Fall 2011 Class Schedule

COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES FOR NONPROFITS

Look Before You Leap: Choosing the Best Communication Tools for Your Nonprofit

Does your nonprofit organization want to make a greater impact, involve more people or raise more money? You can if you get better at reaching out, telling your story and getting people to notice you. This is what strategic communication is all about. There are a lot of tools out there designed to help you communicate with your various target audiences. Some are traditional (like press releases and direct mail), some are new like social media (Facebook, Twitter). What tools are best for you?

CUTTING THE CABLE

Join the revolution: learn how to drop expensive cable or dish service and get your video from the web. We'll talk about how you can watch everything from new-release movies to network shows to city-council meetings without dishing out for the dish or cable.

SOCIAL MEDIA SERIES - TWITTER 101

Interested in learning about Twitter but don't know where to begin or how to use its many features? This class will provide an informative introduction and overview.

SOCIAL MEDIA SERIES - LEARNING HOW TO CONFIGURE YOUR FACEBOOK SETTINGS FOR SECURITY AND PRIVACY

We will walk you through recommended privacy settings in Facebook. We will show you how to set secure levels of privacy and reduce the chance of becoming a victim of hacking, viruses, information collectors and identity thieves.  The class is for current Facebook users but non-users are also welcome. There's a hands-on component and Wi-Fi is available in the lab.  The first 7 registrants can use the lab's desktops.  Others are encouraged to bring your own laptop.

SOCIAL MEDIA SERIES - TWITTER HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

This class is for beginners.  Enrollment in Twitter 101 recommended but not required. Please note that access to a web-based email account (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo are fine too) will be needed if you wish to create a Twitter account during the class. There's a hands-on component and Wi-Fi is available in the lab.  The first 7 registrants can use the lab's desktops.  Others are encouraged to bring your own laptop.

WI-FI ROUTER PART I - HOW TO SET UP A WIRELESS ROUTER AND SECURE IT

This class covers basic concepts of routing, and safe operation and usage of the router.

WEB VIDEO FOR ORGANIZATIONS - CREATING A WEB VIDEO: WHAT WE LEARNED

We will take you through the process of creating a web video for your nonprofit organization. Elements include: defining your audience, soliciting ideas, drafting a script, selecting visuals and music, choosing a style (formal? informal? testimonial?). We will share what worked for us and what didn’t work. This is not a technical class, although we will give you a lot of useful information about tools, software and editing. See DCN's sample video at www.dcn.org.

WEBSITE CREATION USING SimpleSites 2.0

DCN's SimpleSites are a web tool that provides the power of a modern, interactive website through the web. SimpleSites, recognized for its ease of use and value to nonprofits, earned a National Grassroots Techie Award. In this class, learn to build a website using SimpleSites. No previous web authoring experience necessary. See examples.

Learn how to set up port forwarding to get private devices available on the public Internet.

SPECIAL WEBSITE TOOLS IN SimpleSites 2.0

This class will focus on features and tools not covered in the SimpleSites 2.0 class. Learn how to use SimpleSite tools to integrate seamlessly with social networking tools, create slide shows, web forms, manage data, add blogs, maps, videos, RSS, a Mailman subscription form, etc. Knowledge of SimpleSites 2.0 preferred but not required.

ONLINE COLLABORATION PART I - TIPS AND TOOLS FOR COLLABORATING PRODUCTIVELY ONLINE

There is now a wide range of free software tools that make it easy to organize large projects among many different people, or smaller projects involving a few, all without leaving the comfort of your web browser! This class will cover various common – and popular – online tools that allow you to:

• Arrange group phone calls over the web (with or without video)
• Easily set up a blog where multiple people can write blog posts
• Share and transfer large files (useful for when you run into your email file size limit)
• Share 'to do' lists and other project management tasks among many different people
• Write documents and spreadsheets collaboratively

This class includes an overview of many of the available software products that can help achieve these goals

ONLINE COLLABORATION PART II - HANDS-ON WORKSHOP

Participants in this class will learn how to use some of the popular and free tools for productive online collaboration. Enrollment in "Online Collaboration Part I" recommended but not required. Please note that access to a Google account (e.g. Gmail) will be needed. There's a hands-on component and Wi-Fi is available in the lab.The first 7 registrants can use the lab's desktops. Others are encouraged to bring your own laptop.

EMAIL LIST MANAGEMENT WITH MAILMAN 

An email list is a very effective way for an organization to communicate with any size group -- boards of directors, project committees, memberships, supporters, or other constituents. Learn how to manage all your email lists with Mailman.

More classes may be added based on demand and instructor availability. Please contact admin@dcn.org if you have any questions.