To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• Open Source Zanby Announcement | Zanby.com – I'm so very excited to see this group/community platform go open source! If you aren't familiary with Zanby, I encourage you to read the news and check out the platform today! "As of May 13, 2011, we are releasing the code for our community software platform, the Zanby Enterprise Group Family System, under a GPLv3 license. We are also launching a community to encourage software developers to collaborate with us to evolve and improve the Zanby codebase. We hope you will join us."
• Nonprofit Uses QR Code, Quora to Make Cause Marketing More Transparent | Cause marketing for nonprofits – Here is a really interesting case study where an organization is using both a QR code and the answer platform Quora to engage and inform supporters. "This month my fellow Dummies writer Joanna MacDonald and I are putting Quora to the test with a QR code on our latest pinup that will be sold at iParty and Fuddruckers locations throughout New England. Trying scanning this QR code with the QR reader on your smartphone. When consumers scan the code with their smartphones (try it yourself!) it takes them to this Quora page where they can comment or ask a question about the campaign. We plan to monitor the page regularly so we can answer questions quickly and accurately."
• How To Use Hashtags on Twitter to Spread, Share and Organize Information | Movements.org – Looking for a resource on hashtags, what they mean, how to use them, and how to really get value from them? Look no further! This is a great run down that you can share with colleagues or reference yourself as you dive into the world of Twitter, join a twitter chat, or start swimming in the stream of real-time information!
• Hey Admins, Get A Load Of The New Pages Dashboard – "Facebook has added some more organization for administrators, in the form of a new dashboard that shows complete details about all of the pages an admin manages. A tab labeled pages now appears on the home page, in the left-hand set of navigation links…"
• Demand Dignity: Amplifying Voices Across Multiple Platforms | MobileActive.org – "Amnesty International has launched a campaign to amplify the voices of poor people around the world. Demand Dignity is an economic, cultural, and social rights campaign for the organization and the online platform, DemandDignity.org, was launched in May 2009. Since then, the site has collected 57,384 comments, or “voices,” from people around the world, via SMS, Twitter, and on the Demand Dignity website. "

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• Women Rule the Philanthropic Roost! – Online Fundraising, Advocacy, and Social Media – frogloop – "According to the study, “women at every income level give to charity more often than men do. What’s more, at almost every income level, the amount women gave exceeded that of men in comparable circumstances. For example, women who earn $23,509 or less gave an average of $540 per year to charity, while men in that income bracket with similar life circumstances (such as education and number of children) gave $281. Women who earn more than $103,000 annually gave $1,910 to charity, while their male counterparts gave $984.” You can check out the study here."
• Boston Review — Kentaro Toyama: Can Technology End Poverty? – "Nothing would have pleased my group more than finding a way for technology to advance the cause of poverty alleviation. But as we conducted research projects in multiple domains (education, microfinance, agriculture, health care) and with various technologies (PCs, mobile phones, custom-designed electronics), a pattern, having little to do with the technologies themselves, emerged. In every one of our projects, a technology’s effects were wholly dependent on the intention and capacity of the people handling it. The success of PC projects in schools hinged on supportive administrators and dedicated teachers. Microcredit processes with mobile phones worked because of effective microfinance organizations…"
• YMCA of Metro Chicago Launches Facebook « Chicago YMCA's IT Space – Great resource from Steve Heye, thanks for sharing your facebook manual! "How do you get 50 authors prepared to manage 15 Facebook pages in less than 2 months with a team of 4 people? The YMCA of Metro Chicago faced just this challenge in the summer of 2010. There was a desire to get a presence established on Facebook in order to connect with our communities in new ways and do it quickly! Our bigger challenge was managing the pages once they were launched. This case study will walk through the process we followed to get the pages launched and equipped the authors to manage them."
• New Phone Apps Aim to Combat Harassment – NYTimes.com – “The Internet speeds everything up,” Ms. May said. “If we as activists can’t get the Internet to speed up social change, then we’re not doing our jobs.” There are so many examples of the increased "speed" the internet is able to provide; but I'm curious what people think about the internet's influence on scale, competition, and community. Thoughts?
• The Dragonfly Effect: 4 Principles of Engagement | Social Media For Nonprofits | Advancing the Mission of Nonprofits via Social Media – "I recently read the book The Dragonfly Effect by Jennifer Aaker (@aaker) and Andy Smith (@kabbenbock). The book is packed with case studies from nonprofits and how they are leveraging the power of social media to do something good. From Charity: Water and Alex’s Lemonade to Kiva and Tom’s Shoes, the authors tell the stories of how these organizations are using social technologies to engage and inspire people to participate in movements for change."

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• JustGiving blog: Seven-year-old Charlie raises more than £100,000 for Haiti! – Read this great case study from JustGiving about Charlie's bike ride to raise money for Haiti relief support. "Charlie was really upset by the television footage of the Haiti disaster, so, in conversation with his mum, he came up with idea of cycling around South Park near his home in Fulham, London as many times as possible. As Charlie puts on his JG page, ‘at least 10 laps, I hope!’. Charlie set himself a fundraising target of £500 for UNICEF – not an insubstantial amount for a seven-year-old."
• Why We're In the Age of the Citizen Philanthropist – There's a great post up on Mashable with quotes from Britt Bravo (Have Fun Do Good), Kari Dunn Saratovsky (Case Foundation), and Peter Panepento (Chronicle of Philanthropy). "Our new communications technologies have empowered the individual, and caused a disruptive effect on the non-profit sector. Here are five examples of the citizen philanthropist’s immediate impact."
• Footnotes: Online Outreach on a Budget – January Nonprofit Blog Carnival – "This month we spent some time collecting posts about nonprofit communications on a budget. Below you'll find a combination of great resources that were submitted, and information I've found useful in my own research on online outreach. So bookmark this post and take the time to apply this knowledge to marketing and communications at your organization – it's cheap (or free) and has worked for others!"
• Online Branded Communities: Misguided and Missing the Point – Marketing News Blog – This is an excellent review of best practices and case studies for online community management. Even though the authors (Kathy Baughman and Steve Hershberger) are focused on for-profit brands, the lessons ring true across sectors. "If you ask brand managers the purpose of online communities, the reply you’ll most often hear is “customer engagement.” Among marketers, this term is more prevalent than Frisbees at a dog beach. But the real question is this: Are brands providing meaningful and engaging experiences to their customers through their online communities? Our research on 135 online communities representing 45 major brands indicates that, with few exceptions, the answer is no."
• Idealware Field Guide to Software for Nonprofits by Laura Quinn in Computers & Internet – "What types of software should your nonprofit be using? It’s hard to even know even what types exist, let alone what might work for you. Through a friendly, easy-reference format, this book helps you pinpoint the types of software that can help your organization based on your needs and your level of technology savvy, and provides user-friendly summaries to demystify all the possible options.

  The 84-page Field Guide includes an overview of 35 different types of software, helping you to understand what each is, how it fits in with your needs, how much you might expect to pay, and some of the most common vendors in the area."