Ex-Supreme Court Justice Promotes Game Project
Sandra Day O’Connor does not play video games. But she believes in their potential. In her keynote speech at the Games for Change conference in New York this month, the retired Supreme Court justice discussed her latest project, Our Courts, an online interactive digital game and civics curriculum…
By Alison Stein Wellner
Contributor
Red Cross Experiments With Disaster Blogs
As flood waters inundated large swaths of the Midwest, the American Red Cross used two blogs to get information out to the public. The organization used blogging software to create an online newsroom that brought together information about shelter locations and feeding programs, news alerts, and…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: Microsoft Donates to the National Fund for Workforce Solutions
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is holding a workshop entitled “Amassing a Grass-Roots Army to Engage in Election 2008" in Washington on June 17. Another workshop, “Intelligence, Media Monitoring, and Tracking the Buzz,” is scheduled for September 30. For more information: Go to…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Grants Awarded to Test Ideas for Healthy Games
Games continue to capture the attention of the nonprofit world as potential tools for change. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is giving more than $2-million in grants through its Health Games Research program for a dozen studies that explore how video games can motivate people to take steps to…
By Alison Stein Wellner
Contributor
New Site Promotes Nonprofit Research
IssueLab, a new organization in Chicago, is using the Internet to try to win greater exposure for research conducted by nonprofit organizations. “Our efforts are evenly split between providing a platform for organizations to archive that work, and pushing that work back out to journalists and…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Text Messages Tested as Solicitation Tool
The Mobile Giving Foundation, in Bellevue, Wash., hopes to bolster charitable giving via text messaging by bringing charities and cellphone companies together to reach wireless users in the United States. “Mobile has not been available to nonprofits up until now,” says Jim Manis, founder of the…
By CANDIE JONES
Contributor
Charity Finds New Ways to Increase Online Gifts
Simple changes can often make a big difference in how much money a charity’s Web site raises. Amnesty International learned that lesson when it tested several different approaches to see which ones were most effective. Donordigital, a San Francisco consulting firm that helped the charity, has…
By Holly Hall
Contributor
Bits: OMB Watch Creates Regulatory Resource Center
The ninth annual “Grassroots Use of Technology” conference will be held June 28 at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. It is sponsored by the Organizers’ Collaborative, a group that promotes the use of computers and the Internet as tools for activism. For more information: Go to…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Online Auction Site Urges Users to Donate
EBay and its corporate foundation have started the Community Gives campaign to encourage people who use the auction site to donate to three charities — and to start things off, the foundation has made a $1-million grant to be shared by the groups. EBay users can make a gift either by donating the…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bank Site Culls Details on 70 Foundations
Grant seekers have a new online resource to consult. Bank of America has created a Web site that provides information about 70 foundations for which it serves as trustee or grant-making agent. Profiles on the site detail each foundation’s mission and areas of interest, application procedures, and…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Cable Network Discusses Its Philanthropic Role
CNN’s involvement in philanthropy began when officials at the network noticed two trends: celebrities’ growing advocacy on behalf of causes, and viewers responding to stories with e-mail messages and phone calls asking how they could help, Tonja Brown, director of strategic integration at CNN, told…
By Cassie J. Moore
Contributor
Online Grant Contest Draws 15,000 Votes
More than 15,000 people voted in the final round of the Make It Your Own Awards to select the four winning charities, which received $35,000 each for projects designed to get Americans involved in civic causes. The Case Foundation, in Washington, received 4,641 submissions, and more than 100…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: C-Span Invites Viewers to Submit Videos via YouTube
A two-day seminar on how to manage nonprofit technology projects will be held in Oakland, Calif., on May 20-21. The event is being organized by Aspiration, a San Francisco nonprofit group that seeks to connect charities to good-quality, low-cost software, and Idealware, a nonprofit organization in…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Few Charity Supporters Read Nonprofit Blogs
Only a small percentage of charity supporters — 6 percent — read blogs, social-networking sites, or RSS feeds to keep up with the organizations they care about, according to a new survey. But 43 percent of the people surveyed said that they were interested in receiving such information through…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Text Messages Alert Teenagers to Volunteer Options
Volunteer opportunities for teenagers are now just a text message away. Do Something, a youth organization in New York, has collaborated with VolunteerMatch, Idealist, and the Points of Light & Hands On Network to create an online database of volunteer openings designed for teenagers. Young people…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
White House Office Seeks Charity Videos
The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives hopes to highlight the work of nonprofit organizations that have received federal grants by encouraging them to create videos telling their stories. The Portraits of Compassion video contest is open to charities that have received…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor