Wufoo, SurveyGizmo & Google Forms are among your best bets

Target audience: Nonprofits, social change organizations, citizen publishers, educators.

By Jessica Haswell
Socialbrite staff

Surveying made easy: We took a look at the five of the best survey tools on the market that can help nonprofits and other organizations get to know your users’ opinions and keep funders happy. All of these tools do more than just conduct a simple survey.

What might some of these survey tools cost you? Google is free, but beyond that most of these services offer 10 projects with 100 responses for free, unlimited surveys with 1,000 responses for about $200 per year and more advanced packages for more than $200 per month, depending on your organization’s needs. Most of the tools offer discounts of 25 to 50 percent for nonprofis or educational organizations, so make sure to check before you pony up.

Have your own favorite? Please share in the comments below.

Wufoo: Collecting more than just data

1The stand-out feature in this survey tool is the payment integration – your PayPal, Google Checkout or Authorize.net accounts can be connected to WuFoo Forms to collect donations or payments. Wufoo really breaks the survey process down, keeping the process simple and still flexible enough to customize. The actual forms and reports are as clean, customizable and beautiful as the survey process. While all of the survey tools listed here offer discounts for nonprofits, Wufoo offers an impressive 50 percent discount.

SurveyGizmo: Bang for your buck

2When Socialbrite surveyed all the survey tools last spring to create an interactive tool [link fixed] for TechSoup Global, we selected SurveyGizmo — because it had more capabilities than the rest of the field. SurveyGizmo offers every feature your organization could ever need or want for a slightly lower cost. The service has maximum customization and offers a wide range of packages for small to large organizations. The extra offer here is the Professional Service and Training they offer at an additional cost for organizations that want to learn a bit more or outsource some work from the office.

Google Forms: Best part? It’s free

3If you’re looking for a free service for small-scale surveying, this is hands down the best option out there. All of the other survey tools do have a free option, which usually entails a limit to the amount of surveys (10 per month) and responses (100 per month). Google Forms offers an unlimited amount of surveys and space for well over 1,000 responses. Themes for your survey are plentiful, the software makes email or web embedding easy and, being Google, there are a number of ways to visualize your data. To use it, just go to Google Docs and create a new form.

SurveyMonkey: The big gorilla

4Here’s a no-frills, no-fluff survey tool best used for organizations of any size looking to aggregate a lot of data. SurveyMonkey, perhaps the best-known survey tool in the field, offers a handy keyword search feature to help users navigate their multiple surveys, security assurance and question logic add-ons to maximize the efficiency and accuracy of your surveys. For those looking for a no-nonsense survey tool that does the basics and does them well, SurveyMonkey is a reliable option.

Surveyz: Heavy-duty surveying

5For organizations looking for something more layered and complex than a simple survey Surveyz, by Qualtrics, offers highly advanced survey logic and sophisticated analysis for professional research. This software offers many similar features to the other survey tools but at a much greater level of sophistication – taking reports, analysis and logistics to a whole new level of customization. This kind of a service comes at a much higher cost, but if you’re a nonprofit, you can get this service for a song.

Some others worth checking out are Poll Daddy, Zoomerang, Vizu and Key Survey.

The post 5 top online survey tools for nonprofits appeared first on Socialbrite.

And a Q&A with a representative of the new service about what’s ahead

By Jessica Haswell
Socialbrite staff

Do you love Twitter‘s serendipity — the cool way it surfaces links that hit just the right spot — but aren’t too thrilled with the free-for-all jumble of tweets that race past you?

Struggle to find the jewels amid the chaos no more: paper.li is a fresh new take on Twitter that organizes not just the tweets but the content from the links. The free service assembles the heart of the Twitter content you care about into one graphically pleasing magazine-style layout.

This morning the Swiss-based start-up answered a few questions about what’s coming down the road — including a paper.li online newsstand. See below for the Q&A.

Anyone can create a paper.li in under a minute — see below for how to do it. Your paper is updated every 24 hours, making it easy to stay on top of the tweets of the folks you follow. In a word, it offers context. Not only that, but paper.li enables you to reply, retweet, follow, unfollow or favorite through pop-up tabs on the site.

There is currently no other website quite like this, but I’m sure that won’t stay true for long. (For a different example, check out The Twitter Tim.es.) For a nonprofit, business or any organization, this is a fast, easy, terrific promotional tool to educate your followers about your cause or mission. It merges a diverse collection of links about niche subjects into one slick package.

What do you think of paper.li? Please leave a comment below.

How it works: Publish your paper in a hot second

Interested in setting one up? Here are the steps to take:

1) Go to paper.li and click the “Create your own daily paper” button.

2) Sign in to your Twitter or Facebook account to authorize the app’s access to your account.

3) The site creates a paper for you — click the “my paper.li” link. You can also also click “create a newspaper” to add a Twitter user you follow, a #tag (though this doesn’t always work) or a Twitter list.

Shazam! You have a newspaper!

Noted blogger Robert Scoble calls paper.li “a Flipboard for those of us without iPads.” Rita King tells us: “I like paper.li because it’s amazingly accurate in its perception of what will interest me.”

And educator Kathy Gill adds: “I love it because it’s another form of discovery. It’s a great way see what other people thought was important in the prior 24 hour period. It puts an ephemeral Tweetstream into a snapshot that is more than minute here-or-there by letting you look at a stream.”

Here’s how the Causes Daily looks:

The Causes Daily

Tips on creating your publication

There’s no catch. The service is free, permitting anyone with a Twitter or Facebook account to create up to 10 papers. It’s a creation of SmallRivers, a small start-up in Lausanne, Switzerland, located on the Swiss Institute of Technology EPFL campus. The service rolled out earlier this year in “alpha” (the stage before beta), so expect to see a lot of changes in the coming months. Follow the latest developments on the paper.li blog.

Here are some other things you may want to know:

• The developers wanted to keep things simple, so currently you can’t do any tailoring or fine-tuning of your publication. That is, you can’t decide which tweets or accompanying media to highlight; paper.li uses an algorithm to highlight important or newsworthy content, though how it “guesses” which items to highlight is a bit of a mystery.

• The service pulls some of the tweets you send, but most of the publication’s content comes from the people on Twitter whom you follow — not the people who follow you. For accounts like Socialbrite, which has an open door policy of following back just about any legitimate Twitter user, this makes for a less focused newspaper experience. However, using a Twitter list or #hashtag is an easy way to bring a focused theme to your paper.li. A site like Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop also solves this by creating niche Twitter accounts, posting updates to each — and following nobody. Thus, the Alltop Social Media Daily grabs updates only from @Alltop_Social because Alltop_Social follows no one.

Q&A with one of the site’s developers

Here are some questions we put to the site’s developers. Ed from SmallRivers responded earlier today:

How will readers be able to navigate paper.li newspapers? One can search by keyword, but there’s no directory of papers created.

We are working on a paper.li “newsstand.” You’ll be able to search papers there with many more criteria than only keywords.

Will future releases let publishers customize the display of their papers?

To a certain extent, yes. But we really want to keep it as simple as possible (and that’s THE challenge…).

Will publishers be able to mash up multiple tags, lists or accounts into a single newspaper?

We are working on enabling users to build more targeted papers. Multiple criteria is one of the ways we are currently looking into.

Paper.li is still in development. What are some of the upcoming features you’re planning to include in future releases?

Sorry, we can’t disclose now.

We see this as an easy way for nonprofits to create a pretty cool promotional vehicle for their cause or mission. What benefits does paper.li offer to nonprofits in particular?

It is clearly seen as a good place to show the output of a distributed collaboration. We see many nonprofits promoting new hashtags (specially made for paper.li) and inviting their supporters to contribute. It is also seen as a relevant “resource center” (see World Wildlife Fund‘s WWF Climate Daily).

Will there be a cost for creating newspapers at some point?

Not for the types of papers you can see now. But some advanced features might be premium (small monthly fee).

Papers to check out

Here are some of the papers we like — do a keyword search to explore ones that match your own interests.

• WWF Climate Daily

• Causes Daily by JD Lasica

• #climate Daily

• Social Entrepreneurs (#socent) Daily

• EdTech Daily

• EdChat Daily

• Robert Scoble’s Most Influential in Tech Daily

• Chris Brogan Daily

• Socialbrite Team Daily

• Microfinance Daily

• TechCrunch Daily

Have your own favorites? Please list them in the comments.

The post Paper.li: Create your own Twitter newspaper appeared first on Socialbrite.

Evernote, Wikipanion & GoDocs should be in your arsenal

Target audience: Students, educators, nonprofits, social change organizations, mobile diehards.

By Jessica Haswell
Socialbrite staff

School just got easier with this collection of the top 10 apps that you can’t hit the classrooms without. Having recently left the classroom (Cornell 2010 — woot!), these are some tools that I definitely wish I had. Add them to the list of Top 10 Student Tools for Fall that we ran last month.

Evernote: A revolution in note-taking

1This app is revolutionizing notes as we know it. Evernote is a mobile and web sync friendly, media-rich note-taking machine. The basic function of the app is note-taking with the ability to add voice, photos, location and tags as well as the option to share with friends. The most exciting feature of this app is the Evernote trunk, which is filled with all sorts of valuable tools that are sure to help you excel in the classroom. Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm Pre.

Wikipanion: Who needs a textbook?

2Who needs a textbook when you have Wikipedia’s brain child, Wikipanion? This app has really high ratings – because it’s simply a great app. You can access open source content on any topic imaginable, an essential tool for any class. Platform: iPhone.

GoDocs: Essential for your Google docs

3View, download and send your Google docs from your iPhone or iPad with this $3.99 app. Google docs are the go-to collaboration tool for students, and GoDocs will make collaboration even easier. The only thing it doesn’t do is let you edit docs. Platforms: iPhone, iPad.

Cliqset: Consolidate your stream

4Sharing, discovering and discussing on mobile and the Web just got easier: Follow your streams on Facebook, Twitter, Buzz — 70 social networks all told — in one place with Cliqset. This app is sure to help students simplify their lives and help professors keep students engaged. Platform: iPhone.

MyHomework: Digital planner in your palm

5Make sure you hand in all of the assignments on time – download this app. MyHomework makes it easy to keep track of, and color code all of your homework, classes, projects and tests. The app will also notify you when you have late and upcoming assignments by numbering them on your application icon. Buh-bye, paper planner. Platform: iPhone.

Rate My Profs: Students strike back

6The website has been around for a while — more than 10 million comments about 1 million profs — and now there is a free app available for this. Gotta admit, I love it. Rate My Professor was my bible for finding some of my favorite classes at school and avoiding some of the worst. Democracy run amok? Who cares! Platform: iPhone.

Kindle: Save money on textbooks

7Digital textbooks are for sure the way to save. With over 6,000 textbooks available for the Web, mobile and tablets, Amazon’s Kindle will save you about $60 on your average textbook purchase. Multiply that by the amount of textbooks you buy in one semester — that’s a lot of extra spending money. Platforms: iPhone, iPad.

FlashCards++: No more 3x5s

8There are a lot of flashcard apps to choose from – FlashCard++ is the best bang for your buck, going for $2.99, less than a deck of 3x5s. This stand-out study app makes it easy to study anything anywhere with your mobile phone. It can sync with Quizlet and also back-up your cards to Dropbox. If you’re not pleased with this one, check out CoboCards, Cram or Flashcards Deluxe. Platform: iPhone.

Sleep Cycle: Wake up feeling your best

9While this won’t help you get more sleep, Sleep Cycle does serve as an alarm clock that wakes you up during your lightest sleep phase, helping you wake up feeling most rested and relaxed. Sleep is almost as important as studying before a big exam. Costing only 99 cents, this app is definitely worth it. Platform: iPhone.

iTranslator: Translations at your fingertips

10You can use iTranslator to connect to Google Translator, Babel Fish or Free Translation to help with your language courses. Or, maybe it’ll help you figure out what language your prof is speaking. Platform: iPhone.

Other mobile apps to check out

Other interesting apps that have come across our desk from our friends at GradeGuru:

• gFlash + Flashcards and Tests: Create your own flashcards and share them with classmates as you study.

• Alarm Clock Pro: No need for that annoying alarm clock sound, with this app you can create an alarm clock with customizable themes and the app lets you set an ITunes playlist to wake up to.

• NY Times: Tet news from the New York Times online for free while you’re on the go to make sure you’re up to date before heading to class.

• Graphing Calculator: Not only does this app have all of the functionality of a graphing calculator, a screenshot of the work can be taken and emailed to anyone.

• Convertbot: This app converts currency, length, mass, time and much more. It supports over 440 units of conversion to help with any assignments.

• Periodic: This app offers a complete reference to the Periodic Table of Elements. It also offers useful information such as an element’s atomic weight, electron configuration, melting point, boiling point, atomic radius, ionic radius and year of discovery.

• MyGPA Calculator: Calculate your GPA per semester and cumulatively.

• Look for the upcoming release of GradeGuru’s StudyTracker ($1.99), which helps you track your effort at school, class by class, to help you achieve your grade goals.

What helps you bring home the A+? Please share in the comments below.

Related

• Top Ten Student Tools for Fall 2010 (Socialbrite)

• Jessica Haswell’s last piece for us was 5 collaboration tools to enhance productivity

The post Top 10 mobile apps for college students appeared first on Socialbrite.

Huddle, Basecamp, DeskAway among tools to help your team members work together

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, entrepreneurs, NGOs, citizen publishers, educators.

By Jessica Haswell
Socialbrite staff

The Google Wave came and went – what was that thing, anyway? — but here are some tools that maximize the collaboration and efficiency of your organization and are sure to stick. We took a look at five of the top Web-based project management and collaboration tools that can help nonprofits and other organizations get stuff done. These tools are productivity boosters, regardless of whether your staffers work in the same office or if your team wants to engage supporters in far-flung locations.

Have your own favorite? Please share in the comments below.

Huddle: Free workspaces for nonprofits

1Habitat for Humanity, UNICEF and World Vision are just a few of the nonprofits using Huddle, and it’s a great option for smaller organizations as well. We use London-based Huddle — which just opened a San Francisco office — as the online workspace for New Media Labs, one of our nonprofit clients. Coolest features: Huddle’s customizable dashboard, making it easy to add widgets, and online whiteboards that foster effortless integration with LinkedIn, Ning and Facebook. Thanks to the Huddle Foundation, Huddle is one of the only outfits that offers registered charities (with budgets below $7 million) completely free services. Huddle.net won the Best B2B/Enterprise Start-up at the TechCrunch Europe Awards 2009. Follow Huddle on Twitter. See Huddle on iTunes.

Basecamp: Over 3 million users

2They must be doing something right: Basecamp has 3 million users, growing at 1,000 companies a week, so one of the chief appeals of Basecamp is the ability to connect with outsiders and other organizations. On top of its massive user count is an extremely well-organized, powerful project management system, customizable interface design and mobile support. The price, starting at $24 per month, is comparable to other tools of its kind, but there are no discounts for nonprofits. Follow Basecamp on Twitter.

Teamwork Project Manager: More features for less

3This package offers a clean layout and customizable logo and layout options – important projects can be starred and featured on the main screen with “custom view.” Message boards are just one of the collaboration tools offered in addition to wiki-style notes. If you’re looking for the functionality of Basecamp at a lower cost, check out Ireland-based Teamwork Project Manager. Follow TeamworkPM on Twitter.

DeskAway: A good choice for the boss

4Delegation, sharing, tracking work and transparency are just some of the things that DeskAway prides itself on. One of this mobile-enabled project management system’s stand-out features is its ability to import data from Basecamp if you’re looking to switch out or back up your project data. Desk Away makes nominating a project manager to keep things organized easy — it’s a good choice for tech-savvy executive directors or C-suite execs. See info on the DeskAway mobile app. Follow DeskAway on Twitter.

Zoho: Build your own efficiency toolkit

5Zoho stands out from the rest of its field: It offers an online toolkit of productivity, collaboration and business apps similar to Google Docs, which has copied some of Zoho’s best features. The most exciting feature of Zoho is its ability to sync with other programs such as Google Apps or Microsoft Office, making it that much easier to communicate and share content with your colleagues. The one downside (or upside, depending on how you will use it) is that you buy all of the various tools — Business, CRM, Reports, etc. — separately. Zoho is perfect for those who want to build their own collaboration and efficiency toolkit. Follow Zoho on Twitter.

Other collaboration tools

These are by no means the only collaboration and efficiency tools out there. We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention some of these:

• Wikis, of course, though not all employees are taken with them. Compare the different wiki software platforms on Wikipedia.

• Redmine, which we wrote about in A developer’s 5 favorite social tools.

• Some other choices worth a look: Colaab, the open source Teambox, Active Collab, Comind, Central Desktop and the other Project tools we list at Web 2.0 Productivity Tools.

I’d love to hear about your organization’s experiences with some of these project management tools – please share your thoughts below!

The post 5 collaboration tools to enhance productivity appeared first on Socialbrite.

By Jessica Haswell
Socialbrite staff

Nonprofits have long known that creating a YouTube channel can help tell your organization’s story. But did you know that YouTube offers a nonprofit program? YouTube’s program gives nonprofits a number of handy features to get your message heard.

One nonprofit that put the program to good use is charity: water, which raised more than $12,000 in one day through the use of an in-video ad overlay on their World Water Day video, shown above.

Features of the YouTube Nonprofit Program

What exactly does YouTube’s Nonprofit Program offer?

• More exposure. Videos will be listed in YouTube’s nonprofit channel and Nonprofit videos pages, and you’ll have your own nonprofit channel, which can be fully branded to suit your organization.
• New outreach and fundraising opportunities. Your organization can add Call-to-action ad overlays on your videos, and a Google Checkout “donate” button can be added to your organization’s YouTube channel to help drive campaigns.
• Volunteer videographers. You can post a video opportunity on the YouTube Video Volunteers platform to find a skilled YouTube user to create a video for your cause.

To us, the most exciting feature of this program is the call-to-action ad overlay. You know how about 10 seconds after you start watching a You Tube video, an ad pops up at the bottom of the video? After joining this program you can now control the content of the ad overlay wording on all of your videos, giving you the ability to include a call to action: Link the viewer to your website, additional content, places to donate or other external sites. Cool, right?

Make your channel count

After you join the Nonprofit Program, you’ll have your own nonprofit channel. You Tube offers some good tips on how to maximize the impact and exposure of your channel. Among them:

• Reach out. Post videos that get YouTube viewers talking — perhaps you’ll want to create a compellng digital story. Then engage in an ongoing conversation with comments and video responses.
• Partner up. Find other organizations on YouTube that complement your mission, and work together to promote each other.
• Keep it fresh. Put up new videos regularly and keep them short — ideally under 5 minutes.
• Spread your message. Embed your video on your own blog, and share the links and embed code with supporters so they can help get the word out.
• Be genuine. YouTube has a wide demographic, so high view counts come from content that’s compelling, rather than what’s hip or trendy.

Videos are still limited to 10 minutes in length, even if your nonprofit is accepted into the program.

How to join

Membership in the nonprofit program is free, and it’s currently only available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

To apply, first make sure you fit the meet the program requirements, and then click apply now to fill out an application.

Has your organization joined the YouTube Nonprofit Program? If so, we’d love to hear to hear your experience — please leave a comment below.

Related

• Guide to shooting better online video (Socialbrite)

• Creating media: a roundup of guide & tips about how to create video & more (Socialbrite)

• Complete guide to creating a video project (Socialbrite)

• Google for nonprofits

The post How to maximize your nonprofit’s impact with YouTube appeared first on Socialbrite.