Grassroots.org

As a new Americorps CTC VISTA member, this week I (along with Alice!) attended a 3-day orientation in Boston to kick off our awesome year of service.

Along with the 33 other CTC VISTAs serving all over the country, I learned the history of Americorps VISTA (which has been around since the 60s) and more specifically the CTC program and how it adds community media and technology to the equation for positive social change. We discussed how we can help our home-sites with "capacity-building"; the great non-profit buzzword that reflects the importance of sustaining our work to benefit the non-profits we serve even after we're gone. There I go again. "Sustainability" is another noteworthy term we heard a lot about this week.

In addition to sharing websites, books and other useful resources, each VISTA offered personal advice and relevant anecdotes that could aid the group. I was lucky enough to meet another VISTA who is from the same neighborhood in New York that I just moved to! So now that I know which grocery stores are in my area, I can worry about other important non-profit things . This trend of sharing resources and experiences will continue throughout the year. Each member will be writing online field reports to keep the group as well as our VISTA Leaders updated.

The orientation answered all of my questions about what to expect as a VISTA and it calmed my "new job" nerves to see how many people were in a very similar situation. I am excited to learn what my new friends will accomplish this year and to share with them my accomplishments with Grassroots.org!

Hi my name is Isshaq. I am a rising Sophomore in Middlebury College. I am volunteering as an intern with Grassroots.org for the month of June. I am so excited about the projects I will be doing. Right now I am working on a client locator map using php/mySQL and the Google maps API. I am also looking forward to working with SEO and helping to build the volunteer site of Grassroots.org’s volunteer site.

By way of background, I grew up to in a small town in Jordan and went to high school in Canada at the Lester Pearson United World College of the Pacific. I first learned about Grassroots.org from an American classmate whose family friend is a Grassroots.org client. From that time the idea of joining the Grassroots.org team is on my mind. Until last February, I contacted Sura Hart and applied for an internship, hoping to develop my tech and professional experience while contributing to a great cause.

Besides developing websites, I enjoy getting involved in entrepreneurial work that generates profits and helps the environment or serves the community. Some projects I have been working on are managing a drying racks rental program on the Middlebury College Campus that will decrease the usage of drying racks by about 20%. I also founded a site that will help students in Middlebury to exchange books for free, the site is still undergoing improvements and will be released this August but you can see it at http://www.middbook.com.

About my academic interests: I am thinking of doing a double major in Computer Science and Economics, but I will also be taking French courses through the next semesters. I enjoy reading articles from different psychology journals, and sometimes I draw sketches of peoples' faces. In my free time, I hang out with my friends; we spend lots of time talking politics while smoking an Arabic Hooka. I also like to play soccer.

Next fall, I am going to start a Grassroots.org club on campus, that will copy the main principles of Grassroots.org and apply them to nonprofits in Addison County/Middlebury, VT and possibly also in neighboring towns. I have already received the support of from the Middlebury College ACE (Alliance of Civic Engagement). It will be a lot of work, but it will be useful because localizing what Grassroots.org does will help in making the service available to those who need it, but might not otherwise know about Grassroots.org. Also, this will allow me to keep in touch with what the Grassroots.org team is up to, even after leaving them at the end of June.

Have a nice summer!

Hi, folks!

So last month, I said that I was going to start blogging about tips for Grassroots.org members. Well, the first thing that I'm going to start blogging about is establishing an online presence for nonprofits. This post is mainly focused on people who are just starting out and don't know the first thing about establishing a web presence. These are some points that I think Grassroots.org members should start thinking about as they start staking their claims on the world wide web.

Internet Presence

Let's start off. Nonprofit organizations have websites to maintain a presence online. At its very minimum, a website should be an electronic brochure with all the necessary information that people can access at any time 365 days a year. Added to that, people who don't know of your organization can do an online search and find you! If you have a site up that answers all of the basics about your organization, then congratulations: you have internet presence. However, that doesn't mean you're done with your website. Read on.

”Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!“

This is a quote from Henry David Thoreau's Walden <http://thoreau.eserver.org/walden00.html> which was published in 1854. Though Thoreau may have thought he had been talking about the joys of simple living in 19th Century America, he wasn't. In my opinion, he was actually speaking to good habits of developing a nonprofit website. When you start developing content to put on the website, remember to answer these and any other pertinent questions.

• Who (or Whom) [Who are you? Whom do you serve?]
• What [What do you do? What is your mission?]
• When [When did your organization get started? Basically, give a history.]
• Where [Where are you located? Does your location affect you mission?]
• Why [Why is your organization doing what it does?]
• How [How do I help (volunteer, donate)? How does your program operate?]

You don't want a site that gives readers a lot of junk. Keep it simple right now and develop as you go. So how do you keep it simple? To start off, just answer these questions that I have listed.

Afterwards

Making a website is not an end in itself. Your organization needs to maintain its site. Websites are wonderful but not magical. They need work like anything else. So to draw and re-draw people in, your organization should update its site with new content at a regular rate either weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. Regarding additional features, does your organization have the time to maintain this forum/blog/etc? If so, then go for it! If not, then you might want to make your goals more modest. Do some research and see what the next best option is for your organization's website. Is it a blog, a forum, a newsletter, a listserv, an online donation page? There are seriously a lot of options, so see what works best for you and your mission.

My name is Vinita Alex and I am the new Communications Intern here at Grassroots.org. I am currently pursuing my Masters in Communications at Rutgers University. It is great to be on board with Grassroots.org. I love the free services offered by the organization and am quite inspired by the mission! Though I must admit, at first I was a bit skeptical...

Frankly, I had never heard of anything like “free” hosting or “free” web designing by any organization. Hey, after all who does anything for free, right? I was sure there had to be some catch...something that Grassroots.org wanted from nonprofits in return for doling out services. Turns out, I was in for a surprise...I guess sometimes there is such a thing as a free lunch (or free webhosting at least).

So here I am, working for a company that gives away free services to nonprofits...catch free. Not to sound like a sales agent, but that's pretty darn cool. I am excited to be a part of the team. I have always believed that the progress of any society depends on the best use of technology.

For my fellow amatuer etymologists out there, I did do a bit of research on the origins of the word "technology." I found that the word "technology" comes from the Greek word "technologia" which in turn derives from meaning "art" or "technique." Unfortunately, today, technology has achieved its present form by changing from the quest for techniques grounded in "technique" or "art" to a form of engineering that is devoid of the same, often seeking to only pursue efficiency and money. I think our work at Grassroots.org can once again revert the meaning of the word technology to its original meaning.

Technology is here to stay and how we use it depends on the society at large. I am sure the experience that I gain while working here will go a long way for all my future endeavors.

We are all a twitter over here at Grassroots.org. Why? We can officially provide Drupal and Joomla-style hosting for all our clients.

Drupal and Joomla are open-source content management systems that are both incredibly user-friendly and intuitive. Our clients will now be able to edit and update their own content as well as incorporate more complex functions like forums and blogs. This has, until this point, been a major challenge for our less tech-savvy organizations.

TierraNet, long time supporter and service provider, has made this upgraded free nonprofit webhosting possible by upgrading our nonprofit package to include a free MySQL database.

MySQL is one of the best programs for database management. It opens up a world of possibilities to clients and can be used to support Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal and other great content management systems. The icing on all this cake is that with these new features, there is more of the features our clients have already come to know and love! They will get twice the disk space, 5 times as many mailboxes, and 10 times the bandwidth!

We are so grateful for TierraNet's very generous donation, and are beyond excited to see what amazing things our clients can achieve with this better service! Our clients have big dreams for their nonprofits, and now those dreams are a little closer!

I know it's been a long time since I posted, but I'm ready to make good on my tardy New Year's resolution to blog more.

I am going to begin a help blog to offer people visiting the site a chance to find out how to use the tools that we are offering in a better way. Possible topics include domain name basics and nonprofit website fundamentals. Of course, if you have any questions that you're dying to know about (or a better title), then please email support@grassroots.org and we will try to answer your question in the best way that we can.

You all should also know that I am ready to celebrate because Chicago has finally warmed up to the point where I am able to bike to work. In the past few months, I have been working on a variety of projects ranging from client intake to a huge member inventory to some work with Drupal that gives you folks a gallery where you can see the sites that volunteer designers have made for clients. (http://grassroots.org/membergallery) Aside from that, I will be attending the Better Deal Conference (http://www.abetterdealconference.org/) in Washington DC in May and possibly giving a talk about nonprofit technology tools there.

So get excited everybody. See you soon!

My name is Ashley Mathews and I am currently serving as the Communications Coordinator for Grassroots.org through the AmeriCorps Community Technology Center * Volunteers in Service to America (CTC*VISTA) program.

The program places individuals with nonprofit organizations that use information and technology to address the needs of low-income communities. Once a CTC*VISTA is placed within an organization his or her job is to build capacity for that organization.

As a VISTA with Grassroots.org, I have seen firsthand how nonprofits make a difference in communities all over the world—and how much larger an impact they can make with the power of technology at their fingertips. For instance, when Grassroots.org provides an organzation with free web hosting or domain name registration, it is the beginning of a Pay It Forward-style movement. Equipped with a website, a nonprofit organization can provide better services to their constituents. In turn, their constituents can spread the word about the service to others (promoting their services and perhaps even helping to build support for the organization).

Being a part of this process helps me to fulfill my personal definition of a successful AmeriCorps CTC*VISTA: someone who believes technology can be used as tool in the fight against poverty, and who helps others to harness the power of such tools to make change. In this way the experience of being a CTC*VISTA has been extremely valuable to me—and I believe my service has been valuable to others as well!

More good news! The Sun Microsystems Foundation has selected Grassroots.org as a featured volunteer partner! What does this mean for us? Publicity and, hopefully, a boatload of highly qualified Sun Microsystems employees who are ready to volunteer their time to build sweet websites for our 1000+ members.

Check out the feature on the Sun Microsystems Foundation Blog. Hopefully we will follow up to this blog with some examples of great websites built by Sun Microsystems employees during their Worldwide Volunteer Week (April 26-May 4)...and beyond!

I have a great announcement to make today: We are officially launching a new service offering for our clients: free virtual office phone service, including toll free numbers (including extensions!) courtesy of Phone.com.

So how does this virtual office phone service work? Like a regular office phone number, but with a twist: instead of ringing a certain phone (like the phone on your office desk), the number forwards to an existing phone.

By way of example, take the Grassroots.org toll free number? It’s a Phone.com number. So if someone calls my phone number (800-252-0015 x152), it rings my cell. I can chose to pick it up, or let it go to my Phone.com voicemail box. (In fact, I can configure it so that it automatically goes to my voicemail in lieu of my cell, but I prefer to answer my phone).

There are even more options. You can opt for the "follow me" service that will ring a string of numbers until you pick up (cell, then office, then home), you can change voicemail settings so that voicemail is captured and emailed to you, saved on Phone.com, or just left on your regular voicemail for which ever phone you choose.

For us, the Phone.com 800 number has been a perfect fit. Our staff is scattered around the country...with this number we can all have the same “office” number. It simplifies things. It allows our nonprofit clients to call us, toll free. It helps us look more legitimate to funders.

Thanks to CEO Ari Rabban and the great folks at Phone.com, we are now able to offer the same service that has worked so well for us to our nonprofit members. We’re excited to know what you think!

Check out the details on free virtual office phone service

As the Outreach Coordinator for Grassroots.org, I am in charge of matching volunteers and organizations. I send both parties a questionnaire so that I can find an organization whose needs best match a volunteer's ability. Usually this works out. Most often, our clients are just desperate for a designer and don't ask for too much.

Today something amazing happened--I matched a Swahili-speaking designer with a Swahili-speaking Executive Director! The organization is WHEW (Women Healing and Empowering Women) in Houston, Texas.

WHEW aims to address interconnected challenges women face such as former incarceration, homelessness, and domestic violence, and they are starting local but going global. WHEW sent back their questionnaire a couple of days ago, along with some information about their organization. Busi Peters from WHEW let me know she was eagerly awaiting someone who could transform their word, pdf and jpg files into an eye-catching site!

Well, today I received a completed questionnaire from one of the recent volunteers who found us on on volunteermatch.org Baraka Manasses Kuria, a recent Computer Science graduate from Nairobi, Kenya, was hoping to find a nonprofit in need and help them gain some web presence while simultaniously building up a design portfolio.

While both the organization and volunteer looked like typical requestors I see everyday, there was something great about them. WHEW was looking for (not expecting!) a designer who spoke Swahili. Luckily Baraka is fluent! Needless to say, I was very excited to match them and I have great expectations for what is to come from this relationship. Watch for updates here: whew-now.org

Many of our volunteers are from every corner of the globe, representing a wealth of interests, talents, languages and goals. I love it when I am able to match them to nonprofit organizations with similar needs. It doesn't happen everyday but when it does, it's great!!!