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?

Training is often the boost I need to adopt a new technology solution. And I love a deal. If you’re like me and you can squeeze in an 11:00 a.m. webinar on August 11, sign up for TechSoup’s free webinar highlighting GrantStation. Then, if you discover that GrantStation is a good fit for your fundraising program, you can take advantage of the discounted membership available through TechSoup on August 17 and 18 ($99 membership, for a savings of around $300).

At NPower we love to share what we’ve learned.  So I’ll be back next week with a review and highlights from the GrantStation webinar. You’re invited to join in with your comments and observations — please do!

Here’s the webinar announcement from TechSoup:

GrantStation, Your Fast Track to Fundraising — August 11
Wednesday, August 11, 11 a.m. Pacific time

Join Cynthia M. Adams for a free webinar that offers a short tour of the GrantStation website. Learn how to use the tools that GrantStation provides to help you identify the right grantmaker for any program or project.

If you’re interested in learning more about GrantStation before the TechSoup special offer on August 17 and 18, this tour will help you understand whether it’s the right tool for your organization and how to get started. The discounted GrantStation membership through TechSoup is only available to eligible 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.

Register now!

Earlier this week our friends at Microsoft Community Affairs hosted a webinar to show nonprofit organizations What’s New in Office 2010.  Product Manager Markus Weickenmeier and TechSoup Staff Writer Elliot Harmon walked the participants through the compelling new features in Office 2010.

Through our Scheduled Support customers, we are seeing a lot of interest in Office 2010 with many having upgraded already or making plans to do so.  Before diving into the presentation and demo, a quick Live Meeting poll was conducted to see what version of Office the participants were using.  The results showed that almost 20% (out of 253 responses) have already upgraded to 2010 with 44% and 27% on 2007 (or 2008 for Mac) and 2003 (2004) respectively.  It’s interesting to see a more aggressive adoption of 2010, compared to the slower migration to 2007.  I suspect that this is being influenced by the upgrade of older Windows XP computers to newer desktops running Windows 7.

Getting back to the webinar, below are some the new features and capabilities that stood out for me:

• Online Collaboration: Office 2010 allows for online document collaboration regardless of location – across branch offices, from home, while travelling, with volunteers or board members.  This is supported in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, although the implementation varies by application.  For Word and PowerPoint, co-authoring is provided through the desktop application.  Spreadsheet collaboration is accomplished using the free Excel Web App.  OneNote supports multi-user access in both the desktop and web applications.

• Social Connector: With the Outlook Social Connector, you can synchronize Outlook contacts with social networks including Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Windows Live, and SharePoint.  When one of your Outlook contacts updates their profile on one of these sites, this information will be available in your address book.  Beyond the social aspects, the Connector allows you to quickly view your history of email, meetings, and attachments with any contact, which can help with that needle in the haystack search for a piece of information that you desperately need to locate right now.  Some of the features are still in Beta, but the Facebook Connector is currently available and supports earlier versions of Outlook (2003/2007) as well.

• Photo/Video Editing: With the new built-in features, you can easily clean-up a picture or trim a video directly within Word and PowerPoint.  While not as robust as stand-alone photo or video editing software, this in-house capability greatly simplifies the process of doing minor touch-up to increase its effectiveness in a report or presentation.

• Presentation Broadcasts: PowerPoint Broadcast Slide Show allows you to easily share a presentation to a remote audience.  From the comfort of your desktop, you can broadcast a slide show that participants can quickly connect using their web browser or smartphone.  Using the video export feature, you can convert your presentation into a video suitable to be burned to DVD or shared online.

Thanks to Microsoft and TechSoup for putting this webinar together.  If you were not able to join the live event or would like to view it again, Microsoft has posted the presentation materials online at http://bit.ly/ngowebinar.  In addition, TechSoup has posted a blog about the webinar, including resources to learn more, at http://bit.ly/officewebinar.

Have a great weekend!

Update: (7/21/10) As of today, the TechSoup/Microsoft webinar on Office 2010 is FULL!  A recording of the webinar will be posted online after the event.  You can access it, along with other Microsoft Community Affairs webinars, at http://bit.ly/ngowebinar.

Join Microsoft Community Affairs on Tuesday, July 27th for a sneak peek of what’s new in Office 2010:

Event Title: Microsoft Office 2010: What’s the latest & why we like it

Event Time: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM PDT

Event Description: The latest version of Microsoft Office was released to the world last month. Should you upgrade? Should you care?  In this FREE webinar, co-hosted by TechSoup and Microsoft, nonprofits and public libraries can see what’s new with Office and why there may be some compelling reasons to make the switch.

Elliot Harmon from TechSoup, author of What Your Organization Should Know About Office 2010, will be joined by a Microsoft Office expert to highlight some of the new features like Web Apps for improved online collaboration, the Social Connector tool to bridge your Outlook to social media tools, as well as improvements to built-in image and video-editing features throughout the suite. In addition, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of upgrading at your organization, compatibility with older versions of the Office suite, and how you can go about upgrading your donation through TechSoup or Microsoft Software Assurance.

Register now!

When Windows 7 launched in October 2009, Microsoft made a special extra donation of it or Windows Vista available to nonprofits and public libraries through TechSoup. The Microsoft Software Donation Program allows organizations one opportunity to place a donation request each year. This special extra donation lets eligible organizations place another donation request outside of the program limitations as long as the request includes only Windows 7 or Vista. If you have not yet used your special extra donation opportunity, you have until June 30, 2010, to do so. For details, see Special Extra Donation of Windows 7 or Windows Vista.

Also, in case you were not previously aware, the TechSoup admin fees for many of Microsoft’s most popular software offerings, including Windows and Office products, will be increasing effective July 1, 2010.  For example, the admin fee for Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007, which is currently $20, will increase to $31.  So if you are planning to upgrade or add any Microsoft products over the summer, you can save money by placing the requests this month. And if you have been waiting for Office 2010, it is now available through TechSoup.

Does your nonprofit need better technology? Wish you had the latest version of that pricey software? Or sturdier hardware? NPower recommends TechSoup’s product donation program as a great resource.

Learn more about TechSoup’s product donation program and how to get started with a free webinar on Thursday, June 10, 11 a.m. Pacific time. Join TechSoup, get registered, learn what it means to be qualified and eligible for different donation and discount programs, and start requesting donations.

This webinar will walk you through all the steps of getting started and help you get on your way to low-cost, high-quality technology to help your organization run smoother and meet your mission. This webinar is best for people brand new to TechSoup or whose organization may be registered but are just not sure how to get started. TechSoup’s donation programs are open to eligible nonprofits and public libraries.

Register now!

How to order donations, and where to find how-to videos:

• Are you considering upgrading to Windows 7, but have already used your MS donation for the year? No worries! Through TechSoup, Microsoft is allowing nonprofits an extra donation for Windows 7. You need to place your order by June 30th, and you can read the other “fine print” here .
• Thank you to Microsoft Community Affairs for assisting with our Windows 7 presentation last month. If you missed the presentation, check out Microsoft’s helpful Windows 7 How-To videos  .

Adobe, through TechSoup, is offering Photoshop, Creative Suite Design, and some of its other titles for Macs in a special promotion. These products are available to organizations that are not typically eligible for their discounted software, including health care organizations and schools and educational institutions. In addition to the Mac software, there are a few books on their software available through the program which can be used by Windows users. Here is the TechSoup page, which outlines this special offer.

We also have some Adobe classes for nonprofits coming up (all taught on PCs), and thanks to Adobe’s generous funding, these are all offered at half of the regular tuition rate:

• Photoshop Intermediate - February 9th at 9am
• Dreamweaver Foundations - February 16th at 9am
• InDesign Intermediate - February 17th at 9am
• Photoshop Advanced - February 18th at 1pm

Join TechSoup on Thursday, December 10th for their webinar on assistive technology:

Assistive Technology for Public Computers
Thursday, December 10, 11 a.m. Pacific time

Are you concerned about creating computer access for everyone? If so, you may want to consider using assistive technology. Not sure what that is or how it’s applicable to a public computer setting? This is the webinar for you! Kami Griffiths from TechSoup will interview Jane Vincent from the Center for Accessible Technology. We will discuss hardware and software solutions, their costs, and what it takes to get started.

This webinar is ideal for anyone who manages or volunteers in a public computer center in a library, housing development, or social service agency, but it’s also applicable to IT managers looking to better address staff needs.

Register now!

For those in need of some retail therapy, below are some new product offerings from TechSoup:

• Flip Video Bundle: Two Flip Video Ultra U1120 120-minute white camcorders and one Flip Video tripod for $175.  Limit of five (5) product bundles per TechSoup fiscal year (July 1 to June 30).
• Maxtor External Hard Drive: Maxtor OneTouch II FireWire 800 Edition 200-GB external hard drive with FireWire or USB interfaces for $25.  Limit of two (2) hard drives per TechSoup fiscal year (July 1 to June 30).

Check out the TechSoup Stock website for more product donations.

Happy weekend …