New Upic website on the way

Hey gang, sorry for the lack of posts lately. We're working on our new Upic Solutions website and blogging platform which will launch around September 1st. If you are a subscriber, you will receive instructions on how to get the new content.

In the meantime, here's one really cool news item. Cincinnati is hosting a Virtual Kickoff that is going to be the coolest event ever. Go to this website to enroll and be part of the online community. www.liveunitedgc.org

Joining Forces in the Back Office

The Chronicle of Philanthropy is sponsoring a webinar next Wednesday, June 3rd featuring several successful back office collaborations like Upic Solutions.

Earlier today, I spoke with Nicole Wallace, senior writer with the Chronicle, who is moderating the webinar next week to share our experience as collaborative. Upic may be mentioned in next week's webinar as another successful example of non-profit collaboration.

Presenters include:

MACC CommonWealth Services, an organization in Minneapolis created by five social-services groups to provide their finance, human-resources, and technology operations. The new group was formed in January 2007 by putting the administrative employees of the five charities together in one office. The result has been that each group can draw on the expertise of a staff of 20 employees.

Chattanooga Museum Collaboration which started out in 2001 as a fee-for-service arrangement in which the Tennessee Aquarium provided finance, human-resources, and technology services for the Hunter Museum of American Art and the Creative Discovery Museum. But over time, it has expanded. The organizations now work together on programs, like exhibits and summer camps, and with the city of Chattanooga conducted a joint capital campaign.

Lodestar Foundation, in Phoenix AZ whose mission is to expand the growth and impact of philanthropy by supporting long-term collaborations among nonprofit groups working in the same area in order to increase efficiency and impact and eliminate duplication of efforts, and programs that promote philanthropy, volunteerism and public service. The Lodestar Foundation created and funded the wildly successful The Collaboration Prize.

For more information and to register, please click here.

New Andar enhancements

Upic has just published a new newsletter on the Andar 360 enhancements. Upic members who wish to subscribe to this periodic newsletter, should click here to subscribe.

Also, please follow us on Twitter. Winston Faircloth and Upic Solutions both have accounts.

Upic bids on 2010 Andar conference

It's been a month since the last post. We've been working on many new projects, including bringing affordable training opportunities to our members.

Upic selected Andar 360 as our standard campaign management application in 2001 and was one of the early adopters of this platform. Today, Andar has nearly 70% market share of the United Way in the U.S. Each year, Andar's United Way user community meets to review and propose product enhancements.

Upic's headquarters location in Cincinnati, OH is one of five finalists to host the Andar 2010 conference. We have secured the region's premiere technology conference center and several hotel options at $99/less per night to bring this conference to Cincinnati next April.

For more information on the Cincinnati 2010 Andar Conference, please visit www.upicsolutions.org/2010andar. Voting begins soon, so when you or your organization receives a ballot, please select Cincinnati.

Doing, Not Dining

Your intrepid reporter has been asbsent lately, trying to catch up from last week's NC caravan--more to follow on that front.

Got this great Twitter message today from United Way in Nashville, TN. "RT @JoyHaynes United Way Nashville changed celebration luncheon to volunteer event. Today we are Doing, not Dining!"

Instead of hosting an annual campaign luncheon today, this United Way is hosting a volunteer event and asking attendees to contribute the normal costs of the lunch to many basic need agencies in their community.

Check out this link for the full story. http://tinyurl.com/2liveunited

60 million spam emails blocked

Sometime in the next week, Upic's dual spam filters will block our 60 millionth spam email for our email hosted members.

On average, we block 400 spam emails per day per hosted mailbox. Almost 88% of all emails that come into the Upic data center are SPAM...a figure that is hard to imagine.

For real time reporting, check out this link. http://tinyurl.com/bkpwy9

Upic Caravan 2: Monday am

Greetings from Cincinnati: During our last caravan trip we were able to dodge the snow, but not this time. Charlotte was snowed in this morning, so our noon flight is cancelled.

Upic's job fair for potential members of our Andar Service Bureau is also cancelled today.

We're trying to rebook flights for later today. Tonight's post will recap Monday's travel adventure. (I guess this will teach me not to brag about higher temperatures in a blog post).

"Carolina on my mind"- Upic Caravan 2

This week, the Upic management team is off to North Carolina to visit several current and prospective Upic members.

North Carolina is the state with the largest number of Upic members and the host of the Andar User Group conference this year. Here is our schedule for the week:

Monday: Andar User Group
Tuesday: Charlotte & Greensboro
Wednesday: Greensboro & High Point
Thursday: Asheville & Burlington
Friday: Research Triangle & State Campaign

Fortunately, the distance between locations is somewhat shorter and we're expecting temperatures about 30-40 degrees warmer than the last caravan trip about a month ago. We will keep you posted from the road on all that we learn from our members.

Web 2.0 Seminar @ NKU

Northern Ky University is hosting a FREE follow-up to last fall's Web 2.0 conference, this time featuring mobility applications.

Web 2.0 visionary Dion Hinchcliffe returns to the METS Center to discuss the use and implementation of Web 2.0 in a mobile world.

A lunch presentation from Dell discusses PC Mobility topics. Last, but not least, Apple shares their unique insights on mobile application development and deployment.

To register for this FREE conference, please visit http://imi.nku.edu/imimobility/

United Way Super Bowl ad -sneak peak

Just posted on You Tube is this weekend's United Way Super Bowl commerical...it's 15 seconds long...

Upic assists winner of Truist promotion

Upic congratulates the United Way of Central Maryland (Baltimore) in winning the recent Truist promotion for the greatest increase in transactions for the 2008 calendar year among all United Way affiliates.

Upic is pleased to have played a small part in their victory. When UWCM faced a need for experienced Truist configuration resources, they turned to Upic to supplement their staff. Over a few short weeks, Upic executed 18 campaign accounts raising over $660,000 in employee donations.

We see this as a growing opportunity for United Ways who need to supplement their existing staff with experienced, certified Upic resources. If your United Way could use this help, or if you are an experienced Truist configuration resource, please contact Winston Faircloth.

7 steps to managing in tough times

With a New Year and a new administration in Washington, our fellow United Ways are facing the perfect storm of uncertain contributions and unprecedented demands for basic human care services.

My friend and Upic Board member, Joe Tolan at Metro United Way (Louisville) shared this recent article from www.Bridgespan.org titled "Managing in Tough Times: 7 Steps" which contains several timely reminders about what is important in our current economic situation.

1. Act quickly, but not reflexively and plan contingencies
2. Protect the core
3. Identify the people who matter most and keep that group strong
4. Stay very close to your key funders
5. Shape up your organization
6. Involve your board
7. Communicate openly and often

Over the upcoming holiday weekend, let's all make a resolution to reconsider these seven steps to be prepared for the New Year.

Upic Holiday Hours

Upic Solutions will be closed on December 24th & 25th for the Christmas holiday and on January 1st for New Years Day.

Upic's help desk will be open on December 24th until 4:00 pm Eastern.

We will monitor all Upic hosted systems on a 24x7 basis for any system-wide issue.

For the complete Upic Holiday schedule, please go to www.upicsolutions.org/holiday.

United Ways responding to the economy

United Ways are responding in new and creative ways to drive more assistance to families in need throughout the nation, by increasing fundraising, decreasing costs and providing more direct assistance.

In previous posts we've introduced new micro-campaigns which ask for small gifts from residents and their friends via social media like You Tube.

Yesterday, the United Way of the National Capital Area (Washington, DC region) announced that they were cutting their fundraising fees by 50% to recipient organizations who participate in their fundraising campaign. The net effect of this move is an immediate $1.5 million in program funding for their region.

Interim CEO, Angela Woods reports that these fees will be offset by a prudent use of reserves, increased organizational efficiencies and aggressive expansion into new campaign markets. UWNCA is looking to Upic as a possible strategic partner to assist in this endeavor for 2009 and beyond.

Finally, the United Way of Greater Cincinnati updated their "Where to Turn Guide" with a focus on resources people need when facing unemployment, including legal services, consumer credit counseling and public assistance.

Tough times call for bold action in all three areas. As we discover more of these innovative ideas, we will share them with you.

Give 5/10 updates

Since the Twin Cities United Way launched its Give5Now campaign last week, several United Ways have added this micro-campaign to their websites.

Chicago United Way launched the Give5Here campaign on You Tube and this website.

Nashville United Way launched the Give10Now campaign on You Tube and this website.

We'll check in with all three cities after the holidays to see how they fare.

Gift card winners announced

Announcing to our $25 gift card winners for participating in our December 2008 customer satisfaction survey:

Darris Ely (Cincinnati)
Guy Hayes (Indianapolis)
Hilda Burkhead (Louisville)
Kevin Montgomery (Asheville)
Janet Ravneberg (Columbus)
Jessica Stoner (Toledo)
LaTonya Springs (HOME)
Linda Todd (Cincinnati)
Michelle Patterson (St. Louis)
Phyllis Bowser (Indianapolis)
Sarah Barker (High Point)
Shelle Austin (Sarasota)
Susan Grosse (Cincinnati)
Tyler Benack (Columbus)

THANK YOU to everyone who participated. We'll post the survey results in an upcoming article.

Give5Now campaign-Twin Cities

United Way of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis, MN) is now experimenting with an new a viral campaign called Give5Now encouraging residents to contribute $5 and encourage five others to give $5 now with a focus of helping with basic needs given the current economic climate.

Check out the short You Tube video below. The campaign launched on Monday with the following article.



According to the local newspaper article, over $12,500 was raised in the first 48 hours with an average gift of $23 per person. We'll keep in touch with the organizers to see how it turns out for them.

Customer Satisfaction

Twice a year, Upic asks every end user of our member organizations to complete a brief Customer Satisfaction survey to provide service feedback and suggestions for improvement.

During our March 2008 survey (see results), we had a 50% participation rate with dozens of great ideas. We discovered which Upic services are used most frequently, which services provided the most value and established benchmark approval ratings which we will measure again in late 2008.

Congratulations to our March 2008 survey gift certificate drawing winners:

Jan Sherrell (Louisville)
Lori Terwilliger (Toledo)
Melissa Lohman (Cincinnati)
Marcy Wagener (Columbus)
Mary Jones (Indianapolis)
Phyllis Lile (Louisville)
Tiffany Baker (Cincinnati)

As a result of the survey feedback, Upic has developed the following service responses:

1. Created the Upic newsletter/blog to provide regular updates on Upic services and technology news
2. Replaced our Spam Filter with a new system which allows individual members to create their own settings
3. Launched Upic University on-demand webinar series providing 5-10 minute training sessions on your schedule
4. Started a new live telephone response for Andar "how to questions" using our toll-free help desk number
5. Secured discounted AT&T internet circuit rates to permit expanded internet bandwidth options for members

Our next survey is now underway until 5:00 pm on December 10, 2008. Once again, we will have drawings for $25 gift certificates (one per 50 responses). Results will be published the week of December 15th.

Upic Video Newsletter Nov 2008

Here's a short video newsletter (less than 10 minutes) on activities at Upic Solutions. Included in this presentation is an overview of Upic and our growth, our 2008 customer satisfaction rankings and initiatives currently underway to improve your experience as members of Upic.

Please click to view the video newsletter and please comment below with any ideas you have to improve our services to you. To update Adobe Acrobat, click here.

Passionate about community building?

Today, Upic provides technical/application support to over 1000 United Way and non-profit staff members. We believe there is tremendous knowledge within our Upic member community and we're looking for the right person to lead this effort.

While the position is called Technical Writer/Online Trainer, the most important attributes are having the heart of a teacher and the organizing skills of a community builder. With emerging Web 2.0 technologies, we believe the right person can help us energize and harness the power of our Upic community to support one another's growth.

If this is you or someone you know, we need to meet. We have a big opportunity ahead that requires passion, heart and technical skills.

You can apply by emailing us or by checking out our posting on Career Builder.