We know what Non-Profit Soapbox is, but who’s building it?
Non-Profit Soapbox is the brain child of a Web consulting firm called
PICnet based in Washington, DC. We’ve spent years working with non-profit
organizations in a variety of roles, including technology, strategy, and advocacy.
To be perfectly honest, we’re tired of seeing the wheel reinvented
over, and over, and over. So, we decided to package up our best practices
that we’ve learned over the years and give it to you.
Ok, but really, who is building Non-Profit Soapbox?
Aside from the plants in our offices that encourage us to go outside every
once in a while to see the sun, Non-Profit Soapbox has been built by a small
crew of savvy individuals. Lead by Ryan Ozimek, CEO of PICnet, the following
people have harnessed the power of open source software to create Non-Profit
Soapbox: Chris Garvis, Pradeep Suthram, Ryan Belisle, and Alex Payne. More on
open source later.
Whose basement are you working out of?
While Ryan’s basement has been known to be quite the hot spot for such
events as the infamous 2003 and 2004 Groundhog Day parties, we actually operate
just a block from the White House. Our central location in the nation’s
capitol gives us quick access to Capitol Hill and K St., depending on who’s
paying the bills. Even better, our meeting room overlooks the roof of the
White House, where we spend time between meetings watching the men in black
cover the president’s home.
Hmm, so you’re Beltway people?
Actually, far from it. We’ve got our roots set in countries as far
away as India, to little unknown technology centers like Silicon Valley.
We feel a little bit like the new kids on the block here in Washington, even
after 3 years in the District, but the locals seem to like us. Ryan’s
still looking for the perfect swell to surf off the coast of Virginia.
That’s good to know. You can always learn a lot about people
by those they keep in close company. Who are your clients and partners?
We could never be where we are today without our families, our clients, and
our partners. In that order. Our clients range from US congressional members
such as Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Carolyn Maloney of New York, to
large non-profit organizations such as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and
the Public Relations Society of America. Our focus and passions have always
been in social and public sectors, and our clients reflect that.
Our lawyers have taught us that “partners” is a loaded term,
and that we should talk about our “alliances”. So, to keep them
happy, our “alliances” include groups that continue to amaze
us, like Democracy in Action, Social Source Foundation, and Infotech Strategies.
Their energies and passions keep us moving in the right direction.
Alright, you sound like good, sane people. Let’s get down
to business.
Great, fire away!
I need an easy-to-use, professional-looking, and well-supported Web site
for our non-profit organization. Can Non-Profit Soapbox help me out?
First, would you like a job in our marketing department? You’ve
hit on all the core features of Non-Profit Soapbox. We’ve taken all the
hard stuff out of building and maintaining a non-profit Web site, and packaged
it into our little bundle of joy.
Is Non-Profit Soapbox like one of those blog engines I’ve seen
before?
Not quite. We consider Non-Profit Soapbox to be like a blog
just like a 42’ motorhome
could be called an automobile. You could get by on just a blog, but you’d
be missing all the collaborative and communication tools included, like event
calendars, district match-ups, and great constituent relationship tools integrated
from our partners (Democracy in Action and CiviCRM).
So signing up with Non-Profit Soapbox just gets us some Web software, right?
Technology on its own is like so dot-com bust. Organizations don’t grow
just because they have the best technology. To make an impact, you
need three key ingredients from the technology world: tools, community, and
strategy. Non-Profit Soapbox bundles the three of these together, empowering
your organization to take advantage of the Internet.
While our Web site manager allows you to manage your site more efficiently
than ever before, our non-profit technology network, Orgbuilder, provides
the glue that keeps everything together. Embedded right into Non-Profit Soapbox
is the Dembuilder network, where our clients exchange ideas and best practices.
Additionally, our interactive 60 Seconds training videos help you learn more
tricks of the trade.
Hard hitting tech questions your IT guy says are important
How much disk space do we get?
All our organizations start with 250MB of storage space, roughly the size nearly
half a CD-ROM of data. This disk space does not include the actual text
content on your site, which you can add as much as you’d like (read:
keep those press releases rolling out the door). Need more space? We’re
more than happy to provide addition space on a per-organization basis.
What server platform does Non-Profit Soapbox run on?
As strong supporters and contributors to open source (more on that in a moment),
we utilize the LAMP platform, which is a fun buzzword to take back to your
tech team. LAMP acronym for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, which in that
order is a server operating system, Web server, database server, and Web
programming language. The only thing we’ve done a little differently
is that we’ve replaced Linux with FreeBSD, an extremely stable server
operating system.
Ok, I need to seem cool with the IT guys. What’s open source
and why do you like it so much?
Wow, that's a tough one to handle in one little FAQ answer. Essentially,
open source is a methodology to programming that puts great emphasis on
community development. Rather than one firm or organization building a
particular product, an open source project can be built by a variety of
individuals or companies. If you really want to impress your IT guys, read
The
Cathedral and the Bazaar.
We like open source because it helps us stop trying to reinvent the wheel and
instead choose the best of breed systems for our clients and deliver them at an
affordable price. Non-Profit Soapbox has the Joomla content management system at
its core, and we're proud supporters of the Joomla community.
