The generosity of others is a beautiful thing. For nonprofits, it is our lifesblood. If you find that you are challenged with needing to manage large lists of donors, or manage large groups of volunteers, I think that you may want to check out GiftWorks Standard and GiftWorks Volunteers. 

GiftWorks Standard can help you more effectively manage donors and prospects. You can gain greater insight into vital donor and donation information, with customizable reports on trends, revenue, segmentation, and more. The software even includes a feature allowing for the creation of custom mailings targeting your constituents or printed solicitations for attracting donors.

The great singer/songwriter, Jim Morrison, wrote about, "The end of his elaborate plans, of everything that stands" and that "the end" was his only friend. The immortal folk muse, Joni Mitchell, sang, "Don't it always seem to go.

Ozzy Osbourne is quoted as saying, "Of all the things that I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most." Well, that certainly applies in the case of Encarta. After nearly 20 years, Microsoft has decided to bow out of the electronic encyclopedia business. This is a watershed moment for many of us who've enjoyed the Encarta CD-ROMs packaged with PCs for years.

To hear that Wikipedia has taken over the market is a little scary to me. Wikipedia is an open-source knowledge repository, which is fine, but one issue with open-source technologies continues to be quality control. If I were a teacher, I would be skeptical of any information sourced from there. In order to truly verify information, you would need to track down the source of the information, if possible, and verify that source. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer a knowledge source that I can trust the first time.

For another take on the discontinuation of Encarta, see Elliot's recent post.

Update: Donations of Encarta are still available at TechSoup Stock for qualifying nonprofits and public libraries, but they must be processed by May 27. The electronic encyclopedia is available either as a standalone product or packaged with Microsoft Student. Either donation is available for an administrative fee of three dollars.