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January 2006
In this issue:
Ritchie and Sisler McFawn Foundations Support Project Connect
Strengthening Families Funding
Financial Accountability Workshop
Ohio Nonprofit Excellence Awards
Happy 2006!! Let this be the year of less frustration with technology!! Project Connect offers Live Help for staff of all Ohio nonprofits! If you are having problems with a Microsoft Office or Adobe product, simply go to www.pclivehelp.org and complete the form. Follow the directions, and then we'll be able to see your computer from our office. We can then walk you through the problem.
Cost
is free for members (see
http://www.infolineinc.org/connect.htm#members
for more information) or $15 per
increment of 10
minutes for non-members.
Instead of spending hours of frustration trying to do it yourself, let us help you!
Ritchie and Sisler McFawn Foundations Support Project Connect
Info Line is pleased to announce that The Charles E. and Mabel M. Ritchie Memorial Foundation and Sisler McFawn Foundation have granted funding to Project Connect. These monies will go towards phase one of the implementation of our business plan, which focuses on increasing our capacity to serve more organizations. We truly appreciate their support!!
New Funding Opportunities
...
Ohio Strengthening Families Initiative
January 13, Seven Ohio Cities, 10:00 AM or
2:00 PM
In
July 2005, GOFBCI received significant new
funding to invest in a statewide initiative
called the Ohio Strengthening Families
Initiative (OSFI). The source of this
investment is Ohio’s Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families (TANF) block grant and
all investments must meet related federal
requirements.
Ohio Strengthening Families Initiative will provide over 12 million dollars to support organizations in three critical areas:
-
Vulnerable Children
-
Ex-offenders and their Families
-
Healthy Marriages
Brief workshops will be held throughout Ohio (in Akron and Cleveland) on January 13 to discuss the opportunities and requirements of the funds. For more information, visit http://www.ohiofamilies.org/biddersconference.asp or send an email to info@nationalgrantcenter.org.
OANO Workshop ...
What You Need to Know: New Financial
Accountability Laws
January 30, The Cleveland Foundation, 1:00 -
3:00 p.m.
Effective
January 1, new rules and regulations go
into effect that may significantly
impact Ohio's nonprofit organizations.
Do you receive public funding? Contract
with the government to provide programs
and services to the community? Your
organization may need to modify its
accounting and reporting mechanisms to
adhere to this new Ohio law.
Join OANO's legal experts as we look at who will be impacted by this new law, who is exempt, and what changes your organization will need to make to be in compliance.
-
Pre-registration: $20 for OANO Members, $40 for Nonmembers
-
On-site Registration: $25 for OANO Members, $50 for Nonmembers
Click here for more info or email Jennifer Eschbach at jennifereschbach@oano.org.
More Funding Opportunities
...
Governor's Office of Faith-Based and
Community Initiatives
The
Office of Faith Based and Community
Initiatives has been charged with three main
tasks:
-
Make it easier for faith-based and community organizations to compete for public funding
-
Encourage partnerships among and between public agencies, faith-based organizations, and community-based organizations who share a common mission
-
Measure the impact of these partnerships to reduce the suffering of citizens in need
Their website has a listing of funding opportunities for organizations which address addiction, at-risk youth, children & family, crime victims, education, ex-offenders, health, HIV/AIDS, homelessness & housing, human services, people with disabilities, research, and seniors. (http://www.fbciohio.gov/funding.asp).
The office also offers lots of training and partnership opportunities. For more information, visit their website at www.fbciohio.gov or send an email to Candy McKenzie at mckenc01@fbci.state.oh.us.
OANO Announces Statewide Awards Ceremony to Recognize Ohio's Nonprofits!
Each
year nonprofit organizations serve thousands
in their communities and spend endless hours
working on projects to help others and
further their mission, that is why OANO is
hosting the Ohio Nonprofit Excellence Award.
The award recognizes creativity, execution,
achievement, and overall excellence of a
specific project or program completed by an
Ohio nonprofit in 2005.
The award is open to any 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located in Ohio. For more details, deadline information, and an application, please visit www.oano.org/Docs/Part%20One%20Application.pdf or contact Jennifer Eschbach at jennifereschbach@oano.org.
TechSoup Advice ...
How Not to Spam
Here are some tips for keeping your organization's newsletters from getting marked as spam:
-
The
CAN-SPAM Act requires senders to include
an "opt-out" option that allows
receivers to unsubscribe from your list.
(See the bottom of this email for a
sample out-opt.) -
If users ask to be removed from a list, be vigilant about weeding their e-mail addresses out of your subscriber database. Nothing annoys people more than when they try to unsubscribe and nothing happens. That can lead to complaints about spam.
-
Always obtain consent before you start sending newsletters to people on your subscriber list. While the CAN-SPAM Act requires senders to include an "opt-out" option that allows receivers to unsubscribe from your list, "opt-in" is the most effective way to build a good relationship with your supporters.
-
When you collect subscribers' e-mail addresses via your Web site, don't pre-check the opt-in box for the subscriber. You want to be sure you get explicit, and not accidental, permission to send newsletters to your audience.
Good list-building practices are critical if you want your newsletters to successfully reach your audience. But no matter how clean your subscriber list, there's still the chance that your messages won't reach your audience. Both your organization's Internet service provider (or ISP) and your subscribers' ISPs may block your messages based on rules of their own, according to Nick Allen, CEO of Donordigital, a company that helps nonprofits use the Internet for fundraising and marketing. Major ISPs are also constantly tweaking the algorithms they use to block spam and they have no obligation to inform people of such changes, cautions Allen.
"If the same e-mail is going to lots and lots of people, it can be flagged as spam," said Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF has put together a white paper on best practices for noncommercial e-mail list owners to avoid being labeled a spammer. The digital rights group also helps nonprofits perceived to be sending spam clear their names.
For your network guy/email provider: Make Sure Your Messages Aren't Flagged as Spam
Noncommercial Email Lists: Collateral Damage in the Fight Against Spam
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Amy's
PC TIP:
Tired of repetitive cutting and pasting to
get your data neatly into columns in Excel?
With Text to Columns, you can do a single
paste, and then let your computer do the
cleanup!
First, copy and past your data into Excel.
Then, select the column where the data
starts (e.g. column A).
Make sure you have enough blank columns for
all of your data. In the example
above, the end result will require 3
columns, so B and C will need to be empty.
If they are not, simply insert two columns
from the Insert menu.
From the Data menu, select Text to
Columns. The Text to Columns
wizard will appear.
In the first step, tell the wizard how to
find where the columns should be divided -
if you have used commas, tabs, hyphens, or
other special characters to mark the
columns, use Delimited. If all
columns will be the same width, choose
Fixed Width. The example is
separated by commas, so in the first step, I
chose Delimited.
In the second step, choose which delimiter
you have used. In this case, once I
checked Comma, the lines in the preview
window at the bottom snapped into place
right where I will want them, with one
exception. The second item in my list
had commas in the title, so it has pushed
that one out an extra column. It is
important to make sure that your delimiter
is unique and does not appear anywhere in
your data except where the columns should
divide.
If you have the option to bring the data in
differently, i.e. delimited with tabs
instead of commas, the best route is to
start over with a different delimiter.
If you don't have that option, you can
manually adjust the few that have issues
after the conversion.
The third step allows you to format the cell
(text, number, date, etc.) before the
conversion. You can skip this step if
everything goes in as text, and of course
you can always format them after the
conversion, so it's up to you if you want to
do it in the wizard.
One you're done, click Finish and the
data will separate itself out into columns.
Save your worksheet and get yourself a cup
of coffee - you earned it!
Register for Upcoming
Classess
Project Connect now offers classes "on
demand": just call or e-mail to have your
name added to the list, and as soon as we
have enough folks registered, we'll schedule
the class. This way, we can run whatever
classes you need, when you need them!
Excel and QuickBooks, in time for year-end
reporting!
Microsoft Excel will be offered Wednesdays starting
January 4, from 9am to noon. (Please note: This
date has changed!) Excel 1 covers the basics -
getting to know the spreadsheet tools, navigating
around the workbook, and basic formulas. Excel 2
covers formulas, and Excel 3 covers advanced tools.
If you're interested in pivot tables and interactive
charts (and if you're not, you should be!!), Excel 4
is for you!! Complete descriptions of each course
are on our website,
http://www.infolineinc.org/connect/training.htm.
Excel 1: Spreadsheet Basics
Excel 2: Formulas
Excel 3: Advanced Tools
Excel 4: Data Analysis Tools
The Database Developers' Series (MS Access)
is starting again soon
Missed it
the last time around? The Microsoft
Access waiting list is filling up, and will be scheduled again in late February 2006.
The
first session will focus on identifying what needs to be included in a
nonprofit-related database and how to structure it so that the database will be
easy to use and easy to retrieve useful information. Over the next 3
sessions, we build our databases, using forms, queries and reports to aid
data entry and data extraction. Access 5 covers troubleshooting and database
maintenance. We recommend you sign up for the entire series, as each class
builds directly on the previous one. Complete descriptions of each course
are on our website,
http://www.infolineinc.org/connect/training.htm.
If you have always wanted to
learn more about the database you're currently using, or think that creating one
will improve how you handle information, please sign up! Send an email to
arock@infolineinc.org and let us know you're
interested.
Clean Up Data With Excel's Text to Columns Feature
1/11/06 - 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
1/4/06 - 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
1/25/06
FrontPage and Word Coming Soon!
Get on the list for MS Word and FrontPage
for early 2006! FrontPage is offered
in three sessions, or sign up for the whole
Web Developers' Series and get PhotoShop for
the Web to create your own graphics and
touch up those photos for Internet use.
Word is offered in five sessions, from
beginning documents to advanced desktop
publishing. Complete
descriptions of each course are on our
website,
http://www.infolineinc.org/connect/training.htm.
Don't forget - we also offer custom
sessions. Just get a minimum of 8 people
together, and we'll do a special session
just for you. You don't all need to be
from the same organization, so tell your
friends!
Reserve your seat now
- call 330-315-1335 or e-mail
connect@infolineinc.org.
Are you getting the best deals
for your technology dollar?
As always, we are interested in hearing from you to
learn how we can best meet your technology and
connectivity needs. Give us a call at 330-315-1335
or e-mail us at
connect@infolineinc.org.
Don't
buy anything technology-related until you've visited
these three websites first!! They offer significant
discounts for nonprofits with Microsoft, Dell, CDW,
Adobe, and more! 
Enjoy!
Be sure to include your fax number!
Want to see previous newsletters? Go to www.infolineinc.org/connect/updates.htm
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