I enjoyed attending the Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) in Baltimore MD last Wednesday through Friday, 4/16-18 of 2025. It was hosted by the non-profit NTEN (based in Portland OR) and was well attended by around a thousand nonprofit representatives and private consultants. I was impressed with the breakout sessions and keynotes, and I had some great conversations with both attendees and sponsors. This year’s format offered the option one day to make a 15 minute appointment and speak individually with an array of sponsor consulting firms, and I got a variety of useful tips re SEO, branding, web design, social media, or non profit market conditions.
Held at the Baltimore Convention Center, this event did not have as fancy food, exhibits or SWAG as some of the WordPress conferences I have attended. However, the quality of all presentations was excellent, and NTEN offers attendees access for another 3 months on their platform to recordings of all the sessions, including several I flagged but was not able to attend. While this event did mention WordPress in a few talks, by and large it was tech agnostic and covered a variety of tools and apps, esp their relevance to the non profit community.
Elements of the conference were very informal: groups of folks with common interests (“Birds of a Feather) or Meetup groups (one on WordPress, another on Non profit Tech) seated on couches or scattered around chairs and tables. I came late to a couple of these sessions of interest, but found it difficult to break into a convesation – I think the secret is to try and come early to a session of interest, or to just be bold and strike up a conversation on the fringe!
Last Friday I posted on Facebook my 5 minute video recap of highlights of the conference. Over the next several weeks I plan to share on my Blog reviews of the best breakout sessions (grouped by common themes) that I attended. Here are their titles and summary reference links below (in order of presentation at the Conference) :
Opening Keynote: Rethinking technology, communication, and access, by Allissa V. Richardson, USC Annenberg
Expert Sessions:
- Creative Collaboration: Navigate a Successful Digital Transformation
- Easy Website Wins You Don’t Need a Contractor For
- The power of data-driven storytelling for non-technical comms teams
- Navigate the shifting social media landscape
- Your Social Video Blueprint: How to Create Videos That Inspire Action
- “Show, don’t tell” your impact using stories as a foundation of your fundraising
- It’s not vibes, it’s data: Social media success through experimentation
- Fundraise like a pirate: Lessons on readiness from an anti-whaling nonprofit
FYI the NTC is an annual event, and the next Conference will be held in Detroit on March 11-13, 2026.
Your feedback and comments on this Post welcome! Gary
DC Web Revolution 