Deane Venske joins CiviCore full-time!

We are excited to announce that Deane Venske has recently joined the CiviCore team full-time as a Senior Software Engineer.

Deane has worked with us for more than a year now, but we are thrilled that he can now devote all of his time and energy to our work here at CiviCore.  Welcome, Deane!

CiviCore to attend the Rebuilding Together National Conference

Project Manager Joni Zisman will be representing CiviCore at the Rebuilding Together National Conference in Washington, DC this November.  We are proud of the work have done for this great organization, and excited to learn more about their national work at this conference.

For more information on the conference, or the Rebuilding Together organization, follow this link: http://www.rebuildingtogether.org/section/about/conference

Breaking News: Volunteerism is on the rise!

An article in USA today recently confirmed what CiviCore has suspected for a while now: Volunteerism in America is on the rise.  According to Sharing in the USA, by Julie Snider and Mark Pearson, "The number of adults in 2008 performing volunteer service through an organization rose by about a million from 2007, to 61.8 million.  They donated about 8 billion hours of service, worth an estimated $162 billion."  Spurred by the economic downturn, non-profit and charitable organizations have increasingly turned to volunteers to sustain their work, it seems.

We have certainly noticed this increase, too.  We are seeing more and more organizations contacting us with a need for a platform to organize and manage their recent influx of volunteers, mentors, and clients.  CiviCore is proud to help these volunteer organizations utilize technology in order to maximize the benefit of this increasing American volunteerism, and we certainly hope that this trend continues into the future!

“Digital Inclusion” Published

“Digital Inclusion: Measuring the Impact of Information and Community Technology” edited by Michael Crandall and Karen E. Fisher was just published. This book provides a framework for thinking about the effects of community technology on digital inclusion. CiviCore founder Charles Naumer wrote three chapters for this book on a Framework for Measurement.


For a chapter preview, more information, or to order the book, please visit: InfoToday or Amazon

Dr. Mentor comes to CiviCore!

Last month CiviCore hosted a luncheon presentation featuring Dr. Susan Weinberger, aka "Doctor Mentor," with more than 25 of our Denver and Colorado-based mentoring agency clients in attendance.

Dr. Weinberger (aka. "Dr. Mentor") has been recognized for her expertise in establishing, maintaining, and evaluating school and community-based mentoring programs and school-to-work initiatives.  She is the former Chair of the Public Policy Council of MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership, and is a consultant to the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Labor, and Justice on their mentoring initiatives.  Amongst other accolades, she also traveled to the White House in 1993 to receive President Clinton's coveted Volunteer Action Award for her work in mentoring.  Needless to say, Dr. Weinberger is a nationally recognized expert in the field of mentoring.

Dr. Weinberger presented strategies for agencies to effectively establish and maintain their school and community-based mentoring programs.  The presentation and luncheon fit perfectly into CiviCore's mission of enabling non-profit organizations to operate more effectively and efficiently.  We would like to thank both Dr. Weinberger and all of our clients for making this happen.

P.S.  Keep your eyes and ears out for more CiviCore lunch presentations in the future!

Nike / LeBron James / Up2Us Volunteer Site goes live!

We are happy to announce the launch of yet another CiviCore-powered client website, http://volunteer.up2us.org/. The site is the result of a collaboration between CiviCore, Up2Us, and Nike. The site is being promoted by LeBron James as he tours cities around the world.

Up2Us is a national coalition that seeks to increase the impact of and access to youth sports as a tool for positive youth development. To that end, they asked us to develop a website for them which would link willing volunteers to local basketball teams in need of a coach. They ask, we deliver: Check out Volunteer.Up2Us.org here!

Paul Cacamo, the Executive Director of Up2Us, has this to say about the new site and Nike's efforts ot promote it: "Behind every player is a coach and a team whose collaboration inspires greatness. Lebron and Nike Basketball are asking you to join the President and First Lady Obama's campaign, United We Serve, to find out how you can volunteer to be a coach in a community near you. Great players need great leaders on their courts and in their lives. Become one now"

GiveBlackHills.org is launched!

We are excited to announce the launch of another CiviCore-powered website -  GiveBlackHills.org!

The GiveBlackHills site was made for the Black Hills Area Community Foundation as an online resource for information about Black Hills area charities.

It offers visitors the ability to both learn more about and directly donate to charities working hard to improve the Black Hills area community.  We here at CiviCore are proud to have had the opportunity to work with an organization as dedicated to charitable causes as BHACF, and we hope you will check out the GiveBlackHills.org site!

ColoradoSchoolChoice.org goes live!

After months of hard work, we are proud to announce that ColoradoSchoolChoice.org is now up and running.  The site is the result of a collaboration between Civicore, the Piton Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, Daniels Fund, Colorado Children's Campaign, DenverLibrary.org, and our media partner, 9news.


The Colorado School Choice tool is designed to supply parents with the kind of information they need to help them make better-informed decisions about the schools they choose to place their children in.  The site not only gives the user the ability to search for and and browse local schools, but also allows the user to compare different schools in their area based on factors like school performance, growth, included programs, and CSAP proficiency.  Check it out!

P.S.  The 9news website already has some promotion banners on their homepage, but keep your eyes and ears open for their upcoming T.V. commercial campaign promoting ColoradoSchoolChoice.org!