Is the government really closed?

Normally I stick to posts about tools available from corporations.  However, after attending SLS11, I had to write a "real" blog post because I became extremely irked.  See, all these students and their professors at a college in DC kept going on about how the government is closed and it needs to be open.  Then it got into there being only one "real" news site.  So, here's my rant: What ever happened to teaching students to seek out information?  Are we really in an age where everyone must be spoonfed information in order for the information to exist?  The government is open to a large extent.  The data that we see everywhere comes from government funded research and agencies.  When we look at nutrition labels, calorie counters, cool apps that tell us how much pesticides are in our food, where do people think the data came from?  The company didn't spend years researching and collecting it.  It didn't appear out of thin air.  It came from a government website download that's available to EVERYONE.  That's how the Congressional Budget Office gets materials (bills are available online via the feds). See, there's a super site...a FEDERAL .gov site...that gives the information.  Seek and ye shall find.  Want data about food?  USDA has it.  Data about meds, FDA has it, pesticides?  USDA or EPA.  The files are in pdf, doc, rtf, xml, csv, and other files (including pretty cool widgets).  Want a hard copy? Generally, they'll mail it to you.  This infogeek has boxes of materials courtesy of our tax dollars regarding health and wellness (an interest of mine).  I've got so many documents full of html links that I had to upload them to scribd. 

There are a lot of citizen journalism sites out there.  I like patch.com.  There are other ones out there too.  More and more are sprouting up thanks to the Knight Foundation.  Who?  See...that's the problem.  People don't seek.  The Knight Foundation is a grant making foundation that gives money to projects that promote citizen journalism through use of technology.  It didn't pop up after the Egypt uprising.  It's been around for YEARS and YEARS (since 1950 to be exact).

Constant Contact: Miserly or generous?

I recently viewed Constant Contact's program for nonprofits and wasn't very impressed.  To get free service, you must work directly with kids for literacy, arts or education AND be nominated by a current Constant Contact customer.  Otherwise, you can get a "generous" discount: prepay for 6 months and receive a 20% discount or for 1 year and receive a 30% discount. I'm a huge fan of free and feel as though I must ask: why pay for Constant Contact when you can get services for free elsewhere?  If it's the services they provide, think of this: most people don't like getting survey after survey after email ask after email ask.  It really sucks for lack of better terminology. 

Vertical Response: Email Marketing for Nonprofits (and others)

There are so many email marketing services out there: Constant Contact, Mail Chimp, etc.  Why should a nonprofit go with Vertical Response?  Because they have a free program that allows up to 10,000 emails per month and nice discounts on other services (postcards, surveys).  I'm also a fan of their marketing education library, which can be useful too.  A 98% delivery rate isn't bad either. Neither is social media integration. 

Twtpoll-Do you wanna take a survey?

I got thrown back to my college years when I first saw this site.  I remember surveying people in person and hating it because of shyness.  Now, I can ask unlimited questions, get 400 responses, get Twitter and Facebook comments and embed a widget on my blog, all for free.  I'm a huge fan of the free and as a casual user, Twtpoll is a great tool.  Even if I were someone who needed more features, a one time fee of $89 max for polls and $249 max for surveys isn't bad. Add branding with your personal Twitter handle and this site is golden. Did I mention it's a one-time fee...FOREVER.  For agencies who manage multiple accounts, $79- $129/month isn't bad.

Twellow-A directory of Twitter profiles

Just got done searching and getting to know Twellow, a Twitter Directory.  It's free to register and you can claim your Twitter profile.  It's great to find people to follow in categories that interest you.  If you're a jobseeker, you can follow companies, consultants, and nonprofits.  If you're a nonprofit, you can get listed in activism, volunteer and other categories.  Looking for venture capital?  Follow some VCs. Find out who's in your Twellohood (people who tweet who are geographically near you).

Embed.ly: the service that leaves me speechless

That's hard to do and it's why Embed.ly won my respect.  Connecting visuals (videos, pictures) and audio to Twitter and other sites embedded in URLs was a winning idea and I'm glad someone acted on it. It includes an API, analytics, and is relatively inexpensive ($20/month with a 50,0000 URL ceiling).

MailChimp: Reliving my youth through email

The Mailchimp logo looks like a cousin of Curious George.  I fell in love instantly.  Not only can I use it for free to create mailing lists of under 2,000 people and 12,000 emails/month, but the emails can include co-branding, social stats, facebook integration, templates and more.  It's also Storify friendly. This is perfect for enterepreneurs, startups and small nonprofits.

Freecycle---the originator

Freecycle: How Do I love Thee, Let Me Count the Ways:

1. Free
2. Local
3. Free
4. Where else can I get a free stove, groupon that expires tonight (since I didn't have a stove), cell phone charger, lemon tree, clothes, books, DVD, carpeting, AND scissors?
5.  Can be used within my worksite so I can give and get items from co-workers
6. I'm going green
7. You're finally outta Yahoo! Groups
8. I can get stuff for my favorite nonprofit or school's classroom
9. You kick people out for trying to sell and warn us from posting our newly acquired goodies on Ebay (shame on those who do!)
10. Did I mention free?
11. You're always looking for moderators (newly acquired job skill)

Mini-Donations-The big don't

I was all gung-ho about this site until I read the fine print.  A nonprofit that donates to other nonprofits?  Woohoo?  Right?  NO.  In order to get their platform off the ground, they were willing to sell email addresses and contact information to investors.  When that plan didn't work, they decided to become a nonprofit.  How do I know this?  They posted it on their blog.  Instead, I'm spending my time on SwipeGood.   I'm also writing a "Shame On You" about the Austin Community Foundation.  They should know that approving an organization that was willing to sell off donor info to the highest bidders may not have been a wise choice...especially if said organization posts that on their site.  Who knows..minidonations may take off...but not with my purchases and hopefully not with yours.

The full text of the article:

"Recently, Ambassador Sada Cumber and I had an incredibly engaging and thought-provoking conversation. In the course of our discussion, we developed an intriguing fundraising approach.
First of all, if you don’t know it already, MiniDonations is not your “typical” non-profit. Its purposefully designed around making money and self-sufficiency with a heart for pure altruism. It’s a disservice to organizations like us – and there are several – to label them “non-profit” or “not-for-profit.” I’d much rather we rally around a different term: “Social Benefit Organization” (SBO). But that’s another conversation…
As you may know, equity is typically exchanged when a for-profit raises capital. That equity may later convert into dividends or be worth cash in IPO or M&A events. Of course, non-profits are forbidden from giving equity away.
One of our founding principles involved sharing a portion of our profits with members of the MiniDonations Social Network. For the sake of explanation, imagine a 50-50 split where 50% goes to MiniDonations’ Endowment and 50% distributed amongst our Social Networking Community.
To attract large, early-stage donors, we simply need to tweak our “profit sharing” strategy a bit and employ an Endowment/Donor Community/Change Agent (or “Seed” Donor) split of, say, 50/40/10.
Turning a $100,000 profit would mean $50,000 would go into our endowment, $40,000 into the MiniDonations Social Network (as thanks to our Donor Community) and $10,000 among our Change Agents (as thanks for their “seed stage” donations). In all cases, profits allocated to the Donor Community and Change Agents would be deposited into their respective MiniDonations Donor Accounts. By keeping community profit sharing within MiniDonations, we comply with IRS regulations and, more importantly, encourage continued use of our giving management tools and social networking environment.
“Change Agents” would equally share the total profits allocated to their level. For example:

Donation Level	Amount	Profit Share
Founding Change Agent	$250,000	4%
Platinum Change Agent	$100,000	3%
Gold Change Agent	$50,000	2%
Bronze Change Agent	$25,000	1%

I love this idea because it marries the profit sharing aspect of the for-profit world into ours. However, the ultimate beneficiaries are not investors but charities. Our success allows our donation community to give even more to their favorite causes: think “Pay it Forward.” This could not only get philanthropists, foundations and corporations excited when funding us but might also appeal an unlikely crew as well: VCs and Angel Investors." 

That didn't sound bad until the response by the CEO to someone's comment was:

"ramileo 06. Feb, 2010 at 1:03 pm #

Great feedback! Thanks!
First of all, our foundation will have no problem meeting the 5% requirement. The vast majority of money sitting in our foundation will be from donors like you and me. That money is intended to be given away to non-profits every quarter.
Regarding the for-profit/non-profit/hybrid model, we’ve gone down these routes already. As a for-profit, the most significant roadblock we faced was our integration partners’ perception that we were competition.
Essentially, by partnering with us, they were agreeing to send us their most precious asset – their customer – with whom we could do whatever we pleased (i.e. route them to other competitors, send them targeted e-mails, etc.). Initial discussions with integration partners went nowhere. Yet, the moment we converted MiniDonations into a non-profit, their adversity to us changed. They were no longer afraid of us. Our conversion conveyed the message, “We are a truly altruistic organization” without us uttering a single word. Discussions became fruitful and centered around social good and partnerships to create new, vast revenue stream for non-profits.
Restructuring ourselves as a non-profit also meant we didn’t have to answer to investors. While we will always answer to anyone funding us and must meet and exceed our goals with them, the reason for our existence is not monetary ROI to our investors, but social change ROI.
Requiring to return profits to our investors would have meant our “social organization” could become selfish. We had enough stressors executing our mission much less worrying about returning significant gains to investors.
That’s not to say that, as a Social Benefit Organization (non-profit), we wouldn’t be in similar shoes. Yet, those who support our mission will know that their investment in us will help keep operations afloat and allow people’s donations to continue flowing to community chosen charities."

Sparked.com--microvolunteering at its best

Sparked.com asks a few basic questions: What's your favorite cause and in what areas can you help?  You're then sent to project pages of nonprofits that have specific questions.  A hospital in one of the M states needed help with getting people to interact on their Facebook page.  They weren't asking for "likes" and you don't have to "like" them to see the page.  Those who answered gave constructive criticism with 5 star advice.  Another organization asked for people to peruse their blog and give them feedback (on sparked.com) about their posting, layout, etc. Who doesn't like 5 minute volunteering or an open API?   

Flip Video--Ever wanted to design the camera casing?

Flip Video sells camcorders created by Cisco that are pretty cute.  They're small, plug into the computer without a cord and are being given away to nonprofits.  They're perfect for shooting videos for YouTube or photos to appear on Crowdrise.  Best of all, buy one and get one free as a nonprofit.  The design part?  If your organization (or an individual on behalf of an organization) can create a cool design, it will be imprinted on cameras that are sold in their online store. Did I mention that they're rated a "Good Buy for Everyone" on Retrevo?  Well, some of the models are anyway....not all.

Foursquare-Don't underestimate its power

An article in Fast Company sums up the power of Foursquare really well.  This BizSpark company grew into over 15 million venues via check-in over the past couple of years.  Yes, it's great for businesses, people love badges (it's the only time I'd ever consider being Mayor), and more nonprofits are using it for fundraising.  Businesses without physical locations don't have to worry.  Now Foursquare is manually creating Pages just for you...want your own badge? Come up with a campaign that's super compelling and you Foursquare will create one for you.

DoGooder, You Tube and the NonProfit Video Awards

Do a good deed, make an awesome video, get votes and win big on YouTube for your favorite cause/nonprofit.  While you're there, sign up for the Daily DoGooder email to learn about what other people and nonprofits are doing. 

Animoto

Sign up for the Animoto nonprofit program to get professional tools for free.  Make a video from your event photos, ad music and wording and voila, a video ready for YouTube is born.  Animoto even provides music.  Y

You Tube

24 hours of America's Funniest Home Videos, informercials, music videos and more.  I use YouTube to learn how to use applications, software, listen to music, and even watch a dog use a remote to turn the TV channel.  Nonprofits should be using it to showcase their good deeds, learn about technology and share videos about their cause and work.  I love YouTube's Nonprofit Channel and Do Gooder Awards (recently DoGooder (See3 Communications) also sends out daily emails highlighting worthy nonprofits using technology the right way).  If you only have pictures, don't worry...Animoto allows people and businesses to turn their photos into videos for posting online.

Salute to Service

This site, presented by Causecast highlights organizations that help veterans.  It launched in time for Veteran's Day 2010.  Salute to Service organizations are veteran organizations on the Causecast website.

HuffingtonPost Impact

Now that it belongs to AOL and has a Twitter exec in charge of social impact, the Huffington Post has a new channel.  Using CauseCast and Causecast nonprofits, they're highlighting good deeds around the country and nonprofits that are helping people, the environment and animals. 

Citizen IBM

You can follow them at Twitter (@citizenIBM), Facebook, and YouTube (citizenIBM).  IBM's employees are using their considerable tech knowledge to solve problems around the world for nonprofits and others.  They're using video, social media and challenges to inspire themselves and others to help the world.  You can also find and read their blog.

My Impact

Why do I love my impact? Let me count the ways:

1. I can log my volunteer hours
2. I can log my donations
3. I can log what I did while volunteering
4. I can ask others to help a worthy nonprofit
5. It got a shout out from Create the Good. 

Did I mention that it just surpassed 600 members?  It's small and growing.  That means that for nonprofits, one can get found easier.  It's also pretty easy to place a nonprofit on the site. 

Twibbon

There's something about a social enterprise that features causes on Twitter and Facebook that makes my heart smile.  Twibbon allows individuals, businesses and nonprofit organizations raise awareness for causes that are close to them.  The Twibbon weaves together a community of people using social media.  You can also raise awareness about political issues, brands, entertainment, etc.  There are 5 categories from which users can choose. I like that I can upload an image for my Twibbon or use one from Google (you have to try it out).  I can also edit the campaign and for $99 I can customize it.  For as low as $19.99, I can get it featured to where 15,000 people will see it (they have packages). If I were using this site for a nonprofit, a customized campaign may be worth it, but I'd probably use Salesforce Foundation's software to let current supporters know to support us here too.