Today I am continuing my series of posts on website resources for nonprofits. Today's feature is guidestar.org
.

If you haven't heard about Guidestar you should check it out today and look up the listing for your own organization. You haven't submitted information to Guidestar so you are not listed there? Wrong! If you are a 501c and file a IRS 990 return you are on Guidestar. What does it say? Whatever you put on your 990 and sent to the IRS and thought was stored in a basement in Denver. It's there but Guidestar also has a copy and has published it on their website. Guidestar actually has been the driving force behind having nonprofits be able to file this form electronically so it will be so much simpler for them than scanning it.

Traditionally the Form 990 has just been a tax form and may even be filled out by your accountant. But now that it is on Guidestar, one of the most respected sources of information about nonprofits on the Web, it really is also a marketing document. As such the nonfinancial portion of the form should be filled out by someone involved with fundraising or marketing - not the accountant.

Guidestar is increasingly used by foundations and funders to get basic information about your organizations. It is the main resource for many financial companies which offer philanthropic gift funds. It is not a website to be ignored.

You can add information about your organization to the basic Guidestar information. Guidestar provides a format that you can fill in information about your organization. EVERY nonprofit should do this.

Guidestar



Marion Conway Consulting

This is my second post as part of my participation in phase 2 of the Nonprofit Blog Exchange Project. Today's post is about grassroots.org/blog


Grassroots.org's mission is to spread social information throughout the world, and to provide free services to charities to help them save money and further their own missions. They think that people have to act together to represent common global interests. They are concentrating on using the Internet to fulfill their mission.

Grassroots.org does not seek to push any particular subject or action on you but merely encourages you to study and act on the issues you care about. The sites explain the basics of many important issues and contain links to excellent resources.

Grassroots.org's virtual community comprises organizations and people the world over who believe common citizens working in concert can and will make a profound difference. Grassroots.org acts as a clearinghouse for tools and information to enable non-profits and individuals to conduct their charitable activities as efficiently as possible. Grassroots.org provides free Internet services to charities, including full-featured web hosting and email services. They provide non-profit consulting to charities at no charge including assistance with the following: incorporation, application for tax-exempt 501c3 status with the IRS, general employment, tax and risk management issues.

Grassroots.org also provides content and links on the above topics to web users throughout the world. Grassroots.org is a very heavily trafficked web site due to the fact that many other sites feed in to it like Crime.org, Homeless.org, Relief.org, PublicService.org, Diseases.org, and hundreds more related and unrelated sites. Their content and linked sites are viewed throughout the world by many thousands of people each day.

This is really a one of a kind website and blog with a very wide breath of material. It's worth checking out.

Check out the Nonprofit Blog Exhange.
Nonprofit Blog Exchange


Marion Conway Consulting

With this post I am participating in an innovative plan for people who are interested in nonprofit blogs to learn about new blogs. I am participating in phase 2 of the Nonprofit Blog Exchange Project. As such I have entered my blog into a pool and two other blogs will have a post about my blog. In exchange I have been assigned to post an entry about two other blogs. When I saw my assignments I could not believe it - I was assigned to post about Idealware at
idealware.org/blog


Idealware is the brainchild of Laura Quinn, the well respected Principal of Alder Consulting, a New York based business providing technology consulting in the New York City area. For years I have been referring people to Laura's website and her excellent articles for nonprofits on websites, accepting credit cards and other topics in the "Shoestring" series of articles.

Now Laura has teamed up with other notables providing technology help to nonprofits to bring an exciting new service to nonprofits. The website is brand new and here is the plan:

Idealware will provide candid, Consumer-Reports-style reviews and articles about software of interest to nonprofits, centralized into a website. Through product comparisons, recommendations, case studies, and software news, Idealware will allow US nonprofits to make the software decisions that will help them be more effective.

The website will be built around a database of software reviews to support easy browsing or searching based on keyword, price, platform, or functionality. Articles will provide higher level recommendations and information about how to select and use software.

Thr first report is an incredibly comprehensive yet easy to read and understand report on 27 low cost options for nonprofits to accept "Donate Now" features on their websites. Check out Idealware and the Nonprofit Exchange Blog sites.

Nonprofit Blog Exchange


Marion Conway Consulting

Calling all Nonprofits - Are you ready to celebrate?

International Volunteer Manager Appreciation Day!

This year IVMA Day is Monday, December 5.

You can find information about IVMA Day at www.ivma-day.org and on the Association for Volunteer Administration site at www.avaintl.org.


Marion


Marion Conway Consulting