Blogs

For many non-profits, computers and other technology are acquired on an ad hoc basis. As organizations grow, they can end up with a bunch of technology that is poorly tracked, with systems with different levels of reliability, compatibility and usefulness. Eventually this approach leads to lost productivity and opportunities for organizations.

As nonprofit leaders and staff, it seems that there’s always more to do and never enough time to do it. So looking after your organization’s technology - an area that might be out of your comfort zone - is one more thing that might slide down the priority list.

On the other had, technology is extremely important for any organization, no matter what your mission. Good technology helps you to be more efficient - to save time and reduce duplication. It also helps you to be more effective - to increase the impact of your work.

Hello and welcome back!

This week I'd like to address the most common question I've received to date: How Do I Track My Microsoft Allotment, and How Often Can I Order?

There have been a lot of changes to the donations program since we launched, and one of the biggest is that you are no longer limited to ordering from Microsoft once every year.

A couple of weeks ago I was given the opportunity to speak at the Ontario Coaches Conference about cloud computing and how coaches can take advantage of this trend.

This post was written by Ben Teoh, graduate project officer for online content at Connecting Up Australia. It originally appeared on the Connecting Up blog.

Hey all! Welcome to the first proper edition of Accidental Techie!

This week we're going to go through how the process works when you request a donation from our Symantec Enterprise program. Symantec's fulfillment process for endpoints and other protection is a little different from the other donors, and I get a lot of questions about it.

In order to stay up to date on what's going on in the world of technology - and nonprofit technology in particular - I follow quite a few blogs and twitter feeds. There's a lot of great content out there but if you don't have the time to stay on top of things (and even if you do!) it can be overwhelming. So, for those of you who have less time to do all this "listening" on nonprofit technology, I'm posting a blog on Fridays with the top resources I found in the last week.

By: Kristen Scott, TechSoup Canada Volunteer

As a charity – of any size – there are few things as important as being able to properly accept, process, receipt and track donations made online. Without this capability day-to-day operations can be challenging, if not impossible. There are a ton of options out there for every kind of charity. The difficulty is, of course, when faced with a sea of options, which do you choose? Or, how do you even narrow it down?

Many of the people I speak to every day make a point of telling me they “aren’t a computer genius”. I always laugh and say, hey, neither am I! The fast pace of technology in our society means that sometimes it seems impossible to be on top of your organization’s needs.  Some of our members hire IT consultants to manage for them, and some of them are forced into the role of technical wizard due to budgetary or size restraints. This column is for you, the accidental techies.

We want to learn more about how your organization uses traditional and cloud-based technology and about your plans for the future.