Update on the Community Voice Mail story -- There's one more day to vote with your donation in Amazon's Nonprofit Innovation Challenge, which ends tomorrow, September 30.

I had suggested in a blog post that Community Voice Mail, a nonprofit that provides free voice mail service to the homeless, consider providing services for hurricane victims. Apparently I was a few steps behind the group, as they were already rising to the challenges posed by Hurricane Katrina, and then Rita.

According to a recent article in Chronicle of Philanthropy, CVM had never before done post-disaster work, instead focusing on providing homeless and low-income people with a free and stable way to connect with potential employers, social-service organizations, and relatives. During 2004, CVM supplied voice-mail accounts to 44,000 people in the 37 cities where the organization works. However, just since Katrina, CVM has set up voice-mail accounts for more than 35,000 displaced people in areas where it had not before had a presence -- Houston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Memphis, Austin, Atlanta and South Carolina. This was accomplished with the help of Cisco Systems and the American Red Cross.

Whether or not you vote for CVM, please do check out the Nonprofit Challenge. It's an innovative way to raise money, as well as raise the profiles of the nonprofits.