April will be a great month for nonprofit groups. The 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference will be taking place in Atlanta. I will be having the chance to speak in two different sessions there this year, which I am very excited about!

As we gear up for three great days of technology conversation among nonprofiteers, I recently received from Holly Ross (the hear of NTEN, the group responsible for organizing NTC every year) an invitation to highlight our sessions, so I thought I’d blog about it instead, responding the questions she sent our way here…

1. What’s the most important trend in nonprofit technology for 2010?
At the 2009 NTC, I did an Ignite session about Ning For Nonprofits. Back then, there were not that many nonprofit groups taking advantage of this platform to build niche communities.

Today, more and more groups are developing their own social networks on Ning (many others are also using other tools such as Joomla or Drupal) to improve their outreach and fundraising efforts. No wonder Mashable featured a great article by Geoff Livingston with 5 Tips for Creating Non-Profit Online Communities.

I see this is an important trend in nonprofit technology this year.

2. Why do you think your session topic is important for nonprofits to address
I am fortunate to be able to participate in two different (though related) topics this year:

• It’s A Small World After All: How to Use Niche Social Networks to Spread Your Message
• Building Stronger Online Communities Without Loosing Your Sanity

Both topics revolve around the concept of communities and social networks. So they are very relevant to this growing trend mentioned in question #1.

3. What’s the one thing you want attendees to remember from your session
It is possible to still retain your sanity while running an online community… see my reply to the next question for evidence of this?

4. Which Muppet do you most identify with and why?
That’s a tough one, but I am going to have to go with the Swedish Chef!! He still cracks me up to this day. I guess what I love about him is his goofy nature.

You expected me to answer Animal, huh?

5. Where can people follow you online (twitter, blog, etc.)?
It’s kind of hard to miss me since I am online so much, but if you must get the links, here there are:

• Twitter: @askmanny
• Blog: http://askmanny.com
• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/askmanny