The Largest Gathering of Technical Folks in the Nonprofit Sector

Jay Love — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:14:00 GMT

Yes, earlier this week I was part of the WiFi/laptop festival known as NTC.

This annual event, usually in the SF Bay area, continues to grow and thrive. They have certainly found their niche with an ever increasing gathering of truly passionate folks focused on the common mission of putting technology to work for the missions of NPO's. This year the event sold out early and truly lived up to the anticipation of seeing packed rooms for every session.

I was often a speaker in the early years of NTC. However, this year I was able to function as a participant, networker and part of the anchor vendor sponsor's ground team. Each of those assignments had certain benefits in making my two days there more worthwhile.

I am going to focus in on the participant aspect with a few observations and perhaps an opinion or two. I am hoping that the opinions bring a few replies that I may share. Please let me know your thoughts by just clicking on jay.love@etapestry.com and shooting me an email.

First, it was neat to see many of the larger sessions being piped out live for people to view via the web. Facilitating such technology is what should be done by such an organization and they more than made it happen. A big :) for all of those involved!

Next, it was quite a site in the large ballroom for the keynote sessions where everyone attended. Literally every seat was taken plus virtually any floor space on the sides and at the far rear of the huge room. Even with advanced planning they ran out of IP addresses for the laptops firmly entrenched on everyone’s legs. I wonder how many real time updates were being posted during the sessions?

I attended several of the sessions, particular the ones focused upon case study results within actual non-profits. In some cases truly revolutionary breakthroughs were showcased reflecting the integration of various technologies. Unfortunately most of the breakthrough examples were not within the budget reach of most charities. Only those with budgets who could withstand six figure outlays or larger with consulting firms were the lucky recipients of such integrations. Hopefully, those can be packaged in some manner so the other 94% of the NPO’s in the sector can utilize. (Most of you know that leveling the playing field in technology for that other 94% has been my mantra for virtually all of my 25 years in the sector.)

A couple of the sessions showcased the use of integrated solutions based upon so called "free or open" solutions such as Salesforce.com or Plone or Vertical Response and various others. As I watched the consulting firms involved talk about how they had assisted in making the integration of these tools happen for mere $15,000 to $30,000 investments, I could not help but wonder if most of the audience had any idea that such integration of CRM/Database tools with web tools/e-commerce pages and powerful email engines are standard offerings for many solutions from vendors like Blackbaud/eTapestry. We even have a new partnership with PayPal that is providing web site creation/hosting plus e-commerce/on-line donations plus CRM/donor database plus mass email functions within a single product that has no upfront or subscription fees for the small non-profit called BlackbaudNow.

More importantly, such solutions from well known vendors carry a few advantages that I just have to post here in my blog. Yes, I know it is a bit self serving, but they are so vital that I must state them or I am not being true to my mantra! Below are a few of the key advantages of dealing with a known vendor for such integrated solutions. They are:

You do not have to bear the development costs, which many times are NOT fixed fees
The solutions are backed by top notch ONGOING support at a reasonable price
The worry of new updates/versions to portion of the applications used breaking the integration and requiring more development costs goes away!
The solutions are upgraded and enhanced annually by the vendor based upon combined suggestions of the end user community
The vendor is obligated to fix any bugs that are found, usually for free
Proper training in a wide variety of formats is provided
Other NPO’s are using the solution and may be part of a user group community
The solution is kept upgraded and thereby functioning on new versions of operating systems, web browsers, MS Office and other backbone related systems
Many vendors scale the solutions and pricing so that the other 94% of market can actually afford to purchase and use on an ongoing basis
Additional add-on functions will be made available over the life of the solution

There you go ten quite important advantages in my opinion. These have been formed from all sides of the issue over the last 25 years. Please let me know if you agree or disagree.

I look forward to next year as the nonprofit world, via the NTEN Conference, will again showcase technology and the people behind the technology making it happen for all of us involved in some manner for charities large and small. Long live the geeks, CTO's, DBA's, CIO's and IT staffs who truly care and support the missions that matter to so many of us!

The Jay Love Blog : 09ntc

The Largest Gathering of Technical Folks in the Nonprofit Sector