(ISF) RE: Friends asking friends

-----original message-----
>>Thanks. Can you explain how the data from using Firstgiving gets
back into a donor database? And whether there is a link to an email
service allowing for automatic acknowledgements and periodic
updates?>>

Dear Michael, Mark, and other esteemed colleagues:

Wouldn't it be great if there were data integration standards in
place? And what if all of these great e-philanthropy tools had some
sort of OpenID arrangement, so that if you signed up for
ChangingThePresent.Org or ModestNeeds.Org (my two great favorites*)
you could use FirstGiving, NetworkForGood, Change.Org and all the rest
seamlessly? Let's think in terms of open APIs and mash-ups. Since a
lot of these groups are creating Facebook widgets, perhaps that will
become the de facto point of convergence for the front end? That
still leaves the question of integration with databases in the back
office, but perhaps it can be done.

I'd also love to see Idealware.Org do some sort of comprehensive
report of all the options. Does this already exist, and if not, could
some clever venture philanthropist commission such a report for
everybody's benefit?

Best regards from Deborah

* And don't forget SocialMarkets.Org, which hasn't launched yet, but
is coming down the pike!

Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Cyber-Yenta
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_finn%40post.harvard.edu">deborah_elizabeth_finnpost.harvard.edu
www.cyber-yenta.org

Recommended reading:
"Universal Declaration of Human Rights"
<http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights>;

Messages in this topic (0) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic

.

All good questions.

Firstgiving currently provides all organizations with an account area where they can access a variety of report and download these in .xls or .csv format. These can then be imported into the organization's donor database.

We have also integrated our service with the eTapestry database. This pushes fundraiser/donor data generated in our system to the organization's eTapestry database automatically. Anyone who uses Firstgiving and eTapestry can use this ability.

I believe that this is all heading in the direction outlined by Deborah below. As an initial step, Firstgiving has in mind providing data in an xml (or similar) format so that an organization or donor database providers so they can work with/build on top of as they wish. We do embrace the idea of open standards and look forward to facilitating this approach and adoption.

Separately, the Firstgiving service does automatically send acknowledgements to all donors with a transaction receipt and thank you wording as provided by the organization.

Hope this helps. -Mark


-----original message-----
>&gt;Wouldn't it be great if there were data integration standards in place? And what if all of these great e-philanthropy tools had some sort of OpenID arrangement, so that if you signed up for ChangingThePresent.Org or ModestNeeds.Org (my two great favorites*) you could use FirstGiving, NetworkForGood, Change.Org and all the rest seamlessly? Let's think in terms of open APIs and mash-ups. Since a lot of these groups are creating Facebook widgets, perhaps that will become the de facto point of convergence for the front end? That still leaves the question of integration with databases in the back office, but perhaps it can be done.>&gt;

Messages in this topic (0) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic

.