Convio

Convio is a software suite geared towards nonprofit organizations for their unique needs.

Convio

Convio offers an integrated software suite that helps nonprofits achieve success online. We understand the evolving needs of your organization and provide flexible solutions to help you use the Internet to reach, motivate and retain constituents. We also help you extend our platform to integrate with donor databases and Web 2.0 applications.

eCRM solutions

Choose Convio applications for specific functions in your organization, or combine them for a complete, integrated approach to engaging your constituents online. Our software suite includes applications for fundraising, advocacy, event fundraising, ecommerce, tribute/memorial sites and more. Whether you're sending email newsletters or posting an urgent fundraising appeal on your site, our Web content management and email marketing solutions can power your organization's entire online presence.

Data capabilities

All Convio products share a single online marketing database, Constituent360™. As constituents interact online with your organization by registering, making donations, clicking email links and more, Constituent360 collects information to give you a complete view of your supporters and their interests.

And, since integrating your online data with your offline database is essential for timely, accurate information for use across your organization, our Data Management services provide the framework for exchanging data with today's most popular donor databases.

Open platform

Convio is leading the way with our Convio Open initiative, providing nonprofits new ways to engage constituents. Whether it's integrating popular social media sites such as Facebook® or MySpace®, creating custom applications, or connecting your online and offline systems, we help you take advantage of emerging online trends to enhance constituent relationships and reach new market systems.

Convio solutions are offered through an on-demand, or Software as a Service (SaaS), delivery model. That means we manage the technology, so you can concentrate on fulfilling your mission rather than maintaining applications and servers. You simply access and use the software through any Web browser from anywhere, via one easy-to-use interface.

Invite Your Supporters to Fundraise for Your Organization

Another blog post regarding blogging

Invite Your Supporters to Fundraise for Your Organization

Such viral fundraising or micro philanthropy is just one of the 10 great ways nonprofits can benefit from blogs (their own and others) outlined by blogger supreme Britt Bravo. I've shared many of these same ideas, plus a few more, with you in recent posts but not this one, which is brilliant.

Britt points to some of the bloggers (Beth Kanter stands out in my mind) who have raised lots for causes, and the availability of plug-ins that bloggers in your audience can easily add to their blogs. This is a low cost, high potential means of enhancing your fundraising. Make it happen.

Here are a few examples to get you going:

• Darren Rowse celebrated ProBlogger's two- year anniversary by using his blog to raise $830 US ($100 AU) for Oxfam Australia with his Blogging for Chickens campaign.
• Beth Kanter raised $50,000 for the Sharing Foundation using a Network for Good Badge and similar tools to the ChipIn campaign, in three weeks.
• Chez Pim raised almost $62,000 with her Menu for Hope Campaign in 2.5 weeks using her food blog and an online auction.

That's the kind of virus every organization would like to have!

Here's how to start:

• Reach out to donors, inviting them to join your fundraising team -- featuring the invite in an e-newsletter is a great appraoch
• Ask those who have a Web site and/or blog to fundraise there
• Point them to a how to page on your Web site, with links to fundraising tools (such as the Network for Good charity badge, ChipIn and FirstGiving)
• Ask them to register online (just so you know what the response, and success rate is).

Please share your experiences with supporter fundraisers in the comments field below.

P.S. Now dogs can fundraise too. Just ask Jaspar.

10 Ways Nonprofits Can Use Blogs and Bloggers to Support Their Cause

vThis blog post shows one way that a nonprofit can put blogging to work for them.

10 Ways Nonprofits Can Use Blogs and Bloggers to Support Their Cause

I'm off for a couple days to go give a talk about nonprofits and blogging, but thought I'd share with you a post I wrote on my blog, Have Fun * Do Good, in preparation for my session:

Last March I was on a blogging panel for an event put on by the Alliance of Technology and Women. To prepare for the panel, I wrote up 10 Ways Nonprofit Can Use Blogs.

Next week, I will be participating in a session entitled, "Reach Out and Blog Someone" along with Steve Swenson of the Bakersfield Californian at the United Way of Kern County's Professional Development Conference for Nonprofits. You can read Steve's blog at the Eye of Bakersfield.

A lot of nonprofit blogs have come on the scene in the year between these events and I feel like it is time to revise and update my "10 Ways" post to include not only ways that nonprofits can use blogs, but also engage bloggers to support their cause. Blogs fall under the category of "social media" because they are, well, social. They are a tool that allows for a conversation between the reader and the writer, and for information to reach people quickly all over the world. It only makes sense that if your nonprofit is going to include a blog in its communications strategy that it includes other bloggers too.

So here it goes . . .10 Ways Nonprofit Can Use Blogs and Bloggers to Support Their Cause

1. Include bloggers on your press list.

There are a lot of people out there reading and writing blogs.

According to the blog search engine, Technorati's, "State of the Blogosphere" in October 2006:

Technorati is tracking more than 57 Million blogs.
Today, the blogosphere is doubling in size approximately every 230 days.
About 100,000 new weblogs were created each day

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project report, "Bloggers: A Portrait of the Internet’s New Storytellers" from July 2006:

8% of Internet users, or about 12 million American adults, keep a blog.
39% of Internet users, or about 57 million American adults, read blogs.
90% of bloggers say they have read someone else’s blog

That's a lot of folks who are including blogs in their media consumption list. When you are creating your press list, be sure to search on Technorati and Google Blog Search to find bloggers who are writing about your organization's issues and send them your press release as well.

2. Use Your Nonprofit Blog to Create Your Own Media Coverage

When the men accused of murdering Gwen Araujo, a woman they beat, bound and strangled after they discovered that she was biologically male, went to trial, the Community United Against Violence decided to use a blog to document the trial.

Because many of CUAV's volunteer bloggers were more knowledgeable about issues such as the trans-phobic tactics that were being used by the lawyers, they were able to address many issues that the mainstream media missed. The blog also kept people informed during the second trial, when media coverage had diminished, and eventually drew attention to the trial when the blog got news coverage.

3. Provide bloggers, and your supporters, with an RSS feed of news related to your organization so that they can spread the word for you.

Don't be afraid of RSS feeds. First of all, what are they? From Yahoo! News:

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" -- it's a format for distributing and gathering content from sources across the Web, including newspapers, magazines, and blogs.

Web publishers use RSS to easily create and distribute news feeds that include links, headlines, and summaries. The Christian Science Monitor, CNN, and CNET News are among the many sites that now deliver updated online content via RSS.

Human Rights Watch doesn’t have a blog, but they offer RSS feeds of human rights news to supporters so that they can blog about, and share information with others, about human rights issues.

For more information, check out the Tech Soup article, "Easy Ways to Publish Your Own RSS: Use RSS to Help Your Constituents Stay On Top of News and Announcements," and the Social Signal article, "Make Your Nonprofit More Effective with RSS Aggregation."

4. Include outreach to bloggers as part of your online fundraising campaigns.

As I mentioned in my post about "extra-organizational activists", there are bloggers out there who would love to raise money for your cause:

Beth Kanter raised $800 for the Sharing Foundation using the ChipIn widget plus her blog, social networks, Flickr and video in 26 days.

Darren Rowse celebrated ProBlogger's two year anniversary by using his blog to raise $830 US ($100 AU) for Oxfam Australia with his Blogging for Chickens campaign.

Beth Kanter raised $50,000 for the Sharing Foundation using a Network for Good Badge and similar tools to the ChipIn campaign, in three weeks.

Chez Pim raised almost $62,000 with her Menu for Hope Campaign in 2.5 weeks using her food blog and an online auction.

Why not ask your supporters how many of them have a blog or web site where they would be willing to promote your fundraising campaign? Widgets like ChipIn and Network for Good Badges, and services like Firstgiving make it easy for them to support your cause. (Full disclosure: I am on ChipIn's nonprofit advisory board).

5. Use Your Nonprofit Blog to Raise Money

Many blog readers have money to give. Why not ask them?

According to BlogAds 2005 Blog Reader Survey, 43% of blog readers had incomes greater than $90,000. In 2006, BlogAds broke down the reader demographics even more:

The median political blog reader is a 43 year old man with an annual family income of $80,000. He reads 6 blogs a day for 10 hours a week. 70% have contributed to a campaign.

The median gossip reader is a 27 year old woman with annual family income $60,000. She reads 4 blogs a day, five hours a week.

The median mom blog reader is a 29 year old woman with an annual family income of $70,000, reading 5 blogs a day for 4 hours a week.

The median music blog reader is a 26 year old man with an annual family income of $60,000 reading 5 blogs a day four hours a week.

According to the 2005 article, "Blog Readers Spend More Time and Money Online,” by Sean Michael Kerner:

Blog readers tend to make more online purchases. In the first quarter of 2005, less than 40 percent of the total Internet population made online purchases. By contrast, 51 percent of blog readers shopped online. Blog readers also spent six percent more than the average Internet user.

6. Use Your Nonprofit Blog to Involve Volunteers and Supporters

Nonprofit workers often tell me that they don't have time to write a blog. Depending on your organization's work and audience, you may not have to. I write for the NetSquared blog each day (it takes me anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour depending on the topic), but it is also designed to be a community blog, so any registered user can post on it about how nonprofits are using the social web for social change.

Interplast, an international humanitarian organization that provides free reconstructive surgery in developing countries asks their surgical volunteer staff to upload posts to the blog from their worksite.

Urban Sprouts, a school gardening program, allows volunteers, as well as staff, to post on their blog.

The Best Friends Animal Society allows its supporters to create blogs on their Best Friends Network around animal, and animal adoption issues that they care about.

March of Dimes' Share Your Story blog allows families with children in NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) to share their experiences with one another.

7. Use Your Nonprofit Blog to Report Back From an Event, Trip or Disaster

Do you have staff or constituents going to a conference that your supporters would be interested in hearing about? Ask them to blog during conference sessions and post photos. For example, here is a post that I wrote from Aspiration Tech's Nonprofit Developer's Summit for NetSquared blog readers.

Perhaps your staff makes a lot of international trips. Witness for Peace has a blog for their team in Mexico and for their team in Nicaragua to report back on their work there.

Blogs can also provide ways for people to find out information about loved ones if your organization works in disaster relief situations. Gregg Swanson, the Executive Director of HumaniNet, blogged and uploaded photos to HumaniNet's Flickr account using a satellite connection as part of a disaster response simulation exercise in Asia.

8. Use Your Nonprofit Blog to Work Smarter

Would you like to avoid the crunch when it comes time to write the annual report or quarterly newsletter? If you post organizational news on your blog regularly, when it comes time to pull stories together for other publications, you will already have a lot of the material written.

For example, for this post, and to prepare for this session, I am drawing from other posts that I've already written. When we publish the NetSquared e-newsletter, we often draw from the NetSquared blog for material.

You can also use reader comments, or posts by volunteers or constituents in grant applications. Urban Sprouts Executive Director, Abby Jaramillo, brought her laptop to one meeting with a funder and showed them the positive comments written on a post by teachers and students who were being served by the program.

9. Use Your Nonprofit Blog to Build Trust with Supporters

In a time when donors are being asked for money from more organizations than ever, when nonprofit scandals are in the news, and when funders want more accountability for where their money is going, it is important that they trust your organization and see that there are real people, like them, working there. A blog can give them a glimpse behind the scenes, and provide a transparency and authenticity that an annual report or brochure may not.

Dave Rochlin, the COO of TransFair USA, the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States, recently started a blog for their organization. In his first post entitled, "A Fair Trade blog . . .so why now? Rochlin writes, "So why start blogging? We decided that since we're more than just a label, it would make sense to let you see what's behind it."

If your organization decides to start a blog, I highly recommend that you allow readers to see who the individual or individuals are who write each post, rather than saying, "posted by organization x."

Blogs also build trust because readers can write comments and correspond with the writer(s). In a world where web sites offer only an anonymous contact@organizationx.org address, or make you go through a maze of automated messages and "press 2 now" in their phone system, the value of human connection can't be underestimated.

The Ann Arbor District Library System uses a blog for the front page of their site. Library users can ask questions and make suggestions about library news, announcements and events in the comments of each post.

10. Use Your Nonprofit Blog to Build a Broad-Based Movement

There is a lot of talk these days about nonprofit "silos." There are groups that are working on environmental issues, groups that are working on women's issues, groups that are working on disability issues and groups that are working on poverty issues, but really, aren't all the issues connected? Aren't we all trying to create positive change?

Part of a blog's structure is something called a blog roll, a list of blogs in the sidebar that the blogger reads, or feels is related to the topic of their blog. Something I don't see enough of is nonprofit bloggers listing other nonprofit blogs in their blog roll, referencing other nonprofit bloggers posts in their posts, and commenting on each other's blogs. Cross-referencing between organizations' blogs can add supporters to both organization's lists and paves the way for future collaborations.

Take a look below at this quick round-up of nonprofits blogs. Are there any you could add to your blogroll? (Big thanks to the Have Fun * Do Good and NetSquared readers who sent me some of these links).

AARP Issues Blog
Amnesty International Death Penalty Blog
Ann Arbor District Library System
ASPCA
Brown Bagging for Calgary’s Kids
Center for Global Development
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Environmental Defense
First Book Blog
Foothills United Way Blog
Generation Why/Oxfam Blog
Greenpeace
HumaniNet
iAbolish-American Anti-Slavery Group
Interplast
Jane Goodall Institute’s Gombe Chimpanzee Blog
Jubilee USA
NetSquared
NTEN
Mile High United Way Blog
ONE Campaign Blog
People’s Grocery
Poverty Initiative at Union Theological Seminary
Rainforest Action Network
Streetside Stories
SOS Community Services
Sustainable TableTransFair USA
Urban Sprouts
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
United Way of Central Florida
Walker Art Center
Witness for Peace Mexico Blog
Witness for Peace Nicaragua Blog
WITNESS Video Hub Blog

What are some other ways that you have seen nonprofits use blogs?

Software Solutions

There is a wealth of software resources for the nonprofit world.

PIDI - Public Interest Data, Inc.

Quoted directly from their website:

Public Interest Data Incorporated. That's our name. That's our mission.

Let's face it: The world is overrun with data. Credit cards, bank accounts, mailing lists, dot-coms everywhere. Direct mail is targeted to sell you everything — well, not everything, really, because they know something about you. They know what you want, what you like, what you care about. How do they know? Data. It’s the circulation system for the body of modern human society. Data is information and information is power. Power to sell, sure, but in the right hands, the power to change things for the better.

Public Interest Data Incorporated. We incorporate data into the service of the public good. We empower committed people to help make the world better. We do the heavy lifting of making your data work, so you can help lift your organization to new heights in fulfilling its mission.

Web sites like this always have a section for "frequently asked questions" — and we have one too — but to really understand PIDI, you have to start with an infrequently asked question: Why?

Michael MacLeod and Del Clark started PIDI in 1987 because they realized that data management was the weakest link in most nonprofit organizations. With Michael's background as a direct mail consultant for many nonprofit groups, he could see that most organizations — despite deep commitments to worthy causes — were struggling to make the most of their most valuable asset: their donor lists.

For nonprofits, choices were few. Huge, expensive, inflexible data warehouses could store their lists on mainframes. Or the database management functions could be brought in-house, along with a truckload of equipment, a team of programmers and a host of headaches. Or maybe just try to get by with generic "one size fits all" software packages and do the job on a shoestring. A digital dinosaur, a job security program for techno-wizards or a system held together with duct tape; not an appealing set of options for the women and men of the nonprofit sector dedicated to changing the world.

Well things are better now, thanks to a revolution in information technology and thanks also to some revolutionary ideas: That nonprofit causes deserve a responsive data management solution for a responsible cost. That you can work on the cutting edge without bleeding. That your data is the one absolutely irreplaceable asset for building deeper relationships with your community of donors. That your best solution for data management might just be a company that doesn't help people sell shoes or fast food or delivering magazines, but which lives and breathes every single day in the non-profit world.

We are Public Interest Data Incorporated. We get it.

Foundation Information Management System

Foundation Information Management System

The Foundation Information Management System (FIMS) is a suite of integrated modules united in a single, relational database. The modules work together to support five major task areas: Communications, Fund raising/Development, Grants Management, Fund Management, and Financial Management. FIMS is exceptionally flexible, serving more than 300 philanthropic institutions in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and England, including community, private, college, religious and national foundations, and advised gift funds.

"The feature that stands out the most about FIMS is the integration.
All of the modules talk to each other."

--Leta Doganes -- Berks County Community Foundation

Tessitura:Arts Enterprise Software

Integrate customer information across the entire range of your organization from box office through back office. Tessitura Arts Enterprise Software provides a comprehensive suite of ticketing, marketing, development and fundraising tools to share information, increase productivity, and provide unparalleled leverage for customer relationship management. A rapidly growing number of premier arts organizations rely on Tessitura to perform as powerfully offstage as they do on, season after season.

Designed for and by performing arts users, Tessitura is licensed by Impresario, L.L.C., a subsidiary of the The Metropolitan Opera, to arts organizations and is supported by the Tessitura Network, Inc., a nonprofit corporation.

Mission Aviation Fellowship

There are plenty of projects out there to reduce the global digital divide. One such project is the Mission Aviation Fellowship. The project is not an IT project, it utilizes IT to help in the implementation of MAF's projects worldwide.

Below are details about the project from the MAF website:

Communications & Information Technology

In many developing countries of the world, both voice and data communications are severely limited or unreliable.

Because of their remoteness, many locations are not serviced by phone lines. In other areas, conflicts or natural disasters have destroyed the infrastructure. In many areas, the supply of electricity is severely limited or intermittent at best. In numerous isolated regions, climatic conditions do not favor the use of some of the wireless technologies that work well elsewhere.

Yet in all such challenging situations, MAF brings appropriate technology to deliver reliable and affordable communications to frontline workers.

In some locales, MAF utilizes HF/VHF (High Frequency and Very High Frequency) radios for e-mail communications. The availability of higher throughput connections allows a large number of MAF users to collaborate effectively with colleagues around the world.

MAF VSAT (high-speed Internet connections via broadband satellite) brings e-mail, fax, and voice communications wherever people minister. No place on earth is out of reach. Teams can work effectively even when separated by continents.

In many developing nations where MAF ministers, cellular phones are actually leapfrogging telephone systems used in the West. MAF is helping to leverage GSM and GPRS cell phone networks to provide personal, mobile voice and data communications. Far from being a luxury, such services multiply the
effectiveness of the resources available in the mission field.

Never before has the global Christian community been so well connected. As for that "last mile" of needed connectivity beyond the wired world, MAF deploys a whole range of proven solutions for individuals, hospitals, schools, seminaries, and mission centers. Any indigenous church leader, isolated missionary, or development worker can subscribe to MAF communications services.

An overview of some of the technologies that MAF can deploy and the advice it offers are available on its communications resource website at www.maflink.org.

MAFLink^® Communications

Harnessing Technology to Overcome Barriers

MAFLink^® keeps Christian and humanitarian workers connected in the most remote places on earth through:

• Remote e-mail hubs
• HF radio and other wireless e-mail systems
• Satellite phone terminals
• Custom communication solutions

In situations when private data information is a must, MAFLink^® overcomes communication barriers by providing e-mail privacy and other data security tools.

I.T. Solutions

MAFLink^® also helps to create custom communication solutions for Christian ministries around the globe. Need help establishing an e-mail network in Africa or connecting pastors and trainers in Eastern Europe? We may be able to help. With MAFLink^® services you no longer have to be isolated. In fact, you're never out of reach.

Learn more about MAFLink Services at www.MAFLink.org.

MAF-LT is unique in the mission world, and fills a critical void in five distinct areas:

• Overcoming Isolation—MAF-LT overcomes isolation caused by geographical, cultural and spiritual barriers.
• Contextual Challenges—Because educational traditions differ around the world,MAF-LT assesses needs and provides customized courses and learning tools.
• Cooperative Partnerships—MAF-LT collaborates with ministry partners on every project to both meet immediate needs as well as multiply the created resources.
• Enabling National Leadership—MAF-LT provides tools and counsel to enable nationals to develop independent, self-sustaining educational programs.
• Multiplying Effectiveness—With the assistance of MAF-LT, national pastors and ministry partners extend their reach and multiply their impact.

Countries served by MAF-LT:

• Asia (4 countries, PACTEC subsidiary)
  
• Brazil
• Costa Rica
• East Asia
  
• Haiti
• India
  
• Kenya
• Liberia
• Russia
• Sudan
• Uganda
• U.S.A.

The Nonprofit Technology Network

I found a network that is specifically for the technology needs of nonprofit organizations:

NTEN is the membership organization of nonprofit professionals who put technology to use for their causes.

We enable our members to do their jobs better and help their organizations strategically use technology so that they, in turn, make the world a better, just, and equitable place.

Membership is required to use their resources, but it is good to have the resource. They do have a job listing section that is viewable by non-members.

One Laptop per Child

From laptop.org

mission

Most of the nearly two–billion children in the developing world are inadequately educated, or receive no education at all. One in three does not complete the fifth grade.

The individual and societal consequences of this chronic global crisis are profound. Children are consigned to poverty and isolation—just like their parents—never knowing what the light of learning could mean in their lives. At the same time, their governments struggle to compete in a rapidly evolving, global information economy, hobbled by a vast and increasingly urban underclass that cannot support itself, much less contribute to the commonweal, because it lacks the tools to do so.

It is time to rethink this equation.

Given the resources that developing countries can reasonably allocate to education—sometimes less than $20 per year per pupil, compared to the approximately $7500 per pupil spent annually in the U.S.—even a doubled or redoubled national commitment to traditional education, augmented by external and private funding, would not get the job done. Moreover, experience strongly suggests that an incremental increase of “more of the same”—building schools, hiring teachers, buying books and equipment—is a laudable but insufficient response to the problem of bringing true learning possibilities to the vast numbers of children in the developing world.

Standing still is a reliable recipe for going backward.

Any nation's most precious natural resource is its children. We believe the emerging world must leverage this resource by tapping into the children's innate capacities to learn, share, and create on their own. Our answer to that challenge is the XO laptop, a children's machine designed for “learning learning.”

XO embodies the theories of constructionism first developed by MIT Media Lab Professor Seymour Papert in the 1960s, and later elaborated upon by Alan Kay, complemented by the principles articulated by Nicholas Negroponte in his book, Being Digital.

Extensively field-tested and validated among some of the poorest and most remote populations on earth, constructionism emphasizes what Papert calls “learning learning” as the fundamental educational experience. A computer uniquely fosters learning learning by allowing children to “think about thinking”, in ways that are otherwise impossible. Using the XO as both their window on the world, as well as a highly programmable tool for exploring it, children in emerging nations will be opened to both illimitable knowledge and to their own creative and problem-solving potential.

OLPC is not, at heart, a technology program, nor is the XO a product in any conventional sense of the word. OLPC is a non-profit organization providing a means to an end—an end that sees children in even the most remote regions of the globe being given the opportunity to tap into their own potential, to be exposed to a whole world of ideas, and to contribute to a more productive and saner world community.

Until then, stay tuned.

Said Khoury Information Technology Center of Excellence

There are many NGO's that are dedicated to the actual enrichment of a society, rather than purely aid-based. As the saying goes, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

One such NGO is the American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera). This organization has instituted a project to build several Information Technology "Center's Of Excellence" throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Palestinians, like many people throughout the developing world, have a strong curiosity for technology, and a desire to adopt new and exciting technologies. Internet usage is growing, and currently is estimated at 8-10%, despite restrictions to access of high speed internet lines. It is definitely a way to connect to the outside world, a world that often is off limits to the average Palestinian.

From Anera's website:

There is a strong and growing global demand for software engineers and other IT professionals. Having recognized the potential for young people to gain employment in the sector, ANERA pioneered projects in the West Bank and Gaza to provide advanced training and higher education in IT.

In the West Bank and Gaza, employment opportunities are diminishing due to restrictions on movement, closures, and increasing delays at checkpoints. By working over the Internet, IT graduates can transcend these restrictions and earn needed income. Of the more than 1,000 men and women graduated and/or certified through ANERA's IT initiative, the majority have found jobs or have moved on to further educational opportunities.

ANERA's work in IT has culminated in the establishment of “Centers of Excellence”, which offer unique training in software, systems development, and networks with international certification programs, as well as job placement and IT business incubation services. The curriculum trains students in software programming as well as web development, networking solutions, and other IT business services. Business incubation services connect students finishing their degrees or certificates with business opportunities.

On March 8, 2002 at Al Quds University in Jerusalem, the Said Khoury IT Center of Excellence opened; the first of ANERA’s IT centers. Next came the IT centers at the Palestine Polytechnic University in Hebron and the American Arab University in Jenin, both inaugurated in November 2005. And finally, in 2008, ANERA inaugurated the Najjad Zeenni IT Center at Birzeit University (read the press release).

Another center stands partially completed. On November 9, 2005, ANERA and the Intel Corporation announced their agreement to build the "Intel IT Center of Excellence" at the Islamic University of Gaza in the Gaza Strip. The facility awaits opening of the Gaza borders for supplies to complete the building.

These university bases mean the IT Centers of Excellence can draw upon a wealth of intellectual assets to strengthen their capacity to serve the needs of the community and contribute to innovative business solutions.

An article posted on Anera's website shows what these projects can do for a developing society:



Wa'el, who has completed the IT training program at PPU, now teaches what he learned to new IT students.

There is a serious lack of employment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but three students of Palestinian universities have high hopes for their futures. They recently completed ANERA's information technology (IT) training programs at Palestine Polytechnic University in Hebron and the Arab American University of Jenin. In November each of these universities opened a state-of-the-art center dedicated to IT training. These centers were made possible through the support of ANERA and its board members.

Ibrahim and Maher, soon graduating from the Arab-American University of Jenin, want to use their talents constructively. Interestingly, they both want to stay home after they graduate in order to help develop their communities.

"I have worked on a project, the first of its kind in Palestine, that enables mobile phones to monitor shares on the Palestinian Securities Exchange," said Ibrahim. "My partners and I hope we can have this service bought by a Palestinian mobile phone service."

Maher already is trying to give back to his community. "I helped create a program for municipalities that helps computerize city functions. The idea is to make the city's services easier and more efficient. I am now waiting for a response from the city of Qalqilya. This is a program that could be used in all Palestinian cities." He added, "I hear [about] people wanting to go and live abroad. But I really feel I should stay and help my country."

Wa'el, a bright and humble young man who graduated from the IT training program at Palestine Polytechnic Institute in Hebron (PPU) in 2004 now works for the university, both as an instructor and as an application developer at the university's Friends of Fawzi Kawash IT Center of Excellence.

"I realized that I received good training when I stood in front of a class and had to start teaching…I realized that I could in fact teach them," he said

Wa'el is optimistic about the future prospects of those students in this field, "of course, our training gives the basics, all of the foundations, and it is up to the students to make good use of this training in their future careers … All of the friends who graduated with me have found jobs or have gone on to graduate study either here or abroad."

According to the director of PPU training program, Dr. Radwan Tahboub, "the new IT training program has affected the culture of the university. The university has seen how effective and important the training programs are and have integrated similar courses and programs into their computer science curriculum. This is a program that is an influence for positive change in the university as a whole."

About the Said Khoury Information Technology Center of Excellence, from the SKITCE website:

The Said Khoury Information Technology Center of Excellence operates at local and national levels to provide high quality and effective training for students as well as practitioners in the field of information technology. It also facilitates training provided by other organizations. SKITCE has an excellent software unit that develops tailor-made software for local and regional institutions. SKITCE provides the organizational and technical infrastructures for university professors to work on IT related projects. The IT Business Incubation Service at the Center will enable people with good ideas in IT to find a place to work and develop their ideas.



Business Incubator:
The idea behind the business incubator is to provide IT talents with the necessary resources, technical and business, and empower them to create, innovate, and convert their IT-related ideas to high quality products that are interesting, marketable, and innovative. The incubator will provide selected talents with office space, software, and hardware that accommodate their needs. In addition to that, talents will receive extensive and professional training in their area of interest to help them create world-class products. Business skills development track is designed to build and enhance needed business skills in order for the talents to be able to finance their projects. The incubator will play a vital role in linking those talents with businesses that are interested in, and willing to adopt, support, and finance them. In order to successfully implement its vision, the business incubator is in the process of establishing relationships with the business sector, the community, and other essential SKITCE services provided by other units.

Prometric Testing Center

SKITCE is an Accredited Prometric Testing Center (APTC) with the capability of testing up to six students at the same time.

This helps students to get their training and industry certification from one place without the need to travel to any other testing center.

Cisco Systems

Al-Quds University is a Regional Academy for the some of the courses at the Cisco Networking Academy Program. The Cisco Networking Academy Program (CNAP) utilizes a blended learning model, integrating face-to-face teaching with a challenging web-based curriculum, hands-on lab exercises, and Internet-based assessment.

Academy graduates are prepared for networking and IT-related careers in the public and private sectors, as well as for higher education in engineering, computer science and related fields.

Grassroots.org

The internet has changed the way charities/nonprofits raise funds and spread awareness.

Grassroots.org is a website that provides free hosting for American and Canadian charitable organizations.

From their home page :

The mission of Grassroots.org is to serve as a catalyst for positive social change by leveraging modern technologies and business best practices.

Our ultimate goal is to adopt 10,000 nonprofit members, and to provide them each with an average of $10,000 of services per year at no charge (for a total savings of $100 million per year!).