Case Study in Free Agent Fundraising @AbolishCancer

Published in case studies and fundraising. 14 Comments Tags: , , , , .

I often talk about individuals when I’m discussing the way social media can be used to support organizations. Why? Because social media may be about networks, communities, and collaboration; but it is only possible because of the dynamic and powerful tools individuals are using. Social networks are built from all the content individuals share.  Collaborative tools are valuable because of the options for bringing individuals working on a project into a shared space.

Is you’re organization looking to support free agent fundraisers and the changemakers who are passionate about your cause, want to support your work, but do it their way? One thing you can do right now to help is create a Supporter Toolkit on your website with logos, ready to use content and mission statement, links to all your social media profiles/presences, and anything else that would be helpful for someone looking to fundraise or campaign for you.

Case Study

I recently connected with Darah Bonham, the driver behind @abolishcancer. A free agent changemaker having success fundraising with Twitter. I want to share that story!

In Darah’s words:

I basically started the site in November as a combination of social media interests and helping others in their fight vs cancer.  I thought that the Twitter feed @abolishcancer, which is the entire org, except for the blog, would be strictly focused on developing a following that had one thing in common- to fight cancer.  The premise was that if I could sponsors of my site for a day, we would donate $1 for every new follower we received that day.  The sponsor would be committed to pay the charity at the conclusion of the day.  The end result would be more followers for us, great PR for the sponsor (and a good deed) and $ and awareness through tweet to the cancer charity.
Originally we recommended that all the donations from the sponsorships would go towards American Cancer Society.  I had a girl from Ireland agree as my first sponsor in November and we earned 65 new followers. She made the donation the next day and we were off.  Although, it was fairly slow in sponsorships early going.  I had several hundred followers and was following a thousand or so and getting a sponsor about every two weeks or so with an average of $50 new followers each time.  Not bad, but nothing fantastic.
Then @THON came along.  THON is the largest student run philanthropic organization and is run by students at PSU.  I stumbled across some of their senior leaders and began to form a relationship through our tweets.  In January I asked the typical “looking for a sponsor” tweet and a junior from Penn State @PatHowley agreed to sponsor on that Friday.  I told him that the average was $50 new followers and we were set.  Around noon that Friday I noticed my followers going up at a steady pace, about 150 or so, then it happened… the followers started to go off the radar.  I couldn’t figure it out.  I started looking at the mentions and noticed that Kim Kardashian had retweeted it.  With over 1 million followers, that’s all it took.  By the end of the day I had 1.734 new followers which = $1,734 owed by Pat to THON ( who we agreed the money would go to ahead of time) from a bus boy trying to make ends meet.  The story had an even better ending as Pat was able to leverage the publicity from the event and raise a total of $8,000 to donate.
Since, we have let the sponsor choose whoever they would like as a cancer charity.  We have been fortunate that a nectar company in California, @Delprado, has now done 3 sponsorships One for @VTRelay for $1,400, one for 5 yr old boy & mom with cancer $3,200 and one for @Shannonleetweetd’s @RallyForKids $3,600.  In all total we have raised over $11,000 by simply tweeting and getting followers.  I have never touched a dollar of the donations and make nothing.  My value is the collection of followers for a common cause.
I have been fascinated with how a message can go viral and have learned some interesting tricks as to how to make a message get retweeted.  Obviously, with celebrities tweeting about your message, the odds improve. George Lopez, Shannon Tweed, Russell Crowe, Alyssa Milano, Larry King, and others have tweeted and in some cases followed our work.  I trully beleive that a community can be formed and connected through something like Twitter and they can be a force to be reckoned with.
My goal is to get 1 million followers, but more importantly to get a sponsor for each day of the year while support ing a new charity each day.  The key, of course, is that I need sponsors for each of these days.  These are somewhat slow to come by but my justification is this…for $5,000 or less (unless Ashton Kutcher OR President Obama tweet about it) a sponsor will help out a cancer charity and will get at least that many tweets about their sponsorship.  5,000 NEW followers to abolishcancer would = at least 5,000 tweets about the cancer charity and the sponsor b/c people have to go out and get NEW followers, existing followers don’t count.  Hopefully businesses will see the value in this and start stepping up more.
At any rate, it has been very fun, educational, and heartfelt with the response and results we have gotten.  I only hope we can continue to sustain it.  In the meantime I get lots of pleasure (and sadness) by retweeting about people’s needs, successes, and plights as it relates to cancer.  Awareness is as important as the $ itself.
As my tag line says, for which I believe, “Power of the People, through Twitter, to help @abolishcancer“
If you want to learn more or get involved, connect on Twitter at http://twitter.com/abolishcancer
—–
Looking forward to conversation about this story – what are your questions? Ideas? Reactions? Do you have an example to share, too?
Published on June 18, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 14 Comments

Great reads from around the web on June 17th

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I come across so many great conversations, ideas, and resources all over the web every day. Here are some of the most interesting things I’ve found recently (as of June 17th). You can join the conversations in the comments, or click through to the original posts to find what others are saying.

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

  • NetSquared Local Reaches 70 Groups Worldwide! | NetSquared, an initiative of TechSoupGlobal.org – "In the last two months, we've had 5 new NetSquared Local groups join the scene, bringing the new official number to 70 groups worldwide! Below is a list of the new groups that have just gotten started. If you're interested in getting involved either as a co-organizer or a participant in one of these cities, go to the group website and give the organizer a shout!"
  • Facebook | The Networked Nonprofit Virtual Launch Party – "After more than a year of anticipation, on June 21 Beth Kanter and Allison Fine will release the Networked Nonprofit, published by Jossey-Bass. At 4:00 p.m. EDT/1:00 p.m. PDT Beth and Allison will celebrate with a virtual book party on U-Stream and Twitter (#netnon). Our party goal: Make The Networked Nonprofit a top ten bestseller in Amazon.com's business book section before the book is issued (Official release date: July 9). Join us on the 21st at 4 eastern/1 pacific for questions and answers about the book The Networked Nonprofit. Whether you want to watch the dynamic duo live on your computer or just chat with them on Twitter, the party will be a blast."
  • Amazon Patents Social Networking System, Winks at Facebook – "The United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded Amazon a patent for a “Social Networking System.” Amazingly enough, the description of the patent sounds, well, pretty much like any social network we’ve seen over the years, including Facebook."
  • open data doesn't empower communities | internet.artizans – "Open data doesn't empower communities. I'm not saying open data is a bad thing, but we need to highlight the gap between the semantic web and social impact. Otherwise we'll continue to get swept along on a tide of technocratic enthusiasm where hope lies in 'a flood of data to create a data-literate citizenry'."
  • The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving – "Economic conditions, natural disasters, and market fluctuations have made it extremely difficult for nonprofits to make fundraising decisions informed by the latest donor behavior. That is why we created the Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving — to provide fundraisers with up-to-date data on fundraising trends and to couple that information with valuable analysis by leaders in the sector." The trend is up 12.1%!
Published on June 17, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 1 Comment

#4Change Chat Wrap-Up: Community Building

Published in community and events. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Last week, I had a fun time moderating the June #4Change Twitter Chat on Online Community Building. Thanks to all those who participated or followed along, and to those who will join the conversation now! This wrap up will highlight some of the insights and resources shared during the chat, but, if you’d rather, you can review the full transcript.

Note on platform: During last week’s Twitter chat, not unlike previous chats, we dealt with some major issues around lag and load time.  What makes a Twitter chat different than a blog post, for example, is that the conversation is 1. real time, and 2. co-created.  A blog post has, like this, one person writing it and sharing it at the end for comments.  That’s not to say that conversation can’t be incredible – but even then it is probably still not real time. I’m a huge proponent of blogs (obviously) but didn’t want to give up on the chat when Twitter was misbehaving. So, I turned to CoverItLive as it was a tool I’d used before and knew I could launch quickly. I hope that in the future we don’t have to turn to a back up/alternative, but I’d love to hear your thoughts about the use of CoverItLive this time!

What’s the point in using “global” tools (social media) for local organizing?

From @amoration: I find we’re always both global & local, so many of us travel frequently that virtual organizing tools are essential even for “local” endeavors

From @cosechajusta: I think part of it is just getting a message out there in as many formats as possible, so you reach as broad an audience as possible. Plus, sending emails, mass texts, etc is much quicker than doorknocking or cold calling folks.

From @rootwork: Well, I think it’s about going where people/supporters/potential supporters are. And in each local place, people are on different types of social media, some of which are global in scope. But that doesn’t mean you appeal to everyone on the planet every time you post on Facebook — you target your use of social media.

From @winwinapps: The fact that social media is forming networks and connections allows local to have more global influence.  But for now local is still something I use a map and a tank of gas to determine the limits of.

Best Practices:

From @davidahood: Still strongly believe that there has to be an element of face to face/on the ground connection to any successful engagement and mobilisation of any community. At the very least the key central organisers need to have close ties to local organisers so that there is a robust and well understood vision and objectives.

From @neddotcom: one strategy: ease of participation, make it easy.

From @davidahood: agree with @neddotcom. People want to take action on things that they care about – whether it impacts them directly or not. Our “job” is to facilitate that action and make it easier for them to participate. Inspire, empower and facilitate to take action. Social media makes that much easier.

From @rootwork: Social media is inclined toward leadership development — it’s built around people posting, blogging, photographing, videoing, etc. — so it’s good to play to that advantage. Figure out how to bring enthusiastic social media participants into the “inner circle” of planning & organizing.

From @winwinapps: Make it fun. Make the goal easily quantifiable.

From @pelleaardema: I do believe you could draw an ‘engagement pyramid’ for social media too. Not everybody needs to stick with the easy actions, some volunteers may be interested to set up ‘their own’ soc med campaign for your cause

From @neddotom: recap 1. easy 2. fun 3. overall goal 4. action oriented 5. decentralized/open

Tools:

From @rootwork: Facebook has been pretty effective at creating a place for discussion/strategy between events or meetings. Like I mentioned earlier, we use Twitter for live updates from events, and that’s been very successful — lots of positive feedback that people can follow along even if they’re not there. It works really well for a) hearings (legislative or municipal) and b) rallies or direct action. We haven’t used it as much at social events because it’s less clear what to “report” on.

From @pelleaardema: we use twitter, facebook to share what’s happening in the online forums, post announcements, invitations, etc.

Metrics:

From @rootwork: We’re a pretty small organization, with a small staff and budget, so I admit to not doing as much measurement as we should because of lack of time and staff resources. Mostly we measure it in whether we get positive feedback from our supporters and whether they seem engaged (commenting on stuff on Facebook, Retweeting, etc.). However I just found this great how-to on integrating Google Analytics on a Facebook Page, and hope to do that soon. http://www.webdigi.co.uk/blog/2010/google-analytics-for-facebook-fan-pages/

From @pelleaardema: # followers, # retweets, # clickthroughs (bit.ly). also measuring the number of clickthroughs from these sources to the main site (via Google Analytics).

From @neddotcom: WRT measurement, developed term CPA (with friend Andy Bourland (RIP) at first Interactive Advertising conference Monterey 1997. Cost per action. Action = money, sale, clickthrough, unique visitor, download, lead generation, email address, form fill out, questionnaire, etc. Working with Seth Godin at Yoyodyne, we defined measurement as 1) email participants then 2) continued/ongoing engagement

From @davidahood: We tend to track email opening and click through rates, what percentage of people take action from click through and growth in numbers of fans/followers/members. Personally still have a lot to learn about analytics and starting to use more – mostly google. But not everything is measureable…. ;)   mostly talking about level/quality of engagement via social media and feedback. will tend to summarise and record most common responses and also a few key ones that might be unexpected for assessment at end of a campaign or activity. if you couldn’t tell already, I’m big on conversation. ;) So I value the interaction I have with people which isn’t always measureable but is undoubtedly invaluable in terms of engagement – expected or otherwise. The most engaged people will sometimes come up with the most amazing and creative ways to take action or influence. A great campaign is one in which people are so engaged it just takes a life of its own. That’s why its important to be clear on vision, objectives and values.

Roles:

From @amyrsward: think in organizing and community building there are always some roles, even if they vary from group to group in how they operate: guides/navigators, campaigners, day-to-day folks, content creators, share-ers etc

From @jonasthanatos: Can communicate effectively.. is persuasive, convincing, has charisma. I think all roles in community organizing have a bit of “willing to try to change the world” in them. :)

From @pelleaardema: thinking out loud: content creators/organizers, a positive spirit (definitely needed), guide/leader…. and i guess some positive criticism can help as well. Usually generates a lot of energy

From @davidahood: I’d say you need someone who knows the issue inside and out (campaigner), someone who is a media and communications specialist, someone great with web, social media and other technology and someone to organise events and coordinate volunteers and engage directly with members of the community one on one (community organiser?). also helps to have someone who can focus on fundraising. of course, in smaller organisations, this may have to be only two or three people

Successful and Unsuccessful Examples:

From @davidahood: Greenpeace internationally had great success recently with the Nestle campaign getting Nestle to end deforestation in Indonesia for palm oil. The campaign was active online and on the ground in over 22 countries – all with a focus on Nestle’s head office in Switzerland. Social media used to engage local supporters to act globally.

From @pelleaardema: Looking at the local communities I know: a lot of NABUUR communities use twitter to reach out, keep their supporters updated. HAve a look at @arrowwebhosp for example: a slum hospital in Nairobi

From @pelleaardema: we’ve tried to set up a twitter chat to answer concrete questions from local communities in a short timespan. That was not particularly successful. A lot of effort to get pple into the chat, then a lot of confusion, hard to manage the discussion and no concrete outcomes

From @rootwork: We tried to do some end-of-year fundraising through Facebook and Twitter. I think we got $20 :) But we didn’t plan it out very well, so I think it was more a failure of thinking through an effective strategy than an inability for those tools to enable such a thing.

From @pelleaardema: some NABUUR volunteers recently tried to fundraise for 400 malaria nets, via Twitter and betterplace.org. I think the lack of background on blog etc lead to them raising about 1/3 of the budget. Support info is very important. and good timing indeed

From @rootwork: The Media Mobilizing Project has done a lot here in Philly connecting community organizing to social media and especially video — community media trainings, organizing people to interview each other, etc. http://mediamobilizing.org/ VozMob is another great example of this, organizing immigrant communities in Los Angeles, using mobile phones, photos and video http://vozmob.net/en/about

From @neddotcom: Thomas Kriese as community manager of the now closed Omidyar.net was a great example of quite, decentralized leadership style helping guide a community to make real things happen in the world. Dozens and dozens of community lead projects happened around the world during the networks 3 years.

From @davidahood: San Francisco Zoo has done a wonderful job and engaging and supporting their community. http://www.sfzoo.org/openrosters/view_homepage.asp?orgkey=1859 It all started with one guy at the zoo (his name escapes me) who wanted to connect more meaningfully to all the people coming to see the animals. People now share videos and pics and are great ambassadors/advocates for the zoo and it’s program.

From @pelleaardema: A very small, local initiative: 3 community projects in Uganda, trying to conquer malaria http://twitter.com/TweetANet

Follow #4Change on Twitter or check out the #4Change blog to join the monthly conversations.

Published on June 17, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 Comments

Connect in Person at #NCVS

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NCVSThe 2010 National Conference on Volunteering and Service (NCVS) is June 28-30 in New York City. The NCVS conference is an opportunity for volunteer and service leaders to get together for in-person networking and learning. If you’re going to be there, we’d love for you to get in touch!

Find us!

Here’s a listing of sessions and spaces hosted by NetSquared and TechSoup:

Community-Driven Social Impact Session

Amy Sample Ward from NetSquared
Date: Tuesday, June 29, 2010; 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Room: 1471
This session focuses on strategies and case studies for creating successful community-driven media, events and campaigns. Participants will learn about best practices and work in small groups to put learning into practice.

Technology Planning for Nonprofits Session

Catherine Hurd and Elliot Harmon
 from TechSoup Global
Date: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM
Room: 1374
This session will help participants to assess their organization’s technology needs and capacity; work with technical volunteers; and understand the role of technology planning as the foundation for an effective operating environment.

Mixed Reality Learning Lab

Susan Tenby from TechSoup Global along with Interactive Producers Evonne Heyning from and Josephine Dorado
Dates: All conference long!
Location: In the lounge near the ballroom entrance corridor between the conference host exhibit spaces
The team at TechSoup has brewed up a select menu of tools and strategies to provide a social media curriculum to conference attendees on how to explore Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and applications for engaging volunteers and supporters around the world.  Attendees can join a tour of the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life or learn how to use digital storytelling and Facebook for quick and easy updates to keep connected to supporters. Quick tips and tools will be provided on how to get started as well as support for more advanced users.  Also, engage in a mixed reality event as avatars and representatives from nonprofits around the world discuss their work both virtually and in their communities.

Get in Touch Via Twitter

Will you be at the NCVS? We’d love to hear from you: @NetSquared or @TechSoup.  Or connect with us directly:

Published on June 16, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 11 Comments

Future Trends in Charity Communications #CC2020

Published in collaboration and future. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Ben Matthews has just announced the launch of CharityComms 2020, an initiative that Bright One has been spearheading in partnership with CharityComms, the professional body for charity communicators.

In Ben’s words:

CharityComms 2020 is a presentation where key figures in charity communications have teamed up to produce a snapshot of the most significant communications trends of the coming decade.

Contributors come from a wide range of well known charities, including Amnesty International, Macmillan Cancer Support, UNICEF, Friends of the Earth, The Scout Association, and many more. There’s also a group of well known influential thinkers who have contributed, including Jonathan Waddingham at JustGiving, Rachel Beer at beautiful world, Steve Bridger and Amy Sample Ward.

I’m flattered to see the quality of contributors that we’ve brought together for this initiative and hope you see this reflected in the quality of the ideas, insights and inspiration contained in the presentation.

Ben asked me to participate in this very fun and insightful project to highlight and share our views of the top 5 trends for the next decade for technology and social media that will impact charity communications. What were my ideas?

  • co-creation – of services, programs, campaigns
  • flatter processes – less hierarchy in organizations, fewer steps in finding information and services
  • portability – moving to the cloud; conversations and content moves seamlessly across platforms
  • privacy and ownership – creative commons and other licensing can’t support all the rules and options we’ll need for the content we’re creating and wanting to won
  • personalization – the more we create and the more we share, the more we expect to shape how we receive and browse

Check out the ideas from everyone that participated – each contributor has a slide in the below show:

CharityComms 2020

View more presentations from Ben Matthews.

Your Invitation

You’re invited to add your own five trends and an accompanying image to the presentation by sending Ben an email and he’ll update as further submissions are received.

What are your five trends you see affecting charity communications in the next 10 years?

Join the conversation by using #cc2020 on Twitter!

Published on June 16, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 Comments

Oregon Foundation looking for a Million Dollar Idea

Published in challenge and collaboration. 7 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Meyer Memorial Trust is a private foundation in Oregon, USA, that has a pioneering spirit and is always up to something new, different, and meaningful – plus it is quite near to my heart. I worked for the Chalkboard Project fresh out of university, a nonprofit organization founded and fueled by Foundations for a Better Oregon, a coalition of foundations in Oregon focused on collaborating to make a meaningful impact to issues in Oregon – in the case of the Chalkboard Project, that focus was on public education reform. Later in my career, I worked directly with MMT working closely with a dear friend, Marie Deatherage, focused on social media training and information for nonprofit organizations and developing Connec+ipedia, an open knowledge sharing site with information, data, people, and resources for foundations, nonprofits, government agencies, or anyone else working to better Oregon and beyond.

And now they are up to something again: MMT is looking for a million dollar idea to support!

More information is in the press release below – you can contact Marie with additional questions.

The foundation will collect the ideas from Oregonians on a forum on the web at ideas4oregon.org to commemorate MMT reaching $500 million in money distributed to tax exempt organizations, primarily in Oregon.

“Half a billion dollars in 28 years from the personal estate of one of Oregon’s leading entrepreneurs leaves a powerful legacy,” said MMT Board Chair Orcilia Forbes. “Our funds have helped make Oregonians healthier and better educated, provided greater access to social services and the arts and culture, strengthened the nonprofit sector and improved the environment for all who live and visit here.”

Meyer Memorial Trust is the largest private foundation in Oregon, established from Fred G. Meyer’s personal estate. It began operating in 1982 and anticipated awarding $5-$6 million a year. In fact, over the past five years, MMT distributed an average $28 million per year in grants and program-related investment loans, surpassing $500 million with its most recent awards. At the same time, its assets have grown from $120 million to about $600 million, after giving away $500 million.

“To mark this occasion, we prefer to look ahead, not back,” MMT CEO Doug Stamm said. “We’d like all Oregonians to join us in kicking off the next $500 million. We think that’s where Fred Meyer would want us to look.”

Stamm noted that the million dollar idea challenge supplements MMT’s existing grant programs and initiatives, rather than supplanting any ongoing funding.

This is the first time the foundation has asked for broad and direct public input in its grants process. “We’ve set a goal to make MMT a national model of a regional foundation,” Stamm said. “Foundations are beginning to open themselves up as never before, and we want to be a leader in that movement.”

Forbes said the onslaught of bad news that Oregonians have heard in recent months contributed to MMT’s public approach.

In November 2009, Oregon was identified as one of the 10 states in most fiscal peril by the Pew Center on the States. Unemployment remains among the highest levels in the nation, with many more underemployed and in dire financial straits. Recent revenue forecasts were $577 million below what was projected just a few months ago. The global reach of the recession hurts exporting states like Oregon more than other states. Sharp declines in construction severely affected Oregon’s wood products industry and the state experienced high tech manufacturing job losses in the recession.

In response to the economic crisis, during 2009 MMT expanded its grantmaking strategies to help nonprofit organizations survive the economic downturn by helping with core and general operating expenses. In addition, MMT made significant grants for emergency food, utilities, rent and foreclosure assistance, and increasing access to the Earned Income Tax Credit. Through these awards, along with its ongoing grants programs, the amount MMT distributed remained constant, despite a significant decline in the foundation’s own assets.

“While we know foundation resources alone are by no means sufficient to solve our region’s significant challenges, we believe that opportunities exist for MMT to jumpstart actions that will lead us to a brighter future,” Forbes said. “We are looking for ways to provide meaningful leverage that help create conditions that will lead Oregon to its next best place.”

“Oregon used to be a hotbed of energetic innovation,” Stamm said, “but we are at risk of begin caught up in contagious pessimism. Do we really want to keep pointing to the bottle bill as our last great shining moment?”

“We hope this idea forum will help change the conversation in the state from how bad things are to what can we do to make them better,” Forbes said. “Meyer Memorial Trust can’t solve Oregon’s problems, but we’re willing to step up and try to jumpstart us in a better direction.”

The forum asks visitors to identify what they think is the most pressing issue facing Oregon and to share their best ideas to address it.

Stamm hopes the web forum will attract ideas from all Oregonians, not just nonprofits.

“Oregon’s issues go far beyond what nonprofits do,” he said. “We need to move beyond our customary categorical thinking and invite everybody – business, government, communities, organizations, individuals – to work together to address the issues we face before it’s too late.”

“This is not a time for faint-hearted suggestions, it’s a time to think big,” Stamm said. “We want bold and innovative, entrepreneurial ideas… the kind Fred Meyer might have had.”

All content of the forum will be public, with comments and feedback on ideas welcomed, Forbes said. “We want Oregonians to get engaged with us.”

While idea challenges and social media contests are increasingly used by corporations, governments and in philanthropy, ideas4Oregon.org has a far larger potential fiscal reward than most.

Ideas can be submitted and commented on until July 13, 2010. After all ideas are in, MMT will use them to craft a Request for Proposals, inviting applications to make a case for funding from the $1 million.

“If we get more than one outstanding idea, we’ll consider making multiple awards,” Stamm said. “Because we’ve never tried this public format before, we can’t predict just how it will go, and need to be flexible enough to make the most of this opportunity.”

Meyer Memorial Trust is a private independent foundation resulting from Fred G. Meyer’s personal philanthropy and is not affiliated with Fred Meyer Inc., the retail enterprise.

Published on June 15, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 7 Comments

Lee Bryant at #KMUK10

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I’m here at #KMUK10, also known as the Knowledge Management UK conference. David Wilcox will be spending the day helping show folks understand and get started with various social media tools.  I wanted to share a few notes that struck me from Lee Bryant of headshift out of his opening talk.

From Lee Bryant:

KM = sense making.  We are currently suffering from filter failure; which means the need to help people navigate and work within this world is really huge; we need skilled sense makers!

KM is about helping people make better decisions

KM has a purpose, skills/values/practices related to it have a real purpose today – but why are we not succeeding? why is there not a bigger impact on organizations today?

  • km has dysfunctional relationship with IT
  • km people are not the IT people and the IT people are not part of the KM development process
  • km people need to have more confidence and either find budets or other people with budgets so that they aren’t dependent on IT dept

Where does km sit within in the org? how much influence does it have?

Value of knowledge is contextual and relative – trying to give it value is a mistake; instead focus on the value of having it and sharing it. We need to free up knowledge in order to have healthier networks to work with.

Structure emerges with content – not the other way around. There’s a great deal of misunderstanding about psychology, human nature, and incentives.

Let’s take a critical view of process: “Process is a response to prior stupidity.”

Follow #KMUK10 on Twitter throughout today and tomorrow for more highlights that emerge from the conference!

Published on June 15, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Presentation: Social Media & Philanthropy

Published in presentation. 12 Comments Tags: , , , , .

This morning I had the great opportunity to present to the Next Generation Philanthropy course, a part of Institute for Philanthropy, here in London. It was a diverse set of participants and we probably could have talked all day had they not had a full day’s program to get through!

The talk:

My talk may not be as easily captured in the slides as some of my other talks are since this was a smaller group and I had the time to dive into each example and discuss it with the participants, instead of a more traditional presentation. The focus included both a look at what social media tools are being used to do in organizations now, how funders are using technology, and what opportunities exist for funders to support or lead on.

(Hint: click through to view the slides on SlideShare.net to see speaking notes.)

Social Media & Philanthropy

More resources:

Participants asked for a few resources during the discussion so I’ve included some links and pointers for them, and for you, below:

  • How-to Set up an RSS Dashboard: this is a great way to position your organization as a resource and go-to for the sector or issue; but it is also one of the best ways to ensure you’re on top of information and conversations across the web (you can create a dashboard that’s private or public).
  • Social by Social: a handbook for using new technologies for social impact that I co-authored last year. You can read it for free online (or download the PDF) and it includes case studies, how-to tutorials, and lots of information about various tools that may be appropriate for your organization (after you’ve identified your goals, audience, and so on).
  • We Are Media: this wiki is another excellent source of information and examples of social media for social impact compiled by the nonprofit technology community.
  • How-to Create a Social Media Strategy:

Keep talking:

I’d love to continue the conversation with those that were there today, and everyone else. Let me know what you think!

Published on June 13, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 12 Comments

Video Book Review of Social by Social by Grizzard Communications

Published in socialbysocial. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Earlier this year I presented at the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference and knew I’d have the chance to see many friends and colleagues again, and meet new ones! I also had just three hard copies of Social by Social left and thought I’d create a giveaway for Social by Social. One of the winners was Eric Pratum of Grizzard Communications. I wish I’d had more time to chat with Eric, but that was how I felt of everyone! (Speaking in a session every day meant there wasn’t much down town.)

In Grizzard’s new review series, Eric shares a video book review of the book! Take a look:

I’m so thrilled about his review and honored by the positive response! As far as the downsides he notes:

  • Beginner focused: It’s true; we were commissioned to create a handbook for organizations, communities and individuals just getting started with tools the wanted to keep the book as hands on for those at the beginning of the process as possible.
  • The size: Yes! I, too, was incredibly surprised about how big it was! The design concept was to mimic the orientation of a web page within the book, so you could have comments, information boxes and so on in the side bar with the main column acting as the main content on the page, just like a web site. I think that could have been treated to a slightly narrower product though.
  • The companion: As much as we wanted to give people straightforward and simple information, we also wanted to be sure they had options. The companion is also intended so that if someone comes across a tool that they are unfamiliar with, like vimeo for example, they can easily understand how it may work by seeing it listed as an alternative to youtube. Too much information – noted! We hope it’s still useful!

Thanks to Grizzard and Eric for sharing the review of the book. Check them out at: http://www.grizzard.com

And if you haven’t read the book yet, you can read it online (or buy-on-demand) at: http://socialbysocial.com

Published on June 13, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 3 Comments

Great reads from around the web on June 11th

Published in roundup. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

I come across so many great conversations, ideas, and resources all over the web every day. Here are some of the most interesting things I’ve found recently (as of June 11th). You can join the conversations in the comments, or click through to the original posts to find what others are saying.

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

  • An open letter to companies planning online communities | Community Building – I love this "open letter" from Martin Reed at CommunitySpark – it touches on so many "cultural" and infrastructure needs that organizations should think about BEFORE creating an online community space. I think it's great to revisit a list like this even if you are already working with your community online to be sure you haven't forgotten about some of the key foundations that will help you succeed.
  • Red Cross and URDB Break Record for Most SMS Donations in One Room – "The Universal Record Database — a rad online resource that allows the Average Joe to make and break a myriad of records online — succeeded in breaking the record for most online donations made by text message in one room today — all with the help of the attendees of the Mashable Media Summit."
  • Nine Ways Networked Nonprofits Use Slideshare | Beth’s Blog – Beth has a great post up about how organizations can use SlideShare. Are you familiar with the tool? It's a great online space to upload your presentations, notes and documents. I use it for all my presentations and it even allows me to share my speaker notes since most of my slides are usually just pictures. So, even when folks can't attend a presentation in person, they can still get all the content. Here are 9 ways Beth recommends organizations try out the tool.
  • What is a nonprofit network builder? – "As nonprofits increasingly use social media as part of their fundraising, communications and educational strategies, nonprofit staff are stepping up to lead and manage those efforts. Recently, the Case Foundation hosted a group of these emerging nonprofit network managers for a conversation about what we called “network building.” We will share the highlights of this discussion in two posts. The first below, is focused on what network builders do and the second will discuss where this function is heading and the outstanding questions surrounding the role."
  • Sixty days to turn one-off donors into regular givers – Third Sector – "One-off charity donors become much less likely to sign up to become regular givers after 60 days have passed since they made their donation, according to research by direct marketing agency DMS."
Published on June 11, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 5 Comments