Lots of people have already weighed in on Blackbaud’s purchase of Convio (two of my favorites: http://www.frogloop.com/care2blog/2012/1/18/blackbaud-buys-their-rival-convio-now-what.html and http://nonprofit-force.org/2012/01/20/the-convio-blackbaud-merger-one-customers-perspective/). Here my perspective.  Disclosures: I have clients that use both companies’ products, as well as products from their competitors, open source products, and homegrown solutions. I don’t invest in these or other companies that I advise [...]

Tags: Advancement Services, Donor Databases, Fundraising, Nonprofit Technology, NTEN

NTEN published my somewhat snarky predictions for nonprofits’ use of fundraising technologies in 2012. My overall predictions are that most things will be pretty much the same as last year (and 2010 and 2009, etc.): many nonprofits will struggle with out-of-date systems.  No surprise — many will also lack the funding to replace them.  But [...]

Tags: Advancement Services, Fundraising, IT Management, Mobile Communications, Nonprofit Management, Nonprofit Technology, NTEN, Online Fundraising, Social Media, Web, Web 2.0

Our friends at NTEN have launched a survey to examine nonprofits’ data ecosystems. Your first question is probably "what is a data ecosystem?" NTEN describes it as follows: The nonprofit ecosystem is a way of thinking about how data is shared by and flows across the different departments and activities in your organization. Similar to [...]

Tags: Databases, IT Management, NTEN, Software

What: NTEN is holding an online workshop on social media using a Choose Your Own Expert format. They’ve gathered a group of nonprofit social media experts to help you devise a solid organizational strategy and learn the secrets of a variety of social media tools.  After an opening plenary by Beth Kanter, you’ll choose one [...]

Tags: Advocacy, NTEN, Social Media, Web 2.0

Want to build your IT leadership skills without a travel budget? Our friends at NTEN are launching a 2-day virtual conference for nonprofit IT leaders. I’m thrilled to see this. I think there’s a big need for a "mini-MBA" for nonprofit chief information officers (CIOs), particularly those who came up through the ranks. NTEN describes [...]

Tags: IT Management, Nonprofit Management, Nonprofit Technology, NTEN

Today was the second session of my 2-part workshop for consultants and wanna-be consultants.  Jana Byington-Smith blogged it again, and here’s what she recorded.  We started by listing everyone’s burning issues, then discussed as many as we could in-depth. Presenters: Robert L. Weiner John Kenyon, John Kenyon Technology Consulting Michael Stein, Michael Stein, Inc. Eric [...]

Tags: Consulting, NTEN

I moderated a panel with the above title yesterday at NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference. Jana Byington-Smith did a great job of capturing the discussion for the conference’s live blog. I’m reposting her summary below. The list of links she mentions is at http://www.rlweiner.com/nten/consultant_resources.pdf You can read all of the conference blogs at http://nten.org/ntc-live So You [...]

Tags: Consulting, NTEN