These events have been as distant and varied as SXSW, the #140Conf, CES and scooter rallies. The people have come from all professions, income strata and backgrounds. And I’m richer for the experience.

Today – using the word ‘richer’ as serious irony – I’m sitting at the keynote address at The Non-Profit Toolbox inaugural conference in Rockland, MA. Established by Reiko and Tom Beach, the NPTB is focused on delivering training and other resources for non-profit professionals in the metro-Boston area.

The event was publicized using social media and the organizers are seriously aware of how these tools can give a boost to traditional conference promotion and execution.

It’s not the first time social media was used in this way? Hardly.

You can’t watch Twitter for more than five minutes without seeing an appeal from a charity. And billboards, direct mail and other media are filled with messages asking us to empty our pockets.

There are groups like Social Media for Social Good and Social Media for Social Change already in this space. But connecting the traditional and new communities has been an ongoing challenge. NPTB seems – based on turnout – to have met this challenge with an interesting program and an unwritten promise to teach people how to raise money and communicate more clearly and effectively.

Seems like it might work. I’m not saying this by looking at results, but by perusing the ballroom and looking at today’s agenda.

From what I’ve learned so far, there are at least 50 people in this room who were willing to get up in the inky blackness to attend a conference at a Holiday Inn. Most faces are smiling and the chatter around me is spiked with anticipation and optimism.

The agenda is similarly spiked with forward-looking sessions and what look to be useful content for this audience. Here’s a brief overview…

Keynote – The Psychology of Fundraising

Business/Finance Track – Practical Accounting & Reporting Prep; Creating Powerful Organizations; Unraveling the Mystery of Grant Writing

Marketing/Promotional Track – Planning your way to Fundraising Success; Successful Design Tips; The Web: Your Greatest Resource & Tool

What else am I seeing? Some bumps in the presentation.

Sound wasn’t perfect – but we’re not born knowing how to use wireless microphones. No Wifi – but it’s not a tweetup, it’s a business conference and I’m pretty sure I’m the only one anxious to check my mail, read blogs, and search my RSS news feeds while spending time in conference sessions.

Otherwise, there is great food, plenty of table room and enthusiastic staff. According to Reiko, upcoming NPTB conferences will remain intimate, pay attention to important non-profit topics, and provide tools that attendees can use to find success in the non-profit world.

Is the Non-Profit Toolbox the end-all when it comes to the educational options non-profit-minded people? Hardly. But it’s a start.

What events have you been to lately that bring people together to learn and actually deliver? Is social media the best way Reiko and her team can alert the world to NPTB’s mission and conferences? What would be a better way? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Keep reading!

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: conference, fundraising, non-profit toolbox, NPTB, reiko beach, rockland

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In my mind, things are either ironic or they’re not. And things that are coincidences are not ironic. But I won’t rant about that distinction because Alanis Morrisette has already ruined the brains of a whole generation of people who may never realize the difference.

If Alanis wer an English teacher, THAT would be ironic.

The slight irony that I allude to is my current health situation. As most of you know, I have Crohn’s Disease and was diagnosed with this illness in the 1970s. Yes, I was a mere child when I was diagnosed.

Each year I try to do my part to help the doctors and scientists cure this disease by contributing my time and paltry design skill to a golf tournament. The Grampy’s Charity Open is in its 24th year and for 2008 we’re trying to raise more than ever before.

To give you some perspective, in 2007 we gave about $80,000 to a number of charities including CCFA.

Here’s the irony. Each year as I’m getting more stressed about auction-book deadlines and machinations over compiling the video slideshow and managing the Websites, I start to experience some Crohn’s symptoms.

The way I could alleviate the symptoms would be to break the pattern and do the work earlier, but like the disease, the tournament isn’t really in my control. Ads come in at the last minute as do donations and changes to the materials we need to have on hand.

By no means is this column a complaint. It’s more of a reminder that all of us are constantly barraged by things we can’t control. And similar to the people who might drink booze with a bad liver, smoke with a bad lung, or have kids even thought they’ve got no common sense – this work is something I choose to do even thought it affects me in a not-so-healthy way.

And it affects me in a very healthy way because it could provide people like me with a cure…someday.

And isn’t that what life is supposed to be all about – balance?

Just sharing a little bit about myself today. Hope it wasn’t too tough to bear.

If you’re interested in giving to the tournament or CCFA, do so. Here are two links…have at it.

CCFA.org and Grampys.org.

Thanks in advance, from the middle of my gut. Seriously and ironically.

Keep reading!

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: CCFA, charity, Crohn's, disease, fundraising, giving, golf, grampys, illness, irony

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