For the past few months, I’ve been lucky enough to see an extraordinary project take shape: Net² (pronounced “net squared”), a resource for non-profits that want to take their online presence to the next level:

Through the immense possibilities of the Internet, nonprofits can turn hundreds of supporters into thousands, access new reserves of volunteerism, and give their constituencies tools to take charge of change.

This site is the online home of our effort to highlight projects around the world that succeed at the intersection of pervasive access, new tools, and new audiences.

Part of the site’s focus is the upcoming Net² conference, bringing together non-profit leaders and tech visionaries next May in San Francisco. If your group has the resources to send you there, it promises to be a valuable opportunity to learn, share and network.

But the conference isn’t all there is to Net². The site offers a thriving online community of non-profit tech practitioners, ready and willing to share their experiences through a wealth of case studies and a lively community blog. And a library of tools and applications is on its way.

You may get some inspiration from the site itself, by the way. Alex is helping Net² develop a set of features that will extend its value to the nonprofit community. She’s been working with a great (and far-flung) team, that includes Vancouver’s Bryght, Belgium’s Duoh (behind the site’s engaging new look) and Atlanta’s float:left; (the theming wizards who made Drupal roll over and bark). The result is an impressive example of what you can accomplish with aggregation and open-source tools.
It’s all brought to you by the fine folks at CompuMentor and their TechSoup project (which deserves to be near the top of your daily reading if you’re working in this space).