There is no doubt that leveraging technology can improve productivity and communication within any organization. But what if you are a charity or non-profit organization trying to stretch every dollar? How do you find the resources to earn and implement an Information Technology strategy on a budget? The good news is that many big businesses have discounted or free offerings for non-profits. Here is a quick guide to some of the best tools you can get for (almost) nothing to help your non-profit grow!
TechSoup: This great station acts as a clearinghouse for donations from major vendors such as Microsoft, Adobe, and many others. Since these large organizations each have separate eligibility policies (some will not donate to organizations which prosthelytize religion, others will not donate to private foundations), it can be difficult to know whether you can purchase advantage of their offerings or not. TechSoup acts as a mediator by registering information about non-profit organizations (they require you to submit your 501(c) certificate and other information about the nature of your operations) and then determining your eligibility for the products you request from their site. For this service they charge a nominal fee, but since it means you can get products such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop for pennies on the dollar, its well worth the small cost. Beyond software, TechSoup also offers hardware and consulting services as well as a wealth of free resources and how-to guides.
Salesforce.com: Thanks to a commitment by its founders, the Salesforce.com foundation commits 1% product, 1% time and 1% equity to making the world a better place. From this commitment comes a program which will allow you to net up to 10 licenses for their hosted CRM (customer relationship management) enterprise class solution for free! What’s better than free? It’s completely customizable and there is an active community of other non-profits who communicate about how they have implemented and modified the offering to meet their acquire needs.
Google Apps: Even if you have been living under a rock for the last 10 years, you’ve probably heard of Google. The 100lb gorilla of search engines has expanded their offerings to include a number of useful tools which they bundled together under the heading “Google Apps”. This suite includes an email application (gmail) which you can employ from your desktop through Microsoft Outlook (which you bought for nearly free from TechSoup!). In addition you can leverage their calendaring platform to share and update your team calendar, as well as their document management solution which lets you store and share documents. A small note of caution (before run out and upload all of your data) – keeping your documents “in the sky” with Google can be great for collaboration, but you still need to backup your data. Make sure you keep local copies of what’s stored on Google docs lest you lose internet access or something gets inadvertently deleted.
Hosted Exchange: Exchange is Microsoft’s flagship communication and collaboration server. It allows for far more robust email and calendaring management than you can get with Google Apps, and if you have more than 1-5 employees, going up a step to hosted Exchange can make a tremendous difference. It does cost more but it will give you great benefits such as a aid team dedicated to your account, native integration with the collaboration features in Microsoft Outlook, etc. Most Exchange hosting providers also offer hosted SharePoint which will allow you to store and share files in a far more robust manner than the simple interface offered by Google Apps. You can even tack on web site hosting and have everything managed in one region. Some providers of Hosted Exchange services include Intermedia, 123Together, and USA.net. Pricing and plans vary but you will be able to talk to a sales representative about what you need, and they can aid you design a package for you. The biggest benefit of a hosted solution is that you don’t have to own, maintain, upgrade or patch a server on your space. So you get all the benefits of enterprise class communications without the headaches and costs of owning the equipment.
Skype: This communication tool allows you to initiate video or audio chats with users around the world and both the application and the calls are free! If you have internet access and a microphone on your computer (most laptops have them built in) you can talk for free with any Skype user around the world. This can be a great arrangement to reduce your phone bills and keep in touch with your team.
Wordpress: Everyone needs a web location but building one can be a costly (and confusing) adventure. Web designers abound and all of them have different philosophies on scripting languages, platforms, and other things you really don’t want or need to know about. If you impartial need a few informational pages to get started, you can go to Wordpress, pick a template, and be up and running for free. Technically this site is for bloggers – people who want to post articles and journal online. However you can choose to turn off the commenting features if you want, and then it works just like a regular web page. You can use drag and fall tools to add pictures and text, or even fancy widgets like RSS feeds if you’re feeling extra tech savvy, but if you objective want the basics you can get a functional, attractive site set up in minutes. The best part is you can set aside your absorb domain name to your Wordpress region so it looks just like a regular web site. You don’t even have to know how to use a registrar – Wordpress will do it all for you. Just prance through a simple process from the dashboard, pay a small fee ($15 at the moment I am writing this) and the domain will be yours!
Foundation Center: This organization provides resources and links to a broad range of services to help foundations and non-profits speed their operations. They have an excellent collection of technology related resources including links to organizations that will help with everything from web design to technology strategy development.
Developing an IT strategy for a non-profit can be challenging. In an ideal world you would have a relationship with a trusted advisor who can help you review your choices and find out what’s moral for your organization. If you have suggestions of tools, send me an email and I’ll be happy to add them to this list!
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Filed under Email Hosting Solutions by on Dec 1st, 2010. Comment. 
Anyone who has managed a team of people in virtually all industries has heard the phrase ‘a cheerful employee is a productive employee’. Though there have been countless psychological studies linked to employee satisfaction and increased departmental efficiency; the one peep that has always stuck out in my mind throughout my career in management has been the ‘Hawthorne Effect’. To make a long story short, a consumer products factory called Hawthorne Works had authorized a gawk to gawk if its factory workers would become more productive in higher or lower levels of light. According to the findings in this study the workers’ productivity improved when changes were made to both increase and decrease overhead lighting. Interestingly, employee productivity slumped when the study was concluded. The study at Hawthorne Works suggested that that the increase in employee productivity was due to the motivational effect of their management team showing interest in creating a better work environment for them.
In addition to the standard benefits packages (Health, Dental, Vision Insurance, Disability Benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts, Profit Sharing, Educational Incentives, Tuition Reimbursement, 401K, etc;) that organizations offer potential employees to attract the best and the brightest, some savvy organizations are offering not only a benefits package; but a ‘lifestyle package’. Unique organizations know that employees not only need competitive salary and benefits packages, but there is also the need for a positive work environment that offers each employee the incentive to work hard to produce results. Realistically, employees spend a minimum of 40 hours per week contributing to the success of their organization. Environment and incentives are imperative to making that time as results driven for a department as possible.
Whether you are a manager at a Fortune 500 company or you believe a small business on a tight budget; the below recommendations are sure to increase the employee morale and productivity in your department.
Create a ‘Work/Life Balance’ Supportive Environment- In this day and age telecommuting and flexible hours at work is increasing in popularity due to many people wanting to have adequate time to pursue their career while nurturing their families and life goals. Many working individuals are taking on dual home based and work based roles for a variety of reasons ranging from financial security and family-rearing to personal goal attainment. Telecommuting and flexible hours creates the perfect environment for employees to be as dedicated to their work as they are to their families and other interests. In addition, most people thrive in a working environment that breeds trust and responsibility. Telecommuting and flexible hours are benefits that employers can offer their employees at a nominal overhead cost. I have worked for many an organization that offers their employees laptops which were used remotely or at the company location, VPN access into the network, and webmail. Also, this type of work environment allows employees to meet deadlines even when they must be out of the office on corporate travel or personal business. Working in a ‘flexible’ environment is by far the best for me as a working mother for countless reasons. Employee happiness, loyalty, and retention were never an issue at the flexible organizations where I worked because we all felt trusted and supported due to schedules we managed with our team.
Offer Financial Incentives-With the economy slowing down the savvy management professional has to derive intelligent about their means of driving team sales and revenue. Most clients have no time to deal with the standard sales approach that offers little solution to the needs of their organization. The manager that leverages their team to benefit their team will have employees dedicated to bringing in the business that will afford their salaries and growth potential. The best way to keep the team working is to have billable tasks for each employee to work on. Thus enter the concept of ‘Expansion Sales’. Expansion Sales is when an employee that is not designated as section of the primary sales force works with clients to sell products and services to back the client’s needs. Expansion Sales drives revenue in that an employee who works with a client daily is more in touch with their organizational goals as well as their budget. This ongoing sales approach can lead to years of continued business with a client that was initially forecasted to buy only limited products or services. Team members who contribute to Expansion Sales should be offered a fair percentage of the revenue that they generate for the organization. Simply aligning Sales Expansion goals to an employee’s annual salary increase will ensure that most people accomplish what is necessary to ‘get by’. Offering monetary rewards in addition to salary will motivate many employees to seek out those additional revenue driving opportunities.
Encourage Physical Health and Wellness- There is a direct link in a person’s physical health to their happiness and well being. Individuals in optimal physical health feel better, and are better equipped to come to the office and focus on the tasks at hand. The only declare to maintaining optimal physical health via exercise is lack of time. At the end of the day the average employee will do family obligations, deadlines, and personal management activities ahead of taking time to exercise. An organization that supports physical fitness for employees that desire an active lifestyle will have team members that are less stressed and able to focus. There are many levels of support that an organization can offer employees to achieve physical wellness that will not break their annual operating budget. I worked in a ‘best case scenario’ organization that had a high-tech fitness center onsite that employees could use at no cost. This benefit allowed me to exercise while I was at the office and needed a wreck. I would come back refreshed and ready to tackle the tasks that I had to walk away from. Organizations that do not have the budget or place to offer this level of incentive can offer employees annual ‘Fitness Center Reimbursement’ in an amount that is operating budget friendly, or work with local fitness centers to provide discounted membership fees to employees. Guzzling endless gallons of coffee to ’stay alert’ and ‘energize’ have been dumped by most health conscious employees in favor of increasing activity to beget energy and focus.
Get ‘Out’ of the Office-Yes, you read this correctly. There are times when your team members have been staring at the same four walls for 12 plus hours on any given day working to meet a deadline. I have lost count of all of the design sessions or proposal reviews that I have been involved in that had myself and my team confined until we have produced the documentation needed to bring billable work into the organization. To say that people become sick of being in the same place for so long is an understatement. To break that ’same stuff different day’ feeling it is critical to offer a change of scenery. Holding a meeting or design session outside of the office gives employees the change they need to boost creativity. Instead of catering lunch in for another day, host the lunch break or work session at a coffee shop or a restaurant. When the team has been working an endless stream of hours and all you can see are sunken, blank eyes staring relieve at you take it as a cue to offer a break. Take the session outside if weather permits, grab a game of mini-golf, or hit a movie. Change of venue can be energizing and mood boosting for all team members.
Have an ‘Open Door’ Policy- While this management tactic seems to be determined, I can confidently say that I have worked at organizations that boast aid of an initiate door policy but do not follow through. Bottom line: employees want to work for an organization where they can speak to their managers with honesty and professional integrity. The offer of an open door policy by a manager should be within the confines of employment law as well as be supportive organizational business and ethical practices. Managers should set the tone with employees and help them to understand that the conversations should be work related. The open door policy should not extinguish with the employee to manager relationship but should be extended across the organization. Open lines of communication that are fostered from the top down approach (i.e. upper management communicates with all employees on company business and happenings) help employees to feel as if they know where they stand in terms of their place in the organization. An excellent way to encourage an open company communication policy is to occupy quarterly ‘All Hands’ meetings. All Hands meetings allow managers the opportunity to share company news with all team members in a collective setting. Successful All Hands meetings include time for employees to ask questions on the materials presented or share thoughts and ideas based on what they have learned from the management team. Staging the All Hands meeting during a casual lunch hour with food provided is an additional incentive to get team members excited to benefit. Employees that are ‘in the know’ employ much less of their time at work speculating on false scenarios.
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Filed under Email Hosting Solutions by on Nov 29th, 2010. Comment.
We live in a wonderful age if you are someone who likes the modern technological gadgets coming out. We have high run internet, Flash movies, instant news reports, and a plethora of data available all at the touch of a keyboard.
The predicament with peer-to-peer “sharing” of copyright protected songs is well documented having been fully covered in our media today. We all know the demise of many download sharing sites such as Napster that were allowing many to share their purchased works with others in violation of the license on the music discs.
There is another problem today that the majority may not realize is happening and it is fast picking up speed. Many see something on a website and then desire to execute a gash and paste version of it in their text program, add their name, and maybe, impartial maybe, change a word or two before reposting it to another area claiming this work as their own.
This is illegal and is a form of plagiarism and it fast gaining in the theft department on the internet.
Just because you can read it and just because it is easy to find a printed copy does not make it free for redistribution by you, particularly if you fail to credit the author and provide links to the original article.
There is software being sold called “Article Dashboard.” This is software that allows an individual to provide a place for “authors” to post interesting reading material to a site. The owner of the site gains income for advertisements posted on the site displaying this information. (This article does not believe the software is at fault, but rather the individuals who are purchasing the software without fully understanding the ramification if a plagiarized article ends up on their site, which it will.)
Many have “Terms and Conditions” that are not being read. Each article submitted MUST be the ORIGINAL work of the one submitting it. Stealing it off the internet using copy and paste does not qualify for original work.
In addition, these sites using software such as this do not require any contact information from the “authors” submitting works. The sites I have checked that post articles state they will determine which submissions will be posted to their area, yet many do not take any steps to ensure they are not receiving the stolen works of others.
I have also found that many of these sites do not provide any manner to contact them except through an online email do. This form requires entering a 4-character code to ensure your submission requesting removal of your article is not mechanically generated. Yet each attempt results in failure claiming you entered the code incorrectly. Otherwise you have no manner to contact the website manager.
However, if you find your works are displayed without your permission on these sites, you do have a way to try to resolve this.
Your first option is to always contact the site displaying your works. If that fails, get the name of the website. Do a Google search for “Whois” and use one of those sites. Network solutions offer one among others available. Enter the URL (only the main part, www.sitename.com) in the search.
Search the results for your domain ownership. Gather a contact point, THIS IS NOT THE PEOPLE WHO ARE DISPLAYING YOU protected works, it is the people who are providing the situation for the group or individual that IS displaying your works.
You must always be polite in contacting these people. In many cases they are not aware that protected items are displayed and usually if you follow their procedures, they will rectify the problem and remove your works.
If you do a Google Search for Article Dashboard, currently there are 5,480,000 results.
Here are some examples:
Five days ago I discovered an article I had posted to Helium had been stolen, slightly reworded (only changing a generic term to a company term) and reposted on a station using Article Dashboard.
I promptly contacted the place through the link provided, that worked. I provided the website my article was posted at, including the date it was posted as well as the link to the article on their position. I informed them I was the true author and had not been asked for nor granted permission for my works to be used on another site. I requested immediate removal of the offending article.
Taking it one step further, I found that the “author” – Astonish Reviews – had eight other articles, all of which I was able to ticket to other sites and the original authors. I sent an email to each author showing them the link where their work was posted and the link I had found to their original works and informed them if they had not granted permission, it had been stolen without their knowledge.
A search of Astonish Reviews on Google turned up over 1,000 links. Each appeared to be to an article which I suspect many were plagiarized from unsuspecting authors.
The modern site I contacted started giving me excuses. First I was informed they were unable to locate the content and author on their site. I responded with an email that pointed out if you hover over the “author’s” name it gave a four-digit ID code and the article had a six-digit ID code. Then I was told they did not know how to edit the SQL database to remove the offending work.
The following day I was informed they would be delayed several days because their site was moving to another host and the database manager would need to handle the problem. Then an “oh by the plot” I had a death in my family of a cousin, so I will be unable to do anything until four days from now.
I informed them that they should be careful of free input they receive and make every effort to verify it is indeed original work – minor time spent with Google would have been able to let these people know before they accepted the post into their site that it was stolen.
I further informed them of the responsibility they had to make every effort to remove my work and to provide me any information they needed from me to prove I was indeed the author who had written the work. I have received nothing disputing my ownership with them.
However, of interest was the comment that “they are protected under the Communications Decency Act” (CDA) from any possible action on my part.
It is my understanding the Communications Decency Act refers to material that is pornographic in nature which my article does not contain any reference to. However, on the off chance they were protected, I located the FCC’s version and read.
The site displaying the work is protected up until the time they are notified of the problem. At that point, it seems their protection ends and they are required to remove the work. Thus, the site who is trying to hide under the CDA’s skirts lost that protection once informed the work had been stolen and was displayed without permission.
Based on that, I did the aforementioned search for the alleged author’s name and found a second site, also using Article Dashboard, which had the same article posted as well. This one I could not contact and had to instead contact their ISP who is obligated to hold the work once I have successfully established ownership. That is pending at this time.
For those who write articles, take time to protect your works if you retain ownership. If you do not care, then CLEARLY post that the work is freely available for any and all to redistribute and/or do whatever desired with your work.
If you wish to maintain these rights, mark your article as copyright protected. There are other ways you can try to keep a check on your work.
You can go to www.google.com/alerts and situation up an alert that lets you track your article if so several of the words appear in another site. You are allowed to enter up to 32 words to retain (slit and past the first few or pick a select sentence or two from the body that pertain to the subject.) Generic sentences will result in many groundless responses.
Bear in mind for each alert you setup you will receive an email during the designated period if something is found. If you have 100 articles, you could feasibly receive 100 emails each day (if that is the option you selected).
Reviewing them is simple. Honest open the email, look at the heroic words in each hit. If they are all together, verify it didn’t hit on your article.
I can go through a list of about 100 in a few minutes or less, barring finding a questionable article. The effort is well worth it if you glean your work stolen and on display on another site, particularly a site that is making income, distributing it without crediting you or being used for less desirable reasons than the article may dictate.
There is also a website, www.articlechecker.com that can help to determine if your work is duplicated without your permission.
There is one final way to protect your work and give the proof you need of date of authorship. There is website www.NRS-Online.com which registers (not with the copyright people) but in their database the date, time, and works you submit. You can submit in text, files, or other formats. Once this is finished, which is simply done through your web browser, in the future, when a work is stolen, you have the database which can be used to verify you have the work registered and give the dated proof of your work.
Honest remember, works on the internet; from photos, to cartoons, to articles; are not free unless they specifically state they are in the free domain. However, also bear in mind that information posted on Wikipedia and sites like that may be free, but pasting an article copied from there is not an article you wrote and still violates the rules.
Read the shapely print before you post an article you “lifted from someplace else.” If it states “this must be original work written by you” then you cannot use Wikipedia articles as well.
For those utilizing the Article Dashboard software; make your article submitters provide valid contact information. Do not use any article without first verifying you have a design to reach them if a questioned work is posted. You should be able to contact anyone contributing information to your site.
Even though you may not have written the article (or lifted it) you ARE responsible for removing it once it has been demonstrated the article was not free for posting to your site. In addition, you may be required to provide proof of revenue (and to share it with the original author) the article may have generated. You may also be required to deny all of your clients and advertisers of the problem.
You MAY be legally liable if the article is registered copyright protected including monetary damages if you do not choose the article from your plot in a timely fashion.
Like the internet, browse the wealth of input available, but do not capture nor beget easy for others to steal (by allowing it to be posted to your site making you responsible for removal) the work of others.
It may force you to spend more time ensuring your articles are proper by an original author, but it may prevent you from receiving emails and letters that open with “Cease and Desist” and are followed by legal terms you may not be familiar with.
If you operate one of these sites, engage whatever time now to verify your sources have not posted plagiarized material you are distributing. If you do not, you may soon find out you are unknowingly distributing plagiarized words from others, and one day it will be discovered. Hopefully it isn’t your best selling article that could cost you your income with having to piece with the REAL author.
Do not sit idly by while others make off with your work, unless you do not care (which I refer you to the statement to ensure you clearly mark your work as free on the area). Bewitch the time to follow through and force sites hosting your ill-gotten work off. Only when authors band together to make sites earning money from your hard work remove your work, will these sites take the time needed to ensure they only post original material by the true author.
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Filed under Email Hosting Solutions by on Nov 11th, 2010. Comment.
The biggest problem interested in running a website is trying to fetch large amounts of traffic to it. There are advertisements all over the internet promising the magical solution to give you large amounts of targeted traffic. There are many ways to boost traffic by paying money in hopes of getting results. There are also many other solutions that are free. The only real limit to free advertising strategies is your own imagination.
Most popular forums on the internet procure at least a thousand unique hits a day. Since there are forums for every topic imaginable, you are sure to find a forum whose visitors are in your target market. This strategy only takes a few minutes a day and can bring in a large amount of traffic. On a forum that is related to your topic, register and add a creative advertisement in your signature. The key is to make the advertisement work is to make the forum members curious about your advertisement. By doing that, the members will be engaging enough to click on the advertisement, thus delivering traffic to your website. It is important to make at least a couple of relevant posts in the forum with quality content in the posts. The more forums you consume, the more traffic you can get.
Contact websites that are about the same topic as your own and offer to host an advertisement on your website in exchange for the website hosting an advertisement for your website. Don’t get discouraged if some webmasters turn down your offer or don’t respond. Keep trying and eventually you will get some webmasters who will want the extra advertising. The quality links will also help improve your search engine rankings which are an added bonus to this strategy.
One of the simplest strategies is also one of the most overlooked ones. Many people just expect their websites to appear in the major search engine listings. It is important to manually submit your website to as many search engines as possible. It may seem a waste of time to submit to smaller or newer search engines, but those can be a major source of web traffic. The smaller and newer search engines have less competition for the best keywords, giving you better search rankings. You never know which of the small or unusual search engines could become the next tall thing, and if you already have solid rankings in those search engines, it is easier to beget those solid rankings if any those search engines become the next Google.
Make sure that you add a good Meta description in your web page’s source code along with safe Meta tags. Use target keywords relevant to your website as well as keywords that are not commonly faded for your topic. Execute sure you use your main keywords in your Meta description as well as in your website title.
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Filed under Email Hosting Solutions by on Oct 28th, 2010. Comment.
- organize
- delegate
- get all the ducks in a row
If you are in charge of hosting an event, party or festival of any magnitude, say for work, school, church or an organization there is a basic plan you need to follow to attend to all the details. Here is a ’schedule’ of tasks.
Two Months before the event:
Check on any licensing you may need. Chances are, there is nothing to worry about, but if you will need to check on permit for:
selling items or tickets – IRS, (are you 501 C3 status? non-profit? )
raffling items or money – gaming commission
selling or serving alcohal – zoning, licensing, age restrictions
selling food – health department
lighting candles or having a fire – marshall approval.
transportation, rides, hayrides, inflatibles (Moon Walks, etc.) insurance issues; city ordinances or codes
animals – health codes; ordinances
In general, check the blanket policies of the organization you work with or under. What are your by-laws? Group codes? etc.
Delegate: Depending upon the size of your event, you will need to build tasks. If you are an organization and you have a board, each board member can take the task that fits their role. Ask for RSVPs and volunteers. Don’t try to go it alone! Let others allotment their talents. .
Get the word out: Insert newsletter or bulletin announcemenst, print and post flyers, or start a phone chain or email invitiations. Will you invite the general public or have a limited guest list? Set up a table after school, after church or activity meetings.
Take an informal head count: How many will be involved? How many children and what ages? Will it be a family affair?
Determine your budget: What is your overhead? Will you collect donations of food, supplies, etc? Will you need to charge money? Will you sell tickets? Will this be a fundraiser of some sort?
Find a location: A large basement? A church hall? A school gym? A barn? Will you need to rent a facility?
Decide upon activity locations: Outdoor, indoor or both? Will you have scavenger hunts, hayrides, hay mazes, etc that will be outside? Consider your local weather.
Network your volunteers: How many activity helpers will you have? Who donate food, craft supplies, etc? Who could cut out, assemble or fabricate items you’ll need for activiites? Will you need shoppers? Phone callers? etc. I like to call upon senior citizens who might like an opportunity to be eager.
Prepare your agenda: ( see sample below) How many activities? Who will man each one? How will you arrange space? Where and when will people eat?
Assign coordinators: Consider this: get each game or activity coordinator responsible for preparing a list of supplies and prizes and making or gathering materials. If one family or person takes care of each activity it will run smoother and not be overwhelming for a few folks. Family members can take turns manning the activity so everyone can participate. Give each coordinator a budget or spending limit based upon your initial budget analysis. A simple plot is to divide your activity budget by the number of activities. (ie $200- 10 activities = $20 each). But do remember that some may cost more.
Circulate order forms and dwelling a bulk order: Give each coordiantor time to plan their activity and list what will be needed. If you will order from a catalog, ask that supply or prize lists be in about three weeks ahead of time. Send bulk order from whichever catalogs or online sources you use.
Consider purchasing durable goods: This might be a good annual event. If you buy game supplies, like a bean bag toss game, store them from year to year.
In the week ahead:
Send out reminder emails.
Shop for food and store supplies. Freeze perishables.
Decorate area. Don’t inlafte anything until the day of the party. Inflatibles lose air overnight.
Set up games, activities or booths.
Check for anything you might be missing.
Keep in a last newsletter/ bulletin reminder.
Most of all, remember to have fun yourself!
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Filed under Email Hosting Solutions by on Sep 11th, 2010. Comment.