At last week’s webinar hosted by TechSoup featuring a tour of GrantStation, I learned what Grant Station is (a website offering tools and resources to identify and secure grants, including government and private). I also saw some of the cool stuff it offers thanks to a thorough tour of the site: resources (tips for what to say when you get a funder on the phone, for example) in addition to a search function for grants by geography, sector, funder name, and type of support.  All this is yours either 1) for only $99 for a year membership through TechSoup’s promotion this week on August 17 and 18, a savings of $300 off TechSoup’s usual rate, or 2) for free with a visit to a library with a public account, such as the King County Library’s Nonprofit & Philanthropy Resource Center in Redmond.

Some key selling points I noted for GrantStation:

• Current information: Weekly “Spotlights” change every Monday and are approved and reviewed by grantmakers. Corrections by the grantmakers to contact information and due dates and funding areas are incorporated in to the database listings to keep things fresh and accurate.
• GrantStation adds a personal touch: Cynthia M. Adams and the crew at GrantStation offer research support free with your membership. So you can email them to request help identifying potential funders for your funky niche mission or special need.
• Real categories: The “search by type of support” feature in the grants database includes real live categories that I can relate to for NPower and for our customers, such as advocacy, infrastructure, grassroots, and capacity building, to name a few.

Those are big selling points for me, and I’m ready to sign up at TechSoup or make a trip to the library. How about you? Any words of wisdom or cautions from GrantStation users out there?

Picking up the thread from Alison’s post on unplugging, I am moved to share a few observations about what it’s been like to plug back in after a significant hiatus from the office and from interaction with technology.

Defining “unplugged”

The first part of July I took three weeks of vacation and went on a road trip with my family. We drove 2,000 miles and covered parts of the OR and CA coast, the Redwoods, Sonoma wine country, Palo Alto and San Francisco. I share this not to bore you with the entire itinerary, but to give you a sense of the scale of the trip and of how unplugged I was. I didn’t check work email after the first few days, there were long gaps in cell phone coverage, and I went 2.5 solid weeks without looking at a computer monitor except for educational displays at park system exhibits, and Facebook on my phone — which is a recreational break for me from my dependency on email at my desk.

The experience of being unplugged

I had some withdrawal pangs at first, but I eventually settled in quite nicely to the long view of magnificent scenery and the joys of real time conversation. Mostly I enjoyed focusing on one thing at a time, making me a case study for the brain research that tells us multitasking is impossible for our neural circuitry, and we end up shortchanging the whole list of things we’re trying to do at the same time. Like trying to talk with my partner on the phone while sneakily typing - it never works, I always get caught, and I have to rewrite anyhow. Why not just take a moment to talk? 

Plugging back in

Now I’m back at work, digging out my inbox and re-engaging with projects I put down for 3 weeks. A few observations stand out from my reentry:

The economy is taking a toll. Headlines in three weeks worth of the Puget Sound Business Journal include the closures of  Taproot’s Puget Sound area office and of Unitus, and “Foundation grants to stay down, survey says”. It’s one thing to live with the “new normal” day to day, but coming back and seeing the accumulated evidence is sobering.

NPower does great work for nonprofits. Reading the kudos and thank you notes that came in from customers while I was gone were a reminder of our expertise and of the quality relationships we build with our community partners. It made me proud.

Exciting times are ahead. NPower Seattle is on the brink of some exciting changes to our services and our service area. Technology changes fast, but there is staying power to that 12-year-old idea that a nonprofit providing technology solutions to the nonprofit sector could change the game. I am happy to be a part of making that happen, one focused moment at a time.

For two days last week, the leadership team at NPower dug in deep to build our team and expand our leadership skills. We were fortunate to be facilitated by the always on point Amanda Madorno of Roam Consulting. It was a terrific couple of days capped off with good food (we love the Meydenbauer Center), great conversation and of course a team of people who are dedicated to making NPower a success.

To prepare ourselves for our time together, we read The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni—a fable about a technology team. (For real, it wasn’t about us, though each of us saw characteristics of ourselves). We conducted a self assessment on the performance of our team. Turns out “we’re not that concerned with titles and status” but we’ve got some work to do “pointing out team members unproductive behaviors”. We spent time developing our team norms (be a Tigger, not an Eyore was one of my favorites), conducting an archaeological dig of our culture and learning ways to productively deal with conflict (We all agreed that conflict is hard, but is good and we are committed to saying all that needs to be said in our team meetings)

From the moment we walked in the room, it was clear to me that our team was committed to the mission of NPower. We’ve definitely got our work cut out of ourselves as we create and innovate new ways to provide optimal technology to our community, but I’m really pleased this is my team.

-Alison

PS-I had good intentions to take lots of pictures, but alas the only pics are of one of our team challenges. See if you can figure out the challenge.

Why did you go to work today? What keeps you going back? I was having one of those very Monday mornings this morning and my motivation for heading to the office was low. Not for any particular reason or anything to do with NPower. Just because for a moment I lost track of my passion for what we create in the world and my contribution to the collective effort. The low point came as I watched my daughter head off for her first day of jump roping camp and suddenly I wanted to go and watch her tackle the challenges of double dutch. I juxtaposed that with an image of me sitting in front of my computer screen culling through my inbox and all of a sudden the world of work seemed so…monotonous, irksome.

Then I remembered something I’d heard at the Friends of the Orphans luncheon in Seattle months ago and the flame of passion and verve that a bad case of “the Mondays” had almost squelched suddenly sparked brightly. The spark was a quote by Father Wasson, the founder of the organizations that now offers hope and a helping hand to thousands of orphans in Central and South America. He said, “You may only be one person in the world, but you may be all the world to one child.” All the world.

So here I am, in front of my computer on Monday morning. Because what I do at NPower matters. The money I raise and the community connections I foster are connected to the work that community partners like Friends of the Orphans do. Yes, there are monotonous and irksome moments. And I wade through those moments because I hold for the bigger picture of a thriving nonprofit sector that houses families, educates kids, grows gardens, encourages clean energy use, and keeps us all healthy and inspired.

Thank you Friends of the Orphans and all of the community partners that NPower has the honor to support!

– Peg Giffels

Our fellow nonprofit capacity builder, Executive Service Corps (ESC) escwa.org, in collaboration with the United Way of King County, is recruiting volunteer technology consultants for database and other small scale technology projects with local food banks and feeding programs to amplify their use of volunteers.

Up to 5 consultants are needed for projects requiring 6-10 hours a month between July and the end of September. If you are interested in volunteering please go to escwa.org/volunteer and sign up.

NPower Seattle staff had the good fortune to sit down this afternoon with three representatives from the services industry for a discussion about the business of consulting. Panelists Kevin Mackey (Point B), Matt Joe (POP) and Ali Piyarali (Accenture) fielded questions about how to open the door to a productive relationship with customers, how to close the door when necessary, and how to incorporate new technology or processes. Thank you Kevin, Matt and Ali for joining us and for sharing your experience and suggestions!!

In closing, each panelist was asked to share one tip or piece of advice for NPower consultants. Here are the highlights from the closing remarks:

• Remember the mission of the organization you’re serving and let that guide you. Always come back to what it is they’re trying to accomplish and remember that when your work is on target, it will contribute in some way to accomplishing the mission.
• Technology is a tool. Start with the people. Technology plays a big role, yet consulting is essentially a people business.
• Trust your instincts.

NPower colleagues, please add your comments to fill in the details and share the highlights for you from today’s discussion.

As a continuation to Alison’s post on Working Wikily, I am moved to share my top three take-aways from attending a webinar offered today by Heather McLeod and Diana Scearce, keepers of the Working Wikily blog and consultants at the Monitor Institute.

Peg’s Take-Aways from the Working Wikily webinar on June 8, 2010:
First, I am clearer and more able to take in the advice of experts like McLeod and Scearce thanks to a couple of reminders about the true significance of terms that get tossed around a lot:

1. Social network: people connected by relationships. Note: connected primarily by relationships, not by technology tools. McLeod and Scearce echo Clay Shirky’s advice to remember that’s it’s about people assisted by technology. I can get behind that. We certainly echo that advice at NPower Seattle, where we start every website and database project by mapping the relationships and communication needs that the technology will support.
2. Working Wikily: this one I’m making up a bit based on the examples offered by McLeod and Scearce. I think it’s an emerging way of relating and communicating whose key ingredients are greater openness, transparency and decentralized decision-making. Emerging means I get to practice, learn from mistakes, and try again, right? I can get behind that.

Secondly, I’m clearer about why I am challenged by working wikily. You bet I am. Scares the daylights out of me some days because I’m used to working with defined teams and I’m used to holding decisions kind of private until they’re “fully baked.” In fact, I place a value on more controlled and private processes as being responsible. Another challenge is that it seems to take lots of time. McLeod and Scearce shared a whole list of reasons why it’s hard, including:

• Brand and message control
• Privacy concerns
• Dealing with information overload
• Learning and leveraging new technologies

Thirdly, I see the value of working wikily. If there’s value, I’m willing to try it. I desire to make the shift not only because I am newly convinced that working wikily works, but because making the shift to relating and communicating “wikily” is what will keep the organizations I’m involved with current instead of becoming irrelevant, or worse, extinct. Thanks to McLeod and Scearce , I see that working wikily has a positive side that I’m excited about, including this list of potential outcomes shared on the webinar:

• Weaving communities
• Accessing diverse perspectives
• Building and sharing knowledge
• Mobilizing people
• Coordinating resources and action

Interested in learning more? You can follow the conversation about working wikily on the Working Wikily blog, and browse a summary article at the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog . And NPower’s Social Media training is a great starting point to learn more about the technology tools and how to use them effectively.

I’d love your comments, questions and thoughts here. What do you think? Can you become a convert like me and get behind working wikily? How would you describe the role of technology in social networks – is it primary or secondary to relationships?

WithinReach is a Seattle nonprofit whose mission is to serve as the foremost catalyst for improvements in maternal, child and family health. For 22 years, WithinReach has worked to ensure optimal health for Washington State families by connecting them to the programs, resources and information they need to build healthy families. Major programs include:

• Information and Referral Services through 4 statewide hotlines and ParentHelp123.org
• Nutrition Outreach Program for Basic Food (Food Stamps), First Steps, WIC
• Statewide Coalitions including Immunization Action (IACW), Breastfeeding (BCW), Hepatitis B
• Public Health Materials placed in doctor’s offices, schools, and health clinics

From NPower’s perspective, one of the key assets at WithinReach is a team of long-term staff members who are forward thinking about technology and who have worked with the same NPower consultant for the past nine years. One of the staff referred to the NPower consultant as “my hero” and all agreed that he is a trusted partner and honorary staff member.

With NPower’s assistance, WithinReach has navigated various organizational expansions and shifts over the years, and has built out their technology infrastructure in a thoughtful way. They have a stable and secure infrastructure with planned upgrade and replacement schedules, including budgeting realistically for the total cost of ownership. As a result, they are able to provide reliable and far-reaching services statewide, including:

• Internal hosting of a call center providing statewide service.
• Managing the call center and ParentHelp123 website thanks to a consolidated database.

Looking forward, WithinReach plans to stretch into new areas with advice and assistance from NPower along the way, including learning more about social media at an upcoming NPower training, exploring mobile broadcast to support virtual attendance at their annual fundraising event, and more sophisticated use of email communications to remind clients when their public assistance benefits have expired.

Thank you WithinReach for the pleasure of serving you for the past nine years, and for your work on behalf of families!

For more examples of the impact in the community of NPower’s services for nonprofits, see our library of TechImpact profiles.

Ann-Marie Archer of the CIO Council speaks at Powerful Connections 2010

I saw some puzzled faces in the audience at our recent Powerful Connections breakfast when we referred to our CIO Council,  and I’ve heard questions since like “What is a CIO?” and “What does the Council do?” So I asked Amanda Hatch, our Director of Services, to help me out with this quick FAQ on the Council. By the way, the Council is open to new members. To volunteer to serve on the Council, contact our Executive Director, Alison Carl White at alisonw@npowerseattle.org.

What is the CIO Council?

We believe there is a wonderful opportunity to engage high level technical people to help us put technology know-how in the hands of nonprofits. NPower’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council is made up of senior executives with technical expertise. NPower is benefiting from the perspectives of people who are passionate about how technology can be used to make organizations more effective and would like to see technology applied to the nonprofit sector.

Founded in 2009, NPower Seattle’s CIO Council is picking up momentum with representatives on board from Paccar, Seattle Bank, Accenture, Point B, The Gates Foundation and other local companies.

What does the CIO Council do?

The Council’s mission is to

• provide thought leadership to NPower staff on new innovations and best practices in the IT field
• advise the NPower team on the design and development of NPower’s service offerings, and
• assist NPower in the overall success of its strategies, programs and solutions.

Over the next several months,  the Council will be lending resources to NPower to help build a sustainable discovery process, to aid NPower in meeting our newly defined strategic direction. 

Join the Council
We look for people with wide networks in technology to leverage contacts and information sharing. This Council is a great opportunity to network with technical peers and to use your skills to help the community. If you are a CIO and would like to help the nonprofit community, please contact our Executive Director, Alison Carl White at alisonw@npowerseattle.org.

Learn more about the CIO Council
Visit the CIO Council page on our website to see the list of current Council members.

The “NPower Empowers Great Work” video that debuted at our 2010 Powerful Connections breakfast on April 30 is now available online.  If you missed the event or would like a repeat, watch the video here.

• Learn about the value of NPower Seattle’s services from a couple of our customers: Friends of the Orphans and Rainier Scholars.
• Hear from supporters about how their investment in NPower connects them to the thousands of people — children, families, seniors and artists — who ultimately benefit from the programs and services that we empower our customers to create.

Creating this video was such a joy. I relished the opportunity to tell our story through the voices of our customers, and working with Ray and Abby at Woodhouse Video was a treat. Thank you to the staff at Friends of the Orphans and at Rainer Scholars who helped make this possible.

– Peg Giffels