Hey everyone! We've received a few e-mails recently about the status of the site: is it still online and accepting news? Of COURSE! The reality is that nonprofits seem to move slowly - very slowly - in their use of MOSS, and our experience is no different. We're training individuals to use the SP system, rather than configuring the system itself.

But PLEASE do send us any news you have of your own work, or interesting links you might have found, that would help others in our similar situation. Judging by the e-mails we receive (and we try to answer them helpfully), there are lots of us out there. But since we're no experts - just learning as we go - we ask that you post your questions to our forum, too :o)

Cheers, thanks and a happy 2008!
--The Staff @ SP4NP

Hey all,

Something you might find helpful:

"The Community Kit for SharePoint is a set of best practices, templates, Web Parts, tools, and source code that enables practically anyone to create a community website based on SharePoint technology for practically any group of people with a common interest." This is a kit lead by Microsoft, but developed in collaboration with a range of individual CodePlex contributors. CodePlex CKS Site

Hey there,

Thanks for all your constructive feedback, and please keep it coming!

At someone's suggestion, we're going to build a directory of nonprofits who are currently using SharePoint for their internal network. If your nonprofit is currently using SharePoint, would you kindly add it to our directory through the "Suggest A Site" mechanism? In the description, add just a sentence about what you do, and how you're using it (intranet/extranet/e-learning/etc). Also: please note if you wouldn't mind being contacted by others with questions and/or to share advice about implementation.

--Dave

Hey everyone!

Here's when we call upon your expertise to realize the maximum potential for SharePoint for Nonprofits! We'd like to link to, or develop, and provide the following content:

- Tutorials for developing and customizing SharePoint
- Themes and web parts helpful for nonprofits
- Articles related to nonprofit development and management of e-learning systems
- Any other material you think will be helpful to others

If you know of any content related to these topics, please create an account and submit!

Hey all,

Site updates are also underway. I'm researching and adding relevant links and resources, and must admit, it takes some digging to find good, helpful material that details how nonprofits are actually using E-Learning systems, let alone those built on Sharepoint. Yet, I know for a fact that quite a few organizations are muddling about in this space. Please help out, submit, if you can think of any.

As a result, one of our first activities will be to draft a whitepaper to describe several organizations' work. Stay tuned for the paper to appear in several weeks' time.

--Dave

Hey everyone,

SharePoint for Nonprofits has been (un)officially launched! This site is intended to fill a very specific, seemingly-important niche in the nonprofit world. Microsoft has released SharePoint 2007, a web services / mega-CMS package update of their SharePoint 2003 software. Not surprisingly, the software has made inroads into the nonprofit realm, to sysadmin's pleasure or displeasure.

The purpose of this site is to focus on how nonprofits can successfully integrate the software into their operations as an intranet, and more importantly, as an extranet e-learning portal system.

Open, nonprofit, nonpartisan and comprehensive resources simply don't exist to:
a) Guide nonprofit integration of SharePoint (typically on a shoestring budget)
b) Guide nonprofit design, integration and management of E-Learning systems;
c) Guide the design of intranet and e-learning systems for nonprofits, based on SharePoint software.

This site is intended to fill this knowledge gap by providing free, unbiased, helpful resources, expert opinions, tutorials, suggestions and connections. Cheers, and all the best --

--Dave