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).

• Attention Data Nerds: Nonprofits Miss Out on the Power of LinkedIn: Learn How to Tap It | Beth’s Blog – Geri Stengel has a great guest post on Beth's blog. "Whether connected or cold calling, you can build long-term, valuable relationships using LinkedIn. Find out how easy it is. LinkedIn isn’t some stodgy place where people post their resumes. It’s a no- to low-cost database that is a rich source of information about potential major donors, board members, employees, and strategic allies." Would love to hear what you're doing on LinkedIn and how your organization has or has not found LinkedIn valuable!
• Blackbaud and Convio Now One Company – "Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLKB) today announced that it has completed its acquisition of Convio, Inc., a leading provider of on-demand constituent engagement solutions. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Blackbaud paid an aggregate purchase price of approximately $325 million. Blackbaud financed the deal through a combination of cash and borrowings from its credit facility. “This is an exciting day for the Blackbaud and Convio teams. Together, we can build better solutions for nonprofits, and that’s what drives us,” said Marc Chardon, Blackbaud’s chief executive officer. “Convio’s strengths in online and social marketing, and subscription and cloud-based offerings complement ours, and will accelerate our ability to deliver more to the nonprofit sector.”"
• Charities May Soon Get a Way to Seek Bigger Text Gifts – Prospecting – The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas – "Donors who give through mobile text messages could soon have the options of giving a larger donation and setting up repeat text gifts, say the leaders of two of the organizations that oversee text giving in the U.S. and Canada. Jim Manis, chief executive of the Mobile Giving Foundation, and Bernard Lord, chairman of the Mobile Giving Foundation Canada, said in an interview that they are working with some cellular service providers to allow $20 donations—double the current $10 limit—and recurring donations, though they gave no timeline on when those features would be available."
• Get more donors with free fundraising lessons and ideas – I love this new free series from Causevox – get a video a week filled with great information and actionable tips to help improve your fundraising right away. I don't even primarily focus on fundraising and I'm finding it really valuable!
• The A/B Test: Inside the Technology That’s Changing the Rules of Business | Epicenter | Wired.com – This is a terrific case study in the power of a/b testing on your websites – be it organization site, microsite, campaign pages, or even fundraising pages – to question everything and find what really works. Every time I do testing, I see the same thing that they note here: my instincts are wrong. We over-think things and the best way to stop is by testing!

FLOW: Field Level Operations Watch

FLOW is an on-site technology that broadcasts data instantaneously to the Water for People website/FLOW map providing important information about the operating status of WFP projects.

“Combining Android cell phone technology and Google Earth software, FLOW lets field workers, volunteers, our partners and others record data from tens of thousands of water points around the world. That information is then displayed on our online global map to signal whether a project is up and running, broken, or on the verge of disrepair and needs quick action.”

Accountability

Many organizations are working to find ways to show donors and supporters how their participation is transforming beneficiaries directly and as quickly as possible. With Water for People’s FLOW system, when they say a project is working, they can prove it to you! Just pick an area of the world and see for yourself!

I love to see projects that are focused on measuring and evaluating data about their work and progress. I love even more to see projects that make that data public so that everyone in the local community, in the organization, and around the world can measure and learn at the same time. I’m really excited to see what corollary projects or data sets can be incorporated into the FLOW system and map, too!

Sustainability

Two years ago, in Water for People’s strategic plan, they committed to at least ten years of post-project monitoring for every site to ensure that projects were successful and sustainable. “We will hold ourselves accountable for—and encourage our supporters and donors to hold us accountable for—making smart investments and data-driven decisions so that we can make a long-lasting impact.” I’m really encouraged about the potential to make life-saving and life-changing impact around the world when I see this kind of commitment from an organization, not just a philanthropic organization. Recognizing that as the direct service providers or project teams, we have the same level of responsibility to ensure our work actually works as we do to address issues in the first place is a major step in the right direction towards real change.

Read More

1. Check out the FLOW map: http://watermapmonitordev.appspot.com

2. Check out this great post from Water for People’s Senior Manager of Programmatic Data, Keri Kugler, on how they use FLOW to maintain accountability and allow communities to monitor their own water and sanitation published in National Geographic.

3. Visit the UN Water site for more information and resources about World Water Day, or see if there are events happening near you.

Templates

• Community Map Template: http://bit.ly/DIYcommunity
• Content Map Template: http://bit.ly/DIYtemplate
• Metrics Template: http://bit.ly/DIYmetrics
• Listening Dashboard: https://amysampleward.org/2009/10/27/how-to-create-a-listening-dashboard-for-your-organization/

Books & Collections

• We Are Media
• Social by Social
• #SOCIALMEDIA NONPROFIT tweet Book01
• Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission
• Networked Nonprofit

Resources

• Tools and Apps to Energize Your Base
• 5 Steps to a Successful Social Media Strategy
• Google Analytics for Facebook Pages
• Google Analytics for Wikispaces
• List of Social Media Management Systems
• DIY Community Engagement Metrics
• Crowdsourcing vs Community Sourcing
• Slacktivism: Turning a Like into Social Change
• Sustainable Community Building
• Community Building: Landscaping for Gardening

Questions? Ideas? Examples you’d like to share? Drop any questions or things to add to the resource list in the comments here for others to check out!