Whoo hooo! Great news from the folks at Vertical Response today!
One of the things that we’ve found administratively complicated was that your mail credits for VerticalResponse were connected to your Salesforce.com login - so I might have a $100 credit, use $10 - but then my colleague Evan would ALSO have to purchase credits to send his mail.
Well - they’ve fixed that. I haven’t implemented yet - but I’m delighted - here’s the "how to" from the VR Blog:
Linking Accounts to Share Credits
True story: I actually was a VerticalResponse customer before I was an employee. And, I sometimes found myself wishing that I could share my email credits with other folks in my company.
Did you know that with VerticalResponse for AppExchange you can?
All users of your Salesforce org can share one common pool of credits. That means that any Salesforce user can purchase the credits, and all of your VerticalResponse accounts will be linked together to use them.
This is even better news for those of you who work in a company where several different people or departments are sending out VerticalResponse emails, as you can take advantage of bulk pricing, and save some of that precious budget - I’m sure you can find somewhere to use all of that money you’ll be saving!
Do you want to link accounts so that you, too, can share VerticalResponse credits? Simply email vip@verticalresponse.com with the user names / email addresses for the acounts that you want linked together, and we’ll make the magic happen.
TechSoup is a great resource for nonprofits - they have great forums, articles, advice, conferences and more. And they broker software at enormous discounts.
June 30 is a deadline for many of their programs - so if you need software - get your order in soon!
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Place Your Software Donation Request Today
Before TechSoup’s Fiscal Year End Deadline
Don’t miss out on this once a year opportunity at TechSoup! Request up to your full allotment of valuable software, hardware, and online services from some of our most popular donors before your eligibility resets on June 30. On July 1, you’ll again become eligible to place requests. Note that any unused allotment from this fiscal year cannot be carried over.
To help you make the most of this opportunity, we’ve highlighted some of the donors whose programs are affected by the fiscal year end — to maximize your benefits, place a request before June 30 so that you can request again starting July 1. Or click this link to view all affected programs.
Keep in mind your organization is likely eligible to request from not just one but multiple donation programs. The deadline is June 30, though, so place your request today.
Important: Microsoft product requests are not affected by the June 30 deadline.
Software & Online Services
We’ve been implementing Plone and Salesforce for the last pair of years - and I was thinking about my early days at NPower. When I began working here 5 years ago - there weren’t a lot of software options from the open source community that we thought were a good fit. Sometimes, it was because the software wasn’t ready. Sometime it was because the software was great - but there wasn’t any documentation. And sometimes it was because there didn’t appear to be a strong enough community to support that software.
That has changed a lot - and lately, I’ve been thinking about the different way some software is described - here’s a quick primer:
- Open Source: This is software that you can acquire and install and can modify the underlying code to make it do what you want. For example, Plone is open source, and Photoshop is not.
- Open Data Model: This has more to do with the vendor than the software - but when I think of “open” software, I think of if I can access and manipulate that software and if I can integrate it with other tools. For instance, both Plone and Salesforce have an open data model - they can exchange information freely (provided someone knows how to connect them, and we do!) without breaking a licensing agreement or paying an additional fee. Blackbaud products aren’t open - if you connect without purchasing an additional license, you void your contract.
- Open Pricing: This is admittedly fuzzy. But I think that if a vendor is selling a product, they ought to commit to a pricing structure, even if they best they can do is offer a range. Some tools are free or freely available. For instance, Plone is free to use (but probably not free to configure). Salesforce will grant you 10 licenses if you are a qualifying nonprofit - but you should probably find an expert to help you configure and import your data. And many Microsoft products are available for an administrative fee.
I’m pretty excited about the combination of all three of these “open” descriptions - some items are free or freely available, some are easy to integrate, and some are transparent about their pricing model. All told - this translates to good news for the nonprofit sector!
Great news today from the folks at Vertical Response - they offer an enewsletter delivery system that integrates with Salesforce.com -so if you are using Salesforce and Vertical Response, you can keep all of that key information in one place.
They’ve just announced a “Non-Profits Email for Free” program - all of the details you need are here - but here are some of the key items:
What you get
VerticalResponse for Non-Profits is a program that enables Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) to effectively communicate with their supporters via email. Once accepted into the program, NPOs will be able to leverage VerticalResponse’s email marketing to send up to 10,000 emails per month. All for free!
How it works
Once you’re enrolled in the program, you’ll get 10,000 free credits at the start of each month. It’s a ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ system, so credits will expire at the end of that month. Not to worry – we’ll give you 10,000 more the following month. Simple, right?
Getting started
If your organization is a 501(c)(3), then you’re eligible. Simply fax us the application form, we’ll check to make sure that you’re not fibbing about your 501(c)(3) status, and flip the switch. You’re ready to start sending professional looking emails.
No, not really!
That’s because databases really aren’t that simple. Don’t get me wrong - they might only do two or three things - but to make those things happen well requires a lot of behind the scenes work.
For instance, you may want to have volunteers sign up for a volunteer opportunity. Sounds pretty easy, right? And it should be - at least from the experience of the volunteer! But here are some things that you’d want to make sure you did well:
- Each user would probably need to login and have a user name and password, and you probably don’t want to have to manage all of those passwords - the system should!
- You probably want to make it easy for a volunteer to sign up for more than one event - so you’ll have to maintain an “inventory” of volunteer opportunities to include when, how often, how many can volunteer and so on
- You’ll likely need to view and print reports - who is volunteering, which opportunities are open or closed, how many hours of service are being delivered and so on.
- Your volunteers may also be donors - so you might want to consider importing, integrating or otherwise having a 360 degree view of those key people - so you might start to lean towards a donor tool, too.
Those are just a few small items that need to be addressed BEFORE you start. Add in maintenance, documentation and training for your staff and your volunteers - and you can see that a tool that only does a few things really well isn’t all that simple!
So - what SHOULD you do?
I recommend investing in a great planning process. This might be the best investment you make - gather your key stakeholders, find out what you have on hand, work with a professional to describe what you need (we call this a requirements gathering process) and get some budgetary estimates. The value of great information is enormous - and at the end of that planning process you should know if you should proceed, how - and how much it might cost to get that volunteer database up and running!
And yet another tip from Tech Soup - this one about backing up all of the crucial information you have stored in Outlook. (Some Outlook users use Microsoft Exchange Server, and some don’t. This tool is for the folks that don’t have an Exchange Server!)
If you are using Outlook and your organization does not use an Exchange server, all your Outlook information, including your contacts, calendar entries, and e-mail, is stored in a personal folders file (.pst file). This add-in simplifies the oft-neglected backup of this file, by adding a menu item directly on your Outlook client, and can be set to remind you of your backup. This backup and then be stored on a file server or taken off-site for disaster recovery purposes.
And the link to get the tool!
If you haven’t subscribed to the weekly “By The Cup” email notice from the great folks at Tech Soup, you should. They arrive just about weekly, and feature tips, tricks, notices about software donations and more.
They recently highlighted a new offering in their Tech Soup Stock tool kit - Noza, a tool that allows for searching 30 million donation records. It appears to be priced well, too. Here’s a link, and the blurb from Tech Soup:
Noza Prospect Database Access
Description: NOZA is a Web-based database of charitable giving intended as a prospect-research tool for nonprofit organizations. The database includes listings for individual and company donations as well as charitable foundations. Users can research prospective or existing contributors by searching the database by donor, or they can search by cause, region, or gift amount to find the donors most likely to support their organization or project.
The information in the NOZA database is collected from publicly-available Internet sources including organizations’ newsletters, financial reports, and more. All of this information is freely available on the Internet or was available when it was gathered. If the content is still available, NOZA provides links to the Web pages where the information was found, allowing users to learn more about the context of a donation before contacting a potential donor.
Note: I haven’t used these tools yet - just passing along the tip!
PC Magazine occasionally creates a list of their top/favorite free tools. It’s worth a read to see if there are any tools that are available that might make your work better/easier/more efficient. They’ve broken those tools into several different categories -and while I haven’t used all of them - here are some of my favorites for nonprofits:
- Operating Systems
- None of the above! Overall, I’m bullish on open source software - but choosing an operating system of any sort (Windows, Mac, Linux/Unix) based on price alone probably isn’t a great idea. If you opt for an free operating system - make sure that you’ve done your homework!
- AntiVirus/Anti-Malware
- I used the avast! home edition for years and it kept my home computer virus free. You’ll want to check the license agreement to make sure you can use this somewhere besides at home.
- Firewalls
- I’m also a fan of ShieldsUP! - a tool that scans your computer and lets you know if your firewall and other settings are protecting your computer. It’s speedy, effective - and if you aren’t sure of what the results are telling you - call your local tech provider to make sure you’re protected!
- Security
- Hotspot Shield sounds terrific - it creates a VPN (virtual private network) between your laptop and the router at a public wi-fi hotspot. I haven’t tested this - but it sounds like a great option for adding a layer of security to your wireless browsing!
- Send Shield strips out all of the tracked changes in an MS Word document - great for those documents that have had so much internal review that there might be untidy language in your final copy!
- Finance
- None of the above! Your nonprofit should be using a tool that works for nonprofit and business organizations, not a personal finance tool.
- Office
- Gliffy is on online diagramming tool - terrific for a mockup of a website, to show how data moves through your agency, or to figure out how to arrange your office furniture!
- Calendar and Personal Information Managers
- Power Calculator replaces the Windows Calculator with a mathematical one - better for anyone needing more than a simple calculator.
- Backup / Synch
- DriveImage XML. If you’ve ever had to replace your hard drive, you’ll know that even with all of your data backed up - you’ll have to reinstall your operating system, apply updates, and do the same for all of your software. An Image tool takes a snapshot of your hard drive so you can reinstall more quickly.
- Blogging
- Windows Live Writer is a what you see is what you get tool that lets you compose and format blog postings offline - and I’ve been using it for more than a year. Simple to use - and works well with Word Press and other blog platforms.
- Video
- Ready to start moving some of your “how to” information online? Jing will let you record what is happening on your screen so you can create a screencast to share with others.
If you’ve ever had to (or wanted to!) manage a project - technology or otherwise - you’ve probably had to figure out if you needed a Project tool, a Task planning tool, a Bug or Issue tracking tool and so on.
Well - our friends at Idealware have written a nice synopsis which can help - it’s a short read, with great information, and links to a lot of tools that might help!
Microsoft has two new tools out, one which appears to have similar functionality to Evite, but with an emphasis on what happened after the event (pictures, blogs, and so on) as well as a home server software package.
The planning service is called Windows Live Events, and it will allow you to use a series of templates (again, like Evite) to modify the way the event looks and so on. The major difference appears to be that the organizer can also create a website post event to maintain those pictures notes and so on.
The Home Server software has also been released to retailers. The NPower team hasn’t had the opportunity to review this new tool - but many of the promised features might make this an attractive tool for nonprofit who are just getting started. Features include a daily backup, file sharing to others in your network, PC health monitoring tools, and more.
I’m always delighted to see new tools being offered - and can’t wait to see if the nonprofit sector can leverage either or both of these to deliver on their mission!
