Technology Archives - Charitable Advisors

Nov 18

At IU, teachers thrive at tech-centric institute

By charitableadvisors Feature, Technology

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

The term “pathfinders” is often used to describe a person or people who leads a pack and shows the way. Seventh-day Adventists call their youth group by that name, and there is a role-playing game comparable to Dungeons & Dragons with the same name.

As such, it’s a fitting name for one of the Infosys Foundation USA’s signature programs, the Pathfinders Institute. The foundation launched in the U.S. in 2015 as the company’s nonprofit.

For the past two summers, teachers from around the country, both elementary and high school, have spent a week on Indiana University-Bloomington’s campus immersed in computer science and maker education courses. So far, over 1,000 teachers have accepted the foundation’s offer, and have left the campus armed with practical knowledge and ideas for classroom lessons. In many school districts, they are truly the pathfinders.

Kate Maloney, the Infosys foundation’s executive director, joined the foundation’s team in February. This summer, she witnessed these teachers build their confidence.

“I watched teachers come in slightly trepidatious and excited on the first day, but more on the terrified end of the spectrum, and then they left a week later so empowered,” said Maloney. “They knew they needed to bring this inspiration into their classrooms.”

In informal conversations with teachers, she listened as they animatedly told her stories about what they were learning. She observed their growth in classes like those offered by the KISS Institute for Practical Robotics (https://www.kipr.org).

“These teachers were using robots to do all sorts of things. It’s the arc of their journey — watching them start with a blank slate, all the way to developing the impassioned, confident teacher. I think that is the positive lesson. We hope that Pathfinder teachers go back and influence (students),” Maloney said.

Steve Goodman, Executive Director, The KISS Institute for Practical Robotics and a group of teachers showing Ravi Kumar S, Infosys Foundation USA Chairman, their work.

A key partner in this work has been Indiana University where the effort has been spearheaded by Laurie McRobbie, the wife of IU President Michael McRobbie. Both McRobbies have computer science backgrounds.

As a woman in the field, Laurie McRobbie, with 25 years experience, has seen the world of technology begin to address the gender gap.

“We’re seeing a concerted effort to address it, and a real, much deeper commitment on the part of a lot of organizations. I don’t think it’s moved the needle yet in any really significant way, but there are some bright spots to point to in the state of Indiana,” McRobbie said.

According to criteria compiled by the financial technology company SmartAsset, Indianapolis has been ranked as high as fourth in the country for women in tech. That 2017 ranking has since fallen to 14^thin 2019, but remains in the top 25 percent of the country’s major cities. In Indianapolis, the tech workforce is approximately 25 percent women, according to SmartAsset.

In 2016, the McRobbies were invited to attend parallel conferences sponsored by Infosys in San Francisco.

“I was invited to participate in the foundation’s conference, along with a couple of faculty members from the IU School of Education in Bloomington and a number of other computer science educators from around the country, including the founder of Code.org,” said McRobbie. “We talked about the importance of computer science education. We talked about a lot of what we need to do to address this problem is to address it as early as possible in terms of exposure and essentially mainstreaming this study of computer science in our schools.”

After this conference, McRobbie and then-Infosys Foundation USA director, Kaustav Mitra, continued the conversation about the impact the foundation could achieve. Creating a professional development opportunity for teachers could be the key. The IU connection was hatched.

“I remember, we just started talking about here we are in the middle of the country, and this is an area that is growing its tech sector. We don’t want the tech environment nationwide to be bicoastal with nothing in the middle,” McRobbie said.

Together, they decided that IU would host the Pathfinders Summer Institute and McRobbie said the university’s events team jumped in to provide a remarkable onsite experience.

“We all sort of viewed it as a bit of an experiment. It wasn’t clear that we would get the numbers that we had hoped,” she said. “There were all kinds of questions about how that might go, but it was incredibly successful. People got a lot out of it, and they loved being on the Bloomington campus in the summer. We’ve just gone on from there, and I’m thrilled that we’re going to be able to do it again in the summer of 2020.”

She said it’s been a wonderful opportunity for IU’s faculty, particularly for faculty who are looking at the evolution and development of curriculum and pedagogy and tools in the classroom. They are able to see what’s working.

Two members of IU’s faculty were in San Francisco with McRobbie at the outset, and according to her are national leaders in the area of maker education. Adam Maltese at the elementary level and Anne Leftwich have been prominent in education research circles.

“I think for them to have this, ready-made, practicum with working teachers, has got to be an incomparable opportunity to further what they’re doing and their understanding of what works,” said McRobbie.

In many school districts, teachers understand that the world is becoming more digital, and a strong understanding of computation, networking and systems interactions (hardware and software) is important to students’ future opportunities. Couple that with the fact that in Indiana, by 2021, implementing computer science curriculum is mandated by law (Senate Enrolled Act 172). So, it’s not surprising that this year, 25% of the teachers at the institute were from Indiana.

Zach McKeever, an engineering and technology teacher at Lafayette’s McCutcheon High School, was one. He attended both institutes to learn computer science principles and computer science discoveries. This summer, the institute offered 19 different courses offered by 15 professional development providers.

“I was looking for some training with computer science in order to further my curriculum, and to better prepare my students for a world with computer science being at the forefront. I came back for a second year for a different class because of the experience I had the first summer,” said the sixth-year teacher. “I would definitely say it’s the best professional development that I’ve ever been to. Getting teachers who have the summer off, who’ve got kids, who’ve got other responsibilities, to take a week out of their summers to learn some new stuff for their students because they find value in it, is saying something,” he said.

McKeever said he didn’t learn computer science skills in college, but knows the importance for his students. He was among 92 returning teachers. The foundation offers 50 percent of the funding for tuition, airfare and accommodations, with school districts and DonorsChoose.org providing matching funds so teachers can attend at no cost. This summer, 177 of the more than 400 teachers requested funds through DonorsChoose.org.

A byproduct for McKeever has been the community of learners he’s a part of. Starting out, he knew two area teachers who taught computer science. At the summer institute, he connected with a group of nearly 30 teachers who continue to talk to share lessons and teaching strategies via texts and emails. He said, they even share different Kahoots, which are teacher-made lesson quizzes.

McKeever’s classes are electives, and the foundation for his computer science classes is Code.org’s curriculum, which is free online. A Pathfinder partner, Code.org is a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools and increasing participation by women and underrepresented minorities.

What is encouraging is that according to McKeever, both genders were well represented. Many of the instructors were women. There was diversity, too.

“I think that has a lot of do with what you’re talking about that they’re trying to target people from those schools that are a higher need. Because the curriculum, specifically for code.org, is accessible to everybody. So they want people to know about that and buy into that. All you need is a computer and Internet access. Which is still a big ask, but you know, to me, income and where you come from should not determine what you can learn. All it takes is creativity. It takes creativity and a willingness to learn, and you can get that from any student,” said McKeever.

Melissa Babcock, a Providence, R.I., fifth-grade teacher, would agree. Her elementary school has 94 percent of its students living in poverty. While her school is behind in technology, the administration is supportive of her efforts. Last year, she and another teacher taught an after-school coding and robotics class. They were in Bloomington this summer to learn more, and both will attend Infosys Foundation USA’s Winter Institute, which will be held in Providence in February. At both McKeever’s and Babcock’s schools, every student has a Chrome book, but may not have Internet at home.

This summer, 272 teachers were from Title I schools and 134 were from rural schools. Teachers in attendance represented 45 states and the District of Columbia. IU worked too, to encourage rural teacher participation. Oftentimes, McRobbie said those are schools with just one teacher providing this coursework without a lot of colleagues.

McRobbie said IU is honored to be partners.

“I think it is a hopeful sign to see this kind of investment. Teachers have some knowledge about computer science and some knowledge about how to teach, but oftentimes they’re as much students as their own students,” she said.

“I think that is very much aligned with our mission as a research university and our commitment to educating Hoosiers and people outside the state as well. So we’re really seeing this as a wonderful alignment of our mission, Infosys’ mission, addressing a crucial social need and a crucial educational need. We’re honored to be doing it,” she said.

As the nonprofit arm of Infosys Limited, a multinational India-based information technology company, the foundation hopes to affect computer education through its professional development work with teachers, and ultimately ignite a spark for students. Here are some examples of its work.

A regional institute

In February, Infosys Foundation USA is offering its first ever Pathfinders Winter Institute. It will take place in Providence, Rhode Island from Feb. 16 to Feb. 20. Applications for K-12 public school teachers are open through Dec. 16 on the Infosys Foundation USA website.

Grants to nonprofits

Some examples of grant recipients are Code.org, the Hispanic Foundation to offer family coding nights in Spanish; Teach for America to build computational thinking capabilities with cohorts in particular cities and the Girl Scouts for a badge program called Coding for Good.

This year for Computer Science Education (CSE) week, Dec. 9 to Dec. 15, Infosys Foundation USA is supporting activities. Traditionally, it has given out micro-grants during this week, but this year are working with existing grantees to hold events during that week.

Some examples:

Dec. 10: Family Code Night in Providence, RI
Dec. 13: LOFT Coder Summit (with Hispanic Heritage Foundation) in Richardson, TX
Dec. 14-15: Girls For Tech Hackathon in Hartford, CT

Policy conference

Crossroads conference (May 2020). This signature event brings together thought leaders to explore ideas on increasing access to high quality education in computer science, coding and making, with a particular focus on equity and inclusion.

Infy Maker awards

Through the Infy Maker Awards program, it supports today’s makers at schools and in communities, encouraging them to become our next generation of inventors. This #InfyMakers awards program, launched in June 2015 to celebrate the White House’s “National Week of Making”, recognizes the Maker Movement and inventors.

Jun 17

Discovering the power of the podcast

By charitableadvisors Technology

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

Just four short years ago, few people would have recognized the name – or the voice – of Sarah Koenig. Today, Koenig, an investigative journalist, engages millions of people and is among the world’s most-listened-to storytellers.

Koenig’s medium? The podcast, a once-humble and somewhat experimental method of delivering content to the general public.

Koenig is the host of “Serial,” a podcast that tells a nonfiction story over multiple episodes. Earlier this month, Koenig was in Indianapolis as part of WFYI’s Listen Up speakers’ series.

According to Slate magazine, the word “podcast” first appeared in a news story in 2005. But for years, podcasts remained on the fringes, unable to gain traction until smartphones and apps made information easily accessible and a lot more portable.

Matt Shafer Powell, WFYI’s chief content officer, produced his first podcast in 2005. He was working in Knoxville, Tennessee, and a university IT staff person read about podcasts and suggested using this platform to distribute content.

According to Powell, there was an initial flush of podcasting, and then growth seemed to die.

“We were actually kind of talking about it in terms of ‘Yeah, remember when podcasting was such an interesting idea. Boy, those days are gone.’

“And then all of a sudden, there came this wholesale embrace of podcasting from so many of the big players, like “This American Life,” and groups like that. It just exploded and then “Serial” came along.”

And just how has the medium grown? Earlier this year, Chartable, a company that provides podcast analytics and attribution tools, reported that there were 700,000 available podcasts, and that number is growing. Each month, 32 percent of Americans listen to a podcast.

But does that mean that nonprofits have embraced the format?

Bill Stanczykiewicz, the Fund Raising School’s director, knows firsthand what it takes to regularly produce a podcast. In late January 2018, the school launched “First Day,” a weekly 10-minute podcast to provide organizations with the latest information on fundraising and philanthropy.

“I would speculate that the format probably works best for intermediary-type nonprofit organizations. Many of our nonprofits are literally first responders who are meeting needs and making the world a better place as they serve children and victims of domestic violence, promote the arts, clean the environment, endorse animal welfare, all these things. That’s a lot of hard work on a day-to-day basis and to think about setting aside time for podcasts could be a challenge.”

So that’s why Stanczykiewicz’s team has kept the format short, and before the launch of “First Day,” identified its three strategic reasons.

“One is that we believe strongly that podcasts are the medium of now and definitely the medium of the future. More and more people are turning to podcasts for information. I think of college students who tell me they never read the New York Times, but they listen to the NYT podcast every day.”

The Fund Raising School had a multichannel marketing strategy, and a podcast was a seamless fit. It also ensured that the school’s information is accessible, including internationally, for fundraising and nonprofit professionals.

“We know you’re making the world a better place, so it’s 10 minutes in, out, done. Get practical information that you need and get back to work is another reason why we chose that format,” Stanczykiewicz said. In the year and a half of production, there have been only two occasions when the format deviated from the interview format. Typically, Stanczykiewicz said, he is the objective host, and there is a featured guest.

“We tell the guests in advance, this needs to be translated for practical application for frontline fundraisers. We cannot have our very talented faculty and researchers talking about research; it has to be what does this research means for practical fundraising. We wanted it to be quick, right to the point. If you want more information, you can go to our website. We know that fundraisers are busy people, we wanted to summarize, three big points, and then be done.”

And while WFYI’s Powell said he’s not an expert on podcasting, public radio had an early upper hand. In 2005, NPR emerged as a major player with a ready supply of content when it put out shows like “Fresh Air,” “Planet Money” and “Ted Radio Hour” online.

“We were on the air already doing in-depth reporting, and that kind of storytelling, so it was an easier fit to move it over to the podcast realm than maybe some other media entities. In a lot of ways, we’re learning right along with everybody else.

“I think it’s a really exciting time. It’s scary, but being in media has always been scary because it’s in a constant state of change. I think when it comes down to it, people still love, and will always love a good story,” said Powell.

He, like Stanczykiewicz, believes that audio-only content isn’t going away, because it allows the listener to engage in other activities, like jogging or cooking. He said the case for radio over 100 years ago was that it allowed an individual’s imagination to fill in the gaps, and that hasn’t changed.

“I believe that about audio-only content despite the fact that we are going through changes in how it’s delivered. We’ll continue to go through changes, but there’s always going to be a place for good content, good stories and the human voice,” said Powell.

Stanczykiewicz said the format of the school’s podcasts works for them, and urges nonprofits or individuals to have a plan before launching any type of podcasts.

While he has a background in radio, he earned a leadership certificate on social media from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. One point that was stressed in that training was to release it on the same time and day or days of the week. So, because “First Day” is released on Mondays, it is aptly named, and while some people have suggested they produce a daily podcast, currently the school doesn’t have that capacity or a plan to increase production.

Powell urged potential podcasters to be realistic about whom you want to reach.

“There’s nothing wrong with doing a podcast that only reaches a small, but selective group of people. Be realistic about who your audience is and what you want from them: Do you want to entertain them, do you want to educate them, do you want to inspire them?” he said.

While the Fund Raising School does not have exact audience listeners, typically the week a podcast is released, Stanczykiewicz said there are 500 listeners. Each podcast is archived, and anecdotally, the school learned that people use the 10-minute segments at staff and board meetings. Over time, podcasts, which Stanczykiewicz said cost virtually nothing to produce, have achieved up to 1,000 listeners.

Powell recommends identifying resources as part of the initial planning, but said that equipment and hosting are not expensive. He cautions that it depends on the final product. From his experience, though, he said it takes 10 times longer than initial projections.

“If you’re talking about the kind of podcast where you’re going out and getting stories and editing these stories and getting music and doing all this other stuff, there’s going to be a pretty financial obligation there unless you got all the equipment and all the time in the world and can do it yourself,” said Powell.

And while podcast audiences are growing, some genres are more appealing. A 2018 report from Nielson examined the broadest popularity types for avid listeners.

The Fund Raising School’s format, for example, requires little editing. Guests are told it’s live to tape with just one take. Liz Jackson, the school’s associate director, manages the program, and this past school year, there was a graduate assistant who did the day-to-day work of scheduling, preparing the guests, uploading the podcasts and tracking usage data. Unlike most nonprofits, the school’s advantage is access to IUPUI’s facilities, which include a video- and audio-recording studio that is staffed. Topic ideas are a standing agenda item at bimonthly team meetings.

“We brainstorm what’s some of the latest research that has come from our faculty or research team, or as we teach, is there a predominate line of questioning that we’re hearing about, a topic that we’re hearing about, or is there something out in the news. For example, we might say there’s been some natural disasters, maybe we need to have something on natural disasters or how does that affect charitable giving or some change in tax policy,” he said.

Podcasts are recorded two to three months prior to air time to make sure there’s always enough in the pipeline, and typically the interviewees are solicited from the two-dozen faculty,10 researchers or external guests speaking at the school.

For WFYI, podcasts have typically been local radio shows that are available on-demand. That was until “The WorkAround” from “Side Effects.” Funding from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting provided the initial funding for “Side Effects,” and in the grant was a deliverable — a podcast. After extensive brainstorming, the team decided to produce 20- to-25-minute podcasts about the difficult and sometimes shocking things that people would do to work around the American health care system. Seven episodes were produced last year.

“It was a learning experience. We totally underestimated how much time and energy it would take. You’d think that that would be a great lesson for us, but we actually have another podcast in production right now called “Sick” that’s going to launch in September,” said Powell.

Some support for this new podcast is provided by Boston-based PRX.

“PRX had this program called “Catapult.” It was designed specifically to (support) public radio stations that had some ideas and some resources available for podcasts, but really didn’t know what they’re doing. I’m happy with “The WorkAround.” It’s good journalism, and I think it came out sounding good, but we had no clue what we were doing, we were totally flying without instruments. We also didn’t know how to market something like this or how do you get listeners?

“And then along comes PRX with its RFP saying, ‘Hey, if you have a podcast idea, we’d love to help you with it.’” WFYI was one of five stations named around the country to be part of the “Catapult” cohort. PRX provided some funding to help with the costs, but it is providing something more valuable.

“The important part is they’re putting us through extensive training on everything from the best way to produce a podcast, to the best way to write one, to the best way to market one. Really more than anything, it’s the intense training that we’re getting out of ‘Catapult,’” said Powell, who’s been with the station for two years.

The reporting and production team are Jake Harper and Lauren Bavis, and they have traveled to Boston several times for boot camp training weeks. PRX has also been a constant editorial presence, offering suggestions to hone the product.

“I’m anxious to see what the output will be in terms of lessons for us going forward,” said Powell.

So if a nonprofit is thinking about tackling a podcast, Powell shared advice that Koenig provided her audience earlier this month — be your true self.

“If you’re just trying to create this podcast, and it’s not something that engages you, people are going to recognize that. It’s a heavy, heavy lift. Koenig, for example, had 42 hours of tape with Adnan Syed that had to be gone through. There’s a long process of editing and reediting and questioning and re-questioning. In that kind of storytelling podcast, you better be prepared to really work long and hard,” he said. “People say, ‘That sounds easy, I can do that.’ But they don’t know what’s involved.”

Stanczykiewicz said that if the philanthropic sector isn’t there yet, it needs to be.

“As more and more people are consuming information through their phones and other technological devices, they’re looking to podcasts now for information more than ever before. And that’s a trend in our opinion that’s only going to continue to increase. This is where the world is going,” he said.

“It will be very interesting to see this moving forward. You know when you write this story three years from now, I think they’ll be even much more extensive than what you’re finding now,” said the assistant dean for external relations.

Editor’s note: After this article ran, the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana shared news of its podcast. Since February, it has partnered with Veteran Strategies, a local public relations firm, to interview Hoosier community leaders. The inaugural “Leaders and Legends” podcast featured former Mayor of Indianapolis Greg Ballard. https://leadersandlegends.fireside.fm/

Feb 04

United Way and Salesforce.org: Teaming up to change giving

By charitableadvisors Feature, Technology

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

We live in an era where technology seemingly changes by the minute. What’s new today is old tomorrow. The trend is not lost on nonprofits, which continually seek how to best incorporate technology into their fundraising efforts.

With figures showing recent declines in charitable giving, the quest remains: Is there a digital platform that could reframe how nonprofits connect with donors and really transform philanthropy?

Chris Herndon, chief marketing and engagement officer at United Way of Central Indiana, believes that its partnership with Salesforce.org, the foundation arm of the national cloud-based software company, has the opportunity to do just that.

“It’s kind of a big deal,” said Herndon about the product that is now available to Indiana companies from United Way.

It is certainly a platform for nonprofits to keep tabs on.

Three years ago, United Way chapters in major markets pooled their resources to invest in digital strategies. At the time, Salesforce was one of their selected companies and the 10 United Way chapters began using the company’s marketing cloud software, receiving Salesforce’s expertise and guidance in the process.

The relationship transformed about a year ago, when the United Way chapters became colleagues with Salesforce to create an app called the Philanthropy Cloud, Herndon said. Launched in late 2018, the platform was designed by Salesforce’s foundation in partnership with United Way.

Initially, the goal was to better engage current donors and potential donors. Nationally, the trend was fewer people giving after the recession, particularly middle-class Americans who had less discretionary income.

That trend is support by the Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, which reported that the share of households contributing to charity has dropped from 67 percent in 2004 to 55.5 percent in 2014, the latest year for which figures are available.

But according to Herndon, the United Way-Salesforce working group also knew that the next generation of employees wants to work for an employer that will enable them to engage with their communities. And they knew that incorporating technology was key to delivering a personal, customizable way that could be scaled.

The concept for the platform first introduced at Salesforce’s 2017 Dreamforce, and then rolled out at last fall’s Dreamforce conference.

Herndon said the term philanthropy implies a more strategic approach, and that there’s been a shift to think increasingly about corporate social responsibility and the goals each company wants to achieve.

Herndon likens the Philanthropy Cloud to a financial account where you can log in, see your investments, your volunteer activity and get a tax statement.

“This gives them a better tool to roll up all that employee giving, volunteering, and achieved community impact outcomes. It allows them to manage their matches, communicate their company’s philosophy and specific goals,” said Herndon.

On a local level, United Way began its marketing the product to its current business partners, which included an invitation-only event a couple of weeks ago. The plan is to do more of those. Currently there are about 50 United Way chapters nationally that are involved.

Ashley Furois, United Way of Central Indiana’s senior director of fundraising, said there is an annual standard per-employee fee based on the employee size per company.

“Standard would be $2 per user per month. A user is an employee, so anybody who has access to the site, if they use it or not,” she said. First Financial Bank based in Cincinnati with 170 employees in Indianapolis is the first area user.

“I think, it complements how we were already changing how we work with our current corporate partners. We’ve been changing our fundraising focus to be from that annual campaign perspective to really a year-round supportive perspective. And this is just another tool that allows us to help do that,” she said.

Nonprofits that populate employees’ profile pages pull from two different databases – Guidestar and United Way. In the short term, United Way is banking on companies and nonprofits that have relationships with companies to help populate the volunteer opportunities.

“Long term, we hope to have a portal or a way for a database to be set up so that some of these opportunities are easily accessible to the companies even if there isn’t already a relationship established,” said Furois.

For area nonprofits, it is important to make sure that their Guidestar profiles are up to date, said Herndon. When an employee accesses a nonprofit’s information, not only can they learn about the mission, but its federal tax ID and nonprofit rating appears. The platform provides the ability to make a donation or easily volunteer.

Serve Indiana’s Executive Director Marc McAleavey sees lots of possibilities. On a state level, he and his team are developing ways to engage employers to strengthen or develop volunteer programming for Indiana companies. He is excited by the opportunities for a user to create his or her philanthropic profile.

“When I saw the demonstration, I saw so many possibilities. It will help not only the company see the impact their employees are making, but also each employee can understand their circle of influence and how they’re making an impact in their communities. It’s a win-win.” McAleavey pointed out that the Independent Sector publishes a volunteer wage value and updates it regularly. Last year, the volunteer hour was $24.60, up 2.2 percent from the previous year.

McAleavey sees future applications, too.

“Right now, it is about engaging employers. But I think that the power of the Philanthropy Cloud is you can tell an individual’s philanthropic story for a long period of time. I would love to help think through how they can open it up a little bit bigger, so that young adults or even kids start accessing the Philanthropy Cloud so it follows the person no matter where they work,” he said.

Another example, he sees for future use is vetting potential nonprofit board members. An executive committee could request it to use as a resume to learn more about an individual’s philanthropic history.

The new platform has generated interest from companies that don’t have existing relationships with United Way of Central Indiana.

“It’s been interesting that some assumptions that some companies may have with United Way and just seeing us in a different light in terms of being progressive and innovation,” said Herndon.

According to Furois, nationally there are 40 companies who have purchased the product.

It also helps keep employees engaged by providing customized content based on the individual’s interests with content changing in real time.

“(An individual) can go in and set his or her interests, but also using Artificial Intelligence, it will see what articles you’re clicking on and looking at, and it starts to serve content that is most relevant to you. So hopefully, you get that personal experience, that customized experience, and you are going to get more deeply involved.”

Herndon said there is a multiyear plan to continue to develop the platform. The ability to volunteer for nonprofits will roll out this spring. Additionally employees that want to make an impact on a cause but do not know local nonprofits working in that specific arena can learn about organizations doing the type of work they want to support.

“If I were to oversimplify, it solves how we better connect people who want to help with people who are in need. And then as I think as we learn more about the people who want to help, we can be a bridge between what people care about and what the community needs.

“It is also creating a better experience for people. When you think about how technology has transformed every other area of our life and made it more convenient and allowed us to better engage with things we care about, it should happen in this space as well. So it’s been pretty cool at bringing this to life,” said Herndon.

Furois who has worked for United Way of Central Indiana for 10 years, is excited for many reasons.

“For me, I think the fact that we’re taking an organization that is over 100 years old and introducing something that’s new, unique and different it is exciting to me. It has possibilities for our donors and volunteers, but also for us as an organization,” she said.

Features of the Philanthropy Cloud

A company may purchase the platform from United Way of Central Indiana and then make it available to its employees.

To see a demo of the platform, click here.

An employee may create an individual profile, after which the platform will hone content and include what is most relevant to an employee based on interactions with the site. At anytime, an employee can edit his or her causes. For example, an employee is at lunch and hears that a colleague just had a great volunteer opportunity at an organization that deals with food and hunger. An employee can change his or her causes and save that information.

An individual’s profile page gives his or her giving history, if it’s recurring or a one-time gift. Similar to Amazon, the individual can easily donate again and make the same donation. He or she can also get a tax receipt. It provides a snapshot of how the individual is giving. Based on an individual’s giving, it populates pages with articles about the causes he or she supports.

Locally, United Way staff will create content to add to the site.
On the volunteer portal, which will launch in the spring, employees have the chance to share their talents. Employees can locate and sign up to volunteer for local nonprofits and employee can also post volunteer opportunities for others in the company. Through a peer-to-peer connection, it can increase the visibility of lesser-known organizations.
Employees can see specific details about volunteer opportunities – their location, when they start and how to sign up. After signing up, an automatic confirmation and thank-you email is sent directly to the employee.
Businesses can see how their employees are giving, either by cause or in a geographic region.
If a company has a corporate social responsibility cause, it can highlight opportunities. Companies are asking employees what philanthropic causes they want their employers to invest in. The platform can help employers see if the causes they’ve chosen are actually where employees are investing their time and talent.
Future iterations will have portable profiles, so if an employee leaves a company, his or her profile can too.

United Way’s beginnings are rooted in problem solving.

In 1887, Denver had a burgeoning population that put a strain on human services. A large migration to Colorado was caused by the outbreak of tuberculosis. In order to reduce their risk of illness, individuals sought higher elevation and cleaner air.

In Denver, faith leaders partnered and created a united campaign that benefitted health and welfare agencies. They founded the Charity Organization Society to collect the funds for local charities, to coordinate relief services, to counsel and refer clients to cooperating agencies, and to make emergency assistance grants for cases that could not be referred.

Indianapolis entered the picture in 1918 during the war and was more like a war chest.

Herndon said, “There’s some iconic photos literal war chest of cash on Monument Circle and again it was the leaders of the community wanting to rally everybody together.”

The name Community Chest was widely used for United Way organizations until the 1950s.

Since 1946, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and United Way Worldwide have enjoyed a cooperative relationship. Workplace giving was introduced about 40 or 50 years ago, and that was through the labor unions working with United Way to co-create the concept of workplace giving and payroll deduction.

It sees the Philanthropy Cloud and its technology as its next innovation.

Sep 24

Project management tools: What’s best for your nonprofit?

By charitableadvisors Feature, Technology

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

When Annie Cornett was hired by Bloomington-based Social Legends two years ago, the company tracked its projects by using Excel. Teams used both Microsoft’s OneDrive and Dropbox to share files.

While this system worked really well for a long time, as the company started adding people, it just wasn’t practical.

“From an efficiency standpoint, we really wanted to look at how we could improve tracking all the different tasks that we were doing and be able to maintain records of what was done,” said Cornett, a consultant.

And this company is not alone. Many are looking for project management tools, and the software industry has responded.

With virtual project teams on the rise, and the advent of mobile apps, project management software tools are a burgeoning trend. Earlier this year, several lists offered the top 50 project management tools. Not just the top 10, but the top 50.

The definition of “project-management software” varies widely, and the needs are likely to depend on the project, the team and project-management style. What’s available out there and what tools might support a nonprofit’s project-management needs? So with all these choices, how does a nonprofit or small business decide what is the best fit?

Here are steps that two local nonprofits used or are using to make that decision. Social Legends is a consulting firm and Prosperity Indiana is a membership organization that focuses on community development. Tech Soup, a nonprofit international network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provides technical support and donations and discounted rates on technological tools to nonprofits, also weighed in.

Social Legends

Cornett began with a general online Google search to investigate various systems and reviews of different products. It’s important, she said, to realize that there are people who are doing the comparison work.

Project management services are typically online systems designed for collaboration on projects. These systems allow team members and supervisors to keep an eye on details to complete a project and provide both a big picture of all projects and the nitty-gritty details about work being completed.

One key factor for Social Legends was how user-friendly a system was and how well it would integrate with other programs.

“We didn’t want to spend a lot of time in training, trying to understand a new system, learning all the new bells and whistles. We wanted it to be pretty intuitive. And we kind of just wanted to jump in and run with it pretty quickly.

“We didn’t want to select a system and in a year and a half have to move on to something else because it doesn’t have the capabilities to integrate the way we wanted it to,” she said.

Once Cornett narrowed the selection to four software programs, other staff members jumped in and tried each demo system back-to-back.

“It’s worth exploring from a free trials standpoint. We got in and just played. A lot of companies will give you 30 days for free. You can get in, tool around and see what the different functionalities are and how easy it is to use whether it’s adding a project or adding a task or tracking your time in system.

“So we had to get in the weeds a little bit toward the end and use those different systems, and we really just looked at the different research that had been done and compared the functionalities.

“It’s really intuitive in a lot of ways, but I think a lot of people get scared,” she said.

Staff members also tested some of the online training videos. One or two people blind-tested the system by doing some of the basics. They had no background knowledge.

“It was kind of a test run on our end, too, to see how user-friendly the system was going to be,” she said. “They didn’t have any problem with the basic functionality, adding a project, adding a task, putting your details in, figuring out reminders, checking things off.

“That really was kind of one of the selling points of this system for us,” she said.

Social Legends selected Teamwork Projects, which is cloud-based. For about a year and a half, it has used the smallest office plan, which is $49 a month, and has five users ranging in age from 27 to 42. It has helped align work plans and provide storage space for 40 projects. The company’s information is stored on its website and goes to the cloud, too.

“It allows all of us to work remotely and file share. So if we have a project and we’re working on a job, we can leave the file in the system for the next person. It’s just more efficient,” said Cornett.

And while it has different functions that they don’t use, they determined they could grow into them.

“It’s going to have all these functionalities, but you don’t have to use them all either,” said Cornett. “It allows you to customize it to how your team works, which is what is really nice about the system.”

Cornett said everything in the tool is centrally located, including tasks, timelines and notes. For the company it has helped to ensure quality control – files don’t get lost between team members and, there’s no confusion on a timeline and all of the current versions of all the files are in the system.”

Another feature is the ability to archive a project.

“We can save all the data, and we can save all the different steps, timelines and all the documents. It’s really helped us to kind of streamline storage as well.”

When Social Legends has needed technical assistance, it has received good responses. Teamwork Projects is always looking to improve and has been responsive to suggestions from its clients.

Social Legends isn’t done investigating the system. Every month, staffers identify an additional feature and determine if it’s a good fit and will improve the quality of their work.

There is another feature that has been a boon to their work with clients – adding an external user to a specific project.

“When we’ve worked with different clients on certain projects, we actually created their project plan in our system and have been able to give them access to it,” Cornett said. “I will say when we have brought outside users into the system, we’ve not had problems with them having usability issues either.”

Although Cornett said they don’t run into many nonprofits that are currently using a project management system, she sees how the ability to add users could be helpful. The system allows adding access, which can be particularly helpful with committee members.

“I can see it being a great tool to help manage those smaller groups that get pulled into those kinds of activities along the way,” Cornett said.

“I could see a lot of nonprofit organizations really liking the ability to track time on various projects and events. When they wonder, ‘How much time am I putting into that? What is the return on the investment?’

“It has the option to do the time tracking and really look at ‘How much time did we spend on something?’ You can do it from your phone. It’s easy to jump into a meeting or when you start work on a project, you can turn the time tracker on really quick and easily. So we’ve done that for a few projects just to see how long this is really taking us,” she said.

The only drawback, Cornett said, is getting used to a new system and a new routine.

“It’s just the switch culturally for us to a new system. You kind of have to retrain your brain, you have to retrain your team a little bit.”

Prosperity Indiana

Jessica Love, executive director at Prosperity Indiana, is currently on the quest to find a project management tool.

“I’m in a nonprofit group and folks talk a lot about project management tools that they have found useful: Monday and Asana,” said Love.

One goal for her is that the software provides a visual snapshot of projects.

While her staff is using ToDo List and it works for some projects, like the organization’s annual conference, it doesn’t provide her a comprehensive look at all that the staffers are challenged with completing, and they don’t use the team function well.

“Although we track indicators and our team members individually keep track of their work plan, we cannot visually see the incremental progress we’re making on our work plan. We can have a sense of it, but I think it will be helpful for us to be able to just pull something up at any moment and see where we are,” she said.

Love has delegated the exploration process to another team member who is researching available software and developing a spreadsheet to share how the tools compare.

“We’re looking at different options. We want to see at any time where we are with projects, and better than just printing reports.”

And while there are reviews and ratings online, the search doesn’t stop there. Some solutions will have all the tasks a team is looking for, while others will only have a few.

Love knows this all too well.

“I also think if it’s not working, don’t keep using it,” she said.

“If you explored it, you thought it was great, you found this awesome system and then it didn’t work for you, you cannot keep making it work. We did that, when we got our new CRM. We did so much research. We talked to all kinds of other associations. We thought we had scoured the research and felt really good about it.

“And then we used the system. And even though it was really painful to have to admit, we completely went to a different CRM.”

One thing that Love wants to be able to do is at any given time know the stage of project so she can support staff members better.

“I try to be encouraging when staff members accomplish something, but I don’t always know. I may encourage them at a time when I have time to and not encourage them on something else that was really awesome because of my own capacity. So my fear is that when I do provide encouragement or recognition of their work, it may feel like a moving target: ‘Oh, she really liked this one.’”

Some reviewers recommend a Gantt chart, a tool that allows a manager at any time to see who is doing what, and how various tasks are related. It helps everyone use available resources more effectively.

“So I think a new tool is going to help us all manage ourselves individually and to give me a better understanding of where staff is with certain things. It will help if we can see it visually. I’m so visual and I know a lot of people are,” Love said.

Her goal is to help her employees balance their work better and also celebrate their accomplishments.

“I’m envisioning that it will help me communicate to them what success looks like for me. That’s one of the things that I personally want to improve,” she said.

In total, the nonprofit will have seven to 10 users with access to a project management tool. Love admits she doesn’t even know what to expect for pricing and what they might be able to eliminate.

Love recognizes that it is important to acknowledge that there is no one perfect system and it’s important to understand that just because it works for somebody else, it may not work for her team and match the nonprofit’s priorities.

“So we’re exploring. There will still be that gut check of not just doing what’s big and flashy. We want to explore and see what works best and stack them against each other before we pick one.”

TechSoup

Nick Mediati is TechSoup’s marketing specialist. For over three decades, the nonprofit based in San Francisco has solicited donations of technological products and then sells them to nonprofits for a nominal fee. This year its philanthropic services and giving programs reached the milestone of benefiting over 1 million NGOs in 236 countries and territories.

“Personally, I am not too attuned to how nonprofits as a whole are using project management tools, but it would not come as a surprise if many organizations weren’t using such tools.” However, he feels there is more interest.

While Mediati personally uses old-school pen and paper lists to track tasks, his department uses Wrike to track team projects and tasks.

“It is a pretty power-packed tool, and I think we’ve only scratched the surface of what it can do. I personally rely heavily on its built-in calendar, which lets you get a visual overview of your upcoming projects and tasks.

“It’s definitely had a learning curve, but it also has made it easier to track down deliverables for projects so we’re not left to track them down in emails, on Slack, or wherever else.

Mediati, too, believes that when selecting a project management tool, it is important to take several for a test drive.

“You often don’t know the pros and cons of a project management tool until you actually dig in and use it, and many — though not all — project management tools provide either limited-time trial versions or stripped-down free versions so you can get an idea of how they work without making a monetary commitment.”

His recommendation is to start out by determining what the organization’s needs are and what are its pain points.

“Depending on your needs, maybe you don’t need a full-fledged project management solution. Consider if a full-fledged, high-powered task management tool would require too much mental overhead to use. As a former colleague once put it, task management shouldn’t be a task unto itself,” he said.

Mediati said another consideration is whether you have a preference to track projects using an online tool like Wrike or Asana, or a traditional piece of software like Microsoft Project, which TechSoup offers.

In the end, he said a lot of it comes down to personal preference and the approach you and your organization take to managing projects and tasks. Ask for staff input, including what they may have used and what they liked or disliked.

Mediati also suggested when considering a tool to ask about nonprofit discounts. One of the services that TechSoup has been able to offer for other products is a reduced rate for registered nonprofits. The company website’s comments space has several nonprofits requesting Monday’s and Asana’s project management tools.

And while not currently offered, TechSoup is currently negotiating with Asana to offer a potential 50 percent discount to qualified nonprofits.

“The biggest challenge can be learning a tool’s limitations and adapting your workflow to them. Pretty much every tool out there has its benefits and drawbacks, so there will be a learning curve.

“I can think of plenty of reasons to use one, but for me personally I would point to the fact that it keeps people accountable. Everyone on the team knows what they’re responsible for and when they need to provide their part of a project,” said Mediati.

Jun 20

States scramble to protect student data and privacy

By charitableadvisors Feature, Technology

By Sarah Breitenbach, reporter, Stateline/Pew Charitable Trusts |

What if a child’s performance in a fifth-grade gym class could be used to set the rate for a life insurance policy when they’re 50? What if a computer program advertised interactive tutoring when your child struggled with long division?

Privacy advocates worry these scenarios could become reality as schools increasingly rely on outside companies to collect, manage and analyze the massive amount of data gleaned from standardized tests, transcripts, individual education programs and even cafeteria purchases.

This subcontracting is not new or uncommon, but it has often left school districts without explicit control over students’ personal information. And it has left some parents, administrators and privacy advocates worried that those companies might one day sell or mine the data for a profit.

With few protections on the privacy of student data beyond a decades-old federal law, states have been scrambling to regulate how student data is collected and stored. More recently they’ve begun governing how third-party companies can use student information.

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Jun 20

Making better use of big data

By charitableadvisors Feature, Technology

By Sonal Shah & Hollie Russon Gilman, Stanford Social Innovation Review |

Big data has become a buzzword for private, public, and social sector organizations. For the social sector, there is a belief that “big” data is the new panacea to solving our greatest social challenges — whether criminal justice, health care, education, or international development. On the other side, there is concern about the cost of collecting data, the type of data we collect, and the real questions of privacy and ethics of data use.

We believe that data has the potential to help governments (local, state, and national) achieve real outcomes, but we need to ensure that we are collecting useful data, and governments need to put in place some practical safeguards before asking the public to invest in new systems and data collection. We need to examine the value of transparency of big data; understand the types of data needed to achieve outcomes; differentiate the differences between data, evidence, and judgment; and ensure that citizens are included in the conversation.

Why data matters

In the sciences, and increasingly in the social sciences, data has been a critical part of understanding, testing, and proving theories. It has the potential to more-effectively address critical challenges in our society — to target school interventions, improve health care, or help people find the right job training. Our ability to collect, analyze, and better understand data has become increasingly easier and cheaper. Even with limited resources, we can now collect micro-level information in real time, detect early warnings, and provide insights for effective, targeted interventions. Community- and heat-mapping techniques, for example, provide a wide range of valuable information, helping us better understand crime patterns and isolate hyper-local health conditions. In Chicago, data is helping Chicago Health Atlas identify health trends and provide hospital information. And Foodborne Chicago is using sentiment analysis (determining whether a piece of writing is positive, negative, or neutral) from social media and location-based 311 reports to detect food poisoning incidents. Data can help government provide better and more-effective services for its citizens.

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Jun 20

Software to fight terrorism, Microsoft-funded professor

By charitableadvisors Feature, Technology

By Jing Cao, reporter, Bloomberg News |

Dartmouth College computer science professor Hany Farid — using funding from Microsoft Corp. — has developed technology to help scrub extremist content from the internet.

Working with the nonprofit think tank Counter Extremism Project, Farid built software capable of identifying and tracking photo, video and audio files, even if they’ve been altered. The software, unveiled Friday, would allow websites such as Facebook Inc. to automatically catch flagged content and remove it or prevent it from being uploaded.

On a call to discuss the technology, Farid, who is also a senior advisor to the CEP, said his software would allow companies to automatically remove posts that violate the sites’ terms of use. He also said deleting the content is not a freedom of speech issue because the companies have the right to dictate what’s suitable.

“We allow them to do it fast, accurately, automatically,” he said.

Many internet and social media companies, including Facebook and Twitter Inc., do have rules prohibiting posts from organizations that are involved in terrorist activity or organized crime or excessively violent, graphic content. But foul content gets posted anyway and relies on manual flagging and removal — more of a “Whack-a-Mole” approach, Farid said.

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Jul 20

Easy-to-use graphic design software

By charitableadvisors 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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