Tag Archives: data integration

Report from 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference

Thanks to Holly Ross and the entire Nten staff for last week’s annual Nonprofit Technology Conference, held in New Orleans.  With so many worthwhile sessions taking place during the three days, the hardest part was choosing which sections to attend.  I was also fortunate to receive what was clearly the most valuable prize at the Sponsor Fair, a $1000 donation to any nonprofit of my choice, generously contributed by Jay Frank of Nice Touch Communications and Telecom for Charity.

Kudos also to Beth Kanter who organized the Day of Service to assist local nonprofits in New Orleans on the first day of the conference.  Working with Nancy Schwartz, (who writes Getting Attention to help nonprofits with marketing tips), I gave a quick ephilanthropy tutorial to Casa New Orleans.

I also participated in two conference sessions:

Tug of War or Pulling Together? Building Teamwork for Better Online Campaigns, David Hollender, Jed Cohen and I reviewed strategies for how an organization can work collaboratively instead of in silos.  Sharing information regularly can help, as well as a current intranet site and ‘lunch and learn’ where departments are invited to learn about each other’s projects.  While it is helpful to build relationships with those in other departments before you are assigned to work on a project with them, it’s also important to make sure that your own department’s goals are met.

The Joy of CMS: Implementing Sustainable Content Management Systems (The Painless Way to Keep Your Web Site Current): I moderated a panel of three CMS experts: Andrew Cohen, Nathan Gasser and Jeff Herron.  Instead of focusing on available products (of which there are many), we discussed how the idea of content management can be successfully deployed.  Having a current web site is easier when the responsibilities are shared throughout the organization, and when management accepts this as part of everyone’s job.  We also discussed work flow – how web pages are reviewed and released, and how to insure that web content is consistent with other communication vehicles.

I also want to commend Laura Quinn and Dahna Goldstein who moderated two sessions on data integration which I attended.  Since most of us have data in many locations, it is always challenging to share information between multiple products.  Memorable takeaways: when evaluating products, data integration must be on the list of requirements, and it may be best to consider vendors who have been ‘open’ from the start rather than those who have changed mostly due to market demands  Let’s keep this discussion going on Nten’s Data Standards & Integration affinity group!

It was also wonderful to return to New Orleans, which clearly is still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.  My wife and I were serenaded one night by a couple who lost their home and were struggling to make ends meet.

Does this happen in your organization?

While coming back from lunch today, I met a staff member from our finance department in the elevator.  Our office is setup in a way that finance and the president’s office are on one side of the floor and everyone else is on the other side.  I asked her if she liked being apart from most of the other staff members.  At first she said no, but on second thought she said she enjoyed the privacy and being able to focus on her work.

About a year ago, my organization decided to invest in a new accounting package that would be more compatible with our fundraising software.  It was a difficult transition, but now we have data flowing from one system into the other.  Yet at most companies where I’ve worked, the fundraising and finance systems have been totally separate.

During a webinar today, I was reminded of the benefits of integrating traditional direct marketing and online fundraising.  Yet these functions are often handled by different departments that each have their own agenda.  ‘Dual channel’ donors usually give more frequently than those who receive only offline or online marketing.  Yet few organizations have been successful in developing a truly coordinated strategy.

I used to think that doing my work well and pleasing my direct supervisor was enough to succeed.  Now I realize that it is just as important to play well with others.  While it’s good to be friendly with co-workers, it’s also important to work together with those in other departments, since most worthwhile projects require everyone’s contribution.  So for my organization’s finance department staff, being ‘separate’ may be a mixed blessing.

Many good online fundraising tips from Canadian based Artez Interactive

Recently I had the opportunity to chat with Paul Estey, VP Strategy at Artez Interactive, a Canadian based firm which helps nonprofits with “web and technology-based products and services that empower individuals to engage in active relationships with charities, associations, and other nonprofit organizations.”

Artez has also posted presentations held at their recent conference, including topics such as:

  • Tech Innovation in Fundraising
  • Building Better Events
  • Solving the Integration Headache
  • Empowering Third Party Fundraisers (which describes their new ‘Personal Events’ tool, which allows constituents to help nonprofits in whatever way they choose)

While Artez is not as well known in the US, it’s clear that they have many good ideas to help nonprofits with online fundraising initiatives.  I’m especially pleased that they chose to highlight the challenge of data integration, as well as the more traditional fundraising topics. 

Report from Nonprofit Technology Conference & Penguin Day

Spent most of last week joining over 1,000 nonprofit techies from across the US as well as other countries at the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference in Washington DC.  I also spent the following day at Penguin Day, a celebration of open source software.

As usual, the educational sessions at NTC were great.  Despite the large crowd, the many sessions planned concurrently helped keep the crowd size small – but made it harder to select which session to attend.  Some takeaways:

  • much to my surprise, many sessions focused on the challenges of data integration and using APIs.  I have joined NTen’s affinity group to help further these efforts
  • an interesting summary of how web 2.0 tools (e.g. blogs, wikis, SecondLife etc.) have been ‘smuggled’ in to organizations that originally resisted them
  • a ‘nonprofit soapbox’ that allows nonprofits to take full advantage of open source content management with some technical assistance
  • importance of the IA (information architecture) in web project management
  • open source software has become more mature – and is even more of an attraction for nonprofits, although having a relationship with a consultant or other support network is essential.

I also moderated a session on online registration tools.  Thanks to Mark Becker (Event 360), Cary McQueen Morrow (Center for Arts Management & Technology) & Eric Leland (Leland Design) for joining the panel.

Three Approaches to Data Integration

Laura Quinn, Director of Idealware has released a valuable analysis on three approaches to data integration.  Her site provides articles which help nonprofits decide what software to choose.  Integrating data between different systems is always a sticky challenge, as I’ve experienced in my current role at the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation as we’ve attempted to integrate our financial, offline fundraising and online fundraising systems.  Laura’s article is a clear summary of integration options.

Convio & GetActive Speak, New Integration Report on APIs

Listened to an NTen sponsored call today with Sheeraz Haji and Tom Krackeler of GetActive and Gene Austin and Dave Crooke of Convio.  Both companies seemed very optimistic about their planned merger which will aim to take the best from both companies, e.g. online fundraising from Convio and advocacy / CMS from GetActive.  Time will tell how things will play out as current customers learn more about migration.

Meanwhile, the issue of how to connect data in different systems was squarely addressed in a comprehensive report on Open APIs by Michelle Murrain and Katrin Verclas, available free from NTen.  At my current organization, we’re struggling with two separate integration projects, one which involves two products from the same company.  Open APIs are important because then you don’t necessarily have to get everything from the same vendor.  While Convio & GetActive will make a good try, it’s hard for any one company to offer the best of breed for many different applications.

Integrated Software or Best of Breed?

Is it better to use integrated software where not all the pieces are equally good or to search out the best applications of each category and try to use them together?  My current organization has chosen the integrated route, but it’s very a painful process.  One vendor which promised to integrate with our existing fundraising software has never been able to get it working completely.  Two other products that we bought from the same vendor, expecting them to work well together, still have been a challenge to integrate.  Obviously many are concerned about this issue, as evidenced by the site Integration Proclamation.

This reminds me of the early days of PC software.  Remember Symphony and Framework?  Of course now you have Microsoft Office, which does have modules that work together well.  But it seems that if an organization can identify its top needs, there’s some merit to searching out the products that are strong in those product types.  Integrated software can work too, but only if the ‘strong’ modules agree with your top priorities.

With Convio & GetActive’s recent announced merger, the ‘all from one vendor’ concept seems to be gaining new steam.  But it seems like there will always be room for products which do one thing especially well.