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The HIPAA Effect: Managing Your Online Data

2008-08-07T12:00:00-04:00

When the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) became law in 2000, a lot of fundraising professionals in the health services industry began to worry. Eight years later, a lot of fundraisers within healthcare organizations and medical foundations still ask us about HIPAA because they simply don’t understand the law or how it will affect their fundraising processes. After being asked the same questions over and over again, we realized there was an opportunity to help development officers learn more about HIPAA by putting our thoughts together beyond a blog post.

Changing Our World has teamed up with Convio, Inc. on our new guide The HIPAA Effect: Considerations for Fundraising After the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This guide is a great resource to learn more about HIPAA, how it affects offline and online fundraising data, and how to steer clear of potentially sticky situations.

The HIPAA Effect covers:

The history of HIPAA and how it works
Information from fundraising professionals on how to work within regulations
Best practices for managing donors and online donor databases

It turns out that HIPAA hasn’t really hindered fundraising at all. Actually, it has helped how fundraisers gather information from patients. Most likely, your organization will never run afoul with these regulations. But, if you’ve ever had a question about what your organization can and can’t do under the HIPAA, then this guide is the perfect resource.

You can download a free copy of the guide-- right now -- by visiting Changing Our World's website at www.changingourworld.com.hipaa.

Mobile Blogging ... Who needs a Laptop or WiFi?

2008-08-01T08:50:56-04:00

With the fast pace of the world only getting faster and more aspects of life going mobile, it was only a matter of time. Everyone is familiar with the ability to surf the web and check email using smart phones, now it has moved a step further. With the introduction of the iPhone 2.0 software and iPhone Apps for popular blogging tools such as TypePad and WordPress, you can not only view your site but update it as well.

To illustrate this, I have actually written this post using the iPhone and the TypePad application while walking from our office building to the Metro station on my way home. Writing between crossing signals and taking no time out of my day, I am easily able to add content, photos and links with very little effort at all. This application has allowed me to turn otherwise wasted time into productive working time.

This is an important step in mobile development making news updates that much faster. It use to be that I would need to find a wi-fi hot spot or plug in my air card, boot up my laptop and log in to type a post. It was a hassle to say the least. If I saw something newsworthy that I wanted to write about it, then it had to wait until I could find a time and place to do all of this. Now I can simply pull out my phone and type in my user name and password and use the keypad on the phone to write a post.

This move goes even further than blogging. Apple has provided their software development kit (SDK) to many online marketing, news and social networking agencies, many of whom have either developed or are in the process of developing applications with this same purpose. I have already begun using include Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, Pounce, Twitter and even eBay. I can't wait to see where this leads with other provides and mobile device manufactures.

With this growing range of mobile applications, organizations can now provide their members and donors a more real time update on the work they are doing and the results that are being produced. By making it faster for the organizations to get the information out to those who need it you will greatly increase and produce faster results for online campaigns, marketing and their overall visibility.

Network for Good Acquires Ephilanthropy Foundation

2008-07-29T19:33:55-04:00

Two industry leaders are becoming one. Network for Good announces it is acquiring the Ephilanthropy Foundation. Read the full press release.

Following Gates through Windows (of Philanthropy)

2008-07-29T16:47:43-04:00

Unless you’ve been trapped in a bubble these last two weeks, or enthralled with iPhone news (guilty), you may have heard that Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates recently retired from the software company he started. While he still remains the largest shareholder, the motivation to retire he says, is to dedicate all his time to the foundation he and his wife founded, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. While Mr. Gates is already an experienced philanthropist, many others who aren't in his income bracket - or that of his philanthropic partner, Chairman/CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett - may well want to share his passion for a "second career" in philanthropy.

It’s with this in mind that I’d like to make sure that folks who'd like to emulate Bill Gates can take advantage of the resources available here at onPhilanthropy.com. I hope to achieve this by comparing themes that we know well about the nonprofit and philanthropic sector with a Microsoft-themed guide.

Let’s begin.

Crashes. You don’t need a BSoD (“blue screen of death”) to see that the current U.S. market is walking through a recession. High fuel cost have forced inflation, the unemployment rate continues to grow, the US dollar seems to get weaker by the week, and the high number of foreclosures, all make this evident. Its because of this some nonprofits have been starving a bit too. Well, Caroline Gallagher, in her article, “Panic? Does Economic Downturn Mean Crisis for Nonprofits?” concludes that changing one's strategy and diversifying their approach can go a long way. Want to know how? You should read it here.

Government Intervention. What’s the U.S. government done to help me lately? Well, it established the American Competitiveness and Corporate Accountability Act, or as most people know it, Sarbanes-Oxley. While most of the provisions set in the law apply to corporations, two in particular affect nonprofits. First is the Whistle Blower Protection Act, which “provides new protections for whistle-blowers, making it illegal for a corporate entity to retaliate against any employee who reports suspected illegal activity by their employer”. The second, the Document Destruction Act, “makes it illegal to destroy or alter any document to prevent its use in an official proceeding”. You can learn more about this by reading Elliot Kipnis’ article, “Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance and Non-Profit Organizations” here.

Too many updates. Technology is always changing, but more important, is that the way people consume technology changes faster. That’s why waiting five years to make a move on updates can really hurt your brand (and your market share, read:Vista). Therefore, taking advantage of new technologies is quintessential to your cause. Garth Moore and Jenn Thompson, frequent posters of the blog onLine, cover ways to pivot Web 2.0 developments towards your cause. Consider Garth’s article on Twitter, the tool that helps keep friends updated on what you’re doing, and how you can use it to let people know what your Foundation is working on. For example, on one day someone like a Gates (at any level) you could post to feed that, “The Foundation just donated $19 million to the International Rice Research Institute in hopes to develop rice with higher amounts of micronutrients.” An approach like this can help humanize any Foundation, as well as keep those who are interested- interested. Read more about ways to take advantage of these tools at onLine.

Going global. Microsoft Windows led business globalization in the 90’s, and knows better than most about the benefits and risks. When it comes to philanthropy and globalization however, Dr. Susan Raymond leads the pack. In her five part series, “Growing Up Global”, available at onPhilanthropy, Dr. Raymond covers the ways philanthropy has matured around the world (Part I), how traditions and cultural shifts are affecting giving (Part II), how developing nations are supporting themselves to make social change (Part III), the influence of the booming Asian markets on philanthropy (Part IV) and the positive impact the strong euro has had on European giving (Part V). If those are not enough, be sure to purchase her book, “The Future of Philanthropy: Economics, Ethics, and Management”, available at Wiley (www.wiley.com).

Competition. The good thing about being a well-known brand is that it often spurs loyalty and more success. The bad thing about being well known is that you become a target for competition. Competition in the OS market has been shifting dramatically. Previously unknown brands like Linux and OSX are now just as well known has XP and Vista. Philanthropy, although altruistic, can get competitive when seeking donor money and opportunities to be effective. Currently, Microsoft nemesis Google, through their foundation, Google.org, has been really good at being effective. As Julie Fagnani writes in her article, “Google: Better at Doing Good?”, “Google.org’s approach to systemic change is both innovative, groundbreaking and collaborative. Whether granting money for a particular organization or investing funds in a particular product or service, Google.org seeks to advance solutions to global issues and challenges”. Like Google.org, today's philanthropists should be innovative and well-organized to leverage their effectiveness. Read about what Google’s doing here, so that you can do it better here.

Direct Mail makes efforts to go green

2008-07-28T11:04:03-04:00

Direct mail is going green... at least they are making some efforts in that direction. This NY Times article highlights the efforts of a new "Green Marketing Coalition" to reduce the carbon footprints of their companies while marketing, including:

list hygiene -- managing a more responsive but likely smaller list
using recycled materials
using responsible vendors

You can review the full list of recommended guidelines at www.greenmarketingcoalition.com.

I know these are initial guidelines are moving in the right direction. "Proofing and editing materials using Adobe PDF files rather than hard copies cut back on wasted paper, printing ink and electricity" was a smart choice, but I have to wonder why leveraging email and other online communications in place of printed marketing materials wasn't even a few dots on my screen... I know, in many respects, it is what still works, but there are so many alternatives to print that can be offered online (email, Twitter, social networks, etc...) that I was at least hoping to see a nod in that direction.

ps. No trees were harmed in the making of this post.