Right now nonprofits have a unique opportunity, and almost an
obligation. For our constituencies to be a part of the public
discussions that inform policy, they need to be online. You need to
think of yourself as access point. It's our job to be a conduit for
our constituencies to get online, and ensure their voices are
contributing to the stream of data online. This can happen in two
ways. The first is to helping to provide online access. Second, you
can provide your constituents stories as data to those already already
on internet mashing up data by making make data sets available. We can help our constituents tell their stories.

Sessino Takeaways:

1. Resources you can use to get your community online
2. Reasons to get your community online
3. An understanding of how your communities data can tell a story

Level: Beginner

This panel will cover the basics and ethics of creating and managing

online platforms and communities. We will give nonprofits a basic
framework of things to consider including identity and anonymity,
digital inclusion and access, community management, taxonomy, content
ownership, and your data ecosystem.

Session Takeaways:

 1. An actual checklist of things to consider when creating and managing online platforms and communities

2. A working knowledge of the issues creating and managing online platforms and communities  and a way to stay in conversation with colleagues who are working with the same issues.

3. A checklist, also actual, of things for your board to consider around online platforms and communities

Level: Intermediate

As every nonprofit leader and grant officer knows, a grant award is only the beginning of an ongoing relationship. The growth of strategic giving has driven a greater focus on outcomes reporting and evaluation. However, the tracking and reporting required to support this type of accountability can drive up administrative costs for both foundations and grantees. New technical innovations and products have begun to make the reporting process more efficient and effective for foundations and their grantees.

Takeaways:

1. Grants managers use a wide array of methodologies to evaluate outcomes to strategically direct their giving

2. New technical innovations and products have made the reporting process more efficient and effective

3. Understanding these new directions will help organizations align and integrate their IT systems.

A social responsibility project can be a great way to unify your organization, learn new methods of communication, and lend your expertise to others to help them prosper. Learn how a project in Ghana utilized social networking approaches and tools to make a lasting impact with a minimal investment.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Identify a social responsibility project that would benefit from social networking communication practices

2.  Put together a working group and manage a social responsibility project

3.  Learn how to effectively communicate with social responsibility partners on the project

Level:  Beginner

In July 2009 Junior Achievement launched The Triangle, a private social network that securely connects thousands of its worldwide employees.  Within a few weeks of the launch, more than half of the JA employees were using the community to network, share best practices, solve challenges and improve results at the local level.  In the first month alone, more than 300 questions were asked of the employee community by its members, ranging from fundraising to operations to programming to requests to trade program material.  More than 40% of those questions were answered within one hour of posting and 80% answered within a day.  In addition, more than 50 virtual groups were formed, allowing employees to network and exchange ideas in areas of functional responsibility, geography or programming.

In this session, a leader from Junior Achievement and a leader from cubeless, the platform JA selected for the community, will discuss the value JA is receiving from its internal social network and detail the critical steps it took to ensure that employees embraced and engaged in the community when it was launched.

Session Takeaways:

1.  How an internal social network can improve organizational results

2.  How to set up and launch an internal social network for rapid adoption

3.  What ongoing management is necessary to continue to drive value from the social network

Level: Beginner

Hear from leaders of the biggest, smallest, most successful and, well, not (yet) successful online teams about how the challenges, obstacles and lessons learned while creating truly derriere-kicking groups that make change while raising money. 

Session Takeaways:

1.  Every group is different - how to staff for outcomes and not just positions.

2.  Hear from others about what has worked and not.

3.  Have evidence/real stories to share back at the ranch when planning for the future.

Level: Intermediate

Developments such as the emergence of the Alliance for Effective Social Investing and Charity Navigator's plans to add outcomes to its rating system are fueling greater demand for demonstrated results in the nonprofit sector.

This session explores how performance management helps organizations continuously improve their services and client outcomes, and ultimately creates a competitive advantage in a tough fundraising market.  

Through case examples, the presentation will demonstrate how organizations use technology to track that they are reaching the intended population, ensure that individuals are receiving the appropriate level and quality of services and to track improvements in clients' lives. Software allows for real time reporting that supports management decisions and facilitates funder reporting.

Technology is only one tool to manage performance, however, and the session will discuss how sound program design, strong leadership and change management are other key ingredients to reaching a point where data is used for continuous improvement.

The session will include examples of how successful organizations have improved over time and increased their funding. It will also include practical tips for selecting performance management software, developing strong program design and managing change. Participants will leave with resources for peer networking and further learning.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Learn how performance management helps organizations continuously improve their services and client outcomes

2.    Learn how performance management creates a competitive advantage in a tough fundraising market 

3.   See how actual organizations are using technology to enhance performance management

Level: Intermediate

This high level session focuses on the value of investing in your organization's IT planning and development. We will explore the importance of integrating technology at a strategic level to support the organization's top initiates with technical resources. We will see how appropriate investment in IT can lead to improved organizational outcomes and systems that can measure impact and need.

Session Takeaways:

1.  How to develop IT planning at the strategic level

2.  How to gain stakeholder support for strategic IT initiatives and resources

3.  How to demonstrate the value of IT in your organization

Level: Intermediate

How can nonprofits strive for the same triple bottom line (win-win-win) that has been the hallmark of successful social benefit businesses? Thrivability discussions include solutions learned from sustainable practices while seeking to integrate symbiotic relationships at every stage, creating open, fluid and transparent networks of change.  Help us create a new language for "green" work to shift our relationship with Earth, self, organizational partners and the whole.

Session Takeaways:

1.  What happens after sustainability?

2.   How can my organization be more socially responsible at every level?

3.   What are the simplest changes we can make now to bring our org in balance?

Level: Intermediate

Nirvana for any non-profit constituent relationship management (CRM) strategist is the the integration of key marketing and communication messages across all in-person, print, and electronic engagement vehicles.  Reaching a state of nirvana, however, is something not always easily achieved in siloed organizations, particularly if they are large, multi-affiliate non-profits with staff distributed all across the country. 

Join the Director of Internet Strategy & Operations and the Associate Director of eCRM for the American Diabetes Association on a multi-year journey from organizational balkanization and infighting to cooperation, integration, harmony and collaboration -- and learn how to lead change management from the inside out in a way that has everyone thinking it was their own idea to make the trip.

Session Takeaways:

1.  How to assess organizational readiness for change; how to use group behavior and process to move indivs and depts to want change

2.  How to lead by example (email marketing and SEO success), and not by White Paper or PowerPoint.

3.  How to build an culture & enviro that supports change, and "give credit away" to ensure that needed change is here to stay.

Level: Advanced

Come learn how to develop, implement, monitor, and refine an effective pay-per-click marketing strategy for your organization.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Stepwise tips on how to develop a strategy that works for YOUR audiences

2.  Real world campaign examples - the good, the bad, and the ugly

3.  Inspiration from the world of possibilities in the pay-per-click universe from rich media to search to social media and beyond

Level: Intermediate

Learn an approach to IT budgeting that can help drive capital planning, project planning, and operations management.

Discusses some of the implications and strategies specific to not-for-profits dealing with IT budgets (e.g. cash flow, accrual, and reserve budgeting) and how to leverage external data (like the NTEN IT spending benchmark report) to analyze your organization's IT budget relative to your peers.

Session Takeaways:

1.  There is a very specific methodology that can be used for meanful IT budgeting

2.  Good IT budgeting is critical to the success of any organization that wants to leverage technology as a strategic asset

3.  Learn to use benchmarking and other industry data to justify your IT budget

Level: Intermediate

The 20th Century Nonprofit is dead. Long live the 21st Century Nonprofit! The changing nature of how we use information and communicate has put immense pressures on nonprofits to adapt or die. Funding pressures create stress and new responsibilities, but also new opportunities. More than individual tools (Twitter, Facebook, cloud computing, etc.), the evolving way we organize is creating systemic change.

If the 20th Century Nonprofit is destined for the bin, what does the new, 21st Century Nonprofit look like? Will we know its shape and form when we see it; will we create it ourselves? This session will explore the new ways in which cutting edge nonprofits are using technology to advance their cause and will then extrapolate into the future what these trends mean for the nonprofit sector.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Lessons to be learned from the business and social entrepreneur sectors

2.  What technology changes mean for traditional nonprofits

3.  Ways nonprofits can work together to advance a common cause, and what the future holds for us working to improve the world

Level: Intermediate

Social networks and social media has busted out of the marketing communications and fundraising silos and changing the way nonprofits deliver programs, manage, and govern.   This session will take a look about these trends and how nonprofits can equipment themselves to networked nonprofits.

Session Takeaways:

1.  How can nonprofits use social media for program delivery?

2.  How do you build a social culture within your nonprofit that allows you to make best use of the tools?

3.  How do nonprofits think about and use social media tools for innovation?

Level: Intermediate

Internal Collaboration - How to plan, create and execute campaigns to all of your supporters

Session Takeaways:

1.  How to start and hold tough conversations when the stakes are high

2.  How to use pilot projects to test new collaboration in your org

3.  What putting your supporters in a box is costing your org

Level: Intermediate

Visits. Pageviews. Sources. Fans. Followers. Keywords. Oh my. More of all of them is fine but not always the goal and don't let your team tell you otherwise. The intent of this session is to give non-profit leaders a better sense of the questions they should ask and answers they should seek when looking at website, social media and email analytics.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Ways to set and measure online goals.

2.  How to tell your board of directors that visits (or hits) isn't the only way to measure performance.

3.  What are some quick and easy (yet informative) basic ways track online data if you don't have a staff to do it.

Level: Intermediate

In this fast paced workshop, a panel of seasoned interactive consultants for the nonprofit sector will work on the spot with representatives of several organizations, delving through the online strategic process in real time. All participants will come away with a deeper knowledge of how to apply strategic planning to their own organization.

Session Takeaways:

1.  best practices for online strategic planning

2.  prioritizing online objectives and audiences

3.  checklist of "must-dos" for online strategy success

Level: Intermediate

Data is sexy again, and setting it free with open API's, feeds, and open standards is transforming the way other people can use your data to help you make progress on your mission.

This session will look at nonprofits that have choosen to let set their data free on the web, how the did it, and how it's helping their mission.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Understand where your organization's data fits, and how the world may want to use it on the web

2.  Learn practical tactics for planning your organization's data distribution

3.  Examples of how other NGO's are making data a core part of their online communicationsf

Level: Intermediate

As with different forms of yoga, there are many types of social networks. Is only one right for your organization? Or, are you overextending yourself trying to blend too many different approaches? Perhaps you just need to focus on the important things and let go of the rest. Learn how to center your organizations social media practice and balance your online activities. Bring your yoga mat! 

This session will help non-profit managers create an office environment that is inclusive of all kinds of differences including: gender, sexuality, learning styles, physical abilities, cognitive abilities, age, language, and culture.  Mastering these techniques in your office will enable you to more effectively serve your constituents and meet your mission.

Session Takeaways:

1.  How to make your website more inclusive.

2.  How to make your office culture, physical space, and communication more inclusive

3.  How to access more resources to help you meet your mission

Level:  Beginner

To build or not to build (your own community features)? That is the question. When it comes to building engagement about your issue online, we all know that interaction and community matter. But how do you balance between building community on your site, and throughout the social web? What online community tactics work best? And most importantly, how have others tackled this problem and succeeded.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Understand real world examples of successful issue-focused communities by other non profits

2.  How do you build and maintain momentum in your community

3.  How can you build engagement on your site by using 3rd party communities strategically

Level: Intermediate

One key differentiator for the top tier nonprofits of any size is the attention paid to technology resources.  In these successful nonprofits, a comprehensive technology strategy is aligned with the mission and the strategy is understood at all levels of the organization.  During this session we will discuss how to align technology and mission for the success of the organization.

Session Takeaways:

1.  Understand how technology can help or hinder the success of a nonprofit's mission.

2.  Create a strategy for aligning technology with the mission.

3.  Know how to conduct an effective technology needs analysis for your organization.

Level: Beginner

Confused by "hot trends" like B-Corp, Twitter, Shared-services, L3C, insideGOOD, Facebook, LinkedIn and/or others? Using an Ignite* approach we'll check out what's new and discuss how to quickly evaluate whether the latest and greatest tools, models and trends are right for you! (*this is one of the hottest trends!)

Session Takeaways:

1.   An overview of five hot new trends influencing the sector and the world

2.   A tool to help nonprofits determine which trends and opportunities may be a good fit

3.   Ideas for keeping up with what's new while keeping focus on what matters

Level: Intermediate

"You can't always have what you want"; or, can you?  When selecting a vendor to redesign the American Diabetes Association's (ADA's)anchor web site -- diabetes.org -- it became clear that no single vendor offered a complete package of core competencies needed to build a site that could accomplish ADA's broad mission and objectives.  The Internet Strategy & Operations (IS&O) department developed a hybrid approach to building the site; three separate vendors were selected; one with enterprise-level web site design and deployment experience, one with CMS and eCRM pathway development, and one to reverse engineer and host to host and service one-off legacy systems and applications.  

This session will detail how the the IS&O team -- starting even before contracts were awarded -- knit together a multi-vendor team that delivered the core strengths of three major vendors (and many smaller vendors) to deliver a new web site, CMS, and eCRM platform and process on time and under budget.

Session Takeaways:

1.  How to prepare your vendors to coordinate and collaborate even before agreements are signed.

2.  How to build collaboration, tracking, and management tools to help minimize conflict, and when to set them aside.

3.  How  to garner organizational support for an unorthodox approach throughout the entire project cycle.

Level: Advanced

Your developers cranked out your site, the design is
gorgeous, debugging went smoothly and you're ready to launch... right?
Not yet. Now - before you open the site's doors to the world - you
have the chance to take a few key steps that will play a bigger role
in shaping the community you’re creating than any other measure you’re
likely to take. You have your work cut out for you - from knowing your
potential user base, to seeding initial content, to lining up the
resources to promote, animate and manage the community.
This highly participatory session will look at the crucial components
of a plan to bring your community to life, including:
first principles: audiences, outcomes, offering, messages and
benchmarkschannels: on- and offline vehicles to reach your potential
participantsactivities and incentives: everything from events to
contestsroles and responsibilities rollout timeline

Session Takeaways:

1.  How to set the tone for your community, from guidelines to
modelling behaviour.

2.  What are the contingencies to plan for when you
launch? What could go wrong?

3.  How to stay realistic while remaining true to your vision... and giving value to your organization.

Level:  Advanced