Charity Promotes Accessible Web Sites
By NICOLE WALLACEThe founders of Knowbility, an Austin, Tex., charity that raises awareness about the potential for technology to improve the lives of people with disabilities, thought long and hard about what to name their organization. “We wanted something that could convey the idea that in the…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Handicraft Groups Make Use of Internet
By NICOLE WALLACEFair-trade charities are taking different approaches to harnessing the power of the Internet to promote the sale of handicrafts made by artisans in developing countries. Daniel Salcedo envisions a future in which craftspeople use the Internet to sell their products directly to…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Microsoft Gift Helps Youth Project
By NICOLE WALLACEThe Microsoft Corporation will donate $12.3-million in cash and $88-million in software to help Boys & Girls Clubs of America bring technology to each of its more than 2,600 clubs. The Club Tech program grew out of the success of an earlier project, in which Microsoft and Shaquille…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: New Domain Name for Museums; Free Service for Small Social-Services Groups
By NICOLE WALLACE Among the seven new top-level Internet domain names recommended by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, was dot-museum. (Top-level domain names are the last part of an Internet address, such as dot-com or dot-org, that indicate what type of…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Corporate Citizenship Detailed Online
By NICOLE WALLACEInvestors who want to know if the companies in which they own stock are good corporate citizens can turn to a new online resource. The Corporate Social Research Center rates 1,000 companies on their commitment to fair labor practices, the environment, product quality and safety,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Sports and Computers Help Detroit Youngsters
By NICOLE WALLACEThink Detroit combines balls and bats with bits and bytes to offer educational and athletic opportunities to the city’s children. This year more than 1,400 children from ages 5 to 14 competed in baseball, basketball, soccer, and softball leagues organized by the Detroit charity.…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: The Hunger Site Expands Its Efforts; Online Information for Donors
By NICOLE WALLACE The Hunger Site, a popular Web site where corporate sponsors make a gift every time a visitor clicks on the site’s “Donate free food” button (The Chronicle, February 24), is expanding the reach of its hunger-relief efforts. The site, which since its creation in June 1999 has…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Web Site Provides Data on Services for Disabled
A new Web site, TheArcLink.org, offers a database of organizations that provide services to mentally retarded people in Indiana and New Mexico -- and has the ambitious goal of eventually listing service providers across the country. The site is a joint project of The Arc of the United States and…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
CD-ROM Helps Charities Assess Risks
By NICOLE WALLACEA new CD-ROM helps charities evaluate whether they are taking the necessary precautions to protect themselves from lawsuits, accidents, and other hazards. The Nonprofit Risk Management Center, in Washington, created the Nonprofit Computer Assisted Risk Evaluation System, or…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Activists Use E-Mail to Combat Torture
By NICOLE WALLACEAmnesty International USA last month activated its new Internet advocacy network by asking members to send e-mail appeals to Turkish authorities on behalf of Sehmuz Temel. Mr. Temel is a Kurd who was being held at police headquarters in Istanbul and had been severely tortured…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
RealNetworks Foundation Starts With $2-Million
By DEBRA E. BLUMA Seattle software company has created a new foundation to help make good on the company’s three-year-old pledge to give a substantial portion of its profits to charity. RealNetworks, the maker of RealVideo and RealAudio software, which allow video and audio signals to be…
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
Awards Honor Charities for Technology Ideas
By NICOLE WALLACEUsing technology to overcome isolation -- both social and geographic -- is a common element in many of the project proposals that won Ericsson Internet Community Awards. Ericsson, a Stockholm telecommunications company, honored five nonprofit organizations from around the world for…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Federal Technology Program Awards $13.9-Million
By NICOLE WALLACEThe Technology Opportunity Program of the U.S. Department of Commerce has awarded $13.9-million to 35 nonprofit organizations and state and local governments for projects that bring information technology to poor urban and rural areas. Commerce Secretary Norman Y. Mineta announced…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Charities Use Internet to Educate Voters
By NICOLE WALLACEAs the Internet changes the way politicians run for office, it is also influencing the way nonprofit organizations conduct their voter-education and advocacy activities. Web White & Blue (http://www.webwhiteblue.org), a project of the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation, in New…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: An New E-Mail List and a Conference on Nonprofit Technology
By NICOLE WALLACE Sue Ellen Smith, at the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, has started the Environmental Fundraisers Discussion List. Participation is restricted to fund raisers who work for environmental groups. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to sesmith@cccturtle.org that includes your…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Surplus Items Matched With Needy Charities
By NICOLE WALLACEExcessAccess.com is an online service that matches individuals and businesses that have items to give away -- anything from furniture to building materials -- with charities that can put them to good use. Businesses and individuals who join the for-profit service post on the Web…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor