I hope many of you have been following the March Goodness brackets.   I picked Kansas in the real deal so I have no chance - now I am cheering for MN Small Dog Rescue in the Razoo NIT - they are currently in third place and as an owner of Chihuahuas I can’t help but love their cause as a no-kill rescue program run by volunteers.  I encourage you to pick a favorite, make a $10 gift and cheer ‘em on through the Final Four!

March has been an incredible month for GiveMN.  MN Council on Nonprofits and MAP for Nonprofits hosted nearly 800 nonprofits this week at the 2010 Tech Conference.  We were extremely flattered to be a Dot.org award recipient and have a table on “Winner’s Row!”  Kudos to the other organizations who were honored:

District 202 - Virtual Reality Award
TC Bicycle Club - Going the Extra Mile Award
Morrison County Historical Society - Nifty and Thrifty Award
Wellstone Action! - E-Organizing Award
Metro Meals on Wheels - Fundraising and Friendraising Award

Thanks to all of you who stopped by to chat at our table - it is OK if you haven’t looked at your page since last year’s Give to the Max Day!  Now is a great time to dust off your GiveMN pages and think about how you can integrate your GiveMN pages into your multi-channel development strategies.

My favorite part of the conference was the keynote address by Katya Andresen and her AWESOME new e-book that is REQUIRED reading for nonprofits!  “The 8 Online Fundraising Changes You Must Make in 2010” lays out a plan that is easy to follow - and the really, really good news is that you can accomplish those fundraising goals on GiveMN!  Check out the 2.0 webinar and learn how to:

• Utilize your donors and volunteers as fundraisers by having them create fundraiser pages
• Create specific campaigns using project pages; and
• Execute a matching grant on GiveMN.

Lastly I have to give another shout out to the nerds.   I blogged about the Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge last month when I served with a panel of judges to pick the 16 organizations who would receive a new website.  Last weekend the nerds gathered in a sea of servers, enormous monitors and Star Wars paraphernalia to spend 24 hours without sleep, dedicating their time and skills to creating a new website for the lucky 16 nonprofits.  It was a sight to behold.  The winners took our breath away - with only nine native speakers left, the Dakota Wichoan is desperately trying to preserve its language.

Congrats to Team Placeholder who created one of the most stunning websites (http://dakotawicohan.com/) I have ever seen. And thank you, Dakota Wichoan for educating us about your  beautiful language.   

I can only imagine what April has in store for us!  Keep in touch - email Jeff and me at info@givemn.org and tell us how you are using GiveMN.  Also stay tuned for more information about Give to the Max Day 2010!