I consider myself a fairly tech-savvy person. I've had e-mail since 1995, was doing webcasts in 1999. I'm usually one of the first people in my circle to say "Have you tried this?" But I have to say that I'm almost overwhelmed lately by the tech tools that are available for non-profit use and by the world of possibilities that they open up.
A few years ago, a blog entry on technology tools would have taken as much space as my earlier discussion about Policy & Procedure manuals. But in the past few years, technology and it's potential for good have just exploded in ways that require more than a single blog entry to cover.
The buzzword I'm beginning to see crop up lately is "the on-demand non-profit." While I have an idea of what this means, I still wanted to see what others were thinking, so a Google search (another technology boon) was in order. For the most part what I uncovered was technospeak that I think would overwhelm the average ED. What it basically comes down to is this . . .
Up until recently, for you to have technology to operate your organization, you had to buy servers, hardware, software, etc. This required a substantial capital investment and the services of at least one full-time IT person. In the past few years, however, we've seen the rise of web-based software that is sold to you as a service (or even available for free in some cases), which has capacity to substantially increase your capacity while simultanously decreasing your costs. Once you sign up, your service is generally up and running for you to use either instantaneously or pretty close to it. And many of these tools make information and services available anytime, anywhere (hence the phrase "on-demand").
The beauty of this new generation of web-based applications is that they put robust technology into anyone's hands for a fraction of their previous costs and with much less hassle. Take newsletters. In the past, you had the costs of writing, printing, and mailing the things. You had to maintain your contact list in one program, write your letter in another. And maintaining your list could be a nightmare. But now there are programs like Constant Contact that give you hundreds of e-mail templates, tools for managing your list and the ability to track the success of your campaign in a simple, easy-to-use package that can cost as little as $15/month, depending on the size of your list. And you can try the service out for free for 60 days, which means that you can try the solution BEFORE you buy, a feature that you haven't had with technology solutions of the past.
This is an example of how you can use new technology to do something you've always done more quickly, effectively, professionally and cheaply than you have in the past. But some of these new techologies open up possibilities you may never have even considered.
Take using multi-media . . . Previously we talked about YouTube, which allows you to post videos on-line for free. But you can also do podcasting for next to nothing (something I plan to do here in the not-too-distant future.)
For about $45 I bought a microphone and headset that plugs directly into my computer. With this, I was able to record a little two-minute practice talk. For FREE (do you hear me, FREE!) I downloaded the Audacity sound editor onto my desktop, which I then used to edit my podcast, removing the "ums," smoothing out the sound a little, basically making myself sound like I know what I'm talking about. Then for $5/month, I can upload this podcast and other sound clips on the Hipcast site which will host them and allow me to post them on my blog. When I want to share them with other listeners, the site will automatically embed a little player into a blog entry, which vistors can then click on and listen to anytime they want.
I should tell you that with absolutely NO EXPERIENCE, it took me about 2 hours to record, edit and upload a 2-minute practice podcast. It's taken me longer to put together a piece of Ikea furniture.
My point here is this--and it's one I want to explore in some depth--new technologies are putting some major capabilities within easy reach of the non-profit world. They are relatively easy to use, expand your reach and create options you may never have imagined. But for many non-profits, it's hard to see the forest for the trees. You're so busy doing what you do that you don't get the chance to really think through how this stuff could help. So my plan for a while is to help you do that. With your help, of course. If you have experience in using some of the technologies we're going to explore (good or bad) let us know. Or if you're looking for some particular problem or issue to solve and want to know how tech could help, let us know that, too. If I don't know the answer, then that's what the web is for--someone, somewhere does.
I think it will be interesting and fun to spend some time on. I always love thinking about how we can do things differently and better. Somewhere I think you could find some gold.
So let's take a look at this brave new world and see what it can do for you.
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