Tis the season of nonprofit events! It’s a cultural tradition — gathering in ballrooms to hear about meaningful work and watch videos that make us cry and/or laugh and pull out our checkbooks.  NPower Seattle is joining the chorus with our Powerful Connections event on Friday, April 30.

The event offers a wonderful opportunity to connect with the great work NPower is doing in the community and to hear from our new ED about where we’re headed. Another draw is our keynote speaker, Scott Oki. Scott will be talking about the intersection between technology and philanthropy, highlighting the impact of efforts like www.SeeYourImpact.org . 

Please plan to join us! Registration will open the week of March 15. Check the event page on our site for details.

Check out this free webinar from Microsoft Community Affairs:  Free Online Tools for Nonprofits on March 16

This free webinar will highlight free online tools from Microsoft that help nonprofits communicate and collaborate with ease.  Attendees will learn to:

-          Set up an online site for your group with a shared calendar, file- & photo-sharing (25 GB free!), and online discussions

-          Create online workspaces to manage projects and facilitate Board or committee work

-          Easily create blog content and publish it toWordpress, Blogger, TypePad, Windows Live and many more

-          Create movies and slide shows from your photos and videos and share them with your supporters on YouTube or DVD

We’ll look at free tools available to any organization.  While we won’t have time to go into detail on each tool, you’ll get a good overview of what’s out there and how to get started. 

WHEN: March 16^th, 10am - 11:30am PST

Attendance is free, but space is limited, so register today!

NOTE: Webinar is open to nonprofit staff and volunteers.  It is NOT technical in nature and there are no pre-requisites to attend.  Nonprofit organizations need not be eligible for Microsoft software donations to use the tools featured in this webinar - they are freely available online.

Thank you Microsoft, host of this webinar and Presenting Sponsor of NPower Seattle’s Powerful Connections event 

Alison has served for the past six years as the Executive Director for Seattle Works, a nonprofit that helps people in their 20s and 30s get involved in the community. During her tenure at Seattle Works she led teams of Board members, staff and volunteers who positioned Seattle Works as a thought leader in the areas of volunteerism and generational leadership. She also revamped programs to achieve 20% growth and created a new fee for service program to leverage staff expertise that raised over $300,000 in 5 years.

A graduate of Leadership Tomorrow, Alison currently serves on the board of directors for United Way of King County and City Club.  In 2007, she was appointed by Governor Gregoire to serve on the Washington Commission for National and Community Service and by Secretary of State Sam Reed to serve on his Seattle Advisory Board. She was selected by the Puget Sound Business Journal as a 2005, 40 under 40 award winner.

Alison has the talent, skills and passion to lead NPower through its strategic refocus and into the future. She brings solid nonprofit management experience in program management and fundraising. Alison also understands the contribution that NPower makes. As a client of NPower Seattle while at Seattle Works, Alison appreciated the dedication and support that NPower’s team provided. She understands capacity building and how to describe the role that NPower Seattle plays in advancing our customers’ abilities to meet their missions.

As we welcome Alison, we bid farewell to Gregg Johnson, our interim ED since October. Thank you Gregg for leading us through this transition time and setting the stage for our continued success!

The cost for the series is $100 for NTEN Members / $200 for Non-members

Sessions Include:

• Setting Goals and Setting Yourself Up for Success (02/25/2010)
• Evaluating Performance and Monitoring Your Google Grants Account (03/04/2010)
• Optimizing Your Google Grants Ads and Keywords (03/11/2010)
• Optimizing your Google Grants Campaign and Maximizing Your Online Initiatives with Google Nonprofit Offerings (03/18/2010)

> Register Now for Google Grants Advanced Series!

Not quite ready for the advanced series? NTEN also offers the Google Grants Beginner Series: Learning to Use and Maximize Your Google Grant.

As participants in NPower’s statewide training and technology support program funded through the Greater Everett Community Foundation in 2008 and 2009, Confluence Gallery completed a Stable and Secure Assessment which pointed to a severe need to upgrade aging hardware. NPower consultants assisted Gallery staff in selecting a new desktop system, provided funds to cover the purchase (thank you GECF!), and procured software donations (Microsoft Windows and Office — thank you Microsoft!) to support key accounting and grant writing functions. In an “extreme makeover” story, Executive Director Sybil Macapia says Confluence Gallery is now in a much stronger position to support the administrative needs of the organization, and recently procured a much-needed grant that she links directly to the availability of that single new computer system.

Congratulations, Confluence staff! And thank you to the Greater Everett Community Foundation, Microsoft and our other supporters who make miracles like this one possible for nonprofits in Washington state.

Does your newsletter look more like 2000 or 2010? If your newsletter has more in common with the left column than the right, it’s time to rethink your newsletter strategy.

A key question to ask yourself: Does your newsletter work in world that prefers communications that are fast and friendly (2010)over fat and formal (2000)?

Look for more tips Kivi’s forthcoming nonprofit management guidebook, coming out next year.

1) Identify your target audience: Technology tools emerge and fade, but your audiences and the desire to communicate endure. Getting clear about who you want to reach as a first step will save you lots of time and missed targets.

2) Design you message for your audience: Be sure to be clear about you want them to do as a result. Some options are:

• nothing, because you are simply informing them
• replying or commenting, because you are asking for a response
• taking action (signing up for a class or calling their legislator), because you have called them to do something specific

3) Pick the best communication channel for your audience and your message. For example:

• Is your message a short and sweet call to action and your target audience is using mobile technology? A tweet or an update to your Facebook fan page is a good match.
• Is your message mid-length with some solid information about a topic your audience prizes, and the stats show that people in your target audience read your enewsletter? Try a blog post linked from your website and enewsletter.

4) Nurture your relationships in other ways: remember that social media technology tools are a vehicle for communicating, but relationships are people-powered. Social media tools do not replace thank you notes, phone calls and in-person gatherings.

Suggested social media resources

• For ideas on writing engaging blog posts (including selecting provocative topics/titles – how’d I do?): From ProBlogger: 13 Types of Posts that Always Get Lots of Comments
• For an introduction to the Technology Hype Cycle and opinions about text message giving: From Beth Kanter’s blog: Nonprofits Should Consider SMS Fundraising with Eyes Wide Open
• For pointers to social media resources and updates for nonprofits, follow NPower Seattle on Facebook: facebook.com/npowerseattle

Is your organization still trying to figure out how to use social media tools like blogs, Facebook and Twitter to communicate with clients, donors, funders and community members?

Are you wondering if it makes sense for you to blog or tweet about your services, news and events?

NPower has teamed up with Philanthropy Northwest to help you explore how Social Media can support your organization’s communication and advance your organization’s goals. Join us for the first offering of this exciting class on Wednesday, February 24th.  In Social Media for Building Community, you will:

• Articulate your organization’s goals, identify messages, and explore social media tools.
• Evaluate the time needed to employ new communications tools vs. their value for your organization.
• Learn practical strategies for effectively connecting with various constituents using Web 2.0 tools.

Join us for Social Media for Building Community on Wednesday, February 24th. Learn more and register to attend at npowerseattle.org/socialmedia

Last week, I linked to a study which questioned if nonprofits are using social networks to their fullest potential. Today, I came across a very informative report which shows actual statistics of how nonprofits and their fans are interacting on social networks, and it provides good advice on how to use that data for yourself. This report would be great for organizations debating which social networks to start using and to figure out how to set them up once you do.

In addition to the Nonprofit Social Media Benchmark Study, you may also be interested in this post which boasts “20 Mind Blowing Social Media Statistics“, which shows information about how many people are using Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and how much they have grown recently.

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