Non-Profit Fundraising Sector

Our team is looking at the non-profit fundraising sector and how IT is transforming fundraising strategies. The companies that we are each analyzing are:
• Donor Management Software and Services: Salesforce, BlackBaud
• Donor Aggregators: Yourcause.com, Kiva, Charity Water
• Non-Profit Direct Service: Root Capital

Already IT has been transforming this sector and as we analyze its impact today and moving forward, here are a few of the key themes we have identified:
• Social Networking: Already social networking has played a big role in changing the tools of fundraising. On both Facebook and on more specialized social networks such as Yourcause.com, the range on donors has widened, bringing in more donations but also sometimes smaller donations. However it remains to be seen how to best tap into these social networks and whether there is a place for the specialized social networks.
• Donor Management Software: BlackBaud and Salesforce are two of the primary providers of Donor Management software, which is the CRM for non-profits. They are becoming more and more sophisticated in their applications and interfaces with different donor channels such as social networking. A key question is how the data will be used and how prevalent these systems will become among the non-profit fundraising sector.
• Reporting and Impact Measurement: With the IT systems provided by companies such as BlackBaud and Salesforce, the level of data available to non-profits is increasing however the usage of the data is still being developed. More and more non-profits are being asked to provide measureable outcomes and impacts in order to obtain the grants and donations that they survive upon. This new demand by foundations and donors is altering the way in which non-profits are being held accountable. This is being observed at non-profits such as Root Capital where they received a large grant but along with it, significant reporting requirements in terms of measureable impact.
• International Philanthropy – Online platforms have enabled new markets and new recipient of philanthropic giving to emerge. Kiva is a prime example that has linked donors from affluent areas with small business in struggling economies. Without the online platform providing the information and connection between these two groups, this giving would be less possible. The question remains as to what other populations may be connected for philanthropic purposes through online platforms.

Microsoft - Project Natal

It looks like Microsoft's latest XBox accessory looks to one-up the Nintendo Wii this holiday season. Project Natal, Microsoft's code name for the new technology, will have no controller. Essentially, YOU are the controller. The motion-sensing technology will capture your movements, so when you are kicking a ball in a game, you actually use your foot to kick the ball. An actual release date and price have yet to be announced, but it will be interesting to see Microsoft's pricing strategy for the accessory as well as how Nintendo will react (Nintendo was reportedly offered Natal and turned it down). Sony has already announced the release of their motion-sensing controller (PlayStation Move) for this fall.

What is Boku?

When I asked my teammates if they knew anything about Boku (the company I'm studying in the retail and e-commerce industry), none of them had heard of the company. Thus, I thought I'd post this because most of you may be in the same boat...

Boku is a startup mobile payment company founded in 2008. It provides another option for purchasing goods and services online. How it works is you enter your phone number, receive a confirmation text message, and reply with "Y" for yes. The site where you made your purchase will display confirmation of your response, and the transaction will be made. Instead of the transaction showing up on your credit card bill, it will be reflected on your phone bill.

Boku currently holds a strong presence in online games and social networking sites, where virtual goods can be purchased. Boku purchased rivals Paymo and Mobillcash (where they had a presence in Facebook), and have secured $25 million in a third round of venture capital funding (they have raised $10 million and $3 million in previous rounds)*. Boku operates under the Paymo brand for consumers.

One major obstacle, however, is the premium fees that mobile carriers charge in order to complete the transactions. Boku gives sites the option of either eating this fee or passing the cost to the consumer (most choose the latter). Sites like Boku are working with carriers to bring these fees down.

For more information, visit these sites:

http://www.boku.com/

http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/business/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218000001

*http://mobile.venturebeat.com/2010/01/19/boku-lands-25m-for-mobile-payments/

Tackling Bandwidth in the Next Decade: Public and Private Approaches

In the last two days there have been numerous stories around the US government’s – by way of the FCC – efforts to provide 50-100 MBS to 100 million citizens by the year 2020. In addition to this goal, the plan lays out five additional goals:

1. US should lead the world in mobile innovation;

2. Every American should have access to robust broadband services;

3. Every community should have at least one high-speed broadband access point;

4. Every first responder should have access to nationwide wireless network; and,

5. To support clean energy initiatives, US households should have access to a high-speed network to more efficiently manage their households

This will be made available through a ”revenue-neutral” model that will be funded through an auction of 500 MHz of spectrum, recently made available due to the switch of TV broadcasts from analog to digital.

On the other end of the spectrum (pun not intended), Google is soliciting offers from cities and towns to build “an advanced data network capable of downloading Internet data at one billion bits per second”. The purpose, as publically stated, is to see just what the public can do with really high-speed Internet access. However, for their efforts, Google will look to sell access to that network on a subscription basis and, at those speeds, will be able to completely blow away the competition (if users select solely on the basis of download speeds).

The government’s plan represents a 16x-20x increase over currently available speeds, which would be in-line with expectations espoused by proponents of the Bandwidth Law. The Google plan, if (a) feasible and (b) implemented, would obliterate the underlying tenets of that law and would pose a significant challenge to the overlap of bandwidth, storage, and processing. Google could certainly supplement and complement the adoption of Internet speeds this high through its storage capabilities; however, where would the processing power come from in order to enable users to make meaningful use of these speeds? It seems as though the governmental approach is much more in-line with expectations among the other necessary components of the bandwidth-processing-storage triumvirate in order to maximize the value of all three.

By the way, there are Facebook fan pages put up by the different municipalities, but I could not find any Buzz feeds related to this:

http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=google+high+speed+internet&init=quick

FCC plans for future of broadband

Tbe New York Times reports that the FCC has sent its national broadband plan to Congress in an article here. The report recognizes that broadband Internet is becoming the common medium in the U.S., displacing broadcast television and the telephone. Broadcast television networks have resisted auctioning off some of their spectrum for mobile Internet use.

The government's plan also "seeks a 90 percent broadband adoption rate in the United States by 2020, up from roughly 65 percent."

This will create great competition among telecom and cable companies, as they rush to obtain new users and get government support for expansion to become first-movers in areas where residents simply do not have an inexpensive method for connecting to the Internet.

For instance, my parents live in rural Indiana, where cable lines doen't run. Sattelite access is available, but they considered it prohibitively expensive for their desired speed. They finally chose a wireless broadband plan from Verizon.

The CEO of Comcast actually praises the governnment plan, citing a "need for continued private investment in faster competitive broadband networks, and the importance of maintaining a regulatory environment to promote that investment."

Sounds like he expects some government money to help Comcast expand into new areas, or he might use the plan as evidence that regulators need to force broadcast television networks to auction off part of their spectrum for mobile Internet. This would give Comcast the opportunity to compete with Verizon and others in that space.

Who really owns data?

With our class discussions focusing on the power of owning the data that users generate while using a company's proprietary software, this article about Toyota caught my attention.

Most people tend to agree that it is ok that Amazon owns and keeps secret the data generated by consumer purchases and browsing history (think of the famous "users that bought this item also bought this item"). Similarly, most people are ok with Google targeting advertisements based on data they collect while you are logged in to Google's world. I wonder if the legality of this will change based on Toyota's recent problems.

As the article points out, Toyota has equipped every car produced since 2001 with a proprietary "black box" known as an EDR that records information about the state of the car 5 seconds before a crash through 2 seconds after a crash. Toyota has repeatedly denied access to this data to crash victims and survivors. With the recent recall of 8 million Toyota vehicles, and the US government and consumers demanding answers to unexplained acceleration problems, it is very likely that Toyota will be forced to provide access to this data in the future.

If a company like Toyota can be legally forced to provide access to data that was generated through interactions with its product, I wonder if the precedent will carry over to companies like Amazon and Google that derive much of their competitive advantage from similar proprietary data.

MySpace user data for Sale!

MySpace has put a large quantity of bulk user data up for sale on startup data marketplace InfoChimps. Analysis coming from the data could include things like music trends per zipcode, popular URLs being shared etc.

The questions to be raised here are: Are they authorized to sell these data without seeking the consent of the users? OR do the users really care regarding bulk data crunching by researchers? OR is this last resort by MySpace to monetize its declining user base?

The response of Facebook with a much larger user base remains to be seen. Facebook had faced a uproar for changing its terms of service that no longer allowed users to delete their data while leaving Facebook. Some interesting lines from Facebook CEO's blogspot [Feb 16,2009] "We're at an interesting point in the development of the open online world where these issues are being worked out. It's difficult terrain to navigate and we're going to make some missteps, but as the leading service for sharing information we take these issues and our responsibility to help resolve them very seriously. "