Technology used to be the realm of the IT department. These days, everyone in your organization is using technology, and they all have opinions about how it should be done. There is no place this is more evident than in the communications department. From email, to web sites, to social media, communications staff throughout the sector are pushing the limits (and patience!) of IT staff. In this session, we'll discover the keys to managing online communications technologies in ways that keep your organization secure, align with your mission, and allow your communications staff to do what they do best.

Why is mission first the topic of a session about technology? Because mission is what makes the nonprofit sector matter. Unlike for-profit entities, nonprofits are not accountable to a financial bottom line; rather, they are responsible for serving a social bottom line. It’s true that nonprofit leaders must be good financial stewards, but that’s because their organizations won’t be able to keep providing services (delivering the mission) to their communities if they go out of business.

The goal of IT alignment is to use technology to support and enhance the work that you do to meet your mission. In other words, IT alignment will help you select and implement technology to achieve your mission and to avoid the trap of implementing the latest technology because it’s shiny, or because someone told you to. To make the most of this chapter, then, you’ll need to know what mission really means.

Takeaways:

1. Visual framework to evaluate how well aligned your mission and technology is.
2. Understanding of definition of IT Alignment and methods to help others understand it.
3. Tactical and strategic next steps, what you can act on today, tomorrow, next year and next decade.

Assessing the return on investment (ROI) of technology projects is crucial to securing board support and staff buy-in. This session explains techniques for ROI analysis in the nonprofit context to help guide your decision making and demonstrate results.

The three most important factors in managing technology change in your organization are people, people, people. This session introduces practices for technology change that focuses on people and how factors inherent in change affect their performance and subsequently have a negative impact on the organization. In addition, the session will discuss key success factors and mitigation techniques to help improve the success of technology change.

Takeaways:

1. Identify behaviors, perceptions, and attitudes that emerge in organizations as a response to change and that ultimately impact organizational effectiveness
2. Understanding of how to make successful technological changes
3. What can be done to mitigate the impact of technology change in your organization.

• Kristie Ferketich, Ann Marie Hill, and Beth Hardy, Google Grants Specialists on Google's in-kind advertising program for nonprofits - Google Grants.

We know most non-profits have a limited (or even nonexistent) marketing budget. Join this session to ask questions about Google Grants, a program that offers free online advertising to select 501(c)(3) organizations. We’ll cover questions on the program basics, how to successfully manage your online advertising account, and more!

Takeaways:
1. Learn more about the Google Grants program: program guidelines, eligibility, requirements, etc.
2. Get answers to tough questions about managing your account, evaluating its performance, and making changes for success
3. Familiarize yourself with a variety of online educational resources to help you beyond this Q&A session

Where should you focus your efforts to find out where your stakeholders are and what they are doing online with and for your organization? What data is meaningful, actionable? These are the questions that drive the research and analysis that inform the program design of the highest-performing online organizations. Keeping pace with constituents’ evolving interests and behaviors online is essential to shaping your online strategies and tactics. If you want to improve your ability to target your outreach, serve your constituents, and engage in the online dialogue about your organization, it pays to know the networks in which your constituents participate, the websites they visit, the discussion lists on which they lurk, and how they spend their time online. This session will teach you simple and advanced techniques for determining what your audience is doing and evaluating your online endeavors later.

Takeaways:

1. You’ll learn ways you monitor the social media, social networks and your own Web site interactions for clues to how to engage your constituents.
2.We’ll review techniques nonprofits use to get direct feedback from constituents to guide their efforts
3.You’ll understand “dashboard metrics” and learn how to construct insightful reports for your Web activity.

Setting appropriate budgets and securing resources is one of the most important jobs a leader has, and raising money for technology presents a special set of challenges. This session examines adequate budgeting for different types of organizations and the classification of technological expenses, including what counts toward overhead versus program expenses. We review strategies for pitching technology projects and explore the foundations that fund them.

Marnie Webb, Co-CEO of TechSoup Global, will kick off Day 2, sharing her perspective from her role as the leader of an organization that continues to innovate its services to help social benefit organizations around the globe better fulfill their missions

 

Marnie has been with TechSoup Global since 2001, most recently holding the position of Vice President of Knowledge Services. To help address the nonprofit sector’s systemic technology challenges, Marnie works towards optimizing TechSoup Global’s popular Web resource, TechSoup, and its Knowledge Services program, which includes projects such as Healthy and Secure Computing and MaintainIT. She is one of the driving forces behind the NetSquared Initiative, which brings the social Web to nonprofits across the globe. A sought-after speaker and writer on nonprofit technology, she understands both challenges and technological possibilities facing the sector. Marnie is one of the founding members of the Nonprofit Emerging Technology Exchange and an organizer of the NPTech tagging experiment. In 2008, The Nonprofit Times included Marnie on its list of the 50 most influential leaders in the U.S. nonprofit sector.

• Laura Quinn, Executive Director of Idealware on software to support fundraising, outreach, and communications, and Idealware's forthcoming Field Guide to Nonprofit Software on these topics.

  Takeaways: 

1. An understanding of the types of software than can help your org raise money and reach new friends
2. A way to vet what types of software make sense for your org's technology level
3. Answers to your specific fundaising and outreach software questions!

Having highly capable and motivated people in your organization is crucial to success with technology. This session will discuss proven strategies for determining who you need on your IT team, setting salary levels, writing job descriptions, recruiting and interviewing candidates to make the right hire, effectively managing your staff, and creating low-cost professional development opportunities.

Takeaways:

1. How to determine who you need on your team.
2. How to find and hire the right people.
3. How to manage, retain and develop your staff.

Step 1 for online fundraising is partnering with a trustworthy donation processing organization and placing a prominent donate button on your website. Step 2 is enticing people to click on it. Join Katya for a bite-sized intro to online strategy and get your questions answered.

Takeaways:
1. 5 action items you can complete as soon as the session is over
2. Talking points to share with management who don’t support purchasing a fundraising solution
3. An understanding of the common ailments that befall rookie online fundraisers

Nonprofits have limited resources, which usually means that we have to make tough choices about where to spend our time and money. In this session, we'll cover best practices in planning for technology projects, providing tools to help you make smart decisions about where to invest those resources.

Takeaways: 1. Top to bottom outline of the nonprofit strategic planning process, incorporating balanced scorecards, multiple bottom lines and focusing on technology planning.
2. Sound advice on how to evaluate which tech projects need to be done the exact same way that a for-profit would and which ones can be done creatively, with a deep dive into what “creatively” means.
3. Direction as to how to develop of Technology Plan – what goes in it, how do you get it in there, how do you make it a document that others can understand and engage with.

Presented by Edward Granger-Happ

For those of us running IT operations on a daily basis, it's easy to think of technology as just systems we have to keep up and running. Good leaders do more than guarantee up time though. Leaders see technology as just another means to achieving an organization's mission.

Takeaways: 1. The differences between operations and strategy
2. The link between technology and strategy
3. Finding a seat at the strategy table in your organization

Ami Dar, Founder and Executive Director of Idealist.org, opened the ONTC with his thoughts on the intersection of technology and a nonprofit's mission.

Ami Dar is the founder and executive director of Idealist.org. Built in 1996 with $3,500, Idealist has become one of the most popular nonprofit resources on the web, with information provided by 90,000 organizations around the world, 70,000 visitors every day, and a staff of 60 in New York, Buenos Aires, and Portland. Ami is an Ashoka Fellow and currently serves on the boards of the Nonprofit Finance Fund and Allforgood.org. He was born in Jerusalem, grew up in Peru and Mexico, and lives in New York.

Everyone who has a desire to get online should be able to take advantage of the information highway. We all know that isn't always the case and that some people are trying to control our fondly called interwebs.  OneWebDay is working to change that.

Join us for our September Ask the Expert when we'll talk with Nathaniel James, Executive Director of OneWebDay and answer questions on digital inclusion and how NTEN members can get involved!

Causes has become a powerful tool in the social web, allowing nonprofits and individuals activists to raise awareness around the issues they care about. Join us for our August Ask the Expert when we'll talk about Causes and answer the NTEN community's questions with Joe Green, co-founder and president of Causes. 

For those of us who have to wear a Human Resources hat along with several others, hiring well is hard -- especially when you're hiring for technology positions and you don't have a tech background.  Fortunately, Katrin found the amazing James and Cassie at CommonGood Careers. They wrote the IT staffing chapter in Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission, and they did a fabulous job. 

One of the most interesting things I learned from James is that a bad hire is really expensive -- like two times the salary expensive. You want to make sure that you're doing it right the first time. 

Luckily, James will be walking us through some of his secrets at the Online Nonprofit Technology Conference next month. If you just can't wait, here's an early listen of some of his wisdom.

In every corner of the NTC, frequently in the NTEN Affinity Groups, and at least two times a week in my in-box, you'll come across a conversation that goes a little like this:

"They hired me to help them create a new data/web/email/IT strategy, but now they don't actually want to DO any of the things I recommend. I've given them statistics and logic, but they won't listen to reason!"

You can be the smartest person in the room when it comes to IT, but a real technology leader doesn't just know what to do, she knows how to get it done.  And getting it done means helping your leadership and staff understand and embrace the changes that will inevitably follow.

This is known as change management. It's what Dahna Goldstein does best.  Dahna will join us for the Online Nonprofit Technology Conference in September.  Here, she takes some time to share a few of the secrets of managing change effectively in your organization.

Do you use CiviCRM in your organization? Are you responsible for configuring and/or maintaining CiviCRM for your organization?  Join Dave Greenberg of the CiviCRM Team while he answers the NTEN Community's questions on CiviCRM.

Okay, so Chris Brogan prefers to say he's not an expert, but that he advises people on social media use. That doesn't change the fact that he's smart and savvy on the social media front. One of his specialties? Starting and maintaining conversations with stakeholders. Join us for our discussion with Chris.

Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist for Google and author of "Web Analytics: An Hour a Day" will spent a hour with NTEN answering  questions on Web Analytics.

Ramya Raghavan, Nonprofits and Activism Manager at YouTube, will be on hand during this Ask the Expert online chat to help demystify the use of video to reach your audience. She leads YouTube's Agent Change Program for Nonprofits.

Is your nonprofit using maps to geographically show off your work?  Have you thought of the dozens of ways you could use the GeoWeb to make your work more visible?  If you have used or are considering using GIS in your nonprofit's work, you probably have a question or two. Well, Andrew Turner, a neogeographer involved in helping to build the geospatial web, was here to answer GIS questions for our November Ask the Expert session. 

Join us as we talk about the American Red Cross social media experience with Wendy Harman about Social Media Adoption in our February Ask the Expert.  Every organization considering social media has plenty of questions to answer, and most of them have nothing to do with the technology. Plenty of staff at the American Red Cross knew HOW to blog, or how to use Facebook, but before the organization could roll out their social media plan, they had address the bigger issues.

If you can still stomach waking to the news each morning, then you know the economic situation we are in is not too pretty. And just because money is tight, doesn't mean that we can stop spending it. Join us to talk with Michael Schreiber about how technology planning is still possible and more necessary than ever in our April Ask the Expert.

Join us for our May Ask the Expert with the Mal Warwick, author of Fundraising When Money Is Tight: A Strategic and Practical Guide to Surviving Tough Times and Thriving in the Future.  In his new book some simple yet sometimes counterintuitive steps are presented that you can take to ensure that your organization will suffer the least possible damage in a down economy -- and emerge healthy and poised for renewed growth when the economic crisis has passed. 

NTEN and Idealware have teamed up to help you out with an  impartial, detailed comparison of 33 different donor management systems (also called donor databases) that cost less than $4250 in the first year.  Join us for our June Ask the Expert with Laura Quinn and Eric Leland.  Laura, Director, Idealware completed the analysis of the data while Eric Leland, Five Paths Partner, performed the research for the report.

The social media waters are tough to navigate. Join us for our July Ask the Expert when we'll talk about ReadWriteWeb's Guide to Online Community Management and answer YOUR questions about online community management with Marshall Kirkpatrick, editor of the report.

A brief chat with Beth Kanter to define ROI and how to do it right in your organization.  Join us for more conversation with Beth at the Online Nonprofit Technology Conference Spetember 16 and 17: http://nten.org/ontc.

On April 26th through April 28th, we held the 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco.  We presented nearly 100 sessions, on topics ranging from virtualization to branding in social media.  We were lucky to partner with ReadyTalk to present 6 live simulcast sessions.  Here, we give you the audio from one of those sessions.  Full recordings with the slides are available for download at nten.org/ntc:

On April 27th, we presented:

Google Media: Google Grants, Blogger, YouTube, Maps

Panelists:

Ramya Raghavan | Google
Kristie Ferketich | Google
Tanya Keen | Google
Rick Klau | Google

You've definitely heard of one of these Google products but how can you make them work at your nonprofit?  Take a close look at these Google tools that will making blogging a breeze, uploading a video a snap, and creating a custom map easy.  You will also learn about how nonprofits can take advantage of online advertising through the Google Grants program. Join the Google team to learn about the best ways to take advantage of the Google infrastructure.
Takeaways:

1. How to use YouTube, Google Maps/Earth, Google Grants, and Blogger to promote your organization and cause
2. How you can have a limited, recession-friendly budget and still have a successful online presence
3. How Google tools can work together to make your life easier

On April 26th through April 28th, we held the 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco.  We presented nearly 100 sessions, on topics ranging from virtualization to branding in social media.  We were lucky to partner with ReadyTalk to present 6 live simulcast sessions.  Here, we give you the audio from one of those sessions.  Full recordings with the slides are available for download at nten.org/ntc:

On April 27th, we presented:

Online Organizing for Community Organizers (and vice versa)

Panelists:

Charles Lenchner | Working Families Party

Community organizing and online organizing - can they go together? An exploration of the differences between the two, resulting in a road map for community organizations starting to use online organizing tools.
Takeaways:

1.List of specific best practices for community organizers integrating online tools into their work. (As distinct from the HQ of community organizations utilizing email lists for fundraising and communications.
2. Review of the state of debate between community and online organizers. (Marshall Ganz versus MoveOn). The goal is to understand the resistance from community organizers and overcome it within the organization.
3. Folks coming from a serious online organizing background will be exposed to the basics of traditional ‘community organizing’ practices: one-on-ones, leadership training, lay leadership, local targets, strong geographic focus, emphasis on low income folks, especially from non-white communities.

On April 26th through April 28th, we held the 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco.  We presented nearly 100 sessions, on topics ranging from virtualization to branding in social media.  We were lucky to partner with ReadyTalk to present 6 live simulcast sessions.  Here, we give you the audio from one of those sessions.  Full recordings with the slides are available for download at nten.org/ntc:

On April 27th, we presented:

DIY Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Panelists:

Kevin Lee | Didit


Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a great means for cash-strapped nonprofits to reach out to their constituents. SEO is becoming increasingly important, as people get online. After all, wouldn’t it be better for both clients and organizations if a person looking for, say, “after-school education in Chicago” or “housing for at-risk-youth in Jacksonville” find their local nonprofit instead of some for-profit company? SEO lets you do this! Organic search engine optimization, a way to get your organization to naturally achieve a higher listing on the search engines, is a perfect, free, way to get nonprofit organizations more clients, members donors and more. This workshop will educate and teach everyone, from the techie newbie to management, on why SEO is important and some easy steps to get the results.

Takeaways:

1. An understanding of SEO and how it applies to your website
2. How, where and why to do keyword research
3. SEO “roadmap” that they can take home and begin comparing against their current website

On April 26th through April 28th, we held the 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco.  We presented nearly 100 sessions, on topics ranging from virtualization to branding in social media.  We were lucky to partner with ReadyTalk to present 6 live simulcast sessions.  Here, we give you the audio from one of those sessions.  Full recordings with the slides are available for download at nten.org/ntc:

On April 28th, we presented:

Unleashing the Ultimate Cool Factor: Case Studies of Conferences Energized Through Social Media

Panelists:

Maddie Grant | Socialfish, LLC
Chris Bucchere | The Social Collective
Lindy Dreyer | SocialFish, LLC
Susan Mernit | Pink Garage
Alison Potvin | Brave & Free Media

This session will consist of a panel presentation illustrating examples of popular conferences which are using social media to energize the event itself, enable face to face interaction among conference attendees, build buzz before the event and enable the long tail of sharing conference content after the fact. Find out how you can do the same for your non-profit events.
Takeaways:

1. Ideas and tools for building buzz
2. Ideas and tools for engaging your audience
3. Ideas and tools for reaching beyond a conference and enabling the long tail.

On April 26th through April 28th, we held the 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco.  We presented nearly 100 sessions, on topics ranging from virtualization to branding in social media.  We were lucky to partner with ReadyTalk to present 6 live simulcast sessions.  Here, we give you the audio from one of those sessions.  Full recordings with the slides are available for download at nten.org/ntc:

On April 28th, we presented:

Confessions of a Social Media Campaigner

Everyone wants to talk about social media these days.  But how do you separate the reality from the hype?  You talk to the people actually doing it.

Panelists:

Carie Lewis | The Humane Society of the United States
Danielle Brigida | National Wildlife Federation
David J. Neff | American Cancer Society


In this session, panelists from difference nonprofits will share their insider secrets about what they’ve learned in executing some of the most successful social media campaigns. They’ll also share with you their deepest confessions about what has NOT worked and why. You’ve heard why you should use social media and you’ve seen what people have done. Now find out what it really takes and learn from their experiences.
Takeaways:

1. How much time and resources a social media campaign *really* takes
2. How to *really* get buy in from the top
3. What makes people *really* participate

On April 26th through April 28th, we held the 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco.  We presented nearly 100 sessions, on topics ranging from virtualization to branding in social media.  We were lucky to partner with ReadyTalk to present 6 live simulcast sessions.  Here, we give you the audio from one of those sessions.  Full recordings with the slides are available for download at nten.org/ntc.

On April 28th, we presented:

Cloud Computing: More than just IT plumbing in the sky

We wanted to hear more about cloud computing that the usual "it makes computing cheaper and faster."  

Panelists:

Steve Hill Wright | Salesforce.com/Foundation
Lucy Bernholz | Blueprint Research & Design
Lalitha Vaidyanathan | FSG Social Impact Advisors

Cloud computing reduces IT infrastructure, reduces time spent on IT management and increases your return on investment for IT expenditures. This is nice. However, the cloud can also enable the social sector to collaborate in ways that have not been possible before. We are not corporations. While we are subject to a competitive funding marketplace, we are also participants in a more collaborative marketplace where we are working to drive social change. This session will discuss how the cloud can enable greater collaboration and, hopefully, increase our capacity to solve problems.
Takeaways:

1. Open Data: What is it, why do you want it and what are the implications for the social sector?
2. Philanthropic / Donation Marketplaces: What they are and what could they be?
3. Social Impact Metrics: How greater transparency and collaboration can help us move the needle?
4. Fancy pants are critical to a great presentation.

Do you know what DNSSEC is? I didn't either. I'm still not totally certain, but what I CAN tell you is this: It used to be that you didn't really have to worry about the kinds of security issues that plague big organizations, but the times are changing, and so are the hackers. More of us than ever are vulnerable to the kinds of security holes that hackers like to exploit.

Lucky for us, we have the Public Interest Registry on our side. Lance Wolack of PIR is leading a session at the NTC to help us untangle all the security mysteries that threaten our .org domains: "Building a Stronger and More Secured Online Community". We spoke about that session a while back:

If you need to go for a walk to clear your head after his session, Lance recommends checking out the park at the base of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Check out the park's web site for more details. 

This is the very last of my 2009 NTC Preview podcasts. It's also the longest, because Vince is a very interesting guy, with a lot of interests and a talent for connecting people and ideas. 

Vince is leading the 2009 NTC session, "Fundster: How Philanthropy is Adapting Social Network Practice". You may remember America's Giving Challenge. Or maybe you've already voted in the NetSquared Challenge. This is the sort of thing we're talking about -- transparent philanthropy driven by the people.  The idea of mixing social media and philanthropy certainly has its detractors, but there's no doubt that it's shaking up how we think about funding and fundraising. As Vince says in the podcast, "It's way too early for dogma."

As long as I had Vince on the phone, I wanted to get answers to all kinds of things I've been thinking about lately. When we finish talking about his session, we cover everything from We Are Media, to Vocalo, to how to save newspapers.  

Oh, and Vince professes his love for See's Candy, too. I wonder if he prefers the Bridge Mix or the Truffles?

There's one expression I never want to hear again: "If you build it, they will come." I love Kevin Costner as much as the next lady of a certain age, and I love baseball, but I think we need to give that phrase a rest.

It doesn't mean it isn't true, though. Just HOW to drive traffic to your site remains a bit of a mystery. I know that I, for one, am in a rut. When we have something on our site we want folks to find, I do the same three things to drive folks there. 

If you're in the same place, we should probably head over to Allan's session at the 2009 NTC, "25 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Web Site".  Allan, who runs CharityFinders, shared some insight from his session with me:

If you have extra time in the Bay Area, Allan and I think you should check out the local theater scene. It's great stuff. Just drop by Union Square and find Tix, the half-price ticket booth.

Jakob Nielsen released a study last week suggesting that nonprofits are leaving half of their potential online donations on the table because of simple usability issues.  You don't have to be a die-hard Nielson fan to know that usability -- the ease with which your stakeholders can find what they need -- is an issue for most nonprofits. 

What to do about your site's usability (or lack thereof) is a tougher nut to crack. How do you know what's working and what's not? When you know what's not working, how do you fix it?  And do our sites really have to look like Nielsen's to work?

Stephen Love of Northridge Interactive will tackle this topic at his NTC session, "We Want Usability (But We Don't Want Ugly): Marrying the Best of Design and Usability".  He and his colleague Dottie Hodges sat down to chat with me about the challenges of usability and their session.

First of all, let's just say Farra's full name: Farra Trompeter (trom-peter, like the guy in front of the pearly gates). I love that name. I've taken to using it as an exclamation in all kinds of situations. For instance: "Well, I'll be Farra Trompetered." Seriously. I love it.

Secondly, Farra lives up to the fun of her name. I had a great time chatting with her about her session at the 2009 NTC, "Your Website as an Experience of Your Brand". I had so much fun, I had to edit out half of the conversation. What's left is a great introduction to a whole new way of thinking about your website -- and how to make it more effective. She may be even smarter than she is fun!

Farra also had a couple of San Francisco dining recommendations for NTC attendees. She suggests you check out:

• Minako - yummy organic sushi in the mission. Go say hi to Judy and her mom.
• Samovar - awesome chai and good treats.

Every Adwords user out there can agree on one thing: there's no one answer when it comes to Adwords. Making your campaign work for your organization can seem one part sweat, one part knowledge, one part pixie dust. But how do you make pixie dust, anyway?

The folks at Google have been more than generous in sharing that recipe with the NTEN crowd. Not only do they give NTEN members priority treatment for new Google Grants accounts, they've also shared their Adwords secrets in our Adwords webinar series. (Shhh. We're doing more in the spring!)

At the 2009 NTC, Google's own nonprofit Tinkerbell, Kristie Ferketich, will share her pixie dust formulas in her session, "Hey Buddy, Can You Spare $1: Effective Strategies to Maximize Google Grants". I got to talk to her about that session, some of the other Google goodness at the NTC, and her favorite San Francisco place, Dolores Park.

If there's one thing I've learned in my 6+ years at NTEN, it's that people love to hate their web sites. Perhaps that's why there are so many choices when it comes to CMS (oodles of which are rated in our CMS satisfaction survey). Ask anyone in the nonprofit technology community about Content Management Systems, and they're likely to mention one of the following:

• Drupal
• Joomla
• Plone

We like them because they're free. We love to hate them because there are so many twiddly bits to adjust. Thank goodness we have Laura Quinn, Executive Director at Idealware. She's going to sort out some of the differences between the three and make sense of it all, in terms even non-geeks can understand.  

I spoke with her about her session at the 2009 NTC, "Comparing Open Source CMSs: Joomla, Drupal, and Plone", and why CMS seems to be the area where open source has really taken off in the sector.

Here's a secret: Laura doesn't have warm fuzzy feelings about San Francisco.  Listen to the podcast to find out why, but know that we should all do our best to give her some positive feelings about the City by the Bay. Laura, I think you should start by having some old school San Francisco-style seafood at Tadich Grill. It's hard NOT to love SF after a bowl of their cioppino.  

If you love food like I do, you've probably heard of Iron Chef (or at least Iron Chef America). The premise is simple: Take two talented chefs, add one secret ingredient, then give them one hour to cook up at least 3 delicious courses.

Eve Simon, Creative Director at Beaconfire Consulting, is serving up a tasty session at the 2009 NTC based on the theme: "This is Iron Chef...Battle Nonprofit". One San Francisco nonprofit will serve as the secret ingredient for four creative teams, who will each come up with a web site design, email template, and social media plan. Their results will be presented to you at the NTC, where you'll have a chance to vote for the winning plan. 

You may also learn a thing or two about marketing best practices along the way!  Check out this talk I had with Eve about her session

This session is a must-see. Beaconfire has a "Gentleman in charge of the pranks," so you know their stuff is going to be fun. Listen to the end of the podcast!

Rational as I wish I were, I know it's not really facts and figures -- or logic -- that does most of my decision-making. In every decision I make, there is some element of emotion at play. Despite what you think, you're the same. Why, then, do most of us feel compelled to list bullet points of facts on our web sites and in our emails?

If our stakeholders are looking for confirmation, not information, it seems to me we need to refocus on the fine art of storytelling. 

Somewhere along the way, we became more obsessed with exactly how high Icarus was flying when he fell than with telling the story of Icarus. That's a concept Roger Burks has been putting into practice at Mercy Corps. During his travels, he worries less about how many people are being served than about telling their stories.  

The result? Compelling messages that make the work of Mercy Corps seem more real than any list of figures. Roger shared a little of his philosophy, the basis of his session at the 2009 NTC, "Better Online Storytelling", upon his return from a trip to the Congo. 

Roger is also really excited about getting to San Francisco to engage with the amazing nonprofit community there. I couldn't agree more. In fact, we have the perfect way for you to get to know the nonprofit scene: the Day of Service. We're helping over 60 nonprofit organizations with all kinds of technology questions. You can help, too!

Jon Stahl has some awesome pants: the front and back of each leg is a different color -- red, green, blue and yellow. I first saw them back in 2002, when the NTC was still the Roundup. Amazingly, he still fits in them -- and he's bringing them to San Francisco in April. Luckily for you, he's also bringing his decade-long experience trying to get nonprofit software to play nicely!

Jon is leading a session at the NTC called An Open Civic Engagement Platform: A new generation of tools that play nice together. He'll be talking about the variety of ways we can now make our donor databases, content management systems, and email tools talk to each other and share data, and what this means for us as a sector.

We talked about this -- and burritos -- a few days ago. Take a listen.

Kevin LoChris Peters

When you're a nonprofit manager, there are loads of great resources to help you get the skills you need to lead effectively: You can take classes on human resources, learn about the legal needs of your organization, or dive into accounting practices.

But how do you learn what you need to know about managing technology? How MUCH do you need to know?  How are you supposed to decide the technological fate of your organization when you don't know the difference between RAM and ROM?

The answer is... you don't really need to know the difference -- but you DO need to know some basics. Luckily for you, Kevin Lo and Chris Peters, both from TechSoup Global, will walk you through what matters at their 2009 NTC Session: "Foundations for IT Decision-Making".

But it's not just a session at the NTC, it's also a chapter in our book -- written by the NTEN community -- Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission.  

Kevin and Chris took some time to share their insights a while back.

We also talked about what you should do during your free time in San Francisco.  Like Nancy Schwartz, they think you ought to head over to Golden Gate Park. Chris also highly recommends the brand new California Academy of Sciences. (I'm a huge fan of the De Young as well.)

Steve Wright's PantsSteve Wright is a busy man. I know this from watching his tweets. He's the Director of Innovation at the Salesforce.com/Foundation, and when he's not listening to terrible/cult classic music, unearthing incredible scientific discoveries, or updating us on the status of his pants, he's thinking VERY BIG THOUGHTS. 

One of those big thoughts? The fact that more of us are doing our computing in the cloud means a lot more than infrastructure and energy savings for our organizations. It means we have the opportunity to collaborate like never before. As the web opens up, the difficulties in sharing data are dissolving.

In his session at the 2009 NTC, "Cloud Computing: More than just IT Plumbing in the Sky", Steve and his amazing panel of guests will talk about the implications of cloud computing as a means for learning more about our work, collaborating better, and creating more change. Take a listen.

Over the last couple of years, our IT Staffing reports have found that nonprofits are hosting their own software and services less and less. Most are outsourcing website, email, and listserv hosting.  Increasingly, organizations are also using software as a service, virtualization, and other remote computing techniques to support remote staff and increase collaboration across their sectors.

In his session, "Going Remote: What You Need to Know", Grant Howe of Sage will offer up excellent (and really geeky) remote solutions.

Cindy Leonard is one of the nicest people I know -- and I know a lot of nice people!  It's no surprise, then, that she's tackling the topic of "The Softer Side of Tech Consulting" at the 2009 NTC. 

Anyone who's done consulting work knows that your technology skills aren't the most important part when it comes to being a good consultant. Sure, you have to know what you're doing, but how you engage your clients is the key. As the Technology Services Manager at the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management at Robert Morris University, Cindy has had lots of experience. She shared her vision for the session with me in this podcast.

This will be Cindy's first trip to the west coast -- EVER!  Resplendent in her native Steeler's recent victory, she vows that the one thing she will check out in San Francisco is Lombard Street.   

As nonprofits, we're focused on action, all the time. We want to be out in the field, serving clients, all the time. It's go, go, go for the mission, all the time.

Time is a luxury we don't have in our line of work -- which is why I think so many of us resist evaluation. Why would you reflect on how you feed people when you could just go feed people?

Of course, we know better. Evaluation helps us do our work better, and we all want to do our work better. The trick for our sector is going to be moving evaluation from that thing you do when you can force yourself to sit down for a few minutes to that thing that happens as you do your work.

As Executive Director at Tincan, Karen Michaelson has had lots of practice. At the NTC, she'll share her experiences at her session, "Evaluating Outcomes: Real Techniques for Measuring Civic Engagement and Technology Fluency".

For marketing types, word of mouth advertising is the Holy Grail. We work really hard to create stakeholders who are so engaged and so invested, they can't help but tell everyone they know about what a great organization we are.

In the pre-internet days, that meant engaging some REALLY invested people, because the barrier to entry for telling a friend was pretty high. They'd have to pick up the phone or send letters, or have the topic come up in conversation, to spread your good word.  

With the introduction of email, and now social media, that barrier to entry has been removed. It's more than easy for someone to spread the word -- it's STUPID easy.  But, in a classic "be careful what you wish for" way, word of mouth advertising comes with a price. Your supporters can now easily spread your message, and just as easily market it.

It's this dillema that Nancy Schwartz, consultant and blogger at Getting Attention, will take on at her 2009 NTC session,  The Open Source Brand in the Age of Being Everywhere.  I talked to Nancy about that session -- and buffalo -- earlier this week.

Planning and technology often seem like oil and water: How can you possibly plan in a field that changes every three weeks?  Turns out, you not only CAN do it, you HAVE to do it.

Peter Campbell knows that better than most anyone. He's been at this for awhile now, first in law offices, then San Francisco Goodwill, and now at EarthJustice. 

Peter is leading the session "How to Decide: IT planning and prioritization" at the 2009 NTC.  (It's more than a session, it's a chapter in our book, Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission.) He took a few minutes out of his day to chat with me.

When he's not blogging at TechCafeteria, you can find Peter at Buffalo Bill's in Hayward. He suggests you try to make the trip when you're out for the NTC!

Johanna Bates has been working at Community Partners for a long time now. She started out stuffing envelopes, graduated to accidental techie, and is now the Director of Technology Strategy. It's fitting, then, that she's leading a session at the NTC about becoming a career nonprofit technologist. Last week, I had the chance to talk to her about her session, Career NPTechies: How to graduate from the accidental techie academy and become a tech leader.