| July 2009 |
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Featured in this issue: Coming September 8: GiftWorks 2010 Also In This Issue: Winner: Your GiftWorks Story Contest Consultant's Corner: What Makes Training Work? GiftWorks/Techsoup Help Grassroots Organizations Get Started Meet Sue Wallace, Sales Assistant GiftWorks 2010: Coming in September!
 Watch for the latest editions of GiftWorks 2010 Standard and Premium coming September 8! The 2010 editions contain many new features requested by customers and are designed to help organizations save even more time and raise even more money than before. GiftWorks 2010 will allow organizations to:
If you're not yet a GiftWorks user, there is no better time than now to bring your organization to the next level with GiftWorks 2010. Many, many of our customers have credited GiftWorks with helping them through the economic recession. Cultivating and caring for your donors has never been more important, and GiftWorks provides the tools to help you do this efficiently and effectively.
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Share Your GiftWorks Story
And the Winner is: Rowan Tree Foundation (Corinne O'Flynn, Executive Director, Parker, CO)  Last month we told you about our Share You GiftWorks Story Contest where clients could tell us, in 500 words or less, how GiftWorks has helped their nonprofit organization achieve its mission. Well, the votes are in from the GiftWorks team, and Corinne's Foundation receives the Grand Prize of $1000 in GiftWorks products! In addition, her friend's organization, Saddle Up Foundation, will also receive $1,000 in GiftWorks products! Here's an exerpt of what Corinne had to say: "For an all-volunteer nonprofit organization, managing our donor lists, receipt numbers, acknowledgements, contact information, and especially our events, using only spreadsheets has been cumbersome. Most CRM products were simply beyond our reach financially.Please visit Rowan Tree Foundation's website at www.rowantreefoundation.org. Honorable Mentions, and the prize of $250 in GiftWorks products for their organizations and $250 in GiftWorks products for their friend's organizations -- go to these entries (exerpts below) which were also exceptional: Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes (Shawn Galbreath, Executive Director, Ithaca, NY) When the Ithaca Breast Cancer Alliance expanded its mission to serve anyone with any cancer as the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes, a new executive director bought GiftWorks, and "the database has changed everything." "Monthly e-newsletters are a snap!Shawn's friend, Better Housing for Tompkins County, will receive the $250 gift as well. Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas (Vicki Pillow, Director of Development, Jonesboro AR) "The time spent trying to remember how a donor was entered into the system … is now spent distributing more than 1.7 million pounds of food...Vicki's friend, River Valley Regional Food Bank, will receive the $250 gift as well. The Welcome Ministry (Rev. Megan Rohrer, Director, San Francisco, CA) "GiftWorks enables our staff of two to quickly produce professional development materials and customized reports for our board of directors. We've more than doubled our donor giving -- and helped more than 155 chronically homeless move indoors."Rev. Rohrer's friend, Sojourn Chaplaincy at San Francisco, will receive the $250 gift as well. Thanks to all who sent in stories! It's a thrill hearing how GiftWorks has changed your organizations! Consultant's Corner
What Makes Training Work? Consultant Steven Sutherland knows a little bit about training. "Training to me is like a game of slow pitch! As trainers, our job is to "lob" the ball to the batter in a way so that they are sure to hit it. It's the trainer's job to adjust to the batters' different levels of ability--and not the batter's job to adjust to the same pitch being thrown over and over." Steven's company, The Learning Centre Online, located a few miles outside Toronto, Ontario, works with many nonprofits, especially in helping them find and get up and running with software applications to improve their organizations and make their lives easier. Often, he notes, "the good people who run nonprofits aren't always the ones with the most technical savvy; our work is to bring the tech-savvy to them, so that they can do their most important work more easily." This principle applies in all the training they offer--from adult computer classes, to computer day camps for children, to introducing the many administrators, in various locations, of the Royal Dragoons (see June Newsletter) to their software. When we provided training to members of the Dragoons, each of whom had a different level of experience with computers and software, we provided them with written instructions, which they kept and reviewed on their own time. Therefore they had the opportunity to walk through the procedures, but also had back-up notes they can referred to later. In the Computer Day Camps Steven's company does in collaboration with the YMCA of Canada, they follow the same principle: "We adjust the training to the level of the trainee: kids use a small mouse to fit small hands; their training provides instant gratification. (They can see the results of their efforts on the screen as soon as they complete a task.) We have groups of 7-9 year olds creating websites--using html code--within an hour of sitting down at their computers." The Learning Centre Online will launch an online training and coaching component in September of this year. "We will be offering LIVE instructor-led classes over the internet. We will be training on many software applications, and one of these will be Giftworks. Steven concludes: "Children, seniors, adults, the challenged--they all have one thing in common when they start training: Fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of embarrassing themselves. Just like the fear of a batter facing an unknown pitcher. But the trainer can be the one to make the training work by "lobbing" that ball slowly, by taking into account the individual batter, and by being prepared to throw that ball over and over until the batter hits it. With that kind of training, the batter will soon hit a home run." Steven Sutherland runs several companies which provide Internet services to businesses and nonprofits. They do website and online store design, online events, training and support including GiftWorks and database, spreadsheet, and word processing development. Reach Steven at stevenrsutherland@rogers.com. GiftWorks/Techsoup Help Grassroots Organizations Get Started
A: They visit Techsoup! This July, GiftWorks, in partnership with Techsoup, offered a GiftWorks Standard license and a GiftWorks Volunteers license to nonprofits with annual budgets of $250,000 or less at a special price. Hundreds of nonprofits took advantage of this opportunity. Techsoup is an excellent resource for nonprofit organizations across the globe, providing one-stop access to information, products, resources and support. They are committed to bringing technology to nonprofits, believing (as do we!) that technology can make organizations more efficient and better able to serve their communities. In partnership with Techsoup, the GiftWorks team always offers discounted GiftWorks to very, very small nonprofits (annual budgets under $50,000). Our partnership with Techsoup is part of our mission to empower all nonprofits with great tools to do their great work. We hope an organization you know can benefit! | |||
