Nonprofit News by Soft Trac

We’ve learned some things about FR50 Version 8 and the installation process that we thought you should be aware of.
First and foremost: When you install the software, Fundraising 50 will create a folder in which the databases and its log file (paradigm.db and paradigm.log) are stored. The default location is: C:\Sage Fundraising 50 Databases – For most people, these files used to live in the same folder as the program, but they no longer can (I won’t bore you with the details, but know that it has to do with Vista compatibility).

Potential Consequences of this Change
You will want to make a note of this change for your IT support team. It can affect the way that they perform any automated backups, i.e. they will need to change them or the backups WON’T be automated!!!

For The Complete Guide to FR 50 V8 Installation
Please visit Sage’s Website at: http://www.sagesoftwareonline.com/eServices/Main/frmLogin.aspx. From there, go to Support > Knowledgebase > Sage Fundraising 50. This will bring you to a screen where you can download article 264429, aka the Installation Guide.

As I was doing some research today, I stumbled across a terrific resource for anyone in nonprofit fundraising who wants to learn more about the field. Check out this excellent bibliography provided by Indiana University. You can check it out at: http://www.philanthropy.iupi.edu/TheFundRaisingSchool/PrecourseReadings/TFRSbiblio.pdf

What is social networking?

According to Wikipedia, “a social network service focuses on the building and verifying of online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others, and which necessitates the use of software.

Most social network services are primarily web based and provide a collection of various ways for users to interact, such as chat, messaging, email, video, voice chat, file sharing, blogging, discussion groups, and so on.

The main types of social networking services are those which contain directories of some categories (such as former classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages), and recommender systems linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with MySpace, Bebo and Facebook being the most widely used in the anglosphere and Friendster being the most widely used in Asia.[1][2][3]

There have been some attempts to standardize them (see the FOAF standard) but this has led to some privacy concerns.”

What does social networking have to do with fundraising?

Apparently, in some cases, and under some circumstances, quite a bit. Tech Soup is offering a free teleconference on social networking for fundraising tomorrow at 1pm. If you’ve got the time, it may be worth checking out. You can register here.

Also look for an article by Idealware’s Brett Bonfield on the subject of social networking at Tech Soup here. :

Cheers!
Susan

Although we’re already more than a week into the new year, I am still thinking about a resolution. I think writing this blog on a more regular basis would be a good one. Perhaps you can all keep an eye on me to make sure I follow through (unfortunately, you don’t know where I live, so you can’t help me with the OTHER resolution which involves cookies and me not having any).
Anyway…Check out the beginnings of my New Year’s effort in today’s other post, which focuses on resources for social media.
Happy New Year,
Susan