Surgeons Go Online for Help With Cases
When plastic surgeons in developing countries are confronted with difficult cases, they often don’t have colleagues nearby with whom they can consult. Interplast, a charity in Mountain View, Calif., is trying to lessen the effects of that isolation with an online system that lets those surgeons…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Google and YouTube Offer Charity Programs
Two leading Internet companies — Google and YouTube — have announced new efforts to help charities raise money and spread the word about their work online. Through the end of 2008, nonprofit organizations will be able to use the Google Checkout service to accept online contributions on their Web…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Two Organizations Announce Staff Changes
Two nonprofit technology groups are undergoing leadership changes: the Nonprofit Technology Network and the ePhilanthropy Foundation. On November 1, Katrin Verclas will step down as executive director of the Nonprofit Technology Network, a national organization for individuals, charities, and…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Charities Enlist Help to Review Legislation
Government watchdog groups have joined forces on a project that asks citizens to help investigate Congressional earmarks. Earmark Watch builds on databases that Taxpayers for Common Sense, in Washington, has created, which list thousands of measures inserted into 2008 spending bills by members of…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Offers of Technology Aid Often Go Unused
Few small grass-roots organizations in California take advantage of the free or low-cost services offered by nonprofit technology-assistance groups, or even know that those services are available, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of San Francisco’s Institute for Nonprofit…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Creative Online Campaigns Win ‘ePhilanthropy’ Prizes
The ePhilanthropy Foundation has presented its awards for excellence in nonprofit use of the Internet for fund raising and advocacy. Mama Cash, an organization in Amsterdam, received the award for best fund-raising campaign for its second annual Campaign 88 Days, an effort to educate the public…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Teenage Fund Raiser Posts Notes From Darfur
Nick Anderson, a teenager in Conway, Mass., has used the Internet to help raise tens of thousands of dollars for humanitarian aid in Darfur. Now he’s using the medium to share what he learned when he visited the troubled region of Sudan as a youth ambassador for Oxfam America. During the last…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Software Company Plans Stock Offering
Convio, an Austin, Tex., company that provides Web-based software for nonprofit groups, plans to go public. The company filed a statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission at the end of August announcing its intention to sell shares of common stock in an initial public offering. The…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: Celebs Gone Good Chronicles Charitable Activities of the Famous
Grassroots.org, a nonprofit technology organization, and SEO.com, a consulting company in Lehi, Utah, are offering free two-hour telephone consultations to help nonprofit organizations improve their visibility on Internet search-engine listings. For more information: Go to…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Grant Competition Seeks Plans for Healthy Games
Video games often get a bad rap for encouraging unhealthy, sedentary behavior. But the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is looking for novel ways that video and computer games can actually promote health and well-being. The Princeton, N.J., foundation is co-sponsoring an online competition called…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Many Donors Go Online to Learn About Charities
A new survey suggests that an organization’s Web site is important to all kinds of donors, not just those who make gifts online. The study found that nearly 40 percent of people who support nonprofit organizations either as a donor, volunteer, or advocate report that they consult online sources of…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Timothy Flowers won a prestigious Truman Scholarship while at Wabash College, and he had planned to use ALSO SEE:ARTICLE: Way to GrowARTICLE: After a Century of Operations, a Charity Starts Its Growth SpurtARTICLE: Community-Service Group Develops a Guidebook to Manage GrowthARTICLE: Charity Seeks…
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
Bits: MacArthur Foundation Announces Competition for Grants
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, in Chicago, announced it will hold a competition to give away $2-million for technology-related ideas. Part of the money will be awarded in sums of $100,000 to $250,000, to support creative online-education efforts. The rest will provide awards of…
By Sam Kean
Contributor
Blackbaud Buys Competing Charity-Software Company
Blackbaud, a company in Charleston, S.C., that provides accounting, fund-raising, and other financial software for nonprofit groups, will purchase eTapestry, an Indianapolis company, for $24.8-million, with possible additional payments of up to $1.5-million, depending on the performance of…
By Sam Kean
Contributor
Bits: Public Interest Registry Names Alexa A.S. Raad CEO
The Public Interest Registry, the Reston, Va., group that manages the dot-org Internet domain used by nonprofit organizations, has appointed Alexa A.S. Raad as its new chief executive officer. Ms. Raad previously served as chief marketing officer at DotMobi, an Irish technology company.…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Foundation Seeks Proposals for News-Media Grants
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is accepting applications for the second year of its Knight News Challenge, which will award $5-million to individuals, organizations, and businesses that propose innovative ways to use technology to transform local news. Among the projects that won grants…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor