The Center for Accessible Technology (CforAT) and California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) today named TechSoup Global one of three winners of the 2009 California Digital Inclusion Program Award. The award recognizes nonprofits, government agencies, and corporations responsible for raising awareness of and improving web accessibility for Californians with disabilities.

Microsoft's SharePoint/MOSS system enabled TechSoup to incorporate web features that ensure compliance with federal Web Content Accessibility Standards (WCAG) 2.0. Upgrades include website text that can now be read by assistive technology and navigation aid is available on every page. Our content and web production teams collaborated to make our webinar series accessible, an area where many companies and organizations struggle. Last month we premiered our first closed captioned video. This was made possible by several volunteers who transcribed the text and time coded it to match the video.

Help us make more recorded webinars accessible by becoming a volunteer transcriber! Email webinars@techsoup.org for more information.

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The results of two new surveys paint a bleak picture of the effectiveness of social media for fundraising and volunteer recruitment. The first from Philanthropy Action, has the depressing title, "Social Networking and Mid-Size Nonprofits: What's the Use?" The survey is based on responses from about 200 mid-sized nonprofits (defined as having revenues between $1 and $5 million annually) between July 2008 and March 2009. It concludes that:

Social technologies are not delivering much in terms of fundraising or attracting volunteers. While the majority (of respondents) began using social networking with an expectation that it would help the organization attract donors and volunteers, results have been particularly disappointing in those categories. More than 70 percent of respondents indicated that they had raised less than $100 or did not know whether they had raised any money.

However, despite poor results to date, "the overwhelming majority of respondents... say they are going to increase their investment in the use of social networking."

A second survey, from the Cone communications agency, reached similar conclusions.

The latest round of the America's Giving Challenge is on. This is a national competition to encourage people to use their personal and social networks to help win cash for their favorite nonprofit. The Giving Challenge is not focused on how much money you can raise, but on how successful you are at getting people to donate to your cause. The goal is to get as many unique daily donations as possible (minimum of $10), to your cause each day. The contest runs through November 6, 2009.

What: Another in The Chronicle of Philanthropy's series of online discussions: How to Use Facebook Causes to Promote Your Nonprofit Group

When: Tuesday, October 13, at 12 noon, Eastern time

Where: http://philanthropy.com/live/2009/10/facebook/

How Much: Free

Description:

This post is cross-posted on my personal blog and on the NetSquared Blog.

On Thursday, I attended the unconference/open space portion of SOCAP09 (Social Capital Markets 2009). I found a few tech sessions that were relevant to the purposes of TechSoup, and as is always the case, I collected the business cards of some intelligent people doing good work. The spontaneous conversations in the halls, are really the reason why we go to conferences, right?

That is really the reason we even do face-to-face these days, as much of the content at conferences is pretty much the same conversation again and again, at least in the nonprofit tech world (Twitter or Facebook? What's the best platform to use for online collaboration? And so on.) Here is what you missed, so you don't have to regret not having gone.

Meet these smart people whom I met, and you may not know about, but should:

• Jill Finlayson, Social Edge Social Media guru
• Greg Berry, Systems Designer of Nuance Intelligence
• Boyd Cohen, of 3rd Whale
• Dawn Bowles, of Dreambank.org

These people were talking about very different topics, but there were some emerging and complementary high-level themes that I observed across conversations.

One such theme that emerged is that there is a justifiable fear of the duplication of efforts.

Reporting and metrics are important sources of information for nonprofits and the foundations that support them, by making data available about who is benefiting from their work in the social sector. VentureBeat, a blog on news and trends in the venture capital sector, blogged about Acumen Fund's project on a metrics tool for social enteprises and nonprofits.

This week, Worldwide Lexicon launched its long-awaited Universal Translator plugin for Firefox. There are still a few kinks to work out, but don't wait to install this one. It's a glimpse into the future of the Internet.

Worldwide Lexicon combines translation engines like Babel Fish and Google Translate with user-contributed translations and edits. WWL maintains a database of user contributions and uses its own ratings system to give higher priority to better translators. One thing I love about WWL is that there's no signup: to start translating (or to start reading other people's translations), simply install the plugin.

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to meet Brian McConnell, head developer at WWL. Brian has big ideas about reducing language barriers on the Internet, and his enthusiasm is nothing if not contagious. In a time when more and more nonprofits are blurring the line between local and global, I think that services like WWL can make a huge difference in how we communicate and collaborate. Using WWL, you can encourage bilingual volunteers to translate your own content so that a broader audience can find it. Simply have them install the plugin, or better yet, customize your website with Javascript code provided by WWL.

Last month, Google launched their own engine for collaborating on translations, Google Translator Toolkit. It's an interesting service that's definitely worth a look, but for ductility and incorporation into your own website, WWL is the more compelling offering.

Last week, TechSoup published our new guide, The Resilient Organization: A Guide for Disaster Planning and Recovery. Before the guide even officially launched, TechSoup Taiwan had already begun an ambitious project to translate it into Chinese Traditional. I've been checking the group wiki every few days to see how the effort is going, and it's coming along rapidly. It's exciting to watch, and it demonstrates how much volunteer energy is ready to help you spread your nonprofit's message.

Photo: gcbb, CC license

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Discuss This in Our Forums

What do you think of the Universal Translator plugin? Do you have any success stories about volunteer translation? Share your insights in this Emerging Technologies forum discussion.

TechCrunch, the popular technology blog, just published a survey and matrix on some online apps to share large files. We had a forum thread on a similar topic a few weeks ago, and as the responses in the blog post and forum thread suggest, there is no clear "winner" in this field, and the best tool for you will depend on your organization's needs.

Many of you may not know, but TechSoup Canada has its own site and services for nonprofits in Canada. If you've not visited their blog yet, you should, regardless of where you are.

They have a terrific recap of a recent Net Tuesday held in Toronto that was focused on online storytelling with video. They highlight a variety of attendees' experiences and list some really useful tips for getting started even if you don't have any video experience. It can be a great way to tell your organization's story or to tell the story of the people you're working with, in order to grow supporters, broaden your reach, and deepen the relationships you have with the communities where you work.

As we've noted previously, The Chronicle of Philanthropy has been running a series of online discussions on how nonprofits can use social media tools. In addition to these open discussions, the Chronicle has been conducting a series of recorded interviews.

In the latest, Allison Fine interviews Joe Green, one of the creators of Facebook Causes, and Amy Eldridge, Executive Director of Love Without Boundaries. These podcasts are available at http://philanthropy.com/media/audio/socialgood/. Topics to date include: