Community IT Innovators. Established 1993. Serving social mission organizations with integrated technology services you can trust.

Adoption USA: A Chartbook Based on the 2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents. And here’s coverage in NPR’s health blog of the Chartbook.

Congratulations to Danielle Brian, Executive Director of the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) for being honored with the prestigious Smith College Medal for her work on investigations that have led to major reforms and cuts in wasteful government spending.  Danielle also appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC earlier this month discussing misconduct among government security contractors in Kabul, Afghanistan that has recently come to light. (Video link, contains images of a somewhat graphic nature)

POGO is an independent, nonpartisan organization working to expose “corruption and other misconduct in order to achieve a more effective, accountable, open, and ethical federal government.”  You can follow the POGO blog, Twitter feed, or fan their Facebook page to stay in the loop on their investigations.  CITI has been working with POGO since 2001, providing periodic database support and ongoing network infrastructure support.

A Washington Post article, From Pulpit to Policy, Souls to Stomachs, profiled Bread for the World founder Rev. Arthur Simon last week.  From the article by Greg Gaudio:

It was the early 1960s. Simon was a young man, but he knew something had to be done beyond dispensing food — something that attacked hunger at the roots and attempted to prevent it. Eventually, he created Bread for the World, which has grown into the country’s foremost citizens lobby on the issue. Its 61,000 members and their annual letter-writing campaign have helped to generate billions for the cause at home and abroad.

In his new book, “The Rising of Bread for the World: An Outcry of Citizens Against Hunger,” Simon, 79, who lives in Bowie, reflects on his life’s work.

The full article offers a closer look at Simon’s life and what he and his organization have done to combat hunger.  CITI is honored to have been providing technical support and planning to Bread since 1997, and over the past few years has provided Bread with a full-time support person for day-to-day support as well as engineer expertise for network planning and projects.  CITI is also conducting an in-depth data and process assessment for Bread for the World to help them maximize the value of their data.

CITI is pleased to announce the recent launch of the new StreetSense.org website.  Popular local blog DCist featured the site launch on their website.  As many Washingtonians know, Street Sense is DC’s own street newspaper, providing opportunities for homeless vendors to earn money and share their stories and raising “public awareness on the issues of homelessness and poverty in the city.”

Street Sense partnered with CITI to design and develop a new website, built using Wordpress, that incorporates features such as an RSS feed, blog, easily-updated content, greater interactivity, homelessness news from around the web, and links to the Street Sense Twitter and Facebook accounts.  The project work was done at a steep discount, offering a small community organization the chance to affordably implement a new website and better combat and raise awareness of homelessness.  Check out the DCist post and the new Street Sense site!

Recently, Community IT Innovators (CITI) conducted a survey asking clients what factors are most important when choosing and evaluating a technology service provider.  Survey results are in!  Thank you to all of our clients who participated – your feedback is the most useful tool we have to improve our services.  Your comments make CITI – and our relationship with our clients – better and better.

Many qualities stood out as important to clients:

• Quality of Service Delivery is the highest-ranked factor when choosing or recommending a tech provider.  Thank you for your confidence, and where you indicated our service did not measure up, we’re taking immediate steps to improve.

• Competitive Price is important – but did not rank as the most important selection factor, even in the economic downturn.  We are gratified to provide value for your technology dollars and strive to lower your costs when we can economize without sacrificing quality.

• Good Fit for Current Needs, Experience with Nonprofits and Social Missions, and a Personal Level of Service are also key for many respondents.  CITI was founded to be a different kind of technology company, one that helps organizations have greater impact, and we know that we do that every day.  Thanks for noticing!

The survey gave further confirmation that your values are our values. Central to the CITI philosophy of building relationships and working with our clients is our commitment to provide a caring, personal level of service and to offer and implement just right solutions that are well-suited to a client’s current needs.

Again, thank you to all who participated in the survey!  If you want to share what’s most important to you, please leave a comment below, use our Contact Form,  or speak to your CITI contact at any time.

Another Wordpress launch, this time for Jubilee Jobs of Washington.

Let a butterfly fly in remembrance of someone you loved.

Memorial event on May 30.

Hat tip to our design partner Organic Design Works.

CITI’s Drupal team launched three sites in one today, for the Crop Science Society of America, the Soil Science Society of America, and the American Society of Agronomy.

As the country excitedly prepares for a three-day weekend commemorating Abraham Lincoln’s birthday (and that of George Washington), some science and nature enthusiasts are commemorating the birthday of Charles Darwin. (Both Lincoln and Darwin were born on February 12, 1809.) While Darwin may be a controversial figure due to his theory of evolution and the modern political and religious conflict surrounding it, Darwin did leave us with one legacy that many people can agree on: knowledge of the great natural treasure the Galapagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago teeming with extraordinary and rare wildlife.

CITI client the Galapagos Conservancy works to support on-the-ground research and management, strengthen local institutions and “create local capacity to ensure long-term protection of the archipelago.” A recent article from the Canadian Broadcasting Company highlights the threats the increasingly popular tourist destination is facing, including increasing tourism, and some statistics from the Conservancy.  Excerpt from the article:

“More than 173,000 visited in 2008, up from just 40,000 in 1990, according to the Galapagos Conservancy, a group based in Fairfax, Va., that is trying to restore and protect the islands.  As the number of tourists has grown, so has the number of people who live on the islands providing goods and services to support the tourism industry. The population is now at 30,000, said Johannah Barry, president of the Galapagos Conservancy.”

Invasive animals and plants and resource exploitation that go along with the tourism industry are threating the islands’ antive populations, but the Galapagos Conservancy is working closely with Ecuadorian government leaders, who have committed to protecting the Galapagos.

Galapagos Islands, by Micah Dubinsky, from article referenced

This recent post on the DCist blog, a great blog for local DC news and infotainment, offers an up-close look at long-time CITI client, the Patricia M. Sitar Center for the Arts. The Sitar Center offers very low-cost art classes to youth in the community, providing a safe place for youth to learn and spend time in the Adams Morgan/Mt. Pleasant/Columbia Heights neighborhood, which “has seen an increase in youth violence in recent months.”

The blog post also mentions that, like many social mission organizations seeking to increase awareness and their base of support, the Center is increasingly using facebook and other social networking sites.  CITI provides network infrastructure support to the Sitar Center.