New Site Offers Online Mapping
A pair of organizations in Boston have teamed up to create an interactive Web site that allows users to merge statistical information about cities and towns in eastern Massachusetts with mapping software. The site — the MetroBoston Data Common — is a collaboration between the Metropolitan Area…
By PETER PANEPENTO
Contributor
Arts Foundation Revamps Grants Process
Switching from slides to electronic images has helped the New York Foundation for the Arts save money and improve its grant-making review process. The foundation awards grants of $7,000 apiece to roughly 120 visual, literary, or performing artists in New York annually. Until last year, visual…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Charity Makes Web Video Accessible to More People
The migration of television programs, movies, and other video content to the Internet marks the newest challenge to a nonprofit organization that has worked for more than three decades to make broadcast media accessible to people with disabilities. Thirty-five years ago, WGBH, the…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: MobileActive Publishes Guide on Cell-Phone Advocacy
MobileActive, an Amherst, Mass., network of people who use cell phones to promote civic engagement, has published a guide on cell-phone advocacy. To get there: Go to http://www.mobileactive.org/guides. Charity Navigator has added to its Web site an interactive map of Africa that allows visitors to…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
New Prize Honors Software Developers
A new award will honor a person or group whose work is making it easier for people to start using free and open-source software. The APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize will be awarded by the Association for Progressive Communications, an international network of organizations that use technology to promote…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Kintera Shakes Up Its Top Leadership
The upheaval in the fund-raising software industry continues with a leadership shake-up at Kintera, a San Diego company that provides Web-based software for nonprofit organizations. Kintera has named Richard N. LaBarbera as the company’s new president, and Alfred R. Berkeley III has been elected…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: Public Interest Registry Seeking Nominations for .Org Advisory Council
The Microsoft Corporation, in Redmond, Wash., has announced a $5-million grant to NPower that is contingent on the organization’s raising an equal amount of money. There is no deadline by which NPower has to raise the money, but the national network of 12 organizations that provide technology…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Technology Meetings Scheduled for April
This year’s Nonprofit Technology Conference, which last year drew more than 800 charity technology officials, consultants, and company representatives, will take place April 4-6 in Washington. The meeting, entitled “Reinventing Politics: Creating Social Change From the Group Up,” is organized by…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Foundation Seeks Ideas for AIDS-Awareness Game
Socially minded video games have been used to raise awareness about poverty in the developing world, genocide in Darfur, and environmental degradation. Next on the list of topics to be tackled: HIV and AIDS. The Kaiser Family Foundation, in Menlo Park, Calif., and MTVu, an MTV network broadcast on…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Conservation Charity’s Site Tracks Fatal Attacks on Birds
Pet owners may consider the dead birds that cats leave on their doorstep just one of the quirks of owning a cat. But the American Bird Conservancy says that, added together, those offerings represent a significant pressure on bird populations already struggling with the effects of habitat loss,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Status and recent results of drives for endowments, capital improvements, and other needs Started or announced Closing date Goal Amount raised Purpose Brown U. (R.I.) Oct. 2005 Dec. 2010 $1,400,000,000 $939,000,000 For academic programs, the annual fund, facilities, public-health programs,…
Two Big Mergers Shake Up Charity-Software Business
Two big mergers of software companies that serve charities were announced last week, a sign of growing consolidation among businesses that help charities raise money and undertake advocacy and other activities online: Blackbaud, a company that sells software that helps charities keep track of how…
By Holly Hall
Contributor
Charity’s sale of water pumps and other devices helps impoverished Africans build successful businessesWhen Julius Karanja relied on the rains and a bucket to water his crops, all he could grow were beans, corn, and a few tomatoes. But six years ago, Mr. Karanja bought a manually operated water…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Social-service charity’s car dealership aims to put its clients on the road to a brighter future As used-car dealerships go, Ideal Auto — located here in this rural town near the western edge of ALSO SEE:Summary: Special Report: Charities and BusinessArticle: Making Money With a MissionLIVE…
By BRENNEN JENSEN
Contributor
Bits: TechMission Website Matches Volunteers with Christian Opportunities
TechMission of Boston has created a Web site that works to match volunteers with Christian opportunities in urban areas. Users can type their ZIP codes into a search engine and find a list of volunteer openings at Christian organizations. Christian nonprofit groups may post their volunteer needs…
By PETER PANEPENTO
Contributor
Two Charities Win Innovation Awards
The Tech Museum of Innovation, in San Jose, Calif., honored two nonprofit organizations with its annual awards recognizing creative use of technology to benefit societies around the world. The nonprofit winners, which each received $50,000: The Centre for Development of Disadvantaged People, in…
By Noelle Barton
Contributor