Flickr:.reid.I’d like to start off this week’s member news by congratulating my colleague, Annaliese Hoehling. Many of you know Annaliese as a great resource for any questions regarding all aspects of NTEN’s resources and nonprofit technology in general. Last year she changed her focus at NTEN to became our Research and Publications Director, and she’s already receiving huge honors for her work. Stratton Publishing named her their “Publishing Trendsetter of the Year” for her management of the NTEN:Change Journal!

I’d also like to thank the NTEN:Change Journal’s editoral committee for your contributions and support creating an award-winning publication. Thank you, Debra Askanase, Chris Bernard, Rick Birmingham, Britt Bravo, Barbara Buswell, Gavin Clabaugh, Martin Dooley, Deborah Elizabeth Finn, Paula Jones, John Kenyon, Kivi Leroux Miller, Julie Macalik, John Merritt, Laura Quinn, Amy Sample Ward, Ash Shepard, and Michael Stein! 

This award is evidence that when the nonprofit community works together to support each other’s causes, we can achieve great things! Now, check out all the other ways our community came together to do good this week.

Have more news to share? Drop us a line or include your links in the comments!

If you’re an organization that’s looking to analyze and visualize data about your work, or needs assistance in using data to further your mission, then you should apply to be part of the Washington D.C. Data Dive. It will be held March 2nd through the 4th.

Change.org was featured in the Washington Post for being an influential advocate on issues from bullying to bank fees. Read about all the ways Change.org is supporting impact!

This is the last week to purchase early bird tickets to the 2012 Nonprofit Technology & Communications Conference, hosted by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits! The conference is held on March 16, in Minneapolis.

Has your organization told an inspirational digital story? Or, are you planning to? You should enter TechSoup’s Digital Storytelling Challenge. “TSDigs” will begin in February, so learn more now and register to participate in the webinars and Twitter chats!

The 9th Annual Games for Change Festival will be taking place on June 18-20, in New York City. The call for talks and presentations is now live and the deadline is February 17th! The festival is the leading global event that facilitates the creation and distribution of social impact games that serve as critical tools in humanitarian and educational efforts.

NTEN would like to congratulate our member Mark Oliphant of Global Impact on being selected as a 2012 SmartCXO by SmartCEO magazine!

Causes is prepping some new fundraising tools on their website! Nonprofits will be able to ask Cause members to make a pledge, create a quiz, and launch a voting contest on their page.  Here is an example of the new tools that will be available soon!

Bill Weger, a nonprofit marketing veteran, shares proven methods on how to gain more traction using social media, media relations, branding, and message development in his new book, Inspire Good: Nonprofit Marketing for a Better World.  We’re really looking forward to reading this one!

Lastly, ever been to a really bad presentation? Check out these communications #fails, which really do sum up an awful presentation.

Anything we missed? Share your links in the comments!

There are still a few seats left for the "Advanced Social Media Decision-Maker's Toolkit". It starts January 31st, but there's still time to:

> Learn more and register today.

This class is for you if you're ready to step beyond the basics. Over the course of 5 trainings, we'll delve into advanced social media strategy and discuss how to use your social media for branding, deeper engagement, and integrated campaigns.

We'll also explore how to measure your social media impact – and walk you through creating a social media policy, step by step.

Series Sessions Include:

• January 31 - Branding Through Social Media
• February 7 - Getting Beyond the Like: Using Social Media to Cultivate Deeper Commitment
• February 14 - Integrating Social Media Channels (and Other Communications)
• February 21 - Measuring Your Social Media Efforts
• February 28 - Creating a Social Media Policy

The full details about each of the sessions are available on the event page.

Why's this important? Because social media is about so much more than sharing the latest pictures of cats on glass. (Hat tip: Big Duck.)

There are five weeks left in our quest to raise $10,000 to send 50 nonprofits to the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco this April. We're almost a quarter of the way there!

At NTEN headquarters, we're doing everything WE can think of to raise that money. All I can say is, it's a good thing we've got you to help out! Our bake sale was crumb-y (get it?), mining for bitcoin took too long, and we struck out at our bowl-a-thon.

This week, I tried my hand at the age-old art of busking. Let's just say that it wasn't my musical talent people were after. See how I fared, and don't forget to make your donation to the campaign today!