[RRE]Nonprofits Policy and Technology (fwd)

[Kragen]

-- 
<kragen@pobox.com>       Kragen Sitaker     <http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/>
Irony and sarcasm deflate seriousness, and when your seriousness becomes detum-
escent, you're not held responsible for your thoughts. Irony beats thinking like
rock beats scissors. -- http://www.hyperorg.com/backissues/joho-june2-98.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 18:41:15 -0800 (PST)
From: Phil Agre <pagre@alpha.oac.ucla.edu>
To: Red Rock Eater News Service <rre@lists.gseis.ucla.edu>
Subject: [RRE]Nonprofits Policy and Technology


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE).
Send any replies to the original author, listed in the From: field below.
You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use
the "redirect" command.  For information on RRE, including instructions
for (un)subscribing, see http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/rre.html
or send a message to requests@lists.gseis.ucla.edu with Subject: info rre
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 10:16:48 -0500
From: "R. Turner" <turnerr@ombwatch.org>
Subject: NPT Pilot Grant Winners

********************
Nonprofits' Policy & Technology Project
Announces 1998 Pilot Project Grant Recipients

November 9, 1998
********************

The Pilot Project Grants Program selected six projects to receive grants
ranging from $5,000 to $13,000 that employ information technology and
commu-nication strategies to develop or bolster public policy
activities, with an added emphasis on projects that have found ways to
involve disadvantaged populations and communities.

This year's recipients are:

Colorado Women's Agenda (Denver, CO); Grant Amount: $13,000
A statewide network of progressive women and women's organizations will
demonstrate how a small organization can broker collaboration through
the use of technology.  The organization will work with a wide range of
women's' and girls' organizations, targeting specific constituencies,
and provide technical assistance to help other organizations develop
their capacity for effective communication and mobilization strategies.
The end goal is to build a sustainable, powerful, cost-effective women's
political movement within the state. (http://www.womensagenda.org/)

Cook Inlet Keeper (Homer, AK); Grant Amount: $11,000
The Keeper is a nonprofit organization of fishermen, artists,
scientists, and Native Alaskans.  It works to harness higher-end
technologies including Geographic Information Systems and Internet-based
fax, in order to facilitate direct citizen political participation and
citizen-based research among geographically hard to reach rural
populations in the collection of watershed data for an estuary covering
47,000 square miles in south central Alaska.
(http://www.xyz.net/~keeper/)

FOCUS St. Louis (St. Louis, MO); Grant Amount: $13,000
An organization devoted to citizen leadership and civic engagement,
FOCUS St. Louis is at the novice stage of technology use.  It will work
with a community technology center in a fractured community to explore
ways of gathering citizens on a grassroots level for effective dialogue
around divisive issues, specifically race relations.  This project will
emphasize public use of, and access to, Internet tools including chat,
listservs, web-based conferences, and online surveys.
(http://www.focus-stl.org)

Institute for the Study of Civic Values (Philadelphia, PA); Grant
Amount: $5,000
The Institute's community-based outreach initiative, Jobs and
Opportunity to Improve Neighborhoods (JOIN) Online, will conduct a
campaign to engage welfare recipients in using technology for coalition
building and organizing.  The JOIN Project will also work to help
welfare recipients communicate with the Philadelphia-area organizations
and agencies that advocate and provide services on their behalf.
(http://www.libertynet.org/nol/natl.html)

North Carolina Justice and Community Development Center (Raleigh, NC);
Grant Amount: $10,000
The Center's NCexChange Project, the first statewide effort in the
country to promote the use of electronic networking by nonprofits, will
use multiple technology approaches to engage low-income individuals in
public policy activity in the area of welfare reform. Working in
collaboration with a newly-formed alliance of nonprofit agencies that
addresses devolution issues, the lessons and models this project
develops can be shared with other similar state alliances.
(http://www.ncexchange.org)

Washington Low Income Housing Network (Seattle, WA); Grant Amount:
$13,000
This housing advocacy coalition proposes to expand its current
communications network serving its members and partners to include
e-mail/listserv, while maintaining mail and fax communications with
members who do not have Internet access. The expansion includes outreach
to tenant' groups, other (non-housing) social service providers and
policy advocates. The inclusion of tenants' groups in particular will
give low-income housing populations a voice, allowing them to engage in
discussions with providers and advocates. The inclusion of non-housing
providers and advocates is intended to strengthen coalitions on issues
of concern to low-income population. (wlihn@accessone.com) 


The Pilot Project grantees were selected from 170 proposals from
nonprofits in 39 states, representing local grassroots efforts,
statewide projects, regional
collaborations, national initiatives, and international projects with a
domestic focus. The top five categories of policy issues addressed were
environmental and conservation issues, community activism, health and
human services, children and families, and civic participation. 

Proposals were selected through rigorous entry requirements and three
rounds of intensive review. Projects were judged on their potential to
engage communities and constituencies for civic participation, as well
as their impact on public policy outcomes in their stated issue areas. 
The vast majority of the proposals involved significant use of Websites
and listservs; a number also incorporated higher-end technologies
including web-based conferencing, online databases, Internet-based fax,
and Geographic Information System (GIS) tools.
-- 
Ryan Turner, Coordinator
Nonprofits' Policy & Technology Project (NPT)
OMB Watch
1742 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20009-1171
PHONE: (202) 234-8494
FAX: (202) 234-8584
E-MAIL: turnerr@ombwatch.org
WEB: http://www.ombwatch.org/ombw/npt/

Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 10:06:03 -0500
From: "R. Turner" <turnerr@ombwatch.org>
Subject: 1998 NP Policy Tech Award Winners

[...]

********************
Nonprofits' Policy & Technology Project
Announces 1998 Award Winners

November 9, 1998
********************

Contact:
Ryan Turner, Coordinator
(202) 234-8494
coordinator@ombwatch.org

Seven groups around the U.S. have been recognized for the technical
quality and level of community service provided by their Web sites as
part of the 1998 Nonprofit Technology Innovation Awards sponsored by OMB
Watch's Nonprofits' Policy and Technology (NPT) Project.  For more
information on the project, visit the NPT website at
<http://www.ombwatch.org/ombw/npt/>.

The grand prize winner is Bethphage <http://www.bethphage.org>, the web
site for Omaha, Neb.-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
ministry. The site provides community-based services for
developmentally-disabled people in the U.S., England and Latvia.

Other winners:

* Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
<http://www.bazelon.org>. The Washington-based Bazelon Center used an
e-mail campaign to successfully fight legislation that would have
weakened federal fair housing laws 

* Libraries for the Future, <http://www.accessforall.org> a New York
City-based advocacy site that coordinates the Access for All coalition
for equity in telecommunications issues

* Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU, Inc. <http://www.aclu-il.org>, a
Chicago-based Web site that uses e-mail to update supporters of the ACLU
of Illinois on legislative matters

*San Francisco Bicycle Coalition <http://www.sfbike.org> has a site that
uses e-mail, chat, listservs and autofax to promote volunteer advocacy

*TVW <http://www.tvw.org>, a Washington state nonprofit television
network that provides unedited live audio/video Internet coverage of
state government activities

* Utility Consumers' Action Network <http://www.ucan.org/gas/>, a San
Diego-based consumer group that offers a Lowest Gasoline Price index

The grand prize winner received $3,000. All other winners received
$1,000.

The award program is one part of the Nonprofits' Policy and Technology
Project, an initiative to promote information technologies for public
policy issues. OMB Watch is a nonprofit research, educational, and
advocacy group that focuses on government policy issues and the effects
of technology on nonprofit organizations. For more information, contact
the NPT Project at:

Phone: (202) 234-8494
E-mail: coordinator@ombwatch.org

-- 
Ryan Turner, Coordinator
Nonprofits' Policy & Technology Project (NPT)
OMB Watch
1742 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20009-1171
PHONE: (202) 234-8494
FAX: (202) 234-8584
E-MAIL: turnerr@ombwatch.org
WEB: http://www.ombwatch.org/ombw/npt/