I spent Tuesday at the 2007 Nonprofit Technology Conference in Cambridge, put on by the TechFoundation.  There were about 100 attendees, mostly IT directors and executive directors from nonprofits in the northeast.  I attended to have the opportunity to listen to the challenges and successes that nonprofits have regarding implementing technology of all kinds directly from these guys who are on the lines; you can never talk to to many people.
It was interesting to hear the fundamental things that they deal with every day.  We know that Firstgiving is super-easy to use, but we don’t see every day all the layers of work that have to go into these organizations’ getting a foundation even laid so that they can take advantage of web tools and services.  Everything from convincing grantmakers that technology is vital, to training staff on how to use everything.  There’s a big gap; it’s closing, though, because of conferences like these and because there are a lot of really smart people working at the nonprofits who "get it"; their biggest challenge is getting everyone else to "get it".
I attended an excellent session run by Brian Reich, the Director of New Media at Cone, Inc., on the impact of tech tools on nonprofit communication and fundraising.  He stressed the importance of truly communicating with supporters, which means listening and responding.  This means giving up control to an extent, which is tough but vital for any organization (ours included). 
Next was a session by Beth Kanter (Beth’s a consultant on nonprofit use of new media, author of Beth’s Blog and member of BlogHer and NTEN).   We’ve talked to Beth before and think she’s onto some good stuff.  In this session, she talked about ways that organizations can use all of the social media tools that are available (blogs, social networks, wikis) in any number of configurations to achieve any number of goals.  Very engaging and enlightening for everyone attending.
As always, I look forward to doing more of this kind of thing this year; if you know of anything going on, let us know!