Wild Apricot blog on non-profit technology
The Wild Apricot blog is about technology for non-profit organizations: how to do more with less; Usability issues; how to properly select and implement technology - and a sprinkling of humor and posts on general non-profit industry issues
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- AIMS event - Building Online Communities
This past Wednesday, I attended the Association of Internet Marketing and Sales of Canada event on “ Building Online Community ”. It had a good line-up of speakers featuring Robert V. Kozinets , Assistant professor at the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University, Jennifer Evans of Sequentia Communications, and Lee Dale of Smack Inc. The event explored the theories and applications of online communities and demonstrated a variety of ways for building communities. Below is a summary of...(read more)
Mon, 30 Apr 2007 18:49:00 GMT - Making people jump through (registration) hoops is a bad idea
Here is a short tale of how I was made to jump through many hoops for a very simple transaction - and what it reminded me of regarding some online event registration quirks. I was at a Chinese restaurant on Saturday - pretty upscale one, called Asian Legend. It has several locations in Toronto and runs its own 'Frequent customer' program. Buy a special card that's good for one year and get 10% discount on every meal - pretty good deal. After the meal and just as I was about to pay I submitted my...(read more)
Mon, 30 Apr 2007 09:36:00 GMT - Nonprofits should take advantage of RSS
One of my favorite things about Web 2.0 tools is that they help me make sense of the enormous amount of information, blogs and news available on the web. Instead of going to 10 or 20 websites and typing their addresses or even going through my bookmarks, all my favorite web resources can be gathered in one place for me to read at my convenience. Sounds great, doesn’t it. Well it is….and that’s the advantage of RSS. RSS is a very powerful technology, and it is useful for anyone to gather and digest...(read more)
Wed, 25 Apr 2007 19:37:00 GMT - What are the Barriers to Using Flickr in Your Nonprofit?
We received the following comment in response to a recent post about “ Five ways nonprofits can use Flickr to reach new audiences”: "You're right, Flickr has a ton of potential for all kinds of cool social applications for clubs, charities and associations. My favorite is using a photo pool for a conference along with one of those Flash badges to shuffle and display those images on a web page. I actually still have one up from ASAE2006 at my blog, about half way down the nav bar. I just don't understand...(read more)
Tue, 24 Apr 2007 13:18:00 GMT - Five Ways Nonprofits Can Use Flickr to Reach New Audiences
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Flickr session at the Non-Profit Technology Conference . A common question asked was “How can we use Flickr to reach new audiences?” A lot of nonprofits have started using Flickr to increase their visibility online. Flickr has become a popular social media tool because it allows nonprofits to upload their photos and supports an active community where people share and comment on each other's photos. But what truly sets it apart is its tagging feature. Tagging (keywording)...(read more)
Fri, 20 Apr 2007 20:29:00 GMT - Online Membership Management Demands Simplicity too!
While going through my RSS feeds, I came across an article by Gerry McGovern that reflects a key aspect in Wild Apricot - Ease of Use. It is an excellent post on the significance of simplicity and usability on the web. The article is titled "Easy to Use: Why the Web Demands Simplicity" and describes the very essence of Wild Apricot. From Wild Apricot's conception, our goal was to create a membership management software that would be easy to use and very affordable. Surprisingly, it is still common...(read more)
Wed, 18 Apr 2007 02:17:00 GMT - Highlights from the 2007 Nonprofit Technology Conference
I had a great time at the Nonprofit Technology Conference last week. This was my first year at the conference, and it was impressive. The conference provided me with many insights and ideas. I met a lot of people and the sessions were very informative. Now that I've had a few days to settle in after coming back from DC, here is a quick review of the conference. Day 1 The first session I attended was about Flickr for nonprofits. Most of the people in the room were new to Flickr. In the session, we...(read more)
Thu, 12 Apr 2007 15:00:00 GMT - Wild Apricot release 2.16 - CSS, email customization and more
We are pleased to announce the release of our Wild Apricot 2.16 (our 16th update since July 2006). Key new features and enhancements include: CSS Customization One significant enhancement - frequently requested by tech-savvy users - is CSS Customization (Cascading StyleSheets Overlay) . CSS customization gives you fine-grain control over the visual design of your Wild Apricot website. You can now change fonts, colors, text sizes, links - and many other attributes of your website template (menu, headers,...(read more)
Tue, 10 Apr 2007 07:09:00 GMT - Non-profit Leadership
The job of a non-profit leader involves juggling a multitude of tasks and new skills are always needed...(read more)
Mon, 09 Apr 2007 12:47:00 GMT - What Every Smart Non Profit Needs to Know
While I was browsing through some posts in Seth Godin's blog , I found an interesting cheat sheet called What Every Smart Non Profit Needs to Know . Produced by Seth Godin, it's an easy-to-read PDF file that lists six free things nonprofits can do to gain better exposure online. Here is a list of Seth Godin's six suggestions: Put yourself on YouTube. It is now the eighth most popular website on the internet. And you can be there for free. Seth suggests searching YouTube for "ASPCA" to see how it...(read more)
Thu, 05 Apr 2007 09:00:00 GMT - Tips for Attending Conferences Part II
In the first part of this series , I covered a few tips on attending conferences. In this closing post on getting the most out of conferences, we'll share some helpful tips for conference speakers and presenters. So if you have been selected or volunteered to speak at a conference, these tips will help increase your presentation skills. Before the Conference Learn about the Conference - When you are initially asked to give a talk, often it is your choice to decide on the topic. But before that, you...(read more)
Mon, 02 Apr 2007 14:30:00 GMT - Associations and Web 2.0 – Interview with Kathryn Lagden
How does Web 2.0 impact your association and how can you make Web 2.0 tools work for you to help your membership grow? In the following interview, Kathryn Lagden, General Manager at AIMS, answers these questions and shares her tips on using Web 2.0 to engage your members - your association's most valuable assets. Kathryn has a wealth of experience in both online marketing and business management. She first experienced AIMS as a member in 1998 when she joined the online world as a Marketing Manager...(read more)
Thu, 29 Mar 2007 19:48:00 GMT - Revenue Diversification - CSAE Trillium Chapter Event
Last week, on March 23 our president Dmitry Buterin (aka Chief Apricot) presented at a panel discussion on Revenue Diversification - What are you doing about it? at the Canadian Society of Association Eexecutives Trillium Chapter Event. The purpose of the event was to discuss new and different options to diversify revenue streams for associations. As promised, here are the presentation slides . Thanks for those of you who were able to make it....(read more)
Thu, 29 Mar 2007 13:40:00 GMT - Tips for Attending Conferences Part I
Spring is here and conference season has started. This year I'll be attending a couple of important conferences. In April I'll be attending the Non-profit Technology Conference held in Washington, DC from April 4 to 6 2007. (It's not too late to register, you can read more about it here ). In May, I'll be at the Mesh Conference in Toronto. I enjoy going to conferences for many reasons, but, the main thing I'm going there for is to learn. Attending conferences is a great way for non profit professionals...(read more)
Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:51:00 GMT - Two Wild Apricot Releases - 2.14 and 2.15
A quick overview of the main Wild Apricot's enhancements in version 2.15 released March 19th as well as version 2.14 since we did not post about it separately. Advanced Search in Contacts Database This feature allows administrators to search their member database by selecting from the list of all fields - and specifying search values for each field. For example, you can search by member's city or any of your custom fields. Custom Event Fields Because all events are different, we added a very useful...(read more)
Wed, 21 Mar 2007 19:24:00 GMT
