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Interview: Scott Anderson of ClientTrack

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I recently had the opportunity to connect with Scott Anderson from ClientTrack, a software solution aimed at increasing the impact of social benefit organizations and their work by “integrating people, processes, and technology.”  You can learn more about Scott and the work ClientTrack is doing in the interview below.

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Scott Anderson is the Director of Communications for DSI, the developer of ClientTrack. He earned his PhD in Communications from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to his PhD, he worked as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in community health, adolescent residential treatment, and a faith-based organization.

(I appreciate this opportunity to talk about ClientTrack and its ability to promote effective collaborations. As many of you know, Amy is a magnificent example of bringing people together through technology to make a difference. I’ve been impressed with her ability to connect people and powerful ideas. I’ve been a “taker” from her source of information, and now I hope I can be a “giver” of information that might help others. Thanks, Amy, for all you do!)

First, what is ClientTrack?

ClientTrack software products and professional services provide comprehensive solutions for the Health, Human and Social Services community.  ClientTrack is an extremely capable web-based solution that fully:

  • Enables organizational best practices and improves efficiency at a pace organizations can support,
  • Ensures and simplifies compliance reporting for funding sources,
  • Enhances outcome reporting to strengthen fundraising and build community awareness, and
  • Optimizes collaborations within and between organizations.

How does CT define “collaboration” and what is so important about it?

For us, collaboration is about using technology to smoothly and effectively bring people and community resources together to accomplish more than what any one entity could accomplish alone. Co-laboring (working together) is not just nice, but necessary in the social service world. From an ecological perspective, individuals who seek support from social services generally require interventions in multiple domains, from housing to work assistance, to counseling, energy assistance, or after school programs, to name a few. Because we want to help the “whole” person, we need to be able to provide “whole” solutions. And that’s what effective collaborations among community providers do.

The words “smoothly” and “effectively” are essential to notice. The “smooth” part refers to ClientTrack’s ability to facilitate (i.e., “make facile, or easy”) the information sharing process. Community service providers can use ClientTrack to securely and confidentially share client information (with client consent). Among other benefits, ClientTrack makes it possible for a provider to immediately check availabilities and openings with other community service organizations, instantly enroll a client in their services, provide immediate referrals, and provide intake information electronically to the other providers. When information and services are shared like this, the client doesn’t have to fill out paperwork again, and providers don’t need to spend unnecessary time re-collecting basic information (which equates to saving money… something we could all use right now!).

By “effective,” I refer primarily to the ability to track client-level information across a number of community services. A primary case-manager, for example, might be able to immediately see that a client visited an employment agency over the last week, or was able to find temporary housing through another service provider. Beyond this immediate knowledge, client outcomes (e.g., quality of life, self-reports, self-sufficiency) can be assessed based on system-wide information, and not simply a “snapshot” of services received in one location.

In summary, collaboration is critical because a client-centric approach, tied into a community of resources through technology, facilitates simplified, whole solutions that can be evaluated based on system-wide outcomes.

Do you have any specific examples about new ways organizations are collaborating more effectively or more efficiently?

Three examples showcase a few of the collaborative efforts of our current clients. Their organizations are of various sizes, and each has unique needs and means for collaboration.

>> Example One: Large Collaborations

One of our clients is the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC; http://www.aidschicago.org). They are a local and national leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS, due in large part to their innovative, collaborative approach to providing services to individuals affected by HIV/AIDS. Specifically, they serve as a “lead agency” overseeing and coordinating services among more than 60 affiliated organizations in the Chicago area. Over 50 of their organizations now use ClientTrack, providing smooth, secure exchanges of client information from one service to the next. The system is configurable to each organization’s specific needs, but shares the same information pool. This translates into a reduction of duplicated information, saved time in information gathering, improved client services, and ultimately, improved organizational efficiency. Shared information allows participating providers to spend less-time in paperwork, and more time in people-work.

The scale of their collaborative efforts is inspiring, but what’s even more notable, is how it all seems to be working out so well. Through this “lead agency” model of collaboration, AFC can provide clients with excellent care across a continuum of services and decrease the gaps in service clients might otherwise experience. Additionally, through this model, AFC is in an unprecedented position to evaluate client-level information from a system-wide perspective. What this means is that they will eventually be able to track the progress of an individual as a result of receiving multiple services throughout the community. Because of their broad vision and future-looking leadership, AFC was recently awarded a substantial grant from a private foundation that will help them improve their client information systems, including enhancements to further leverage their implementation of ClientTrack.

For any who are interested, we are hosting a very relevant webinar in a couple of weeks. The Director of Program Data and Special Projects at AFC will be discussing how AFC has encouraged community programs to “buy into” their collaborative efforts, and the strategies others might consider to successfully build their own collaborative networks. (More information available on the CT website.)

>> Example Two: Resource Power through Collaboration

We are currently in the first phase of implementation with a group of three Community Action Agencies in Massachusetts. In this situation, the collaboration among the organizations is not about the need to share client information between organizations (as a result of geographical separation). Instead, they recognized that a common intake process among all the agencies would benefit policy advocacy and decision-making on a state level. That is, by collaborating to collect the same information and use the same intake assessment, they can improve the quality of information (e.g., number of individuals served, total money spent in given programs) they use in their advocacy efforts on a larger, macro scale.

As a second benefit, their collaborative efforts granted them purchasing power that they would not have had otherwise. As a group, they were awarded a state grant to assist them in implementing software that would support a universal intake solution. With those funds, they hired an agency to help them assess, find, and implement an appropriate solution. They were able to share and reduce costs along the way specifically because they were working together. Their collaborative efforts created funding and service-improvement opportunities they couldn’t have had working alone. Through collaborative efforts, this group of Community Action Agencies is accessing resources that only collaboration could provide.

>> Example Three: Collaboration Effectiveness and Excitement

A final example is Action for Boston Community Development, Inc. (ABCD) (http://www.bostonabcd.org/). ABCD is the oldest and largest community action planning (CAP) agency in the United States. The organization provides more than 100 programs through 13 community neighborhood centers that impact more than 100,000 low-income families in the Boston area.

As a tool for optimizing collaborations, ClientTrack has made a difference for ABCD in three primary ways. First, ABCD has been able to improve their internal collaborations. Specifically, the technology has allowed each of their programs to “speak the same language” in the data they collect and share. Like many nonprofits, they were using a variety of software programs to meet a variety of needs (e.g., intakes, assessments, eligibility determinations, case progress notes, scheduling, referrals). As a result, the ability to share information from program to program or center to center was challenging, given that the information—often duplicated—was created in different formats that were not easily compatible with one another. By using ClientTrack, ABCD was able to standardize the process for collecting information, bring the functionality of many programs into a single program, and share a common pool of securely accessible information about their clients. Through the shared database, workers in ABCD’s neighborhood centers are now able to conduct quicker intakes for clients already in the system, reduce duplicated information, track services received in other programs, simplify referrals, track system-wide outcomes, and many other aspects required for effective case management. By collaborating and sharing information, ABCD’s staff has simplified and automated many of their administrative procedures. This translates directly into letting them focus more on what matters most…the people they serve.

The second benefit for ABCD of collaborating and sharing data is the ability to use information for broader, organizational-wide purposes. Specifically, because their information is stored in one central database, ABCD can access the data in a variety of ways. They can use the information to create reports for various grants they receive (a very large task!), analyze the effectiveness of their programs and services, or create reports that showcase the benefits of their services to donors and their communities. By coordinating shared information among their various programs, they can show better accountability and transparency regarding their funds and the services they provide.

Finally, in developing their collaborations, ABCD has noticed that other programs affiliated with ABCD, but not currently using ClientTrack (whether due to prior investment or funding requirements), are noticing the value of their collaborative efforts. The fact that ABCD’s collaborations in case management are really happening, and are not just ideas on paper, is generating an appeal and excitement among other organizations. This excitement, in turn, will generate further collaborative efforts. When done well, collaborations can perpetuate and expand their own existence, to the benefit of all involved.

Regardless of the specific tools used for collaboration, what are some of the processes or elements to success you’ve seen?

I approach this response with a technology bias. I strongly believe that collaborative technology solutions are critical for social benefit organizations to maintain viability and avoid liability. The paper-based approaches to providing services are a liability for nonprofits, given that many funding organizations increasingly want to be certain their money is being maximized. Seeking grants is fundamentally about reducing uncertainty, and paper-based processes only open the door to greater uncertainty (regarding efficiency, security, privacy, reporting, etc.). With that said, the following is my list of specific processes and elements that lead to successful collaborations:

  1. Visualize your “ideal” collaboration before anything else. This will be the basis of implementing solutions that work.
  2. Find champions of your collaborative efforts and let them help you promote your vision.
  3. Implement a technology solution that can grow, change, and keep up with your vision and expanding collaborative efforts.
  4. Implement a technology solution that can “talk” with other technology solutions used by other organizations.
  5. Implement a technology solution that works with data the same way you work with people…client-centered (not service-centered). This approach to data makes tracking clients across collaborations much easier.
  6. For smaller organizations, join with other community organizations to increase purchasing power on your collaborative technology solutions.
  7. Be creative with collaborations: Share advertising, events, office space, or other resources.
  8. Recognize that collaborations are like marriage or getting a new roommate: you’re bringing together different systems that require mutual adjustments. Those adjustments can be difficult and take time and effort, but are well worth the outcomes.

What’s ahead for you in 2010?

As a ClientTrack team, we are looking forward to 2010 and the opportunities to again link arms with nonprofits everywhere to make a difference. I don’t want to make light of a “kumbaya” setting, but there’s a lot to understanding the power of people and communities coming together in a common cause. These are difficult times for many nonprofits, with tightened funding streams and increased demands for service. 2010 is not likely to improve.

But, we are confident that we have solutions that can help community providers make a difference. Creative collaborations will be critical in 2010; that’s why I’ve identified collaborations as one of the five things nonprofits must know in 2010. We can help organizations leverage technology to improve their day-to-day efficiency, simplify compliance reporting, enhance outcomes reporting, and build meaningful collaborations. We have outstanding products and services, developed and implemented by a group of dedicated people. We look forward to opportunities to share our solutions and work with organizations committed to providing best-practice services, quality care, and life-changing collaborations on behalf of their clients. By pushing together, we can move mountains.

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I’m so happy to share this interview with Scott because of the great examples he has to share from his work and the sector.  He’s been a great resource and conversation starter recently for me.  If you would like to contact Scott, learn more, talk about ideas or examples he has shared here, or just say hi, you can leave a comment here, follow ClientTrack on Twitter, or visit the CT blog.

Published on January 23, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

30 Hour Day: Livestreaming for Fundraising

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30 Hour Day is a cockamamie scheme concocted by Cami Kaos of Strange Love Live and Rick Turoczy of Silicon Florist. The concept? Livestream for 30 hours straight in an effort to raise money for charities like Free Geek, Oregon Food Bank, and Toys for Tots.  Yes these are Portlanders, hoping to fundraise to support local organizations in Oregon (USA), but they are hoping it helps you fundraise wherever you are, too!  That’s the power of livestreaming on the web, or at least the logic here.  With livestreamed content that you can use, too, the 30 Hour Day hopes to get people around the world involved.

I’ll be going on the air at 10 pm PST with my dear friend Marie (@mariadeathstar) in support of an organization that is incredibly important to us: Free Geek (you can see the notes about the birthday fundraising I did last year in support of Free Geek here).

Learn more about how you can get involved in the 30 Hour Day from wherever you are in the world!

Published on December 4, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Interview: Social Media and Social Entrepreneurs

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This past weekend I had the opportunity to be in Rotterdam, Netherlands, for the European Summit.  There I met Petra Kroon in person, someone I follow online in the nonprofit technology space.  It’s always great to meet offline with folks you’ve already had conversations with online.  Petra wanted to a short interview before the event was over and she asked some interesting questions, like:

  • What’s so powerful in social media for social entrepreneurs
  • What is advice for entrepreneurs in 2010
  • What will the world look like in 25 years

Be sure to catch Petra’s blog (in Dutch, so use a translation tool like Google Translate) or follow her on Twitter.

Why social innovation benefits from social media from sociaal ondernemen on Vimeo.

What do you think?

What are your answers to Petra’s questions?  I’d love to hear what you would have said!

Published on November 24, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 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

Innovation: Clay Shirky Interview & NetSquared Challenges

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Originally posted by me on the NetSquared blog.

NetSquared currently has 3 open Challenges, calling for innovators and change makers around the world to submit ideas for Web and mobile-based technologies for social change.  I recently sat down with Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, and asked what he thought about the impact of the social web on innovation.

Check out his answer (video) and Challenges you can dive into today!

UC Berkeley Human Rights Center Mobile Challenge

The Human Rights Center is sponsoring a challenge to encourage innovations for applying mobile technologies for human rights investigations and advocacy. Through a NetSquared Community vote, 10 finalists will be chosen. All 10 finalists will be invited to present their ideas at an international conference, “The Soul of the New Machine: Human Rights, Technology, and New Media,” at UC Berkeley, May 4 and 5, 2009. A panel of judges, selected by the Human Rights Center, will choose three winners, to be announced at the conference. Winners will receive cash awards of $15,000 (first place), $10,000 (second place), and $5,000 (third place) to implement their ideas.

N2Y4 Mobile Challenge

N2Y4’s Mobile Challenge calls for your world-changing ideas of how mobile applications can help citizens, groups and others create a better world for everybody.  NetSquared and our Challenge Sponsors invite submissions of innovations in mobile technologies for use by civil society.  Through a NetSquared Community vote, 14 Featured Projects will be selected to participate in this year’s NetSquared Conference.  Two representatives from each of the 14 Featured Projects will be invited to present their ideas in person at N2Y4, May 26-27, 2009 and compete for cash prizes.

Social Actions’ Change the Web

Social Actions’ Change the Web Challenge is about building innovative tools to help people find and share opportunities to take action on the Web sites, blogs, and social networks that we all visit everyday.  We want you to dream up a new tool to help people find and share actions. Any Web enabled device can become a place to connect with actions: your iPhone, news sites and blogs, Facebook & other social networks, or even in your own Web site! We’re excited to see what you come up with!  Did we mention that there’s also $10,000+ in prizes!

There’s a lot happening around the world right now with Web and mobile-based technologies and the opportunities for innovators to combine new tools with social benefit are rich.  These three challenges offer three more ways for you to showcase your ideas, find new collaborators, and even have a chance to win money for implementation.

Here’s to seeing you in the Project Gallery!

Published on March 4, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Interview: Chris Spavin on Global Entrepreneurship Week

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Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

It’s Global Entrepreneurship Week, so I have the inside scoop from Chris Spavin, a member of the Make Your Mark team working with partners to deliver GEW, catalyze events overseas, and assist the campaign’s development abroad.  Chris believes, “there is so much untapped potential in people and sometimes all we need is a simple catalyst.”  Learn more about the work below in Chris’ own words and find out how you can get involved!

What’s Global Entrepreneurship Week all about?

Global Entrepreneurship Week is a campaign to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs, and to unleash ideas that will address some of society’s biggest issues.  The point is we need entrepreneurs and we need more of them, now more than ever.  Organizations in over 75 countries are supporting this cause by ‘hosting’ their own national version of the campaign.

How is Make Your Mark contributing?

Make Your Mark is a co-founder of Global Entrepreneurship Week, along with a US-based organization called the Kauffman Foundation.  We are both responsible for coordinating the global campaign, and offering support and guidance to our partners around the world.  The campaign model is based on Make Your Mark’s Enterprise Week in the UK, which will be running for the fifth time this year as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week.  We’ve got great experience running this type of campaign—there are over 6,000 events during the week in the UK alone this year—and we’re sharing it.

How can people get involved in GEW?

One of our main aims of this campaign is to mainstream entrepreneurship so there’s something that everyone can do to get involved.  Individuals can register on our website and our forum.  Organizations can run their own events, either for the public or for their staff, to inspire more entrepreneurial, or innovative, behaviour.  Educators can get their students involved in competitions, including the Make Your Mark Challenge if you’re a school in the UK, or something like Stanford’s Global Innovation Tournament if you’re in a university.  You can attend a Speednetwork the Globe event if you want to meet like-minded people in person, or you can meet them via our online community.  If you’re involved in the media, you can write about Global Entrepreneurship Week to help us raise our profile.  All of our competitions and events are available on our website, and there really is stuff happening everywhere.

Is this going to keep going beyond the end of the week?

Absolutely.  This has been the very first Global Entrepreneurship Week and it’s going to run year-on-year.  We’ve been doing it for five years in the UK but the vast majority of other countries are running this campaign for the first time.  They are tremendously excited to build on their initial success this year, and to make an even bigger bang in 2009.  We can’t wait to see how things grow.

What are some of the ideas you’ve heard about this week that inspire you?

There are a few of them that stick out in my mind.  Amy Carter-James is a young British woman who set up her own lodge in Northern Mozambique that is both a high-end hotel and social enterprise that ploughs its profits back into the local community.  I think it’s going to have a massive impact on Mozambique and the idea itself is quite simple.  I also met an entrepreneur called Shed Simove who comes up with new novelty gift ideas – the kind of crude and hilarious things you find at Urban Outfitters.  Although both of these entrepreneurs are on opposite sides of the social benefit spectrum (Shed may disagree with me about that!), they are people who have taken simple, fun ideas from out of their minds and turned them into profitable businesses.  I find that the simplest business ideas are often the most inspirational because they really demonstrate that: “hey, I could do this, too”.

If you could be anywhere in the world for GEW, where would you want to be?

Aaaah, this is a difficult question!  And it’s actually one of the first questions I asked myself and a few colleagues at the beginning of the week.  I have to pick three.  The Brazilian campaign is really impressive: they’ve got lots of amazing things going on and even managed to get a commercial featuring Michael Dell on national TV.  Plus it’s nice and warm there—or at least I imagine it to be!  The campaign in Kenya is also exciting: they had a big football/music event in Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi.  Finally, Malta joined the campaign only very recently but have managed to pull lots of stuff together; the team there is so enthusiastic and pro-active.  I would spend my time between the three places  :-)

What, in your opinion, is the most important reason to get involved in GEW?

I believe that everyone on this planet realizes why entrepreneurship is important, even if it’s not right for them.  Not everyone can be an entrepreneur, or wants to be (it’s not easy!), but I think every young person, no matter where they’re from, should be encouraged to at least consider it for themselves, and have access to the necessary support should they decide to take the plunge.  There is so much untapped potential in people and sometimes all we need is a simple catalyst – could be meeting a person, or an inspirational story on the net – to take the next step and start turning our ideas into reality.  Entrepreneurs – whether self-employed or currently employed by somebody else – are the people who will come up with the new ideas and create the new businesses that will lead us into a more prosperous time.

How you can get involved:

Published on November 21, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Interview with Jeremy Gilley of Peace One Day

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This morning at Chain Reaction 2008, I had the awesome opportunity to interview Jeremy Gilley of Peace One Day.  I first came into contact with the organization four years ago when I saw the film Peace One Day chronicling Jeremy’s journey getting an annual day dedicated to peace supported by the world via a UN declaration.  Jeremy has had quite a journey the last ten years and spoke this morning to open the conference, filling the room with stories and pictures about real change.

You can see the video (recorded on a Flip camera) from YouTube:

Check out Peace One Day to commit to celebrating peace every year on Sept 21st!

Stay tuned for more from Chain Reaction 2008!

Published on November 17, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Train for Humanity: Interview with Mark Hayward

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Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

train for humanity logo

Mark Hayward, co-founder of Train for Humanity, sets out today from his home to participate in the Miami Man Triathlon and raise awareness (and funds) for relief in Darfur. Train for Humanity launched this September with social media as a core aspect of communications, fundraising, and more. I recently connected with Mark to hear more about Train for Humanity and how social media is working for them. Learn more about Train for Humanity in the interview below or at http://trainforhumanity.org

Tell us a little about what Train for Humanity is and the work you do:

Train for Humanity is a new, innovative, non-profit humanitarian awareness and fundraising organization focusing on trying to assist children, refugees, and orphans who have been affected by genocide. The concept is loosely based on the successful campaigns that the Team in Training (Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) and Joints in Motion (Arthritis Foundation) have waged to raise funds and awareness for their respective health-based organizations by utilizing every-day athletes and their training efforts. However, Train for Humanity participant athletes will combine their passion for getting in shape or training to help raise awareness and funds for humanitarian crises.

We are vastly different from most humanitarian organizations in that we exist purely as an online entity, which means we have NO overhead costs to consume funds. Also, all of our PR and advertising to date has been done online using blogging and social media as a means of spreading the word. In fact, our mission is simple:

getting fit + social media + blogging = social good

During our pilot phase we have three “blogger/athletes” training for various endurance events to help raise awareness and funds for Darfur Peace & Development Organization.

What got Train for Humanity going?

While I was serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in the jungles of Papua New Guinea ten years ago I was present the evening that a young woman from my village died from the effects of cerebral malaria simply because the proper medication was not available. Following that incident, I didn’t know how I was going to do it or what I would create, but I knew some day I would start a humanitarian organization.

Of course, life moved on: I went on to get a Master’s degree in International Development, continued to travel and live in various countries, and worked my way through numerous jobs. But, the idea to create “something” that could assist those who are facing humanitarian crises was always in the back of my mind.

About two years ago I was heading out the door to go running when a news clip on CNN wound up stopping me in my tracks for a minute. The story was about the horrific activities that were (and still are) taking place in the Darfur region of Sudan.

When the piece was over, I continued on my way and headed out the door for my run. However, during the workout the images of what was happening in Darfur stayed with me.

All of a sudden, out of nowhere as I was listening to Lucky Dube on my IPOD, I began to think of the successful campaigns that the Team in Training (Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) and Joints in Motion (Arthritis Foundation) have waged to raise funds and awareness for their respective health-based organizations by utilizing every-day athletes and their training efforts.

Then it HIT me: Why hasn’t anybody implemented a similar model of using endurance athletes in training (getting fit) to assist with humanitarian fundraising and awareness?

And thus, the initial idea for Train for Humanity was born.

Why Darfur?

People watch horrific events on the news on a daily basis, however, what’s happening in Darfur is the first genocide of the 21st century. At present, the situation is dire. Over the past five years, more than 200,000 (some estimates have this number at 300,000- 400,000) men, women, and children have died due to violence, malnutrition, and disease associated with genocide and an additional 2.2 million people have been displaced.

I am not quite sure why the global leaders haven’t really done anything to ensure that the violence will stop. Again, for me, it comes back to the children, who by some circumstance happened to be born during this crises. When I think about them losing their parents for no reason I always come back to the same conclusion – I live in the Caribbean, my life is good. How could I not do something?

How have you seen social media help the organization?

Social media and blogging are almost a complete bottom-up approach to marketing and branding. When used properly small business can utilize blogs, fellow bloggers, and social media (like Twitter and Facebook) to help promote their business or particular cause. Train for Humanity is working to leverage the power of blogs and social media to raise awareness. For example, Project co-founder Leo Babauta, has over 70,000 subscribers to his site and I think he gets close to a million page views a week, so anytime he mentions TFH on his site, he has the ability to reach a huge audience. Also, I have been writing guest posts, which highlight Train for Humanity for such popular blogs as Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger and the Successful Blog owned by Liz Strauss.

The latest statistic that I read stated that over 150,000 new blogs are created on a daily basis. The ability for even a small percentage of those blogs to help us make an impact is mind-boggling.

Social media sites such as Twitter and PLURK are primarily “micro-blogging” networking applications but if you are helpful toward the people who “follow” you, then they are always willing to promote your work in return.

We launched Train for Humanity on September 9, 2008 with nothing BUT social media so its intrinsic value (for us as an organization) is huge. In fact, without social media, Train for Humanity, would not necessarily exist. All of the blogger co-founders live in various corners of the world and we were brought together via our shared passion for helping people, social media, and the internet.

As a specific example, on the launch day we did not use traditional media for a press release. Instead we relied on social media tools like Twitter and random blog posts around the web to help spread the word about this new fledgling humanitarian organization. Our very first day the Train for Humanity website went from ZERO pageviews to around 7,000 within a ten hour period.

How are you leveraging social media in your current training campaign?

During phase one of Train for Humanity we aren’t specifically focusing on one particular training campaign. Rather, we are posting weekly training updates on our blog and we also want the TFH site to be a resource for others who might like to launch an online non-profit or business. To that end, I recently posted an article titled, “One Month After the Launch: Ten Lessons Learned.”

Our broader strategy has been to guest post on larger blogs like chrisbrogan.com, problogger.net, successful-blog.com, and the FourHourWorkWeek. We have also used Twitter (and to a lesser extent PLURK and Triiibes) to engage new readers in order to help us keep the buzz going.

What has surprised you about social media use with the organization/campaigns?

I have been truly humbled and inspired by the number of online acquaintances, whom I’ve never met, that have come forward to help with Train for Humanity either by sponsoring one of the athletes, blogging about us, or “retweeting” Twitter messages for me.

Also, I might add that combining social media and social issue awareness seems to be a tricky beast to tame (at least for me). The one thing that has sort of surprised me is that every time, without fail, if I send a Twitter message about something that is going on in Darfur I will lose between 3 and 5 followers. Which is okay because they probably followed for one reason and every now and again they get hit with a message on Darfur, but I am still curious as to “why.”

What have you seen to be the best social media tool for engaging your supporters?

GREAT question! Hands down, from my experience, people respond best to tweets (and countless retweets from friends) directing them to blog posts that are going to teach them something. Seth Godin emailed me some priceless information a while ago and he essentially told me:

Don’t tell people what you are about or try to jam it into them…teach them something about you, your organization, or what you have learned.

In that way you can provide value while still trying to gain Train for Humanity evangelists, sponsors, and participant athletes.

How can people follow you on SUNDAY?

You know I did just get a BlackBerry so I hope to tweet and blog most of my experience. Starting with leaving my little B&B business on Culebra Island by ferry this Wednesday to crossing the finish line on Sunday, November 9th, and everything in between.

Follow Train for Humanity on Twitter and the blog. Here’s Mark’s Twitter to follow, too!

How can people get involved with Train for Humanity?

If the genocide that is taking place in Darfur moves certain people to want to help or assist then I would strongly encourage those individuals to get involved. However, even if it’s not TFH, chances are, if you are reading this interview you are wealthy compared to most. Please know that you CAN make a difference!! If you are moved by animal welfare issues then support honest people who are trying to make a difference in the lives of animals or if your child’s school needs some help then maybe try to assist them.

The easiest way for people to get involved at this time is to send an email to trainforhumanity@gmail.com and if you would like to support us by sponsoring one of the TFH athletes then visit the sponsor-us page.

Learn more about Train for Humanity and how to get involved here.

Published on November 5, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 1 Comment

Interview with John Carnell: Social media at use in BullyingUK

Published in case studies and interview. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

bullying uk logoJohn Carnell,  co-founder and project manager of  BullyingUK, a nonprofit organization working on anti-bulling campaigns in the UK including services for youth, parents and schools, recently took time from the active participation in social media to chat with me about the organization’s work.  BullyingUK has incorporated social media tools into communications, fundraising, and community buildling.  Learn more about how they are succeeding in the interview below.

Tell us a little about who BullyingUK is and the work you do:
Bullying UK was founded in 1999, then known as Bullying Online. I had a simple goal to create a new breed of charity that was light on its feet, able to react quickly to changes and be low cost but very high impact.

At the basic level we provide help, advice and support to people being bullied.  We have over 200 pages of advice and content dedicated to the subject matter, as well as tools and services to help spread the anti-bullying messages far and wide. We have a history of using the cutting edge technology to challenge convention and push the agenda in new directions.  We create the projects that others would say are too difficult or impossible.

What are the Unite Against Bullying badges?
UniteAgainstBullying.com is our online world-wide campaign site and has an associated offline campaign.  At its heart is a simple widget that can be embedded into any social site or webpage that tells everyone you’re United Against Bullying.

The campaign widget is currently served by over 3,000 websites and seen by 170k people a week. This year, we are offering 50 U.A.B badges to supporters who would like to sell them to raise a donation for Bullying UK – email supporters@bullying.co.uk with your name and address to get yours!

How have you seen social media help the organization?
Being a founding part of the modern web means social media is what we do, not just something we actively work into our organisation. It’s a core feature of our work and how we communicate.

That said, sites like Facebook and FriendFeed really help to create engagement and find like-minded people. We are out there having the conversations where people tend to find us and latch on with ideas for ways they can help.

How are you leveraging social media in your current anti-bullying campaign?We have a number of off-shoot campaigns from the UAB widget I mentioned above to more low level work connecting with bloggers and supporters to create buzz around our services.

One thing that’s important to me is that people don’t feel obligated to help us, and social media is the perfect way to find those sorts of people.  I feel there is more value added to our work by people who truely feel a connection to us than those that are just involved to be involved.

What was the order or progression of social media adoption at BullyingUK?
As I said before, social media has been a part of our work since before “social media” was a buzzword.  As the founder and CEO it’s my job to identify technologies and services years in advance of becoming mainstream. I then look at how that technology can be used to further our Anti-bullying work: Click, Create and Print is a perfect example using technology that so far no other charity or business has thought of combing the way we have.

Click, Create and Print is an online poster creater that allows schools to build and print their own posters (saving schools £34,000 so far).  Each poster then has a special barcode that allows a child to snap the code with their mobile phone to download a copy of the poster which they can then share with friends via bluetooth or mms or upload back to the web—creating a perfect circle!

I think this is the first time anyone has created a project that fills in the digital divide in such a unique way—it really is a whole new spin on a very old issue.

What has surprised you about social media use with the organization/campaigns?
The most surprising has been how quickly we can achieve critical mass (the point at which you don’t have to promote a service because supporters do it for you and pass the word along to their friends).

Historically we reach critical mass on a service in a little under 6 weeks; I consider critical mass to be 100 new supporters per day at an increase of 10% day on day (it fluncuates but its a good line in the sand).

Using a new supporter network we have been building we received over £1500 of badge pledges in just 2 days from a few thousand new supporters who had only just discovered who we were. That’s amazingly powerful.

How do you engage your supporters via social media and how can readers help out?
We have a presence on every social network site, all life streaming sites and preety much everywhere people from the UK are. Do a search for BullyingUK and you will most likely find us.

We are always looking for bloggers and social media users to help spread knowledge of our service either by adding the UAB widget, or linking to bullying.co.uk. Even just knowing we exist and mentioning us in conversation to someone dealing with bullying can have a huge impact.

To steal a tag line: “every little helps!”

Published on November 3, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Where do you bank?

Published in community and socialmedia. 1 Comment Tags: , .

I recently had the opportunity to interview Heather Cronk of PledgeBank to ask her about the campaign building site before her visit here to Portland to present at Net Tuesday about online campaign building.

What IS PledgeBank? PledgeBank is a conditional pledging tool for collective action. Let me re-word that in English: PledgeBank is a way to say publicly that you’ll do something (hopefully something that will improve your neighborhood/community/world), but only if others will promise to do the same thing. It’s a way to take that notion that there should be more streetlights, or that someone should clean up the local creek, or that it’s not too hard to raise money for new playground equipment at the elementary school and make those ideas a reality by including more people in the process. The site follows a simple formula: you create a pledge (i.e. “I will do X action, but only if N number of others will do the same”), you publicize the pledge (we give you tools to email your friends, post to your blog/website, organize on Facebook, or automatically generate flyers to post in your community), the pledge succeeds, and you give instructions to pledge signers for how to follow through. Easy as pie.

What has been the most interesting campaign to see grow/succeed? My favorite example is the Bakul Foundation’s pledge (found at http://www.pledgebank.com/Bakul-Library). They basically saw that a huge problem in their community was the lack of access to books for children, and had the crazy idea of building a children’s library locally. Rather than just hammer away on that project with a few other people, they mobilized their social networks in India and beyond — and ended up getting over 1000 people to pledge their support with time, money, books, and sweat. The library just celebrated their first anniversary last week and the children’s library is going strong, rather than still being a crazy idea in someone’s head.

What has been the most inspiring so far? To me, the most inspiring pledges are small ones with a big impact. For instance, a recent inspiring pledge is “undies4liberia” (found at http://www.pledgebank.com/Undies4Liberia). One person saw in her travels through Liberia that a huge problem in that country was at orphanages — those centers were operating with few resources and little capacity to pay attention to details. So Ashley created a pledge to collect new, clean underwear that she would deliver to the orphanages on her next trip over. While she certainly could have bought 20 or so pairs of underwear herself, including others in that process yielded 753 pairs of underwear for children at those orphanages, and many more people aware of and interested in Liberia. I think that’s pretty inspiring! (See Ashley’s success story at http://www.pledgebank.com/success#undies)

How do you see campaign building relate to the uprising in peer-to-peer fundraising and social action networks online? Well, what we try to do at PledgeBank is create ways for anyone to be an organizer, regardless of experience or training. The old way of organizing said that those who were *trained* as organizers went into a community and solved problems. The new way of organizing says that everyone is an expert in what needs to happen in their community to make it better, safer, and more just — and PledgeBank offers tools to do that by creating localized campaigns that mobilize a person’s own social network. In much the same way that peer-to-peer fundraising and social networking build on the capital one has generated through relationships, PledgeBank offers a way to “cash in” on that capital through positive peer pressure — “Since we know each other, and you care about the things I care about, I hope you’ll sign my pledge to actually get something done about a community problem.” PledgeBank is a fundraising tool, an action tool, a campaigning tool, and a social tool — all wrapped up in one site.

What is the hardest part of the campaign in your opinion? Well, the hardest part of running a pledge on PledgeBank is actually taking the first step of reaching out to your networks to find pledge signers. Once pledge creators take that first step of saying, “This is something I care about and think is a good idea,” it’s relatively easy to keep the momentum going. A friend of mine created a pledge and became obsessed with watching the number of pledge signers go up — it was really rewarding for her to get that affirmation that others cared about the same thing and were willing to publicly support her idea. But it’s sometimes difficult to take that first step.

How many countries have used PB so far, in how many languages? Well, users in 99 countries have created pledges, and we have pledges running in 13 languages (English, Welsh, Belarusian, German, Spanish, Esperanto, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, and Chinese)…with a few more in process. The site translations have all been done by volunteers, mostly using PledgeBank to get the job done (i.e. “I will translate 10% of the PledgeBank code into Ukrainian, but only if 9 others will each take on a different 10%).

If someone doesn’t want to be involved in a specific pledge, is there any other way to support the work of PB or its users? Well, the beauty of PledgeBank is in the site’s diversity. If your friend sends you a pledge they’ve created to raise money for a political candidate, but you’re not so sure you support that political candidate, you’re completely free not to sign the pledge. In fact, you’re completely free to create a pledge to raise money for a rival candidate, or to create/sign a pledge about something else altogether. One of the things I love about the site is that we try in many ways to put opportunities in front of users that they might not have known to look for, but that they end up finding interesting — we encourage users of the site to connect with other users, regardless of whether they personally know one another.

You can hear more from Heather about PledgeBank and online campaign building in person, if you are in the greater Portland area, at the Portland Net Tuesday. You can find out more about the event here, and sign up to join Portland Net Tuesday events each month.

Published on April 16, 2008 by Amy Sample Ward. 1 Comment