Project Connect ... Technology Solutions for Ohio Nonprofits

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*Please route to the appropriate persons ...* TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS FOR OHIO NONPROFITS
APRIL 2007	The Electronic Newsletter of Project Connect	330-315-1335 800-780-8299 connect@infolineinc.org www.infolineinc.org/connect.htm
In this issue:	NEWS FOR NONPROFITS TRAINING NEWS TECHNICAL SUPPORT NEWS
TechSoup Savings Make the Media Work For You Using Technology to Make More Friends and Raise More Money Corporate Sponsorship Register for Upcoming Classes Classes in our Training Lab Online classes How online training works PC Tip Answers for sale!! Are you getting the best deals for your technology dollar? How can Project Connect help you?	Have you visited TechSoup lately? You know that you can get Microsoft Office Professional for $20 from www.techsoup.org. But do you know that you can get a Cisco wireless router for $68? That you can save over $600 by buying Adobe Creative Suite for $140? How about a 5-user license of a keyboard tutor for $15. Through TechSoup, Network for Good offers a discounted Internet Fundraising Services Bundle for $725, which includes a one-year subscription to DonateNow. DonateNow allows an organization with its own Web site to add a DonateNow button so donors can make credit card contributions through the Network for Good secure Web server. The service accepts American Express, MasterCard, and Visa. At the end of each month, the organization receives a single check or electronic funds transfer for the aggregate amount of its monthly donations. It can see a detailed breakdown of donation and grant history online at any time. EmailNow is an email messaging tool for organizations to send e-newsletters, raise money online, and communicate with supporters. EmailNow gives organizations more options for managing email lists than do typical email clients and free services. It also gives email recipients more control over subscribing and unsubscribing to lists. Another great TechSoup find is eTapestry. eTapestry is fundraising software you run over the Internet. It tracks donors, prospects or alumni while managing gifts, pledges and payments. It's free to non-profits with less than 500 donor records, and then monthly subscription prices increase as the size of your program increases ($36 per month for 500-1,000 records, $112 per month for 1,000-5,000 records). TechSoup is definitely worth a look!! RETURN TO THE TOP Making the Media Work For You!! April 10, 8-9:30 AM Sheraton Suites, 1989 Front Street, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio 44221 • Click here for directions A full breakfast buffet will be served Networking and breakfast will be from 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. The presentation will be from 8:30 - 9:15 a.m. $13 members • $18 non-members • MasterCard and Visa now accepted Reservations Required • Deadline: April 9, noon Every nonprofit wants to know how to get positive press in the media. Now is your chance to find out! Join AFP North Central Ohio Chapter on April 10, 2007 at the Sheraton Suites, Cuyahoga Falls, as panelists from leading media outlets talk about how nonprofits can work with the media—how best to promote PR in the local media, what to do and not do, and how to get press releases noticed. Panelists include: Vince Duffy, Program Director, WKSU Denise Henry, Editor, Akron Life & Leisure Tamara Proctor, Editor, The Suburbanite Rita Kelly Madick, Community Relations and Marketing Director, Akron Beacon Journal Visit www.afpncoh.org to register for the event. RETURN TO THE TOP Using Technology to Make More Friends and Raise More Money! Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater Cleveland Chapter April 19, 11:30 am - 1:30 pm Cleveland Play House Club (8501 Carnegie Avenue, Cleveland) Technology will never replace the success and power of our personal relationships in major gift fundraising. That said, the right technology CAN replace the inefficient, cumbersome and out-of-date methods we use to keep track of our loyal and potential donors. New internet-based communication and customer tracking software can be used to capture more donors and the cost and difficulty of adding new elements is becoming more user friendly. As we are fundraisers - not technies - how do we know what we need, what we can afford and how to begin improving our use of technology so that we can raise more money? To help us with some of these concerns, our speakers will be: Jacquie Skrzypiec, Director of Project Connect, an Akron-based non-profit that helps organizations assess their technology needs and find affordable solutions; Joe Borowski, Assistant Director of Alumni at Baldwin-Wallace College, will speak about how the college's alumni tracking system is organized and his recent project exploring the use of "My Space" to enhance alumni communication; and Gil Brucken, IT Analyst, Retail Systems at VSM Sewing, Inc., will discuss point-of-purchase technology which can capture customer (potential donor) information and how to capitalize on the information once you have it! $25 for members; $40 for non-members including lunch register by email (admin@afpcleveland.org) or phone (216-696-1613); please make a menu selection of corned beef panini or grilled vegetable stack with balsamic reduction. Reservations Required • Deadline: April 13th Visit www.afpcleveland.org for more information. RETURN TO THE TOP Corporate Sponsorship Ohio Association of Nonprofit Organizations & The Sponsorship Network April 24, 9:00 am - 3:00 pm Howard, Wershbale & Co., 23240 Chagrin Blvd. Suite 700, Cleveland Learn how to entice and secure corporate partners for your programs and services by giving sponsors the marketing benefits they desire! This workshop is for nonprofit executives and development directors. Participants will learn: To clarify how corporate sponsorship supports your mission and ways to increase your sponsorship sales immediately How to generate a proposal that gets noticed by corporate marketing managers and techniques for reaching those decision makers. When and where to consider providing marketing benefits to sponsors and how to maximize the financial return on your sponsorship programs. Critical sponsorship trends and the latest strategies to capitalize on the bright future of sponsorship. How to draft a plan of action for sponsorship success. *As a bonus, one seminar registrant will receive a free sponsorship proposal makeover, courtesy of The Sponsorship Network. The winner will be drawn in a raffle. $99 for OANO members; $149 for non-members including lunch Bring an additional guest from the same organization and save $25! Reservations Required • Deadline: April 20th Visit www.oano.org for more information. TRAINING NEWS Register for Upcoming Classes ... Project Connect now offers classes "on demand": just call 330-315-1335 or e-mail training@infolineinc.org 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! Online classes click here for more details click here to register for online training classes Click on the class name for a description of the class ... The Website Developers Series Adobe PhotoShop: Graphics for the Web 5/8/07 - 9:00 AM - Noon Learn how to use PhotoShop's powerful tools to correct color balances in your scanned photos, crop and resize your images, and prepare them for the web. This includes special techniques for reducing the size of your images to reduce download time. Prerequisite: Skills covered in Introduction to Computers 1 & 2. Microsoft FrontPage 1: Themes & Shared Borders 5/15/07 - 9:00 AM - Noon We will cover the basics of FrontPage, the most popular website authoring software in the world! The focus will be on understanding how FrontPage works, designing themes, and using shared borders. After this course, you will be able to develop a simple but useful format for your organization's website. Prerequisite: Skills covered in Introduction to Computers 1 & 2. Microsoft FrontPage 2: Formatting Your Web Pages 5/22/07 - 9:00 AM - Noon This is the nitty-gritty of developing a website: the pages themselves. We will cover importing and formatting text, using graphics, hyperlinks, bookmarks, and tables. With the skills in this course, you will be able to create different types of pages using the format developed in Microsoft FrontPage 1. Prerequisite: Skills covered in Microsoft FrontPage 1. Microsoft FrontPage 3: Cool Tools 5/29/07 - 9:00 AM - Noon Now we explore the cool tools of FrontPage: forms, marquees, hover buttons, searches, etc. We will also discuss ways to make each attendee's website better and easier to use. Prerequisite: Skills covered in Microsoft FrontPage 1 & 2. The Database Developers Series Microsoft Access 1: Database Planning & Set-Up 5/10/07 - 9:00 AM - Noon This 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. Attendees will plan the database they need for their own organization. Prerequisite: Skills covered in Microsoft Excel 2. Microsoft Access 2: Database Tables & Relationships 5/17/07 - 9:00 AM - Noon In the second session, we will actually set up the database planned in the previous session. Tables will be closely examined, especially field properties. We will also do quick searches, filters, and sorts. Relationships between tables will be a major focus. Prerequisite: Skills covered in Microsoft Access 1 and completion of homework. Microsoft Access 3: Database Queries & Basic Forms 5/24/07 - 9:00 AM - Noon Queries are used to analyze data, combine data from different tables, and retrieve data from one or more tables using criteria you specify. Forms can be created to "pretty up" your data, make data entry easier, and combine data from different tables and queries. We will also integrate the data into Microsoft Word and Excel for file exchange and publication. Prerequisite: Skills covered in Microsoft Access 2 and completion of homework. Microsoft Access 4: Database Forms & Reports 5/31/07 - 9:00 AM - Noon More extensive work on the forms will be covered. We will also cover creating and editing reports, which present your data in meaningful ways. Sub-forms and sub-reports will be discussed. Skills covered in Microsoft Access 3 and completion of homework. Microsoft Access 5: Troubleshooting the Database 6/5/07 - 9:00 AM - Noon This class will focus on troubleshooting the database and other useful tools. Also covers the important compact-and-repair tool. Prerequisite: Skills covered in Microsoft Access 4 and completion of homework. RETURN TO THE TOP How online training works ... Learn from your office -- no travel involved!! In response to myriad requests for training throughout Ohio, Project Connect is implementing ONLINE TRAINING!! Here's how it works: Visit http://projectconnect.webex.com and click on the [Registration] button for whatever class you want to register for. Enter your information into the form and click on the [Register] button again. Click [ok] and exit. You will get a confirming email with all the information: date, time, session number, phone number, etc. Copy this to your calendar for that date starting at 8:45 AM. On the day before the class, I will send you the handouts for the class. Please print them and have them with you on the day of training. You must have the software you are training in loaded on the computer that you use to connect to the training session. On the day of training at 8:45, sit comfortably at your own desk with the handouts and any necessary refreshments. Go to the email link that you pasted in your calendar. Fill in the information (the password is also in that information you pasted) and then join the session. Once you join, you will be given a phone number to call. Call that number and enter the codes from the screen. You will see my screen on your computer and be able hear me from your phone! We'll keep the class to three hours with a break in the middle. Get ready to have fun!! Other details: Online training is limited to 12 students per class. Classes fill quickly, so be sure to register early. Cost is $60 per person. We will invoice you or you can call 330-315-1335 and pay by credit card. The registration deadline is 2 business days before the class. Payment must be made by the date of the class; checks, cash, and Mastercard/Visa are accepted. Cancellations must be received by 4:00 pm two days before the class in order to be eligible for a refund. Those who register for a class but do not attend will be charged for that class. If you attended a class previously in the past year, you can repeat the class at no charge. RETURN TO THE TOP TECHNICAL SUPPORT NEWS Ryan's PC Tip: Recovering Word Documents after a CRASH When Auto Recover is enabled in Word, the recovered documents are supposed to load automatically the next time you that you start word after a crash. Sometimes this doesn't happen, however. Many people assume that it's because no Auto Recovered version exists, but that's not always the case. I have often been able to find "lost" documents by using Search (or Find). To do so, search for files with ~ as the first character or .tmp as the extension that were modified within the last day. Sort them by size, and start opening them in Microsoft Word, starting with the largest ones. If you find one that contains any part of the lost document, save it as a regular Word document with Save As. If you have any questions, or would like us to show you how, go to www.pclivehelp.org and complete the form. RETURN TO THE TOP Answers for sale!! You and your staff have more important things to do than fight with your technology! Instead of spending hours of frustration trying to do it yourself, let us help you! 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 $15 per increment of 10 minutes. RETURN TO THE TOP Are you getting the best deals for your technology dollar? 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! www.techsoup.org/stock/ www.giftsinkind.org www.techfoundation.org RETURN TO THE TOP How can Project Connect help you?** 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. Enjoy!

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