There's nothing like a little peer pressure when you need someone to do something. Combine it with instant gratification and total transparency and you have the fundraising triumvirate!

Google Checkout has a great little campaign going on in honor of Earth Day that gives you all three:

• You make a donation to an enviro org on someone's behalf.
• That certain someone gets an email and asks them to do the same.
• As the donations tally up, you get a personalized map showing all the people you inspired to donate, illustrating your network effect.

So, who wants to see if their friends are more generous then my friends?

Salesforce.com and Google announced a new level of integration today.  At first blush, a few things stand out:

• If you're already a user of Google Apps and Salesforce.com, installation is a breeze.  We configured the framework, then added Google Docs integration in roughly 2 minutes, 17 seconds.  (Yes, we counted.)  Now we can access Google Docs, and attach them to Salesforce.com records, from within Salesforce.
• The star of the show may be Gmail integration.  With two clicks, you can now attach messages sent from Gmail -- or even chats from Google Talk -- to a Salesforce record, where it is stored under Communication History.  This means that everybody in your organization will be able to access every email sent to a particular contact, without annoying CC::ed trails or desperate attempts to remember which keyword might bring a particular message from your 3 GB email archive to the top of your search results.  Nice!
• Events from within Salesforce can be viewed in Google Calendar, giving you a timeline view of your workflow.
• The demo people at Salesforce have pretty cool jobs.  Check out their 3-D demo:

At the close of his session at the 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference on Thursday afternoon, Google Adwords Evangelist Frederick Vallaeys announced a new partnership between Google and NTEN.

"Due to our similar goals in supporting the non-profit community, particularly through technology, Google Grants and NTEN are partnering to enhance their impact on non-profits. We would like to invite all qualifying NTEN organizations to apply to Google Grants and we will expedite the review of those that apply."

How cool is that? Very.

If you don't already know about Google Grants, they allow qualified nonprofits to use Google Adwords for the low, low price of free.

To take advantage of this offer:

• If you're not yet a member of NTEN, join today!
• Then, apply for the Google Grant at http://www.google.com/grants through Google's easy online application. Please spend some time reviewing the site to learn more about the program, eligibility, grant details, etc.
• Finally, send an email to grants-nten@google.com to help Google identify you as an NTEN member, which should hasten your application through the process.

I like to hang out where the cool kids are: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. And, of course, the Google Checkout Blog! This is how I learned that Google has put together a nice holiday page for those of you looking to spend a few bucks on a good cause. If you already have a Google account, the giving is that much easier!

Who isn't looking to drive more traffic to their web sites? Google AdWords is one of the most effective ways to do just that. And, thanks to the Google Grants Program, qualifying nonprofits can employ this marketing tool for free.

Following the enormous success of our webinar on Google Analytics, NTEN nabbed Google AdWords Evangelist Frederick Vallaeys for a two-part series on AdWords.

> Join us on Tuesday, October 16th, for "Introduction to Google AdWords", when we'll explore how Google AdWords works and learn the basics of running a campaign, including:

• Understanding the elements of an AdWords Campaign
• Selecting keywords and writing copy
• Setting pricing
• Tracking the results

> Register Today for "Introduction to Google AdWords"

> Come back on Thursday, October 18th, for "Advanced Google AdWords", to learn the tips and tricks that will make your AdWords campaigns hum:

• Improving your ad and keywords
• Managing multiple campaigns effectively
• Preparing effective landing pages

> Register Today for "Advanced Google AdWords"!

When: Tuesday & Thursday, October 16th & 18th, 11 am PT / 2 pm ET

Cost: $25 for NTEN Members, $50 for non-members (per webinar)

Presented by: Frederick Vallaeys, Google AdWords Evangelist

NTEN Members: Don't forget that if you renew with NTEN right now, you'll receive a $25 coupon good toward your next event registration. Renew your membership today and attend this webinar for free!

Google recently announced that presentations have been added to Google Docs, enabling users to create, import, collaborate, and even show their presentations online. But how does this new addition to Google Docs stack up against the par for the course, Microsoft Powerpoint?

Hard though it may be to take a pink site seriously, if you care about the future of internet access, you owe it to yourself to read David Weinberger’s broadside against the telecommunications industry, “Delamination Now!” David worries that “the incumbent carriers” are trying to turn the Internet into cable television, with a pricing model that will allow them to charge different amounts for different types of data or favor one content provider over another.

Network neutrality, the flipside of the current carriers’ model, would treat a bit as a bit, and nothing more. Payment to wholesale providers would be made for bandwidth used, while a new breed of ISPs could compete by offering different services: anonymity from one, outrageous connection speeds from another. David’s piece is passionate, heartfelt, and sure to provoke debate.

Google and salesforce.com recently reminded us of their new relationship, plugging the extension of their respective grant programs to nonprofits. Current recipients of donated salesforce.com licenses are eligible to apply for the Google Grants program, and through it, gain free AdWords. And Google Grantees are eligible to apply for the salesforce.com Foundation's product donation program. Ah, reciprocal relationships make me smile.

Being signed up isn't enough, though: you still have to learn how to use these programs effectively. To that end, check out our webinar on "Salesforce for Nonprofits", and then watch the fabulous Beth Kanter's screencast on integrating salesforce with AdWords (as previously covered in our blog).

I think the answer is yes. As next week's webinar presenter Heather Holdridge told me, you have to fish where the fish gather. And the fish, my friends, are at the social networking sites.

MySpace is the world's 6th most popular website, with over 100 million accounts. Facebook is the second most visited site on the web, with over 30 million users. If you want to fish where the fish are at, social networking sites seem like a smart place to start! In this webinar, you'll get a strategic overview of what these sites are and the opportunities they present nonprofits. We'll follow with specific case studies that show how nonprofits are using social networking sites to build their email lists, whether they're e-newsletter, action alert, or donor lists. After these real examples (with statistics), you'll leave with a clear understanding of how social networks can complement your outreach strategies.

When: Monday, July 30, 11am Pacific

Presented by: Justin Perkins and Heather Holdridge of Care2

> Register now!

Beth Kanter has produced another Screencast and wiki resource, sponsored by NTEN and Salesforce.com Foundation. The screencast is about how nonprofits can use Google Adwords and SalesForce Integration to reach new audiences.

Google and Salesforce.com have recently formed an alliance to help millions of businesses better leverage the Internet to achieve success, combining the power of AdWords targeted advertising and salesforce.com's customer relationship management (CRM) expertise. As part of this new relationship, Google and salesforce.com are now extending each other's grant recipients the offer to apply to the partnering grant program. If you are a Google Grants recipient, you may be eligible for the salesforce.com Foundation's product donation program which donates 10 Enterprise Edition licenses of salesforce.com's award winning CRM platform to eligible nonprofit organizations. Note that organization's must meet the salesforce.com Foundation's eligibility requirements to receive a product donation from salesforce.com.