Breakout Sessions
11:00 am – 12:00 pm: Breakout Sessions I
Mending Your Spending: Technology Budgeting Basics
Presenter: Alicia Slade, Plummer-Slade Inc.
Every organization spends money on technology, both directly (i.e., purchasing new computers or running a network) and indirectly (i.e., staff spending too much time troubleshooting their PCs or struggling with software). Do you know how much your organization is currently spending? How much it should be spending? In what areas it is spending? Get a handle on your organization’s IT expenditures and learn how to craft a sensible, proactive tech budget that will meet your needs far into the future. In this session, you’ll learn what you should include in your technology budget, the basic rules of thumb for forecasting technology expenses, and how to determine your organization’s technology acquisition return on investment.
Get the Word Out: Strategic Website Messaging for Nonprofits
Presenters: Amy Hart, Center for Hearing and Deaf Services; Bob Faletti, Blue Archer
Your website should address the needs of each of your constituencies. Your site must speak to their emotions, give them the content they crave, and present information and features in an intuitive and usable manner. Discover the role of analyzing your audience, writing and organizing content and creating a strong overall message in your website design. Learn how to utilize strategic website messaging to fulfill your constituents’ expectations and stimulate them to action. This session will illustrate the strategies a nonprofit must consider in order to achieve a website that speaks effectively to its constituencies.
Inside Intranets: Carving Out an Online Niche for Your Nonprofit Staff
Presenters: Steve McDonell, Achieva; Brian McCollum, Concurrent Technologies Corporation
Intranets are becoming increasing popular in the nonprofit sector as methods for sharing tools,
procedures, announcements, news and other information that staff need to do their everyday jobs. What goes on behind the scenes at an organization’s private website? How does an organization create an
intranet and how does it ensure that “staff only” really is staff only? In this session, two implementation options for a nonprofit intranet are presented – building one from scratch using standard website editing software and deploying one via SharePoint Services.
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1:00 pm – 2:00 pm: Breakout Sessions II
Technology Leadership: Focus Group
Presenter/Facilitator: Holly Ross, Nonprofit Technology Network
When it comes to success in today’s climate, two assets that any nonprofit needs are technology and leadership. Both can excite with their potential for progress. Mystery sometimes surrounds both of these assets as well, leaving organizations wondering what technology they really need and how to find people who can lead them forward in an unfolding IT landscape. It gets most interesting, though, at the intersection of technology and leadership. What does sound technology leadership look like in a nonprofit today? What skills does it require, and how can a would-be technology leader acquire them? In this session, a national leader in nonprofit technology will engage participants in a discussion of these and other questions to hone our collective understanding of how to lead technological progress.
Tracking Your Dollars Using Good Sense: How to Choose Nonprofit Accounting Software
Presenter: Joe Delisi, Horowitz, Rudoy & Roteman
Not sure what to look for in an accounting software package? Is your organization growing and you’re not sure if your software package is up to the task of growing with you? If you find yourself nodding your head to either of these questions, this is the session for you. Not a sales pitch for one software over the other and not simply a fluffy feel-good session on how accounting software can save your life, this session is a common sense approach on how nonprofits can figure out how to choose the accounting software that best fits their needs today and will grow with them tomorrow.
…And Access for All: A Discussion on Website Accessibility
Moderator: Ashli Molinero, University of Pittsburgh
Panelists: Tiffany Bennett, Allegheny Graphics; Maureen Joyce, Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank; Spero Pipakis, Blind & Vision Rehabilitation Services; Joseph Ruffing, University of Pittsburgh; Dana Sheehan, Allegheny County Dept. of Human Services
The design choices a nonprofit makes when creating a website are the key to removing barriers for stakeholders whose disabilities affect access to the Web, such as visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive or neurological. Our panel of experts represents a wide variety of interests and experience in the website accessibility spectrum – from nonprofit webmaster to professional web-design firm to website administrator to end user. Learn the basics of website accessibility and what it means to your organization and its website audiences. Find out how to balance site attractiveness and usability and how to increase the accessibility level of your nonprofit’s website.
