Charities’ Need for Better High-Tech Tools Was Highlighted by September 11

Technology chores, such as upgrading anti-virus software and backing up computer networks, need to be made easier for charities, a nonprofit consultant told participants at the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network Roundup here.

That need became especially clear to charities that suffered telecommunications problems after the collapse of the World Trade Center, said Hal Allen, senior manager of consulting at NPower NY, a New York nonprofit group that coordinated an ad hoc coalition of technology-assistance groups, foundations, technology companies, and volunteers to help such groups.

“Nonprofits that had a stable infrastructure were the ones that were able to get back up and running quickly,” he said. “The people that had a tape off-site were able to restore their systems quickly.”

The September attacks also pointed to the importance of charities’ ability to gain access to their computer systems remotely. Mr. Allen said that for three to four months after the attacks, the only way for some organizations to function was by relying on employees working from laptops and home computers.

Mr. Allen told the people in the audience that he thought New York’s experience could help them in their own work as they tried to persuade wary charities about the importance of technology.

“The organizations that paid attention to their technology, had put some thought into it, were the ones that came back and were able to go back to mission,” he said. “I think this is an example that we can take forward to those reluctant nonprofits that don’t necessarily see the value of technology.”

Two hundred people who work in the field of nonprofit technology gathered at the Roundup to discuss their work, learn about new technology tools, and share their expertise with local nonprofit organizations. This year’s meeting was held in conjunction with the first conference of the Technology Affinity Group of the Council on Foundations, a group of foundation officials who head their institutions’ technology departments, as well as program officers who specialize in making grants for technology.

At a session on nonprofit data standards, Michael Gilbert, outgoing board president of the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network, known as NTEN, announced that the organization was going to take on the challenge of helping to establish a common set of rules to streamline the exchange of nonprofit financial information and had agreed to accept the assets of the Open Philanthropy eXchange, or OPX.

OPX was formed in July 2000 by a coalition of technology companies to develop data standards for nonprofit financial information (The Chronicle, July 13, 2000). The coalition included Blackbaud, a software company in Charleston, S.C.; Charitableway.com, a company that helped businesses put their employee-giving campaigns online, but has since gone out of business; and BlueStep, a company in Salt Lake City, formerly known as MyAssociation.com, that provides technology services to associations. Mr. Gilbert, who had also served on OPX’s board, said that OPX’s board had voted to discontinue operations and transfer its assets to NTEN.

For now, though, the data-standard project is “on the back burner,” said Ed Batista, NTEN’s executive director. He said that the organization has to figure out what it can do, given its limited financial and staff resources. “OPX is definitely on our radar screen. We’re trying to figure out how to move it forward.”

The organization’s current priorities, Mr. Batista said, are to develop an online database of technology-assistance groups and consultants and to continue to sponsor events that allow people in the field of nonprofit technology to get to know one another and trade ideas. To complement the annual Roundup, NTEN will be kicking off a series of smaller, regional conferences in San Francisco this July. Meetings are also scheduled for Chicago in September and for Boston in October, with more planned for next year.

The Roundup’s Cool Tools Science Fair gave participants a chance to share new technology products they have developed for the nonprofit world.

* TechRocks, a San Francisco nonprofit organization, introduced ebase 2.0, a new version of its database that allows charities to manage information about their donors, volunteers, and activists. Nonprofit organizations can download ebase free online at http://www.ebase.org. Organizations that want to set up ebase so that more than one person can be working in the database at the same time also need to buy FileMaker Pro.

Marshall Mayer, chief executive officer of TechRocks, said the new version is much easier to use. Many of the modifications that used to have to be made in FileMaker can now be made in ebase, eliminating the need for people using ebase to have extensive FileMaker expertise.

Security features have been bolstered in the new version, which allows the database administrator to assign users different levels of security access depending on their roles in the organization. “In version one, anybody could see just about anything,” said Mr. Mayer. But with the new version, he explained, volunteers could be assigned a level of access that allows them to see and work with a limited number of fields, while development department staff members could be allowed to see and enter data in many more fields.

The new version of ebase also allows users to send and receive e-mail from the program, instead of using a separate e-mail program as they did before. It also includes a module that allows organizations to publish information from ebase on the Internet. TechRocks has set up a Web site, Generic Nonprofit (http://www.genericnonprofit.org), that demonstrates how that can be done.

* NPower, a network of six organizations that provide technology training and assistance to charities, and TechRocks worked together to develop TechAtlas (http://www.techatlas.org), a Web-based tool that guides nonprofit groups through a technology-planning process, and generates a list of recommendations based on an organization’s answers to 39 questions on such topics as backups, hardware, networks, training, and virus protection.

More than 70 conference participants came to Orlando a day early to offer their services during the Roundup’s Day of Service. Conference organizers, working with two Orlando charities, matched 29 local nonprofit groups that had technology projects that could be accomplished in one day with teams made up of two or three Roundup attendees. Projects included software training, network upgrades, and technology assessments and planning.

The Day of Service is just as much of a learning experience for the technology professionals who volunteer as it is for the charities that receive assistance, said Cheryl Hanback, a technology consultant in Kansas City, Mo. By working in small groups with other participants, the volunteers get to see their colleagues in action.

“You’re seeing somebody else’s different style, the products that they may have produced and used, or just the way they handle the customer,” said Ms. Hanback. “It’s a mentoring process on both sides.”