Salvation Army Uses Video to Help Its Report Come Alive
Whether out of concern for the environment or for the bottom line, it’s not unusual for charities to post their annual reports online. But the Salvation Army wanted to take full advantage of what the Internet has to offer, rather than just move a report designed as a print document onto the Web. To…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Web Service Maps Out Key Giving Trends
Grant makers seeking direction on where their money could make the biggest difference — or which geographic areas have been most overlooked — now have a virtual road map at their disposal. The Foundation Center has added a new service, Philanthropy In/Sight, that allows people to create custom…
By Jennifer Moore
Contributor
Cellphone Texts Become International-Aid Tool
Working with an African telecommunications company, Google and the Grameen Foundation have created a text-messaging service to assist rural Ugandans, who often live far away from markets and health clinics. Using the new service, farmers will be able to get weather forecasts, search a database of…
By NICOLE WALLACE and Ian Wilhelm
Charities’ Social-Media Use Outpaces Companies’
Nonprofit organizations have long been labeled Luddites when it comes to adopting new technology. But a new study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research shows nonprofit groups are actually well ahead of businesses in their use of online social-media tools such as…
By PETER PANEPENTO
Contributor
International Charity Assists American Entrepreneurs
Kiva has been enormously successful matching entrepreneurs in developing countries with people who want to lend them money. In less than four years, visitors to the Web site have made loans totaling more than $75-million. Now the San Francisco charity is testing the idea of also including U.S.…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
iPhone Application Extends Public Radio’s Reach
Public radio’s bet that the iPhone would be an important platform for reaching out to listeners appears to be paying off. Several major public-radio organizations — including National Public Radio, American Public Media, and Public Radio International — joined forces to develop the Public Radio…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Multiple Departments Oversee Online Activities
Employees responsible for a charity’s online activities are likely to be spread throughout the organization, rather than concentrated in a single department, according to a new report. An online survey of 60 nonprofit groups found that only 12 organizations, or 20 percent, had organized all of…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: MacArthur Foundation Opens ‘Second Life’ Island
United Way of America and the American Human Development Project have created an online tool that calculates how an increase in high-school-graduation rates and other educational achievements could improve social problems, such as poverty and unemployment rates, life expectancy, obesity levels, and…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Tracking System Finds Open Slots at Shelters
Cornerstone, a Bloomington, Minn., charity that works to prevent domestic violence, is trying to make it easier for shelters across the country to share real-time information about open emergency beds and support services. The nonprofit group runs Day One, a secure online service that allows…
By Scott Russell
Contributor
Mentor Group Offers Online Screening Tool
As part of its mission, the New York charity iMentor has built an online system that allows for safe, guided communication between high-school students and their mentors — an effort that has won praise and interest from similar organizations. Dana Saxon, director of partnerships at iMentor…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Charity Sites Rate Low on Satisfaction Survey
The average charity Web site scored only 73 out of 100 on a recent survey of more than 2,000 visitors to nonprofit-run Web sites. That’s a low C on a grade scale, and lower than government sites scored. Onlinebanking sites scored 10 points higher. The “Trends in Constituent Satisfaction with…
By BRENNEN JENSEN
Contributor
Giving Site Seeks American Projects
GlobalGiving — an online giving site best known for connecting donors with development projects overseas — is holding a competition to attract more American charities. “We’ve been open to projects from anywhere in the world, including in the U.S., but a lot of nonprofits have come to us and said,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Charity Map Project Tracks Playground Options
Kaboom, a charity that builds playgrounds, is trying to enlist people across the United States to help create an online map of the country’s play spaces. Anyone can set up a profile on the organization’s Web site and then post a review and photographs of neighborhood recreation centers, skateboard…
By Caroline Preston
Contributor
GuideStar Unveils Web-Site Changes
GuideStar has revamped its online repository of charity data to make it easier for groups to post more information. Organizations can for the first time add logos, photographs, and videos to their profiles on GuideStar, and the site now offers an easy way for groups to upload key documents, such as…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
Software Preserves Native Languages
A New Mexico charity is harnessing modern tools in the struggle to revitalize some very old and endangered languages. Of the more than 400 languages that were once spoken by Native Americans in the United States, roughly 175 are still spoken today, according to Inée Yang Slaughter, executive…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Voice-Mail Charity Distributes Alerts
Community Voice Mail — a charity in Seattle that provides free voice mail in 46 cities to people who are homeless, fleeing domestic abuse, or otherwise do not have phone service — teamed up with three federal agencies to distribute information about the recent salmonella outbreak and recall of…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor