Archive for the 'challenge' Category

Social Innovation Camp at MPS09

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I’m capturing notes at the MyPublicServices event from PatientOpinion.  Use the tag #MPS09 to follow conversations and highlights from others at the event. This session is: Ideas, people and cold hard cash: why the way we make stuff happen is broken and how to fix it, from Anna Maybank at Social Innovation Camp.

Social Innovation Camp: the story so far.  Started with an idea two years ago that the web is important because it helps people organize for themselves and impacts how we make things work; but in order to make that happen you have to bring people together who are interested in making it real.  We are all about moving ideas into something that might work and do so by running competitions and weekend-long prototyping events.  Think about 5 things: what’s the problem, what technology you’ll use, design sustainability, how will people come to use it and how will you distribute it.  Award a prize to those that show most potential.  Have run 3 competitions so far with over 300 ideas submitted.

Note: the “I” in the following is my capture of Anna speaking.

What We’ve Learnt

1. From cliques to talent scouts

A great idea is nothing unless you have people to get it off the ground, and those people may be anyone with certain attributes:

  • people who can bring an insight
  • practical optimists, can see things being different in the future (have to go find them)

We need to move away from “social entrepreneurs” and “socail innovation” towards “solve problems” and “make stuff” so that it’s more accessible.  It took us a while to learn this!  The first competition we had a slick website and everything else and had barely any submissions.  So, we went to talk people about it.  We brought people together around the same kind of idea and the buzz in the room was incredible, people realized they didn’t have to just complain about something but about making things the way you want.  So, we learned from that and now are conversation driven.  Our competitions are talent scouted: we go out and talk to as many people as possible, run workshops and trainings and get people to think about what they might solve and then submit.  I think we pay a lot of lip service to “user centered design” and so on, but sometimes we are talking about many different worlds colliding and a number of them are very problem focused and then solution focused groups.  So, when you have top-down definition of what you’re interested in and then bottom up creation it doesn’t work.  Create a “tentacle-based” approach.

2. From paperwork to relationships

That’s a lot of work. Is it worth it to go talk to all of those people and so on?  What we are doing when we talent scout isn’t just about creating a pool of projects but about starting relationships.  Normal application processes are very good for people who are good at writing or following a system.  But, are proposal based approaches good for finding people who are going to start new things?  Instead, you start to build relationships with individuals – find interesting people and working with them in incremental ways and build trust. And then find people to support and fund; particularly important when funding entirely new things.  It’s hard for those people to say what their impact will be when it’s something so new, so it’s hard as a support organization to believe in the project.  But, as a support organization that knows you are an interesting implementer of good stuff, it’s easier to make the decision to support them.  We do this through scouting and in the weekends as they are high pressure and fund and collaborative so you can really, really see how people work.  I think the world works like this anyway, we just don’t admit it.  What we should be doing is appreciating that and design systems that take into consideration the ways humans work.  This is how the investment world works: based on relationships and trust.

3. From advisors to connectors

What’s next?  What do you need other than money?  We asked our prototype projects what else they need. The answer was they need advice.  Organizations that are trying to support people to do new things know this.  What I’m suggesting is 2 things: first, giving all the advice yourself is not efficient or entirely valuable, so you should grow a community around the ideas where they connect; and second, the advice you need as a radically new group/project is very different as there aren’t models or examples, so the only way these projects will work is by changing behavior… How comfortable we are with meeting people offline we only know online, how we share personal data, etc.  These changes will have to happen in order for these projects to work.  Rather than having standard business advice but a place where they can experiment.  The way we move from advisors to connectors is that at the weekends where we get the great ideas, we go out and try to find people who can help them and bring them there.  Building an audience around the 6 ideas for the weekend.  If you come to a weekend, you come out with a training experience.

4. From grants to venturing

How do we change the different ways we distribute money?  Not about finding people to give it to or the decision process, but the different financial instruments we could use.  Early stage ideas need early stage risk capital and there’s a gap in providing that.  Something to show that a really good radical idea has a good chance.  We also have to find new sustainable ways to fund projects. Fundraise, grant, spend – it’s not efficient.  Finally, a lot of new ideas, the newness is the business model.  It needs a different way to be funded.  Need finance that’s responsive to business models that aren’t charities or companies.

What might that look like?

What if we ran a larger SICamp process that formed small teams around packaged ideas and take teams of 2-3 people and choose 10 groups and each a 15,000 stipend wherein they come and work in a shared space for 3 months.  Set targets and help to accelerate project development and build community.  At the end of the 3 months we have a demo day with possible funders and we we take a finders fee and also pay-back for the 15,000 starter grant.  Potentially creating a sustainable way of starting projects and recycling your capital.  It already exists in projects like Y Combinator.  We think it would be interesting to start a Y Combinator for social projects here in the UK.

I don’t think that’s the answer to everything.  You have to design your support process around the people you are working with.  What can we do with groups like Kiva?  What if we used that system to find projects to fund?  Or what about KickStarter’s model with pledging/small contributions/crowdsourcing?  What if we applied that to the NHS?  4ip is already doing some of this stuff, too, and it’s really interesting.

This talk was inspired by lots of conversations with people who are looking for support for an idea AND interesting people and organizations looking for projects to support.  There has to be an opportunity there!

Published on November 26, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 Comments

Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards Winners Announced

Published in challenge and marketing. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Both large and small nonprofits earned top honors this week for their attention-getting taglines, demonstrating again that an organization of any size can craft a powerful, pithy motto to build awareness and connect with its key audiences.  Organizations of all sizes participated in the Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards, hosted by president of Nancy Schwartz & Company and publisher at GettingAttention.org.

The 13 winners were selected from 60 finalists drawn from 1,702 nonprofit taglines submitted to the 2009 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards competition. More than 4,800 nonprofit professionals cast votes in the final selection round.

The awards program is designed to encourage nonprofits to effectively use taglines, a high-impact, low-cost marketing tactic often overlooked or under-emphasized by nonprofits; Nancy says, “A nonprofit’s tagline is hands down the briefest, easiest and most effective way to communicate your organization’s identity.”

Nancy says that the winning taglines in the 2009 competition demonstrate how powerful taglines can work as a first step in branding or as a highly-effective tool to refresh a nonprofit’s messaging, emphasize its commitment to its work and/or revive tired positioning.

A great tagline can help people find you, too!  Searching on Google or even on Facebook for issues or ideas can tap into words in your tagline that may not be included in your organization’s name.

2009 TAGLINE AWARD WINNERS

Arts & Culture: Big Sky. Big Land. Big History. — Montana Historical Society

The Montana Historical Society takes its state’s most elemental and distinctive characteristics (Big Sky, Big Land) and deftly melds them with its mission in a way that generates excitement. The result is a tagline with punch and focus. And a big hit with voters.

Associations: Building community deep in the hearts of Texans —TexasNonprofits

TexasNonprofits’ tagline tweaks the title of an iconic American popular song from the 1940s and brilliantly connects it to the spirit, passion and mission of the state’s citizenry. A great example of how word play works in a tagline.

Civic Benefit: Holding Power Accountable — Common Cause

Common Cause’s tagline leaves no doubt about the organization’s mission, unique value and commitment. It’s definitive, with a powerful economy of words. An excellent example of the tagline clarifying the nonprofit’s focus, when the organization’s name alone doesn’t do so.

Education: A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste® — UNCF -The United Negro College Fund

This 38-year-old tagline from UNCF still rings strong. It elegantly delivers its straight up, powerful message. When your tagline is the boiled-down essence of your argument for support, you’ve achieved tagline bliss. That’s why this one is a classic.

Environment & Animals: Because the earth needs a good lawyer — Earthjustice

Earthjustice capitalizes on what people do understand – that a lawyer protects rights – and uses that framework to dramatically position its role and impact in the environmental movement. And it does so with humor. If your tagline makes people smile or light up, without stepping on your message, then you’ve made an emotional connection…Bravo.

Grantmaking: If you want to be remembered, do something memorable. — The Cleveland Foundation

It’s a rare tagline that manages to recruit people to its cause both unabashedly and effectively. That’s exactly what The Cleveland Foundation pulls off here. Clear, concise, and…memorable! A model for any organization promoting philanthropy.

Health & Sciences: Finding a cure now…so our daughters won’t have to. © — PA Breast Cancer Coalition

The PA Breast Cancer Coalition’s tagline is both emphatic and poignant. It strikes a deep emotional chord, and conveys the focus and impact of its work without being overly sentimental. “Finding a cure,” a highly used phrase for health organizations, is bolstered here by the appeal to solve a problem now so future generations won’t suffer from it.

Human Services: Filling pantries. Filling lives. — Houston Food Bank

With simple but effective use of word repetition, the Houston Food Bank clarifies its work and impact. It delivers on two distinct levels—the literal act of putting food on people’s shelves and the emotional payoff to donors and volunteers. An excellent example of a mission-driven tagline.

International, Foreign Affairs & National Security: Send a Net. Save a Life. — Nothing But Nets

Short, punchy and laser-sharp, the Nothing But Nets tagline connects the action with the outcome. It’s inspirational in the simplicity of its message and its reason for existing. The kind of tagline nonprofits should model.

Jobs & Workforce Development: Nothing Stops A Bullet Like A Job — Homeboy Industries

Homeboy Industries’ tagline is a mini-masterpiece, telling a memorable story in just six words. It stops you in your tracks, makes you want to learn more and sticks with you afterwards. That’s the kind of potent nonprofit messaging every organization desires.

Media: Telling stories that make a difference — Barefoot Workshops

If your organization’s name is vague, it’s critical that your tagline be distinct. Barefoot Workshops’ tagline sums up the transformative power of stories to create change in people and their communities, so clarifying the organization’s focus. Saved by the tagline!

Religion & Spiritual Development: Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors. — The people of The United Methodist Church

The work of religious organizations often operates on several planes at once — a challenge for any organization and its messaging. Here, The United Methodist Church delivers a tagline trinity that supports its applied faith mission and is warm, enthusiastic and embracing.

Other: A head for business. A heart for the world. — SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise)

If an organization’s identity contains within in it a distinct contrast between its key characteristics, that’s often good tagline material. Here, SIFE surprises with its crystal-clear tagline that conveys not only what’s unique about it but also capitalizes on the contrast between profit and compassion.

The full report will be out in November with more details about the 13 winners and all of the entries and more! For your free copy on publication, subscribe to the free Getting Attention e-update.

Published on October 20, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

DonorsChoose Interview & Social Media Challenge

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My collaborator, JD Lasica, at SocialBrite has just posted the interview and details below.  Please support the SocialBrite team (or any other blogger) in the Social Media Challenge!

DonorsChoose: open source philanthropy from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

Social Media Challenge is a leading example of micro-giving

When you think of organizations and nonprofits that have made effective use of Web 2.0 technologies to raise funds for a cause, DonorsChoose.org should be near the top of a very short list.

And October is once again the month when bloggers step up to the plate for the Social Media Challenge, now in its third year. Last year, bloggers big and small raised $270,000 to provide 65,000 students with the resources needed to learn. This year, Twitter has joined the fray.

At Socialbrite, we’d like to call on our readers to support students in public school classrooms in low-income areas. The cool part? You get to decide which projects to support — and you’ll be able to hear directly from the students who received your donation.

Please make a donation on the Socialbrite Giving Page. Some of the donations will have twice the impact because of a matching grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

And, of course, you can always create your own Giving Page.

Meantime, if you’re not familiar with DonorsChoose, the idea is a simple one: It’s a site where public school teachers could post what materials they were lacking in the classroom. Requests stay up for five months or until they’re fully funded.

Interview with founder Charles Best

I recently buttonholed founder and CEO Charles Best to get a first-hand account of the groundbreaking charity and its model for funding public school projects around the country. Charles thought up the site during a lunch conversation with colleagues at a public high school in the Bronx where he was a social studies teacher for five years, and his students volunteered to help start the organization. They hope individuals will contribute around $17 million this year for books, field trips, art supplies and technology needed by classrooms in low-income areas.

Watch, embed or download the 6-minute video on Vimeo
Watch the video in H.264 on Ourmedia

Some highlights from our chat:

• During the 2007 Blogger Challenge, he said, “we saw that a handful of bloggers who wouldn’t appear on the Technorati top 100 list and don’ have huge readerships were actually capable of raising the most money from their readers because they have a personal relationship with their followers.”

• With micro-giving, “someone with $10 or $25 to give can be a philanthropist. and get the same kind of accountability and vivid feedback that bill gates gets when he gives $1 million,” he said.

• The main reason it works is that you get to see how your donation was spent, you get photos from the classroom, and you get a personal reply from the teacher or students.

• There are 12,000 to 14,000 classroom project requests on the site at a time. About two-thirds get fully funded before they hit their expiration date.

• DonorsChoose is a great target for companies’ Corporate Social Responsibility programs. “Companies have a new ability to empower their customers to be philanthropists, to open source their philanthropy and let their customers or employees participate as grant makers,” he said.

• Long term, DonorsChoose wants raise $100 million a year for public classrooms this way.

Published on October 15, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

2009 DonorsChoose.org Social Media Challenge

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The DonorsChoose.org Social Media Challenge is back again!  The challenge runs throughout October, with hundreds of bloggers and Twitterers rallying to support classroom requests on DonorsChoose.org.   During last year’s challenge, more than 165 bloggers participated, including Fred Wilson, TechCrunch, Kara Swisher, Ars Technica, and Julia Allison. All told, they raised over $275,000 for classroom projects reaching 67,000 students in low-income neighborhoods around the country.  This year promises to have an even bigger impact  Check out projects and get started here.

About DonorsChoose.org

DonorsChoose.org grew out of a high school in the Bronx where teachers saw their students going without the materials needed to learn.  Our website provides an easy way for everyday people to address this problem. Public school teachers post project requests that range from a $100 classroom library, to a $600 digital projector, to a $1,000 trip to the zoo. People like you can choose which projects to fund and then get photos and thank-you letters from the classroom.

Published on September 30, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

A Journey to India: Opportunities to Connect Networks

Published in challenge and socialchange. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

India Social Entrepreneurship Journey, February 2010 Contest – Please support me!

Journeys for Change is offering the chance to win a fully-paid nine-day tour of leading Social Entrepreneurs in India. The winner will join a select group of senior leaders from some of the world’s top private, public and civil society organisations, and will get first-hand lessons in innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership from some of Bangalore and Mumbai’s leading social entrepreneurs.

Thank you to those who have already voted or commented!  I’m so honored by your support and really look forward to a chance at sharing all the work from this network of changemakers with those on this journey!

Please support me by voting and commenting here.

Here is a copy of the application narrative; you can read it and vote for me on the competition site here.

Part of my role as the Global Community Development Manager at NetSquared is to support and grow our offline organizers from around the world. This offline network, called Net Tuesdays, balances the work we do online to connect all those working at the intersection of technology and social impact. We now have over 50 cities globally hosting monthly events with many more getting started. On a daily basis, I work with the organizers in all these cities as well as those interested in organizing in their community, to connect them to each other, share information and ideas, and create innovative ways to link the global network.

I also work closely with our innovator community, those who have submitted Projects on our platform and participated in open innovation Challenges. NetSquared’s hosted Challenges for 3 years now, surfacing hundreds of innovative technologies for social impact. We highlight and support their work by connecting teams with local Net Tuesday groups (for feedback, presentations), foundation and nonprofit organizations (to help implement technologies in the real world), and the larger community (for new ideas and collaborations).

Outside of NetSquared, I am a trainer, blogger and facilitator as well as the co-author of Social by Social: a practical guide to using technology for social impact. I’m also a contributor to Socialbrite, NTEN, Women Who Tech and other industry leading collaborations.

I cannot wait for the experiences ahead for all those chosen to participate in this journey. As someone enmeshed in the innovation and social impact sector, this would be an incredible opportunity to understand the issues and options facing those in communities in India as well as connect with individuals who are ready to do more. I am always happy to share any experiences or knowledge I have, extend any resources or connections, and support the work of valuable projects. I have to believe that all those participating in the one-of-a-kind journey probably feel the same way and view this opportunity as a chance to create synergies throughout our work during and after the trip.

I hope to help those groups already getting started in India and elsewhere by personally understanding the context they work in every day, as well as creating new relationships to help bridge local barriers to participation in a global conversation about social impact. I hope that I can extend my personal community-driven model of development to aid both the colleagues on the trip as well as those we meet. An journey like this opens doors to new partnerships, relationships, and networks in a unique way.

Like I said, I cannot wait!

What do you think?

Would love to hear ideas from you about how I could help or highlight a project your are working on if I have the chance to go! Leave a comment on the application here.

Published on September 22, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 1 Comment

Vote for Next Great Nonprofit Tagline

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Vote here for the 2009 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards.

Voting will:

  • Sharpen your understanding of what works and what doesn’t communications-wise.
  • Inform and inspire your foundation’s messaging.
  • Give you the chance to register for the free 2009 Nonprofit Tagline Report, with 2,500 tagline examples.

The 60 tagline finalists have been culled from over 1,700 entries in 13 categories, including grantmaking. Now it’s *your* turn to select the best.

Please share this invitation with your grantees! They’ll benefit in the same ways you do.

VOTE Now! Polls close midnight, Wednesday, September 30th.

About the Nonprofit Tagline Awards

The annual Tagline Awards are back from Nancy Schwartz and the Getting Attention blog.  Your nonprofit or foundation could be one of this year’s Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Award winners!

A strong tagline does double-duty — working to extend your organization’s name and mission, while delivering a focused, memorable and repeatable message to your base. It’s one of your most effective marketing tools, but the 2008 GettingAttention.org survey showed that 72% of nonprofit organizations don’t have a tagline or rate theirs as performing poorly.

I’m trying to change that with this annual award program, highlighting the best in nonprofit taglines.

For more information, visit this FAQ.

Published on September 17, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

GlobalGiving’s second American Open

Published in challenge and fundraising. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Starting October 27th, GlobalGiving will hold its second “American Open Challenge” where 501 c3’s serving U.S. communities can compete with each other by fundraising on the GlobalGiving site.  Projects working in the U.S. will have the opportunity to earn a spot on the GlobalGiving website if they mobilize supporters to raise $4,000 from at least 50 unique donors.  There is also prize money available for the organizations raising the most donors and dollars.

Nominations must be submitted by October 2, and anyone familiar with an organization’s work may make a nomination.

Get started:

Published on September 10, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Charity Hack in London

Published in challenge and events. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Charity Hack looks to be a terrifically fun event for nonprofits and techies alike!

Charity Hack Weekend brings together charities and developers to revolutionise the collection of donations. Join us 19-20 September 2009 and be part of this extraordinary event. We’re looking for developers to come up with new and innovative ways of helping charities promote their causes and garner support.

What you will get access to on the day includes

  • JustGivings new API (available for the first time at this event)
  • MissionFish’s cash giving APIs available for the first time in the UK
  • PayPals new Beta Adaptive Payments API’s
  • Sneak Preview of other API’s

These are just some of the APIs that will be featured, there is no limit to the APIs that can be used.  Visit the event Wiki for links to documentation, attendees bios, and links to the applications created after the weekend.

What we hope to get from the weekend

We hope by the end of the weekend a number of interesting applications have been born that can be used by any charity under an open source style licence.

Learn more or register today!

Published on August 26, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

2009 GreatNonprofits Youth Thrive Awards

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The 2009 GreatNonprofits Youth Thrive Awards will recognize the top-rated youth-focused nonprofits. In the month of September, the small, medium, and large organizations with the most positive reviews will be featured on GreatNonprofits and Guidestar.

The contest asks clients, donors, volunteers, and board members to write reviews of these nonprofits. All reviews will be automatically visible on GuideStar.org.

“Reviews show the real human impact of a nonprofits and raise the visibility and credibility of those organizations,” says GreatNonprofits CEO Perla Ni. “This will help highly-rated nonprofits attract more support and volunteers.”

Nonprofits with the most positive reviews in their category will be announced as winners and receive media coverage as well as promotion on GuideStar.org. Awards will be given out of 9 categories (6 geographic US regions and 3 budget size – small, medium and large).

Contest Deadline: September 30th.

About GreatNonprofits

“GreatNonprofits is a tool that allows you to find, review, and talk about great — and perhaps not yet great — nonprofits. You already know that reviews by other people who have gone to a restaurant or tried out a doctor are the best way to find out about the quality of those services. If you have direct experience with a nonprofit, GreatNonprofits makes it easier for you to share your knowledge so that other people can discover the great nonprofits that are out there.”

(Content pulled from GN press release.  For more news like this from GreatNonprofits visit: http://greatnonprofits.org/)

Published on August 11, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 1 Comment

Creating a Compendium of Competitions for Change

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Originally posted on the 4Change blog, here.

The June #4Change chat topic focused on Challenges/Competitions for Social Change. Early on in that online chat, the request emerged for a compendium or other list of “all” the Challenges and Competitions focused on social benefit. Such an overview would let those interested in participating or facilitating a competition review the full landscape of options, characteristics of each, and so on.

So, to answer that call, the #4Change crew has started building the compendium and now it’s your turn to chip in! Here’s the link to see what we have so far.

Please contribute to the Competitions for Change Compendium!  Simply click here to add to the resource!

Published on July 2, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments