Technology Bits: Federal Grants, Arts Resources, Ways for Charities to Win Prizes and Earn Money

January 27, 2000 | Read Time: 1 minute

* The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Technology Opportunities Program is accepting applications for $12.5-million in grants through March 16. The program, formerly known as the Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program, awards grants to non-profit organizations and state and local governments to integrate technology into education, health-care, public-safety, and other projects. The program is offering workshops in Houston, Los Angeles, and New York to discuss the application process. For more information: Go to http://www.ntia.doc.gov.

* The Cambridge Incubator, a venture-capital company in Massachusetts, is sponsoring a competition to identify innovative ideas for Internet-based non-profit organizations. The winner will receive $250,000 in cash and services to start an on-line group. The company will accept business plans through February 29, and the winner will be announced this spring. For more information: Go to http://www.cambridgeincubator.com/entre/dotorg.htm.

* American Philanthropy Review will develop free, private e-mail discussion lists for local chapters of organizations of non-profit professionals, such as the National Society of Fund Raising Executives. American Philanthropy Review is a Rancho Santa Margarita, Cal., company that sponsors e-mail discussion lists and sells non-profit publications. For more information: Contact American Philanthropy Review, (949) 589-5938; ChapterProgram@CharityChannel.com.

* Enews.com has started a non-profit affiliate program that allows charities to raise money by selling magazine subscriptions through their Web sites. Charities will receive a 21-per-cent commission for every subscription sold, rather than the 15-per-cent commission offered through the company’s commercial affiliate program. For more information: Go to http://www.enews.com and select “The Newsstand Network.”

* Americans for the Arts, an advocacy group in Washington, has added the “National Arts Policy Clearinghouse,” to its Web site. The searchable data base includes more than 6,000 articles, reports, and books about the arts. To get there: Go to http://camt.artswire.org/clearinghouse.

About the Author

NICOLE WALLACE

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.