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Jul 20

Easy-to-use graphic design software

By Feature, Technology

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

Treva Burgess has a second recommendation – Canva. It’s a simple, free, online design tool software, and is a boon for nonprofits that don’t have graphic designers.

Setting up an account is free, as are many of its design elements. After creating an account and logging in, the user can start a new project and select from pre-set dimensions for many options.

Launched in 2013, the company debuted a service that allows easy creation of graphics like slideshows, invitations, handouts, posters, infographics, Facebook and blog graphics.

It is an easy to use to drop and drag system that has an interactive design school with hands-on tutorials. The user searches for an image or uploads one, and then drags it to the design. The result is professional looking event flyers, invitations and material for use on social media.

Currently, each Mary Rigg staff member has an individual account, but this summer the graphic company will be launching Canva for Work. Then staff will be able to share designs, which makes it easy to have a common appearance for the center’s Facebook page, website and Twitter accounts.

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Jul 20

Websites Simplified

By Feature, Technology

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

In May, we asked readers for perfect tech or software solutions that have reduced costs or saved time. Last week, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and the Indiana Society of Association Executives shared use of tablets and software that improved the organizations’ productivity. This week, Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center and Small Box recommendations focus on website integration and social media.

MARY RIGG NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER

CHALLENGE

Treva Burgess wears at least two hats at the Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center. She is the volunteer coordinator and manager of the website.

Burgess was frustrated with the number of communication platforms she had to use. She knew there had to be a better way to disseminate information about events, allow clients to register for activities and share information with supporters and board members. The center’s existing website had no way to connect to the center’s newsletter and event registrations, which were all managed by using separate providers. In addition, the website wasn’t mobile friendly.

But the largest challenge was that with all these different programs, the center’s audience – both clients and supporters — didn’t often land on the center’s website and learn about its mission, message and overall services.

SOLUTION

While Burgess was negotiating with a company for a new website design, hosting and support services, a Mary Rigg board member recommended evrconnect, a Noblesville-based company. The board member, who is a nonprofit consultant, was aware of the company because other nonprofits had used its services.

Burgess did some investigating and found evrconnect charged fraction of the price, and she liked what she saw. The company was founded by three men who were working in the tech field, and created the company to help nonprofits do more with less and integrate design and content management, donor management and crm, fundraising, volunteer management and communications.

Burgess said for her, the most difficult part of the process was designing a site map. She sought input and ideas from Mary Rigg staff members to determine how they wanted to use the site, and then created a map of how it would work. Then they looked at sites evrconnect had created and borrowed basic design elements before meeting with the company’s staff. As part of the process, they realized they needed to refresh the center’s logo, and do some branding with the site launch. Working with another company, the logo was designed before the launch.

The website launched three months ago. A comprehensive dashboard tells the administrator who has posted comments, added a photo or content. One of Burgess’ co-workers handles the events calendar posts and can update regularly. Now as event details need to be changed, they can be updated, which is a simple process.

Right after the site was launched, Burgess realized that recurring events couldn’t be changed. If she wanted to delete or change a regularly scheduled Tuesday food pantry on the events calendar, she couldn’t do it. She says, however, evrconnect understood the problem and was quick to remedy it.

Soon others in the organization will receive training to ensure managing the information on the website and keeping it up to date.

The center uses the blog feature for news items, and has added a historical section with pictures. Established in 1911 as Foreign House and Immigrant Aid Association, it the organization initially served as a center of learning and recreation for foreign immigrants coming to Indianapolis to work in industrial and meatpacking plants.

Registration for particular events has been simplified. Annually, one of the center’s largest fundraisers is a dodgeball tournament. This year there were 19 teams, each with eight team members. “That’s a lot of folks to register,” said Burgess. “But it was easy, and right on the website, which didn’t happen with previous registration system.”

One website feature that was used this summer was peer-to-peer fundraising. It allows individuals to set-up a campaign to solicit their friends for contributions. The center used it for its Fill-the-Bus campaign. During the summer, Mary Rigg staff work with 25 middle school students on college and career readiness. As part of the program, the kids visit area colleges. With this website feature, some college alumni helped raised funds to get the bus to their aluma mater.

Not all pages are public. Take for example, the Connecting Hearts and Home a partnership between United Way of Central Indiana, the Eli Lilly company and Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center. The pilot program started in March, and will continue for a year. Five Lilly staffers are ambassadors and work with Burgess to identify needs and help communicate and recruit from the pool of 400-company volunteers. Burgess noted, however, the difficulty communication with volunteers in large company, is often e-newsletters are blocked by the company’s firewall. With the new website, she can create a specific url that she can provide to the Lilly volunteers so they can check volunteer opportunities.

Similarly, a board-only section will provide each board member with an individual login, and can contain materials like bylaws, minutes and agendas, making it easy for board members to have access materials needed for their position.

Soon, Burgess will migrate the newsletter to the website from e-newsletter provider, integrating another communication tool. Other website services on her radar are volunteer sign-ins, which will keep a comprehensive volunteer profile.

INVESTMENT

  • Flat fee for the design $1,500, but additional costs to customize components
  • Hosting and on-going customer support is $200 monthly
  • The company regularly backs up the site, and helped the nonprofit become PCI compliant so they could take donations online using BluePay

BENEFITS

  • Streamlined communication for clients, donors, staff, particularly those not in the building but working in schools, and interns
  • Can update information easily and quickly
  • Ongoing support from web-design company
Jul 15

Time for boards to tackle nonprofit leadership transition planning is now

By Feature

By Johnson Grossnickle and Associates

A recent Boston Globe article has once again drawn attention to an issue we have been warned about for several years – a predicted mass leadership transition among nonprofits.

Though we have long been warned about the anticipated change as boomers retire from leadership roles at the nonprofits many of them started, it seems few nonprofit boards have taken the necessary steps to prepare.

Cited in the article, for instance, is a soon to be released study of New England nonprofit leaders which indicates two-thirds of them have plans to leave their role in the next five years, but the majority of their organizations (60%) have yet to begin working on succession plans.

The industry has been lucky to date in that the transition of boomer leaders to retirement has been slower than originally predicted, likely due to the recession delaying retirement plans for many boomers. However, it is time for nonprofit boards to begin getting serious about tackling plans for the transition.

Here are a few things your board should begin doing now if you have a leader that will be retiring in the next few years:

  • Begin budgeting for professional development and leadership training to help groom staff to take the reins down the road
  • Take steps to deepen relationships with donors beyond the Executive Director, so their connection lies with the organization rather than one individual.

Click here to read additional suggestions from Johnson Grossnickle and Associates.

Jul 14

Applications to help manage projects

By Feature, Technology

By Idealware for TechSoup |

What kind of software is out there and which tools might support your organization’s particular project-management needs? Idealware shares what nine nonprofit project managers are using to manage their projects.

So you need software to help with project management. Great! But wait… What do you mean by project management? Do you need to map out project plans and schedules? Collaborate on documents? Track tasks? Time? Documents? Issues?

The definition of “project-management software” varies widely, and your needs are likely to depend substantially on your project, your team, and your project-management style. What’s available out there and what tools might support your particular project-management needs?

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Jul 14

Nonprofit brings technology to disaster recovery

By Feature, Technology

By Devin Thorpe, contributor, Forbes |

Field Innovation Team or FIT is bringing hi-tech into the disaster recovery arena by training responders to use it and developing strategic relationships with technology partners to bring their best to bear when it’s needed most.

FIT, a nonprofit, has been in the game since 2010 and has responded to hurricane Sandy, the Boston Marathon Bombing and the 2014 mudslide in Oso, Washington.

By deploying drones over the mudslide, FIT was able to get a better read on the dangerous topography than would have been possible with manned aircraft and was able to do it without putting any humans at risk.

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Jul 07

Volunteer management software

By Feature, Technology

By Janna Finch, market research associate, Software Advice |

Every year, Software Advice speaks with hundreds of professionals from small nonprofits (organizations with annual operating budgets of $1 million or less) looking for the right volunteer management software. This provides us with valuable insight on what challenges these buyers face and what functionality they look for when evaluating new technology.

This report highlights our findings from a recent analysis of interactions with prospective buyers. It can help guide the decisions of other buyers evaluating volunteer management software.

Key findings

  • Sixty-three percent of buyers currently use general-purpose software, such as Microsoft Excel and Outlook, to coordinate volunteers.
  • Twenty-five percent want the adoption of new volunteer management software to result in more accurate volunteer records.
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Jul 07

Why DC’s nonprofit organizations are targets for hackers

By Feature, Technology

By Chris Bing, staff reporter, DC Inno |

D.C. is home to a conglomeration of high-profile, global nonprofit organizations who have progressively become extremely attractive targets for hackers.

These organizations are especially susceptible to attacks because of the sensitive financial information they store via their donors and the propensity for sharing information between offices that are working in coordination to accomplish a specific mission.

Virtru, a D.C.-based cybersecurity company that specializes in email encryption, now plans to offer up to 50 free seats of its software to eligible, high-risk non-profits, as part of a grassroots marketing strategy.

“It’s no surprise that nonprofits often lack the resources they need to succeed; both from a personnel perspective and, especially now, from a technology perspective. Unfortunately, trying to stretch budgets and gain funding for day-to-day operations can be a job in itself … nonprofits may also struggle to adhere to compliance regulations such as HIPAA, FERPA and Dodd-Frank, depending on the nature of their work,” Virtru CEO and co-founder John Ackerly told DC Inno.

The normal cost of each software subscription for an organization per year would be at least $3,000 without the program (Virtru for Nonprofits). Through this software, users will have another level of control and security behind their email exchanges.

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Jul 07

Nine organizations share their tech success

By Feature, Technology

By Jim Lynch, writer, TechSoup |

Over the past year, TechSoup has been doing impact stories about nonprofits, churches and libraries doing great work with TechSoup’s product donations. Here are nine.

Braided River

Seattle-based nonprofit publishing company Braided River has used a TechSoup donation of Adobe software to astounding effect. It’s undertaken 16 conservation projects to date with just three staff people. Among the wild places Braided River has featured, millions of acres have been moved to a stronger level of protection. The organization’s project on Last Polar Bear reached 26.5 million people through national media outreach, including an appearance on “Good Morning America.”

Braided River’s director of development and communications, Lace Thornberg, told us, “We work really hard with a very little budget to have the highest impact possible. We wouldn’t be able do it without TechSoup donations. I asked some of my colleagues for some examples of how they use TechSoup donations. They said you want an example? You mean everything we do, every day?”

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Jul 02

Focus on mission

By Feature, Governance

By Jane Page-Steiner at JPSNonprofit Strategies |

Don’t let your board get so entangled in day-to-day challenges of your organization that they lose sight of your larger purpose. As your board discusses critical issues, your mission statement can provide perspective and a reminder of your organization’s true purpose. At every board meeting keep your mission statement as a central theme.

Nonprofit leaders can help their boards keep focus on mission by:

  • Reading the mission statement at the start of every meeting
  • Sharing a story of how the organization’s mission impacted someone’s life in the last month
  • Taking 15 minutes at a board meeting to discuss the elements of the mission statement and how it guides your work
  • Asking board members to share how they see the organization living out its mission
  • Discussing how one of your programs reflects and implements your mission

Your mission statement informs your board, constituents and the community of what you do, who you serve and how you provide services. I recommend you regularly review your mission statement and revise it if you have changed direction or if it no longer seems relevant. I can help you create a fun and engaging planning session that reviews, and if needed, revises your mission statement.

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Jun 30

Salaried workers could get overtime pay

By Feature, Governance, Leadership

By Katie Johnston, Boston Globe staff |

Millions of American workers who put in extra hours with no extra pay would soon be eligible for overtime under a plan unveiled Monday night by President Obama. The proposed regulations would more than double the current threshold at which many salaried employees stop getting overtime pay, covering those who make up to $50,440 a year.

That is welcome news for workers like Gassan Marzuq. As the manager of a Dunkin’ Donuts in Kingston, Gassan Marzuq sometimes worked 80 or 90 hours a week — spending most of his days serving coffee, running the cash register, and mopping the floors.

Yet because he was a salaried employee who had been deemed ineligible for overtime, his $825 a week in pay sometimes averaged out to roughly the same hourly rate his workers were paid — a reality for many managers when they work more than 40 hours a week.

The Obama administration’s proposal, revealed in an op-ed by the president on the Huffington Post Monday night and set to be officially announced Tuesday, would extend overtime protections to roughly 5 million workers in 2016.

In 1975, about 62 percent of the salaried workforce were eligible for overtime pay, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank that advocates for low-income workers. Today, because of inflation, 8 percent are covered.

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