In this episode, we Birgit and Jim discuss the concept of Donor Stewardship and Donor Privacy.

They begin with a statement that it is the obligation of a nonprofit organization to be the steward for their donors and the privacy of their data in which they are entrusted. The state that it is their belief that most donors have no idea that an outside party has access to their information, and that it is likely that patrons would be upset if they knew.  Listeners are challenged to approach one of their Board members and ask if they are aware that their data is shared with an outside organization.

They then take the listeners through how this happens.  They begin with Email providers who, to protect themselves typically send an email to someone who has signed up for a newsletter online. The email asks the recipient for permission to send information to them and allows them to opt out. Just that fact tells you that at least names and email addresses have been shared with an outside party. In fact, NPTech Projects has made a change on their website to inform the visitor to their site that by signing up, their information will be provided to their email provider.

The next step is the Donor Management Service which is joined as SAAS, or Software as a Service. The Donor Management Service helps the nonprofit organization to categorize donors and potential donors, carries the donor appeals via email, provides donors with hard copy receipts for their taxes, and so on. Now another outside entity has deeper information including donor history, street address, phone numbers (in most cases), and whether the prospect is a volunteer, has attended an event, is a Board member, etc. Again the listeners are challenged to think about whether their donors, volunteers, event attendees, etc., know that their information has been passed to an outside organization.

Then Birgit and Jim take the listeners through some highlights of the Donor Bill of Rights as published by the Association of Fundraising Professionals as published in 1973 and the eDonor Bill of Rights as published after f

In this episode, we first discuss the latest in NPTech News, and we share questions that came from and discussions with some of you listeners, or topics that came up in meetings with nonprofit organizations.

The news discussion begins with an article published in The NonProfit Times about how different generations prefer their communications with charities, for example, email as opposed to social media, they then discuss the number of organizations accepting donations online, and finally the mode through which most donations arrive. The numbers used in the article were from the 2016 Global NGO Online Technology. They then discuss upcoming webinars and recently published work about nonprofit communications trends. Birgit describes the upcoming Nonprofit Technology Conference, and in particular the Birds of a Feather Lunches.

The DoGooder Awards are accepting your video submissions until Feb 13, 2017, at dogooder.tv

WPTavern reported: the Obama Foundation is now on WordPress.

Nonprofit Tech 4 Good’s Heather Mansfield released the 2017 Cause Awareness & Giving Day Calendar. We have published the calendar on our site.

In this episode, Birgit and Jim share some insights gained as a result of facilitating a Tech4Good meeting in Naples, Florida earlier this year.

Jim is asked to tell us about his experience and he begins by discussing the potential target audience a non profit organization may wish to address. Specifically these are current and prospective donors, volunteers, and those experiencing the services offered. The next major point made is that the producer of the video must make a decision about how much time the potential viewer may spend if it is the first time learning about an organization.

Four videos were shown and discussed among the group with emphasis on whether the video accomplished its goals. Videos came from winners in the Do-Gooders Awards, Tech Soup’s Storytelling competition and two videos from a local nonprofit organization.

Birgit, who was collecting comments on flip charts shared the comments from the audience for each video, and then shares her views on the types of software available to an organization planning to produce a video.

Jim closes the podcast by reminding the audience who may be using WordPress about our WP4Good Club and the advantages offered in hosting and education.

In this episode, Birgit and Jim share some marketing predictions in social media as presented by 35 experts in social media. There are several sources of information on the subject. Brand24 first published the primary source for this episode in December of 2016.  Experts discussed Opportunities and Obstacles.

In this episode, Birgit and Jim tell us about Impact Circles which are small monthly discussion groups for Executive Directors of nonprofit organizations. Jim explains that in addition to discussing common interests, one of the themes is to allow E.D. s to become more comfortable with technology. The idea is not to make an E.D. into a “techie,” but instead to become sufficiently knowledgeable that discussions with technical supporters, outside vendors, and web developers. The Circle members attend monthly meetings that last for ninety minutes, and then receive an hour each month of one on one consulting.

The need for this can be drawn from a report stating that in 1.6 million nonprofits the executives and Board members are baby boomers, which means born before the internet and modern computing. Also, the scary statistic is that only 30% of donors are repeat donors, which means that 70% of the donors from last year do not return. So in addition to a fear factor of technology, the understanding of what modern statistics show about the success of online communications with donors, recipients of services, and volunteers is sporadic.

After setting the scene for Impact Circles, Jim and Birgit describe the agenda contents of the pilot program meetings and provide a testimonial from one of the participants. They then discuss the future of Impact Circles, which includes a fundraising effort to raise scholarships for E.D.s to attend. That effort is in two parts, the first of which is for individuals or groups to fund a scholarship for a particular person. The second is for non-designated funds to be contributed, and when the total is announced in early January, the audience will be asked to nominate individuals to receive the scholarships. More information can be obtained on our website NPTechProjects.org

Birgit summarizes this episode by describing her 18 years of working with nonprofit lea

In this episode, Birgit takes us through the essential mechanical steps to ensure that you are connecting your website to the Social Networks. She describes the important tasks done by the Content Management System (Episode #2) which supplies the programming support necessary for your content to go to your desired places on the Social Networks. After telling us why people want to share, she describes the old standard of syndication to the new level of blogging. Further, by thinking of your sharing as though it is a network onto which you can place your message in many places, you begin to see the power of the website being your central information hub. We are reminded of a mantra; “Automate what’s the same and manage what’s different” (Episode #2)

There are five automation things to learn about, and each is covered in some detail:

If you are enjoying these podcasts, please share on the Social Networks to which you are now connected!

In Episode #6 Birgit and Jim discuss Online Fundraising. Birgit begins by telling us about the most successful types of fundraising in 2015. She breaks it down into five different ways to raise funds. Jim then recommends some strategic questions nonprofit organizations should explore before they even think about software.

Birgit has invited a colleague, Yesenia Sotelo who does specif

In the 4th podcast for NPTech Projects, Birgit Pauli-Haack and Jim O’Reilley discuss Nonprofit SEO Technology in the 21st Century –  Onsite

Birgit gives us some SEO history, and tells why word stuffing no longer works.

They describe what things you can do as a content producer, as a content provider, and as a blogger, to ensure your blog post, webpage performs well and gets found on the search engines.

Birgit & Jim have easy to understand examples, a few tales from the early days, and conclude with a few good habits you can start so every time you publish another piece of content, you know you did your best to make it shine on the Internet and benefit the visibility of your organization on Google.

Once in awhile you need a reminder to see if your content is performing well, so you will hear about tools to test your own website and also and the ones of your competitors.

This episode is about the SEO on site you do on your own site. A future episode will cover, off site SEO, link Building, promotion, guest blogging etc.