Newsletter - March 2006

In our March newsletter, we speak the truth about a widely discussed but poorly understood trend in social sector technology - Open Source Software.  In this article, we try to debunk the myths and clarify the opportunity for Open Source in the the social sector. 

Also, we can't help talking about our great new software donation program for smaller non-profits.  And, of course we have provided our usual digest of cool articles from around the web.

As always, we'd love to talk to you about our software. In fact, most of our work comes from referrals from people like you. If you know of an organization that could benefit from our software, please encourage them to visit www.citysoft.com, review our CE Overview, and contact us through our website or at 1-617-275-7122.

Best regards and we look forward to hearing from you soon,

Nick Gleason, CEO

 
CitySoft Donation Program 

One of our recent highlights has been the launch of CitySoft's CE donation program.  Through this program, smaller organizations are granted a copy of CitySoft's powerful CE software for free.  The program is taking off and has allowed us to connect with and empower some great organizations such as The Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership, The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, and The National Association for Practical Nurse Education and Service.

To qualify for the donation program, an organization has to fulfill only two criteria - be a 501(c)3 organization with an annual budget of less than $500,000.  For qualifying organizations, CitySoft will provide a license to our Community Enterprise software with no strings attached.

Community Enterprise finally allows small organizations to consolidate their various systems and data into a single robust platform that handles all of their technology - from their database to their website to outbound electronic and hard copy mailings. For more information about this program, please visit our website or send us an email at donationprogram@citysoft.com.

 
The Truth About Open Source Software in the Social Sector

Lessons Learned in the Trenches

Open Source Software (OSS) is one of the hottest trends in social sector technology.  With tremendous corporate OSS successes like the Linux operating system and the Apache web server, open source evangelists are taking to the streets and OSS is sweeping into every sector and niche of the tech industry.

With rhetoric at a fever pitch, social sector practitioners should take special care to separate myth from reality when evaluating open source software and technology choices.  This article assesses some of the key issues, challenges and solutions in bringing enterprise OSS (in particular OSS that helps manage web content, contacts, donations, ecommerce, emails, and so forth) to social sector organizations.  After years in the trenches and as a long time advocate of the open source approach, I argue that OSS has not yet come close to realizing its potential in the social sector and that ultimately the best solutions will:
1) Reflect the unique needs of the social sector rather than technologists, and
2) Combine the best aspects of traditional and open source software.

Read Full Article >>

Articles From Around The Web

As always, CitySoft has gathered many interesting articles and information from around the web that we think may be useful to our readers.

Corporate Social Opportunity Replaces CSR
This article tells of a coming paradigm shift in social marketing
From: OnPhilanthropy
http://www.onphilanthropy.com/tren_comm/tc2006-02-24a.html

Do you know someone who could benefit from our Community Enterprise software?

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