September 22, 2016
We interview Daniel S. Reyes, the Deputy Executive Director from NY Common Pantry about their choice pantry program.
Common Pantry transitioned to its digital system five years ago, in an attempt to offer greater choice to its more than 300,000 annual visitors. Before the move, volunteers simply created the same package of items for everyone based on family size. Now 10 percent of the organization’s customers order online, while the others use on-site tablets. With an assist from volunteers, they scroll through options in each of five MyPlate food groups. The menu, translatable into Chinese and Spanish in addition to English, includes pictures of each item to combat any literacy challenges. Once a list is submitted, a ticket is printed in the packing room, where volunteers immediately fulfill the order. Time from log on to ready-for-pick- up is about 15-20 minutes.
August 15, 2016
Volunteering makes happier people, but sometimes finding the right volunteer match can be difficult. The Golden app takes what each of their users like to do in their free time, and matches them with a volunteer organization. Today, we speak to Sam Fankuchen, the founder and CEO of Golden, about how Golden strives to improve volunteerism for both the volunteer and the nonprofit that is hosting the volunteers.
July 28, 2016
From Pokémon Go to gene editing, it is safe to say that technology is developing at an extremely rapid pace. In this day and age, it is impossible to avoid technology because it intersects everywhere within our personal and private lives. Amy Webb, CEO and founder of Future Today Institute, takes us through some of our current trends and the process behind how their organizations plans for the future of technology.
July 20, 2016
In 2016, Laura Clevenger, the Whole Whale Impact Whaler took on the challenge of building an RFP generator. With $100 she built the SNORKL website and RFP tool to see if nonprofits would use it. Surprise! It actually has been working to help many nonprofits simplify the RFP process. We talk about what went right and how other organizations may use this same process to test product ideas they have.
June 17, 2016
The online to offline jump can be hard to make. ACE - Alliance for Climate Education has done it very effectively by engaging students in school with amazing presentations and then engaging them on SMS. Their programs focus on education and involve rigorous research and testing to make sure their trainings are having a lasting impact. Leah Qusba, the Communications Director shares how ACE evolved its programs and how tech is used to improve their organization.
June 6, 2016
Joe Moran, the Chief Creative Officer of The True Colors Fund is a master of automating his work. His trick starts by creating a list of repetitive tasks as he comes across them and then seeing how they may be automated by tools like ITTT.com and Zapier.com. Time is a resource and by leveraging these tools, Joe is able to make the most of his. Co-founded by Cyndi Lauper, the True Colors Fund works to end homelessness among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth, creating a world in which young people can be their true selves. By using these tools, their small staff is able to accomplish an incredible amount of impact.
Find the automation resources.
053: Awesome Automation Tools Used By The True Colors Fund
May 19, 2016
A recent UPenn study shows that just a 1 point gain on a 5 point hope scale resulted in a reduction of 32 days or 10% in homeless family shelter stay in New York. Dan Treglia PhD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice discusses his research on the impact that resilience has on family shelter stay. His research shows how we can use survey tools to really explore what works and might work when dealing with homelessness. We talk with him about how he did this research and at a broader level how other organizations can think about impact studies like these.
April 26, 2016
PROPEL builds software for low-income Americans who are often overlooked by traditional tech innovation. Their current focus is food stamps, a $70 billion program that reaches 45 million Americans. We talk with Jimmy Chen the founder and his CTO Ram Mehta about how they have gone about building the app that is now helping thousands of people manage their food stamps.
April 14, 2016
Talking with Rob Wu the CEO of CauseVox about data from the 2015 donor retention nonprofit stats. How important is keeping and retaining a donor vs hunting for new ones? Why are first year donor's so likely to not return? We discuss the data and more importantly how nonprofits should think about keeping their donors.
March 31, 2016
Quick, easy tips for how and why to use Bit.ly and Canva from Amy Devita from Topnonrpofits.org.
