FCC Offers Educational Radio Licenses
For the first time in seven years, the Federal Communications Commission in mid-October will accept applications for new, full-power stations used for noncommercial, educational purposes. There is no application fee and, if granted, the license itself is free. To apply, a nonprofit group must be…
By Sue Hoye
Contributor
Google Offers Charities Free Software, Help
Google has announced that it is making tools available to help nonprofit groups communicate and collaborate. Google Apps, which will be free to nonprofit organizations in the United States, includes e-mail and calendar programs, Internet-based telephone and text-messaging services, and…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Omidyar Network Ends Online Forum
The charitable Web site Omidyar.net has announced it will shut down its message boards and interactive features and direct current members to other online discussions. The forum is part of the charitable enterprises created by Pierre Omidyar, who made his fortune as the founder of eBay. The change…
By Sam Kean
Contributor
The Red Cross must move fast to prepare for the worstWith predictions for an above-average hurricane system this year, and a new warning that terrorists are plotting an attack against the United States, questions about whether the American Red Cross is adequately prepared for the next big disaster…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
Networking Site Adds Charity Links
The world’s largest professional networking site, LinkedIn, will soon allow its 11 million users to add “badges” to their profiles that link to their favorite philanthropic causes. LinkedIn already offers members — who use the site to connect with other professionals — the option of adding badges,…
By Sam Kean
Contributor
‘Karma’ Video Game Promotes Altruism
Do Something, a youth organization in New York, has created Karma Tycoon, a free online video game it hopes will introduce teenagers to the nonprofit world, encourage volunteerism, and teach financial responsibility. Players have to watch their budgets carefully as they set up a nonprofit…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Satellites Aid Darfur Human-Rights Efforts
To stanch bloodletting in Darfur, an Amnesty International project is putting satellite images online to monitor 12 vulnerable villages in Sudan and nearby Chad. The dozen villages have not been attacked but are in danger because of their location near water or other resources, say officials of…
By Sam Kean
Contributor
To promote networking for social causes, NetSquared has handed out $100,000 in awards to 21 people and organizations that use the Web for charitable projects. NetSquared — a project of TechSoup, which trains charities to use technology to further their missions — announced the award winners at an…
By Sam Kean
Contributor
Charity Uses Cellphones to Promote Exercise
While it doesn’t burn many calories, text messaging might soon play an important role in the battle of the bulge. America on the Move encourages people to take small steps toward improving their health by walking an extra 2,000 steps a day, roughly a mile, and cutting 100 calories — the equivalent…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: Conference to Discuss Municipal Wi-Fi and Broadband Projects Planned for July
“Impact: The Digital Revolution,” a conference to discuss municipal wi-fi and broadband projects, is scheduled to take place in Houston July 26-28. One of the meeting’s sponsors is Technology for All, an organization in Houston that focuses on technology as a way to increase educational and…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
New Web Sites Specialize in Financing Charity Projects
Two new sites, ChangingThePresent.org and Bring Light, are giving donors the opportunity to make gifts that support specific projects, rather than giving general contributions to a charity to use as it chooses. Both sites also give donors the ability to set up online fund-raising drives to raise…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Site Seeks to Spur Donors to Collaborate on Gifts
Change.org, a new giving site, allows donors to work together to raise money for the issues they care about. The site seeks to harness the interactivity of so-called Web 2.0 technologies to promote giving and advocacy, both in the nonprofit world and politics. Visitors to the site can start or join…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Offer by iTunes Benefits Charity Work in Darfur
Customers at iTunes, the online music site, can download new versions of classic John Lennon songs and help victims of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Amnesty International is using music to raise awareness about — and much-needed money for — the conflict, which has killed more than 300,000…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Database Offers New Hope in Tuberculosis Fight
A new database could be an important tool in the battle against tuberculosis. Scientists finished sequencing the genome of the tuberculosis bacterium in 1998. Through a process called expression profiling, they can analyze infected tissue samples and determine which of the bacterium’s 4,000 genes…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Rockefeller Foundation Offers ‘Ideas Portal’
The Rockefeller Foundation has been testing something it calls an ideas portal on its Web site, which provides visitors with an online form through which they can share thoughts about problems they would like to see the foundation tackle and specific projects it should support. More than 1,700…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
IBM Collaborates With Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy and IBM hope to harness the power of technology to conserve the world’s great rivers. By working together, the charity and the information-technology giant plan to develop a computer-modeling system that will bring together multiple sets of data about water quantity, climate,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor