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

CrisisCamp Haiti is a project of Crisis Commons, an organization that brings together technology volunteers to help with disaster relief and humanitarian crises.  This weekend, in DC and several other cities nationwide, tech-savvy volunteers will be gathering to contribute skills to compile information and resources to help the recovery in Haiti.  Anyone with a laptop and internet-savvy can help, and programmers or those with mapping/GIS skills are particularly encouraged to attend.

View additional details on the January 30th CrisisCamp in DC.

There are a lot of interesting nonprofit technology events coming up in DC in the next few weeks:

• Wednesday, Jan. 27, InsideNGO Technology Update: Inside NGO will be presenting a full day course detailing four technologies. CITI’s Matthew Eshleman will be presenting on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).  Virtual collaboration and training, Windows 7 deployment, and WAN optimization will also be covered.

• Wednesday, Feb. 3, CITIzens’ Forum: The Value of a CIO Perspective: The second forum in our series asks, who is managing technology at your organization? Do you have one person  who takes a big picture view, or are different people responsible for managing your network, website, databases and applications?  What’s the difference between a CIO and a CTO? Join in an open discussion to share what you’re doing and how other organizations address similar challenges.

• Monday-Tuesday, Feb. 8 – 9, Managing Nonprofit Technology Projects: Our second conference partnering with Aspiration to help you better manage technology projects in your nonprofit.  See this post for additional details

• Wednesday, Feb. 10, NTEN Webinar: Greening Your Nonprofit’s IT: Find out what all the green IT buzz is about and get practical information for greening your IT infrastructure.  Matthew Eshleman will be presenting with Peter Campbell on virtualization; other breakout sessions will cover green IT strategy, hardware and software, case studies, and sustainable design and printing.

• Friday, Feb. 12, Nonprofit 2.0: This unconference will let participants shape the agenda around how nonprofits use the latest technology to communicate, fundraise, and organize and advocate for their issues.  The event is already sold out, but there is a waiting list, and there may be a conversation or two to follow on Twitter…

• Wednesday, Feb. 17, CITIzens’ Forum: Salesforce: Learn how organizations are using Salesforce as a powerful CRM to manage contacts, campaigns, and related data; find out how Salesforce could be helpful for your organization, and share your story if you’re already using it.

We’re starting a new series of informal gatherings to discuss topics important to nonprofits. The idea is to bring people together to talk about your ideas, successes, failures, needs, and best practices.

Our goal is to create closer community ties, connecting you with other nonprofit professionals. We want to create an atmosphere where you can feel empowered to talk openly about your challenges at work and what we, as a community, can do to address them.

CITI will be hosting these events, but we’ll be learning as much from these events as anyone there. We hope you’ll join us for an evening of exploration and sharing.

Register now for the first forum on January 20 to discuss Social Media.  Many of you are likely already familiar with and using tools like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to spread your message and gain supporters.  Come share your story and learn more about how other organizations are using social media.

Save the dates! The CITIzens Forums will be on the first and third Wednesday evening of every month, each one discussing a different specific topic of interest.

• Jan 20 – Social Media
• Feb 3 – The Value of a CIO Perspective
• Feb 17 – Salesforce
• March 3 – Nonprofit Capital Markets
• Mar 17 – Raiser’s Edge
• Apr 21 – Post NTEN Conference Wrap-up
• May 19 – Data Management, Cleansing, & Conversion

Last week, CITI attended the Green Business Summit and awards event at the Omni Shoreham Hotel hosted by the Washington Business Journal. Thanks to the efforts of Brian McIntee, our CFO, and Katherine Mowers, Senior Project Manager, CITI was a 2009 finalist for an award in the Innovation category for implementing green IT practices and significantly reducing energy consumption at our office. George Washington University took home the award for innovation, but they clearly deserved it for their efforts in reducing the amount of waste left behind by students at the end of each term, so it made the disappointment of not receiving the award a little bit easier to take.

At the green business summit, there were panels of experts addressing a wide range of sustainability efforts, from HR best practices like telecommuting and recycling, to videoconferencing and remote monitoring, to less painful financial audits. While these may sound like a bunch of unrelated topics, the underlying narrative for most of their discussions involved sharing their customers’ interest in making the world a better place or attracting the best talent by being the kind of business that values sustainability just as much as everything else.

Among the panelist were John Friedman, representing the Sustainable Business Network of Washington (SBNOW), and Scott Pomeroy of the Downtown DC Business Improvement District, who gave SBNOW and CITI a shout-out for the green business certification process where we earned the highest Green Pillar level certification.

Susan Cunningham, Director of Sustainability Consulting and LEED AP at Gensler, presented a compelling argument for a green development framework for any businesses that focuses on:

• Operating Savings
• Stewardship of resource (or asset value)
• Brand
• Productivity

Susan, as well others, talked about people-driven businesses, knowing the full extent of the expertise you have in the room, and establishing a good measurement practice as keys to a successful green development framework.

Tom Russo, Chief Technology Officer at Akridge, talked about how he practiced his “green pitch” on his elementary school kids under the assumption that if his kids could understand the value of taking something old and combining it with something new, than the average CEO shouldn’t have too much trouble embracing the concept of sustainability within their organization.

With all of the different ways that folks are becoming greener, from the zero waste movement, to climate legislation battling through a maze of opposition, to new green EPEAT rankings for IT equipment, where does a green IT solution fit it? Give us a call. We’d be happy to talk with you about it!

Dave Deal and I recently returned from the Groundwork Group 2009 Nonprofit IT Conference: Sustainability through Technology. The theme that nonprofits need to think strategically about technology and have a CIO role came up in several ways. There was one panel discussion in particular, presented by Groundwork Group, that addressed how IT has helped small, medium, and large nonprofits build capacity or become more efficient.  Some of the take-aways from this panel discussion include:

• Technology can really make a difference
• Nonprofits have very limited time, resources, and money, so it is imperative to streamline operations and use technology to deliver services as efficiently as possible
• Capacity planning requires technology planning
• Get technology experts on your Board
• Get an IT plan
• Create an IT Task Force Committee focused around projects
• Do a better job of sourcing computer hardware
• Pay more attention to the security of sensitive information
• Financial audit costs can increase if there is a lack of standardization
• Document everything
• The farther behind you get the more it’s going to cost

It’s also worth mentioning that the morning keynote given by Mike Brevard, Enterprise Solutions Director, Microsoft Heartland District was about how organizations can reduce IT costs by refining the organizations business processes.

A recent article from CIO Insight, “Increasing IT Capability While Cutting Costs,” described research findings from Jeanne G. Harris, Allan E. Alter and Michael K. Nieves. According to the authors:

“Reducing IT costs while improving IT capabilities may appear to be a paradox. But by focusing on fixed IT costs and following a strategy of sustained cost reduction, organizations can invest in new capabilities and innovation and prepare for future growth, even as they tighten their belts.”

Funny thing is, nonprofits have been doing more with less for years! Guess we should be glad that the rest of the IT world is finally having the same conversation we’ve been having with our clients for over 16 years.

NTEN’s annual Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) brings together nonprofit technology staff and consultants (loosely defined – if you use a database, social media, or send mass email, you’re an nptechie) for conversations, networking, learning, and having a great time.  NTEN has opened up the planning process for the 10NTC, April  8-10 in Atlanta, to the nonprofit tech community.   You can rate and vote for your favorite sessions, submitted by the community.

Community IT Innovators has submitted a batch of session ideas that we hope will provide some great information and discussion for the nonprofit community.  Follow the links below to see more details and rate each session individually.  Feel free to also tweet about and otherwise spread the word about your favorite session ideas! Voting closes October 16th.

THE 21ST CENTURY NONPROFIT: THE UNLIMITED POSSIBILITY OF THE FUTURE
What does the new, 21st Century Nonprofit look like? This session will explore the new ways in which cutting edge nonprofits are using technology to advance their cause and what these trends mean for the nonprofit sector.

RESEARCH FINDINGS: IT BUSINESS DRIVERS AT NONPROFITS
CITI is partnering with the Groundwork Group (OH) to determine the IT business drivers that will give smaller social mission organizations the ability to use IT more strategically. What conditions are changing and how are organizations changing to take advantage of evolving circumstances?

THE CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER: WHY YOUR NONPROFIT NEEDS SOMEONE IN THE CIO ROLE
What does it mean to have a fully developed CIO capability at your organization? This session will discuss what the CIO role looks like and how taking a strategic, holistic approach to IT can help an organization by opening up new opportunities for efficiency, operational integration, and mission success.

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO INTEGRATING CLOUD SERVICES INTO YOUR NETWORK
We’ll look at some of the most popular cloud services such as Salesforce, Google, Amazon S3 and others. Through case studies and sharing from audience members, attendees will get a sense of how to setup policy and procedures that ensure that an organization understands where its data is and how to manage it effectively.

REDUCING ENERGY CONSUMPTION
What does it take to reduce your organization’s energy footprint? This session will cover implementing green IT practices that can lead to a reduction in energy consumption from a leadership perspective.

GREEN IT FROM PROCUREMENT TO IMPLEMENTATION TO RECYCLING
This session will cover how choices about your IT infrastructure can reduce your direct hardware/software costs, lower your carbon footprint and improve staff productivity. We’ll also discuss how your old computer equipment can continue to provide value to others when the technology has reached the end of its useful life to you.

PERSONALS FOR PROFESSIONALS: HOW TO WRITE A WEBSITE RFP
You want a new website (who doesn’t?). You’ve got some ideas for the website and you’ve got (maybe) a budget. Now what? How do you communicate what you need to the community of developers? And how do you choose among all the potential firms and freelancers?

WHAT IS THE VALUE OF YOUR WEBSITE?
In this session we’ll propose and examine a model for assigning monetary value to website outputs. This model helps frame decisions to invest in user testing, marketing, and other methods of increasing website usage and conversions.

GROUPS OF GROUPS: THE FUTURE OF ORGANIZING
The Powershift Conference drew over 40,000 participants who gathered in DC to tell their representatives that Climate Change was the most important issue the U.S. – and the world – was facing and to demand immediate action. We’ll look at the Zanby organizing platform they used, the plan for rolling it out to the masses, how the platform performed and what lessons to draw.

Of course, there are a lot of great session ideas in addition to ours, so please take a look at the other sessions and rate your favorites!  Session materials from the conference will be online afterwords for everyone to access, so even if you’re not sure if you’ll be attending 10NTC, you can tell NTEN what topics will most help you and your organization.

If you are an artist interested in learning more about leveraging web technologies such as RSS feeds, Twitter, and traditional web channels, join Senior Developer Phil Jones and the Hamiltonian Artists for an interactive discussion on web and tech challenges relevant to you.

Phil will be speaking Thursday, October 1^st, as part of the Hamiltonian Artist Speaker Series presented by the Hamiltonian Gallery.

The series is “a succession of lectures given by established artists and art professionals to aid in the artistic and entrepreneurial development of our So-Hamiltonian Fellows and other emerging artists… Hamiltonian Artists is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing professional development opportunities for creative artists in their early careers.”

Phil has a passion for the arts and is excited to be sharing his experience in web technology to support the local artists’ community.  The lecture is at 7 PM, at the Hamiltonian Gallery at 1353 U St. NW, Ste. 101 (across the street from the CITI office!). Free and open to the general artist community.  Local blog DCist mentioned the lecture briefly in their weekly round-up of talks around town.

Who: You!
What: CITI Website Focus Group
When: Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM (New Date & Time)
Where: Community IT Innovators, 1330 U Street, Suite 200, Washington, DC
Why: To create a website that focuses on clients, the nonprofit community, and your work

**Bonus** One attendee will be randomly selected for a free one hour review of your organization’s website and online presence with suggestions from our Development and Online Strategies team.

We are passionate techies who love technology. And all of us at CITI also want to improve the world around us. To do that, we apply our love of technology to clients who are directly involved with improving the lives of others.  In short: we help you help others.

Much of our success comes through working with our community in numerous ways. A major component of our outreach is through our website. Whether it’s hosting events about nonprofits and technology, sharing research about backup solutions, volunteering in our community, or sharing stories about our client’s work, our website is a resource for our clients and the nonprofit community in general.

Now you can help us by helping to improve our website. We’re embarking on a process to transform our website into something new: a website that focuses on our clients and the nonprofit community, from start to finish. We want to highlight the fantastic work our community does and show how technology helps them do it. The first step is to get feedback from you – our current clients and website visitors – to discover how well the current website fulfills your need for information, for encouragement, and for community.

We’re inviting you to participate in a short (1 ½ hour) focus group where we’ll take a look at the current site and see where it succeeds and where it could be better. Then, we’ll gather feedback and ideas from our most important resource – you – to discover what we can do to make our website better serve your needs.

We hope you can join us next week for this event!  Please RSVP to gcunningham@citidc.com.

Update, 9/22/09: We want to give a big thank you to our friends from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing & Economic Development, and NeighborWorks America who participated. A good discussion was had around what you want and need to see on the site, and cupcakes were enjoyed by all! If you couldn’t attend but have feedback or ideas you’d like to share, email me!

Are you an NTEN member? We thought many of you would be interested in the below announcement from NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network. The event is also open to non-members at a slightly higher price.

We’ve been hearing from folks that while they really want to attend the Online Nonprofit Technology Conference next week, they just can’t work it into their budgets right now. Since part of our intent with the ONTC is to help people who couldn’t attend the 2009 NTC in San Francisco learn to manage the intersection of technology and mission unique to their organizations, we can’t help but feel like we’re letting you down.

So, we’d like to offer you a 25% discount on the cost of registration. This is as low as we can cut the price and still fulfill our obligations. Here’s how to do it:

• Sign in to your NTEN account.
• Select the $250 NTEN Member option and add that to your cart. Don’t forget the “How did you hear?” field!
• On the next page, enter ONTC25 in the discount box, and click “Apply”.
• Now you’re ready to check out and join your peers online, September 16 & 17.

What is the ONTC?

• 2-day online conference, taking place September 16-17, 2009
• Keynotes from Ami Dar of Idealist.org and Marnie Webb of TechSoup Global
• 15 live webcast sessions on need-to-know topics from a veritable Who’s Who of nonprofit tech speakers and facilitators
• A free copy of the NTEN book, Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission ($40 value)
• Professional networking and sharing in an online community that “lives” after the event

If you’re still not sure, I hope you’ll check out our web site for all the details, including a full agenda and list of presenters. And, as always, please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

Learn more and register today!

You’ve probably realized that having a “Donate” button on your website is not enough to improve your online fundraising. But do you know what else you need on your site to encourage donations?

You only have 10 seconds to prove yourself. According to Nielsen Online, the average website visitor spends less than 60 seconds on a web page. As if that wasn’t enough, you want to do even more – convert the visitors to donors. Can you start that process in 10 seconds?

Join Glennette Clark, CITI Online Strategies Consultant, for a webinar on Optimizing Your Website for Donations, Wednesday, August 19th from 1 PM to 2 PM, in partnership with Kivi Leroux Miller and Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com.

Donors are looking for specific information to help them make the decision about whether or not to give to your organization or another.  Recently, two studies on nonprofit websites independently concluded that technology is not the problem when it comes to increasing donations online.  Instead, web visitors cited that nonprofits are not providing the information they need to make donation decisions.

Whether you are a novice or pro, this webinar is for you if you want to strengthen your online fundraising efforts by giving donors the information they want.

During this webinar, you will learn:

• What donors want to see
• What donors want to read
• How to avoid the donation killers
• How to optimize your website for donors
• How to use social media to your advantage

Register and get full details here!