How Google is supporting nonprofits – plus other tech tools for you to try | Idealist Careers

How Google is supporting nonprofits – plus other tech tools for you to try | Idealist Careers: How Google is supporting nonprofits – plus other tech tools for you to try

10 Tips From Boing Boing On Making Online Content Sing | Fast Company

10 Tips From Boing Boing On Making Online Content Sing | Fast Company: Is your blog a snooze? Are people unfollowing you faster than you can tweet? Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing shares his strategies for killer online conten

Mobile giving – it's easy to stand out in a crowd of one - queer ideas

Mobile giving – it's easy to stand out in a crowd of one - queer ideas: Mobile giving – it's easy to stand out in a crowd of one

This is a guest post from Bluefrog's new Head of Donor Engagement - James Waring.

In the first couple of weeks after you start a new job (as I have done this January) you often find yourself looking for things to do, or waiting around for meetings and inductions. During these lulls, in a bid to appear as up to the minute as possible, I’ve been reading a lot of fundraising blogs. One theme has really rung out across the sector this January – Retention (So much so that all these words link to a different article on it).

Something else that’s in everyone’s mind and has decent retention rates is regular giving via your mobile phone. So could the retention issue be solved by the convenience of a text? Has one of the holes in that leaky bucket been plugged?

Stormy Weather Pushed Giving Higher for 2012 - TheNonProfitTimes

Stormy Weather Pushed Giving Higher for 2012 - TheNonProfitTimes: Charitable giving in the United States is estimated to have grown 1.7 percent on a year-over-year basis during 2012, with small organizations doing the best and large organizations losing ground. Had it not been for Super Storm Sandy last October, fundraising might have posted an overall loss.

Online giving is estimated to have made a rebound of 10.7 percent, with medium-sized organizations leading the way but all sizes showing gains.

Liberating 990 Data | Stanford Social Innovation Review

Liberating 990 Data | Stanford Social Innovation Review: The IRS does make nonprofits’ Form 990 returns available, but only on DVDs for a high fee. A single year’s worth of 990s costs over $2,500, arguably to recoup the costs of pressing and mailing all these dics. But there is no reason to charge for the Form 990 data at all. Just as most people have gotten accustomed to sharing large files via a service like Drop Box, it would be simple for the IRS to publish the returns online for anyone to download in bulk for free. This week two groups committed to government transparency, Public Resource and the Internet Archive, used their own resources to post 12 years of returns online, demonstrating that it can be done.

How social media is becoming as important a live event as the live event itself — Tech News and Analysis

How social media is becoming as important a live event as the live event itself — Tech News and Analysis: I won’t ask you if you missed the Super Bowl last night. But did you miss Twitter? Good luck re-living that today.

With every major event we now experience as a country, whether it’s the Super Bowl or the presidential inauguration, it becomes more evident that the conversation on social media is as tied to the event as is the process of physically tuning into the broadcast. There’s nothing new about this — the rise of social media and the second screen has been clear for years — but as soaring numbers for social media sharing are revealed after each event, we shake our heads at just how quickly things have changed.