[LarryA]

Here are a few glimpses from my perspective of a long-time techie at an NPO.

Many NPOs can't afford having their staff "surf the net all the time." Those that have the most opportunity are usually managers or higher up which need to network more than support staff. So in that respect that cuts the number of participants quite a bit.

NPOs aren't the same, I went to a NP software development conference, I was from a private NP doing community services with state and fed monies. Many of the others were community/social/political NPOs that are more geared for advocacy, etc. So finding a common thread can be a challenge... and many NPs are in competition for similar funding or causes.

Of the social networks I've seen that mixes well is the forums etc. on TechSoup, the draw is everyone needs tech support and Tech soup has donated software/hardware for NPOs. I've seen others, like one on Ning but that fizzled when the costs went up - NPOs are really tight with their budgets.