Location: Washington, DC

Topic: Designing Online Engagement to Collaborate with Your Community

Description: You can design online engagement to unleash your evangelists. In this workshop, we’ll focus on all aspects of designing high-value, engaging, and participatory content that creates a partnership with your fans. A true evangelist is moved to create, is a seamless co-creator with your organization, and is motivated to spread content. Successful organizations intentionally design and construct multiple online channels that enable access for all fans and develop paths for relationship reciprocity and trust, fostering true evangelists. In this session, we will discuss how co-creation unleashes online evangelists and strengthens cause-centric communities, and we’ll help you to do that as well. Specifically, we will reveal the latest research about designing online engagement, highlight the connection between the theory of relationship ties and online evangelism, and offer examples of organizations with successful co-creation strategies. Toward the end of this workshop, we’ll work together to design a co-creation strategy to engage and motivate your online community and evangelists.

Related Links:

• BBCon website
• Blackbaud nonprofit blog

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The first week of April was like an annual family reunion for the nonprofit technology community as the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) converged on San Francisco. The annual conference from NTEN: Nonprofit Technology Network brought together 1,800 nonprofit professionals, technologists, and service providers for three days of sessions, panels, and workshops covering the gamut of topics related to technology and social impact. With more than 150 sessions and twice as many speakers, plus all of the additional social events, there were countless conversations and ideas buzzing through the airwaves and Twittersphere. Three topics rose to the top with the most interest.

Email isn’t dying, it’s evolving!

A blog post with the proclamation, “Email is dead!” comes around every year or so, reigniting some debate and sparking long comment threads on blogs (and, always ironically, email list servs). But at this year’s NTC, the conversations about email were much less about its impending departure and more about exploring its evolution. Email is still a major component of organizational communication and a channel used by nonprofit supporters and donors; it is critical that it grows and develops to match the changing ways we use it and share messages.

Segmentation (dividing up your list to target specific groups of people with different messages) and tracking aren’t new, but the tools are becoming more sophisticated—and so are we. Lara Franklin of TechSoup Global and Upwell’s Rachel Weidinger started with a presentation about the basics—how organizations can begin segmenting and using email marketing clients to track and manage messages and campaigns. The session by Jeff Shuck of Event 360 took the conversation to the next level, honing in on how to successfully use member data in your communications. Cameron Lefevre of M+R Strategic Services and Lindsey Twombly of the Human Rights Campaign discussed how to optimize email messages for mobile phones in their session, since more and more, we are using email while we’re in line for groceries and otherwise away from our desks.

Drawing is the new Elevator Pitch

Take a minute and go look at your organization’s website, printed materials, and other promotional items that you use to tell people—as quickly and effectively as possible—just what it is that your organization does. Do you see a lot of text? If so, you aren’t alone. At this year’s NTC, the role of “the picture” emerged as a force to reckon with. Dan Roam suggested in his keynote that creating pictures and images that effectively explain our work could be important to gaining more funding. He asked attendees to draw their ideas in lieu of taking traditional notes in later sessions, and we saw people move from thinking in text to thinking in graphics in just 48 hours.

Attendees were also talking about infographics this year. Beth Kanter, a thought leader on technology for nonprofits, presented a great session on data visualization and shared some low-cost tools for organizations to use. The conference also had graphic faciliators, who captured conversations and takeaways visually. (You can see them on the Rally blog.)

Socializing isn’t just for Facebook

I had a few conversations with NTC regulars who remarked that the social media frenzy seemed to have finally calmed. They were happy that it didn’t center stage at the conference and that sessions covered other tools and strategies more equally. But there actually wasn’t less conversation or excitement about social media; it has just been around long enough now that gets folded into other conversations, such as social fundraising.

Marketing experts Katya Andresen, Mark Rovner, and Alia McKee, came at the topic of social fundraising with a scientific lens during their session, exploring human behavior and options that nonprofits have for effectively communicating and fundraising. Blackbaud’s Steve MacLaughlin shared data and trends in online fundraising, as well as how to integrate both social media and mobile into fundraising efforts. Similarly, Common Knowledge’s Jeff Patrick tackled highlights from recent research for online fundraising and social network use by nonprofits. Coming straight at the topic, Cheryl Black of Convio and Margaux Mennesson of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance talked about specific tools and strategies for social fundraising.

In addition, two reports were released during the conference: the 2012 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report and the 2012 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study. You can download them now for free.

Fellow attendees: What other popular topics or interesting conversations would you add to the list? For those who didn’t attend, what are some of the nonprofit technology topics, tools, or case studies on your mind lately?

Location: London, UK

Topic: Fostering Innovation and Enterprise

Description: The Indigo Trust and Institute for Philanthropy, working closely with The Omidyar Network will convene this conference on how the developing world is using information technology to improve social outcomes. This conference is unique in bringing together leading private and corporate philanthropists with leading grassroots talent. Our aim is to help philanthropists and the donor community understand what information and communications technology can do to improve philanthropic interventions across all sectors in the developed and developing world.

Related Links:

• Indigo Trust
• Omidyar Network
• Institute for Philanthropy
• Blog post with remarks
• Hashtag: #giveandtech
• Social reporting links

Location: New York, NY

Topic: Social Media Done Right in 30 Minutes/Day

Description:  Even if you have only 30 minutes for social media in each day you can use these methods to be strategic and make the most of your engagement. From content planning to really listening online, you’ll find that the more you look for ways to interact, instead of broadcast, the more you can do with those 30 minutes.

Related Links:

• SM4NP Conference
• Slides
• Community map template: http://bit.ly/DIYcommunity
• Content map template: http://bit.ly/DIYtemplate
• Metrics tracking template: http://bit.ly/DIYmetrics

Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Topic: Building a Social Media Strategy

Description:  Sure, social media is evolving at the speed of light and experimentation is important. But you still need a clear strategy, a sound plan of attack, and a method of evaluating your results. Delivering our “mini-keynote” for the PMDMC Social Media Intensive is NTEN’s Membership Director, Amy Sample Ward, co-author of Social by Social, a handbook in using social technologies for social impact. Amy has spoken at numerous conferences, including SXSW Interactive. She has contributed to the Stanford Social Innovation Review with monthly posts on the Opinion Blog. In addition to her work at NTEN (a membership organization that provides technology training, resources, networking and other assistance to nonprofits), Amy has worked in private philanthropy, advocacy nonprofit organizations, web design companies, and as a consultant. Join Amy for her unique perspective on using social media for a higher social purpose.

Related Links:

• Conference information
• DEI
• Slides
• Blog post with notes and resources

MDS11 helps to extend the concepts and ideas discovered in the annual Millennial Donors Survey conducted by JGA and Achieve. The summit is an opportunity to build a pool of knowledge for millennial engagement. By bringing thought leaders together for a day of knowledge and inspiration, the summit is the first step for organizations to build a new millennial engagement program and to begin a new shift in constituent involvement in their organization. Download the report by clicking here and visit millennialdonors.com for more information.

Participate in MDS11 and you’ll learn:
• Why engaging Millennials matters
• How to engage Millennials in your cause
• Implications of the latest nonprofit and consumer research on Millennials
• Employing social media to engage Millennials
• Leveraging the online experience with Millennials
• Incorporating the latest trends in mobile technology for engaging and giving
• Success stories and best practices from organizations that excel in engaging Millennials
• Explore real life implications of generational differences in engaging and giving

Check out the full agenda, get the Millennial Donor Study report, and register today!

I’m part of the blogging team who will be posting coverage of the sessions – notes, commentary, and reflections – throughout the day of the event. Be sure to check back on June 22nd to get content as it happens!

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).

• Report Release: The 2010 Nonprofit IT Staffing and Spending … – "Nearly 1,200 nonprofit professionals filled out the latest annual survey, sponsored by NTEN and The NonProfit Times, providing us with another year of benchmarks and data concerning: salaries, outsourcing, recruiting, organizational structure, and other aspects of Information Technology practices in the nonprofit sector. One of the findings that stood out to us: Only 40% of respondents reported that their organization has some type of formal technology plan. And much less than that (22%) reported that their organization had ever evaluated Return on Investment (ROI) of technology projects or programs."
• World Bank’s Mapping for Results launched – Check out this deployment of the Ushahidi platform for digital storytelling and reporting: "This weekend at the World Bank annual meetings the World Bank launched their new Mapping for Results platform. The initiative visualizes the location of World Bank projects to better monitor project and impact on people; to enhance transparency and social accountability; and to enable citizens and other stakeholders to provide direct feedback. All 79 IDA countries, the lowest income nations, are included with the geographic locations of projects, financing, and sector identification such as water, transportation, governance, etc. There are also indicator data including maternal health, infant mortality, malnutrition, poverty, and population. The tool is meant to openly share and visualize the operations of World Bank financed activities down to as local a level as possible and compare these with actual need and monitor the effects over time."
• Conversation is the New Attention – "This article is adapted from their SXSW 2011 talk, Toss the Projector: Redefining the Speaker/Audience Dynamic. In the talk, Tim and Chris unveiled Donahue, a new experimental tool designed and built by Arc90 and Behavior Design which tears down the wall between audience and presenter, allowing the audience to interact directly with the presenter’s ideas to begin a conversation."
• 2011: The Year the Check-in Died – "Early last year, "checking in" was the cool new craze. No visit to your favorite tech news site could be had without getting buried in a tsunami of articles about Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, BriteKite or a myriad other startups. The big guys quickly followed suit: Yelp introduced "Check-Ins" while Facebook launched "Places" and most recently, Google Latitude updated to incorporate check-ins and check-outs. But here's the thing: the trends aren't actually that good."
• Hey, Let’s Fix The Internet – What do you think – can we change? Change the internet? Change the way we associated with others on and offline? This post has me thinking about many different perspectives on community organizing and community engagement and I'd love to hear what it triggers for you!

Location: Washington, DC, USA

Topic: What’s the True Value of Social Media?

Description:  Everywhere you turn there are tons of great stories about organizations doing wonderful things online to build communities and engage their supporters through Social Media. But what is it all for? We’ve all heard the sayings “If you build it, it will come”, “the value  of Social CRM”, other concepts around understanding what is the value of Social Media. In this session, we’ll explore the notion that the real value of Social Media is not only in the experience of the community itself, but also in having a greater understanding of how your supporters are engaging with your online communities. This information can be invaluable to both marketers and fundraisers as they attempt to communicate to these engaged members of their community.

Related Links:

• Event information
• Blackbaud
• Session hashtag #socialvalue
• Blog post with slides and links

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).

• Advertising Lab: Farmers Insurance Insures Farmville Farms – The “real world” and the virtual world are coming ever-more integrated! Do you have insurance? “Saw this blimp on Farmville’s spash screen today. It turns out that “The Farmers [Insurance] in-game integration will use the likeness of its Farmers Insurance Airship, a 246-foot long Zeppelin. When players place the Farmers Airship on their farm, they receive free “wither protection” for the crops on their virtual farm. In a nod to the security that Farmers Insurance offer its customers, this protection means players crops won’t wither for the 10 days of the promotion.””
• Photographs, Digital Rights & Social Media Events | Geoff Livingston’s Blog – Geoff shares a recent example of his attendance at an event where he was photographed and his images shared. Do you have examples on this topic, has this happened to you? And where you stand on the discussion of copyright, digital rights, online content sharing and intellectual property? Really looking forward to hearing your responses!
• Facebook in Online Privacy Breach; Applications Transmitting Identifying Information – WSJ.com – “Many of the most popular applications, or “apps,” on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information—in effect, providing access to people’s names and, in some cases, their friends’ names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.”
• Lasa launches Big Society online survey – “The charity Lasa is conducting an online survey, called Big Society, Big Deal? Lasa’s research will explore what third sector organisations in the UK think about the coalition government’s Big Society policy, how they think it will affect their funding and change the way they work with other charities. Charities wishing to take part in the survey have until 5pm on Wednesday 27 October to complete the questionnaire, which aims to discover whether the Big Society policy represents an opportunity or a threat to the third sector.”
• Social Media –– Revolutionary Movement or Enabler of “Slacktivism”? : Center for Social Innovation (CSI) – “Many of us enjoy a good debate, and there’s an important one playing out on our doorstep. Some people say we’re in the midst of a revolution where the new tools of social media are reinventing social activism in vital ways. Others say that social media is a fad that does little more than enable “slacktivism”—that is, engaging in activities (mostly mouse-clicking) that make you feel like you’re doing good but actually amount to very little real change. Where do you stand?”
• SXSW Interactive Festival Non Profit Scholarship Program | SXSW.com – “The SXSW Interactive Festival brings together an eclectic mix of technologists, new media industry professionals, creative thinkers and marketing experts to launch new ideas and solutions into the marketplace. Attendees find inspiration, new business partners, and learn new concepts to take their work to the next level. For 2011, SXSW is proud to add a new scholarship program to make it easier for non profits to be part of the excitement of March in Austin.” – I am so happy to see this scholarship and hope that it ensures more nonprofits are on stage, in the hallway, and part of the vibrant conversations that SXSW is so known for!