Nonprofit Tech Resources:Tips from an Accidental Techie

Annaliese Hoehling, Membership & Outreach, NTEN

Flickr: Ana Santos

• accidental• random• distracted• isolated

4 Undesirable Characteristics of an Accidental Techie*

* From Mark Shaw, of NPower Michigan, in an article for the Chronicle of Philanthropy about the 5 characteristics of accidental techies

Accidental PurposefulThis isn’t tech for tech’s sake, after all.

Set some goals or target areas of knowledge for yourself Identify key terms that align with your targets

Flickr: caruba

Accidental PurposefulMy Targets: (these align with my job role and my organization’s mission)• Social Media

• ROI of Social Media• Social Media best practices for nonprofits• Social Media tools

• Online Communities• building online communities• engaging online communities• online community tools

Random Organized Identify and Prioritize the types of resources you’ll need

Flickr: gwen

Random Organized Training: In-depth knowledge and skills for a specific topic or technology

• Webinars: (Weekly/Monthly)• NTEN.org/webinars• Idealware.org/online-training

• Conferences: (Annually)• Nonprofit Technology Conference: http://nten.org/ntc

Research: Data, benchmarks, and case-studies for making decisions or making the case (grants/investments)

• NTEN.org/research• Idealware.org/reports• M+R Strategic Services: http://mrss.com/publications.html• Convio, Blackbaud, other providers

Articles and Insights from Experts: (daily/weekly, for trends and how-to’s)

• NTEN Newsletter, NTEN Blog: nten.org/signup; nten.org/blog• Beth Kanter’s Blog: bethkanter.org• Frogloop Blog from Care2: frogloop.com Examples and Ideas from Peers: (daily/weekly, for inspiration

and application)• Amy Sample Ward (soc-med): amysampleward.org• Peter Campbell (more techie): techcafeteria.com• Norman Reiss (marketing&comm): nonprofitbridge.com

Random Organized

Distracted Focused

Flickr: Chiot’s_run

Tagging and Tools to keep resources organized and at your fingertips (and save time!)

Distracted Focused• Tags• nptech, #nptech• social media, social media roi, online engagement

•Email Alerts• google.com/alerts • socialmention.com

set up custom searches using your keywords, and get daily or weekly emails with search results

•Delicious• http://delicious.com

bookmark online resources from anywhere, share with others, see others’ resources on similar tags

• Readers and Dashboards (organize your resources)• google.com/reader, igoogle.com• my.yahoo.com• netvibes.com

Isolated ConnectedI get by with a little help from my . . .

Flickr: James Cridland

Isolated Connected• NTEN Affinity Groups• groups.nten.org/ntendiscuss• groups.nten.org/NCTech4Good• groups.nten.org/onlinecommunitybuilding

• Progressive Exchange: progressiveexchange.org• LinkedIn• NTEN Members’ Group: linkedin.com/groups?gid=1053• Women Who Tech Group: linkedin.com/groups?gid=87431

• Twitter• twitter.com/annaliese_h• @NTENorg• @ntenhross• Twitter lists: http://mashable.com/2009/11/02/twitter-lists-guide

Purposeful Techie

• purposeful• organized• focused• connected

Flickr: knightp

Let’s stay connected!

• annaliese@nten.org• twitter.com/annaliese_h• delicious.com/ann.a.liese• slideshare.net/ntenannaliese

Flickr: countrygirlatheart