Activists Encouraged to Use Video Testimonials
By Nicole Wallace A Washington research organization thinks that charities have yet to fully harness the potential of the Internet for advocacy -- and it is promoting a new approach that it hopes will better take advantage of what the medium has to offer. Russell E. Morgan Jr., president of the…
Project Seeks to Translate Web Sites Into Spanish
By Nicole Wallace To help Spanish speakers gain access to the breadth of information available on the Internet, the IBM Corporation, in Armonk, N.Y., is working closely with Hispanic organizations to develop software that translates information written in English into Spanish. “Despite the fact…
On September 25, NPower NY, a nonprofit organization that provides technology assistance to other charities, will hold a seminar on how charities can encourage their employees to be more conscientious about computer security. For more information: Go to http://www.npowerny.org. On October 21, the…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Web Site OffersTechnology Discounts
A new Web site provides discounted hardware, software, and technology services to nonprofit organizations. TechMarketplace is a project of TechFoundation, a Cambridge, Mass., charity that was founded in 2001 to improve nonprofit organizations’ access to information technology. Among the products…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Cisco Grant Provides Voice Mail for Homeless
The Cisco Systems Foundation, in San Jose, Calif., has awarded a five-year, $2.5-million grant to Community Voice Mail, a charity in Seattle that works with social-service organizations in 37 cities to provide free voice mail to people who do not have telephone service. In addition to the cash…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
New Software Aims to Speed Relief Efforts
After a disaster, one of the biggest challenges relief organizations face is getting supplies to where they are needed, often under chaotic circumstances. New software aims to streamline that task by connecting all the players in the supply chain. The Fritz Institute, a San Francisco nonprofit…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Human-Rights Activists Have Source on Internet
A new Web site offers practical information for human-rights activists in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. The Human Rights Connection provides advice and case studies on how to work with the news media, plan an advocacy campaign, and use technology. The site is operated by three New York…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Newspapers Read on Public Television
The Reading Service of the Redwoods, an all-volunteer organization in Eureka, Calif., that uses television to make local newspapers accessible to area residents with vision problems or other disabilities that make reading difficult, has started broadcasting live. Since 1998, Eureka’s public…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Online Donation Site Starts Charging Fees
Network for Good -- an Internet site that allows donors to contribute to any charity in the United States -- has made a significant change in its operation: Instead of passing the entire donation to the nonprofit group, it has started to deduct a 3-percent processing fee from contributions it…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Volunteer Network Gets $1.1-Million Grant
CityCares, a network of 31 charities that organize short-term volunteer projects, has received a $1.1-million grant from the Omidyar Foundation, a fund in Palo Alto, Calif., created by the founder of the eBay online auction site and his wife. More than $600,000 of the grant will go toward the…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Foundation Offers Grants for Charity Software
The Open Society Institute, in New York, is accepting proposals for the development of software designed to help nonprofit organizations carry out their missions. The grant program is for software designed specifically for charities doing work in the following areas: human rights, legal services,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Internet ‘Blogathon’ Raises Money for Charity
With bleary eyes and more than a little coffee, bloggers stayed up all night on July 26 to raise money for charity. A Web log -- often shortened to blog -- is an online journal that is frequently updated with news, opinion, photographs, or other content. Last month, more than 400 people who run…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: A Technology Leader to Head AmeriCorps, Gates’s Grants, and Grants for Grass-Roots Advocacy
President Bush has nominated David Eisner to be the new head of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the agency that oversees AmeriCorps. A longtime proponent of nonprofit technology, Mr. Eisner was until recently senior vice president of the AOL Time Warner Foundation, then in…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Technology Use Rises at Pennsylvania Charities
Nonprofit organizations in western Pennsylvania made strides in their use of technology between 2000 and 2002, according to a new report. Last fall, the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management at Robert Morris University asked 266 charities about their technology planning, hardware and software,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Questions Remain Following PipeVine’s Closure
Nonprofit organizations and the California attorney general’s office continue to deal with the fallout from the shutdown of PipeVine, a San Francisco nonprofit group that processed donations totaling more than $100-million a year for companies that run on-the-job fund-raising drives, United Ways,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
NPower, a network of organizations that provide technology assistance to other charities, has received a $50,000 grant from the SBC Foundation to update an emergency-preparedness guide created by its New York affiliate to share lessons learned by area nonprofit groups after the September 11, 2001,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor