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).

• Building and Sustaining Strong, Engaged Programs – Part 1 – "What does it take to build real sustainability for the work being done by Community Benefit Organizations? If we were talking about building and sustaining a house instead of an organization, we would instantly know the answer. To sustain for the long term, the house would need strong infrastructure – a strong foundation, roof and bearing walls. However, no matter how strong that infrastructure might be, if the house is to remain strong over time, it will also need people to take care of it. The same holds true for building and sustaining strong, engaged programs."
• Does Nonprofit Consulting = Nonprofit Leadership? | Rosetta Thurman – "Ever since I became a full-time nonprofit consultant, I’ve had a hard time putting myself in that category. And it’s not hard to see why. The title “consultant” can definitely have its negative connotations, especially in Washington, DC where everybody and their mama is a consultant. It doesn’t mean anything without context, but even with explanation behind it, people can look at you sideways at networking events. At conferences, I even notice the body language shift that sometimes happens when an executive director encounters one of us “consultants,” as if our aim is to pick their pockets. Oh my, would you look at the time… Instead, I still think of myself as a nonprofit leader."
• Heye-Tech: Social Media Comments Gone Wild! What to do? – "So in addition to the Air Force Blog Assessment we decided to create a comment escalation flow chart. This is intended to help our social media authors decide what action to take in addition to the reply. We wanted to have a documented process for our employees to use and to find a way to keep our Communications & Risk Management departments in the loop."
• The secret steps to commenting like a rockstar | Heroic Destiny – For all those organizations looking to increase readership and visits to your blog, this is a great read! I always recommend that organizations should spend just as much effort commenting on other blogs as writing on their own. The conversations aren't ONLY on your site, and that's okay! "Read much about blog promotion and you’ll eventually encounter commenting as a strategy to increase your readership. The premise is that people will find your comment valuable and click on your link to visit your site. However, I’ve been using a modified version with great success. Today I’m going to tell you my secret strategy that has brought the majority of my readers to my site."
• 24 tools for fundraising with social media | Socialbrite – Here's a great list of 24 tools for fundraising online – any others that you use that aren't mentioned?
• PEP-NET » Blog Archive » Best methods for undemocratic participation – "We must ensure that the addition or integration of new digital channels does not make existing power structures less socially representative, and if possible, should improve democratic systems, for example by providing voices to people who previously would have struggled to be heard. Mastery of new technologies and ownership of expensive equipment must not become pre-requisites for engagement in e-participation."

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).

• Oxfam in Haiti – Google Maps – This is a great example of how you can use a tool like Google Maps to tell a story and provide easy access to information – great job Oxfam! "Oxfam is responding to the biggest earthquake for 200 years in Haiti. This map shows some of the sites where Oxfam is providing water and sanitation, as well as employment through the cash-for-work program. Oxfam has reached 100,000 people across multiple sites and is aiming to reach 500,000 total over the next six months."
• Download the 2009 Data Ecosystem Survey Report | NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network – NTEN just released a report on the data ecosystem in nonprofit organizations – it's free for members, but $50 for non-NTEN members. "The data ecosystem is the collection of tools we use to manage all the ways we interact with donors, volunteers, activists, and supporters. We wanted to find out how happy organizations are with each of the tools they use, but also what tools make up their ecosystems, and how happy they are with those ecosystems as well."
• 5 Ways to “Emerge” as a Nonprofit Leader | Rosetta Thurman – "Many young nonprofit professionals are waiting until they get the title of “Director” to lead. They are waiting until their older colleagues deem them “ready” to lead instead of emerging as leaders in the here and now. But what we have to understand is that this behavior doesn’t benefit our organizations nor the communities we seek to serve. What we have to understand is that we need as many young people as possible to emerge as nonprofit leaders, even if they don’t have a title. The future of the nonprofit sector depends on it."
• 5 Real Challenges For Non-Profit Texting Campaigns – "Given the many aspects of texting, from technology to communications, non-profits need to consider SMS with their eyes wide open. Causes may even want to consider alternative mobile channels for communications and fundraising. Here are five things non-profits should consider before pursuing texting."
• A Consumers Guide To Low-Cost Data Visualization Tools – Check out this great, free report from Idealware! "You've got data. How do you transform it into charts, graphs, and maps that will help your audience understand the data and move them to take action? This 30-page independent Idealware report provides an overview of the types of graphic formats that might work for you, and then compares eight low-cost tools that can help you create them."
• Glasspockets – Check out this new resource from the Foundation Center:
  "With Glasspockets, the Foundation Center and its partners hope to:

  * Inspire private foundations to greater openness in their communications.
  * Increase understanding of best practices in foundation transparency and accountability in an online world.
  * Illustrate how institutional philanthropy is relevant to the critical issues of our time.
  * Highlight the many stories of philanthropy that show how private wealth is serving the public good.
  * Illuminate successes, failures, and ongoing experimentation so foundations can build on each other's ideas to increase impact."

Location: Manchester, UK

Topic: Social Media: A Challenge to Leadership?

Description: Social Media: A Challenge to Leadership? The first in a series of Knowledge sessions, is developed around the theme of how social can media inform and impact on leadership. We aim to provide a setting where participants can embrace new ideas, develop innovative leadership strategies and provoke new thinking about core leadership skills.In the first half of the afternoon Nick Booth of Podnosh will be leading the Social Media Game, specially designed for the event. People will work together on problem solving scenarios providing a chance to explore the issues around creating a social media strategy.We will then move onto a Question & Answer Session where participants can discuss the role of the social web in organisational development and identifying and mitigating risks with an expert panel. Other panellists include: Dave Moutrey – Director Cornerhouse, Manchester; Adrian Slatcher – Manchester Digital Development Agency & AmbITion project manager; Steven Flower – Substance; Chi-chi Ekweozor – Fresh TV.

Related Links:

• Project Website
• Project’s online community
• use the hashtag #leadlab

“Nonprofit marketers say their key messages are failing to connect with the people who need to hear them and that is a serious problem.  The way nonprofits talk about themselves to the public is a core competency critical to any organization’s success. The bad news is that most nonprofits admittedly are doing a very poor job, despite a great deal of effort. The good news is that fixing the problem is highly do-able and promises vastly greater success than they are experiencing now.”

The survey results included:

Most Nonprofit Messages Don’t Connect Strongly with Key Audiences:
Eighty-four percent of 915 nonprofit leaders who completed the survey last month said their messages connect with their target audiences only somewhat or not at all. Respondents represented organizations of all size, issue focus and geographical location.

Behind the Disconnect—86% of Nonprofits Characterize Their Messages as Difficult to Remember:
Most nonprofits report that their messaging suffers from lack of inspiration (73%) and poor targeting to audience wants and needs (70%), and is difficult to remember (86%). Few communicators laud their messaging for its strengths: Only 13% of organizations characterize messaging as cogent while 8% describe their messaging as potent.

Here are some comments from survey participants explaining why their messages fail to connect:

• “Our messages need to be more succinct to communicate how effective we really are.”
• “We don’t move our base to action.”
• “We have individual elements that are OK solo, but no unified path.”
• “Our messages aren’t hard-hitting or targeted enough. So they fall flat.”
• “We need to shape messages that are simple enough for staff to remember and feel comfortable in repeating it to others.”
• “Too much jargon. I can’t even understand what we’re saying.”

Inconsistency Reigns, Leaving Confusion and Annoyance in Its Path:
Less than 50% of nonprofits report consistent use of their positioning (organizational tagline, positioning statement and talking points). That means that even though most organizations have taken the effort to craft messages, those messages aren’t used consistently across channels (website, direct mail, email), audiences or programs.

More information and complete survey results, plus specific recommendations on how nonprofits can start to immediately improve key messaging, are available at:
http://nancyschwartz.com/articles/index.php/messaging-crisis-for-nonprofits/

When we are working in offices at nonprofits or other philanthropic organizations, or consulting with these groups, we need to approach conversations in a different way, to avoiding losing people in our techie conversation.  How do you do that?

• Don’t worry about avoiding conversations! Instead of agonizing over a conversation to leadership about needing $10k, find a way to start a conversation about how that investment can make the staff’s work more effective or efficient, or save money elsewhere.
• Recognize the differences!  Talking to a fellow techie about new software, platforms, products, etc. can be great but so can conversations about those things with staff so long as you recognize the difference between features and benefits—tech people care about features, no one else does.  This goes for conversations with leadership, buy-in, training, etc.
• Express what you want clearly! It is fine to ask for or recommend new budget items, upgrades, uses, or strategies; it’s more than fine, it’s your job!  But know your strengths and how to work within them so that what you are asking for and why is clear.
• Don’t be a cheerleader for the accomplishment! You should, of course, always recognize accomplishments throughout your organization, including the technology department.  But, as a leader (and not just a techie) you should work to cheer on the people, the work and the tools instead of just the end accomplishments.  After all, it was the people, their hard work, and the tools chosen that got to that goal!

What kinds of conversations have you had as the “techie” (accidental or not!) and what results did you have?  How were you able to have the most “successful” conversations with your leadership or staff when dealing with technical matters?

The true measure of leadership is influence – nothing more nothing less. – Maxwell

Large org = CIO
Medium org = someone in charge of tech
Small = accidental techie

Ineffective CIO: ED has business background; new position created (CIO), CIO attends executive meetings, no improvements seen by management, staff frustrated by tech

Ineffective IT manager: top management comprised of promoted social workers, advocates; IT manager not invited/included in exec meetings; budget developed and managed by CFO

Ineffective accidental techie: volunteer or overworked case worker who knows how to use a computer; few or minimal resources; react to crisis or programmatic changes

Understanding IT leadership: what was missing in our 3 examples? leadership. To be effective, you need to understand how to be a leader, no matter what role.

The NMA leadership model:
you can apply leadership principles to tech
set direction (tech planning), demonstrate personal character, engender organization capability (build teams), mobilize individual commitment for change (inspire teams)

5 key areas of tech leadership:
1 understand strategic tech planning
2 developing a vision for the org
3 building the team
4 communication
5 role models

1: Understand strategic tech planning
roadmap that aligns tech with mission and business goals
process to build buy in from stakeholders
a framework for decision making
tool for budgeting and fundraising
living evolving document

Where does IT leadership fit in? Broach the subject with management; understand and communicate the benefits; lead the effort; look to the future

2: Developing a vision for the org
What are your organization’s key strategic business goals over the next 3-5 years (increase services by 25%, start an after school program, double earned revenue, improve…)
THEN add tech

Where does IT leadership fit in? Get involved in developing your org’s business goals; fully understand all programs; ask about the big picture; share your ideas with other

3: Building the team
gain support and user adoption
budgets make more sense
input from all angles
smarter solutions
holistic approach

Where does IT leadership fit in? Ask for volunteers to join the effort; elicit input from all members; include other leaders; be open to many ideas; foster team communication; don’t let your expertise drive the process (it’s not all about the hardware side of technology!)

Relationships are the fertile soil from which all advancement, all success, all achievement in real life grows. -Ben Stein

4: Communication
all meetings must be attended by the team
share the team’s deliverables with other staff – execs or full staff
develop solid documentation
share your enthusiasm for the project with everyone

5: Role models
use your headquarters
investigate other ors that provide the same services
investigate other orgs that communicate in the same way
research and adopt tech best practices

It is easy to be a leader to those “under” you but it is very hard to be a leader for your peers.

Role model – be one:
continue to provide thought leadership within the organization
keep up the communications
join and attend nonprofit technology groups
provide info to other orgs
collaborate when possible

So, are you being a techie or a leader in your organization right now?  What are you going to do tomorrow to become more of a leader?  What are you going to work on over the next month to become more of a leader?

As has been discussed online and offline, the perception (for better or worse, true or false, etc.) is that youth are the ones using social media tools personally and that if an organization wants to incorporate some of those tools in its outreach, fundraising, events, or communications strategy, they need to hire a young person to do it. I think we all know, though, that people are not dogs and we can all learn new tricks.

Often, “young people” are the ones with exposure and experience using these tools because they are at a college campus with easy access nearly 24/7 to computers and friends and friends on computers. They also have had much less of their life away from computers compared to older generations/peer groups. They don’t know the tools because they are the only ones who can understand them; they just happen to have had a great opportunity to play around with a lot of them already.

So, as I see it, there is the leadership gap which is a top down direction and the technology gap which is a bottom up direction. How can these two hands hold on to each other?

Social media tools need to become integrated, slowly and logically, into organizations’ communication/outreach/development strategies AND into the internal staff processes that are shared with all staff. This means strategies like choosing a set of tags for your organization and getting everyone using del.icio.us for sharing news, reports, information, etc. Say you work for the “Portland Children’s Affairs Counsel” (I don’t think that exisits, I’m just making it up), and you want to have tags for your staff, your board, and for general news that you could link to on your website. So, you use PCACstaff, PCACboard, and PCACnews to tag organizations, news articles, reports, or anything else you come across on the web. Then, board members know to keep an eye on items tagged with PCACboard to see interesting things happening in the field or with organizations relevant to the organization’s work, etc. Staff know to watch for items tagged by other staff instead of keeping track of so many emails with one link to a news story, etc.

Staff can begin to upload photos from events or around the office to Flickr as a way to get familiar with the tool and then publicize the group or tag for the organization on the site, encouraging others to post photos they take at events or with the staff.

Slowly integrating these kinds of tools will make for better adoption because people will have personal experience and familiarity with each tool as it is integrated instead of throwing many tools at the organization at once and causing a sink or swim atmosphere.

But, back to the original question, how do these two issues come together? It’s simple. If social media tools are introduced that enable more sharing of information across the organization and build a cohesive team around projects and campaigns, then it can be easier to train and foster staff into leadership positions. Using technology tools to streamline work and to integrate online and offline parts of campaigns/projects (which usually involve completely separate teams of staff) means that staff will be integrated and really facilitating each other’s work instead of working autonomously.

I hope to write more about this later but wanted to get the thoughts out before I forgot them. I would love to hear what you think and how the two “gaps” have shown themselves or not in your organization. How have you seen it play out?

What does it mean for nonprofit technology?

It means there is a tremendous opportunity for nonprofits to leverage new media tools to take care of many things for them, freeing up staff time and allowing the community to help carry the organization.

How?

Tools that enable online/viral fundraising can let supporters raise funds, support your cause, and campaign for you online without staff time dedicated to outreach or campaign development. These tools include Change.org, 6 Degrees, and Google Checkout for Nonprofits in various degrees, just to name a few.

Tools that enable wide-spread communication can allow staff to relay information in one space instead of many and cut down on repetition of job responsibilities. Using a blog like those I have mentioned before would provide volunteers, interested citizens, media and members alike the same, complete information in a timely manner without adapting the message and using various staff and communications tools to deliver it. Micro-blogging tools like Twitter are also available to make this far-reaching communications option quick and easy.

There are many more tools available but these are just a couple to get you thinking. Are you already using new media tools to free up staff time?