I had the privilege of being part of a dynamic panel at this year's NTC conference run by NTEN in Washington, D.C. last month. To check out the session notes, access the slides from all the presenters and get some great ideas as to how GIS can be used quickly, easily and cheaply in your nonprofit or community organization check out the note from Techsoup author Elliot Harmon here.

The other folks presenting were Rob Baker from the Konpa Group discussing the amazing Ushahidi and Crowdmap platforms, Elliot showing how easy Google Maps API is to use and Andrew Turner from GeoIQ showcasing GeoCommons- a great resource for simple, beautiful maps and finding vast amounts of free shared data.

This month I was asked by NTEN to write a short article on the five most useful or essential GIS tools for nonprofits. This is a large field and given the diversity of nonpfotis in both size, tech capacity and mission it's a daunting ask. I chose to focus on what I know best, the applied GIS world of locally focused small to medium nonprofits, with some nods and leaning towards cloud based services that are increasingly powerful for all user types. The original article is here for reference also.

As more and more people are being bombarded with maps from every media source, many nonprofits find themselves asking "How can we use maps in our work?" and then, "Just how hard can it be for us to make maps for our work?" The realization that maps can be a powerful tool for advocacy, planning (data driven decision making anyone?) and management sets off a chain of events in many nonprofits, starting with much excitement and anticipation yet ending in a fizzle when executives realize how expensive this endeavor can be, or how little any of their staff know about mapping or GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technology.