I got 7 versions of this today, at 2 different email addresses.  They included an attachment called bbb_logo.jpg but no graphics in the message body.  A friend posted about them on a listserve and said that clicking the link downloads a virus. This scam has been around for a while.  Here’s an article about a [...]

Tags: Scam, Spam, Viruses

Idealware is updating its 2009 report on low-cost donor databases.  If you’re a database vendor and want to be considered, fill out the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RCHJNGC  I assume their criteria will be similar to what they used last time, which was a starting cost of less than $4,250 in the first year and at least [...]

Tags: Donor Databases, Software

I get a lot of emails like the following from small nonprofits: We desperately need to get a new donor database and most of them are totally unaffordable!! Looking at the Idealware Low Cost Database report, I find that there are so many considerations that it is quite complicated to make a choice. I am [...]

Tags: Advancement Services, Donor Databases, Nonprofit Technology, Software

I received an email newsletter today with the following pitch for a web-based donor database (perhaps you can guess which one): The Cloud offers you constituent relationship management (CRM) software that’s less expensive, easier to maintain, more accessible, more intuitive, and with greater flexibility and capacity than you’ve ever seen before. How much would you [...]

Tags: Cloud Computing, Donor Databases, IT Management, Nonprofit Technology

I received the following email from Keith Heller, a database consultant who works with Raiser’s Edge and Common Ground clients: We’ve been involved with responding to many RFPs over the years and I have a general inquiry that is in your bailiwick. I often see RFPs that are quite lengthy and well-considered, and looking for [...]

Tags: Databases, Donor Databases, IT Management, Nonprofit Technology, Software

Idealware recently released its  Fundraising, Communications and Outreach. Unlike their earlier guides (to inexpensive donor databases, content management systems, online donation tools, etc.) this one is an actual book (84 pages, paperback) and costs actual money ($19.95, plus, I assume, shipping and maybe tax). They describe it as follows: What types of software should your [...]

Tags: Databases, Donor Databases, IT Management, Nonprofit Technology, Software

The continuing story of my new Thinkpad T400S laptop.  I finally feel like it’s starting to come together, particularly the upgrade to Windows 7.  Here’s the story so far.  Maybe my experience will help someone else. After transferring my data and software using Laplink (and after figuring out that I had to decrypt my files first) [...]

Tags: Hardware, Software

The Tides Foundation is accepting nominations for the annual Antonio Pizzigati Prize for Software in the Public Interest. The prize will award $10,000 to an open-source software developer whose work is helping nonprofits succeed. Nominations will be accepted through February 1, 2010. The winner will be announced this April at NTEN’s 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference [...]

Tags: Open Source, Software

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

The front-page headlines read "Hacker steals Twitter’s confidential documents," but the real story isn’t about Twitter — it’s that the stolen documents were stored online, "in the cloud." This could happen to any nonprofit or company storing data this way. As we’ve seen over and over, it’s amazingly easy to guess or steal passwords. And [...]

Tags: Cloud Computing, IT Management, Security