Here are some reasons why Information and Referral software (I&R software) like iCarol is better than using a public search engine like Google, and also why those search engines are poorly suited for professional I&R work.

From time to time we like to step back and take a macro look at all the data collected by iCarol to look for bigger trends that might be of interest to our clients. One of those is to understand what day of the week tends to have the most calls logged.

Today we're excited to announce the ability to interact with your clients via 2-way text messaging / SMS from directly within iCarol. This means that people in the general public can text into your help line via a special phone number, and your counselors interact with them completely from within your iCarol system.

Our team ends 2011 double in size compared to the start of the year, and we continue adding new non-profit help lines at a brisk pace. We have awesome plans for 2012 and are excited to unveil them to you in the coming months.

Find local Information and Referral 2-1-1 providers across the USA.

This month iCarol has reached a notable milestone, as we now have over 25,000 people as users. From the start of 2011 until the end of the year, we will have doubled the staff of the iCarol team supporting you, our clients, as well as the underlying technology infrastructure on which iCarol runs.

When a resource is flagged for review by an I&R specialist, the resource specialist not only is notified of the change needed, but also can see the call from which the comment sprung.

Over time, the devices and systems used to access iCarol change. A recent study by our team shows growing usage by mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone, a high amount of Windows users, and for the first time, no one using Windows 98.

Ever wish your I&R software could track particular things in resource records, but didn't have a suitable field to do so?

Unless you're a one-person agency, you very likely conduct meetings - lots of them - to get your job done. Yet most managers view the majority of meetings to be a "waste of time". Learn they keys to conducting effective meetings. Even we on the iCarol team took heart to many of these lessons and are very happy with the results.

If you are planning to share resource databases with partners on a one-time or ongoing basis, there are a number of factors to consider and discuss with your partners to yield the best possible results. This is because each database has likely been built with different assumptions, policies and approaches that would make searching in a shared database inconvenient, inconsistent or even problematic. What follows is intended to help identify problematic areas and stimulate conversations on how to address them amongst the partners and with the iCarol team.

Listen to a recent BBC interview about the agency that contributed a great deal to the delivery of phone-based compassionate listening by volunteers.

By defining custom regions in iCarol, you can define colloquially known geographic areas and then work with them in a variety of areas, such as your referral database.

Its critical that helplines ensure trainees find, sign up for, and attend shifts with trainers. Several great new tools in iCarol make that process easy and reliable.

As a result of continuous growth of our client base, particularly in the USA, we're officially expanding our operations there - CharityLogic Corporation, based in California. Read on to learn about the change.

One of our clients recommended a great blog with marketing advice for nonprofits.

Two non-profit help lines collaborate to serve many areas in the province 24/7. They chose iCarol as their referral database and call logging software and are thrilled at everything else it can do for their operations - like live chat, shift scheduling, volunteer management, and managing their non-211 calls too.

iCarol has standard import tools that use Excel templates for the importation of user profiles, caller profiles, resources and more. Sometimes though, the information resides in a more complex database that is not easily converted into one of these such templates.

Based on client feedback, we now offer the ability to attach files to any call report log. These could be an audio recording of the call or perhaps other documentation.

Many of our help line clients using iCarol Messaging to conduct live chat sessions with the general public want to limit the geographic area they serve. Their reasons for doing so range from limitations placed by their funders, to starting small as they initiate service so they can gradually learn and evolve before expanding beyond their own community. Learn how iCarol handles this gracefully by clicking below.