Aspiration Blog

Aspiration helps nonprofits and foundations use software tools more effectively and sustainably. We serve as ally, coach, strategist, mentor and facilitator to those trying to make more impactful use of information technology in their social change efforts.

evelyn
May 27, 2020

Power Dynamics and Inclusion in Virtual Meetings

(Now available as a PDF Download)

Tim's picture
Tim
Sep 5, 2005

Gave money already? Give an hour of your time right now to the Katrina PeopleFinder Project

David Geilhufe, Jon Lebowsky, Ethan Zuckerman, Donald Lobo, Steven Wright, Kieran Lal and others are coordinating a volunteer effort by open source developers, web designers, online activists and ordinary citizens to create a single database of all the people missing in the aftermath of Katrina that their friends and family can use to connect with them. David writes:

Refugees can search 20 web sites for lost relatives and still miss their entry on the 21st web site. There is a need to combine all the refugee data from big databases like Red Cross, large posting forums like Craigslist and many other sources on the web. The Katrina PeopleFinder Project seeks to create a single repository combining as many sources of refugee data as possible from all over the web without interrupting existing momentum.

We need help for both regular people and software engineers. Everybody is critical to building a central repository of ALL the refugee records we can find on the web. The Social Source Foundation, CivicSpace Labs and Salesforce.com Foundation are coordinating hundreds of people and organizations, including Craigslist and Earthlink.

Please consider giving us just an hour of you your time to do volunteer data entry. The PeopleFinder Project is seeking volunteers in four primary areas:

 

aspiration's picture
aspiration
Jun 20, 2005

Nonprofit Software and Nonprofit Missions

Aspiration board member Michelle Murrain writes on her personal blog about Convio's recent decision to take on an anti-gay marriage organization as a client. She argues:

"I think it's perhaps time for many nonprofit organizations, and the progressive nonprofit community to think carefully about this issue. Few of us think that the ends always justifies the means. Some of us (me included) think that the means by which we work to achieve our mission, affects the mission, sometimes deeply.

aspiration's picture
aspiration
Nov 23, 2004

Penguin Day Toronto a Success

More than sixty nonprofit tech staff and open source programmers convened in Toronto on November 20th for the 4th Penguin Day worldwide. Penguin Day Toronto featured spirited discussion about how to bridge language and cultural gaps between open source developers and nonprofits, hands-on sessions on content management systems for organizations, real-life stories of nonprofits using open source tools, and another speed-geek -- a hilarious, fast-paced presentations of different software applications for non-profits.

The day resulted in tangible projects such a coalition of 'Penguin Doers' investigating building an open source client management application for social service organizations for intake and outcome measurement.

Check out the article

gunner's picture
gunner
Sep 20, 2004

Goin' Dynamic

Today Courtney rocked our world by helping us set up a dynamic web site with infinitely many features and all the technology needed to feed the entire planet. We are grateful.

Back to Top