All posts in Technology

I’m pleased to announce that our very own Mitchell Kapor and Freada Kapor Klein will be the keynote speakers at the ‘resurrected’ Nonprofit Boot Camp that was previously produced by Craigslist Foundation.  On June 12, Nonprofit Boot Camp comes back to life in Silicon Valley.  Boot Camp will cover the spectrum of nonprofit management issues facing established organizations and will feature keynotes, interactive roundtables, educational tracks devoted to Fundraising, Social Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Nonprofit Basics, and an evening networking cocktail reception.

Save 25% if you also sign up to attend the Social Media for Nonprofits partner conference on June 13.  This conference is devoted to social media for social good, where seasoned professionals and practitioners will share practical tips and tools for fundraising, marketing, and advocacy.  Speakers will address a variety of topics in a series of short, TED-meets-Twitter style talks and interactive workshops.

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We’re excited to share our video summary of the 2012 year! Many thanks to everyone involved in making this happen – both the video and the accomplishments of the past year!

To view the list of 2012 grant recipients by program area, click here.
To view the video in our YouTube channel, click here.

Just in case you missed this announcement on our home page, we’re excited to share news of our next iteration!

On a related note, we’ll continue sharing news here on the mkf.org site until our changeover officially happens on May 15th.

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Dear Community:

For the past year, we’ve been keeping you abreast of an ongoing strategic shift here at the Kapor Foundation. We’re very excited to announce that we’ve arrived. As of May 15, 2013, the Kapor Foundation will have a new public face, the Kapor Center for Social Impact. Through a shared vision, set of values, and program activities, we’ll work more closely with Kapor Capital, our sibling venture capital microfirm focused on seed-stage tech startups.

The Kapor Center’s working mission is to “relentlessly pursue  creative strategies that will leverage tech for positive social impact in underrepresented communities, primarily focusing on closing academic, political, health, and economic gaps.” This mission represents our deep belief in the power of information technology as a tool to accelerate social good, and fully aligns with the Kapors’ longtime involvement in the tech industry, stemming back to their days at Lotus Development Corporation in the early 1980s.

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Attention Salesforce Users!

Does your non-profit (501c3) use the Salesforce software? Are there aspects of it you would like to learn more about?

If so, then book a free spot at Community Technology Network‘s first Tech Teach-In on April 5. The event is co-sponsored by Salesforce Foundation.

Date: Friday, April 5th
Time: 9:00 am-12:00 pm
Location: Salesforce, 50 Fremont St, San Francisco

Nonprofit organizations are invited to attend a group session and a 50-minute one-on-one consultation to assist with Salesforce configuration, reporting and dashboards, and collaboration questions.

This event is for nonprofit organizations that have implemented Salesforce.com and are currently using a Salesforce Subscription.  This event would suit any nonprofit staff members who want to become a report and dashboard ninja or have questions about Salesforce.com’s collaboration capabilities.  This is not an event for individuals who are looking for a basic overview and are not currently using a Salesforce platform.

Click HERE for more detailed information and to register.

Last week, I joined my colleague at the Foundation, Justin Davis, as well as my colleague from Kapor Capital, Brian Dixon, and traveled down to Austin, TX, to take part, for the first time, in the week and a half  affair that is South by Southwest (SXSW). Specifically, I was there for SXSW’s Interactive Festival, with its focus on all things technology-related.

Like much of my travel for the Foundation, it was a privilege to attend. Particularly so this time because it was a new and unfamiliar setting, one in line though with the Foundation’s pivot. It’s been quite a few years  since I’ve attended a conference where social justice wasn’t in some way central to the gathering, and, quite a few years, probably not since the World Social Forum,  since attending a conference as large as this one.

There’s much I’m still processing from the trip and many folks to follow-up with. In the meantime, though, here are some early reflections: (more…)

After returning from my first SXSWedu experience – yes, I got digitized – I have now had enough time to digest the digital overload and make sense of all  that I experienced. See, I arrived the Lone Star State capital a SXSW newbie, not knowing what to expect or what exactly to look for. My ignorance soon became dwarfed by an eagerness to consume as much information, materials, and swag as possible.

Each day, I strolled through the wide hallways of the Austin Convention Center and neighboring Hilton with my head on a swivel and ears attuned to what I called “tech talk” – conversations among individuals who are either starting, securing funding for, investing in, or acquiring a startup. Believe you me, there was no other conversation happening unless it was regarding what food truck was worth paying a visit to. Being cognizant of the directional pivot that we as an organization have recently made, I naturally wiggled my way into these annular conversations to become more familiar with what innovators and technologists were thinking.

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Okay you techie/social media wizard with communications strategy chops, public relations poise,  and a social justice heart – we’re looking for you! This is a fantastic opportunity to help craft and implement a mostly-tech-driven media strategy for our evolving organization(s) based in Oakland. See the announcement at our search firm’s site: www.koyapartners.com/KC_SMCM.html. Please do not contact us directly without going through Koya. If you’re the “right one,” we looking forward to working with you!

This article, Diversity in Tech and the Myth of Meritocracy, recently posted on Ebony.com is special for several reasons: the author, Tracey Ross, is an Oakland native, a UC Berkeley graduate, and an alumna of a Kapor-supported scholarship program. This article shows only a small bit of her awesomeness.

It also revisits the ongoing discourse about the false equivalency in the tech industry between tech’s reaching people in every demographic group and tech being a demographically “diverse” and representative sector. Anyone who looks closely at the makeup of tech firms, VC firms, or startups accelerators can see that this fabled representation just ain’t so. Mitch Kapor said as much in 2011 on CNN’s Black in America; Freada Kapor said it again last year, and Tracey is reasserting it again here.

SPOILER ALERT (kinda): In the coming months, we’re going to be actively focusing on diversifying the tech sector through funding, advising, convening, and advocacy. You’re going to be hearing a lot more about this from us.

Meanwhile, congrats to Tracey!

Just wanted to loop back around with everyone; we’ve received a few eager inquiries about our2013 grantmaking priorities. As we’ve mentioned before, we’re in store for some major changes as we shift our focus to tech-driven strategies and tools that further social justice/social impact. Once ready, we’ll announce the changes here on our website and Twitter account, so please check back with us in mid-February for updates.

I love that the Presidential Inauguration falls on the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday. Rather than pontificating on the vision and promise that these two leaders represent, I’m simply going to challenge myself to use this day as a jumping off point for the next year of social justice work, as related to Dr. King’s legacy, and the next four years of social impact efforts in the age of President Obama. What can we individually and collectively accomplish in the next year/four years? Let’s go! Best wishes for a powerful, peaceful, and (broadly defined) prosperous 2013.

Photo from theSoulPitt.com