Next time you're in the market for a new computer, look for one with the Energy Star logo (pictured below). Energy Star computers consume 15 to 25 percent less energy than standard new computers, according to the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.

Are you interested in learning how to better manage technology projects in your nonprofit or as a consultant to nonprofits? Aspiration and Idealware are hosting a Nonprofit Technology Project Management event in Oakland, California on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 20  and 21.

Managing Nonprofit Technology Projects will examine the tools and best practices that help nonprofits achieve successful technology solutions — whether Web sites, packaged software implementations, or custom applications.

If your are like me, it just hurts to throw something out that still has some use left in it. So, I felt for my friend who had a perfectly good computer she wanted to donate to a good cause. After looking high and low, I turned up a great list of refurbishers ... which also happened to be right here on the TechSoup site. Refurbishers accept used computers and update them to be used again.

The list is extensive, and though it doesn't cover every inch of the United States, very likely there is a place near you. It is also a great place to look if your nonprofit (or other qualified organization/ individual) is interested in a refurbished computer.

For nonprofits that work in a cross-platform office, The Tech Chronicles is reporting on a new device, the iTornado, that helps you quickly transfer files from one computer to another.

This USB device can hook up a Mac to a PC, or two PCs or two Macs, and directly transfer a file from one to the other at 25 MB per second.

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The New York Times is covering the EPA's new campaign to encourage people to dispose of their cell phones responsibly.

By the agency’s reckoning, as many as 150 million cellphones are taken out of service each year. The phones contain metals, plastics, glass and chemicals, all of which require energy to mine and make, and many of which could be hazardous if they end up in landfills and leach into the ground. Moreover, many old cellphones still work and can be donated to charities or distributed to poor people.

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Nonprofits interested in social networking and technology fundamentals will want to look into two new Webinars from NTEN:

Friends for a Cause: Campaigns in Social Networks

January 16, 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. PST; $25 for NTEN members, $50 for non-members

A recent CNN article examines how designers and engineers are increasingly taking the needs of developing countries into consideration in their product designs:

Imagine taking the industrial design smarts behind the iPod and applying it to the far more basic technology needs of the extremely poor. In the past, few top designers would have bothered. But that's changing.

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National Geographic's new feature on High Tech Trash gives readers an up-close look at the international e-waste trade, where unwanted computers and monitors are exported to countries where they are dismantled and discarded under oftentimes appalling conditions by people (many of them children and teenagers) with little or no equipment to protect them from the toxic byproducts.

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Looking to alphabetize a list quickly? Move email from Outlook to Gmail? One of my favorite blogs, Lifehacker, offers daily tips for running your office, using computer equipment, and more. Here are some posts from the last couple of weeks that I thought would be especially helpful for nonprofits:

Alphabetize Quickly
"Need to alphabetize something in a jiffy but don't want to fire up Excel and import the data to do it? Head over to The Alphabetizer, a simple but surprisingly useful Web app that quickly sorts any list into alphabetical order."

Looking for a laptop on the cheap? Check out Wired's reviews of three super-affordable laptops: