I look for "useful to not-for-profit" tools, sites, and resources. Recently a new site called nonprofitlist.org has been developed. The site is broken up into each of the 50 states and you have a choice of clicking on a state like Florida or using the list below the map.

Our goal is to map all of the non profit organization in the United States.

Non-profits that want to manage their own Internet based systems will ultimately find themselves needing to use File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Basically FTP allows you to move files from one computer--your local computer, to a second computer--often a server. It was originally developed for UNIX and is a main-stay for those developing Web sites.

I've used many different FTP clients on the Mac. Before OSX I used Fetch--a strong client that was ported to OSX. It originally had a free scaled down version that was easy to use but now is limited to a 14 day trial.

I am setting up Organic Groups in an instance of Drupal 5.1 for a project I'm working on with a largish group of non-profit organizations.  While I've set up, configured, and managed several Drupal sites--they have all been 4.7.  I've dabbled with 5.1 a bit and it is very slick.  It probably is far better suited to non-profit use than the older version of the software.  The reason is intuitiveness. 

I've written in the past that for Arts non-profits (and non-profits in general) to adopt Web 2.0 applications heavily, the interface must be highly intuitive.  To date, many are simply to confusing.

The business of grants is all about relationships.  Grantmaking networks are a variation on the social network.

Last week I was in Great Falls Montana and today I was in Salt Lake City.  In both cases I was intersecting with individuals who are interested in TourWest--WESTAF's grant program. 

In Montana, they have developed a culture of co-operative block booking--the activity of several presenters working together to bring in an artist or artists who then tour from place to place.  Often block booking is the only way to get a high profile performer to come to your community.  These block booking networks are social networks that rely on one another to resell product--the show. 

Last night I did a little presentation for the Montana Peforming Arts Consortium (MPAC) in Great Falls, MT. I arrived late yesterday afternoon to a remarkably cold day. La Quinta, in Great Falls, had tried to order a cab for me. For what ever reason, Diamond Cab didn't send a car. So it was at least 45 minutes until I had a lift to the hotel. I actually shared the cab with two very nice gentlemen who comprise a duet called "Men of Worth."

After arriving at the hotel, a very nice young woman ordered me a second cab. Despite the Civic Center being less than a half mile away, I didn't relish a walk in ankle deep snow with arctic temperatures. That cab never came either--HELLO DIAMOND CAB--and it turns out it is the only cab company in town. It seems to me that there might be room for a little competition.

A couple of weeks ago I finished updating TourWest for work. WESTAF uses its own CultureGrants Online(tm) Basic software to administer the program. I helped develop both the first version of this software many years ago and then, to rebuild it from the ground up about two years ago. It continues to be refined.

CultureGrants Online(tm) Basic has all the general tools a grants adminstrator needs to accept applications, process them, create panel books, run a panel with scoring, fund, and communicate with applicants. It also has some basic reporting tools.

A few nights ago I attended the monthly PTA meeting at my daughter's school. The PTA is a 501(c)3 whose main mission is to raise money for an art teacher. As one can imagine, I am very supportive. My background is fine arts and I want my daughter to grow up well rounded with lots of experiences in the arts.

What does this have to do with Identity Theft? From time to time the PTA brings in a speaker. This month it was a lawyer from the DA's office who came to talk to us about protecting ourselves from identity theft. He gave us a big booklet and an overview on what Identity Thieves are looking for--credit card applications, cheques, boxes of cheques, anything with a social security number, and so forth.

Beth asked what my take on non-profit use of Flickr might be.

My focus is currently arts non-profits, so my response will be coloured a little.

Flickr's groups and tags make it a powerful tool for non-profits--actually any group that wants to engage in viral marketing. The potential ephemeral/throw away nature of flickr groups is such that it can feed an event. That doesn't mean to say that all flickr groups have limited life, but it does mean you can purposefully set up a situation in which the posting life is limited. You might set up an event around a group.

For example, lets say your organization has promoted a concert with several different acts. You could set up a flickr group, apply a few good tags to that group and offer everyone who walks through the door a slip of paper with that information and encourage posting to that group. Very quickly you could have a significant archive of the event--with deeper roots than if you had hired a professional photographer.

Similarly one could set up a virtual event whereby you ask a dozen people to take similar pictures across the country and post them to Flickr. Using a Flickr widget, that content could be embedded in your Website dynamically. This could be used for nation wide fund raising.

Either of these things can be done manually, but Flickr makes them nearly painless to aggregate and disseminate.