Hi! It’s Eli. I’m a Community Manager for TechSoup. I’m based in Vancouver, Canada. More about me.
This is mostly a link blog, where I keep ideas and articles worth re-reading.
I’m still buzzing from our “Essential Tech for Nonprofits in 2026” event. We packed 19 experts into 90 minutes, and the “thought bombs” were flying.
If you couldn’t make it, here is a lightning-fast look at the insights shared by our incredible lineup:
- Jason Shim (Canadian Centre for Nonprofit Digital Resilience): Use “Meta-prompting” to make AI a true partner.
- Kelsey Kramer (GivingTuesday): Unlock the $52B generosity gap by de-seasonalizing your asks.
- Tasha Van Vlack (The Nonprofit Hive): Prioritize human connection to avoid “tool burnout.”
- Jessica Rayne (GiveWise Foundation Canada): Mention stocks and DAFs on your site—95% of wealth isn’t in cash!
- Anthony Wilson (Zidho): Use digital exercises to democratize board meetings.
- Laurie Hochman (Auctria): Try a “Dessert Dash” to gamify your live event fundraising.
- Stephen Lavery: AI is only as good as your data hygiene and CRM “spring training.”
- David Pisarek (Wow Digital): Stop pushing donors away with poor mobile UX.
- Lawal Shakiru (Technology Helps): Cybersecurity is a “people and process” responsibility, not just a tech one.
- Lars Helgeson (GreenRope): Scale your impact through hyper-personalized donor journeys.
- Aya Cherkaoui (NORD Consulting): Use financial proxies to prove your Social ROI.
- Charles Buchanan (Technology Helps): As AI floods the web, your unique “human soul” is your competitive edge.
- Daryl Oberg (AYD Internet Marketing): Maximize the $10k Google Ad Grant to reach global supporters.
- Deepa Chaudhary (GrantOrb): Use autonomous AI agents to find grants while you sleep.
- Dennis Powers (Cheeky Monkey Media): Avoid the “speed tax” by making small, monthly website improvements.
- Mina Demian (Grants-Ease AI): Shift from manual drafting to strategic grant management with AI.
- Trisha Neogi & Steph Bergman (Bright + Early): Build trust with clear AI Protection Statements for your team.
- Steve Anderson (New/Mode): Supporters are moving—pay attention to Bluesky and WhatsApp.
- Sophie Bujold (CliqueWorthy): Stop building an audience and start building “belonging.”
A huge thank you to every presenter for sharing their brilliance. You can find the full event replay and a deeper dive into all 19 topics on our blog:
Ever feel like you’re the only person who can answer a request?
You become the bottleneck. And your team waits.
Stephen Lavery shared a brilliant fix for this in our latest workshop: The Slack Ticketing System.
By creating a central “Tech Requests” (or “Design Requests”) channel with a simple form, you make the work visible. Suddenly, you’re not the only one who can help. Someone else on the team sees the ticket and jumps in.
Bottleneck removed. Team empowered.
Stephen joined us to share exactly how to set this up, step-by-step. We’ve got the full breakdown of this workflow (and more) on the blog.
Watch the replay at https://youtu.be/4VNMc5-zBDE
Strategy must come before the tools!
Raaj Chatterjee from Meaningful stressed that before you even look at a CRM or an automation platform, you need a strategy built on three pillars: Information, Communication, and Automation. Everything starts with Information—creating a clean, comprehensive contact record for every person. Without a consistent, shared database, your team can’t collaborate, personalize outreach, or run effective automations. Start by getting your data house in order, and the rest becomes so much easier!
Watch the replay and read all 7 key insights here: https://digitalnonprofit.ca/2025/11/05/scale-your-impact-the-top-7-insights-for-nonprofit-relationship-automation/
#Automation #NonprofitCRM #RelationshipBuilding #TechForGood
If your nonprofit is dreaming of a big gala, you have to pass the “Stress Test” first! 🤯
Mike Imholte, Benefit Auctioneer and strategist at Black Diamond Benefits, dropped a major truth bomb: If you can’t confidently sell 100 tickets at the $50–$100 price point, you are not ready for a large-scale fundraising event. Success isn’t built on money; it’s built on a genuinely Engaged Supporter Base.
I learned so much watching Mike break down all 9 indicators of readiness. It’s a powerful reminder that the work starts long before the planning. If you’re tired of chaotic events, check out the full session replay for a roadmap to mission-driven growth.
Read the full recap and access the video replay here:
https://digitalnonprofit.ca/2025/10/22/9-signs-your-nonprofit-is-ready-to-host-a-successful-gala/
I recently hosted the “Fundraising Tech Stacks 101” webinar with Kim Peterson, and for those who missed it, no worries! The replay is available, and I’m excited to share a fantastic event summary with the top 7 actionable insights. I learned so much about how our CRM is the engine of our relationship building and how integration is the key to unlocking staff time.
Read the event summary here: https://digitalnonprofit.ca/2025/10/08/crm-forms-email-how-to-build-your-nonprofits-core-fundraising-tech-stack/
Feeling the pressure to do more with less at your nonprofit? You’re not alone.
My TechSoup Connect Canada meetup recently hosted a fantastic event with AI expert Deepa Chaudhary, who shared some incredible insights on how AI can streamline your work and boost your mission’s impact.
We’ve recapped the top 7 takeaways on our blog, covering everything from AI for creative storytelling to making fundraising more efficient.
Read the full write-up to learn why:
🔹 AI is “the era of the generalist”
🔹 New tools enable anyone to become a storyteller
🔹 And how to “build your AI muscle”
Back in the TechSoup Connect days I published a piece at CMX about a question we all wrestle with: how do you actually measure whether your members feel a real sense of community—beyond the usual “engagement” numbers?
In the post, I shared how I’m using the Sense of Community Index (SCI) to get clearer signals and make smarter decisions.
- What you’ll get: a plain-English intro to the SCI (membership, influence, needs, shared emotional connection) plus the question set I used
- Why it helps: better insights lead to better retention, stronger rituals, and feedback loops your members trust
- What surprised me: our high satisfaction scores didn’t match real retention—and what we changed once we saw the gap
- Quick wins to try: ask about needs directly, add simple rituals that travel across chapters, and always close the loop on feedback
Read the CMX post:
https://www.cmxhub.com/blog/measuring-your-members-sense-of-community
Want to see the Index itself?
https://senseofcommunity.com/soc-index/
Drowning in stories and open-ended feedback? Turn them into strategy. Watch the replay of our TechSoup Connect Canada session with Yashna Jhamb and Akshay Roongta from Ooloi Labs.
- Structure the chaos with simple templates, metadata, and tagging
- Pair qualitative “why” with quantitative “what” for stronger decisions
- Use AI where it helps (deductive coding, retrieval), keep humans in the loop for nuance
- Start small: a weekly 3–5 question story ritual beats a giant tool rollout
- See a live demo of Dots for annotating, querying, and reporting on qual data
Watch the replay: https://youtu.be/jCZE2clhjQo
In this seven-minute video I walk you through a fast, low-friction workflow for turning rough Zoom/webinar recordings into publishable videos using Descript, with a final assist from ChatGPT. The core idea: edit the transcript like a Google Doc and let Descript sync the cuts to your audio and video.
- Quick cleanup: trim intros/outros, cut dead air and boilerplate, auto-remove most ums/ahs, and use Studio Sound to fix echoey mics
- Speaker labeling: identify who’s talking, then slice out stumbles by deleting text
- Layouts and repurposing: drop speakers into side-by-side or floating layouts, switch aspect ratios for TikTok/Instagram, and add subtitles
- Camera-shy option: generate a video avatar to read your script
- Pricing noted in the demo: free plan with 1 hour/month of transcription; nonprofit pricing at $5/user/month for 4 hours; Hobbyist at $16/month for 10 hours
- ChatGPT in the workflow: turn rough notes into a readable script for Descript’s teleprompter; draft YouTube descriptions with time codes pulled from the transcript so viewers can jump to key moments
Why I’m bookmarking: this combo makes “good enough” edits fast—perfect for webinars, tutorials, and support clips—without learning pro video tools.
Did you know Canadian donor-advised funds (DAFs) granted nearly $1 billion to charities in 2021? Yet many nonprofits still don’t have a DAF strategy.
In our latest TechSoup Connect Canada session, we welcomed Mike Todd from Transform Philanthropy to demystify DAFs and share actionable advice on how to:
- Identify DAF donors in your database
- Avoid common stewardship mistakes
- Make your organization more “DAF-attractive”
- Tap into recession-resistant funding streams
Watch: https://youtu.be/eMTy10r6h3w
Thanks to Mike for the clarity and inspiration—and for reminding us why DAFs aren’t the competition, they’re the channel.
Elijah van der Giessen 