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Most nonprofit websites are still at the "before" stage of a makeover says this lover of make over shows. "It is therefore with great excitement that I get to unveil a highly successful makeover from Project Hope. They took their website from dull to dynamic, meeting all the important requirements of a great site."

Charity Technology Trust helps nonprofits save money on software. They give tips to your organization so that more money is coming in. They receive donated hardware from places like microsoft and sell it to nonprofits for cheap. roughly, 6,000 charities have benefited from CTT

CELEBRITY PHILANTHROPY ADVISOR BECOMES REGULAR GUEST CONTRIBUTOR TO THE MICHAEL CHATMAN GIVING SHOW   **Portfolio Includes NBA Stars Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant & Luol Deng Halleemah Nash is an entrepreneur, philanthropy professional, and youth advocate. Her journey from the streets of Compton, California to Howard University is what inspired her plight to reach back from where she came and make a difference by helping others understand, in her words, "it's not about your location but about your destination."  

The Microsoft Unlimited Potential Blog discusses important themes from from the 2011 Nonprofit Technology Conference. It will be interesting to look back on this later and see just how much things have changed.

The Cellebrite UFED Physical Pro is a high-end, all-in-one solution for logical and physical extraction. The UFED Physical Pro expands your current device capabilities to extract deleted mobile device data, user passwords, file system dumps, and physical extraction from GPS devices.

From the company product brochure for "UFED Physical Pro": 'THE COMPLETE MOBILE FORENSICS SOLUTION Cellebrite's UFED addresses the growing need for fast, comprehensive mobile forensic capabilities. An add-on module for advanced extraction and analysis of evidence Physical Pro enables the basic UFED system with physical data extraction, file system dump and reconstruction, and password extraction. UFED Physical Pro enables recovery of invaluable evidential information that isn't accessible by logical extraction methods alone. In use by military, law enforcement, governments, and intelligence agencies across the world, UFED Physical Pro allows users to rapidly extract a wide variety of data types in a forensically sound process from both phone and SIM memory. Extracting data in a forensic manner and presenting it with the integrity of the data intact ensures that the evidence will be admissible in court.

Online .pdf Brochure Description of 'extraction device' continued (notice the GPS and mapping capability also): AT A GLANCE * Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags * Powerful search, reconstruction, and analysis of the phone hex dump that can be used for intelligence gathering, investigative research, and as legal evidence in court * Expanded coverage for GPS devices, with mapping of GPS locations on Google Maps and visualization of GPS locations on Google Earth * Unrivaled phone coverage and compatibility * Fast, intuitive extraction process source: http://www.cellebrite.com/images/stories/brochures/UFED%20Physical%20Pro%20Brochure%20%20ENGLISH.pdf

The Michigan State Police have a handful of portable machines called "extraction devices" that have the potential to download personal information from motorists they pull over, and the ACLU would like to know more about them. "The problem, as the ACLU sees it, is that accessing a citizen's private phone information when there's 'no probable cause could create a violation of the Constitution's 4th Amendment', which protects us against unreasonable searches and seizures."

MSP Statement in response to news stories on April 20, 2011 The implication by the ACLU that the MSP uses these devices "quietly to bypass Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches" is untrue, and this divisive tactic unjustly harms police and community relations.

Excerpt: Apple's general counsel Bruce Sewell in July 2010 sent a 13-page letter (.pdf) explaining its location-data-collection techniques in response to a request from Congressmen Joe Barton and Edward Markey asking for Apple to disclose such practices (.pdf). (Incidentally, Markey authored the "Do Not Track" bill to stop online companies from tracking children.) Note: Article has a link to this 13-page letter dated July 2010 after they were asked to disclose such practices.

This is a survey using information from 238 non profit organizations in seattle. I found it easy to read and interpret. It's a great snapshot of IT use and needs by non profits in a US city.

I did some volunteering with this organization this past weekend. A group of about 50 students from Grand Valley went and disassembled over 230 computers. CompRenew Environmental recycles old electronics (tvs, computers, microwaves….basically anything with a plug) and keeps them from going into landfills. They then refurbish the electronics and sell them, or they disassemble them and sell the parts, or just recycle them. All of the money they get from the recycled electronics goes to education in over 44 countries. CompRenew is a really neat company. Hopefully their idea will spread and more cities will be able to recycle old electronics.

Goodwill and MacMedia both have related recycling / refurbishing interests around the state: http://www.goodwillwm.org/donate/computer-recycling--reuse and http://www.macmedia.org/care.html, respectively.

Responsibly recycle your electronics.

This article explains the strategy and benefits of printing from the cloud platform.

There is a Tech for Good contest for nonprofits to show how they are using Microsoft software to do good and Microsoft is donating $5000 in cash/up to $100,000 in new software to the winner.

Microsoft hosts a conference called Tech for Good Contest, where eligable nonprofits prove why they deserve the donated money anywhere from 5 to 100 thousand dollars worth of Microsoft software. Along with it they will receive consulting from the organization teaming up with Microsoft, NPower Seattle.

Microsoft is holding a contest for nonprofits to win money through use of technology and holding a technology seminar for non profits next month

This website gives some good statistics on facebook and how non profits can use and benefit from it.

MobileCause is currently the leading mobile giving platform in the U.S., has been steadily building a mobile giving client base since 2009. They have an impressive client list of the largest, most well known, nonprofits in the US.

This article emphasizes the need for a nonprofit to get excellent functionality out of a website and worry about looks second. The website is critical in importance before social networking can even be considered. The IT assets of a nonprofit should be built in a definite order.

This post is an article linking to a series that outlines the building of IT assets in a nonprofit organization

Only 16% of nonprofits expect to be ready for mobile devices in 2011 so there is tremendous opportunity in 84% of nonprofits. Mobile web use increased 230% from 2008 to 2009 which indicates that many more people are impressed with mobile computing devices and it is here to stay for a while. Websites without mobile connectivity are essentially going to be out-of-date now.

This is supplementary to our first reading assignment which outlines where we are are and where we are going in nonprofit technology

The Guide to Managing ICT in the Voluntary and Community Sector is produced by the ICT Hub to help voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) make best use of information communication technologies (ICTs).The guideis intended particularly for staff and volunteers from small and medium-sized organisations and especially for those people who don't

If you setup a file server at non profit this article outlines a good strategy for your files structure. The use of outside backup and a partition of disk drives should be done from the start. It is a good idea to determine what the activities will be and make the structure match to avoid over searching... Some seemingly simple structures can be a nightmare for maintenance.. A good file server setup promotes sharing which can produce efficiencies..

This is really server basics for some of the less technical but it's good advice

This article talks about a recently legalized alternative business structure for nonprofits to consider. Establishing an L3C instead of a nonprofit seems a better title. This is similar to considering if you want to be LLC or corporation from the nonprofit standpoint. If you are allowed to make a little more profit it seems to be a good choice. The lack of a long track record could make it risky.

A nonprofit business structure you should know about