nonprofits - ReadWriteWeb http://www.readwriteweb.com/feeds/tag/nonprofits en Copyright 2009 Richard MacManus readwriteweb@gmail.com Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:00:55 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.23-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Facebook Fund REV Graduation Day: Backlight, Thread and More facebook_demo_aug09.jpgAfter a summer of hard work, Facebook's 24 fbFund REV incubator companies presented their products to a room full of investors, entrepreneurs and journalists. Created by Accel Partners and Founders Fund, the fbFund REV program is meant to foster innovation and test the boundaries of app development on the Facebook platform. The groups have certainly come a long way from concept to creation, below are just a few of our favorites:

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]]> backlight_facebook.jpgBacklight: Backlight is a community that allows members to share inspirational digital assets from across the web. The community puts art into context by illuminating upon it with a background narrative. Backlight offers a StumbleUpon-style bookmarklet, Facebook Connect integration through page updates and notes, and the group plans on developing a point-based credit system entitled "social currency."

Thread: Thread is a tool that allows Facebook friends to leverage their social graphs and make romantic connections. Formerly Frinto, the company recently raised $1.2 million dollars from Sequoia Capital. It is perhaps best described as Linkedin for dating as friends search each others contacts and request introductions.

GeckoGo: GeckoGo is a tool that leverages Facebook data and pushes it back to sites like Expedia and Voyij. Users add their travel information to maps and travel wish lists, receive a snapshot of their destinations as well as a quick look at their friends who've also traveled to these locations.

FriendRadio: FriendRadio is a Facebook application that allows users to rank and listen to their friends' music playlists. The tool lets you set favorites, vote on tracks and even assigns music matching scores - a music compatibility rank for your friends. The group is exploring revenue strategies including "song gifting" and the artist-to-fan appreciation model popularized by sites like Bandcamp and Topspin Media.

RentMineOnline: RentMineOnline is a resident referral program that offers property managers a chance to leverage social networks to secure better tenants. Managers create campaigns and pass the info on to their favorite residents. From here, residents distribute rental openings to their friends via Facebook Connect.

Given the nature of the Facebook platform, social startup presentations were no surprise; however, this year, the fund chose to work with 2 nonprofit organizations - Samasource and Vittana. Interestingly enough, both companies work to help individuals in developing countries.

Vittana: kittana_facebook_aug09.jpgVittana is best described as Kiva for student loans. While financial aid programs are well established in countries like Canada and the US, few programs exist for education in the developing world. Vittana offers 6-24 month student loans to students interested in pursuing advanced education. The project hopes to raise $650,000 in philanthropic venture donations. The majority of loans are awarded to vocational students and amounts range between $500 - $1500. Loan recipients are screened by on-the-ground microloan organizations and preference is given to students who are the children of microloan recipients. Visit Vittana for more information.

Samasource: In Sanskrit, Samasource means "equal". The company works with men and women in developing countries to provide work-related activities via the internet. Similar to Mechanical Turk, Samasource connects corporations, nonprofit organizations and small businesses to complete "microwork" tasks. The group launched App Test early this morning before the fbFundREV demo. Available at Apps.Facebook/Samasource, the product allows Facebook application developers to outsource their QA testing to those in need. The company has helped more than 500 individuals in Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, Ghana and Pakistan. To find out more about this program, visit Samasource.

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http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_funds_nonprofits_vittana_and_samasource.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_funds_nonprofits_vittana_and_samasource.php Facebook Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:00:00 -0800 Dana Oshiro
Google Stiffs Nonprofits, Launches Second Rate Widget Builder With No Hosting The new Google Gadget Builder for Organizations looks like the easiest way there is to build a widget for webpages or a gadget for iGoogle. Intended for nonprofit organizations, the Gadget Builder lets widget authors combine RSS feeds, YouTube video playlists and links to donate or join the email list serve for your organization.

That sounds great, until you start kicking the tires. On the same week Google launched it's ballyhooed App Engine, which offers powerful Google-style development architecture and gobs of free hosting and scaling - nonprofits get stuck with a substandard builder for widgets that Google won't even host for them.

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Below is one that I built, there's very little customization enabled in the wizard but you could substitute some of the image files once they were on your own server. The service is probably best for organizations that want to look pathetic and out-of-date right away.

"Remember, your gadget will only bring people to your web site if they know about it, so be sure to follow all four [of the following promotional] steps," the Widget Builder's last page says. The fourth step is to buy AdSense to promote your nonprofit widget. How tasteless.

Did I mention that Google won't even host your nonprofit widgets for you? The day after they announced their new program to provide free scalable hosting for for-profit applications?

Organizations interested in a more powerful option should check out the even easier to use SproutBuilder. SproutBuilder comes with built-in distribution hooks, unlike this Google Gadget that prompts people to do nothing but add a widget to a Google page. It's pretty absurd.

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http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_stiffs_nonprofits_launc.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_stiffs_nonprofits_launc.php Products Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:48:36 -0800 Marshall Kirkpatrick
NetSquared Mashup Challenge: 120+ Mashups for Social Change net2conflogo.jpgNonprofit tech assistance project NetSquared has opened the voting for their Mashup Challenge this week and it's a great place to discover a long list of interesting mashups being built to make the world a better place.

We've written about one participant here before, MoveSmart, and another really good one (SocialActions) reached out to us this week with a handy Sproutbuilder widget embedded below.

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Only a masochist would brave the interface for voting on the best of all 120+ entrants, but if you register for an account and peruse the tag cloud of topics then you risk only the trouble of excessive rhetoric and insufficient summary bullet points in the project descriptions. (Sorry!) Top vote winners will travel to the NetSquared conference where they can receive financial and technical assistance to propel their projects forward. Logistics aside, the contest is a great place to check out a bunch of cool mashups.

Netsquared is a project of the larger organization Compumentor, where you'll also find related work being done at TechSoup.org. These are all great organizations (I used to work for NetSquared) that deserve the attention and support of the larger tech community.

Readers interested in nonprofit tech should also check out the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network, NTEN.org, whose national meetup is occurring this week in New Orleans. Both organizations represent large, vibrant and exciting communities of technologists and people who love them.

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http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/netsquared_mashup_challenge_12.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/netsquared_mashup_challenge_12.php Mashups Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:40:00 -0800 Marshall Kirkpatrick