[Editor's note: The following is an excerpt of an article in the December 2011 issue of NTEN:Change. Read the complete issue of NTEN's new quarterly journal for nonprofit leaders by subscribing to the journal for free!]

By Laura Quinn, Idealware

Since most organizations don’t track just one type of constituent, the idea of a single database for all of them—donors, volunteers, clients, email subscribers, advocates and everyone else—is something of a holy grail. The ability to easily see how all your constituents interact with your organization, and with each other, makes for an attractive, ideal vision of what a database should be.

In reality, a single constituent database usually means some sort of compromise.

Flickr photo: Dom de OliveiraIf you've ever implemented a technology project at a nonprofit, you know it's true: technology is 90% psychology. Success rarely hinges on the hardware and the software; technology hinges on the humans involved.

These days, technology has forced its way into every single aspect of our organizations. While we used to use change mangement strategies to help soothe the fears of those who would reject the new database, now we need something slightly more radical: entirely new organizations.

I'm a long-time fan of Maddie Grant, so I was excited to see her and co-author Jamie Notter tackle this very topic in Humanize. Their premise is quite simple: to succeed in today's world you've got to throw your old models out the window. 

[Editor's note: The following is from the December 2011 issue of NTEN:Change. Read the complete issue by subscribing to the journal for free!]

Livestreaming events is increasingly becoming a popular way to share content with remote audiences. It is surprisingly simple and affordable. There are three main parts: the source, or camera that you use to capture video and audio; the encoder, which is software that you use to produce the live video; and the player that viewers will watch the video on.

[Editor's note: The following is an excerpt of an article in the December 2011 issue of NTEN:Change. Read the complete article, "From Outcomes to Impact," by subscribing to the journal for free!]

By Julie Macalik, with Greenlights for Nonprofit Success

The first step in starting to measure your impact is to identify the major outcomes that you want to examine. In order to be successful in this step you will need full management support and a dedicated key project lead for your team. This person will take the helm on laying out tasks in a sequence, informing other staff of their roles and assignments, and providing assistance to people as they complete their parts of the evaluation.

The December issue of NTEN's quarlerly journal for nonprofit leaders is free and hot off the press. 

Featured in this issue:

• "From Outcomes to Impact," by Julie Macalik with Greenlights for Nonprofit Success, which provides guidance for measuring the real impact of your nonprofit.
• "How To Track Everyone Who's Anyone To You," from Idealware's Laura Quinn, which provides the foundation for why and how to lead your nonprofit to a "greener" bottom line.
• Three Case-Studies that document how three different nonprofits are tracking their constituents.
• Nonprofit Leaders discuss managing their organizations through change.