NPower is pleased to welcome the newest member of our staff, Dennis Henderson. Dennis joined our team earlier this week and his work will be focused on providing fast, effective help desk service for our Managed Service clients.

Dennis will be with us for six months as part of his work with Year Up, a fabulous technical and professional training program based here in Seattle. He’ll be helping triage support requests as they come in and learning the tech ropes with our consulting team.

Welcome, Dennis!

After watching the documentary together, we discussed many of the difficult issues raised by the film including the challenging balancing act of teacher’s unions, the achievement gap, and the high number of high school drop-outs who end up in prison. It was a good evening and chance to talk and think with friends about ways we can work toward improving public education and making it possible for every and any student to their fullest capacity.

- Abby Nafziger

Thankfully the crazy winter weather is behind us and we were able to get back to normal last week and hold the next brown bag workshop in our free series: Choosing a Database. The brown bag conversation centered around the processes that are most crucial to selecting new database software. The focus was on assessing organizational needs and identifying technology goals in order to better serve your organization's mission. This means that the tool you select should support existing processes, not the other way around.

Attendees received worksheets to assist with organizational process mapping, developing an outline of functional requirements, and software feature prioritization. We'll be hosting another brown bag on this topic on April 11. In the meantime, the slides and resources from the presentation are available in the knowledge center on our website.

Thanks to representatives from the Church Council of Greater Seattle, Washington State Child Care Resources & Referral Network, Page Ahead Children's Literacy Program, and the League of Women Voters of Washington for your thoughtful questions and active participation!

The next installment of our free brown bag series takes place this Wednesday, February 1, with Twitter 101 (rescheduled from February 18 due to snow and ice). For information about other upcoming trainings, check out the online training calendar and the 'new in 2012' training flier for details.

- Elissa Thomas

Have you ever found yourself entering donation data into your database, and then having to enter it again into your financial management software? Duplicative data entry is not only frustrating, but it creates a higher risk of human error, and takes you away from doing more important, mission-focused work. That is exactly why NPower designed the CRM to QB Link app. Thanks to generous funding from Microsoft, CRM to QB Link was created as part of Tech Soup's App It Up program.

You might be asking, what is an app? Short for “application,” an app is essentially a piece of software with limited functionality, usually developed for a special purpose. Most of us think of mobile apps when we hear the term, bringing to mind games like Angry Birds or mobile music apps such as Spotify. Apps can also be plug-ins that add functionality to existing technology.

TechSoup and Microsoft set out to learn more about nonprofit app use to determine what it would take for nonprofits to utilize apps, and what apps would be most useful for the average organization. TechSoup kicked off the process by conducting a survey to determine how many nonprofits are using apps, what the barriers to use are, and what sort of apps organizations would like to see developed.

In response to an expressed need, TechSoup and Microsoft worked with NPower to develop the CRM to QB Link app. The app converts and integrates data from Microsoft Dynamics CRM into QuickBooks financial management. Data can be entered into Dynamics CRM (or other software) and quickly imported into QuickBooks. The app is available for $100 with a low $10/mo support fee that includes standard upgrades and up to three incidents per month. Visit the database consulting page of our website to learn more about app pricing and availability.

Be sure to check out TechSoup’s App It Up Showcase to learn about the latest and greatest apps by and for nonprofits. And stay tuned with the App It Up program as TechSoup continues to explore their role in supporting app use.

- Mandi Moshay

I think we can all agree that 2011 was a really hard year - for nonprofits, for community members and, as we’ve become fond of saying, to just be a human. The political and financial instability at home and across the world has made for lots of feelings of anxiety, leading many of us to reflect on our values and our work.  It can be easy to focus on the negative aspects of life - complaining about how hard it is, wishing for the good ol’ days. But, really, that isn’t much of a strategy. We, at NPower, believe that the genius is in action forward. Of course, we don’t have all the answers. But we’re willing to contemplate this big question: What is our role in creating a thriving community?

NPower had some great accomplishments in 2011 including the creation of our own technology theory of change, the development of our IT best practices models, significant expansion of our free community education resources, and some great momentum-building in our quest to position technology as a key driver for nonprofit capacity-building. It was hard work that we did on top of serving our 200+ clients and continuing to find ways to collaborate with our colleagues across the country. And yet, it was hard to feel content with last year when we continue to see so much suffering in our community.

We know this will be another hard financial year and that the economy will continue to affect our community. We know we won’t be able to buy our way out of the social challenges. But what we can do is attack 2012 with new vigor to create organizational efficiency and reimagine how we do our work. I’m convinced that disciplined operational processes and effective utilization of technology will create a deeper impact. Streamlining, eliminating duplication, and creating a more productive work environment for our nonprofit staffers will help us accelerate down the path to meet our missions.

Ever the optimist, I’m hopeful for 2012. Let’s not let a good crisis go to waste. Join me in dreaming big to find ways to insure that everyone in our community has a safe place to sleep, enough to eat, access to healthcare, equality, and lifelong learning.

- Alison Carl White

Seattle was home to several service activities and events leading up to and inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  My fellow AmeriCorps VISTA, Abby and I participated in the Community Resource Exchange, an annual event organized by United Way of King County. Service providers filled the CenturyLink Event Center to provide information and basic resources to over 1,500 homeless guests.

I was amazed at the wide range of services available:  haircuts, job placement, a computer lab, a mobile dental clinic, shoe giveaway, legal experts - even a foot-washing station!  A large section of the massive conference hall was dedicated to an improvised dining area, where guests could rest and enjoy a meal provided by FareStart.  Abby volunteered at the greeting desk, while I was stationed at check-out and conducted exit interviews with the guests. The event was very well-received and, aside from a few constructive suggestions, every person I spoke with praised the day's programs.

The hands-down hit of the day were the brussel sprouts, followed distantly by the lasagna, then the free shoes. Several attendees expressed feeling blessed to be around so many kind, smiling faces and were happy to see community member taking care of each other. With over 10,000 volunteers assisting with over 400 projects, it was a tremendous collaboration on the part of the Washington State government, local nonprofits, and the Seattle business community. The comprehensive approach taken ensured that basic needs were met while, at the same time, resources were shared that have the potential to generate a positive, long-term improvements for the state's homeless population.

- Elissa Thomas

You may have read on our site, or heard one of our staff members say that NPower strives to create a sector-wide impact through effective use of technology within nonprofit organizations. What do we mean by that, exactly? How can a small Northwest nonprofit help to change the face of the entire nonprofit sector? We’re trying a few things: innovative thinking, a strong belief in the power of technology, and (because we can't do it alone) strong collaborations with community partners...

The work NPower has been doing in recent years with a subset of community land trusts (CLTs) exemplifies the potential for one technology tool to change the way nonprofits do their work. CLTs are nonprofit organizations that acquire and manage land on behalf of community residents in order to increase and preserve the stock of affordable housing. A few years back, three local CLTs approached NPower Northwest with an idea to create a database that would serve them collectively. "The project represented a unique new way for NPower to do business, as we generally undertake projects with one organization at a time," says Alison Carl White, Executive Director of NPower Northwest. "These three similar organizations recognized a need for a system that would improve their ability to deliver services, and saw several benefits to making the collective investment in the development of customized tool that would meet specific needs [of community land trusts]."

NPower was up to the task, and began the process of developing a CRM system on the Salesforce.com platform that would work for all three local organizations. As the project progressed, it caught the attention of a national funder who saw a greater need for a shared-measurement system that would allow organizations across the country to track the same metrics, compare themselves to their peers, and articulate the impact of the community land trust model on a national scale. "We were so lucky to work with a funder like NCB Capital Impact because they really care about the work being done and really understood the need for this tool." says Alison.

The result is HomeKeeper, a CRM system that has been rolled out to several pilot organizations nationwide, with the system launching at several additional locations this year.

The hope is to utilize the pilot program to solicit feedback from organizational staff and improve the user experience. By 2013, an improved version will be made more widely available on the Salesforce App Exchange, allowing virtually any CLT in the nation to utilize it. The more land trusts that utilize HomeKeeper, the more these organizations can learn from each other, improving the way they manage data, serve their clients, and impact their communities.

How's that for sector-wide impact? To learn more about this project, check out the case study on our website. If you would like additional information on our database services, including the HomeKeeper system, check out our Database Consulting page, or contact us at consulting@npowernw.org.

- Mandi Moshay

NPower is excited to announce the arrival of three new staff members. Read on to hear why they came to NPower and get links to their full bios...

Dave Forrester: "I'm excited to be back at NPower Northwest at this critical point in its growth. I've been involved with just about every aspect of our services in one way or another in my prior work with this great organization: with stints in technology training, technology strategy consulting, and database and website development. I even set up a few peer-to-peer networks for clients back in the day. In my new role, I'm looking forward to working with my colleagues here to leverage our core competencies in technology to build capacity and adaptability in the nonprofit sector."

View Dave's full bio here.

Pallavi Garg: "It is a challenging yet exciting time for nonprofits. Organizations that can rally support, cultivate meaningful relationships, and demonstrate operational excellence have the ability not just to survive, but to thrive. The right technology strategy deployed well, opens up immense possibilities for nonprofits to excel. I feel privileged to join the dedicated and talented team at NPower Northwest that is committed to helping nonprofits in our community achieve scale and capacity expansion, and hope to leverage my past experience in the corporate and non-profit sector to serve diverse organizations."

View Pallavi's full bio here.

Jenna Barrett: "I'm delighted to join the team at NPower Northwest. As a former client and believer in the power of technology to advance communities I’m inspired by NPower's mission. Putting my administrative and nonprofit experience to work for the staff at NPower is a great way to help ensure everyone has the tools they need to do great work. I look forward to helping support a mission-driven and positive office environment for NPower staff, clients and partners."

View Jenna's full bio here.

And the forecast today in Seattle calls for...slush. NPower is officially open for business today at 23rd and Jackson, however our consultants will be using their best judgment about travel.

If you have an in-person meeting or a Managed Services visit with an NPower consultant today, please email ahead of time to confirm.

Stay warm and dry!

- The NPower Staff