MS Research has launched a Fan Page on Facebook in the non-profit category. Choose the category carefully: first click on institution then non-profit. Charities in the UK cannot yet use the Causes application for secure donations but there is always a way around this and I am very happy to share this with you.

Once the moment of creating the page is done with you may start adding some useful apps. Creating the page took longer as the webmaster email of the charity which is redirected to my own was not accepted. Did Facebook find out I was disguising myself? I settled this by using our spare email at Google as I always think the job of webmaster is not mine for life. So webbie got accepted in the end. Rabbit was made admin with no hesitation.

Some tabs at the top of the wall page were not so useful so they could be placed in the back (the >> and + tabs). Click on Edit page, settings need to be edited first, decide if you want the whole world to know or just the UK…Wall settings decide if you want post by fans as well as the charity. Set where the post will go if the fan and others cannot post on the wall. Boxes is quite good for that.

Now the Page has some donation buttons for Justgiving and CAF on the right. These have been added using the Static FBML is what I used I recommend getting Learn FBML visiting Learn FBML might help use Static FBML. Once anything is created using Static FBML it will be visible in Boxes. From there you can make it go on the Wall on the left. So the size of the button is important. The wider buttons will stay in Boxes. Update the Fans about your new additions. I did it like this because the Justgiving apps on Facebook is not yet workin on Fan Pages. That was very frustrating.

 A button code as the CAF one will not show at all without placing the code in <div></div> , some useful html coding works in FBML so I used <b> and <i> to stress what I was saying. I think that colour can be added using <span></span> so whatch it! Creativity can be released. At the bottom of the Edit Page the is the More Applications facility, click on the right and browse for more applications: other than Static FLML and Learn FBML I think I added Notes and the blessed Drop.io which is brilliant and can be used for uploading pdf documents to share with your fans. Reviews and Discussions are also useful but can be coming into action later. Extended Info is very good as the info tab is limited. There is Poll too So there is always a reason to update your existing fans and welcome the new ones. On the right of the Edit page you can find some helping information, the examples are not always useful for the UK. This is why I thought of helping you with this. Then I tweet about it too, follow me?

The website of the charity has a new layout, a new design and some new volunteers. The need for help is as poignant as ever. Reports of dramatic falls in charitable giving are overblown; volunteering should not be depleted as time and commitment are two things that are needed. That is also giving. Volunteers are always needed for collections, information days and there are two posts in particular that are vacant: Development Officer, Southern Region and Training Officer.

We have found a Development Officer for the Northern region. She is going to be extremely busy with facilitating Phil and Ian’s Coast to Coast Fundraising. Have you got what it takes to help us with something like this? That is  run (on average) 7 marathons in 7 days!!! If not, you could become a Development Officer for the Southern Region. It needs the same level of commitment. Please contact us or use this form.

So, MS Researh has made it easy for single or regular donations to be made on the Charity Aid Foundation (CAF) and with Justgiving the possibilties are endless to donate or create some pages for fundraising all over the UK and Northern Ireland.

The website is now on an easy to maintain  Content Management System (CMS). The webmaster has not retired! She still needs to train the researchers to publish some more of their news. MS Researh charity decided to upgrade to CMS as it was not wise to expect one volunteer only to know how to update and publish.

The Big Green Challenge from NESTA is a £1 million prize fund that challenges people to work together to develop and implement new approaches that will lead towards a 60% reduction of carbon emissions in their communities.

The Big Green Challenge is only open to not-for-profit groups. Examples of eligible groups include community co-operatives or clubs, charities, voluntary groups, parish councils and larger not-for-profit organisations. The ten finalists, once selected, will have a year to show that they can turn their ideas into action, and the winner will be announced in late 2009.

Find out all you need to know at www.biggreenchallenge.org.uk

Entries for the first stage of applications must be in by 29 February 2008. Are you up to the challenge?

And while we’re on human rights, a posting on judging Best Use of the Social Web by a Nonprofit comes up with some innovative uses in the field - the use of Twitter by activists to let people know whether they’ve been arrested or disappeared and “the courageous use of YouTube by award winning blogger Wael Abbas , whose videos captured the torture of victims at the hands of police”.

From internet.artizans , via Nick Booth.

Does Britain need an equivalent to ProPublica, a non-profit newsroom launching early 2008? I think the States has a greater need, and we have the likes of OpenDemocracy already, but any comments?

Here’s an excerpt from Nonprofit Online News aboutProPublica:

“I’m not surprised to learn that the project is backed by some of the very same grantmakers whose vision has opened up opportunities for nonprofits and the Internet. Investigative journalism is clearly at risk and while I am intrigued by the choice of a former Wall Street Journal editor as its leader, I have a lot of hope for ProPublica. They understand exactly what role they could play in the renewal of democracy in the United States.”

ProPublica - Journalism in the Public Interest:

ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that will produce investigative journalism in the public interest. Our work will focus exclusively on truly important stories, stories with “moral force.” We will do this by producing journalism that shines a light on exploitation of the weak by the strong and on the failures of those with power to vindicate the trust placed in them.

Thanks to a post on the Globalab blog, we’ve ended up with a number of links to sites which I’ve grouped under ‘Social Change 2.0′. That’s discussing using the web, social networking and other ‘Web 2.0′ type things to promote social change. See the Links page, right at the bottom.

And before I get round to writing this blog item, Gordon Brown makes ’social change’ a theme in his support for community and voluntary organisation campaigning, including to “encourage the use of multimedia for community and social action by creating the Awards for Social Technology”. More in this week’s VolResource newsletter, or perhaps view the (edited) Downing Street YouTube video of the PM’s speech.

Our post about the Village multiplayer online game has been picked up by another blog, audeamus.com, which has recently covered other such games. They all seem to have a third world/development theme - anyone know of online games covering voluntary sector type issues, which aren’t just glorified marketing videos?

Here’s some quotes and items from Audeamus’ earlier post (6th Nov):

Playing 4 Keeps (P4K) is an innovative youth media project that involves a team of Global Kids youth leaders at South Shore High School in Brooklyn, New York. These young people are learning to develop and produce socially conscious online games, while gaining skills in game design, digital media, leadership, and peer education.

They have developed Ayiti: The Cost of Life, with GameLab and help from Microsoft.

From World Bank’s PSD blog: The simply designed 3rd World Farmer is a serious game that “aims at simulating the real-world mechanisms that cause and sustain poverty in 3rd World countries”.

And on Pienso: Sim*Sweatshop is a new online serious game. In the game you are a sweatshop worker who gets paid $6.05 for a full days work. You work 12 hours per day. If you work hard and well you get all you pay. If not, you will be punished accordingly.

And from a comment on the World Bank blog: ICT4Peace blog has an item on Serious games and peacebuilding, which references a Wikipedia entry on Serious Games - many of those listed seem to be about training in more traditional areas, from a quick glance.

‘Kitchen table charities’ get a quick explanation in a short comment piece in The Observer: How to be a kitchen table heroine.

Via the Guardian’s Comment is Free pages, one reader says
“If you know of anyone setting up a network for kitchen table heroines then let me know!”

We’d welcome a discussion of that idea here!

Here’s our latest addition to ‘Podcasts for beneficiaries’ (see previous item).
St. John Ambulance has added to its existing podcast facility of first aid information in an audio format with a programme of releasing new additions every Wednesday throughout the summer. The first batch are on how to treat sunburn, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. http://www.sja.org.uk/news/default.asp?id=1115.

Best UK charity use of podcasting so far? Agree or disagree? Let us know via the comments facility here.

The New Media Awards, run by New Statesman magazine, this year has an accompanying blog covering “all things related to the convergence of politics and new media” and also looking at relevant projects.

A recent item looks at whether we are catching up with the US in using internet for political campaigning. http://www.newstatesman.co.uk/nma/nma2006/blog/.