Our friend and colleague Laura Quinn at Idealware reviewed twenty-seven lower-priced online software tools that accept donations from an existing website. She found that many affordable tools are also powerful, friendly, and flexible. She offers in the report recommendations for high-quality tools, as well as a method to choose the right tool for you.  View the report 

Great work, Laura!

After launching our first-ever NGO software survey we heard from a number of people who rightly noted that the survey as it is currently hosted on survey monkey is not accessible for web users with disabilities and assistive technologies (sometimes referred to as compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act - see also http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php and http://www.section508.gov/ for more information.) 

After some research we found that there is indeed a scarcity of inexpensive, hosted survey solutions available that are fully accessible for people with disabilities.   

Another story from MobileActive: Emily Gertz, our friend at WorldChanging and our prolific MobileActive blogger, profiles Tad Hirsch of txtmob fame and his Speakeasy project in Chinatown in Boston.  Using voice over IP telephony and mobile phones, Speakeasy is a "a software-enabled telephone call center staffed by multilingual community volunteers. Newcomers to Chinatown who are not fluent in English can call the service and connect with someone from the neighborhood who can provide immediate language interpretation, answer questions, and offer advice."

MobileActive is over but the work has just begun…Stories about the convergence and the use of cell phones and texting in avocacy and civic campaigns are coming in fast after the first-ever MobileActive.  The event brought together a group of activists from around the globe to explore the use of cell phones for social justice and citizen participation campaigns.

Patrick Burnett, a participant from Fahamu, puts it well: "In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) SMS is being used to monitor child rights violations.

In Argentina indigenous communities are using SMS to halt the bulldozers that destroy their forest livelihoods.  And in the Philippines, angry activists have used SMS to hold government to account. The power of cellular technology is no longer up for debate; what remains to be discussed is how to maximize it for social good. Mobile Active Convergence, held recently in Canada, did just this… What came out of the three-day event…went far beyond this expectation, as a diverse group of people from around the world banged their heads together, mixed their ideas and thrashed out a vision for just how far cellular technology can go in creating a better world. The end result was new ideas, the formation of a lasting network and the production of a body of knowledge available to many beyond the confines of the conference."

There is a nice write-up on WorldChanging about MobileActive, the convergence of mobile phone activists from around the world that we are convening with our friends at Green Media Toolshed.

Emily Gertz, a woman I have long wanted to meet, writes: “Mobile phones: How we love their transformative potential on Worldchanging. With all the ways mobiles a becoming key tools for economic and political development world wide, it’s probably a great time for strategic gatherings to share stories and lessions learned from the field.”

Aspiration board member Michelle Murrain writes on her personal blog about Convio’s recent decision to take on an anti-gay marriage organization as a client. She argues:

"I think it’s perhaps time for many nonprofit organizations, and the progressive nonprofit community to think carefully about this issue. Few of us think that the ends always justifies the means. Some of us (me included) think that the means by which we work to achieve our mission, affects the mission, sometimes deeply.