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 March 2nd). 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).
- CTK Foundation Grant Award: Social Media, Technology, and Poetry for the Soul | Community Organizer 2.0 – "I was contacted by my colleague John Haydon last week to write about an interesting foundation grant challenge by the CTK Foundation. John was reaching out to bloggers, asking us if we would write about the launch of the fourth annual CTK Foundation Heart and Soul Grant Award to nonprofit organizations. I agreed to write about the award because of several interesting aspects: the award will help nonprofits support their mission through technology, applicants must create an original poem to submit, the Foundation’s use of bloggers to create awareness, and the opportunity for nonprofits engage stakeholders during the application process by using social media."
- Pew: Open government is tied to higher levels of community satisfaction | Gov 2.0: The Power of Platforms – "The results from a new study from Pew Internet and Life Project found that when citizens believe their governments are sharing more information, they are more likely to feel satisfied with civic life. The study will offer support for elected officials who run on open government platforms or who work for more transparency. Broadband users are more critical of their communities and local institutions."
- It’s About Impact NOT Influence – Online Fundraising, Advocacy, and Social Media – frogloop – "Do you think your organization has clout or Klout? Is your organization considered a content curator? Are you a leader or a follower? Or are social media ranking tools an example of more kool-aid mix being added to the overflowing punch bowl? As more nonprofits get aggressive with their social media outreach, they are starting to take cues from the business sector about their own influence and finding “those influentials” that they think are going to produce magical results. “Is it even possible to measure online influence, divorced from offline influence?” asks Tom Webster over at BrandSavant. Nope, it’s not possible."
- From #gettngslizzerd to Getting Donations: Red Cross Capitalizes on Twitter Gaffe – Social Philanthropy – The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas – "Shortly after 11 p.m. on Tuesday, someone named Ryan found two four-bottle packs of Dogfish Head Brewery beer. The more than 260,000 people who follow the American Red Cross’s Twitter account were promptly informed of the discovery. Accidentally, of course. Gloria Huang, a Red Cross employee, mistakenly posted the comment to the wrong account through the online application HootSuite, which can support more than one Twitter account at the same time. What the Red Cross did next is an example to other nonprofit organizations that make a similar gaffe."
- The Power of Facebook plugins, and other social sharing tools | Community Organizer 2.0 – Here's a great post from Debra Askanase with notes and slides from her recent webinar on Facebook: "I had a fabulous time presenting a webinar yesterday for Nonprofit Webinars about “The Power of Like and other social sharing tools.” I put together the presentation to answer these four questions: which Facebook tools (plugins) should I use on my website, why should I add share buttons to my website or blog, what is the ROI of Facebook Like and social sharing, and how does Facebook decide where to place a shared item within someone’s news feed?"