This last week I attended the Minnesota Council of Nonprofit’s (http://www.minnesotanonprofits.org/) Technology & Communication Conference and  Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN, http://www.nten.org/ ) conference: Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC)

My take away:

One: There are a zillion tools out there to use. The question is HOW we use them. We need to build a “strategy”. What is the story we want to send? How do we want to relay that story?

Two: Reach out to the community. Engage them in the conversation. Collaboration is major. Do we reach out to other local organization? Do we want a community wide vision? Action plan? Materials we can all use – non branded?

Three: I collected, like, 8 thousand million resources. I have included links below and descriptions as best as I could. A few are just resources of my own that I like to share!

Analytics/Metric tools/For Data Geeks:

Nodexl, http://nodexl.codeplex.com/documentation  – social network analysis tool

http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com/products/measurement/

http://signup.socialvision.io/ – SocialVision — a cloud-based, social data insight platform — is the answer. No matter where you are in your organization, social intelligence will take your work to the next level. Learn more.

http://www.google.com/analytics/ – Don’t forget about Google Analytics!

http://www.crazyegg.com/ – Crazy Egg gives you the competitive advantage to improve your website in a heartbeat without the high costs.

http://www.usertesting.com/

Hey look! Someone already did the work:

Enonprofit benchmarks -> interesting data, check it out: e-benchmarksstudy.com

- interesting stuff: Labs.mrss.com/surprises-from-obamas-new-media-staff

Food for thought:

Friday Plenary: Dan Pallotta – “Unchairtable” http://www.amazon.com/Uncharitable-Restraints-Nonprofits-Contemporary-Perspectives/dp/1584659556

Don’t want to read the transcript below? Watch Dan’s TED talk instead: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong.html

**transcript of Friday plenary at NTC: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zucejZFEY-ORl2ebGUHE3N1EKAt1PdJvJBhkM2xISrI/edit?usp=sharing

Counter argument: http://rootwork.org/blog/2013/04/uncharitable-how-businesses-co-opt-nonprofits-undermine-their-potential

Saturday Plenary: “Placing Little Bets: Failing Informatively for NPTECH Innovation” Beth Kanter, Erin Shy, Megan Kashner, Brian Reich, Allison Burns

** Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hsB_-kR05Hs_tIj6VhFSVEEmpKAR_4JCoZnO2QETWAo/edit?usp=sharing

Homer Simpson for Nonprofits: The Truth about How People Really Think and
What It Means for Promoting Your Cause: http://web.networkforgood.org/201002ebook/

Why Your Nonprofit Should Be a Big Listener: http://www.bethkanter.org/listener/

Lean Start Up Framework Meets Nonprofit Campaign: The Lifecycle of an UpWell Campaign: http://www.bethkanter.org/upwell-campaign/

Tech Across Your Org: Sharing a Cause and Data Across Multiple Orgs: http://www.nten.org/blog/2013/02/11/tech-across-your-org-sharing-a-cause-and-data-across-multiple-orgs

Digital Storytelling

http://www.scoop.it/ – Share ideas that matter on beautiful topic pages.
Cut through the noise on Social Media.

http://storify.com/ – Don’t get lost in the noise. Discover the voices worth sharing

http://paper.li/ – Create your online newspaper in minutes. Automatically find, publish & promote engaging articles, photos and videos from across the web.

http://www.photosnack.com/ – slideshows for facebook, twitter & blogs

http://www.thinglink.com/ – make still images interactive – very cool

http://www.picmonkey.com/ – “photoshop for the rest of us”

Other resources:

http://www.nten.org/ – NTEN aspires to a world where all nonprofit organizations use technology skillfully and confidently to meet community needs and fulfill their missions.

http://www.minnesotanonprofits.org/ – For Minnesota nonprofits. Excellent resource

http://call2action.com/ – It is Call2Action’s mission to transform more viewers into doers for purpose-driven campaigns. We are dedicated to furthering our partners’ goals through compelling content, strategic implementation and distribution, and intelligent metrics insights. We are committed to ensuring our technology is simple to use, seamlessly integrated into the latest platforms, and continuously evolving functionally to achieve superior results.

http://www.netsquared.org/ – Our vision for NetSquared is to make it easy, meaningful, and fun for people and organizations to get the information, visibility and support they need to accelerate the impact of social-benefit projects.

https://www.geekgirlsguide.com/ – Their mission is to make web technology accessible and exciting and cultivate a movement of empowered women and men online by:

• hosting safe, welcoming places to ask technology questions online and in real life
• educating non-technical audiences on the practical applications of Internet technology
• creating opportunities for women and men in software and web development to socialize and network
• advocating for our audiences at software and web industry events

http://smallworldlabs.com/ – building online communities

http://www.360communities.org/ – We employ data-driven research to identify trends, strengths and vulnerabilities, and then work with key community partners to build and implement action plans. At the same time, we offer an interconnected web of opportunities that develop individual and community strength. Doing this work in partnership with caring residents creates ongoing change for the better, which leads to a healthier future for everyone.

http://www.idealware.org/ – provides thoroughly researched, impartial and accessible resources about software to help nonprofits make smart software decisions.

http://www.techsoup.org/ – TechSoup is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a clear focus: connecting your nonprofit, charity, or public library with technology products and solutions, plus the learning resources you need to make informed decisions about technology. Our free learning resources are available to all users. Once registered and qualified with TechSoup, nonprofits and libraries can access donated and discounted products and services, including high-quality refurbished hardware, and software from partners like Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco, Intuit, and Symantec.

http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php – List of different social media policies from a variety of companies/orgs

http://www.nten.org/ntc-session/13824 – Ctrl. Alt. Del. – Rebooting your Digital Community Building

Lynda.com – My favorite source for online software learning!

Lost for content? Get an insight into what people are searching for:

http://www.google.com/trends/ – I mean, it’s google, can’t go wrong there… amirite?

http://www.wordtracker.com/ – this is fee based, but I found a few free (though not as robust alternatives: http://www.wordstream.com/keywords )

http://www.hashtags.org/ – look up keywords for hashtags in twitter. Sometimes a strong stomach is required… You’ve been warned

http://www.google.com/alerts – get email alerts anytime a keyword you’ve entered in mentioned on the web. Same warning as above.