Nonprofit Agencies can Learn from Tech Startup Challenges
I attended a United Way grant workshop this morning, and as is the case for many nonprofit agencies, most will be dealing with reduced budgets this year, and more than likely for future years.
Not only was there talk of agencies running leaner and meaner, but two other points that were mentioned were in regard to collaboration, and the need for agencies to be able to show measurable outcomes.
And while both of these ideas are not new concepts, in either the private or nonprofit world, the discussion reminded me of a recent email article Jason Calacanis wrote in regard to what to do if your startup is about to fail.
Believe me, I’m not hoping any nonprofits or other agencies fail, but I think Jason’s thoughts can be translated to almost any situation, good or bad.
In fact, many of Jason’s recent articles have inspired me to push even harder during these difficult times in both my day job and ’second life’ IT business.
If your nonprofit or other agency is also dealing with budget challenges, I would recommend reading a reprint of his article (and any others you can find).
They may be geared toward the private tech sector, but there is lot’s of good advice that can be used by all, regardless of what you do. If you too are inspired by his thoughts and writings, you can sign up for future articles here.
WordPress Plugin for DonorsChoose.org
I recently found the website, donorschoose.org, which allows educators to create proposals for classroom project materials. Once the proposal is approved, it is posted on the donorschoose.org website, where individuals can then fund the project by donating money.
Digital Divide in Kern County
A few years ago after becoming active in the Kern County community, I found this report titled, Conectados: Connecting Los Angeles Underserved Communities, which was completed by The Tomas Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI) in April 2003. The TRPI is a Latino think tank that is a free-standing, nonprofit policy research organization which is headquartered at the University of Southern California.
And it is ironic as I write this now, because when I came across the report several years ago, I had no knowledge of GIS or its power, but I was fascinated with the maps that were included in this report. So now that I am familiar with GIS and have become empowered to help our community, I think a study of the digital divide in Kern County would be beneficial to find out where publicly accessible technology is available, and where it is not.
Especially if we, as a community, want to bring more technology training and technology-related jobs to this area. I feel that if we can find the digital divide in Kern County, then we can focus on areas that are in need of technology and training.
Using WordPress for Nonprofit Websites
Websites no longer have to become static, stale and outdated, or having to rely on web designers/developers to update content. With publishing platforms such as WordPress, many organizations could move to updating their own sites and creating their own content.
I realized I had to update my website, especially with all the web 2.0 hype. My previous site was static HTML, no CSS, very plain-Jane, and very outdated. As a small-business owner, I fit into the categories of limited budget and resources, like free and easy to use.
After searching customer and content management systems (CMS) via google, low and behold, WP showed up as a possible solution. I say that because some may consider WP as only a blogging application, but soon, I found many articles related to other small businesses and nonprofit organizations whom were searching for the same solution.
