Flickr Credit: wednesday181Wow. We've come to the last business day in November (with tomorrow being Thanksgiving and Friday being recover-from-Thanksgiving day). I've had fun recognizing NTEN Members for their dedication to their work and this professional community. Giving away free stuff was nice, too.

I hope you all got the message: we value your membership, because it means you value the work you do and the community of your colleagues.

Over the last couple of years, we've seen the landscape of nonprofit technology change, growing with new strategies and successes deploying mobile, web 2.0, constituent data, and e-communications channels for advocacy and charity causes. We've learned that everyone has to be on board with technology, from the board to the volunteers, from the IT staff to the development and marketing departments. We've got to work together to do it right.

You've been a part of that, and you'll continue to be in front of the curve because you're working with each other and your organizations to make smart technology decisions every day.

In 2009, we'll convene in San Francisco for the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference. Today I get to give a complimentary conference registration to an NTEN member, just for being a member:

We're down to two days of Member Appreciation giveaways, so you know it's going to be a big prize today.

How big, you ask? How about a lucky NTEN member getting their 2009 Membership renewed, on us?

I waved my hand over the trusty NTEN CRM and came up with that lucky NTEN member:

Check out this video message from the speaker at a recent Missoula 501 Tech Club session, Harold Shinsato, programmer for SAP. Harold talks about early adoption and creating a culture of change at your organization.

If you think this type of talk is exciting, don't forget to join your local NTEN 501 Tech Club (you can connect online with them or at their next meetup).

Flickr Credit: nickwheelerozFor this week's edition of my roundup of online news from and about NTEN members, I found some new voices -- not necessarily new to NTEN or nonprofit technology, but new to these online round-ups!

For example, Sue Cline's blog popped up on my radar this week, when she contributed a post about Google's Project 10 to the 100th.

And Laura Whitehead, one of our international members, has been contributing to the online discussion about nonprofits using social media effectively.

NTEN member organization Sunlight Foundation has created buzz in the blogosphere and twittosphere this week by making "bail out" legislation proposals available for online discussion on PublicMarkup.org.

And, while she's certainly not new to these roundups, here's a tweet from Beth Kanter that raises questions (awareness) about nonprofits, social media conversations, and the IRS.

Flickr: Si1veryEarlier this summer, our 501 Tech Club friends in Austin, TX helped organize a Tweet-up blood drive with the Austin Social Media Club with great success: new folks made their way to donate blood after hearing about it through Twitter.

They're at it again this month -- September is Hunger Action Month -- helping to organize education and donation opportunities for the Austin community in the first ever Ham-Up Tweet-up.

Yesterday morning, Hurricane Gustav made landfall on Louisana's southern coast. Like much of America, you may have paid close attention to whether the devastation and logistical breakdowns of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita three years ago would be repeated.

You may not have known that there's a nonprofit organization using technology to connect those who want to help with those who can deliver the help to the impacted communities. The Aidmatrix Foundation -- launched in 2000 and established as a nonprofit organization in 2004 -- connects donors, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations in an online virtual network, so that aid and information can be organized and accessed in a more effective way.

The Aidmatrix is in full swing with Hurrican Gustav. You can find out more or donate to hurricane relief efforts through the Aidmatrix Network.

NTEN Member David Neff, from the American Cancer Society in Austin, Texas produced this video to document a recent Tweet Up Blood Drive he helped organize through his local 501 Tech Club and Social Media Club.

Flickr Photo: El Negro MagnificoWe like to hear about our members in the news and acknowledge their activity online. Last week, I happened to see the following about NTEN members:

> NTEN member Nancy Schwartz, of Getting Attention, announced the 12 nonprofits with the most votes in her 2008 Nonprofit Tagline Award Competition, including NTEN members UNICEF and the American Lung Association. Congratulations! Look for her full report on nonprofit taglines in September.

> Several members were cited in the recent NonProfitTimes article about Facebook's Causes: read about how Network for Good, Rick Christ of NPAdvisors, PETA, and the American Red Cross have incorporated Causes into their fundraising and outreach strategies.

> Convio's Connection Cafe highlights NTEN member Farra Trompeter and her relatively new firm, Big Duck.

> Convio gets some love in the news, too, with the announcement that Susan G. Komen for the Cure is deploying Convio's SaaS tools to integrate their communications, fundraising, and relationship management.

> Two members weigh in on what "open source" really means when it comes to deploying FOSS software at your organization. Michelle Murrain, current coordinator of NOSI (Nonprofit Open Source Initiative), says open source solutions are usually free, as in "free kittens", while Randy McCabe, founder and CEO of MPower, an open source CRM provider, takes a crack at defining what "open" really means when it comes to open source CRM solutions for nonprofits.

> If you didn't get to attend the 2008 BlogHer conference, NTEN member Amy Sample Ward has you covered. She couldn't go either, but decided to connect via Second Life. Amy did some live blogging to keep you all tuned in.

Flickr Photo: AutomaniaIn the technology section of USA Today on Sunday, a lot of new folks learned about Twitter. The micro-blogging social network has grown from 200,000 users to over 2 million users in about a year, and individuals, companies, news outlets, fire departments, and nonprofit organizations have been using the free service to connect, inform, and engage.

If you joined us at the 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference in New Orleans, chances are you experienced the usefulness of the tool, too. NTC attendees connected with each other, made social plans, got notes from sessions they couldn't attend, knew when free ice cream was being handed out in the conference lobby and when the coffee was running out during breakfast plenaries.

As the article frames it, Twitter is one of those tools that seems to be trivial and a waste of time -- until you try it for yourself.

There so many social media and network tools out there, it doesn't makes sense for an individual -- never mind an organization -- to invest time and resources into trying them all out. But Twitter might be worth a some time.

Here are a few highlights, low-lights, and applications of Twitter to consider for your own purposes:

Flickr Photo: _ES NTEN doesn't really have a water cooler, but we like to think the NTEN Discuss group serves a similar purpose for folks working with nonprofits and technology, except that instead of gossip about the boss, we share tips, resources, and anecdotes.

Yesterday there was a great discussion about how to get the Communications department to coordinate with the Fundraising department on online and email campaigns. The discussion was spurred on by a question from Michael Hoffman, from See3:

". . . how [do] other organizations create a balance between the Communications and the Fundraising departments when it comes to online initiatives. How should Communications and Fundraising interact without having turf battles?"

Even if your nonprofit's "departments" are just comprised of single staff persons -- like here at NTEN -- getting these folks on the same page is important and often tough. Here's what the NTEN Discuss group had to say: