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).

• Gen-Y Wants More Than Cool Brands – A new 16-country study of Millennials focused on brands has a lot to offer for insight to nonprofit organizations looking to connect with the same generation. Including: "More than one-half of US Millennials (51%) say they influence the technologies their parents adopt and 41% say they influence the products they buy."
• A Mobile World – whitepaper – A new whitepaper from SmartOnMobile looks at how the constituents of nonprofit organizations are using<br />
  their mobile phones.
• Growing Virtual Roots – How our online efforts led to amazing offline results – A great case study in community organizing, on and offline, from Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure. "From the perspective of a professional planner, an ideal scenario for planning an event would be to live and work in the community in which you are holding the event. However, in the world of nonprofits, where an organization cannot afford to have boots on the ground full time in all of the cities they have supporters, it is up to the event planner to figure out new solutions to the problem of “you can’t be in two places at once”."
• <b>nononprofitspam</b>.<b>wordpress.com</b> – Check out this new blog and campaign from nptechers like Deborah Elizabeth Finn and Peter Campbell targeting an issue many of us in the nonprofit sector may not think exists, or maybe ignore: nonprofit spam. "Our message to nonprofits: Your mission is noble, and your intentions are honorable. But if you subscribed us to your organization's bulk email list without our permission, then you are sending us spam."
• Lights. Camera. Help. Film Festival for Nonprofits – "Lights. Camera. Help., the nation’s first film festival for nonprofits and cause advocates, is officially accepting entries for the 2011 festival. Exclusively dedicated to cause-driven films, the festival and it's cash prizes for winning films gives nonprofits a new forum for promoting their causes. Last year, the festival grew in entries, reach, attendance and prize money with submissions increasing from 140 in 2009 to over 235 documentaries, PSAs and short films focusing on cause-driven issues from around the world. Submissions will be open until May 31 and the submission form can be filled out at the Lights. Camera. Help. web site. It is free for all non-profits and causes to submit their film. The festival will be held July 28-July 30 in Austin, Texas."

This new white paper captures just a few of the stories and the qualities that make up the special place where we all come together. Whether it’s small communities coming together offline to train and share knowledge about using technology or it’s innovation projects competing in the same contest working together instead – we hope you’ll find this short paper compelling and share it with your networks. We hope you’ll add your story to the mix, too!

You can download the paper directly here.

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).

• 2009 Year-End Fundraising Guide – Online Fundraising, Advocacy, and Social Media – frogloop – “Is your nonprofit sending out 8-10 online fundraising appeals this holiday season? According to Mark Rovner and Alia McKee of Sea Change Strategies who led the recent webinar Procrastinator’s Guide to Year-End Fundraising with Kathryn Powers of Conservation International and moderated by Eric Rardin of Care2 and Rebecca Higman of Network of Good, this tactic has been helping organizations raise a lot of money. Nonprofits can expect 60% of their donations to come in between Christmas and New Year’s.”
• Public ‘want to know how money is spent’ – Third Sector – “More than half of the general public would donate more money to charity if they knew exactly how it was spent, a new survey of 2,000 people indicates. The research was carried out for donation website See the Difference, which will be launched next year. The data shows that 51 per cent of people would give more if they knew how their money was spent and 40 per cent would do so if they could actually see the difference their money was making.”
• Facebook Will Be Google-able (If Your Profile is Set to Public) – “At Google’s event today announcing a number of fantastic new features, including real-time search, a new partnership was announced: real-time search of public Facebook status updates. A Google/Twitter partnership was announced months ago but we assumed that Facebook wouldn’t be allowing Google to index many details of its site because the two are fast becoming big rivals. Thus today’s announcement is a very big surprise.”
• Does Directgov Deliver? – “Directgov (www.direct.gov.uk) is the Government’s official website for the general public. This discussion paper analyses how well Directgov delivers on its promise to consumers to ‘provide information and online services for the public all in one place’. The analysis is approached from a user’s perspective, and highlights the types of problems consumers frequently encounter with the service. It is intended to promote a debate, and at the end of each chapter, suggestions are made for rethinking key areas so that they can deliver more effective online public services. We want to hear your thoughts and ideas on this discussion paper so please add your comments in the ‘Your feedback’ section that appears on each page. The paper will be open to comment til the end of January 2010.”
• 20 Questions To Start a Social Media Discussion | Brand Elevation Through Social Media and Social Business | Altitude Branding – “Let’s make something clear: you can be the person that starts asking the questions and initiating the conversations that move social media forward. You. Sitting right there. Yes, you. I don’t care if you’re the marketing assistant, the PR coordinator, the customer service manager, the HR director, or the mailroom clerk. What it takes is the intent to be part of the progress, the bravery to start an open conversation, the maturity and patience to not make it personal, and the investment in the outcomes to take it a step further.”