Tag: TechSoup

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Webinar: Online Collaboration Tools

I just attended TechSoup’s latest free Webinar: Online Collaboration Tools, steamed live at the Plush amphitheater. Speakers were Jon Warnow from 350.org, Jay Boren & Ronald Ho from Google.

First, 350.org: Jon talked about some of the tools his org relied upon to pull off large scale offline events. Last year they held 352 events in a sing day of action. Main points:

  • Event organization must be done “in the cloud” to allow collaboration & productivity when traveling.
  • Skype for communication, planning.
  • Dropbox filesharing. Stores files in the cloud and on your computer…all team members can access from any location. Also uses democracy.org, Salsa platform (browser-based organizing/constituent tools), and Flickr, of course, to organize their thousands of photos.

Next up – Google Apps: free communication, collaboration and publishing tools. (Free for orgs with up to 50 staff). Their goal is to make collaboration easy and run “in the clouds” so anyone can access. (Wow, ‘in the clouds’ is certainly the phrase du jour!)

Note: Jay Boren authors monthly newsletter for nonprofits on Google resources; sign up info is here: http://www.google.com/nonprofits/

  • Google Docs: free, secure file creation and storage! Can edit files anywhere there is internet access. Can select who can access/edit. Can bulk upload to your computer/server.
  • Google Calendars: share calendars, access remotely
  • Google Mail (Gmail): can have custom .org email for all staff
  • Google Sites: Can use for secure company Intranets and easily create rich websites. Easy form creation. Ideas for form use: Silent Auction, Constituent registration, question/feedback

All apps are mobile as well, so you can access your stuff while on the go. Comprehensive tutorials and training are provided for all google apps.

Links to webinar recording and presentation will be posted here: https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/schedule/display.do?udc=6lm4z63b0iwm

Written by: emellsmere

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NPC Opportunities: Weekly Update from Nonprofit Commons

Weekly Update from the Nonprofit Commons

Events this week: 8:30AM Friday meeting at the Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheatre http://bit.ly/nonprofitcommons will give you a direct teleport to our main gathering area
Wharf Ratz happens Tuesday nights at Aloft Nonprofit Commons, northern side wharf with Brena Benoir and Coughran Mayo!

WEBINAR: Online Collaboration Tools Thursday, August 26, 11 am Pacific time at the Plush Amphitheatre
It doesn’t matter if your organization is large or small, or if you have a complex network or have no server at all. Knowing about online collaboration tools can help organizations and individuals be more effective, for less money, especially when your staff is not located in one central location.

In this free webinar, Kami Griffiths will interview Jon Warnow from 350.org to learn about the tools that they use to accomplish their mission specifically Google Apps, Skype and Salsa Labs-Democracy in Action. We’ll also hear from Jay Boren, from Google, who will provide more information about Google Apps and the ways that nonprofits and libraries can take advantage of this suite of free tools.

Last week at the NPC:
Megan at TechSoup (Penguin Kuhn inSL) announced changes to the blogging system on www.nonprofitcommons.org and invited our tenants and community members to get involved as bloggers. Talk to Megan if you would like more information on how to become a blogger!
Layal (Ninlil Xentiltat inSL) shared progress with the Community Gateway project, soon to be installed but also decommissioned as an official gateway as Linden Lab is discontinuing the focused orientation program.
Evonne (In Kenzo inSL) introduced the estate managers on each sim and opened the door for new estate managers to join our team on ECO Commons. We are working with the Anshe Chung team to place new estate managers on Plush while updating our lists for the NPCHelp Desk.
Jessica (Kali Izdiak inSL) introduced the Field Trip idea for visiting other sims with our community, a mix of good building inspiration and fun exploring new places.
Glitteractica Cookie will be away for a few more days and Kali, InK, Ninlil and Penguin can assist any tenants by emailing nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org

Submit your Projects to the FACT Social Justice Challenge at NetSquared
The French American Charitable Trust (FACT) and NetSquared are pleased to announce the second annual FACT Social Justice Awards. Submissions are now open for your innovative Projects that leverage web and/or mobile technologies to foster collaboration around social justice issues. Learn more about the Challenge and how to participate here: http://netsquared.org/challenges/fact-social-justice-2010

Classes: August 26th at 1PM with Builders Brewery: 1:00 PM SLT
PUTTING IT TOGETHER WHEN BUILDING A HOUSE (or office)
Instructor: Auryn Beorn at Builders Brewery, Dockside
When we build a house, it’s common wanting to add some nice features, as doors that open/close remaining linked to the main build, having a controller that allows us to tint the windows or setting lights ON/OFF. So let’s put it all together in this class, and build a fully featured house. Class length: 90 minutes. Prerequisites: Editing and linking prims, editing scripts.

In case you missed: The Digital Catalog was released by TechSoup Global recently featuring all services and stock available to nonprofits! Visit the Digital Catalog at http://home.techsoup.org/pages/catalog.aspx

Thank you for your contributions to the Nonprofit Commons! For questions contact nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org for fastest response.

Written by: InKenzo

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Weekly Update from NPC: August 17, 2010

Weekly Update from the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life

Events this week: 8:30AM Friday meeting at the Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheatre http://bit.ly/nonprofitcommons will give you a direct teleport to our main gathering area!

August 19th at 11AM: WEBINAR TechSoup for Faith-Based Organizations http://bit.ly/tsfaith

Last week at the NPC: Steven Toussaint is our newest resident on Health Commons with the new Alzheimers Association of NYC: Visit their site at http://www.alz.org/nyc/ or check out their new hilltop office on Health Commons!

In Kenzo and Ninlil Xentiltat (Evonne and Layal) gave a detailed Flickr tutorial on how to use the #NPSL tag on uploaded photos along with how to create groups, sets, printed goods, badges for your website and inworld Flickr applications.

Ninlil shared progress on the Community Gateway that will be installed soon on Aloft Nonprofit Commons with the help of Parhelion Parou and Brena Benoir, thank you all for your ideas and contributions.

A special note that the new NPChelp@nonprofitcommons.org alias is now operational for SL-related mentor questions, there are also 6 mailboxes on the four NPC sims that will allow you to drop a request directly to our mentors.

Glitteractica Cookie will be away for the next two weeks but Kali, InK, Ninlil and Penguin will be around to assist any tenants by emailing nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org

Classes: August 20th at 3PM with Builders Brewery: 3:00 PM SLT SCRIPTING: Reading Notecards: The Truth Game Instructor: Auryn Beorn Builders Brewery, Dockside I’m sure that, at least once in your life, you all have played “truth or dare”. Wouldn’t it be nice if we were able of setting an object for playing the first part, “truth”, with our friends? Wouldn’t it be nice, too, if we could learn the basics of working with notecards at the same time?

In case you missed:
Boost your fundraising: On August 17 and 18, get GrantStation for only $99. Identify private and government grantmakers with GrantStation’s online database and use the tutorials to secure funding. Already have a GrantStation membership? Add another year during this two-day offer. http://www.techsoup.org/stock/promo/?cg=sp Have more questions about GrantStation? Post them here: http://bit.ly/gstation

Thank you for your contributions to the Nonprofit Commons! For questions contact nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org for fastest response.

Written by: InKenzo

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NEWS! Weekly update for 8/9/10 from the Nonprofit Commons

NPCommonspeak
Weekly Update from the Nonprofit Commons

Events this week:
8:30AM Friday meeting at the Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheatre
http://bit.ly/nonprofitcommons will give you a direct teleport to our main gathering area!
We will be doing special tutorials during the month of August during our Friday morning meetings, so come this week for tips and tools on using Flickr for your organization.

There will be no Grant Station webinar in Second Life this week as previously noted in our weekly update – however you can register and attend this webinar through www.techsoup.org web access.

Last week at the NPC:
EmmaGNP Seaside from Great Nonprofits shared an opportunity to be featured as part of the Science and Technology Campaign. Eligible nonprofits should visit the www.greatnonprofits.org website and ask others to vote for their organizations.
Penguin Kuhn from TechSoupGlobal shared changes to the Nonprofit Commons blog and website. The blog is now the front page to our site and tenants are welcome to apply to blog with NPC.
We discussed plans for the new Community Gateway being installed on Aloft Nonprofit Commons.
Layal and Evonne (Ninlil Xentiltat and In Kenzo) shared the Stories of Impact production plan for short machinima videos to feature our tenants, events and partners at NPC. Virtual Helping Hands and the National Service Inclusion Project are our first featured partners and you can look for more videos up this week at http://youtu.be/E3vuBsIK3NI and http://youtube.com/TechSoupVideo
Glitteractica Cookie will be away for the next two weeks but Kali, InK, Ninlil and Penguin will be around to assist any tenants by emailing nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org

Classes:
August 12th at 6PM with Builders Brewery:
BEGINNING BUILDING – Learning the basics, lesson 1 with instructor DeAnn Dufaux Builders Brewery – Dockside (Class 1 of 5) – This is the first class of the series. During this series, we’ll go over some of the building tools that, even if you have built something, perhaps you haven’t thought to use or don’t know what they’re for. Instructions will be for both viewer v.1.23 and v. 2.0.

In case you missed:
The Online Community Managers Meetup is hosted monthly at TechSoup Global in San Francisco and at the Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheatre on the fourth wednesday of the month and the next live event will take place September 22nd. From last week’s event here are two quick links—
The first link to Ben Rigby’s presentation on SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/benrigby/ocm-presi
The second link is to the follow-up discussion with The Extraordinaries, prompted by our in-person discussion: http://forums.techsoup.org/cs/forums/t/30701.aspx

Thank you for your contributions to the Nonprofit Commons! For questions contact nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org for fastest response.

Written by: InKenzo

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Extra, Extra!: Ben Rigby talks micro-volunteering and community

Written by guest blogger, MeiMei Fox, @meimeifox and cross-posted to TechSoup blog.

 

 

 

Ben Rigby of the Extraordinaries spoke at the SF Online Community MeetUp and got the conversation rolling on micro-volunteering and building mobile communities.

Update: Ben Rigby’s presentation on SlideShare.

The Opportunity: Why don’t people volunteer?

They don’t have time. Or so we say. Yet we play hundreds of hours of solitaire. We watch 1 billion YouTube videos and spend 270 million hours on Facebook every day. With that time, we could build 40 Empire State Buildings every year. So we have spare time. We have instant internet access thanks to smart phones, and even in the developing world people have mobile phones. And surveys show that we want to help – so there is a desire.

The Solution: Micro-volunteering!

You can volunteer in minute moments, like when you’re standing in line at the post office- you don’t need to go anywhere. You can do it from your mobile phone- you don’t even need to be on a computer or have internet access. Obama raised $500 million, $80 at a time through crowdsourcing micro-donations. The Extraordinaries is doing the same thing for volunteering.

Here are a few examples:

Google image labeler is a technology where you see an image, and you write tags describing what you see. That meta-data makes the image accessible to search engines. So the Extraordinaries built an app whereby, as a volunteer, you could scroll through images and tag them for non-profits like the Smithsonian, which has archives of millions of photos that are untagged and therefore unsearchable.

One day after the Jan 12 earthquake in Haiti, the Extraordinaries turned this technology into a way to find missing persons. They brought images in from news agencies, then put together a survey asking their volunteers to identify what they saw: “Can you see a person in this photo? Age? Gender? Buildings nearby?” People would add meta-data to the photos, and the Extraordinaries created a search engine that allowed you to narrow down images from the news based on this info. You could type in, for example “young, female, pink shirt” and it would narrow down thousands of images to 50 photos. Then they pulled the missing persons feed from Google’s database, and had volunteers sift through one-by-one: Do you see the missing person in the photo on the right in this photo on the left? They found 24 missing persons in this way!

Another example of an Extraordinaries app was when they asked micro-volunteers to find defibrillators, take a picture, and tag them with mapping software. This generated a map of defibrillators everywhere, which is vital because emergency responders only have ten minutes to get to a defibrillator before a person dies from a heart attach.

The Extraordinaries is a for-profit company, in that it wants to generate enough revenue to be self-sustaining. Its original funding came from angel investors, and grants they won from Netsquared and the Knight Foundation. They tried selling their micro-volunteering services to non-profits, but it didn’t work—the non-profits all said no. So now the Extraordinaries offer their services to non-profits free of charge. But they’re selling their services to corporations. 92% of Fortune 500 companies have volunteering efforts, and The Extraordinaries allows them to add an online component to their existing programs.

Unlike VolunteerMatch or Idealist, the Extraodrinaries operates on a networked model. The key is many people doing many, small bits of work that add up to task completion.

The main problem the Extraordinaires is having at the moment is attrition. People register—the iPhone app has over 40,000 downloads—but then they get bored after four days and stop volunteering. So the company’s top priority is to figure out how to build community in order to keep people engaged. How can the Extraordinaries make micro-volunteering as exciting and fun as Farmville?

They know that people don’t like interacting in a vacuum. At first, people had no way of knowing who else was volunteering or, even more importantly, of sharing what they were accomplishing. So now the Extraordinaries has started to add community features, such as being able to Like a piece of advice that someone gives to a non-profit, or being able to share how many hours you’ve volunteered with your friends/team members. But they’re still looking for solutions to this issue – so please share your ideas with BeExtra.org!

Written by: penguin kuhn

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Weekly Update from the Nonprofit Commons

Weekly Roundup from the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life

Upcoming events @NPSL
Friday meeting 8:30AM every week at the Plush Nonprofit Commons (NPC) Amphitheatre
Weekly Tuesday night social meetups are happening on Aloft NPC at Wharf Ratz, 8PM
Grace Culbertson is hosting a discussion and prayer group at the National Day of Prayer/Tennessee office on Aloft on Tuesday at 7PM.

Events streaming at the Plush NPC Amphitheatre:

July 27th at 11AM: Microsoft 2010 Assistance, learn more about Office 2010: http://bit.ly/Microsoftwebinar

July 28th at 7PM: Online Community Managers Meetup with Ben Rigby from the Extraordinaries live @TechSoup in San Francisco: http://www.meetup.com/octribe/calendar/13319849/

Self-Guided Tour Text Needed!
If you have not submitted your tour text please email nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org

with:
Sim Name (Aloft, Plush, Health or Eco) 

Office Number (if you don’t know it please leave blank and we’ll find it for you) 

Avatar Contact information (in world name and possibly email address) 

NPO Name 

Website URL 

Purpose or Mission of your org
Please keep text to three sentences and send this in by Tuesday July 27th for this update!

Last Friday’s meeting:
Amy Sample Ward (Amytron Helendale inSL) came to share about the Netsquared network connected to TechSoup, including local meetups in many cities and innovation challenges for social benefit organizations. To find a local meetup visit http://netsquared.org/local
Jori Clarke (Mali Sunflower inSL) who met Susan Tenby (Glitteractica Cookie inSL) at Games for Change, shared her work providing safe online spaces for kids with KidsCom.com across game worlds and virtual spaces, her slides are available online at http://bit.ly/KidsCom.
Sapna Cheryan (Marie Dirval inSL) led us through her research on stareotypes in Second Life as we looked at ways in which race, gender, age and other distinctions affect our inworld relationships: her slides can be viewed at http://bit.ly/DebunkTypes.
Volunteer questions and ideas please email nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org or find Layal Rabat (Ninlil Xentiltat) inworld. For mentorship needs please find Sandra Andrews (Ozma Malibu inSL) at the NPC.

Featured Org of the Week:
Steven Toussaint of the Alzheimer’s Association of New York has been building a new office on the Health Commons sim where he will be focusing on Alzheimers education. Please welcome him to the hilltop! For more info visit http://www.alznyc.org

Community Gateway:
Brena Benoir and Ninlil Xentiltat are working with our amazing volunteers at NPC to redo our community gateway, updating lessons for Viewer 2 and streamlining the orientation process for new avatars. Please contact Brena or Ninlil to assist in this endeavor on Aloft.

Event Listings:
Avatars RevCheryl Swansen and Jaywick Forcella will be sharing more with us on event listings in our upcoming meeting. Visit the NPSL event calendar at http://nonprofitcommons.org/content/event-calendar

Learn to do more in Second Life!
There are many classes every week inworld that can help you improve your skills at scripting, building, hosting events and creating unique interactive experiences.

Builders Brewery – Seamless Textures
Jul 28, 2010 6PM: www.buildersbrewery.com
Instructor: Avatar Robin Sojourner at Builders Brewery, Dockside
This class shows how to make seamless textures in Photoshop. Examples are given in PS, but the theory is good for any graphics application.

It is always good to see you at NPC for events, collaboration and common causes! If you have specific questions for our team or would like to be added to the agenda for an upcoming meeting please email nonprofitcommons@techsoup.org. Thanks for your volunteer service!

Written by: InKenzo

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Mixed Reality Learning Lab & more at the NCVS Conference in NYC next week

From Evonne Heyning with Claire Sale @techsoup:

The 2010 National Conference on Volunteering and Service (NCVS) is June 28-30 in New York City. The NCVS conference is an opportunity for volunteer and service leaders to get together for in-person networking and learning. If you’re going to be there we’d love for you to get in touch — or if you cannot attend, join us in Second Life or on the web!

Here’s a listing of live sessions and spaces hosted by TechSoup:

Mixed Reality Learning Lab
Susan Tenby from TechSoup Global along with Nonprofits in Second Life team members Evonne Heyning and Josephine Dorado

Dates: All conference long!


Location: In the lounge near the ballroom entrance corridor between the conference host exhibit spaces.
The team at TechSoup has brewed up a select menu of tools and strategies to provide a social media curriculum to conference attendees on how to explore Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and applications for engaging volunteers and supporters around the world.

Attendees can join a tour of the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life or learn how to use digital storytelling and Facebook for quick and easy updates to keep connected to supporters. Quick tips and tools will be provided on how to get started as well as support for more advanced users. Also, engage in mixed reality events as avatars and representatives from nonprofits around the world discuss their work both virtually and in their communities.

Join us in Second Life at the Nonprofit Commons!
Monday June 28: 7-10AM PST (10AM – 1PM EST)
Tuesday June 29: 7-8AM PST and 11-12:30PM PST (10-11AM or 2:00-3:30PM)
Wednesday June 30: 5:30AM PST (8:30AM EST)
NCVS Schedule

You can also watch this stream on the web directly.

Community-Driven Social Impact Session
Amy Sample Ward from NetSquared

Date: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 from 8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Eastern
 Room: 1471
This session focuses on strategies and case studies for creating successful community-driven media, events, and campaigns. Participants will learn about best practices and work in small groups to put learning into practice.

Technology Planning for Nonprofits Session
Catherine Hurd and Elliot Harmon
 from TechSoup Global

Date: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 from 2:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Eastern 

Room: 1374
This session will help participants to assess their organization’s technology needs and capacity; work with technical volunteers; and understand the role of technology planning as the foundation for an effective operating environment.

Get in Touch via Twitter
Will you be at the NCVS? We’d love to hear from you at @NetSquared, @TechSoup or @npsl. Or connect with us directly:

Amy Sample Ward: @AmyRSWard
Elliot Harmon: @ElliotHarmon
Susan Tenby: @Suzboop
Evonne Heyning: @amoration
Josephine Dorado: @funksoup

TrackBack: http://blog.techsoup.org/trackback/1360

Written by: InKenzo

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Tech Awards Laureates

Many of us are hard at work day and night applying technological tools to help mankind. Some of us get acknowledged, others are working hard and just have not caught their break yet. If you know someone, and you want to help them get that break, there’s a great competition going on to select Tech Awards Laureates. You can nominate someone by going to their website here: http://www.techawards.org/nominate/

Their website says that you can nominate an organization or an individual, and they would be in the running for a $50,000 cash prize for each category!!

The people you nominate should be who respond to humanity’s most pressing problems by applying a technological solution. They must demonstrate that they have sought to profoundly improve the human condition.

You can nominate people for one the following categories:
-Environment
-Economic Development
-Education
-Equality
-Health

Nominations will be accepted through March, 31st, 2010.

We are a community of people that engage in this very thing on a daily basis, and all of us know a few people who rock at doing these things. So help these incredible people get the recognition they need by nominating them. Spread the word about the competition to all of your friends and let’s find those Tech Awards Laureates that remain undiscovered and bring them out into the spotlight.

Written by: Layal

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AVATARS RAISE MONEY FOR HAITI THROUGH VIRTUAL EVENTS, GOODS, CAMPAIGNS

2/26-2/28 THREE DAY EVENT in SECOND LIFE

Virtual Haiti Relief with TechSoup Global’s Nonprofit Commons to help Haiti

Avatars from around the world are coming together to honor the Haitian people with a cultural festival designed to raise money for Haiti relief and rebuilding efforts.

From February 26-28th the virtual world of Second Life will play host to a festival highlighting organizations on the ground in Haiti using emerging technologies for rebuilding and aid efforts. Events will include a live music festival led by Kathey Fatica (Katydid Something in Second Life) along with nonprofit organizers of TechSoup Global’s Nonprofit Commons and Virtual Haiti Relief, an online organization formed by volunteers and nonprofit staff members within the virtual world as a response to the devastation in Haiti.

Nonprofit Commons is a four-island cooperative community with representatives from over 100 charitable organizations in ten countries organized by San Francisco-based technology provider TechSoup Global. Avatars can visit the Nonprofit Commons islands in Second Life to the Help Haiti Hub where they can take action, make a donation and visit a makeshift aid distribution center (SLurl to location in Second Life: www.tinyurl.com/teleporttoNPC). Events on Friday February 26th at the Nonprofit Commons will include speakers from real-world organizations giving aid and a virtual goods auction to raise funds for Haitian relief.

”The Music & Arts Festival for Virtual Haiti Relief will be an example of the rich environment that Second Life® offers. Featured throughout the area will be a number of exhibits and artwork, a sculpture garden, and stage. Users can walk their avatars through a 3-dimensional exhibit depicting interpretations of the devastation of Haiti with a map, examples of broken landscape, and a field hospital with only rudimentary equipment. In addition, the event includes informational exhibits and speakers from organizations working to restore a balance to Haitian life, along with a general art exhibit and 40 consecutive hours of Live Music for our world audience to experience,” explains Kathey Fatica, Virtual Haiti Organizer and Creative Director at Needham Fatica Advertising Agency. “It’s our goal to create not only an environment of entertainment but also of education and empathy.”

A charity ball for avatars in Second Life will be hosted by Brenda Bryan (Brena Benoir) of the national nonprofit organization, Preferred Family Healthcare, from 7-10 PM PST/SLT on Saturday February 27th. This virtual Second Life® event will feature live music and dancing on the water while raising money for the Virtual Haiti Relief campaign.

Live music will be featured around the clock beginning at 5AM PST/Second Life Time (SLT), Saturday February 27th, and continuing through to 10PM PST/SLT on Sunday February 28th. Performances celebrating the diversity of music in Second Life® include folk, rock, jazz, and classical music from international performers based in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America.

The Music & Arts Festival for Virtual Haiti Relief is being produced with the support of the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life and TechSoup Global. Visit the web for more information on TechSoupGlobal’s activities to help Haiti.

Linden Lab, creators of Second Life, have lent support to organizing and fundraising efforts within the Second Life community, providing space for memorials and outreach support. To date, dozens of events to help Haiti have been hosted within Second Life and throughout other virtual worlds.

Virtual Haiti Relief’s campaign in Second Life sends 100% of donations toward seven charities on the ground in Haiti:
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund: www.clintonbushhaitifund.org
United Nations World Food Programme: www.wfp.org
Oxfam America: www.oxfamamerica.org
Partners in Health: www.pih.org or www.standwithhaiti.org
Red Cross: www.redcross.org
UNICEF: www.unicef.org
Yele Haiti Foundation: www.yele.org

Virtual Fundraising Success
Volunteers have already raised over $6,000 U.S. dollars in the short time the campaign has been live. The Virtual Haiti Relief Donation Package includes information on the charity, a Donation Kiosk to raise funds, a Donation Vendor to raise funds by selling items, a informational notecard explaining more details, and a Virtual Haiti Relief t-shirt for avatars to wear. Avatars share fundraising tools with others through gift bags or group gifts created by Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir of Global Kids).

To learn more about Virtual Haiti Relief events at the Nonprofit Commons contact Kathey Fatica, festival event producer (katydidsomething@virtualhaitirelief.org) or Evonne Heyning, Nonprofit Commons Interactive Producer (evoamo@gmail.com).

Social Actions for Virtual Haiti Relief

You Can Help by Fundraising
Pick up a Virtual Haiti Relief Donation Package in Second Life:
Put out a kiosk found in any blue Haiti gift bag to help collect donations or drop some Linden dollars in a kiosk near you.
Kiosks and Virtual Hait Relief Donation packages may be found in Second Life: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Vesuvius/100/164/25
If you are a content creator, use the vendors to sell items where proceeds go toward fundraising
You can pass along the Donation Package to others that might be interested in raising funds for Haiti relief

Other Ways to Get Involved:
Blog, tweet/retweet, post on Facebook to help share with others outside of SL, follow @VirtualHaiti on twitter and join the VirtualHaiti Facebook group
Distribute the Donation Package through your Second Life groups
Beyond the events planned here by Nonprofit Commons and others involved with the larger Virtual Haiti Relief group, you can plan your own events towards Haitian relief and awareness. Events ideas include talks on Haitian culture/history, dances, candle lightings, music or DJ performances, art exhibits and shows
For Second Life event listings, photos, blog posts, or social media posting beyond Second Life, tag with: VirtualHaiti
For more information visit http://VirtualHaitiRelief.org; IM or email us contact@virtualhaitirelief.org

Written by: InKenzo

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Free Online Event and Webinar with SL broadcast Feb. 18 : Straight Talk About Telecommunications for Your Organization

telecom equipment imageDon’t know your VoIP from your POTS or even what these acronyms mean? Scratching your head on all the phone system options out there? Then this event is for you.

Join us Thursday February 18 at 11 a.m. Pacific for an informative webinar and forums event to help you avoid the buzz-word marketing and get the real picture on telecommunications.

We’ll be joined by telecommunications expert and longtime TechSoup star and forums moderator, Chris Shipley of Nutmeg IT and Kevin Lo, Lead Technology Analyst for TechSoup Global. Our hosts will address the various voice communication options (VoIP, PBX hardware, voicemail, etc.) available and how these differ. We’ll explore the pros and cons of different solutions, cost considerations, and examine what kinds of organizations would best benefit from different systems.

This live webinar kicks off the official launch of TechSoup’s new Telecommunications discussion forum.  After the webinar, our hosts will continue the conversation in the asynchronous (not live) forums event. We’ve gotten the conversation rolling with topics like how telecommunications is changing nonprofit work, Google Voice, and what VoIP services organizations are using. Head on over and post your questions and get expert advice on your telecommunications needs!

Here are all the ways you can participate in the event! Feel free to take part on any and all of these channels:

If you have any questions, please email community@techsoup.org.

Spread the word via Twitter and other social media sites by copying and pasting the following:

Join in free #techsoup forums event & webinar: Straight Talk about Telecommunications, 2/18:http://bit.ly/d0QfsP 

Image credit: Peter Kamaninski via Flickr

Written by: penguin kuhn