Bits: Webby Awards To Honor Nonprofit Sites
The Webby Awards, which annually honor the best Web sites on the Internet, will accept nominations for the 2009 competition in a variety of categories, including one for nonprofit sites, through December 19. The winners will be announced in June. For more information: Go to…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Guide Helps Small Charities Develop Technology Plans
How much technology is enough — and how often does it need to be replaced? Such questions continue to be a challenge for many nonprofit organizations, according to two reports. NPower Seattle and NPower Indiana, two affiliates of the national technology-assistance organization, have developed 12…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Site Offers Information About Social Causes
Change.org, a Web site started 18 months ago to connect donors with charitable causes, has reinvented itself as a network of blogs that discuss social issues. People interested in a specific cause — be it humanitarian relief, homelessness, or social entrepreneurship — can come to the site to read…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Meetings Will Explore Education and Social Justice
Two nonprofit technology gatherings will be held next month. The Community Technology Centers’ Network, a national association of nonprofit groups that provide technology access and education in underserved areas, will hold its annual conference in Los Angeles November 12-14. Among the topics that…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Gift of Handheld Devices Transforms Health Surveys
A program to help sub-Saharan African countries collect good, up-to-date health data using handheld devices instead of relying on slower, more expensive paper surveys has gotten a big boost. The Vodafone Foundation and United Nations Foundation Technology Partnership has committed more than…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Report Suggests Strategies for Web 2.0 Technology Use
A new report looks at how foundations are using interactive Web 2.0 technology, such as blogs, podcasts, and social networks, in their communications — and urges philanthropies to do more. Some foundations are already embracing technology tools that allow for two-way communications, write the…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Credit-Card Company Waives Fee on Donations
The Capital One Financial Corporation will cover the transaction costs for charitable gifts that its credit-card holders make through the company’s new giving site, allowing the total amount donated to go to the donor’s chosen charity. Typically, when contributors use credit cards to make their…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
World Wide Web Creator Plans New Charity
The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has announced plans for a new organization to help promote the use of the Web for scientific research and to ease the digital divide in developing nations. The organization, which is scheduled to begin operations early next year, received…
By Jeffrey R. Young
Contributor
Google Seeks Ideas for Spending $10-Million
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Google has asked people to submit their ideas for changing the world and helping as many people as possible — and it will put up $10-million to bring the best ideas to life. One idea the company highlights as the kind of creative solution it’s looking for: the…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: Spanish Version of eTapestry Now Available
The Microsoft Corporation, in Redmond, Wash., has given software worth $2.9-million to TechnoServe, a Washington group that works to fight rural poverty around the world, and software worth $2.5-million to Ashoka, a charity in Arlington, Va., that supports social entrepreneurship. For more…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Video-Game Company Signs Deal With Voter Group
The use of video games as a tool for social change has garnered a lot of attention recently, and now video-game systems are getting into the act. Xbox has formed a partnership with Rock the Vote that will allow gamers to register to vote, express their opinions about the presidential candidates,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Software Company Offers New Fund-Raising Tool
The software company Convio is introducing a new online product, Common Ground, designed to help charities manage their interactions with donors and other supporters. With the introduction of Common Ground, the Austin, Tex., company is attempting to break into a segment of the nonprofit software…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Web Site Gives Donors Customized List of Charities
A new Web site enables individual donors to get a customized list of charities that match their interests. Created by the Berkeley Center for New Media at the University of California, the Donation Dashboard site works by using software similar to what Amazon.com and other commercial sites use to…
By Holly Hall
Contributor
Interactive Timeline Tells Charity’s 50-Year History
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Education Development Center, in Newton, Mass., has created an interactive timeline that draws on photography, audio, and video to tell the story of its work in education and health promotion. The organization has focused much of its energy on curriculum…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Contest Seeks Applicants in Creative Technology
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, in Chicago, is expanding its Digital Media and Learning Competition. The foundation will again provide $30,000 to $250,000 to innovative projects that demonstrate the use of technology to encourage participatory learning in which people share…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
New Mapping Tool Details Local Conditions
Nonprofit groups can use a new online service, PolicyMap, to create maps that show important crime, demographic, education, employment, health, and housing information about the neighborhoods in which they work. “We have loaded in almost 4,000 indicators, or pieces of information, that you can put…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor