A New Resource for Disabled Students
Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, a nonprofit organization in Princeton, N.J., hopes that its new digitally recorded textbooks will make reading assignments and research a little easier for students who have physical or learning disabilities. This week the organization will introduce its new…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: Grants Aid Technology Projects, Fund-Raising Tips for Groups That Help Animals
The United Negro College Fund, in Fairfax, Va., has received $25-million worth of software from the Microsoft Corporation, in Redmond, Wash. This gift brings the total that the fund has raised for its Technology Enhancement Capital Campaign (The Chronicle, April 4) to $118.9-million in cash,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
California Group Starts Site to Aid Poor
Two years ago the Children’s Partnership, a public-policy organization in Santa Monica, Calif., released research findings that identified a lack of useful information on the Internet for people who are poor or are members of minority groups, have limited literacy skills, or do not speak English.…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Lighthearted E-Mail Drive Raises $80,000
Grist Magazine describes its environmental coverage as “gloom and doom with a sense of humor” -- an irreverent approach that the online publication successfully applied to its first e-mail fund-raising campaign. Based in Seattle, Grist publishes a daily e-mail digest that summarizes the day’s…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
New Donation Site Helps U.K. Charities
A new giving site allows donors in the United Kingdom to make online contributions to any charity in the country -- regardless of whether those groups have an Internet presence of their own. GiveNow.org is a joint project of the Charities Aid Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Kent, England,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Nonprofit Groups Shine in Web-Site Honors
Nonprofit organizations made their mark at the 2002 Webby Awards by taking top honors in eight categories. Given by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, an association for online-communication professionals, the Webbys honor Internet sites in 30 categories, such as activism,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Microsoft Gives Software to 5 Groups
The Microsoft Corporation, in Redmond, Wash., has awarded more than $3.3-million in software to five nonprofit organizations through its Technology Leadership Grant program. The largest grant, $2-million in software, was awarded to Special Olympics, in Washington, D.C. The organization plans to use…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Decision makers do not all agree on the best way for constituents to contact them, says a new report published by the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, in Washington. For e-mail activism networks to be effective, nonprofit organizations need to learn what form of communication officials…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Habitat for Humanity of Forsyth County, in North Carolina, thinks that the computer is an essential appliance for the 21st-century home, not unlike a refrigerator or washing machine, and it has begun a $1-million project that by the end of the year will put a computer in every home the organization…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bringing Technology to the Global Village
The Hewlett-Packard Company, in Palo Alto, Calif., and the Microsoft Corporation, in Redmond, Wash., have announced that they will earmark at least 20 percent of their philanthropy budgets for technology projects in developing countries. The companies made their pledges as they signed on to the CEO…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: Free Data for Nonprofit Groups; and a Conference on Using the Internet
The National Priorities Project, a nonprofit organization in Northampton, Mass., has added a feature to its Web site that allows visitors to create tables and charts using data on social needs, demographics, and government spending collected by federal agencies. To get there: Go to http://data…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
New Approach to Linking Corporations, Charities
Nonprofit organizations that are looking for corporate sponsors for their events and companies that are looking for events to support now have a place to find each other online. The new site, IEG SponsorDirect, lists sponsorship opportunities and allows companies to browse them at no charge. The…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Site Allows Sharing of Technology Curriculums
A new Web site allows charities to share their technology-training materials online. Created by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, a nonprofit organization in San Francisco that provides management and technology assistance to other charities, the site offers training curriculums on software…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Bits: An Online–Fund Raising Survey, and a Conference for Grass-Roots Groups
The AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy and ePhilanthropyFoundation.Org are conducting an online survey that asks charities about their online fund raising. The results of the survey are scheduled to be included in Giving USA, an annual report on the state of philanthropy that the trust expects to issue…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
Web Site to Aid International Projects
A new company founded by two former World Bank officials is working to create an online marketplace where people with an idea for an international-development project can promote their work and donors can contribute to the projects directly. Among the 113 projects listed on the Washington company’s…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
New Watchdog Group Puts Charity Ratings Online
A New Jersey nonprofit organization has entered the charity-rating business, and donors can check out the group’s findings online. Charity Navigator rates nonprofit organizations’ financial health based on both their short-term spending practices and their long-term prospects for success. So far,…
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor