Conferences, Happy Hours, and the new website!

We just launched the new version of the website, complete with an updated color scheme and layout, so please check it out! Be forewarned though, it's still a bit buggy but we're working on hunting down every last one of 'em.

Last Friday we attended Compasspoint's Nonprofit Day conference, where we spent the morning and afternoon going to breakout sessions and workshops (in the case of us interns plus Suj), tabling (in the case of Shari and Perla, mostly), and talking about GreatNonprofits with people (no pun intended). The Westin St. Francis Hotel is gorgeous, littered with period-style light fixtures and chandeliers, with rooms named after British royalty and ballrooms furnished with giant presentation screens-- having the license to run around a venue like that was a nice perk to the day.

The highlight of the day was the Happy Hour, post-conference. I really wasn't altogether too sure that we'd get many people to show up at all. I handed out flyers during the last breakout session as people left the room but that was the only time that I was able to do so in any systematic fashion, and the posters we'd set up on easels announcing the event hadn't been in super-prominent locations during the day.

When I ran out of flyers, I moved outside the breakout room to the main hallway on the second floor. There was a curious level of chatter and excitement from down the hall, and it took me a moment to realize that it was coming from the Happy Hour. So I stood there, holding a giant plastic bin to collect nametags and evaluation forms (the duty we'd been charged with as Compasspoint volunteers), with another one at my feet, and watched in amazement as people not only hurried towards the Essex Room, but came back out of it, cheeks flushed and glasses of Solaris wine in hand. The room was overflowing!

Perla came running down the hall. "We need all the students in there, now!"

I scrambled.

Needless to say, the Happy Hour exceeded all of our expectations. Looks like college students aren't the only ones attracted by free food and drink!

Signing off,
Erin

Out on the town...

After a week and a half of scurrying around an office sorting out organizations, searching for bugs, and getting comfortable with the website, we finally took the stage today! This morning we went to a monthly Thrive membership meeting (a network of nonprofits in San Mateo County) and met with different heads of organizations to talk about GreatNonprofits. The morning started off a little rough... my empty stomach hastily filled with green tea was not so happy making the commute from the city to San Mateo... but everything started falling into place once we bustled into the conference room.

I loved watching everyone react to our site: How much do we have to pay? Nothing. And we can advertise our organization with your website space? Yup. And you will set up the profile with me and help organize reviews? Uh huh. (The pause....) Really? Absolutely.

After we showed people through our site and swapped business cards to set up future phone calls, we were able to hear Bill Somerville speak to the members. I don't even know how to frame how fantastic he was or what a forceful energy he brought to the room. He is the President and Founder of the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation and had the head honchos of these amazing nonprofits wrapped around his little finger. We learned about the value of instant grants, the importance of innovation in grant proposals, and why it is necessary to take risks with people you trust. I am currently perusing Amazon and Borders.com to find a copy of his book-- call me an easy (overeager..) audience, but he honestly has me hooked!

Okay enough for now but I'll check in later-- we are going to the Compasspoint Nonprofit Day conference tomorrow and are hosting a happy hour afterwards at the Westin Hotel. Stories to come, for sure...

Bug Hunting

It's not as interesting as it sounds.  There was no safari for exotic insects, no hunting down giant spiders.  I probably would not have been ok with that.  Today there was just a lot of random clicking to check the new GNP website with its new pretty layout and color scheme (active very, very soon).  We played around, tested the links, posted bogus reviews and made up nonprofits--and it was actually a work assigned task.  But the website will be all the better for it.  Today I spent over an hour on the new site, just kind of poking around and reporting broken links or glitches.  I guess a lot can go wrong with a website...  But that's what the intern team is here to do--to help GNP be its best and to help make sure that everyone and anyone has access to the site and its resources.  There was a lot of work that went into this revamping, so people once it's up and running there's no excuse to not post your experiences!

Ok that's all for now--I'll check back in sometime next week!

The Adventure Begins...

Hello! Welcome to the Great Nonprofits blog. We, the interns, will chronicle our experiences this summer in reaching out to nonprofits in the Bay area and Washington, D.C.