Thursday, September 25, 2008

Facebook Your Group

Do you have a Facebook profile? Chances are if you've made your way to this blog the answer is yes... in which case read on and send this to people who otherwise need to get the message on behalf of their NPO. If not, we highly encourage you to go to www.Facebook.com and sign up. Creating a profile is free and relatively simple, yet the Facebook application is a very powerful tool and can help spread the message about your favorite organization. Once you’ve created a profile (or if you have a profile), one extra step we recommend you to perform is to create a group. You can name this group anything, upload photos, logos, etc. and then go about inviting others to join. Creating a group for your organization helps to create a captive audience for you to inform about upcoming events and programs. You can also post videos and news feeds about current events impacting your organization. Of course, you may also find that a group for your organization already exists, in which case you can just as easily join to stay up-to-date on what is going on with your organization. Facebook also offers a host of tools that enable you to search for groups that are similar and may offer some “best practices” opportunities for you as well.
Teaming for Technology will be hosting a workshop designed to introduce Facebook and go through setting up a profile and a group in their forthcoming “First Friday” seminar on Friday, October 3rd at 560 W. Lake from 1:00-2:30PM. As always, participation only requires an RSVP to Randy Dill at rdill@uw-mc.org or call 312-906-2404.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Deloitte's Saving Grace

For 11 years, Teaming for Technology has been in Chicago... but you wouldn't know it by the way we operate. As great as our concept is, the structure behind T4T Chicago has fallen far behind the times. When T4T first began, it was part of the AmeriCorps Vista program - which supplied T4T with volunteers on a one-year assignment. That was great for bodies, but terrible for sustaining relationships and continuous progression. Today, AmeriCorps has dropped their support (and rightly so) and it's up to the discretion of United Way of Metropolitan Chicago to breathe new life into this program or to let it fall by the way side.
So far, UW is huffing and puffing - thanks to Deloitte.
Deloitte sees the value in T4T - which is to provide small to mid-size non-profits with IT insight and help determine best practices. Before heading to the rescue of other non-profits, however, Deloitte and UW see the need to get T4T Chicago itself up to speed, which is why you don't see a website connected to this blog. Before we drive ahead, we're getting our own house in order - and you can expect to see a post on this blog when the site is up and we're fully operational.
In the interim, we are reaching out in simple but effective ways. We've carved out a niche in UW of Metro Chicago's outreach newsletter by providing "Tech tips" that include pieces such as creating a Twitter profile and also supplementing these tips with monthly workshops on the topic.
The bottom line it twofold - you don't have to be high tech to help people gain access to high tech, and realizing sustainability through a deliberate plan of action is vital to continued existence. Thanks to the grace and dedication of Deloitte, we'll all be realizing the benefits of both. Stay tuned for further advancement, and in the meantime please do reach out. We may not have all the bells and whistles, but we can and will help.