Going digital: what charity leaders can learn from tech startups | Voluntary Sector Network | The Guardian

Going digital: what charity leaders can learn from tech startups | Voluntary Sector Network | The Guardian: "Charities are full of good and bright people with tons of ideas, but when it comes to creating digital products, are they the right people? Probably not.

A series of well documented digital fails, the latest of those being the well meaning but poorly executed Samaritans app, Radar, seem to support this. In 2012 Nesta launched a £17.6m Impact Investment fund and of the seven investments made to date, none have been in charities. Not a single one. While some may argue this is because charities lack money and resources, I am afraid I disagree. "



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Top rated charity opens up its real-time data - Humanosphere

Top rated charity opens up its real-time data - Humanosphere: "The charity that allows people to make a direct donation to a person living in Kenya just got a whole lot more transparent. GiveDirectly unveiled a new website with live data showing how it is performing on a host of measures. It is another step forward for the organization that made a big splash last year when a rigorous study of its work in Kenya showed the impact of giving poor western Kenyans money to spend as they see fit."



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Launched! A new landscape tool to help the sector find out who is doing what | powered by DATA

Launched! A new landscape tool to help the sector find out who is doing what | powered by DATA: "We’re excited to present a new tool that we have built with support from Community Foundations Canada and the Ontario Trillium Foundation. We presented the tool during a session at the CKX summit yesterday, and now we are releasing it as a free publicly available resource."



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How To Donate Bitcoin To Charity And Get A Big Tax Deduction

How To Donate Bitcoin To Charity And Get A Big Tax Deduction: "Along with the growing popularity of Bitcoin,  the number of charitable organizations that accept virtual currencies has been growing. At the same time, so has government scrutiny, creating uncertainty about the continuing value of Bitcoin, Ripple, Litecoin,  and other, smaller currencies.  In March, the Internal  Revenue Service issued its long awaited opinion on the taxation of virtual currencies, ruling they should be treated as property, not currency.  That creates administrative and paperwork problems for those using Bitcoin, but also allows donors to obtain generous charitable income tax deductions for donating Bitcoin that is worth more than they paid for it, just as they do for giving appreciated stock to charity."



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Accidental Techies: 13 Lessons on Building Your Nonprofit Technology Culture

The usual great read from Peter Campbell

Accidental Techies: 13 Lessons on Building Your Nonprofit Technology Culture: "EXPONENT PARTNERS SERIES: SMART PRACTICES
Is your nonprofit thinking about implementing a large database project like Salesforce? Nonprofit and technology veteran Peter Campbell, CIO at Legal Services Corporation, recently shared his valuable insights on how to prepare your team and culture for long-term success. His organization, the top funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans in the country, is developing Salesforce as a data warehouse for their grantee information and document management. "



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Holiday Postings

Posting to the Resource Center blogs will be intermittent during the Holidays.

Holiday Notice: AFP IHQ and the AFP Foundation for Philanthropy will close at noon on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2014.
- AFP IHQ will reopen on Monday, Jan. 5, 2015.
- The AFP Foundation will be open for one day during the holiday week on Dec. 29, 2014, then close again and reopen on Monday, Jan. 5, 2015. Gifts can be made at any time online or call Diane LaVigna at (518) 360-4736.