Bits: New Information Online About Charity Fund Raising and Management

August 23, 2001 | Read Time: 1 minute

Independent Sector has published a report that offers highlights from its spring research forum on nonprofit technology. Among the topics discussed: the technology gap between large and small organizations, characteristics of charities that are successfully using technology in their work, and the Internet’s potential to build social bonds. To get there: The summary report is available at http://www.independentsector.org/PDFs/factfind4.pdf; more than 25 research papers presented at the meeting are available at http://www.independentsector.org/programs/research/
2001SRF_presenters.html.
Sixty-five percent of charity officials responding to an online survey said that the slowing economy had affected their ability to raise money. The results are based on 469 responses to the survey, which the Greater New York Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals conducted on its Web site June 27 to August 8. To get there: Go to http://www.nycnsfre.org/cgi-bin/survey/survey.cgi?survey
_name=survey.
The Tech Surveyor Web site helps charities create an inventory of their networks, computers and other equipment, and software, as well as the technology skills of their employees. The site — developed by NPower, a Seattle nonprofit organization that provides technology assistance to other charities — takes users through a series of work sheets to collect the information, and allows users to save their data on the site. To get there: Go to http://www.npower.org/techsurveyor.

About the Author

Features Editor

Nicole Wallace is features editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has written about innovation in the nonprofit world, charities’ use of data to improve their work and to boost fundraising, advanced technologies for social good, and hybrid efforts at the intersection of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, such as social enterprise and impact investing.Nicole spearheaded the Chronicle’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and reported from India on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding after the South Asian tsunami. She started at the Chronicle in 1996 as an editorial assistant compiling The Nonprofit Handbook.Before joining the Chronicle, Nicole worked at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and served in the inaugural class of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.A native of Columbia, Pa., she holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.