A seen in  eJphilanthropy

As we are all aware the past few years have seen a significant shift in donor relations. Gone are the days of knocking on doors and walking away with a check, not to be seen again until the following year.

Donors want more, need more and want to be more to the organizations that act as their agents of good. I am not telling you anything you don’t already know. However, knowing something and knowing what to do about it are two very different things. To help nonprofits cope with this shift, excellent resources have been developed. There are blogs, websites, books, organizations and consultants dedicated to helping nonprofits understand and utilize the tools available to them.

Keeping up with so much information, sorting it, remembering it and utilizing it is a full time job in and of itself; those heading nonprofits just don’t have that kind of time. Dedicated as they are to running and supporting their nonprofits, taking the time to look up and breathe is hard enough – needing to consistently learn about new media, engagement and technology can seem impossible.

Across the United States, conferences such as the Future of Jewish Nonprofit Summit [FOJNP], NextGen: Charity and NTen are providing targeted opportunities for nonprofits to come together and learn. These conferences focus on sharing best practices, cases studies of new technology and great ideas worth sharing are the first of their kind.

They are part of the overall new reality of the melding of the technological, nonprofit, media, marketing and corporate worlds. Here, nonprofits learn branding from top marketers, engagement from social media professionals and opportunities in technology from technologists. People in all sectors are looking to share their expertise in order to “do more good”. We in third sector need to let them teach us.

All around us are examples of those already tuning in to this new reality. A perfect example is The Jewish New Media Fund the joint effort of Schusterman Foundation, the Righteous Persons Foundation and the Jim Joseph Foundation created solely to fund projects using new media to reach the Jewish audience with Jewish content.

It is with the above in mind that Causil and REACH3K came together to produce The Future of Nonprofit Summit: Israel on February 28, 2011. The Third Sector deserves and needs to be inspired by those who are already putting great ideas, strategies and technologies into motion. FONSI is the second conference in a series on the future of nonprofits being produced by Causil. Upcoming events are in Toronto in March, Portland in June and Washington, DC in December.

FONSI is geared to create an atmosphere where nonprofits will learn about trends and opportunities in technology, marketing, corporate philanthropy, the governmental sector, donor engagement, new media and much more. Nonprofits will come together and hear about the tools available to them and meet like minded people with whom they might collaborate.

By shifting to a culture of innovation, collaboration and best practice, the Third Sector can properly utilize its supporters and take its place alongside corporate and government as leaders of change in Israel.

Also at http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/a-day-of-innovation-and-collaboration-in-jaffa/