We're coming to your town, we'll help you party down. (Provided that town is Atlanta.) If you like what you read, support us by becoming a member.

10NTC LEADERSHIP: LEADING TECH CHANGE WHEN YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS

Dahna Goldstein, PhilanTech

If the words "executive" or "chief" do not appear in your job title, you may think you're not in the right position to lead a technology change successfully.

But leadership and formal authority are not the same thing -- anyone who has experienced a bad boss can attest to that. Formal authority is granted through position on an org chart. Leadership is cultivated and demonstrated.

So how do you hone that kind of skill? How do you develop your ability and credibility as a technology leader in your organization?

Here are some strategic ways to position yourself well to lead a technology change, and inspire people to want to do the things you want to do.

10NTC FUNDRAISING: ONLINE GIVING TRENDS FROM 2009 AND THE HAITI EARTHQUAKE

Steve MacLoughlin, Blackbaud

2009 proved to be another important year for online giving by nonprofit organizations.

Blackbaud has been actively engaged in researching and analyzing trends in the nonprofit sector for quite a while. The information in our 2009 research comes from approximately 2,300 nonprofit organizations, using a combination of our online fundraising, email marketing, and integrated CRM tools.

This analysis represents the largest study of online giving trends in the nonprofit sector.

10NTC FUNDRAISING: WHAT WOULD HOMER SIMPSON DO? YOUR MESSAGES AND THE EMERGING SCIENCE OF BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS

Non-profit marketers and fundraisers often base important strategic and tactical choices on thinking grounded in established theories and practices including direct marketing and economics. But what about established psychological theories?

Enter behavioral economics.

A reaction to "rationality" -- the concept that people use reason to make choices -- behavioral economics identifies social, cognitive, and emotional factors that influence decisions.

The big takeaway? People aren't rational and we don't make rational decisions.

In the nonprofit space these irrational decisions have high stakes. We're not asking people to buy a Coke. We're asking them to change the world. Their decisions matter. So what can you do?

10NTC COMMUNICATIONS: 25 WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR ORGANIZATION'S COMMUNICATION CAPACITY

Tirza Hollenhorst, ifPeople

Nearly every organization is feeling the pull to communicate more. Quality matters, of course, but the sheer quantity and frequency of communications most organizations seek to produce has increased dramatically, whether its blogs, tweets, commenting, web site updates, collaborations, cross posting, press releases, or good old print brochures.

To stay abreast, your organization needs to maximize its capacity for communication. At a time when there is no way you can hire additional staff, that means making the staff you have as efficient and effective as possible.

How do you do that? Here are some recommendations:

10NTC PROGRAM: ADVANCING YOUR MISSION WITH GIS TOOLS

Jim Craner, MapTogether

Geographic information systems (GIS) and online mapping applications continue to become more powerful and easier to use every year. Mapping applications that used to require sophisticated software and time-intensive training to create can now be completed in a matter of minutes with user-friendly tools.

Organizations around the globe are harnessing these tools to mobilize supporters, tell their stories and the stories of their constituents, and to share knowledge with people and communities everywhere.

Here's how a few nonprofits on the cutting-edge of online mapping and GIS use place-related data to benefit their respective communities.

10NTC IT STAFF: GREENING YOUR TECHNOLOGY

Anna Jaeger, TechSoup Global

By now, you're aware that "green technology" exists. But do you know if organizations like yours are using any of these technologies? Are they working or cost effective? Are you overwhelmed by the thought of trying to add environmental concerns on top of your other concerns about technology -- like affording it and having the expertise to chose, implement, and support it?

There are a few relatively easy things you can do to educate yourself and start saving your organization money while reducing your footprint. Many organizations have already implemented green technologies. And I'm not talking about enormous companies with their own data centers.

I'm talking about organizations like yours.

Anna's participating in our upcoming Green IT Workshop. Be sure to check it out!

10NTC IT STAFF: WHO'S KNOCKING AT MY FIREWALL DOOR? SIMPLE SECURITY FOR THE NONPROFIT IT PROFESSIONAL

Bruce M. Wolfe, Marin Institute

Security is always changing and evolving. It morphs this way and transmogrifies that way and reveals new cracks in the systems we use each and every day -- from our cellphones to ATMs to voting machines -- providing fertile ground for those with malicious intentions to infiltrate our data and productivity.

How is a CIO or IT manager with limited experience in a low-budget nonprofit to keep up without breaking the bank?

First off, for 2010, there are some security questions you should ask yourself as trends emerge:

THINGS WE LIKE

1. They're ba-aaack. Kika has given birth to 5 brand new Shiba Inu puppies, and you can watch them grow, live, online. Seriously, anytime you think the world is against you, check in with these pups for 5 minutes, and you'll be ready to go again.
2. With the Ustream app for iPhone, you can not only use the puppies as a way to ignore strangers on the bus, you can stream your trip to the world. Privacy concerns have never been so cool.
3. Besides, privacy is so 2009.
4. Network for Good has just released the "Online Fundraisers Checklist". It works like one of those quizzes in the personality magazines -- you know, "Do You Ace a First Date?" or "Is Your BFF Really on Your Side?" -- only it's helpful. (And, while we swear we didn't make those quizes up, we will deny reading those magazines to our dying breath.)
5. Controlled serendipity.
6. Primary Pad is like Google Docs for elementary school students. "Alright, who inserted 'Bobby is a doody head' into my essay on climate change?"
7. While we're still disappointed the flying cars all those science fiction movies promised we'd have by now haven't been built, at least NASA is working on it.
8. Automatic voice-to-text translation. We have heard the future and it is incoherent. Hilarious, though. Apparently, technology isn't always the answer.
9. List segmentation.
10. The Pizzigati Prize for Software in the Public Interest. (And not just because the winner will be announced at the 2010 NTC.) But hurry! The nomination process closes February 1st.
11. Hey, we're also mentioned in Allyson Kapin's "Best Campaigns of 2009"! How will we top Holly's "Single Ladies" remake? Hmmmmm...
12. Crisis Commons. Those folks are doing good things.
13. A great American philosopher once toasted, "To alcohol: the cause of and solution to all of life's problems." Now, there's a very detailed schematic (PDF) to help you construct most any cocktail for your own toasts. Where do these people find the time?

THINGS WE LIKE (TO DO AT THE NTC)

1. Get our collective groove on.
2. Show off awards bling.
3. Catalog the swag. (Feel free to use a spreadsheet. You know you want to.)
4. Play with toys.
5. Get personal with some penguins.
6. Rock out.
7. Chill out.
8. And, of course, help out.

(Yes, we learn a lot, too, but pictures of people sitting in conference rooms just aren't that exciting. The excitement comes later, when you start to apply what you've learned to make the world a better place.)

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