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Choose a Green Website Provider

GreenTech LogoThere are dozens if not hundreds of affordable, reliable, high-quality, green web hosts in the market today. Choose one to host your website. Here are some third-party lists of green web hosts:

 

 

 

When selecting a provider, consider these items:

Adobe Show Your Impact Feature: Potomac Highlands Watershed School

TechSoup and Adobe announced the winners of the Show Your Impact design contest at the very end of May. Since then, we've been featuring the winners and runners-up in each of the four main categories. We ran the contest for a couple of reasons —  to show off the amazing work of these nonprofits and libraries and also to inspire the work of others. You can see the previously featured winners here and here.

Free Webinar: An Introduction to SharePoint 2007 - July 22

TechSoup Talks LogoMicrosoft Office SharePoint Server is a comprehensive set of tools that — when supported and deployed well — can help nonprofits and libraries simplify collaborative efforts, organize documents and institutional knowledge, and manage electronic content.

Microsoft makes SharePoint available for donation to eligible organizations through TechSoup. This free webinar will help you determine if this tool is the right fit for your organization.

Adobe MAX Social Responsibility Award: July 31 Deadline!

Adobe has recently announced the call for submissions for their annual Adobe MAX Awards. This awards program is truly global, with submissions coming from Adobe users around the world and across all spectrums of business, political, education, and social sectors.

This year, they've made one significant change that may be relevent to nonprofits and other social benefit organizations: a category for Social Responsibility that will highlight organizations working toward social or environmental causes.

So, all you nonprofits who sent in submissions for the Adobe-TechSoup Show Your Impact Design Contest earlier this year — here's another opportunity to show the world about the incredible work you're doing, aided by some cool software from Adobe. The deadline for submissions is July 31! Here are more details:

Do You Need Help Getting Your Nonprofit Web Site Redesigned?

Design PlanningWho doesn't, right?! This week, TechSoup has a new article called Tips for Designing (or Redesigning) a Nonprofit Web Site, that covers all the basic considerations needed in order to get a new or redesigned site up and running.

This article covers all the steps to include in your exploration process, discusses the stakeholders who need to be involved, the general timeline that most web development firms follow, and shares a variety of great resources for starting your redesign process.

I've gone through this process as the "accidental techie" at three small nonprofits before and have had site redesigns go both ways — well planned up front and not-so-well-planned. The difference in the process can make or break the success and outcome. The frustrations and the lack of deliverables when the project was wrapped up were not only greater in the not-so-well-planned process, but they also cost our organization a LOT more money longer term.

Following guidelines and thinking through the questions presented in this article can help get your project off to a good start and keep it on track through to a new site launch.

Photo: Simon Collison

TechSoup Announces Adobe Show Your Impact Design Contest Winners

Project Kindle ImageThe day has arrived. Alliance for Tompotika Conservation, Cacapon Institute, Project Kindle, and Project ABE take away the highest honors in the Adobe Show Your Impact 2009 Design Contest, co-sponsored by software company Adobe Systems Incorporated and TechSoup.

The Adobe Show Your Impact Design Contest invited nonprofits and libraries in the United States and Canada to demonstrate how their innovative use of Adobe software acquired through TechSoup Product Donation Program helped them achieve impact and further their mission.

We'll be profiling each of the winning orgs here on the TechSoup Blog over the coming weeks.

Chosen from a field of 233 entrants, the winners of the Show Your Impact Design Contest are:

  • Environmental Impact Print/Photo: Alliance for Tompotika for their project Forest, Sea, and Village: AlTo's Conservation Awareness Campaign for Sea Turtles and Wild Nature in Indonesia
  • Environmental Impact Other Media: The Cacapon Institute for their project Potomac Highlands Watershed School
  • Social Change Print/Photo: Project Kindle for their project I Know: Kids from Camp Kindle share their stories of living with HIV/AIDS.
  • Social Change Other Media: Project ABE/Remember.org for their project Virtual Tour of Auschwitz

Adobe generously added runners-up prizes for all four categories as well, so check out the Show Your Impact site for more details about all of the winners.

Congratulations and thanks to all the orgs who submitted for some truly inspiring and impactful work!

Adobe Special Donation Program: Get It While It Lasts!

Adobe CS 3 Design Premium BoxIf you use a Mac for design work, TechSoup has a Special Donation of Adobe products available to the following types of organizations:

  • Schools and other educational
  • Health services
  • Cultural and historical
  • Community and inner city development
  • Youth and sports
  • Business and farming
  • Civil rights and legal aid

Products like CS Design Premium and Standard 3.3 for Mac and Photoshop CS 3.0 for Mac are among the listings available to more organizations than our regular Adobe donation program. So, even if you haven't been eligible to receive Adobe donations from TechSoup in the past, your organization may be eligible for the special donation program. Quantities and titles are limited so get 'em while they're hot!

Microsoft Show Your Impact Story Contest: Submit Your Microsoft Success Stories Today!

Show Your Impact ContestSome of you may be familiar with the ongoing Adobe-TechSoup Show Your Impact Contest from this year and the last. You may have submitted your entries and you may have even been one of the winners.

Well, now is your chance to tell us how Microsoft donations have helped your nonprofit or public library fulfill your mission and impact your communities. Microsoft has joined TechSoup for a similar partnership to highlight, promote, and award nonprofits and public libraries which have used Microsoft-donated products from TechSoup to work better. The full details can be found here, along with guidelines for submitting your story, and a gallery of submissions.

The key categories for submissions are:

1. Stable and Secure Technology
2. Optimize Mission Delivery
3. Transformations to Maximize Impact

You might have a your tale about how Microsoft-donated products through TechSoup helped your organization go from a tangled mess of tech inefficiencies to build a stable infrastructure so your staff could better focus on doing their jobs. Maybe your donated products helped your nonprofit upgrade to a new donor-database, create an interactive and engaging Web site, or develop effective outreach materials that helped reach new supporters and increase your impact.

Tell your story and possibly win a $5000 cash grant plus more than $25000 in donated Microsoft products. Only organizations in the United States and Canada are eligible to participate and the donated Microsoft products must be been received through TechSoup. Learn more about who can enter. Submissions are now OPEN so share your experience from now through the May 29 deadline. Once submissions have closed, we'll invite you back to vote for your favorites. Stay tuned for more!

Voting Open for Show Your Impact Contest: Who Has Made the Biggest Impact?

Vote Here signShow Your Impact LogoNow that submissions have been closed for this year's Adobe-TechSoup Show Your Impact Design Contest, it's time to give your two cents and vote for your favorite submissions!

Which designs do you like best? Who had the most effective marketing? And which organization made the biggest impact with their creative programs? You tell us!

Even though only U.S. and Canadian organizations were eligible to enter the contest, the whole world can vote and help choose this year's winners of the four $1000 grants and Adobe software packages. See the full voter guide for more details.

There are four different categories that will be rewarded:

  • Environmental Impact: Print/Photo
  • Environmental Impact: Other Media (for example, a Web site design or video submission)
  • Social Change: Print/Photo
  • Social Change: Other Media

Register on the site and review the submissions in the Gallery. Then, cast your ballot for the submissions you think have made the biggest impact using creative design. Voting will remain open from now through April 30 so get out the vote today!

Also, once you've cast your own ballot, invite friends and colleagues to vote for their favs as well. The more people who participate, the bigger the impact will be for all of our participating nonprofits!

Photo: geekygirlnyc

Jakob Nielsen Thinks Your Web Site Sucks

Well, maybe it doesn't exactly suck, but potential donors can't figure it out. In a recent study of nonprofit Web sites, usability guru Jakob Nielsen asked participants "what information they want to see on nonprofit Web sites before they decide whether to donate?" The most heavily requested information was:

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