Woohoo! 

If any of you like me have developed a real interest in the exciting medium of photography and video to tell the story of our community work and create real impact that cuts through so many barriers from litercay issues and language barriers to our audience being time poor and overloaded with information - a picture tells a 1000 words!

I discovered the course on our linked in group : Connecting Up Australia through a discussion posted by Roger Burk from http://www.pictographers.org/ conducting the course. I was sure this would be another fantastic US course - but it's in Australia.

Course details : http://www.idss.com.au/pages/1261366836.app 

I'm going to register right now!

Check out some examples of the power of digital storytelling:

• our Video blog for examples of more Australian nonprofit organisations using video and photos.
• the "A Jpeg is worth a 1000 words competition"   and more info.
• "Big Stories" an amazing project - award winning documemntary
• Online Video for Nonprofits workshop slides - a how to guide - from Connecting Up Conference 09

By Karen Gryst

Isn't it so frustrating when companies or sponsors or other funding bodies dangle a carrot of much needed funds, but only want to fund a specific thing. "Well what we had in mind was a purple playground for the rare and endangered spotted bunyip, with photos please of happy bunyips for our PR, with a detailed report on their preference of slippery dip or the swing."

I'm being cheeky, but in reality it is easier for these funders to sell a tangible project with popular appeal. It is much harder to sell and promote a story of money for new administration staff, internal IT upgrades, capacity development.

We often hear the story that some sponsorships and grants are more trouble than they are worth, creating more work to try and fit funding criteria on something which can even be a diversion from where we really need to be spending our valuable time. 

Wouldn't it be nice if companies doing their bit for the community understood that we (the nonprofits helping the community) know our stuff, we're passioante about it, we know how to work very efficiently and we are ready to tackle the community issues we deal with through excellent programs. We just lack the resources human or otherwise, to do so.

That is why the DonorTec program is so ingenious. The companies who support this program are saying - 'We know you do great work! So let's help you save those valuable dollars to spend on core programs and priorities rather than IT infrastructure AND become more efficient in the process with the latest and greatest technology. We have it, you need it as well as the additional budget. It is easier for us to give product rather than cash to all these groups."

A Win Win they implement tangible community development and corporate social responsibility and we (the nonprofits) have more funds to get on with our work!

The Connecting Up Australia program DonorTec - operating since 2007 in Australia, has saved the nonprofit sector in Australia and New Zealand $50 million so far.

The very latest technology is donated from companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, Symantec, Sophos, Newsmaker and more - in partnership with TechSoup Global.

If you need convincing watch this!

If you ever had trouble explaining the impact of the donation program to people, this excellent short video to see the real, on-the-ground, human impact of just some of those thousands of donations.

Microsoft New Zealand and our TechSoup New Zealand local partner, the New Zealand Federation of Voluntary Welfare Organisations, you’ve done us all proud! Everyone here at Connecting Up Australia is privileged to be playing our role in helping bring TechSoup Global’s donation program to New Zealand, in partnership with all the gang at TechSoup Global around the world.

For more info on technology donations in Australia go to www.donortec.com.au

For more info on technology donations in New Zealand go to www.techsoup.net.nz

Author : Karen Gryst

The Government Taskforce 2.0 has launched the Mashup Australia Competition. http://mashupaustralia.org/

The MashupAustralia Competition will be open for entries from 10AM Wednesday, 7th October 2009.

In the meantime, we encourage you to:

1. Review the contest rules and prizes
2. Browse the data sources
3. Mash them up!

So what's a mashup? Click here.

There are some great prizes :

Prizes (aka. “the Mashies”)

* $10,000 for Excellence in Mashing category
* $5,000 for Highly Commendable Mashups
* $2,500 for Notable Mashing Achievements

In addition, we are also offering some additional prizes for the following categories:

* $2,000 for the People’s Choice Mashup prize
* $2,000 for the Best Student entry
* $1,000 bonuses for the Transformation Challenge

We may even award more than one prize for each category if we are overwhelmed by quality mashups!

Entries close November 6th 2009. So get mashing!

Author : Karen Gryst

If your organisation is dabbling in or considering implementing a social media strategy there are some great resources available to assist you work through this process. Even organisations who have been doing this for a while can learn from some of the experiences of other nonprofits.

See3 and the Case Foundation have wokred together to produce these excellent video tutorials - free online. Check this out!

Alan Noble; Engineering Director Google Australia and New Zealand did a terrific presentation at Connecting Up 09 Conference this year. See more or listen to the audio here.

If you listen to Question and Answer 3 where a conference participant asked : " Only US not-for-profits are entitled to the education version of Google Apps as opposed to the Premier. Do you know if that is going to be rolled out globally outside the US for other not-for-profits?"

Alan said that he would check on this and get back to Connecting Up  via Doug Jacquier our CEO about this so that we could let you all know. We have had a few enquiries about this. Whilst there is no timeline, Alan has just let us know that : " Google is revisiting non-profits' eligibility for Premium Apps globally and Australia is included in this - so watch this space - more coming soon!"

So we'll let you know more when we know more.

Author: Karen Gryst

Have you heard of a digital story? It’s a story that is told using photos or video and then shared via the web. The Digital Storytelling Challenge is an event that has been initiated by TechSoup, our US partner organisation in the DonorTec program.

The aim of the challenge is to encourage community organisations to share information about what they do and connect with each other on issues of common interest. Using simple online tools and publishing on the web overcomes geographic limitations and offers different ways of participating. This challenge is open to the community at large, nonprofits, individuals, libraries, as well as local and international organisations.

Participants are invited to submit Digital Stories that demonstrate your organisational mission/goals/needs in a thoughtful and creative way. The Flickr image sharing platform and the YouTube video platform will be used to share the stories with the world.

If you are interested in joining the challenge and need some help or encouragement, we will be happy to help. Please contact Rosalie Day rd@connectingup.org or tel. 8122 2755.

As Becky Wiegand from Tech soup (DonorTec's partner in the US) blogged:

While looking for anything to watch other than Tom Delay shake his bum on Dancing with the Stars the other night, I came across one of the new commercials from Microsoft about their upcoming release of the Windows 7 operating system. The commercial featured the cutest little spokesperson you've ever seen. Since Microsoft will be donating Windows 7 upgrades to eligible nonprofits through www.DonorTec.com.au - this reminded me to post this little "save the date" announcement, as well as give you a heads up as to what you can expect to see from DonorTec as we approach this launch.