Guest blogger Annaliese Hoehling works as a Publications Director at NTEN (The Nonprofit Technology Network).  She has been with NTEN since 2006, working to connect NTEN members with each other and with the information and resources that will help make their jobs a little (or a lot!) easier. As Publications Director, Annaliese is working to develop NTEN’s research and publications that document the transformational power of technology in the nonprofit sector. She received the 2012 Publishing Trendsetter Award from the Angerosa Research Foundation in partnership with Stratton Publishing & Marketing.

I’m excited to be sharing some information about my organization and the resources we provide in the upcoming webinar on January 24 and thought I’d also share some overview and stories here on the blog.
NTEN is a 501(c)(3) membership organization that serves as a community and professional network for nonprofit technology professionals.  Who are “nonprofit technology” professionals, you might ask? These days, it’s everyone at your organization, plus the consultants who help with your data, IT infrastructure, and fundraising and communications campaigns, and even the people who build and provide the tools and apps to carry out your day-to-day world-changing work.  Phew. That’s a lot of people.  And we like it that way.
NTEN has been around since 2000 and today is made up of about 3000 memberships, which represents over 11,000 members.  In addition to our members, we have an active community of individuals participating in our online community and events, making the NTEN community 50,000+ strong.
Our mission and our work consist of three main areas:
CONNECT
NTEN connects members with each other and offers many opportunities to connect with peers, colleagues, and experts in the nonprofit technology landscape.  We serve as a platform for nonprofit technology professionals to share questions, experiences, resources, and ideas.  Both online and off-line events and channels are there throughout the year to connect individuals from diverse job functions and levels of tech comfort with resources and each other. Here’s a great place to start connecting with the NTEN community: my.nten.org
LEARN
Because success doesn’t just come from “who” you know, but, of course, what you know, NTEN provides educational events, research, and articles to help increase the knowledge and effectiveness of nonprofit technology professionals.   Here are a few great places to start:

CHANGE
All of this work—the conversations, resources, and ideas—is for the purpose of transforming the raw materials and potential of digital and information technology into real change for our communities.  We’ve been documenting that transformation in a growing set of case studies that illustrate the many different people, tools, successes, and even failures it takes to get a project, a campaign, a new strategy off the ground.  And it’s not always about being “new,” either – it’s often about getting smarter, more efficient, and more impactful with the work we’re already doing every day.  Browse the case studies here: nten.org/case-studies.
But I’d like to wrap up by turning to our community—a tactic NTEN believes strongly in—to share a video about the “what” and the “why” of tapping in to the NTEN community.