FREE: The Latest & Greatest Free Tech Tools for Non-Profits

A Special Internet Advocacy Roundtable Event

October 29, 2007, 3:30pm – 6:00pm

About This Event

A vast array of free tools is available to help nonprofits leverage the Internet to achieve their goals. From social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, to social media sites like YouTube, Digg, and Flickr, to blogging platforms like Blogger and WordPress, the opportunity to deliver information, mobilize action, and build strategic communities has never been more affordable.

Join us as we explore strategies for using these free tools with our panel of experts who have been in the Internet trenches.

Moderated by:
Katrin Verclas, Executive Director, NTEN

Panelists:
Annie Schutte, Managing Editor, Center for American Progress Action Fund
Jeff Keltner, Enterprise Specialist for Collaboration Products, Google, Inc.
Jake Brewer, Director of Partnerships, Idealist
Barry Jackson, Online Advocacy Manager, AARP

Location

Center for American Progress Action Fund
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005

Resources

Presentations:

Annie's page of links

Biographies

Katrin Verclas has a background in IT and project management in nonprofit organizations, community organizing, community engagement, political advocacy, and relationship management, and she has also spent considerable time in her professional life as a program officer for a number of grantmaking and philanthropic initiatives.

She believes in the importance of community, the power of networks, the good will of people, our ability to collaborate for a common good, the inherent political-ness of everyday life, and the power of people using technology to improve and better their own and others' lives. In addition to NTEN, She coordinates MobileActive, a global network of activists and NGOs using mobile phones for social change.

She previously co-directed Aspiration: Better Tools for a Better World, a nonprofit organization focused on providing software-related services and resources to other nonprofit organizations. Before that she worked as a consultant, deputy director of a holding organization of funds, and as a program officer.

Katrin serves on the boards of Mobile Voter and the Amherst Parent Coalition, and is on the Technical Advisory Committee of Moms Rising.

Annie Schutte is the Managing Editor in the Online Communications Department at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Prior to joining the Action Fund, she was the editor of iris magazine, a national feminist magazine for progressive young women. She also worked as the web developer and designer for artistsbooksonline.org, an interface for viewing and researching artists' books online. Past experience also includes writing for kidsnewsroom.com, coordinating daily operations for a baseball team, and working for the only institute for the study of rare books in the world. Annie received a bachelor's degree in sociology and political and social thought from the University of Virginia.

Jeff Keltner is an Enterprise Specialist for Collaboration Products at Google where he specializes in presenting the Google vision for search and collaboration tools to business, education, and nonprofit audiences. Jeff brings several years of experience in both business development and engineering to Google--most recently as a sales specialist for IBM. Prior to joining IBM, Jeff worked as a systems engineer for such companies as Hilton Hotels Corporation and SSB Technologies. Jeff holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Systems Engineering from Stanford University.

Jake Brewer is a global activist, entrepreneur, and citizen who serves as the Director of Partnerships for the international nonprofit organization Idealist.org. He is passionate about linking and utilizing strategic networks in the business, nonprofit, and media sectors to affect sustainable social change. In his diverse career, Jake has at different times spent two years at the United States Naval Academy--subsequently graduating from Vanderbilt University--served as a corporate consultant in the Middle East oil sector, designed and implemented international service-learning programs for universities, and conducted community development projects from central Jamaica to Mongolia. Prior to Idealist he served as the executive director of Break Away--the national nonprofit organization through which 40,000 college students spend "alternative spring breaks" learning to become active citizens each year.

Jake is a former All-American triathlete, a published photographer and writer, and in addition to his role with Idealist.org, serves on the board of directors for Hostelling International USA and as the conference director of Education Without Borders.

Barry Jackson has spent over a decade in the government-relations arena working in various capacities on political campaigns, in lobbying and on issue campaigns. At the AARP, he is responsible for recruitment, education, and mobilization of activists in the growing AARP online advocacy program.

A graduate of the University of Memphis, Barry has spent time working as a lobbyist in Tennessee, as a regional coordinator and lobbyist in nine Southern states, and for national health-care organizations organizing online and offline grassroots networks and advising on national and state issue campaigns. An enthusiastic convert to the potential of online advocacy, Barry was tapped by the American Cancer Society to lead the effort to establish that organization's online advocacy program.

Before his tenure as Online Advocacy Manager at AARP began, Barry worked for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, where he was responsible for establishing a national grassroots structure focused on achieving policy change through the application of community organizing strategies integrating both online and offline activities.

Thank you to  for support of the reception.