Flickr Photo: Cubbie_n_ VegasIf you're anywhere around my age -- I'm 33, I can admit it -- you don't remember how small the world used to be. Before the advent of the jet airliner in the 1950s, intercontinental travel was long, hard, and expensive. Only the very rich went abroad. Getting around the U.S. was no piece of cake either: until the interstate system, traveling by car was long, tedious, and expensive, too.

Infrastructure improvements, coupled with rising incomes and an increased awareness of cultures other than our own, has caused travel to skyrocket world-wide. The National Academy of Engineering figures that, "Over the past five decades, Earth’s inhabitants have increased their travel demand from an average of 1,400 to 5,500 km, using a combination of automobiles, buses, railways, and aircraft." This has fundamentally changed the way we live.

Now, let's think about your data.

The Salesforce.com/Foundation has just announced two new grant opportunities for 2008.  If you are a Salesforce user, you could earn up to $15,000 for your organization.  They have two types of grants during this round:

TURN IT UP GRANTS
The Salesforce.com Foundation is excited to announce the third annual Turn It Up grant round!  These grants, valued at 10,000 USD each, are designed to help existing salesforce.com license donation recipients enhance their use of the salesforce.com application.  Turn It Up grants will be awarded to nonprofits whose use of the application is most innovative and beneficial to the global nonprofit community.

TECHNOLOGY GRANT FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
The Salesforce.com Foundation announces the 2008 Technology Grants for Youth Development!  The Technology Grants for Youth Development will be awarded to visionary nonprofit organizations whose focus rests on youth development, for technology projects or solutions that advance the organization's core mission.  These grants will be awarded in increments of 5,000 USD ranging from 10,000 to 15,000.

LOLnptechThe Salesforce Foundation's Innovation for Nonprofit Success, in NYC, was the big nonprofit technology this week event.

Jake Brewer, of Idealist.org, wrote an article for the Huffington Post, that gets at the heart of what we nptechies are all about: technology levels the playing field and allows even the smallest nonprofits to run their programs using the same tools as the big guys. Jake gives a shout out not only to Salesforce's contribution to nonprofits, but also to Google Apps and the organizations, big and small, that've been able to use these tools to further their missions. (There are too many NTEN members highlighted in this article to name here, so check it out!)

Judi Sohn blogged about the Salesforce event this week too -- but from a different perspective. She couldn't be there! Syncing Google calendars with her husband made her realize that she'd have to miss the NYC event. I missed it too, Judi, and I have Old Man Winter to blame for interfering with my travel plans! Thanks for the down-to-earth insights about using these tools.

Michelle Murrain is back this week with an aptly titled post (Tidbits) about a developers' challenge -- and an open source update, of course.

Do you use Salesforce? You may want to check out these two useful tools.

The first is DemandTools, a standalone application for manipulating data and administrating your Salesforce account. DemandTools features 14 modules, but one of its more popular features is probably its extensive deduping capabilities. It has certainly made this usually repetitive task much less time consuming for me. DemandTools also has the ability to verify addresses through a third party. It's not free, but comes with 450 free "credits" per Salesforce login.

DemandTools has many more features, but it's not overwhelming. CRMfusion, the author of the application, has very neatly documented all the features on its website, including mini-presentations of how each feature works.

The second tool is the Apex Data Loader, created in-house at Salesforce to import data. I recently used it to bulk assign contact roles to a large set of opportunities in order to run a report of opportunities with contacts from accounts.

In order to test out Apex Data Loader, log into your Salesforce.com account, click Setup, Data Management, AppExchange, Data Loader, and then Download.

Also, thanks to the folks on the Nonprofit Salesforce Practitioners mailing list for bringing these useful tools to my attention.

Are you in the market for a new database? Then we have a webinar that you should check out:

Salesforce for Nonprofits

Salesforce is one of the most popular web-enabled databases, and it's gaining adherants among nonprofits. Accessible from any browser, customizable in myriad ways -- and available to nonprofits for no fee through the Salesforce.com Foundation -- it's a powerful tool. But how can a database with a name like Salesforce be used by the nonprofit sector? This webinar will explore the functionality and community of Salesforce. We'll look at how several nonprofits, from a group of more than 1500, use Salesforce to cultivate and recruit donors, manage their electronic communications, and more. If you are looking for a new CRM solution, or just want to know more about Salesforce, this webinar will be a great starting point.

Presented by Rob Jordan, Idealist Consulting

> Register now!