July 22nd, 2010

Thinking Like a Hacker

by kirk

Ok, the real title of this post should be thinking like a cracker, but I reserve the right to use the term that people *think* that one means as opposed to the differences between the two words. Confused yet? Ok, ignore this paragraph – this is for the hacker/cracker purists… I digress….

Computer security is not something many people think about, but it really is an exercise in risk mitigation. It comes down to this; What can be done, what is the risk, what is the potential outcome? Let’s not delve too deeply into theories of risk management, but let’s talk very surface-level of dangers to your database.

Your charity might have the nicest, most genuine people in the world. However, that does not mean they are incapable of employee theft or fraud. Nor does it preclude future employees from such actions. Computer security should not be based on “would this happen?” or “has this happened?”, but “could this happen?” This does not mean you must have a security fix for every possibility, but you should at least be aware of what is possible and what it means to your organization.

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July 15th, 2010

Building an Empire

by kirk

In 5 days On July 28th, Empire Avenue goes live to the public.

Edit: They’ve pushed it back to end of month. Doesn’t change how awesome it is.

What goes live?

As I have talked about in previous posts, new social media tools will come and go. However, the Empire is one you may want to consider joining…

For Social Media Newbies it is a place where you can easily see who are the social media gods, and, as you should with any social media, you can build relationships with them. You see, the Empire is a stock market engine for social media – people who post often, engage with their followers often, and who are seen by the rest of the community as valuable are worth more on the Empire.

So, if you need examples of how to use social media well, you can check out the leaders. You can emulate, discuss, and work on building your own empire. You can build relationships with the strong social media people who want a relationship with you, and perhaps engage them to help you build your own social media empire. Imagine finding a local social media guru who wants to use social media as a volunteer for you.

For the well-versed in Social Media, it is an aggregate tool. Facebook, Twitter, Flikr, and weblogs are all aggregated, so anyone following you can see the individual post from each, and follow the one they find most useful. As you use your social media tools, your influence grows.

It is also a social media tool as well. There are communities (City, Interest/Brand, and Personal). You can belong to two of each, but using EAves (the in-site dollars), you can join more. For example, I am in the Calgary City Community, the Charities/Non-Profits Interest Community, and a few personal communities that interest me. I invest in many people who are in the same communities as me, and have also talked to a few outside of EmpireAve because of it.

For the Canadians, it’s built out of Edmonton.

For the people who decide to join, or who have already joined, buy KIRK.

July 9th, 2010

Not a Duplicate

by kirk

Here’s my desire for the week: a not-a-duplicate tool.

Anyone who has ever had to do mass amounts of duplication resolving knows the pain involved. The latest trend of parents naming their kids with unique spellings only exacerbates the problem, and then when you add in Jr., and Sr., living in the same household, well, now it get’s really fun.

Add to this the tightening of privacy laws which restrict what you are allowed to ask for, it becomes much more difficult to truly identify who is actually a duplicate and who is not.

But this post isn’t really about duplicate identification. It’s really about an additional problem to those database gurus who get the task of ensuring that your database is clean – not-a-duplicate.

July 7th, 2010

Bringing It All Together: A Case Study in RE Integration (Part III)

by kirk

This is Part III of my ongoing series on a case study in data integration with The Raiser’s Edge.

On each part of the series, I will have the steps we went through and the appropriate link to the individual parts. Last time, we tackled the fun task of creating your data map and your scripts for ensuring the data looks like the way you want it to when you bring it into The Raiser’s Edge

  1. Needs Analysis and Planning
  2. Data Mapping and Conversion Scripting
  3. Full-scale test/QA/QC
  4. Live Implementation
  5. Cleanup

In our last part, we’re focusing on the testing phase, implementation, and cleanup. We will discuss good practices for testing, what to look for in your Raiser’s Edge database when it’s done (identifying cleanup tasks), and timing everything.

June 23rd, 2010

CRA and Fundraising Software

by kirk

There are two basic truths which seem to be a problem for Canadian charities.
1. Most fundraising software is built outside of Canada, namely, the States.
2. The CRA is not the IRS.

First off – I am not a lawyer. This is my understanding of CRA procedure and charity procedure from working with many charities over the years. Any advice given here should be taken with a grain of salt – it may not hold up in a court of law. If you are concerned about your receipting procedure, you should discuss what is required with CRA and/or a lawyer familiar with charity law and the Income Tax act.

Having consulted on a number of platforms, I have found that many of them simply do not have the backend infrastructure built to receipt the way that the Canada Revenue Agency requires for Canadian charities. What’s even worse is when you talk to some of these software companies, the response I get is, “this hasn’t been a problem for any of our other clients.”

I’m sorry – that’s like saying that it’s ok to steal as long as you don’t get caught.

The fact is, the CRA has been cracking down harder and harder on charities in recent years. If you’re not receipting properly and cannot provide an adequate audit trail, and CRA decides to audit you, it’s not going to matter what, “other charities do.”

June 22nd, 2010

Bringing It All Together: A Case Study in RE Integration (Part II)

by kirk

This is Part II of my ongoing series on a case study in data integration with The Raiser’s Edge.

On each part of the series, I will have the steps we went through and the appropriate link to the individual parts. Last time, we tackled the initial process involving the needs analysis and planning. These are integral parts to *any* project, but when you are talking about massive amounts of data integration, it can mean the difference between having useful data and garbage.

  1. Needs Analysis and Planning
  2. Data Mapping and Conversion Scripting
  3. Full-scale test/QA/QC
  4. Live Implementation
  5. Cleanup

Today we’re going to tackle Number 2 – We will look at what you should do with your data map, and what you might need to script. The next post we will tackle the full-scale test; How should you configure it, what are you testing, and identifying cleanup tasks for live implementation.

June 21st, 2010

Bringing It All Together: A Case Study in RE Integration (Part I)

by kirk

A long time ago, I applied to speak at the 2010 Blackbaud Conference for Non Profits. Unfortunately, the planning committee decided not to have me speak at BBCon. So, I am going to attempt to port my talk into a number of weblog posts, since I do think this is something a lot of charities have to deal with.

This is a case study in integrating data into The Raiser’s Edge. Its lessons apply to other fundraising databases as well, although the terminology and exact fields might not. A lot of what I am going to discuss here might have been briefly touched on by some of my other posts, but perhaps this will not just be *about* bringing together data, but also bring together a number of pieces I have touched on individually.

June 21st, 2010

Metrics: Segmenting Your Data

by kirk

You have potentially thousands of donors in your database. However, these donors likely engage differently than each other, they have different giving patterns, and they have differing reasons for giving to your organization.

As you get into more sophisticated fundraising, you’re going to want to treat donors differently. This requires segmentation.

June 10th, 2010

The Database and the Program

by kirk

This is a followup post to Don’t Shoot the Messenger, where I discussed the difference between a database and its data. As suggested by a reader (and friend, I might add), there is also an integral difference between the database itself and the program that interfaces with it.

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June 7th, 2010

The living, the dead, and the undead

by kirk

You might start to think I have an obsession with zombies… the sad part is, I actually *read* the mathematical paper which pretty much proved we’re doomed if a zombie revolution happens. Thank you Carleton University.

Anyway.

This post is actually about MAILING LISTS. And about logic. I bet you’re wishing I *was* talking about zombies now.

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