, I am trying out being an affiliate for both women's businesses (the Right Brain Business Plan and TranquiliT) as a way to support writing Have Fun Do Good, and producing the a href="http://bigvisionpodcast.libsyn.com/"Big Vision Podcast. /abr /br /You can learn more about Kimberly's work by reading my November 2009 a href="http://havefundogood.blogspot.com/2009/11/do-good-tranquilista-interview-with.html"interview with her on Have Fun Do Good/a, or listening to it on the a href="http://bigvisionpodcast.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=551277"Big Vision Podcast/a. You can learn more about Jennifer's work by reading my January 2009 a href="http://havefundogood.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-to-make-your-big-vision-real.html"interview with her on Have Fun Do Good/a, or listening to it on the a href="http://bigvisionpodcast.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=426541"Big Vision Podcast/a.br /br /!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --br /diva title="data:post.title" url="data:post.url" class="addthis_button"img src="http://s7.addthis.com/static/btn/v2/lg-share-en.gif" alt="Bookmark and Share" style="border: 0pt none;" height="16" width="125" //abr /script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pub=xa-4ad66b3710a455bc"/script/divbr /!-- AddThis Button END --div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/15585808-2514883563645435971?l=havefundogood.blogspot.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HaveFunDoGood/~4/yziCgXZLT1Q" height="1" width="1"/

pBack in December (or thereabouts; it was a while ago and I#39;ve garnered a couple more gray hairs since then), I posted a workaround for users who were experiencing the error bWord cannot start the converter Mswrd632.wpc/b after they installed a Microsoft Windows security update (KB973904). The error would be encountered when trying to run Mail Merges in Blackbaud#39;s software but also with any other software that needed the converter which was disabled by the update./p pAfter that posting, a couple of users responded that they were concerned about the workaround as it essentially reversed part of the update. Well I#39;m happy to report that the workaround provided to us (and then to you) by Microsoft now has a fix in the form of a utility called bMicrosoft Fix it 50352/b (again from Microsoft; note the creative name). To get the fix, check out a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973904" target="_blank"Microsoft Knowledge Base article 973904/a and download and run the utility as instructed. We#39;ve also got the information in our a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=bb708164" target="_blank"Knowledgebase (BB708164)./a/p img src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=90229" width="1" height="1"

Find more photos like this on So You Think You Can Do Social Media

Note From Beth:  Since 2007,  I've been using, adapting, and remixing the Social Media Gamesocial media workshops for nonprofits.  In fact, just last month, I took it to India.  Last year, I facilitated a version of the Social Media Game for Packard Grantees as part of a convening on Network Effectiveness in Washington, DC.   Dave Witzel was a participant in the workshop and thought the game could be adapted as apart of training on social media at the staff retreat.  The big challenge with training is the challenge of transfer - after people go through a training - do they actually put the knowledge and skills into practice?  

Also, the game is licensed under creative commons - which means folks are welcomed to use as long as share and share like (with attribution).   EDF has embraced the spirit of this sharing - not only remixing a version of the game for their organization,but also sharing back the materials and what worked!  

That's why I invited Kira Marchenese, to write a guest post about has happened since the training last year.

Last fall, we marched all 350 or so Environmental Defense Fund staff through two days of a social media challenge.  Looking back, I’m happy to report that the experiment paid off.

Why did we do this?

We know that very soon, social media will no longer be optional. Already, some of our advocacy work is progressing in large part because of savvy use of social media (see our blog about chemicals and toxics).

We have a mix of staff who dived into social media long ago (see our business innovation blog and green business twitter feed), and others who have maybe sort of heard of Twitter. We wanted to give everyone a chance to get more familiar with the tools, and, more importantly, understand how social media is relevant to their goals.

What did we do?

We went all-out. EDF periodically brings our entire staff together for an in-person retreat. This year, the retreat theme was social media. We crafted a two-day challenge, mixing all-staff sessions with smaller group time. Here’s the overview:

EDF Staff Retreat - Intro to Social MediaView more presentations from Eric Schwartzman.

• Everyone attended a 90-minute presentation by Eric Schwartzman on what social media is and why we should pay attention. He’s energetic and knows his stuff, so it was a good start.

• A few EDF staffers joined Eric on stage to share what they’ve done with social media. This was really important – hearing colleagues talk about their posts being read by EPA officials or members of international negotiating teams made the point in a way no consultant could.

Then the hands-on part started:

• We broke into teams of 40 to 70 people, based on the type of work we do. For example, everyone who works on ocean issues was on the same team. Each team received a challenge in their field that they had to meet through social media.

• Each of the six large teams divided again into tables of 10. At the small tables, we played an EDF version of the social media game developed by Beth Kanter and David Wilcox.

• After each table developed a strategy, the large teams picked one strategy each to develop a pitch around. They spent the next 24 hours refining the pitch. And then the fun really started!

Each team pitched their idea to the full EDF staff. The pitches included costumes, music, video filmed on-site, mock-ups, and social media demos.

We all voted, and the winning team got budget money to fund their social media plan. How did it go?

People were extremely engaged. Every EDF staffer had to do this. Our biggest worry was that people would find it irrelevant to their work and would check out. Breaking up into small tables worked – I saw table after table of people leaning in, standing up, gathered around flip charts. I didn’t see anyone checking their Blackberry, which was pretty amazing. And people from assistants to VPs poured energy into crafting the pitches, you can see from the scene at t-minus 3 hours and t-minus 30 minutes.

And that made the presentations really good. Teams took ownership of their ideas and were revved up to show them off. They threw themselves into writing scripts and filming, gathering costume pieces, and otherwise doing much more in 24 hours than I would have thought possible. Even the teams that spent the least time preparing gave polished overviews.

The “game show” conceit made it all more fun. Our host, Rachel “Seacrest”, and the judges did a great job of moving things along and lacing the presentations with some clever silliness. The audio-visual crew did a top-notch job juggling all the video, countdown clocks, slides, props and miking, adding to the sense that this social media stuff is really big-time.

We could have refined the structure of the two days. Even with the tailored materials, and a dry run, there were many things I’d do differently next time. If you’re considering running this game yourself, definitely check out what we learned!

Lots of great ideas. EDF staff came up with some really interesting ideas. Not every table had a social media plan ready to execute (”handing out flyers” wasn’t one of the social media tools we encouraged!) but several of them are already being executed.

Did it make a difference?

Three months later, what do we have to show for it? Or, in other words, should other organizations consider doing this? Here’s what we’re seeing.

An explosion of EDF bloggers. We have a new transportation blog, Way2Go, and new participants in our international climate talks blog. The contributors to our blog about Texas energy re-tooled how they write and edit posts to make it more flexible and inclusive. And two more new blogs are on the way.

But I’m most pleased that EDF staff are evaluating how blogging will help achieve their goals, not just blogging for the sake of it. One of the best conversations we’ve had is with a department that decided to put off blogging for now, since it made sense to invest in other tactics first. I love seeing our staff make smart, well-informed choices.

Not just the usual suspects. We’ve always had a small but energetic group experimenting with social media. We’re now seeing both interest and confidence about social media from people who were never part of that experimental vanguard. Lauren Guite, our online team’s outreach coordinator, says that not only are these “unusual suspects” truly interested, but she’s impressed with their understanding of why the tools are important.

Plans to re-run the game. Three different groups have come to me asking for help re-running the game to generate ideas for specific projects. I can’t think of a better indicator that people found it useful.

(See more details on these results from EDF’s Social media challenge on my own blog.)

Biggest challenge now: How to find the time?

We had to cut staff last year, the economy remains rough, and the planet needs a lot of saving. When staff choose to engage in social media, they spend less time on something else. We’re seeing this play out in a cycle of enthusiasm and guilt. People get excited about something — tweeting, setting up Google Reader, signing up for Facebook. But other priorities get in the way, and it becomes just something else that’s still on their to-do list the next week. They feel bad when we check in with them and they haven’t gotten to it yet.

In the big picture, if people see results from social media, they’ll keep engaging, and if they don’t see results, they shouldn’t feel bad about stopping. But getting started requires a leap of faith that time spent trying social media is time well spent. And when there’s so much going on, it’s hard to make that leap.

The time we spent on this at the retreat definitely helped amp up the enthusiasm part of the cycle, pushing more people into making the leap of faith.

Kira Marchense is the Online communications director at Environmental Defense Fund.
 

These days you can’t roam far in our non-profit world without hearing the buzz about “social networking” or “social media”.  Wherever you go, you can’t help but overhear people talking about Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking tools.

These services provide organizations a great way to connect with supporters and provide new channels for fund raising, but how can you best integrate these tools into your Web site for the maximum impact?  What are the best practices in tying your social networking strategy with your Web site communications strategy?

We’ll answer these question and more at the next Soapbox Salon!

PICnet’s Soapbox Salon
Social Networking 101: Successful Strategies Connecting Soapbox with Twitter and Facebook

When: Thursday, March 18, 2010
Time: 12:30pm – 1:30pm ET
Where: PICnet’s DC Office – 1605 Connecticut Ave. 3rd Floor, Washington, DC (across the street from the Dupont Circle Metro station’s north exit)
What:  You bring your questions, ideas, and lunch, and we’ll bring answers and refreshments.

Please RSVP by Wednesday, March 17 by clicking the link below and registering for the event.

Questions?  Contact Julie Dennis at julie@picnet.net or by calling (202) 585-0273.

****************************
Registration — http://bit.ly/acgTlR
****************************

NFG Announces Melissa Johnson as New Executive Director The Board of Directors of the Neighborhood Funders Group is delighted to announce that Melissa Johnson will assume the role of Executive Director effective April 5, 2010. Ms. Johnson succeeds Bettye Brentley, who served with the organization for eight years. Johnson brings to NFG extensive knowledge of the philanthropic sector, having served as Field Director for the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), since 2007. While at NCRP, she had primary responsibility for membership development, building a robust presence in the field, and educating foundations on the organization’s research, policy, and publications. As the new Executive Director, Melissa Johnson will effectively guide NFG’s mission to strengthen the field of philanthropy and provide the organization’s membership with the networking and knowledge needed to be more effective grant makers.

In 2008, I did an interview with my fellow young nonprofit leader Melissa Johnson where I asked her if she wanted to be an Executive Director when she grew up. Her answer was a resounding “NO.” Well, well, well, it just goes to show that you never know where your nonprofit career will take you! Melissa is not only an amazing young leader, but a dynamic and thoughtful sister who I greatly admire and look up to. Please join me in congratulating her in her new role at the Neighborhood Funders Group!

NFG Announces Melissa Johnson as New Executive Director

The Board of Directors of the Neighborhood Funders Group is delighted to announce that Melissa Johnson will assume the role of Executive Director effective April 5, 2010. Ms. Johnson succeeds Bettye Brentley, who served with the organization for eight years. Johnson brings to NFG extensive knowledge of the philanthropic sector, having served as Field Director for the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), since 2007. While at NCRP, she had primary responsibility for membership development, building a robust presence in the field, and educating foundations on the organization’s research, policy, and publications. As the new Executive Director, Melissa Johnson will effectively guide NFG’s mission to strengthen the field of philanthropy and provide the organization’s membership with the networking and knowledge needed to be more effective grant makers.

About the Neighborhood Funders Group

The Neighborhood Funders Group is a membership association of grantmaking institutions.  Our mission is to strengthen the capacity of organized philanthropy to understand and support community-based efforts to organize and improve the economic and social fabric of low-income urban neighborhoods and rural communities.  We provide information, learning opportunities, and other professional development activities to our national membership, and encourage the support of policies and practices that advance economic and social justice.

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pIn a href="http://forums.blackbaud.com/blogs/raisersedge/archive/2009/12/11/news-you-can-use-error-in-mail-merge-after-installing-windows-security-update.aspx" target="_new"December/a, we reported that the Windows security update (KB973904) released on December 8, 2009, changed the way that Windows and third-party components use the WordPad-to-Word 6.0 converter, which caused users to receive the error, bWord cannot start the converter Mswrd632.wpc/b when attempting to run mail merges in The Raiser#39;s Edge.nbsp; Microsoft has issued a utility to address this issue. Go to a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973904"Microsoft Knowledge Base article 973904/a to download and run bMicrosoft Fix it 50352/b to resolve the issue. nbsp;This information is also in Knowledgebasenbsp;solutionnbsp;a href="http://www.blackbaud.com/kb/index?page=contentamp;id=BB708164"BB708164/a./pimg src="http://forums.blackbaud.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=90138" width="1" height="1"