Tag: TechSoup

Old School Teaches New Lessons

On By Carolyn M. AppletonIn Nonprofit, nptechLeave a comment

Winter Storm Mara prevented me from speaking in person during the Real Places 2023 Conference, but we were able to visit with attendees remotely online. Our talk was timely, “Old School Teaches New Lessons: How Technology is Preserving a WPA-era Icon.” And in fact, being able to speak and share information online today is a godsend! Technology certainly saved our presentation.

I posted our slide deck to YouTube as a video. While our verbal commentary is absent from the video, we provided ample “notes” in the slide presentation to make watching it worth your time.

My thanks go to Jane Cook Barnhill, President of Atlanta Grade School Friends, and Danny Stanley, Treasurer, my co-presenters, and to the nonprofit arm of the Texas Historical Commission, the Friends of the Texas Historical Commission. A few years ago, I served on the Board of the Friends under former Executive Director Toni S. Turner. State funding is rarely enough to fully fund the restoration and long-term preservation of the many historic sites of Texas. Private sector donations mean so much and make saving the rich heritage of Texas possible.

I had been taking a late Christmas vacation in January to see my family in Tucson, Arizona. My flight home was rescheduled due to the winter storm something like six times! So, I recorded my part of the Real Places discussion on Vimeo, and while a little rough around the edges, you can hear my thoughts and avail yourself of more in-depth discussion via my YouTube channel. In addition, the full slide deck has been saved to ISSUU for ease of reading in digital magazine format.

You might be surprised to learn, we talked about technology being very helpful, but noted that it does not replace human beings. Relationships matter. But technology can enhance your organization’s “reach” dramatically. Partners of all kinds, donors, and especially younger generations are online in great numbers today. Why not be online with them using the latest social media communications and tech tools available?

I find technology makes the work of nonprofits more cost-effective. Remote working is safe and fairly easy! Several of the tools I reference are free of charge at the most basic level, and modestly-priced in more extensive forms. Thinking smart and making use of these tools can “up your game” dramatically and make you more attractive to audiences and partners of all kinds. I find the cost is mostly that of your time: take it.

My thanks go to our tech partners at Atlanta Grade School Friends. We are grateful for being able to avail ourselves of their convenient services.

In closing, I share a video showed at the conclusion of our presentation during Real Places 2023. It was made with a combination of Google Slides, PowerPoint and YouTube (channel and audio library). Enjoy! And if you would like additional information, email us via our new Gmail: atlantagradeschoolfriends@gmail.com, or reach out to me directly by using the secure contact form on my blog.

Thank you for reading this post, and best wishes for your fundraising and communications success this year.

Our presentation also references information from these organizations: Brookings Institution, Forbes, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, National Council of Nonprofits, Psychology Today, Social Media Today, and World of Statistics on Twitter.

Combatting Hate and “Dangerous” Speech

On By Carolyn M. AppletonIn Caravan Studios, diplomacy, ethics, Hate speech, Internet, moral behavior, positive thinking, Primary Articles, problem solvingLeave a comment

The past several years (2016-2021), I was the lead volunteer organizer of Nonprofit Tech Club Austin, now called TechSoup Connect Texas Chapter. While I was guiding it, the club partnered with NTEN: Nonprofit Technology Network, TechSoup, and locally in Austin, startup incubator Capital Factory.

One benefit of the partnership with TechSoup specifically was learning about inspiring ideas from other tech club chapters across the United States and globally, as well as from TechSoup and its divisions like Caravan Studios and the Public Good App House. A 2019 webinar on hate speech and those monitoring it globally was particularly eye opening.

This post shares information presented during that program as well as additional discussions and resources I have since discovered. This post was written originally in 2019 and it has become one of my most-read. I continue to update it as more information becomes available.

One discovery is the Dangerous Speech Project. They sum the problem up well:

“People don’t commit violence against other groups – or even condone it – spontaneously. First they must be taught to see other people as pests, vermin, aliens, or threats. Malicious leaders often use the same types of rhetoric to do this, in myriad cultures, languages, countries, and historical periods. We call this Dangerous Speech. Violence might be prevented by making it less abundant or less convincing.

Only a few years ago, I believed the United States was more egalitarian and tolerant than ever. I did not see racism as being an issue in Texas, and mostly witnessed an ever-growing appreciation for differences in terms of culture and ethnicity. In fact, since returning to live and work in Austin in 2013, I was impressed by the new monuments on the Texas State Capitol grounds, including the stately Tejano and African American Emancipation installations. They are well worth a visit!

In 2013, I had also just finished serving two consecutive four-year terms on a State of Texas commission, the Texas Environmental Partnership Fund Board. The appointees of the commission and those serving on other commissions were very diverse. I felt real progress had been made.

iPhone photo collage of the Emancipation monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds (2023).

But in 2016, an eruption of hateful speech at the national level occurred from which I am still reeling. It was like a long dormant volcano had erupted, causing an international avalanche of angry, hateful speech and behavior. This led me to seek solutions about how to combat hate in the context of the nonprofit sector.

The following organizations were included in the TechSoup webinar I referenced earlier in this post. They are working to identify, monitor and to develop ways to combat dangerous rhetoric and actions around the world. Thanks again to TechSoup for introducing them during the program, and I hope we have another global webinar along these lines. It is so inspiring to see the social good sector fighting for a more just and peaceful world.

PeaceTech Lab

We believe everyone has the power of peacetech so we leverage low-cost, easy-to-use tech and local partnerships to put the right tools in the hands of the people best positioned to make a difference: activists, peacebuilders, and NGOs in some of the most violent places on earth.

Hatebase

Hatebase is a software platform built to help organizations and online communities detect, monitor and quarantine hate speech. Our algorithms analyze public conversations using a broad vocabulary based on nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and class, with data across 80+ languages and 200+ countries.

Metamorphosis Foundation

The Metamorphosis Foundation offers IT solutions, developed according to the needs of the clients or as part of the project. At the same time, we offer favorable and quality services for development, adaptation, localization and updating of web content.

I wanted share a more recent recording about combatting hate from former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Inspiring!

Additional Links

  • ALA: American Library Association has a helpful page on its website, “Hate Speech and Hate Crime.” It outlines important definitions and discusses legal issues.
  • Council on Foundations via Independent Sector, “Values-Aligned Philanthropy for Community Foundations” (2022). “Through our Values-Aligned Philanthropy project, the Council on Foundations is encouraging foundations to take steps to ensure that they are not funding hate. Our white paper created a landscape scan of the issue and the work being done in the philanthropic sector to combat hate funding. We also maintain an online hub with updated links to resources and sample policies.”
  • TechSoup Global hosts Caravan Studios. Public Good Tech to Combat Hate Speech Pinterest board, where Caravan Studios is curating tech solutions and discussions on combating hate speech. They note, “we encourage you to include your own links to relevant resources, important data sets, lexicons, and reports by adding them into the editable Webinar Resources doc.”
  • United Against Hate provides several helpful resources including a speakers bureau and school kits.

  • The United Sates Department of Justice has a relatively new webpage that includes a link, “Get Help Now.” Visit the website for periodic updates about hate, and actions taken to deal with hate crimes. Keep up the good work!

Positive Thinking Support

There are more helpful websites and apps than the below online, but I wanted to point out a few that I like. You might also enjoy reading about resources I share on, “Dealing With Stress.”

  • Achieving Positive Thinking Worldwide is a California-based nonprofit that got in touch with me a few years ago via Carolyn’s Nonprofit Blog. Follow Yvette L. Kelley on social media for constant positive messages. Also, I enjoy following Character Counts on Twitter.
  • Calm app, “We’re a small and mighty team passionate about mental fitness, relaxation and sleep.”
  • Happify seeks to instill happiness. “… The brain we’re born with can be changed. Technically speaking, they call that neuroplasticity; we can change it by adopting new thought patterns, by training our brain as if it were a muscle, to overcome negative thoughts.”
Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová addresses the European Parliament (2022).