Just to introduce myself to those of you who don't know me - my name is Alison Hayes, and I started working in GIS a couple years ago.  I interned with a consulting group, and then with Monmouth County's GIS department, and then went on to work for the Monmouth Conservation Foundation and decided that I'd finally found my place - working for nonprofits in GIS.  I am still employed part time by MCF, and also worked for about 5 months for the American Littoral Society.  I am very supportive of nonprofits working in GIS and my company is created to support groups who cannot afford to have their own GIS staff.  I decided to create this blog because I feel that the nonprofit GIS community does not get to have a great deal of communication.  I am involved in both the NJ Geospatial Forum and with MAC URISA, and have noticed the dearth of nonprofit assocaited people.  I know that most of us have demanding schedules and a difficult time finding time and money to attend such events, and so I wanted to create a forum where nonprofit-related GIS people could meet and discuss among ourselves the unique needs and purposes of GIS work within the nonprofit community.  I hope that all will feel welcome to comment and join in discussion, and I also hope that we will be able to share information about free/inexpensive ways to get data for projects.  I have just finished discussing data with NJTransit and they were surpisingly willing to share their data with just a user's agreement.  I'm also working on creating positive connections with the coordinators and employees in GIS across the state to try and enable nonprofit organizations to get county-level data without too much trouble.  Most statelevel data seems to be available on the DEP's website.  I hope all are doing well and wish to share thoughts and ideas as well.  Alison