<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799</id><updated>2011-08-01T11:26:01.915-07:00</updated><category term='edmonton.'/><category term='Social Media'/><category term='Media Camp'/><category term='born digital online communities facebook twitter edmonton nonprofits'/><category term='#yegmediacamp'/><category term='International Volunteer Day facebook twitter edmonton nonprofits'/><category term='Edmonton'/><category term='Volunter Experiences'/><category term='success'/><category term='nonprofit Sector'/><category term='Nov 15'/><category term='volunteer edmton'/><category term='political activities'/><category term='edmoton'/><category term='Canadian Revenue Agency'/><category term='Annual General Meeting'/><category term='charities'/><category term='events'/><category term='YouTube'/><category term='nonprofits'/><category term='mission'/><category term='MediaCamp Edmonton 2010'/><category term='alberta'/><category term='sustainability'/><category term='members'/><category term='December 5'/><category term='ECVO'/><category term='national volunteer week'/><category term='Chris Jarvis'/><category term='edmonton chamber of voluntary organizations'/><category term='Community Connector'/><category term='volunteering'/><category term='Social Media Revolution'/><category term='Yeg'/><category term='CRA'/><category term='lobbying'/><category term='Natioanl Philanthropy Day'/><category term='volunteers'/><title type='text'>Edmonton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations</title><subtitle type='html'></subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>16</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799.post-297584673421827408</id><published>2010-08-03T14:58:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-08-03T15:22:23.804-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='lobbying'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='born digital online communities facebook twitter edmonton nonprofits'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Canadian Revenue Agency'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='edmonton chamber of voluntary organizations'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='CRA'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='political activities'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='charities'/><title type='text'>CRA issues new Information</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: xx-small;"&gt;The CRA recently issued a large amount of information and carried out website updates that affect Canadian Charities and Nonprofits. Please read the following links for all the updates:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black; font-size: xx-small;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;Guidance on Charities Carrying Out Activities Outside Canada&lt;/b&gt;In early July, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) released a new guidance - &lt;a href="http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/chrts/plcy/cgd/tsd-cnd-eng.html"&gt;Canadian Registered Charities Carrying Out Activities Outside Canada&lt;/a&gt;  - that updates and replaces Guide RC4106. The guidance assumes that a  charity is carrying out activities outside of Canada through an  intermediary. The requirements about working with intermediaries also  apply to charities working with intermediaries within Canada. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;CRA Changes Web Addresses&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On July 14, the Canada Revenue Agency's Charities Directorate changed most of the webpage addresses on the &lt;a href="http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/chrts/rlchngs-eng.html"&gt;Charities and Giving website&lt;/a&gt;. While the content of the site has stayed the same, you will need to update your links and bookmarks to the website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;CRA extends resources&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The CRA has added several new pages to their website under the &lt;a href="http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/chrts/rvkng/menu-eng.html"&gt;Revoking Registered Status section&lt;/a&gt;.  The new pages cover such topics as types of revocation and processes,  consequences of revocation, and annulment, as well as a question and  answer page. &lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: xx-small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2586176076771829799-297584673421827408?l=edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/297584673421827408/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2010/08/cra-issues-new-information.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/297584673421827408'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/297584673421827408'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2010/08/cra-issues-new-information.html' title='CRA issues new Information'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799.post-935837035133486090</id><published>2010-06-10T12:30:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-08-03T15:06:23.210-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Vitalize!</title><content type='html'>We attended Vitalize from June 10 - 12, 2010 and had a great time! It was terrific to see Alberta's nonprofits and charities come out for 2 days of great sessions and networking while celebrating our sector's accomplishments and contributions. Check out the &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#%21/pages/Edmonton-AB/Edmonton-Chamber-of-Voluntary-Organizations/173734905672?ref=ts&amp;amp;__a=115&amp;amp;ajaxpipe=1"&gt;ECVO Facebook page&lt;/a&gt; for photos from the event.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2586176076771829799-935837035133486090?l=edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/935837035133486090/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2010/06/vitalize.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/935837035133486090'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/935837035133486090'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2010/06/vitalize.html' title='Vitalize!'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799.post-1742908226670110233</id><published>2010-05-12T21:02:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-05-12T21:09:24.819-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Edmonton'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='edmonton chamber of voluntary organizations'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Social Media'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Media Camp'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='MediaCamp Edmonton 2010'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='#yegmediacamp'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Yeg'/><title type='text'>ECVO takes part in Edmonton’s first Social Media Camp</title><content type='html'>ECVO attended &lt;a href="http://www.mediacampedmonton.com/"&gt;MediaCamp Edmonton&lt;/a&gt; on May 8, 2010 to learn more about the new technologies that are increasingly replacing traditional communications methods. The event attracted 200 ‘hacks and flacks’ (Media and Public Relations professionals) to network and discuss how to apply social media in our daily lives.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As an ‘unconference’ the day’s agenda was set by the attendees presenting to the crowd topics they would like to see discussed. Sixteen small group sessions evolved out of these topics, including using social media to build relationships between media and publicists, whether the traditional definition of journalist was still valid, and how to attract advertising and sponsorship for your website/blog.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WBe501XVFVQ/S-t5a5CJ46I/AAAAAAAAABw/0d6y_0OHNPE/s1600/IMG_0568.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="141" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WBe501XVFVQ/S-t5a5CJ46I/AAAAAAAAABw/0d6y_0OHNPE/s200/IMG_0568.jpg" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;The unconference also featured a opening panel discussion which included &lt;a href="http://www.focuscom.ca/" target="_blank"&gt;Sue Heuman (from Focus Communications)&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://mastermaq.ca/" target="_blank"&gt;Mack Male (local blogger and developer)&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://daveberta.ca/" target="_blank"&gt;Dave Cournoyer (local blogger and occasional political pundit)&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href="http://www.edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/topic.html?t=Person&amp;amp;q=Columnist+Paula+Simons" target="_blank"&gt;Paula Simons (columnist from the Edmonton Journal)&lt;/a&gt; and was moderated by &lt;a href="http://twitter.com/KarenUnland/" target="_blank"&gt;Karen Unland (Edmonton Journal&lt;/a&gt;). Lighting talks on new technologies including the iPad, Empire Avenue and Google Tables occurred after the lunch, breaking the sessions in half nicely.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Social Media was employed throughout the event, with attendees ‘tweeting’ their thoughts and opinions on the event as it occurred, driving &lt;a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23yegmediacamp"&gt;#yegmediacamp&lt;/a&gt; to be the highest trending topic in Canada on Twitter during the first two hours of the unconference. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Overall, the unconference was a great success and gave a wonderful opportunity to interact with both members of the nonprofit sector and media personalities. It was an excellent chance to put faces to many names ECVO interacts with through Social Media and to gain a greater understanding of the new technologies and their power to influence trends and events throughout Edmonton and Canada. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WBe501XVFVQ/S-t7DHfVFoI/AAAAAAAAACA/rux7TlzMCIo/s1600/IMG_0572.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="118" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WBe501XVFVQ/S-t7DHfVFoI/AAAAAAAAACA/rux7TlzMCIo/s200/IMG_0572.jpg" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hopefully this event will become a yearly occurrence for Edmonton - it was a terrific experience and definitely of value for any nonprofit looking to increase their social media and web presence!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thank you to the organizers and sponsors for a great day!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2586176076771829799-1742908226670110233?l=edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/1742908226670110233/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2010/05/ecvo-takes-part-in-edmontons-first.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/1742908226670110233'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/1742908226670110233'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2010/05/ecvo-takes-part-in-edmontons-first.html' title='ECVO takes part in Edmonton’s first Social Media Camp'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WBe501XVFVQ/S-t5a5CJ46I/AAAAAAAAABw/0d6y_0OHNPE/s72-c/IMG_0568.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799.post-896028237685440891</id><published>2010-05-11T11:43:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-05-11T13:50:56.681-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Community Connector'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Annual General Meeting'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='edmonton chamber of voluntary organizations'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='members'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='events'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='nonprofit Sector'/><title type='text'>ECVO AGM and Community Connector a great success!</title><content type='html'>The &lt;a href="http://www.ecvo.ca/"&gt;Edmonton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations'&lt;/a&gt; Annual General Meeting and Community Connector events where held May 4, 2010 at the Shaw Convention Centre. The AGM began at 3:30pm and was attended by over 40 members of ECVO.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WBe501XVFVQ/S-mdIaOmtWI/AAAAAAAAABA/gEWpqGacK3s/s1600/IMG_0404.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WBe501XVFVQ/S-mdIaOmtWI/AAAAAAAAABA/gEWpqGacK3s/s200/IMG_0404.jpg" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Highlights of the AGM included a brief overview of 2009’s achievements, the investiture of Cindy Chiasson and Kathy Lenihan as returning board members, and the appointment of new board members Scott Lundell, Craig Stumpf‐Allen and Susan Logan. ECVO also thanked retiring board members Liz O’Neil, Catherine Cole, and Susan Morrissey for their hard work during their terms. The AGM ended with a presentation by Cindy Chiasson on the new &lt;a href="http://www.ecvo.ca/images/stories/ecvo_strategic_framework.pdf"&gt;Strategic Framework&lt;/a&gt; under review by ECVO, and an invitation to attendees to discuss and provide feedback to the board through moderated conversations throughout the room.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WBe501XVFVQ/S-md1akuvHI/AAAAAAAAABI/NpLdCCf8alY/s1600/IMG_0410.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WBe501XVFVQ/S-md1akuvHI/AAAAAAAAABI/NpLdCCf8alY/s200/IMG_0410.jpg" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The AGM was followed immediately by the Community Connector Event, which brought together nonprofits, government, and business. Approximately 70 representatives of these three sectors joined us for refreshments and networking. Ron Gilbertson, CEO of the &lt;a href="http://www.edmonton.com/"&gt;Edmonton Economic Development Corporation&lt;/a&gt;, spoke briefly on collaboration between sectors, and how the EEDC is working with nonprofits to enhance Edmonton through events such as &lt;a href="http://www.homelessconnect.ca/"&gt;Homeless Connect&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WBe501XVFVQ/S-medxUifrI/AAAAAAAAABQ/Nn2CzvFf2H0/s1600/IMG_0473.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WBe501XVFVQ/S-medxUifrI/AAAAAAAAABQ/Nn2CzvFf2H0/s200/IMG_0473.jpg" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;ECVO was delighted to see so many members in attendance, as well as &lt;a href="http://culture.alberta.ca/"&gt;Culture and Community Spirit&lt;/a&gt;’s Deputy Minister Lois Hawkins and Assistant Deputy Minister Tom Thackeray, &lt;a href="http://www.laurieblakeman.com/"&gt;Edmonton-Centre&lt;/a&gt; MLA Laurie Blakeman, and Mayor Stephen Mandel and Ward 5 Alderman Don Iveson from the &lt;a href="http://www.edmonton.ca/city-government.aspx"&gt;City of Edmonton&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our thanks to everyone who attended for making both events a great success! We look forward to holding another Community Connector event in the future.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WBe501XVFVQ/S-mffPgr1yI/AAAAAAAAABY/oq3C2Xs-5-o/s1600/IMG_0515.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WBe501XVFVQ/S-mffPgr1yI/AAAAAAAAABY/oq3C2Xs-5-o/s200/IMG_0515.jpg" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WBe501XVFVQ/S-mcimYbsoI/AAAAAAAAAA4/cRnhLz8vDGg/s1600/IMG_0555.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WBe501XVFVQ/S-mcimYbsoI/AAAAAAAAAA4/cRnhLz8vDGg/s200/IMG_0555.jpg" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For more photos, please visit ECVO's &lt;a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4443354&amp;amp;op=1&amp;amp;o=global&amp;amp;view=global&amp;amp;subj=611390792&amp;amp;id=611390792#%21/pages/Edmonton-AB/Edmonton-Chamber-of-Voluntary-Organizations/173734905672"&gt;Facebook fan page&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2586176076771829799-896028237685440891?l=edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/896028237685440891/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2010/05/ecvo-agm-and-community-connector-great.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/896028237685440891'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/896028237685440891'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2010/05/ecvo-agm-and-community-connector-great.html' title='ECVO AGM and Community Connector a great success!'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WBe501XVFVQ/S-mdIaOmtWI/AAAAAAAAABA/gEWpqGacK3s/s72-c/IMG_0404.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799.post-5163551265276420973</id><published>2010-04-21T15:48:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-21T15:48:45.643-07:00</updated><title type='text'>The Amazing Contributions of Volunteers</title><content type='html'>&lt;i&gt;The following is a guest post from Volunteer Edmonton's Evelyn Pham on National Volunteer Week and the contributions of Edmonton's Volunteers - thanks Evelyn!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;From April 18 to 24, National Volunteer Week celebrates and recognizes the amazing contributions of volunteers across Canada.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In recent years, it’s become evident that volunteers are critical to sustaining our quality of life. Nonprofit and voluntary organizations are continually struggling to do more with fewer dollars. Programs and services that exist in every facet of community—arts, culture, health, education, recreation and sports, religion, environment and more—would be seriously at risk, if not for the support of a volunteer workforce.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The dedication and enthusiasm of hundreds of people who help out in our community ensures that organizations can continue to provide the same level of services and programs that we all rely on. &lt;br /&gt;These people are building homes, packing food and clothing for at-risk families; sitting on organizational boards and making decisions that have a lasting impact on our community; fundraising for cancer awareness and much more. Volunteers express human values of community and caring, give of themselves, and find solutions to shared community challenges.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They are our neighbours, parents, students, children and coworkers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They are people just like you and me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This week is not only our time to say thank you to the volunteers in our lives, but to reflect on the ways we can all give back to the 4,000 nonprofit organizations that exist in Edmonton, and how volunteering helps build better, stronger, healthier and more vibrant communities for us all.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;-- Evelyn Pham, Volunteer Edmonton&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2586176076771829799-5163551265276420973?l=edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/5163551265276420973/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2010/04/amazing-contributions-of-volunteers.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/5163551265276420973'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/5163551265276420973'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2010/04/amazing-contributions-of-volunteers.html' title='The Amazing Contributions of Volunteers'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799.post-6941346260661894259</id><published>2010-04-19T14:12:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-04-19T14:12:56.569-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='national volunteer week'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='edmoton'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='volunteers'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='volunteer edmton'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='edmonton chamber of voluntary organizations'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='ECVO'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='volunteering'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='alberta'/><title type='text'>Happy National Volunteer Week!</title><content type='html'>The sun is out, and the weather is gorgeous just in time for Edmonton's nonprofits and charities to send out more than 13,000 thank you cards to their volunteers!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;National Volunteer Week, which started April 18, is seven days in which to recognize the outstanding efforts of all of Canada's volunteers - from those who sit on national hospital boards to those who bake cookies for their child's soccer team, and back again. Throughout our country, these volunteers are improving our quality of life at every level. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For those of us working in the nonprofit sector, we see the benefits of volunteers every day - these are the people who help run our programs, put their skills to work on our committees, organize fundraisers, balance our books, and give us guidance and direction as members of our boards. Many of Alberta's nonprofits and charities are entirely volunteer driven, and the rest of us succeed only with their committed help.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On behalf of the 4,000 nonprofits and charities in Edmonton, we thank all the volunteers for their help &amp;amp; determination in making sure that not only Edmonton's nonprofit sector continues to thrive, but that Edmonton itself is a stronger, healthier, more compassionate and simply better place to live for all of us. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Happy National Volunteer Week! &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With Thanks,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;ECVO&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2586176076771829799-6941346260661894259?l=edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/6941346260661894259/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2010/04/happy-national-volunteer-week.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/6941346260661894259'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/6941346260661894259'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2010/04/happy-national-volunteer-week.html' title='Happy National Volunteer Week!'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799.post-8287352900367781532</id><published>2010-04-08T10:12:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2010-05-10T15:13:19.245-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='YouTube'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Volunter Experiences'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Chris Jarvis'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Social Media'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Social Media Revolution'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='volunteering'/><title type='text'>Social Media &amp; Volunteers</title><content type='html'>While attending the Chris Jarvis Workshop Series today, I was struck by the mention of attracting volunteers through social media. While there was a lot of good content to the session (especially around steps to move volunteers from a 'one time tourist' to a dependable and consistent 'guide'), I really appreciated the social media video that was shown, and all the ideas for promoting ECVO it inspired in me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A lot of people are still unsure or uninformed when it comes to social media; a lot of others think it is just a trend or something that should be supplementary to their communications efforts. This video presents the truth about&amp;nbsp; Social Media in a far more eloquent manner that I could ever manage! &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;it's called the&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8&amp;amp;NR=1"&gt;Social Media Revolution Video&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp; The link will take you straight to it on YouTube. The information is a bit outdated (the video is from 2009, a lot of the numbers come from 2008), but it gives a good idea of the scope and power of social media - even if it's a little understated in comparison to today's numbers!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hope you enjoy - and that this gives you some new ideas on how to attract volunteers!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;EAVB_AHMEVKHGCQ&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2586176076771829799-8287352900367781532?l=edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/8287352900367781532/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2010/04/social-media-volunteers.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/8287352900367781532'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/8287352900367781532'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2010/04/social-media-volunteers.html' title='Social Media &amp; Volunteers'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799.post-2388657773878867805</id><published>2010-01-29T12:52:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2010-01-29T12:52:12.081-08:00</updated><title type='text'>A New Year, A New Communications Director, a New Blog Direction?</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;Welcome to 2010! The year's already a month old and time's flying so fast this blog hasn't been updated at all since early December! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;It's not that there's a lack of content or a lack of ideas, but more that I'm not sure what people would like to see on here. I've written blogs before, so I know that reacting to the readers and what information they want (especially when it's an organizational blog) is crucial if you want there to be a readership. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;So, although I might not be new to blogging, I am new to my audience (hello! Is anyone out there?) and I'd like to get a feel for what you'd like to see on here. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;Blogging is a great tool in this regard - through comments it moves from 1-way communication to a 2-way conversation, and lets the author make real connections with the readers. A good blog builds a virtual community and since ECVO is here to serve the nonprofit community, the least I can do is ask what it wants to hear, and to accommodate as many suggestions as possible!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;ECVO, like most of the nonprofit community, is made up of a hodge-podge of different people with different perspectives (and interests), which has come across in past blogs. We've talked about Social Media, the value of volunteering, important events on the nonprofit calendar, resources of interest. But is this what you're enjoying and feeling connected to us through? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;Should we be including more information about what ECVO itself is doing? Showcasing our members? Getting outside contributors? Becoming more cohesive as one distinct organizational voice, or let each individual around here (and their sense of humor) have free reign when they blog? Do you come here looking for information, or for conversation? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;I'd love to hear from you all in the comments section - who you are and what you'd like to hear from us! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;Enjoy the weekend &amp;amp; I'll 'see' you again in February!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;Joanna&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;ECVO Communications Director &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2586176076771829799-2388657773878867805?l=edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/2388657773878867805/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-year-new-communications-director.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/2388657773878867805'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/2388657773878867805'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-year-new-communications-director.html' title='A New Year, A New Communications Director, a New Blog Direction?'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799.post-5292654539331156567</id><published>2009-12-07T21:18:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-12-14T08:39:17.182-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Purposeful Purchasing: Let Your Money Do the Talking</title><content type='html'>&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Posted by ECVO Associate Director, Shawna Gnutel&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5E-AXq4P298/Sx3bna-L8_I/AAAAAAAAAF4/exMB90IGSQU/s1600-h/j0438431.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" er="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5E-AXq4P298/Sx3bna-L8_I/AAAAAAAAAF4/exMB90IGSQU/s320/j0438431.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"&gt;We've all heard the expression &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;money talks. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Last month, the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce hosted its first Annual&amp;nbsp;Nonprofit Week (Nov 17-20). I was particularly attracted to a seminar ad entitled "Purposeful Purchasing" which read, "Let your money speak for you and watch businesses buy into your mission."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Guest Speaker Maggie Vilvang from&amp;nbsp;(&lt;a href="http://www.2010legaciesnow.com/"&gt;2010 Legacies NOW&lt;/a&gt;) is part of a consortium of disability missioned organizations in Vancouver BC known as &lt;a href="http://www.accessworks.ca/overview.php"&gt;accessWORKS&lt;/a&gt;. Maggie began her talk by explaining what Purposeful Purchasing was &lt;strong&gt;NOT&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. It was &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; bulk buying.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;2. It was &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; asking you to change where you buy stuff.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;3. It was &lt;strong&gt;not &lt;/strong&gt;about asking you to act more like a business.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Instead, Purposeful Purchasing is about moving away from a conventional charity model and moving toward&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"&gt;acting more like a nonprofit &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"&gt;with spending power.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;The Purposeful Purchasing Initiative is about disability missioned organizations in British Columbia "recognizing that every dollar spent, if spent with purpose, will advance the economic inclusion of people with disabilities." (Please read the &lt;a href="http://www.accessworks.ca/documents/PurposefulPurchasingOverview.pdf"&gt;background paper.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;) &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;According to StatsCan, social service agencies in Canada spend over 3.6 billion dollars annually. These organizations buy houses, cars, office supplies, groceries, janitor services, computers. &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: red;"&gt;YOU NAME IT!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;So then doesn’t it make sense to position yourself as a consumer with a mission? To get started, organizations need to conduct a spend/supplier analysis- how much is being spent and where. Once that's completed you can send the supplier&lt;a href="http://www.accessworks.ca/documents/SupplierLetterSample.pdf"&gt; a letter&lt;/a&gt; and ask them to do a &lt;a href="http://www.accessworks.ca/documents/SupplierSurveySample.pdf"&gt;questionnaire/self assessment&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;to rate&amp;nbsp;themselves&amp;nbsp;and their commitment to becoming a disability confident business.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;According to Maggie, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;building disability confidence in the supply chain is one of the main goals.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;And THINK ABOUT IT... there's no better time than during an economic downturn. Why wouldn't businesses be motivated to keep their customers satisfied and happy? &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;REALLY REALLY HAPPY :)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;At its heart, &lt;a href="http://www.accessworks.ca/PurposefulPurchasing.php"&gt;Purposeful Purchasing&lt;/a&gt; uses spending as a strategy to advance mission and social change. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;The main inspiration for Purposeful Purchasing is based on the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://elegacies.ca/userfiles/files/D1_6_2%20VANOCs%202010%20BUY%20SMART%20Program%20-%20Mandating%20Sustainability%20in%20Games%20Products%20and%20Services.pdf"&gt;Buy Smart Program&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;The ultimate priority in&amp;nbsp;VANOCs "sustainability purchasing"&amp;nbsp;procurement policy, is to buy smarter, greener and with&amp;nbsp;more social consciousness. So far, benefits to local communities&amp;nbsp;has been substantial. Between 2003 and summer 2008, VANOC spent &lt;a href="http://www.vancouver2010.com/more-2010-information/sustainability/sustainability-stories/vanoc-buys-smart_120776CM.html"&gt;$1.8 million&lt;/a&gt; with inner-city businesses and organizations.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large;"&gt;So whether you are an organization or a supplier, &lt;a href="http://www.accessworks.ca/PurposefulPurchasing.php"&gt;Purposeful Purchasing&lt;/a&gt; makes good business sense.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large;"&gt;And on that happy economic note, it's time to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large;"&gt;take action and&amp;nbsp;usher in&amp;nbsp;2010&amp;nbsp;as an&amp;nbsp;engaging year of empowerment, opportunity and positive change for you and your&amp;nbsp;community. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large;"&gt;For more information about Purposeful Purchasing, feel free to contact Maggie Vilvang: &lt;a href="mailto:mvilvang@2010LegaciesNow.com"&gt;mvilvang@2010LegaciesNow.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5E-AXq4P298/Sx3eA5qkt_I/AAAAAAAAAGA/7hyNTrShqHg/s1600-h/j0433152.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" er="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5E-AXq4P298/Sx3eA5qkt_I/AAAAAAAAAGA/7hyNTrShqHg/s320/j0433152.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2586176076771829799-5292654539331156567?l=edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/5292654539331156567/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2009/12/purposeful-purchasing-let-your-money-do.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/5292654539331156567'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/5292654539331156567'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2009/12/purposeful-purchasing-let-your-money-do.html' title='Purposeful Purchasing: Let Your Money Do the Talking'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5E-AXq4P298/Sx3bna-L8_I/AAAAAAAAAF4/exMB90IGSQU/s72-c/j0438431.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799.post-977936140470876506</id><published>2009-12-01T18:44:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-12-14T08:39:17.282-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='December 5'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='International Volunteer Day facebook twitter edmonton nonprofits'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='edmonton.'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='volunteering'/><title type='text'>Happy International Volunteers Day (Dec. 5)</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5E-AXq4P298/SxXeDn2wGcI/AAAAAAAAAFY/PER9SU9bRxA/s1600-h/volunteer1pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" er="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5E-AXq4P298/SxXeDn2wGcI/AAAAAAAAAFY/PER9SU9bRxA/s320/volunteer1pic.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style="color: #38761d;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;Posted by Lynn Ferguson, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;Programs Director&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Thanks to my parents, volunteering has always played a significant role in my life. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;When I was a young girl, m&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;y father coached both our track and field and&amp;nbsp;baseball team.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;He also volunteered on the board for the Kinsmen&amp;nbsp;Club of Edmonton&amp;nbsp;and posthumously, was&amp;nbsp;recognized&amp;nbsp;by&amp;nbsp;the Minister of Sport and Fitness for his contribution to the development of amateur football referees in Alberta. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;My mother was and still is, equally involved with volunteering. When I was growing up, she was an Assistant Coach in baseball and helped the Mother's Day Annual Tennis Tournament for our community league.&amp;nbsp;Today she teaches ESL in Canmore, Alberta.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;As I reflect today on National Volunteer Day, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;it raises the question, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: x-large;"&gt;"isn't everyday a volunteer day for somebody?"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;The answer of course&amp;nbsp;is yes! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;I have been an active volunteer for several years, especially when my two boys were involved. There are endless volunteer opportunities when you are a parent! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;For example, I've chaired the Parent Association and&amp;nbsp;worked as Children's Program Director with our community league. I've been&amp;nbsp;the parent rep&amp;nbsp;for our&amp;nbsp;playschool and I've coached and managed many sports.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;I've volunteered for special events and activities. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;I would add that even if you are not a parent, there are many excellent reasons to volunteer:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;-meet new people and connect in a meaningful way to your neighborhood. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;-give back to the community.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;-share skills to make life better for yourself and others. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;What has really kept me volunteering for the past 25 years is that I have enjoyed it tremendously!&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;I remember a former school principal saying, "if you have a job you love to do, you will never work a day in your life."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;For me, volunteering has been much the same experience.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My children are also learning the important value of the gift of time as they carry on our family tradition of volunteering.&amp;nbsp; Every summer they work as camp counsellors and help out in the community, sports and school. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;In conversations with others who donate their time and talents it is often said that they usually get back far more than they give. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;I stand by that thought. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;Years later, I am working at the ECVO and see on a daily basis the&amp;nbsp;extraordinary work accomplished by the nonprofit/voluntary sector in Edmonton. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;Often nonprofits have few paid staff, so volunteers (who wear many hats)&amp;nbsp;are essential to ensure the success of the organization. Not only are volunteers out on the front lines where they are visible but there are countless others working behind the scenes.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;So, please celebrate National Volunteer Day (Saturday December&amp;nbsp;5)&amp;nbsp;and &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;take a moment to express your gratitude and say thank you to an &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;outstanding volunteer! Please &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large;"&gt;check out &lt;a href="http://www.getinvolved.ca/"&gt;http://www.getinvolved.ca/&lt;/a&gt; a national campaign that asks for Canadians' time, not money to make a difference in 2010.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5E-AXq4P298/SxXfi1m1sjI/AAAAAAAAAFo/F61xkA4-0SU/s1600-h/j0422361.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" er="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5E-AXq4P298/SxXfi1m1sjI/AAAAAAAAAFo/F61xkA4-0SU/s200/j0422361.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2586176076771829799-977936140470876506?l=edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/977936140470876506/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2009/12/happy-international-volunteers-day-dec.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/977936140470876506'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/977936140470876506'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2009/12/happy-international-volunteers-day-dec.html' title='Happy International Volunteers Day (Dec. 5)'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5E-AXq4P298/SxXeDn2wGcI/AAAAAAAAAFY/PER9SU9bRxA/s72-c/volunteer1pic.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799.post-1790470005241353320</id><published>2009-11-27T19:15:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-12-14T08:39:17.293-08:00</updated><title type='text'>More Helpful Social Media Sites from ECVO Digital Immigrant Workshop!</title><content type='html'>&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;Posted by ECVO Associate Director, Shawna Gnutel&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tim Osborne's (United Way) Social Media Sites to visit. (Thanks Tim! You're awesome!)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Presenters &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/michaeljanz"&gt;www.twitter.com/michaeljanz&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/Tamara_Stecyk"&gt;www.twitter.com/Tamara_Stecyk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/micajobe"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/micajobe"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;www.twitter.com/micajobe&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/tim_osborne"&gt;www.twitter.com/tim_osborne&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Others to follow&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/nonprofitorgs"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;www.twitter.com/nonprofitorgs&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;www.twitter.com/mastermaq&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Helpful Sites&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://nonprofitorgs.wordpress.com/"&gt;http://nonprofitorgs.wordpress.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.ning.com/"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;http://www.ning.com/&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.tweetdeck.com/"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;http://www.tweetdeck.com/&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;http://briansolis.com/2009/03/conversation-prism-v20/&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My yeg-nonprofit Twitter List&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://twitter.com/tim_osborne/yeg-nonprofit"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;http://twitter.com/tim_osborne/yeg-nonprofit&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tamara Stecyk (Edmonton's Foodbank Social Media List) &lt;br /&gt;(Thanks Tamara! You're awesome!)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://wefollow.com/"&gt;http://wefollow.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://friendfeed.com/"&gt;http://friendfeed.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://filesocial.com/"&gt;http://filesocial.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://greeter.com/"&gt;http://greeter.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://tweetmondo.com/"&gt;http://tweetmondo.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://mashable.com/2009/05/14/social-media-routine"&gt;http://mashable.com/2009/05/14/social-media-routine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/16/a-guide-to-google-analytics-and-useful-tools"&gt;http://smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/16/a-guide-to-google-analytics-and-useful-tools&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2009/11/social-media-analytics-twitter-quantitative-qualitative-analysis.html"&gt;http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2009/11/social-media-analytics-twitter-quantitative-qualitative-analysis.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://google.com/analytics"&gt;http://google.com/analytics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://linkedin.com/"&gt;http://linkedin.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://flickr.com/"&gt;http://flickr.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://google.com/alerts"&gt;http://google.com/alerts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://twitpic.com/"&gt;http://twitpic.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://youtube.com/"&gt;http://youtube.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2586176076771829799-1790470005241353320?l=edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/1790470005241353320/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2009/11/more-helpful-social-media-sites-from.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/1790470005241353320'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/1790470005241353320'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2009/11/more-helpful-social-media-sites-from.html' title='More Helpful Social Media Sites from ECVO Digital Immigrant Workshop!'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799.post-830413813246806828</id><published>2009-11-23T11:44:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-12-14T08:39:17.304-08:00</updated><title type='text'>ECVO Top 21+ Social Media Resource List!</title><content type='html'>&lt;span style="color: red; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: purple;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #351c75;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;Posted by ECVO Associate Director,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;Shawna Gnutel&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: x-large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;websites/blogs/webinars&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://beth.typepad.com/"&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: black;"&gt;Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits can use Social Media&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zys9SJcVPJ8"&gt;Beth Kanter: Using Social Media for Good Causes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.netwitsthinktank.com/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=ifINKZOzFmG&amp;amp;b=4487123&amp;amp;ct=7677121&amp;amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kintera%2Fthinktank%2Fblogposts+%28NetWits+Think+Tank%29&amp;amp;utm_content=Google+Reader"&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: large;"&gt;50 Social Media Tactics for Nonprofits&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;MyCharityConnects: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.slideshare.net/MyCharityConnects/wwhd-what-would-harvey-do-an-introduction-to-social-media-using-the-hypothetical-case-study-of-harvey-milk"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;What would Harvey do? An Introduction to Social Media.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;(Don't miss upcoming free CanadaHelps Webinar Dec 2: Top Ten Social Media Mistakes to Avoid &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://mycharityconnects.org/webinars"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;Register Here!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt; )&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.casefoundation.org/social-media-tutorials"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;Case Foundation Social Media Tutorials&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://event.netbriefings.com/event/comcast/Archives/nonprofit/"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;Social Media Seminar for Nonprofit Executives&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.socialbrite.org/2009/08/06/how-the-national-wildlife-federation-uses-social-media/"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;How the National Wildlife Federation Uses Social Media&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.netwitsthinktank.com/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=ifINKZOzFmG&amp;amp;b=4487123&amp;amp;ct=7670961&amp;amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kintera%2Fthinktank%2Fblogposts+%28NetWits+Think+Tank%29&amp;amp;utm_content=Google+Reader"&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: black;"&gt;Social Media Strategy: A Small Nonprofit's Experience&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.netwitsthinktank.com/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=ifINKZOzFmG&amp;amp;b=4487123&amp;amp;ct=7627985&amp;amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kintera%2Fthinktank%2Fblogposts+%28NetWits+Think+Tank%29&amp;amp;utm_content=Google+Reader"&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: black;"&gt;Creating a Social Networking Strategy&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.netwitsthinktank.com/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=ifINKZOzFmG&amp;amp;b=4487123&amp;amp;ct=7585061&amp;amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kintera%2Fthinktank%2Fblogposts+%28NetWits+Think+Tank%29&amp;amp;utm_content=Google+Reader"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;Social Media Strategy: National Association of Dental Plans&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;a href="http://twistimage.com/blog"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;twistimage.com/blog&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.nten.org/"&gt;http://www.nten.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.webness.biz/"&gt;http://www.webness.biz/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.webworkerdaily.com/"&gt;http://www.webworkerdaily.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.associationjam.org/"&gt;http://www.associationjam.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: black; font-size: x-large;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;books&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Six Pixels of Separation&lt;/strong&gt; by Mitch Joel.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The New Influencers&lt;/strong&gt; by Paul Gillin.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Twitterville&lt;/strong&gt; by Shel Israel.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Twitter Power&lt;/strong&gt; by Joel Comm.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;The Complete Guide to Twitter&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;Twitter Best Practices for Nonprofits&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2586176076771829799-830413813246806828?l=edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/830413813246806828/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2009/11/ecvo-top-21-social-media-resource-list.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/830413813246806828'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/830413813246806828'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2009/11/ecvo-top-21-social-media-resource-list.html' title='ECVO Top 21+ Social Media Resource List!'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799.post-3661911158917579790</id><published>2009-11-20T10:17:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-12-14T08:39:17.317-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Happy National Child Day!</title><content type='html'>&lt;span style="color: black;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;posted by ECVO Associate Director, &lt;br /&gt;Shawna Gnutel&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;~John F. Kennedy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;November 20 marks the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. (UNCRC) which outlines the basic human rights to which children and youth everywhere are entitled. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;Adopted on Nov. 20, 1989, the UNCRC has two optional protocols: the optional protocol on the involvement of Children in Armed Conflict and the optional protocol on the &lt;a href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc-sale.htm"&gt;Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and child Pornography.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;ECVO wishes to mark this important day and extends&amp;nbsp;a special thank you and acknowledgement&amp;nbsp;to all the extraordinary nonprofits and charities who protect and promote the well-being of our children. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/news/2009/18479.aspx"&gt;Read City of Edmonton Celebration of Children and Youth!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2586176076771829799-3661911158917579790?l=edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/3661911158917579790/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2009/11/happy-national-child-day.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/3661911158917579790'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/3661911158917579790'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2009/11/happy-national-child-day.html' title='Happy National Child Day!'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799.post-4879240238607755091</id><published>2009-11-12T10:10:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2009-12-14T08:39:17.328-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='born digital online communities facebook twitter edmonton nonprofits'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Nov 15'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='charities'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Natioanl Philanthropy Day'/><title type='text'>Happy National Philanthropy Day!</title><content type='html'>&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Posted by Shawna Gnutel, Associate Director, ECVO&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="color: #38761d;"&gt;"Life's most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?" &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;~Martin Luther King Jr.&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.afpnet.org/content.cfm?ItemNumber=4032"&gt;National Philanthropy Day&lt;/a&gt; was first recognized in 1986 and this year, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, has officially declared November 15, 2009 as National Philanthropy Day in Canada. This special day is marked to celebrate the extraordinary work of charities and to recognize the involvement of donors and volunteers, and their tremendous contribution to the quality of life in our communities. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As I was googling away, I came across Albertan author &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Robert Urbanowski's book, Kickback. Last year, he donated copies of his book as gifts for a National Philanthropy Day luncheon. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;His story goes like this...&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After five years of researching the dynamics of successful business, Robert discovered the "Law of Contribution". In his book, he discusses the key ingredients to acheiving a fulfilling, rich, happy life. There's even a quote from Brad Pitt, (the guy who everyone thinks has it all), which will pleasantly surprise you!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;When I logged onto his website, I discovered the book and audio available as a &lt;a href="http://www.lawofcontribution.com/life/goal/"&gt;FREE Download.&lt;/a&gt; I emailed Robert to see if there was a "catch." Here's his reply:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Courier New&amp;quot;, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hello Shawna:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Courier New&amp;quot;, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;There are a number of reasons why I chose to make the book available for free. Primarily, it is because this book represents a lot of work and a message that has become a passion of mine. It took me five years to write this book, and another year to get it published and into stores. The motive has never been to make money with this, but to get the message out into the world. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Courier New&amp;quot;, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;What I found was, when people read this book, they would contact me with very positive feedback about what the book meant to them, often asking for additional copies that they could share with friends and family. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color: black; font-family: &amp;quot;Courier New&amp;quot;, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;While the book is available in stores, and on Chapters.ca and Amazon, I felt that the very best way to promote the idea and the message would be to make it available in a downloadable format, for free. It's a small action that illustrates the principle of contribution. I believe that the message is better in the hands of people, than sitting on store shelves :) &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Who can argue with that? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;In his book he writes that "many of the problems we experience stem from an incorrect focus."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;"We focus inward when we should focus outward. Rather than "focusing inward and asking "what's in it for me" we should be focusing outward and asking "How can I give?" and "what can I contribute?"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Georgia, &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;, serif; font-size: large;"&gt;And on that philanthopic note, Happy National Philanthropy Day everyone! ECVO offers a warm, heartfelt thank you to &lt;a href="http://www.ecvo.ca/index.php/join/members-directory"&gt;ECVO members&lt;/a&gt; and all nonprofits and charities for improving the quality of life of Canadians. &lt;br /&gt;Feel free to download Robert's awesome book &lt;a href="http://www.lawofcontribution.com/life/goal/"&gt;Kickback &lt;/a&gt;in PDF or audio format. It's a thoughtful, excellent read! Enjoy.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2586176076771829799-4879240238607755091?l=edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/4879240238607755091/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2009/11/happy-national-philanthropy-day.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/4879240238607755091'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/4879240238607755091'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2009/11/happy-national-philanthropy-day.html' title='Happy National Philanthropy Day!'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799.post-1851471915778961731</id><published>2009-10-13T12:54:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2009-12-14T08:39:17.340-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='born digital online communities facebook twitter edmonton nonprofits'/><title type='text'>Digital Natives &amp; Digital Immigrants: Bridging the Gap for Stronger Communities</title><content type='html'>&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Posted by Shawna Gnutel, Associate Director, ECVO&lt;br /&gt;|&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;In the mid '80s, I was an undergraduate student at the U of A and spent long hours thumbing through worn index cards at the Rutherford library. (Where was Google when I needed it??) After days of researching, my essay was eventually composed on my mother's &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Corona"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Smith Corona &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;circa 1977. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5E-AXq4P298/StOba4rqd_I/AAAAAAAAAEs/2dXLadqQyEk/s1600-h/typewriter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;img $r="true" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5E-AXq4P298/StOba4rqd_I/AAAAAAAAAEs/2dXLadqQyEk/s320/typewriter.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Got the picture? I'm a dinosaur (listening to Neil Diamond on eight track). &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;AND&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;I am a digital immigrant.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;According to John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, authors of &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://borndigitalbook.com/"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Born Digital&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;, a digital immigrant is "a person who has adopted the Internet and related technologies, but who was born prior to the advent of the digital age." My younger friends,&amp;nbsp;(aka Digital Natives), are those people born after 1980, and they do not get their information or learn the same way I did, that’s for sure!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Forget about TV and newspapers.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Their deal for getting information goes something like this: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 1.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;They see lots of info/headlines and graze in an RSS feed or google alert. They just get the facts. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 2.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Then maybe they'll click on the hyperlink or what the author calls "going in for a deep dive." &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Step 3.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;This is the feedback loop where one can comment or create a blog..."talking back" but in a "good way".&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Digital Natives have moved from being passive consumers of information to engaged creators of new art forms, avatars, social networks, pod casts, youtube videos, wikis and blogs. They have their finger on the pulse of digital creativity and are reshaping “cultural understanding” and the making of “meaning.”&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;There’s no question. What has happened with the digital landscape over the last few decades is transformative and extraordinary. And it changes substantially every few months! Palfrey and Gasser freely admit that "by the time [Born Digital] is printed, it will already be starting to go out of date." &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So what to do?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;The authors update their information online in the form of a &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://digitalnative.org/"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;wiki&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;, thus allowing "anyone who wants to participate in updating [their] work to do so."&amp;nbsp; We all know that participation is the key ingredient to strong communities and as a digital immigrant working in the nonprofit sector, I observe local digital natives demanding interaction and a sense of community online (and offline) all the time. &lt;br /&gt;You already know where they are, don’t you?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5E-AXq4P298/StObPVxMtUI/AAAAAAAAAEk/Wt4IRqroGsM/s1600-h/twitterfacebook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;img $r="true" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5E-AXq4P298/StObPVxMtUI/AAAAAAAAAEk/Wt4IRqroGsM/s320/twitterfacebook.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Interested to learn more about social media networks and how you can use them for your organization? Stay tuned for our amazing&amp;nbsp;new Breakfast Series. "Network, Learn, Grow" - a forum for nonprofit leaders to discuss relevant topics and the latest buzz. Mark Tuesday&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Nov. 24 on your calendar for this lively, exciting panel&amp;nbsp;discussion:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;"Digital Immigrants: How to use Social Media Successfully in Your Organization"&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://digitalimmigrants.eventbrite.com/"&gt;Register here for this terrific event!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;See you (offline) soon! &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;* I encourage everyone to read &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://borndigitalbook.com/"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;Born Digital&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &amp;quot;Trebuchet MS&amp;quot;, sans-serif; font-size: large;"&gt;. It's an excellent primer for those who wish to understand our brave new [digital] world.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2586176076771829799-1851471915778961731?l=edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/1851471915778961731/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2009/10/digital-natives-digital-immigrants.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/1851471915778961731'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/1851471915778961731'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2009/10/digital-natives-digital-immigrants.html' title='Digital Natives &amp;amp; Digital Immigrants: Bridging the Gap for Stronger Communities'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5E-AXq4P298/StOba4rqd_I/AAAAAAAAAEs/2dXLadqQyEk/s72-c/typewriter.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2586176076771829799.post-2265753424968863054</id><published>2009-09-15T15:14:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2009-12-14T08:39:17.360-08:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='sustainability'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='success'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='mission'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='nonprofits'/><title type='text'>Impactfulness? A word?</title><content type='html'>&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #660000;"&gt;Post written by guest blogger Mandie Abrams, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color: #660000;"&gt;ECVO Workforce Strategy Manager.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Being just slightly older than a GenY’er, and after checking two online dictionaries, I still needed to consult a hard cover Merriam Webster Dictionary. I was looking for evidence that the term impactfulness was indeed a word. What did it mean, and could I use it properly in a sentence?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I came across impactfulness in an article about planning in the non profit sector. Word or not-word, it takes on importance when considered against sustainability of the non profit sector. The need to be able to show that non profit organizations, programs and services are having an impact is both a challenge and a necessity for success and survival in our current climate. Funding challenges, human resource shortages, and infrastructure deficiencies, pared with increasing demands for service delivery creates a challenge to the effective delivery of programs. How do nonprofit organizations adapt and evolve to&lt;br /&gt;overcome these challenges and build stronger organizations and a stronger non profit sector?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In their book &lt;a href="http://www.forcesforgood.net/"&gt;Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits&lt;/a&gt;, Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod conducted research on dozens of high-impact nonprofits and identified six practices that when applied lead to impactfulness. (thanks to socialedge.org for this great list!)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Work with government and advocate for policy change—rather than shying away from lobbying or avoiding politics altogether.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Harness market forces and see business as a powerful partner, rather than just dismissing capitalism as the root of all evil.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Convert individual supporters into evangelists for their causes, and treat their volunteers and donors as far more than just sources of free labor or an occasional check.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Build and nurture nonprofit networks, approaching other groups as allies rather than as competitors for resources.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Adapt to the changing environment, and find ways to balance creativity and innovation with disciplined systems and structure that allows the organization to achieve maximum impact.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Share leadership, empowering others to be forces for good, both within their organization and throughout their fields.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Crutchfield and McLeod discovered that successful organizations must be able to sustain impact via&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;attraction and retention of great people &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;development of sustainable sources of funding &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;investing in their infrastructure and capacity&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;Organizational culture and or capacity might resist the allocation of scarce resources - time, funds or information, to focus on activities not directly tied to mission fulfillment. But Crutchfield and McLeod’s research shows that doings so improves the sustainability &amp;amp; success of organizations that do.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Incidentally, according to Merriam and Webster impactfulness is not a word. &lt;a href="http://www.buzzwhack.com/"&gt;BuzzWack&lt;/a&gt; defines impactfulness as, “... words created by folks who obviously felt that the word "impact" needed a little extra "oomph." Regardless, the concept is important to the evolution and sustainability of the nonprofit sector.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By the way, the original article I found also included the terms planful and solutioning. Hmmm, future blogs? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nah, wouldn’t want to be e-dundant.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2586176076771829799-2265753424968863054?l=edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/feeds/2265753424968863054/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2009/09/impactfulness-word.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/2265753424968863054'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/2586176076771829799/posts/default/2265753424968863054'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://edmontonchamberofvoluntary.blogspot.com/2009/09/impactfulness-word.html' title='Impactfulness? A word?'/><author><name>ECVO</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/15829446492412134040</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry></feed>
