The Association for Fundraising Professionals and the Direct Marketing Association of Washington are co-hosting the 2008 Bridge Conference, July 23-25 in Washington, DC.

The Bridge Conference is all about marketing, fundraising tools and strategies. Members of NTEN can register at the lowest rate (contact Annaliese for details).

Even better, you can enter this contest to win a FREE registration!

A quick glance at the session tracks shows that the nonprofit technology community can find plenty of content to help mission-oriented marketing and fundraising campaigns -- and look, there's even an NTEN track, a little home-away-from home while you're waiting for the 2009 NTC.

Unless you've been out of the office, you undoubtedly heard that Blackbaud is buying Kintera.  They are both publicly traded companies, so neither is allowed to comment on what will happen right now.  They have to keep behaving as completely separate entities until the acquisition is approved.  That doesn't give us a lot of good information, but it hasn't stopped the speculation either.

This is certainly very meaningful for the sector.  No matter how the acquisition plays out in terms of which products are kept, etc., there is one less choice in the nonprofit CRM market.  And I tend to believe that choice is good.  But rather than opine at this time, I'll instead share some of the musings of the nonprofit community and beyond:

• Connections: Steve MacLaughlin's Blackbaud Blog
• Nonprofit Tech Blog 
• Zen and the Art of Nonprofit Technology 
• Idealware
• The Nonprofit Times 
• Don't Tell the Donor 
• Forbes.com 

 What's your take?

Flickr Photo: Johan KoolwaaijLot of us are missing a true luxury in our work - the ability to turn to our office mate and get a quick answer to our technology questions. NTEN thinks that's a shame, so we've set up a new program exclusively for NTEN members to help you do it, virtually. That's the idea behind Office Hours - to give you a place to ask the questions that will help you succeed at your job and create more social change.

Office Hours will begin on June 2 and we already have a good crew of volunteer experts who have committed an hour/week so that you have the opportunity to get advice in an online chat room setting.

How do you participate?

It's a question I get asked a lot, especially since the latest e-Benchmarks study shows a drop in open rates. My answer can depend a little on my mood, but I generally think that email is not going to die, just as direct email is not going to die (anytime soon). Never say never, but bet on the fact that both will be around for a good long while.

This raises an interesting point: your job as communicator or fundraiser is getting increasingly difficult.

Here's a riddle for you: what's plastic, in your pocket right now, and ruins bar trivia nights around the country? A mobile phone!

Your mobile can help you do all kinds of interesting things, from finding directions, to finding trivia answers (aka cheating), to finding potential new friends.

One thing you couldn't do -- until today -- was easily give to the charity of your choice.

Exciting news nonprofiteers: mGive now allows you to collect $5 or $10 donations via text message.

2008 Bridge ConferenceWe just heard about an online scavenger hunt for the 2008 Bridge Conference, hosted by AFP and DMAW:

Play the Find the Clues to Your Success Game and win a Free Registration to the 2008 Bridge Conference!

Play the Find the Clues to Your Success contest by searching the Bridge Conference education tracks on the 2008 Bridge Conference website and identifying the 6 gold highlighted words that make up the clues to your success. Put the words together in the correct order to create the Secret Phrase and email the phrase to mystery@bridgeconf.org. The first entry submitted with the correct phrase will win a free, fully transferable registration to the 2008 Bridge Conference.

If you don't win the contest, don't worry: if you're a member of NTEN, you get to register at the lowest rate for the conference! Contact me to find out how to register with your NTEN rate.

Let's see how many social media metaphors I can cram into one post, shall we? :)

Jeremiah Owyang has a piece today about trust. I don't know if you've felt this lately, but I certainly have: we're head over heels for trust in the sector these days. I wrote a bit about it back in November. Katya Andresen and Mark Rovner think it's one of the seven things everyone wants. Search for "trust" on Beth's Blog and you'll come up with myriad posts. Search for trust on the NTEN website and you'll get dozens of job listings where "building trust" is in the job description.

But back to Jeremiah's post. Want to guess what the number one source of trusted information is for most Americans?

2008 Bridge ConferenceThose of you in Fundraising know it's all about communicating your mission and building relationships.

Those of you in Communications share the goal of growing your constituencies while increasing support for your cause.

Wouldn't you love to get together and share tips, strategies, resources, and contacts?

You got it! Brought to you by AFP and DMAW, the 2008 Bridge Conference will have over 75 sessions, more than a thousand of your colleagues, inspiring keynote speakers, plenty of networking opportunities, and the "very best of insider tips and trade secrets."

But wait, there's more! If you're an NTEN member, you have the golden ticket. NTEN Members can register for the conference at the low member rates -- and if you register before June 1st, you get to go for the best rate available!

Get in touch with me to get your golden-ticket registration details.

What's that? You're not a member of NTEN yet? Take advantage of this and other benefits of membership by joining NTEN today!

There's nothing like a little peer pressure when you need someone to do something. Combine it with instant gratification and total transparency and you have the fundraising triumvirate!

Google Checkout has a great little campaign going on in honor of Earth Day that gives you all three:

• You make a donation to an enviro org on someone's behalf.
• That certain someone gets an email and asks them to do the same.
• As the donations tally up, you get a personalized map showing all the people you inspired to donate, illustrating your network effect.

So, who wants to see if their friends are more generous then my friends?

I came across a blog post today that made me smile (and not just because of thejustgiving.com great vocabulary used across the Pond). It's a simple and straight-forward example of how easy it is for someone to use free, fast, online tools to raise money for his or her favorite cause. Here's an excerpt:

"I've just had a rather intense week of trying to use social media to raise funds and by and large succeeding. Inevitably this story involves blogging and tweeting and people I don't know very well being incredibly generous...."

David Harte, Digital Central project manager at Birmingham City University and contributor to the Birmingham Post's Business Blog, decided to try a spur-of-the-moment fundraising campaign one week before he ran in the London Marathon. He didn't have to raise money for a charity, but he decided he wanted to try to help his favorite, St. Mary's Hospice. His goal was £495, and he ended up raising over £300 (and he's still raising money for his cause online).