We have come up with a few more materials we wanted to share with you and your colleagues to help your organization make the most of its technology dollars. Money remains tight throughout the non-banking economy, so not-for-profits must continue to make efficient use of their funding and of the software and online gateways they use to bring people to their missions.
The Foundation Center just published a compendium of sites meant expressly to help nonprofits through their services or to offer resources and reviews that nonprofits certainly could benefit from. We want to highlight two of the organizations designed for the nonprofit sector.
The first is NPower.org, which is designed both to help up-and-running organizations with their IT needs, and to offer training to the staff and volunteers of such organizations:
NPower’s strategy is to reach more nonprofits by engaging more corporate IT leaders. We are making powerful connections between socially responsible companies and the nonprofits we serve. Three programs core to our strategy are: IT Professional Services; IT Workforce Development, helping disconnected young adults find careers in IT; and the Community Corps, a new national resource to engage thousands of corporate IT volunteers in delivering well-managed, impactful IT solutions to nonprofits large and small.
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The second is Idealware.org, which focuses more sharply on software solutions and training. It even offers a number of free-to-inexpensive training modules online. You might want to sign up for the periodic blog while there. And if you have not done so yet, please sign up for ours!
Idealware has also recently published its 2011 “Field Guide To Software For Nonprofits,” which can be previewed here, and purchased at the website. Both organizations offer great food-for-thought about using technology to reach constituents, clients, and donors. We encourage you to look at the other resources The Foundation Center offered as well, because one of the most important issues when considering advice about such software and services is finding the right size of package with the right relationships that will grow with you and your organization.