Group Goes for Laughs and Donations
Using a Web 2.0 brand of humor — along with e-mail, video, and outreach to social networks — the Nonprofit Technology Network raised more than $10,000 for scholarships to its annual technology conference in San Francisco. “You guys answer each other’s questions, give each other encouragement, point…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
IRS Says Charity’s Web Site Crossed Lines
A new ruling by the Internal Revenue Service could have broad implications for charity Web sites, nonprofit tax and technology experts say. The IRS ruled that a local chapter of a national charity violated the prohibition against politicking by including the political-campaign materials of an…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
Bits: mHealth Alliance To Promote Use of Mobile Tech in Health Programs
The Rockefeller, United Nations, and Vodafone Foundations have announced the formation of the mHealth Alliance to promote the use of mobile technologies in health programs in developing countries. A new report, “mHealth for Development,” details 26 such efforts, including a program in Thailand in…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Online Charity Asks Programmers for Help
Kiva uses the Internet to match entrepreneurs in developing countries with people who want to lend them money to build their businesses. Now the San Francisco charity is asking programmers to develop new online tools to further promote its microfinance mission. The group has created an…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Gates Fund Pays for Data Projects
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Seattle, has awarded $22-million for projects to help schools, districts, and states gather and use data to improve high-school students’ academic achievement. The goal is to gather data “that will inform decision making at all levels in the system,” Vicki L.…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Google Helps Charity Test Its Web Design
As the winner of a contest sponsored by Google, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society received assistance from an outside consulting company to help it use Google’s free Website Optimizer to test the effectiveness of a page on its site. The page — the home page for the charity’s Team in Training…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Contest Honors Creative Technology
The Tech Museum of Innovation, in San Jose, Calif., is accepting applications for its annual awards, which honor the creative use of technology to promote economic development, education, the environment, equality, and health. Winners in each of the five categories receive $50,000. The deadline for…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
New Tool Maps Volunteer Openings
VolunteerMatch has added a new feature to its Web site to make it easier for visitors to find volunteer opportunities near where they live and work. Potential volunteers can now browse opportunities for giving their time — and find nonprofit organizations in their area that are looking for help —…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Cellphone Videos Hope to Change Habits
A Rutgers University professor thinks that cellphone soap operas could be a powerful tool to encourage young minority women to take steps to protect themselves from HIV infection. The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, in Millburn, gave Rachel Jones a $154,400 grant to create 12 videos that…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Knight Awards Nonprofit Media Grants
Twenty-one projects designed to help residents stay informed about local news have received $5-million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, in Miami. The grants — the first round of the foundation’s five-year, $24-million Knight Community Information Challenge — went to projects…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Technology Conference to Be Held in April
The Nonprofit Technology Conference will take place April 26-28 in San Francisco. Last year’s meeting drew more than 1,100 charity technology officials, consultants, and company representatives. Sessions at the conference — which is organized by the Nonprofit Technology Network — will focus on…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Company Enlists Cellphones in Charity’s Text Campaign
The Pepsi Bottling Group is putting its cellphones to work to help recover missing children. The Somers, N.Y., corporation enrolled more than 27,000 company-owned cellphones in the Wireless Amber Alert program, which sends text messages to participants when a child is abducted in their area. The…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Site Helps Charities Craft News Releases
Charities seeking help to improve their news releases now have another tool at their fingertips thanks to a new Web site created by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, in Miami. The Knight News Release Workshop offers step-by-step instructions that show nonprofit writers how, and how not,…
By CANDIE JONES
Contributor
Web Site Encourages Donors to Pool Their Contributions
When FINCA International sets up a village bank in a developing country, neighbors come together to borrow money to start and expand small businesses. Because very few residents have collateral, the borrowers guarantee one another’s loans — making the success of the whole village as important as…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Blues Charity Auctions Musician’s ‘Soul’ on eBay
Blues lore holds that the legendary musician Robert Johnson went to the crossroads at midnight and sold his soul to the devil to play guitar. But now, some 70 years later, the prince of darkness has fallen on hard times and put Mr. Johnson’s soul, “slightly used,” up for sale on eBay. The auction,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Management Consultants Offer Free Online Tools
Charity leaders looking for information on nonprofit management have a new resource to which they can turn. The Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit consulting organization in Boston, has added six “learning centers” to its Web site, focusing on evaluation, fund raising, growth, human resources,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor