Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

Meet Cynthia Derosier who Surfs for Good Causes

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a Social Media Club workshop in Hawaii as part of Podcamp and WordCamp in Hawaii.  I asked folks who was doing interesting social change work with Aloha spirit.   Several people pointed to Cynthia Derosier, author of The Surfer Spirit Book and recently published The Survivor Spirit : The Beauty, Passion, and Power of Breast Cancer Survivors.   I was to track her down for an interview.

Cynthia is convinced surfing can help Hawaii's at-risk youth.  In partnership with Girls Court and The Surfrider Foundation's O'ahu Chapter, Derosier started The Spirit Sessions, a six-week program aimed to help at-risk teens redirect their lives in a positive way through surfing and other ocean-related activities.

1.  How did you get interested in surfing?

I grew up in Hawaii and always loved to ocean. I've always loved swimming and body surfing and paddling a canoe. In high school my friends and I decided to learn how to surf, but back then the boys were pretty territorial and short boards were the "in" thing so it was difficult to learn (we never really ever got good enough to stand up) and a lot of the boys would hassle us about getting in their way etc...it wasn't worth the stress considering we had so many other options, so we just dropped it and went back to all our other sports.

When I moved back home after living in NYC for 12 years I decided it was something I wanted to learn.  I got a group of friends together and we went down to Waikiki beach and learned how to long board like the beach boys.  The first time I stood up my world changed and I was hooked. There is no better feeling than standing on a wave and living purely in the moment.. Something inside me woke up. In retrospect it was the first time I realized I had a surfer spirit.

2.  What is the connection between surfing and healing?

There is a saying "only a surfer knows the feeling" and it's true. It's hard to describe, but I can tell you, anyone who has ever caught a wave, whether they surf throughout their life or only once, everyone remembers that first wave. I taught some Buddhist monks to surf and they told me that it is very much in the spirit of being a Buddhist because you must live in the moment.

Surfing keeps you in balance, physically, emotionally and spiritually. The physical part is obvious. The rest, becomes obvious the more you surf. It's the only sport I can think of where you play with nature. not on it, not in it, but with it. You sit in the right spot then wait for a wave, then it does what it wants with you. And if you are skilled you know how to respond to it in a way that works for you. And no two waves are ever the same. And no surf spot is ever static.

I see a lot of self-esteem enhancement with the kids in our surf program (The Spirit Sessions). Most don't think they can surf and we get them up and riding on their first lesson!  They get a great workout, learn a whole new sport and positive activity (vs some of their other less positive habits.   They also develop a whole new social circle. In addition they start to see the ocean and the environment differently and they start to ask us marine biology questions, which lead to general environmental education. For many of our kids its a chance to practice and reconnect to their Hawaiian culture. So there is also cultural healing as well.

The Hawaiians believe that the ocean itself is healing. He`e Nalu is the Hawaiian word for "surf" it literally means "to slide on churning water"...but "nalu" also refers to the amniotic fluid and He`e Nalu also implies being born. In many ways, surfing was regarded as a way to celebrate life and be cleansed. 

3.  You also created a surfing program for breast cancer survivors.  Can you tell me about that?

As part of Make A Difference Day, the kids from our Spirit Sessions Program
helped us teach some of the women who were breast cancer survivors to how to surf. It was a rainy and cold day, but a few of the women came down anyway. They had a blast and I think at least two of them are going to keep surfing! In exchange They gave the girls some life advice about being positive and never giving up when faced with life challenges and most of all continuing to celebrate life and enjoy what good there
is in the world, surfing being one of them!

4.  What is your new book about?

It's a celebration of spirit. I believe that everyone has a gift to bring to the world, and everyone has  a unique spirit, and that it is our obligation to find our light and share it with the world.. While we all have certain physical needs, we also need to pay attention to our spirit's needs, and if we honor and feed our unique spirit, we will be stronger, and our light shine brighter and we will all benefit. In my case, surfing keeps me in balance and focused. For the women in the book, they each had something that helped them endure their battle with cancer and made them stronger, better, brighter. As a result, EVERY woman I interviewed noted that her life is better now because of their experience with cancer! They each discovered something inside them they hadn't realized before.  Pretty powerful stuff!

5.  Wow, this makes want to go surfing.  Any tips?

The most important tip is to just try it!

Cross posted at BlogHer.

Jocelyn Harmon on Nonprofits and Blogging

Jocelyn Harmon started the Marketing for Nonprofits blog a year ago as a place to share her thoughts on nonprofits, social media, marketing, and training. 

1.   Tell me about you

I’m a reader, writer, thinker and storyteller.  I’m rich with many, many blessings - an amazing new husband, a beautiful daughter, dear friends, work I love.  Most days I’m full of gratitude for the gifts of this crazy, wonderful, frustrating world and life.

2.   Why did you enter the nonprofit sector?

Like most development folks I know, I “landed” in the nonprofit sector; it was totally unplanned.  I didn’t even know what development was before I took my first job!  I had applied to be a Training Manger at the Georgia Center for Nonprofits – an organization that provides services, training and consulting to other charities - and didn’t get the job.  But they called me back about 6 months later and asked me if I wanted to be their first development manager.  I was working at the Ritz Carlton at the time and lucky for me it turned out that good stewardship and cultivation of donors was much like providing great customer service to hotel guests.  I learned quickly that development is all about building relationship and it was a natural fit.  Also (in the beginning) I enjoyed preparing proposals and grants for our foundation partners – it got me writing again.  I also loved the fact that I was now “selling” services to strengthen the work of nonprofits vs. selling hotel rooms to the very rich.

3.   Tell me about your blog.  Why did you start your blog?

I started my blog last August.  Qui Diaz and I had done a workshop called 2Blog or not 2Blog at the Center for Nonprofit Advancement (one of our local nonprofit capacity building organizations.)  For some reason we weren’t able to access the PowerPoint during the presentation and had to do the presentation old school style via flip charts.  We were both frustrated because we liked the deck and wanted to share it.  When I got back to the office, after the workshop, I “pinged” Katya and asked if she would share it with her readers (I didn’t have a platform of my own yet).  We posted the deck to Slide Share and she linked to it.  In about a week, over 200 people had viewed the presentation!   I knew then, that both Qui and I had something valuable to share with others.  It was also an “aha moment” for me because I realized that here was a medium (the Internet) that allowed anyone (including me) to connect across time and space to FAR MORE people than I’d ever be able to connect with in person.  That’s powerful! FYI, to date, 2Blog or not 2Blog has been downloaded by 99 folks and viewed by 1,600!

4.   What are your biggest challenges to blogging regularly?

Time is the biggest challenge for me as it is for most folks.  Time to write AND the inconvenience of waking up in the middle of the night (almost EVERY night) with fully formed posts in my brain.  It’s hard to get up that early and write when you’ve got to start your day at 7:00.  At the same time, I’m loath to quell inspiration.

5.   What value does having a blog give you?

Blogging has had a profound effect on me both professionally and personally.  Professionally, it’s been a major boon.  I have a body of work now and am part of a community of nonprofit and social media thought leaders and this has “credentialed me” in parts of the tech and marketing world. Blogging has translated directly for me into training and consulting “gigs” and my newest opportunity at Triplex.  (They found me through Google Search!) Usually when you leave a job you go back to total obscurity but this was not true when I left NPower.  Now, in addition to the institutional titles I hold, my talent is defined by my work

There have also been great rewards – personally.  Blogging is my personal writing practice and platform.  It’s made me more self-confidence as a writer, thinker, teacher, and human being.  Writing every day and being vulnerable to an “audience” (perceived or real) makes you get better!  For me this has been a positive pressure and incredible gift.

6.   What are some of your best tips for being efficient in writing a blog?

Gosh, I’m not sure that I am an efficient blogger.  For me, writing is much more inspired.  I try to trust that the ideas and words and metaphors will come and luckily they usually do.  However, I am also practical about keeping abreast of what is going on in the blogosphere and in my areas of interest, which include “new media” and marketing strategies and tools for nonprofits.  For example, I read the folks listed on my blogroll almost every day.  I get Google Alerts on key topics and I consume lots of marketing and new media books!

7.   You're a busy professional, but you also are a mom.  How do you balance your busy professional life with parenting?  Any tips for work/life balance?

I was at a potluck the other day for a group of women in town (DC) who are consultants.  We were sharing food and tips for marketing our businesses.  What one woman said struck me.  “There is no balance in life if you mean 50/50 balance.  It’s more like 80/20 most weeks.” This resonates with me.  Nothing is perfect.  There is stuff that has to get done every day/week – cooking dinner, grocery shopping, work, taking my peanut to school, SLEEP – these are the non-negotiable.  But most days it feels like everything else is up for grabs.  The frustration and challenge for me is “getting out in front” of my life.  I hate reacting all the time to external forces.  But you know sometimes that’s just life.  So I take what I can get and try to do more of what’s important to me every day – read, write, think, pray, love on my peeps!

 

BlogHer Social Change and Nonprofits Meetup

Photo by Britt Bravo

Britt Bravo facilitated a meet up session yesterday for bloghers who write about social change and nonprofits.  She compiled a list of all in attendance and I'm sharing it here ... why not add a few new blogs into your reader? 

Abbey McDonald, Debroff Debrief
Abby Jaramillo, Urban Sprouts
Amy Lenzo BeautyDialogues
Anna Barrett, Way Out Wax
Ayelet B, Pursuing Adventures
Barbara Rozgonyi, Wired PR Works
Beth Terry, Fake Plastic Fish
Britt Bravo, Have Fun * Do Good
Christine Chase, Green Seal, Inc.
Elana Centor, Funny Business
Evan Miller, Aveda
Gina Stepp, Family Matters
Jenny Sturiale TinyChoices.com
Joanna Eng, Idealist.org
Julia Smith, Idealist.org
Karen Solomon, Opportunity Green
Kate Marshall, Greenopolis
Kimberly Magre, Weber Shandwick Worldwide
Lorelei Kelly, The White House Project
Monica Danna, CosmoPolitician and New Living: Healthy Home Essentials
MamaBird, Surely You Nest
Marnie Webb, ext337
Maryanne Milker,  Green Options
Mary Hunt, In Women We Trust
Michelle MacKenzie,  Green Bean
Mitzi Emrich, Check Out Blog
Mehdi Yahyanejad, Adoptic
Monique Hartt, RecycleBank
Rachel Frederick, Six Apart
Rhona Mahony, Wild Bee
Sally Falkow, PRoactive
Siel, Green LA Girl
Skye Kilaen, Crafting a Green World
Susan MacPhee, Greenopolis
Squid  Rosenberg, Can I Sit with You? and the adventures of leelo and his potty-mouthed mom
Tammy Lynn Gilmore, SXSW Interactive

And if that isn't enough - Marshall Kirkpatrick has a great round up of favorite Bloghers over at Read/Write Web.

Meet Connie Bensen: Network Weaver and Online Community Strategist

Are "the best" or "most influential" lists of bloggers a good thing or a bad thing? I rather not have a list, but get to know them one-by-one - and these interviews are a way of doing that.

But in the last month, I've come across three "best of" type women blogger lists.

In a recent post on Blogher, Virginia DeBolt mentions the list titled 100 Awesome Webmaster Blogs by and for Women by Jimmy Atkinson.  She was on the list and checked it out, finding a wide range of excellent blogs written by women. (I was delighted to that Holly Ross from NTEN was included on the list)  She notes that this is the first extensive a list she has seen produced by a male writer. 

In the comments, Christine Martell (who writes an awesome blog called) mentions a list of women edtech bloggers put together by Janet Clarey.

This week NxE published its list of the Fifty Most Influential Female Bloggers.  BlogHer's leadership trio Lisa, Elisa, and Jory was in the number 1 spot.  This list has included other BlogHers such as Anne Zelenka and myself.  I was flabbergasted and happy, but as I looked over the list I noticed some of my favorites were not there.

I was tempted to put together my own list, but I've come to the conclusion that lists like this only end up being divisive and can get you into trouble.  Instead, I'm just continuing to do these one-on-one interviews with incredible women bloggers that people who work in nonprofits (and others) should definitely read.

So, let me introduce you to Connie Bensen who I first started reading when I was researching an article for TechSoup.


1.   Tell me a little bit about you.

I live in northern Minnesota with my husband. Our daughter will be a sophomore in college. I'm self-taught & love exploring new mediums. I worked in the public library system for ten years & loved that. After that the shift to building community online was a natural. I'm presently with the social media team at Network Solutions. I blog at Marketing 2.0 & am also the editor for Personal Branding Magazine.

2.   How did you get started with social media?

Through my hobby of digital scrapbooking. The community had a need & my sister & I found a product that fulfilled it. Our evangelistic efforts turned into a website. My experimentation with WOM & marketing within the Web 2.0 world was not only intriguing, but addictive! Last fall I began working online full time.


3.   What is the definition of a successful online community?  What metaphor would you use?


It's a place where like minded people gather and find value in exchanging information. It's like the general store of days gone by where the interaction is a personalized experience. Your suggestions & requests are listened to & responded to.


4.   Nonprofits are beginning to embrace social media - particularly the online community building aspect.   But, for example,  I've seen a lot of nonprofit Facebook pages that are facades without much activity.    What would be your advice to nonprofits who want to build lively online communities using social media tools?


1. Have a plan; 2. Know where your stakeholders are at & what is relevant for them; 3. Have people involved in building the community. For sustenance, what does the community provide that they need/want?


5.  What do you think the difference is between online community and network?  Is there a sweet spot in between?

Communities are centered around a common interest. A network are the people that you know & interact with. For example, my network would be all of the people that I know. That could be broken down into subsets of communities. Some people in my network would have overlap in my communities. For example, those in my network from the digiscrappers community are fairly separate (although a few read my personal blog & share my interest in social media tools - they're the early adopters). Now when my guest post ran on ProBlogger in that I've gained a new subset of readers that are interested in community building, branding & networking (but they're not digiscrappers, social media junkies or community managers).


6.   You are the queen of networking - I've learned so much from reading your blog.  What advice or tips would you offer to nonprofits so they could be efficient?

Networking takes time & a concerted effort. I agree that it's easy to get lost in it. Do your best to be helpful & it will fall into place. My best suggestion is to have a focus, start small (don't get overwhelmed) & build on it. After awhile there is a tipping point where it comes naturally then it's much more fun to enjoy the interactions & keep building on them.

7.   I understand you're offering a course.  Can you tell me a little about it?

I'm really excited about my course for community managers! There are so many people looking for information & it's all fragmented around the web. My background is in education & I love sharing my skills. The course will be personalized for each attendee in the first session. Then the remaining five sessions will be small group conference calls. And I've set up a discussions forums at communitystrategist.net to share ideas, suggestions, resources, etc.

What Advice Would You Give to Women in Africa About using Web2.0 Tools to Advance their Work?

Oreoluwa Somolu

I've known Oreoluwa Somolu virtually for several years.   I came across Ore's writing via Sokari Ekine's fantastic bridge blogging of the African blogosphere on Global Voices.  I was a mentor on Ore's Blog Mentoring Project in Africa as Joitske Hulsebosch also writes about.  I also had a chance to work with Ore through Nancy White and KM4DEV Technology Stewardship issue.  It is amazing to me that we have this rich history of working on project together, but we have never met face-to-face!

Oreoluwa Somolu is Executive Director of the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC).   So, when she invited to participate as a mentor in the Networking for Success project at the the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre.   Of course, said yes.

The project will teach women how to use Web 2.0 tools and other ICTs to effectively develop and advance their work. Participants are learning how to use these tools to initiate and manage projects; as well as identify networking opportunities with other organizations. This project builds upon the work of the Blogs for African Women (BAWo) initiative; an earlier project aimed at introducing blogging to young Nigerian girls.

The mentors are assigned a topic and week and write a post.   The idea is to have a conversation with the participants.  They include:

• Oyindamola Akinpelu
• Olubusola Babalola
• Oluwatoyin Gbadegesin
• Obo Henshaw
• Phillicia Menewah-Deegha
• Olubunmi Osinuga
• Oluwatoyin Shinaba

So, this is my week to participate and my topic was "Effective Networking Online."  I decided to share some inspiration from two women bloggers who have often inspired me about effective personal networking — Liz
Strauss and Connie Bensen.   I've boiled it down to a few networking principles that work not matter what tool or site you're using. 

So, come join the conversation over at the project blog and share your thoughts with these amazing women in Africa about effective online networking.

Other posts that were part of this project:

Network Weaving Skills

Nurturing Relationships

Britt Bravo and I will be at Making Media Connections in Chicago June 11-12th

Hanging with Britt Bravo at NetSquared Conference
Photo by Schipulites

For the past three years, I've had the pleasure of working closely with Britt Bravo at BlogHer and Netsquared.  We rarely get any face time.  So, it was a welcomed an opportunity to see Britt again earlier this week.   I can't say enough how much I enjoy working with Britt - she rocks. 

June 11-12th we will both be speaking at the 2008 Making Media Connections Conference in Chicago. Britt will be teaching a "Nonprofit Blogging 101," and a "Nonprofit Podcasting 101" session.  I will give a keynote about, "New Media: The Wizard Behind the Curtain," and teaching a session about, "Social Media Game for Nonprofits."

We'll also be at the, "Blogging Birds of a Feather Meet-Up: Green/Social Change" on Friday, July 18th at the BlogHer Conference  in San Francisco and I'll also be on a panel on personal fundraising.

As Britt notes in her blog post it seems like there is a group of readers who read both of our BlogHer Blogs, and our personal blogs, so she wanted to reach out and let you know that we'll be in Chicago the week after next and come say hi.

 

Meet Nicola M. Wells: Social Media As An Online Door Knocking Campaign for Immigrant Rights

Nicola M. Wells, Blogger and Community Organizer

"We need to treat many of our social tools like door knocking, if someone comments on our site, we should take that as a hello, and use it to open a door to a potential relationship with a new leader, member, or supporter."

Nicola M. Wells is an activist for immigrant rights.  She blogs at Standing Firm for Fair Immigration Reform Movement.  She has been passionate about the issue of immigrant rights since 2002, when she worked at Casa del Migrantes in Tijuana, Mexico, a shelter for immigrants and deportees. While there she lived and worked with immigrants from throughout the US and Central America, and they shared their experiences.  That experience awakened her desire to make immigration rights her life's work. After she left Mexico she worked with refugee communities in Philadelphia and did research on migrant youth at a research center in Chicago.  She has also worked with SOS Racisme, the national immigrant rights organization in Paris, France.

1.  Tell me about FIRM.

FIRM, the Fair Immigration Reform Movement is a national coalition of grassroots immigrant rights groups working together for immigrant justice.  FIRM is a project of the Center for Community Change, and is staffed by the Center, but it is led and all decisions are made by the Immigrant Organizing Committee, a table of grassroots groups that are the head of FIRM. A listing of these groups is also available on our website. FIRM is currently running the Building America Together Campaign, a national campaign to build the strength of immigrant rights in the US, and to work for just and humane immigration reform.

2.  What is your job at Firm?

My first job in the United States after working in France was as an intern with the Center for Community Change on their immigration team helping to create a toolkit on fighting anti-immigrant local ordinances. The immigration team supports a national coalition of grassroots immigrant rights groups, the Fair Immigration Reform Movement. I quickly became integrated into the team as an Organizer for state and local rights.

3.  How do you use technology as part of your organizing work?

Though I always had a personal interest in technology and social media, I didn't know how to integrate it into my more traditional organizing portfolio. That all changed after the massive and devastating raids in New Bedford, MA in early 2007. An organizer on our team, George Goehl, went to help the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition in anyway he could.

He immediately saw the need to tell the stories of the families that had been ripped apart by the raids, of children who had lost parents, of mother who weren't sure if they could pay rent or feed their children next week. He started a blog, and asked me to continue the project. I transformed that blog into what is today  Standing FIRM  and my interest in social media as a tool for organizing skyrocketed from there.

I have spent the last year meeting folks, reading, and testing out social media tools  with other organizers. I'm currently  co- authoring a guide to these tools for organizers like myself available at the end of this month. In addition to my continued work as State and Local Organizer at FIRM, I am working with non-profits connected to the Center to help them learn about these tools and implement them in their work in effective and productive ways.

4.  What are you goals for using social media to support your organizing work?

FIRM has built a social media infrastructure that links together our blog, social network presence, listserv and static website into a coherent network of tools. This infrastructure serves three goals:

1) To generate and promote pro-migrant content, not only created by FIRM, but by our partner organizations and allies across the country; more boradly to be a productive part of the pro-migrant blogosphere that is growing stronger each day

2) To create learning tools for our partner organizations. Our partners may not be able to jumpstart using these tools on their own, and by engaging in FIRM's tools they can learn about social media, take test runs, and figure our what will eventually work best for them

3) To connect with individuals/organizations outside of our current network that are in the fight for immigrant rights- support their work, or create collaborations with them

Those are our goals for FIRM's infrastructure, but we also look to support the programs and projects of others within the immigrant rights movement. Like the new pro-migrant community blog, the Sanctuary.


5.  Some staff members who work for nonprofits say that they have difficulty
convincing people in their organizations about the value of social media.  How did you organization successfully deploy and adopt these
tools?

It's show and show. Telling people about these tools doesn't really do a lot for us. You have to build something of quality and bring results. That's the importance of goal number 2 for FIRM's social media tools. We've got to help not only our organization, but other organizations to learn about these tools, and the best way to do that is build it. Unfortunately, many people build things, and then forget to tell people how they did it. They show an organization the cool campaign or website, but don't give the organization the tools or insights needed to build their own. That's the importance of the guide I'm helping pull together. Now that FIRM has built stuff, learned stuff, we have to share that knowledge in a comprehensive and useful way.

One of the major obstacles non-profits face is convincing people these tools work. Sure that's important, but honestly in much of my work with organizers on the ground, that is not the main problem. The bigger problem is a lack of staff time. It's not that many of them don't believe, it's that they don't have the time or resources to learn enough to make an educated choice about what tools to use and how. If we really want social media tools to be integrated into our work, we need to figure out new ways to fund staffing for them. When non profits are running five programs, two actions, and leadership development trainings there often aren't resources left for this work. It's up to funders, consultants, and non-profit staff to find creative ways to get resources for social media, and to integrate the tools into our everyday work.


6. Tell me a story about how using a blog, social network, or other social networking tool was of great value to your mission or organization's program.

Social media tools allow FIRM to strengthen a network for immigrant justice, and to further our organizing goals. The key to our success is integrating offline and online  organizing  relationships. One without the other is never as effective. This lesson hit home for us last year around the vote for the DREAM Act (a bill that would allow undocumented students, brought here as children, to have access to higher education). We had about two weeks before the vote and we were being asked to do "something" using online tools. We got together with our partners at the National Immigration Law Center, and the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, and approached (offline) Campus Progress, The United States Student Association, the United We Dream Coalition, and the Campus Democrats asking them to help us reach out to students around the country and get them to organize call-in days to their congressmen in support of the DREAM Act. We wanted to have campuses around the country calling-in on the same days to congress.

Now, if we had about three months of outreach we could have pulled this off, but with only two weeks, we knew we needed to use social media to make things happen big and fast. We set up a facebook group, and started the outreach with our partner organizations. The list of local and state groups that came on board to help push out this effort online is just too long to list here, but believe me there was a massive push to sign up campuses to organize call-in days that was fueled by a unique mixtures of national, state and local groups along with passionate individuals. By the end of about 8 days we had touched something like 17,000 people with our invites and we had signed up over 50 campuses in 22 states to hold call-in days. We offered trainings and materials to each of the campuses in preparation and the organizers did their best to make these days a success. We now have a list of campus organizers across the country that supported DREAM and this action.

It was the connection of our offline and online relationships that allowed this action to take off, and social media tools that greased the wheels for its growth.

7. What's your advice about getting conversation going on your organization's blog?  I noticed that you have lots of comments.

It's provocative content that hits the pulse of your audience, as well as filling a necessary niche.

I learned a lot from Think progress as a model for organizational blogging. Think Progress editorializes through interesting content, not necessarily controversial editorials. And it is independent enough from the Center for American Progress that it can cover whichever topics it needs to.

We try to do that with our blog. There are already a ton of great immigrant rights bloggers out there producing amazing content. We needed to find a way for us to fill a gap within the immigrant rights movement that was useful, not redundant. That gap was reporting from the state and local bases as well as the federal fight, and providing informative content. We focus our content on updates and news stories from our partner organizations, and we link to and support the content of other blogs that provide more opinions and editorializing around this subject. Think Progress also stays within the news cycle, by providing time-relevant content our blog remains relevant day to day.

I'm also a big believer in engaging your readers. Bloggers get this, but organizations often forget to reach out with personal emails to individuals that encourage them to post comments on their blog. We need to treat many of our social tools like door knocking, if someone comments on our site, we should take that as a hello, and use it to open a door to a potential relationship with a new leader, member, or supporter.

People that see provocative video and news stories on our blog often feel compelled to write on our blog. However, I know that they also take background information that they've learned on our site and use it in their comments and posts on other sites. For us, the most important thing is not the strength of our own blog, but rather the health and vibrancy of the pro-migrant blogosphere and the production of pro-migrant content within a larger network of allies and partners.

The Opportunity Agenda released a report last year saying that progressives dominated every progressive political issue online, except immigration. There is an aggressive anti-immigrant presence online, and we need to build partnerships with others online to fight back. Readers feel that fight, they understand the urgency of this issue, and that motivates them to join the conversation.

8. What blogs do you read by women who write about migrant rights?

Some write pro-migrant blogs, or simply cover immigration as a part of their larger scope. Two women that I've particularly been able to learn a lot from have been Liza Sabater and Marisa Trevino. I owe so much to these women and others.

At the end of the day I'm still learning about this technology right alongside my sisters, and the exciting thing is that more and more women are coming to write about migrant rights and use social media tools for justice each day. The fight continues and our strength grows and that's the reason why I love this work.

Cross-posted at BlogHer

Meet A Social Butterfly Who Cares About Nonprofits Causes

Butterfly by Beth Kanter

Social Butterfly writes about nonprofits and social change and social media.   I got to know her when she asked me to participate in her Blogging Neighbor Series

1.   Tell me a little about you ...

I am a social marketing believer, blogger, researcher, practitioner and enthusiast in the concept of Social marketing for good.  This is not to be confused with social media marketing. Currently, my day job is a graduate student at the University of Missouri's School of Journalism where I will graduate this month. In June, I will start full-time at the social marketing firm based in Washington, DC where I've been completing a fellowship, working on the client team representing the National Institute on Drug Abuse. As of this moment, I am defending my thesis, graduating and taking a moment to breath.

Academics and work aside, my passion is working with and on behalf of nonprofits. My family, myself and a small group of dedicated and committed individuals started a non-profit in Arkansas that benefits multiple sclerosis and works in partnership with the MS Society. In one year, with about eight people, no budget and two main events, we've raised over $275k.

2.   Tell me about your thesis.   How will your thesis inform you work in June?


Just the word 'thesis' seems to make eyes glaze over, so I'll try to keep this interesting. What influences you in the actions you take? the opinions or attitudes you hold? What shapes how you feel? Is it CNN broadcasting live, yahoo news feeds, a blog, your next door neighbor, or a guest lecturer? I'm supposing that it's all the above and more. My research looks at the media landscape and the concept of influence and how this affects the public agenda....and within this mess and shades of gray, how and where the practice of social marketing fits in. I suggest social marketing offers us an opportunity to work collaboratively, erase divisions and provides a platform for those with similar motivations - doing good - to unite across industry fields, and thus, be more effective and successful.

I'm looking forward to hearing feedback and insights when I present the paper at the World Social Marketing Conference in Brighton, England this upcoming September 2008.


3.  You're a digital native (I am guessing ..:-)  What are you  seeing in various campaigns launched by nonprofits that use social media strategies, what are they doing right?  What do they need to improve to appeal to folks like you?


Understandably, there are many questions about branching into social media and concerns about it being unregulated. But, I suggest, to just jump in. If not your organization, then you as the marketing/communications/outreach person. You, yourself, need to be familiar with new communication channels. I appreciate the digital native label....but I am constantly finding new applications and new strategies that online technology offers. So new or accustomed, there's always more to learn.

When you're open to learning, you're open to opportunity.


4.  Why do you think it is important for nonprofits to embrace social media?


For the same reasons why it is important for you to get to know your neighbors. Or, to teach your child how to change a tire. It just makes sense to know what's out there and how it can be used.

5.   What practical advice would you offer a nonprofit just dipping their toes in the social media waters?

Best practical tip, create a relatively simple, but not hackable password and keep it the same for all the accounts you are going to create. This stays true for the ID/name you create for your accounts. You're identity still needs to be consistent, and practically, it helps you keep track and manage your online relationships.

Next, do a social media scan of your non-profit and/or cause using Technorati or a Google blog search. There are also social media apps that help you track keywords in the blogosphere. How can you know how to help further a cause, meet needs, etc., if you do not know what people are saying or how people currently perceive your organization/message?

6.  What are a couple of your favorite social media or nonprofit blogs?

There's so many good ones out there, that it's hard to choose.  And since this interview is going to be posted on Blogher, I'll narrow it down to women bloggers:

       1. Trendspotting by Dr. Taly Weiss
       2. Lorelle on Wordpress by Lorelle VanFossen

Meet Donna Callejon, Chief Operating Officer of Global Giving

Donna Callejon with kids in village in Guatemala - the houses, latrines, etc are being built partly with Global Giving  support.

This week, as BlogHer, launched a special campaign with GlobalGiving to raise money for lifesaving programs for women around the world, here is an interview with Donna Callejon who is the Chief Operating Officer of Global Giving.


1.   Tell me about you - how did you end up working in global philanthropy?  Do you have a foundation background?

I am a corporate refugee.  During my 17 + years in the financial services world I was always engaged in "philanthropy" as a volunteer in many "do gooder" opportunities.  Before GlobalGiving I spent a few years helping to build the Washington Area Women's Foundation - and that's when I started becoming a "student' of philanthropy.   I met Dennis Whittle, Global Giving's co-founder, at a social entrepreneurship conference in Geneva. When we both got back to DC we got together , and he and Mari needed some help with some business development support.  So I started working 3 days a week with them in 2003.

2.   What is your job at Global Giving?  Why do you think Global Giving is unique and does fabulous work?


My job now at GlobalGiving is to make sure that everything we are doing, and everyone who is working on donor-facing activities (business development, marketing, tech) is organized in some sort of recognizable formation.  GlobalGiving is very much a social enterprise - we run it like a company with monthly goals and metrics - all with the goal of attracting as many donors to support great projects around the world.  Dennis and Mari are truly spectacular visionaries - and positioned us as the first and most successful player in this project-specific, global philanthropy space.  The true uniqueness, though, is the network of amazing vetted project leaders and project organizations we have been able to build, and can access for large and small donors alike. 

3.    I recently noticed that you had a project from New Orleans, can you tell me about it?  Do you typically fund American projects?

I think we have about 40 projects on the site right now that are based in the US, and that represents about 8-9% of all the projects.  The US projects are an interesting mix - several in the gulf coast as a result of Hurricane Katrina.  We find that donors who are familiar with us, and corporate donors, increasingly want to support a specific project, not just send their money into what can feel like the black hole of the Red Cross or other big NGOs.  So school or library-specific projects were and continue to be attractive to donors.  In addition, we have a partnership with Pandora.com, the only radio service, and for them we've added a few US based music projects.  And then finally one of our project sponsoring organizations is the Tech Museum Awards in San Jose, so there are several US based Tech Laureates who have posted projects.

4.   Can you highlight a few of the amazing projects on Global Giving that support women? 


We have found, since the beginning, that projects focused on women and girls do very well on GlobalGiving.  The international giving community understands better than the US philanthropic community that investing in girls education is one of the single biggest drivers of community health and sustainability.  And women are the backbone of most low-income communities, around the world and in the US.  Two of my favorite projects, both of which hit on several key issues at once:

Rescuing Young Girls from Bonded Labor in Nepal - this project buys a family in Nepal a pig to generate income so that they don't have to sell their daughter into servitude to pay for family expenses.  It also requires, and pays for, the girls to go to school.

Build Skills and Income by Training Guatemalan Women - This is an economic development project, a self esteem project and a human rights project all in one. for $35 an indigenous woman in Guatemala will get quality training on weaving, allowing her to then participate in the global markets for crafts.

We are really excited about our new partnership with BlogHers Act.  Both the writers and readers of blogs on BlogHer are an engaged, active community, and it's terrific to see them coming together to raise funds for projects that will help ensure that babies and mothers have the best possible chance of being physically and emotionally healthy.  They selected a great group of projects to support, and within the first 72 hours of the campaign have raised over $1,000.  I hope as we get closer to Mother's Day people will make contribution in honor of the women in their lives and send them free, eco-friendly e-cards via GlobalGiving.

5.   Global Giving recently partnered with the Case Foundation for the America's Giving Challenge and you've done other competitions before -- any lessons learned you want to share with people who might want to champion a cause in future contests? 

The America's Giving Challenge was by far the largest of these contests we've run or helped run - generating almost $400,000 to projects on GlobalGiving.  Some have rewarded projects for attracting the largest amount of money, and some for the largest number of donors.  We think that a combination of the two is best - fundraises need to hit a threshold number of both to make the contest meaningful.  One thing that holds through across all the contests is that it's often one person - either on the staff or board, or just an evangelist for the organization - who really drives the successful fundraisers - as you have done now twice for the Sharing Foundation.  It's always someone with a strong vested interest in the success of the organization, and it always comes down to the wire.  So, to win you have to really commit yourself, inspire your networks to spread the word, and stay focused until the end.

6.   I've been working on something called the "cute dog theory" of social media and nonprofit adoption.  I couldn't help but notice that you're a dog lover - I saw your dogbook on Facebook.  Can you tell me about your dogs?

We have three dogs in the house right now.  Dillon is the oldest - he's a Chesapeake Bay Retriever and loves to play ball.  Hailey is a yellow lab, and we have a song we made up about her that starts with "Hail-Bop" (like the comet).  It goes on to describe her, um, proclivity to lie around and be bossy.  She is the alpha for sure.  And then there is Dixon, who is a 2.5 yr old Westie.  He weighs 1/3 what the other two do, but he thinks he's a big dog.  He's a true terrier - patrols our backyard for wayward birds, squirrels, and anything else that dares to climb the fence! 

Beth Kanter, BlogHer CE for Nonprofits and Social Change, also writes Beth's Blog.

Congrats to Amy Sample Ward! Now Writing for the Stanford Social Review!

Me and Amy Sample Ward at NTC

I've been a fan of Amy Sample Ward's blog since she started it last year.   We both got NTennies at the NTEN member luncheon.   Almost a month ago, Amy was invited to be a blogger for the Stanford Information Review.  Her first post is called "The Leadership Gap and Technology Gap Working Together for Good?" and her second post is called "Openness for Technology and for Techies!"

 

Opportunity to Mentor Nigerian Women - The Networking for Success Project

Take this three question quick quiz:

1. Does your work and interests include how information and communication technology (ICTs) can be used to promote social change?
2. Do you use or champion innovative uses of ICTs to work or network more efficiently?
3. Do you work in an organization whose mission includes social or economic development?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you might want to consider participating in this online mentoring program for women in Nigeria.  Over the past three years, I have a couple of opportunities to be a virtual technology mentor to other women in remote parts of the world.   This can be a really rewarding experience.   That's why I'm passing this mentoring opportunity to work with women in Nigeria. 

The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is looking for mentors to participate in its Networking for Success project. The Networking for Success project is targeted at Nigerian women working in NGOs, and other social development and change-oriented programs, who are seeking to use technology to advance the work of their organizations and programs.

The project is aimed at demonstrating and guiding women to work more efficiently using tools that support more collaborative information building and sharing techniques. The tools used will include (but not limited to) a combination of Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and social bookmarking tools. The project, which will last for 3 months, will run from May to July 2008.

Over a period of 3 months, through weekly themed online discussions, mentors will facilitate discussions between the participants on strategies of applying a variety of ICTs to their work, particularly within development organizations/initiatives. This online mentoring will complement face-to-face workshops to be held in Lagos, Nigeria.

If you are interested in participating or finding out more about this project, please contact Oreoluwa Somolu at info@w-teconline.org.  If you are interested in participating, include a few lines about yourself and your professional background (include your website or blog URL if you have one) and send by Sunday, April 27, 2008.  You can learn more about the Women'sTechnology Empowerment Centre here.

The Many Ways to Say I Love You With A Donation To A Charity

Congenital Heart Defects Awareness Day

Maybe the love of your life is allergic to roses or maybe he or she is trying to drop a few pounds, so chocolates (even if they are fair trade chocolates) may not fly.  Or maybe you're trying to find an unusual way to show your love, beyond a Hallmark card.  What about making a donation to a charity in honor the special someone in your life.  A number of nonprofit organizations are promoting Valentine's Day giving opportunities, here's a few:

A Day for Hearts is an opportunity to raise awareness about congenital heart defects, a lethal constellation of birth defects of the heart that affect millions of newborn infants and children worldwide.  It's killer that claims thousands of lives every year.   Every year on Valentine's Day, Heart Disease Online hosts this event by offering information, resources and support to those who lives have been touched by congenital heart disease, and an opportunity to make a contribution. 

Do you have a special techie in your life who works for a nonprofit?  Why not send some geek love from NTEN?

Give a Virtual Gift on Facebook and Support Breast Cancer (or another charity):  Thinking about sending a virtual gift, maybe a teddy bear, flowers, hearts, or whatever?   Why not send a virtual gift that sends a donation to support breast cancer research or some other cause?  Changing the Present Facebook application offers nearly 1,000 meaningful $1 gifts from hundreds of leading nonprofits, so you're sure to find something that moves you or your sweetheart.   And, don't just support Breast Cancer Research on special holidays, every Friday is PeaFund Friday.

Join the Red Campaign.  You can purchase a gift or card that provides AIDS grants in Ghana, Rwanda, and Swaziland.  (RED) was created by Bono and Bobby Shriver, Chairman of DATA to raise awareness and money for The Global Fund by teaming up with the world's most iconic brands to produce (PRODUCT)RED branded products. A percentage of each (PRODUCT)RED product sold is given to The Global Fund. The money helps women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Save the Children hopes to start a new tradition of sending Save the Children Valentine's Day Cards.  By making a donation, you can print out or email these beautiful cards featuring children's artwork. Your donation will help the organization reach more children in poor, rural communities in the United States through early childhood education, literacy, physical activity and nutrition programs.

Give a copy of Love Letters from the South, a beautiful photography book that pays tribute to all those affected by Hurricane Katrina.  The proceeds support the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and
Habitat for Humanity's Operation Home Delivery. 

A Good Card from Network for Good lets you show your sweetheart you have a sweet heart!  You select the amount, your sweetie choose the charity, and together you make a difference!

And if you happen to get a proposal or a ring and want to use your wedding to raise money for Charity, be sure to register at the I Do Foundation.

Update: I asked the Twitter network what I was leaving out, here's a few responses:

LGBT Immigration Benefit
Mating Ringtones for your cell phone!

I'm sure there are many other Valentine's Day opportunities to make a contribution, volunteer, or celebrate your love by doing good.   Please do share them in the comments.  And have a wonderful Valentine's Day.

 

Foko Madagascar: It Takes A Village To Raise An Idea

Foko Blog Club, Foko Madagascar Flickr Photo

Joan Razafmaharo is an amazing blogger, social change activist, and woman working in Madagascar and other parts of the world.   Her background is in the field of architecture and urban planning.  She has put her knowledge to work for sustainable development on the ground in Madagascar when interning for the local municipality and focusing on improving the living conditions of the country's poorest neighborhoods.  Currently, she is a project manager (design and architecture) for Foko.

FOKO was created after the TED Global conference: “Africa the next Chapter” , when TED Fellow Andriankoto and his fellow bloggers Mialy, Lova, and Joan combined their talents and never ending activism to start the FOKO project, to help support Madagascar’s development. The eastern forest of Madagascar is populated by not only lemurs and other wildlife creatures, but also by the Malagasy people whose survival has for centuries depended on the forest.

They project has several components, including:

Foko Blog Club is teaching young people in Madagascar blogging skills (See photo above).  The project was funded by Rising Voices, the outreach arm of Global Voices. 

Marketing Women's Craft Skills helps women broaden their skills beyond farming and to take advantage of the crafts that are available in local villages which include embroidery, sewing, and weaving.  The idea is to help them create hand-crafted items that can be sold on the Web.  The project will also include training these rural women to create podcasts, videos, and blog posts.

Environmental program.  The program is lead by blogger, environmental activist, and TED Fellow Andriankoto Ratozamanana.  Madagascar has some of the highest biodiversity in the world and is home to as many 12,000 plant species. As in many parts of the world, fire is an important agricultural tool for farmers on the island, but every year as much as third of Madagascar forest's burn due to slash and burn for survival.  The Foko project is participating in the United Nation Billion Tree Campaign and will plant 1,000 trees a day over a ten-day campaign.  (You can support the effort here)


Cross posted at BlogHer.

An Interview with Perla Ni, CEO and Founder of Great Nonprofits

Perla Ni, Ceo and Founder of Great Nonprofits


1.    Why did you start Great Nonprofits?

When Hurricane Katrina hit, I was the publisher of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and we wanted to write a story about how nonprofits were helping the victims. Even though we had access to far more information than the ordinary donor or volunteer, we found it difficult to find out exactly which nonprofits were doing a good job of helping those in need.

We only started to get a clearer understanding of which nonprofits were actually rising to the challenge when our former managing editor, David Weir, flew out to Biloxi, Miss., and walked up and down the streets, asking people which nonprofits had been out there helping them. The locals told him about several excellent small local nonprofits that provided supplies and help. One guy told him how he had broken his leg and had been living in his car until volunteers from a local nonprofit came and found him and took him to the doctor. The local nonprofit in that case was unknown to the larger world and received little public attention or funding. (David's article ended up being published in Salon.)

In general, there isn't a lot of media coverage for local nonprofits, and when there is, it's usually to uncover a scandal rather than to highlight nonprofits that are doing excellent work.

I've gotten to know a lot of nonprofits and most of them are honest and hardworking. And some of them do darned great work. I've known nonprofits personally as a client of their services. My family had $100 when we immigrated and countless nonprofits helped us. If you look at photos of me when I was a kid, practically everything I wore came second hand from nonprofits. My cavities got filled for free at a nonprofit community dental clinic.

So I know how much the help of a nonprofit can mean.

It struck me, as I struggled professionally to find great nonprofits for our magazine to write about, that there needed to be an online "Zagat," if you will, for nonprofits that would collect stories and reviews of people -- people like me, the victims of Katrina, and hundreds of thousands of others -- who have seen the impact of nonprofits up close, and can speak personally and firsthand about it. (An article by Bill Meehan had proposed such an idea a year ago.)

So many donors and volunteers want to know if their giving is going to make a difference. Come help others discover what a difference their involvement in a nonprofit can make.


2.    What makes Great Nonprofits different from other sites that offer ways for people to connect with nonprofits to volunteer or give money?


We provide real and authentic reviews from people who have directly seen the impact of the nonprofit you are considering to give to.   It's the first time a site has tried to do reviews of nonprofits from the bottom up.  That is, instead of a top down approach where some expert evaluates the nonprofit, we enable people who are on the street level to say what they've seen as an impact of the nonprofit.  It's the Zagat's guide approach rather than the NYTimes food critic approach.

3.    How do balance running a start up with being a mom?


That's a great question!  I have great childcare -  reliable nannies, a husband on a flexible work schedule and my parents who moved to be nearby to help with my kids.  My office is in a separate building right next to my house so it's easy for me to check in on the kids if I need to. I also am able to work flexibly because I can do emails from my iphone.  So when I have to wake up at 1am and 5am to feed the newborn, I also read my emails and respond to a couple of them.  I also get a solid stretch of work time in the evenings after I put the kids to bed.   I am a terrible cook and so I don't attempt to do much in the kitchen other than make simple things like oatmeal for my kids.  We eat at my parents house a lot or order in.   I'm very lucky to be able to structure my work around my lifestyle.  I really am impressed by other moms who manage to do it with a lot less.

4.    What would you most like people to know about your site?


We don't just want to just be a successful website - what's more important is that we are showing one way for smaller nonprofits - and that is the majority of nonprofits out there - which have a hard time getting any visibility, to raise their profile, gain volunteers and donors.  Local and small nonprofits have limited marketing dollars and resources and they aren't typically some new sexy micro finance operation in an exotic locale.  Especially around this time of year when all of us are getting piles of direct mail from national and international nonprofits, have you received mail from your local homeless shelter?  Or after school program?  Or elderly center?  Probably not because they can't afford marketing like the larger nonprofits can.  So our site tries to help these local nonprofits by enabling them to harness what they all have - goodwill.  They've got people who have volunteered for them, people who have benefited from their programs, and other local supporters.  Using our website, they can - for free - turn all that goodwill into stories of impact.  Through these reviews, they can raise their visibility and build their reputation and credibility. 

Additional Resources
NTEN Blog
Perla's One Post Challenge at Tactical Philanthropy
Getting Attention Blog, Nancy Schwartz

Gift the Gift of Charity: Make A Contribution to any of these Fabulous Organizations

Photo by Life in Africa

For this week's BlogHer Holiday Guide post, I needed to come up with a list of nonprofit organizations or causes that BlogHer readers may consider making a donation to as part of their year-end giving.   I have two favorites:  The Sharing Foundation which supports children in Cambodia and Creative Commons.  I also turned to the readers of my blog who are very savvy about nonprofits and asked them to pitch their favorite causes and organizations that might be of interest to BlogHer readers. 

1.  Support Peace Work Around the World


Peace Project Fellow, Alison Long
Photo in Flickr, Used with Permission

Peace Fellows are graduate students who work with Advocacy Project's community based human rights partners around the world. The Fellows provide much needed energy, expertise and enthusiasm while being exposed to to the compelling, challenging, essential and often dangerous work done by campaigners for human rights and social justice. Fellows make use of blogging, social networking, photo and video sharing tools to build communities of support for their host organizations so donors can follow their work and directly share in the accomplishments.

2.   Help Special Needs Children Improve Social Skills 

Can I Sit With You? is an ongoing book and blog project that shares schoolyard stories -- both good and bad -- to help current student feel less alone in their social bewilderment. All proceeds from the sale of the Can I Sit With You? book go directly to SEPTAR, the fledgling Special Education PTA of Redwood City. Can I Sit With You? is co-edited by special needs parents Shannon Des Roches Rosa and Jennifer Byde Myers.

3.  Help Survivors of Slavery and Trafficking Rebuild Their Lives

The Emancipation Network and MadeBySurvivors.com, where people can help survivors of human trafficking and slavery to rebuild their lives and to have sustainable income, education and hope. MadebySurvivors sells beautiful handicrafts and awesome gifts all made by survivors and people at very high risk for slavery. People can also make a donation to The Emancipation Network, a 501c3 non profit, or sponsor a red light district child for school.

4.  Support Children

Shaping Youth recommends supporting Age of Conversation to Benefit Variety, The Children's Charity.  This organization has been supporting young poeple since 1928, when a baby was found with a note pinned to it on Christmas Eve on a seat at the Sheridan Square Theater. Can't get much more pertinent for holiday hope than the gift of human beings caring for one another!

5.  Adopt An Acre of Rainforest

Photo by Dmason

When you give someone the gift of an acre of rainforest in Costa Rica, you're helping to protect and restore one of the world's most extraordinary yet highly threatened regions now and for future generations. You're making a tangible, lasting difference for both people and nature.

6. Support the only national sexual assault hotline

Paul Hyland saw a presentation at NPowerDC.  He recommends the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, works with local rape crisis centers nationwide. They recently launched the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline, and are in a push to increase the hours to 24/7 operation. This is a really great use of technology to reach a younger generation of victims who might be more comfortable in an IM session than a phone call. Check out their MySpace page.

7.   The GRO Foundation:  Global Relief Outreach

Think of how much change could be created if instead of a new sweater or CD we all were able to give a Holiday gift that meant survival for a starving family, or an education for an orphaned student. The G.R.O. Foundation has created the 2007 Gifts of Hope campaign in order to do just that; meaningful giving can bring hope, protection and security to the most vulnerable of our global family. The G.R.O. Foundation's Gifts of Hope have been created to initiate a revolution in giving – where every gift, no matter how significant, directly supports students and families in Lesotho, southern Africa that need it the most and so we can take back the season and make it one of true giving.

8.  Free Geek

FreeGeek in Portland solves two problems.  E-waste and access to technology to those who could not otherwise afford it.  Watch this engaging video and then go make a contribution.

9.  Support the Spastic Paraplegia Foundation

Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP) and Primary Lateral Sclerosis (PLS) are long-term forms of Lou Gehrig disease, disorders largely unknown to the public which cause progressive weakness and spasticity in the muscles in the lower body which usually leads to complete disability. With no known public figure/celebrity spokesperson afflicted with either disease, the 24,000 Americans suffering from HSP/PLS have even less of a public platform. This began to change with the establishment in 2002 of the Spastic Paraplegia Foundation (SPF) whose all-volunteer effort raised over $1.5 million in five short years for critical research on these and related neuromuscular areas.

10.  Help Build a School for Tibetan Girls


Photo by Audience Works


Help build a school for Tibetan girls that gives them a high quality education, gives them the same opportunities as boys, and prepares them for today's world with the best of modern western education and Tibetan values. After visiting Tibet and witnessing the dire conditions and systematic destruction of their culture, Rebecca Krause-Hardie realized how essential it is that we create places outside Tibet that support and cultivate their culture and spiritual beliefs.  Donations can be made here.

11.  Community Center of St. Bernard

St Bernard Parish was devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and by the largest domestic residential oil spill in US history (Murphy Oil spill in Chalmette). Two years later only 39% of residents have been able to return, and many of them are still living in FEMA trailers, waiting and waiting for the help they were promised. Contributions to the Community Center of St Bernard will help them to continue offering essential services like food and clothes for low-income residents, free access to internet and phones, and community events that help restore a sense of hope and normalcy to these hurricane survivors.

12.  Give Kids the World

Give Kids The World is a non-profit, 70-acre resort that creates magical memories for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families. For more than 6,000 families each year, Give Kids The World provides a week-long dream vacation to Central Florida that includes accommodations, attractions tickets and meals, at no cost to them. With your gift, you share the joy of a dream come true for a child and help Give Kids The World fulfill its mission to never turn away a child in need

13.  Life in Africa

LiA makes a great gift because it's not just a gift, it's an experience. There are many ways to connect with Life in Africa's war-affected communities in Uganda: shop for community-made gifts that make a difference, invest in the LiA community through a Kiva loan, help Ugandans plan projects online, or my favorite, give to help provide school fees for 200 orphans in LiA households. More than just a gift, LiA is an experience that makes Africa feel closer.

14.  Help A Family of Five in Burma Stay Alive

Photo by Jackol

When Partners asked the Internally Displaced People of Eastern Burma what they needed to stay alive while they hid from the Burmese army, they named it: 75kg of rice, 5kg of salt, 1 cooking pot, 1 machete, 1 lighter, 1 plastic sheet for shelter. Five basic essentials that will help a family of five survive in jungle hiding for one month. Help a family of five stay alive.

15.  Help Victims of Domestic Violence

My Father's House of Erie is a transitional house for women and children who have been victims of domestic, relationship, physical, or verbal abuse. This program has been around for about ten years. They have recently renovated a beautiful house in the Victorian style, which can hold up to six families.  My Father's House of Erie has everything in place to open this new house, with the exception of operational costs, which happens to be the most difficult type of funding to receive. Contributing to this organization would be an incredible way to make a difference in an organization which would otherwise not be able to help as many families as it has the physical capabilities to. For anybody who knows somebody who has suffered abuse, this would be a great way to donate in honor of that person.

Can't decide?   You can always give the gift of giving by sending a gift card to someone who can select a charity at Network for Good or Global Giving.   Details here.  You can also make a virtual gift on Facebook through Changing the Present. Rather shop till your drop with a portion of the proceeds going to charity?  Check out eBay Giving Works, Church World Service Catalog, or MAATIAM

Pitch Your Cause or Organization and Help Me Write My Next Blogher Post

I was assigned to write a piece for the Blogher Holiday guide for this Sunday.  My assignment:  Recommend 10 (or more) nonprofits or causes that people may consider as a holiday gift.   Now, I could go make a list, but I thought it would be such a richer list if you all helped me.  So, here's what you can do:

1.)  Recommend a charity and/or cause.
2.)  Describe what you think a contribution to this charity in someone's honor as a holiday gift would be an awesome gift.  In LESS than three sentences.
3.)  Include a link to the charity's web site
4.)  Extra bonus:  point me to a fantastic image (cc licensed) in flickr that can be used to illustrate the post.

My deadline is Sunday 3:00 PM EST.

DO NOT EMAIL ME.  IT WILL GET LOST.   LEAVE YOUR PITCH IN THE COMMENTS!

Take Back the Tech!

It's time for the Second Annual Take Back the Tech Campaign.  Here's the call to action:

ka-BLOG! Calling all bloggers to contaminate the blogosphere with activism on VAW for 16 days.

ka-BLOG is a 16-day blog fest for the Take Back the Tech Campaign. It is open to anyone and everyone - girls, boys, everyone beyond and more -- who want to share their thoughts on violence against women, and how online communications can exacerbate or help eliminate VAW.

What is the campaign about?

Take Back The Tech is simply a call for every person– women and men, who uses information & communication technologies, e.g. mobile phone, internet, radio etc., to use them for activism against VAW (violence against women). Unequal power relations lie at the heart of VAW, and this is apparent from the streets to online spaces. So we are saying technology should be used for equality, not to perpetuate violence.
Read more about the issue here.

How to Participate

My colleague in Cambodia, Jinja, has set up a group on a special ning site.  The full call to action, packed with ideas and tips on how to participate can be found here.  He has a post in English about it here.

 

My colleague, Kong Sidroth, who runs the Wom@n's portal for Khmer Women, a project of the Open Institute (creaters of the KhmerOS software) has also placed a version of the graphic in Khmer.   

Good Magazine Wants You To Do Good!

Good Magazine as its tagline says is for "people who give a damn" and describes itself as a publishing platform to "change the world."   So, it comes as no surprise that every holiday season the magazine chooses nonprofit partners and runs a fundraising/subscription campaign.

Here's how it works.   Good Magazine wants to sign up 50,000 subscribers and will donate 100% of the $20 subscription fee towards the subscriber's choice of one of twelve nonprofits described briefly below.  If you do the math, that's $1 million donated to these organizations.

Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty.  Acumen's investments focus on delivering affordable, critical goods and services -- like health, water and housing -- through innovative,
market-oriented approaches.

Ashoka's mission is to shape a citizen sector that is entrepreneurial, productive and globally integrated. It develops and supports the profession of social entrepreneurship by acting as a venture capital firm for visionary change-makers around the world.

826 National is a family of seven nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping students, ages 6-18, with expository and creative writing.  Each chapter offers drop-in tutoring, field trips, workshops, and in-schools programs -- all free of charge -- for children, classes, and schools with particular interests or particular needs.

Hands On Network brings people together to strengthen communities through meaningful volunteer action. A growing network of more than a half million volunteers and nearly 50,000 projects a year, with volunteer opportunities that range from building wheelchair ramps in
San Francisco to teaching reading in Atlanta, to rebuilding homes and lives in the Gulf coast communities.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, founded in June 2004, is the nation's first and largest group dedicated to the Troops and Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kiva connects individuals with unique small businesses in the developing world, and helps to orchestrate a one-on-one micro-loan. It is a way for people to invest in each other and help foster economic independence around the globe.

Malaria No More the mission of Malaira No More is simple: to end deaths due to malaria. Malaria No More engages individuals, organizations, and corporations in the private sector to provide life-saving bed nets and other critical interventions to families in need.

NRDC a nation-wide environmental action organization that uses law, science and the support of 1.2 million members and online activists to protect the planet's wildlife and ecosystems.

Room to Read partners with local communities throughout the developing world to establish schools, libraries and other educational infrastructure.

Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people's dwindling interest in the food they eat. The organization works to educate
people on where their food comes from and how our food choices affect
the rest of the world.

Teach For America is an organization working to inspire our country's most able and determined college graduates to stand up and fight injustice in the educational system.

YouthAIDS () is a non-profit organization that works to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS among 15-24 year olds in over 50 countries by educating on healthy living and providing life-saving health products.

Beth Kanter, BlogHer Contributing Editor for Social Change and Nonprofits, is the author of Beth's Blog.

How do you encourage your kids to contribute to charity or causes?

Winners of the Creative Commons Photo Contest, 2006

I'm working on a piece for the BlogHer Holiday Guide about encouraging children to contribute causes and charities.   In our family, I involve my kids in various fundraising activities - from Cambodia to Creative Commons.   We have dinner table discussions on why it is important to support causes, particularly programs in Cambodia like the Sharing Foundation.  My kids pose for photos in t-shirts (see above), empty their piggy banks, contribute clothing or other types of drives at school, and have attended lots of fund raising events.

As someone who works in the nonprofit sector, I understand the importance of giving - and trying to pass that down to my kids.  But, I'm curious about how you, who are parents and work for nonprofits, what do you do to encourage your philanthropy at a young age? 

So, here's what I'd like to you, write up a blog, or leave a comment with link or track back - and let me know.  I'll be writing a summary for the post.  Please respond by November 24th.

Update:  Fantastic response so far .. thanks for all the comments. 

Some blog posts:  Taking Action in the World

I need your help for She's Geeky Session: What's It Really Like To Work As A Techie for Good?

I'm doing a session at She's Geeky Conference.  It is going to be a  frank and spirited discussion about what it is really like to work for a nonprofit organization.  It's directed at women who might be working in the corporate or business sector and are thinking of switching to the nonprofit sector.

I want to put together a list of resources and stories and advice.  So, I need your help.  What would you say to this group of techies?  More specifically:

• What are the opportunities and challenges of being the techie in a nonprofit organization?
• Are there particular issues that women should be aware of? What are the best opportunities for networking to find job leads, internships, volunteer gigs, etc? 
• Both online and off line? If you've made the switch from corporate to nonprofit techie, what advice would you give? 
• Full steam ahead or run screaming?
• If you're a techie in the nonprofit sector, how and why did you land in the nonprofit sector?

Re-Engerize Your (Nonprofit) Career with Michele Martin and Rosetta Thurman

Two of favorite nonprofit BlogHers, Michele Martin (of the Bamboo Project), and Rosetta Thurman(of Perspectives from the Pipeline) are interested in piloting one-day free retreat for about 15 women on a Saturday in the Washington, DC area.  The only cost to participants would be for food, and potentially meeting space.

Both these women share a strong passion for professional development in the nonprofit sector and beyond.  As anyone who reads their blogs regularly knows, this is some of the best writing on the topic in the sector.  Take for example Rosetta's recent post on "Blogs as Online Learning and Low Cost Nonprofit Professional Development" or Michele's posts on professional development.  They are both interested in the needs of women and how to support them in the career development process.   The idea for the retreat notes Michele is that "A lot of women don't take the time to invest in themselves and we wanted to do something about it."

The retreat will provide some self-assessment and goal-mapping exercises and help participants create an action plan for their career goals.   They are floating this idea to see if there interest and will move forward based on that.   If you are interested, you can find out more about the retreat here or here.

What blogs written by women who provide career advice (either specific to nonprofit sector or otherwise) do you read? 

For more on Career advice for women, check out these blogs:

The Savvy Entrepreneur
Career Woman, Inc
The Career Encouragement Blog
Career Assessment Goddess Blog

Cross-posted at BlogHer

Another Meme ... foot level girl geekery

Photo by Gina Trapani

The photo from one of my flickr contacts, Gina Trapani,  caught my eye and I thought, this looks familiar but couldn't place it.  Then I read the attribution, "photo concept shamelessly stolen" and realized that I had taken a similar photo at Blogher!  And, not only that, Gina graciously gave me some of her BlogHer swag to take to Cambodia and this is a perfect way to say Thanks!

Photo by Cambodia4kids

And if I was till in Cambodia, I would translated the meme.  Instead, you'll have to settle for some Linux Chix from Cambodia on a ladder.

Photo from Cambodia4kids

Global Health Initiative: Bloghers Act - Take the Poll

BlogHers Act is a year-long initiative in which members of BlogHer, both on BlogHer’s network and in our extended communities, will work to make a measurable improvement in Global Health (as distinct from BlogHer's Election 2008 Voter Manifesto initiative focused on the domestic issues of importance to Presidential candidates).

BlogHers Act will take a two-pronged approach to improving Global Health:

1. The members of BlogHer and our extended communities will work together to select a single global health issue on which we want to effect a measurable improvement in the coming year.  By measurable, we seek to demonstrate progress on Global Health via key metrics to be determined (e.g., signatures, votes, donations, letters, live births, etc.). We will use an array of online and offline resources, actions and initiatives to deliver and report on this impact.

2. BlogHers Act also will encourage members who want to create their own, separate campaigns on issues of their choice to do so, and to report back to the BlogHers Act initiative.  Wherever possible and notified, the BlogHers Act team will work to include these efforts in the final report of BlogHers Act project results.

BlogHers Act Initiative is going to be an interesting experiment and powerful learning experience for what network of bloggers can do to support a cause.    We've already been through quite a bit process to identify the issue - Global Health.  The next step is to narrow and focus it.  And, that's where the poll comes in.   What aspect of Global Health do you think we should focus on?   Cast your vote.

Gender Blogging and Personal Branding: Khmer Style

My Logo, Cambodian Style by Virak


Now that I finished the campaign to raise the money to get myself to Cambodia to attend the Cambodia Bloggers Summit, I've been very busy preparing instructional materials. I'm very excited to be teaching Web2.0 and video blogging to Cambodians and a delivering a keynote!  I am also so excited that the there will be a breakout session titled "Gender Blogging" facilitated by 

Srei Saat and Sopheap Chak. (I can't wait to share what I learn with the Blogher Community)

Since I am a supporter of the Cambodian Bloggers Summit, one of the organizers, Virak,
emailed me with a question, "We need a copy of your personal branding
and logo for the conference flyer and t-shirts."    Ah, I have no logo.  Virak
said, no problem, "I will make you one." 

I've been incredibly busy trying to prepare for international travel, get the kids ready for school,  and finish up work-related responsibilities that I hadn't gotten around to posting my notes from one of the best sessions I attended at Blogher - Personal Branding.  So, now I can bring together these two disparate threads.  Here are some notes I took:

• Take time to ask yourself, "What does success look like?"   This will help you think strategically about what you need to communicate.
• Don't establish a personal brand that you can't be true to.
• Ask yourself what you bring to a particular conversation area that is unique.
• One of the speakers, Penelope Trunk, told a great story about she learned to deal with email overload that may result from writing a popular blog.  She said that spending four hours a day answering email is better than being a garbarge person and to see how popular bloggers handled their email she left comments on the blogs of "a-list" bloggers.  They answered her with one-liners and she suggests doing the same.
• There were a lot of questions about how to build traffic on your blog.  I learned that posts that drive a lot of traffic tend to be those that sit on the intersection between two topics.   In other words, pick your niche and blog in the center.
• Be interested and interesting to other people

I visited the blogs of the speakers to discover additional resources for this post.  Penelope Trunk has a useful post about how to be better at self-promotion.

Nextsteph - Stephanie Cockerl, mentioned how important it was to listen and see who was linking to you.  She offered three excellent resources on how to do this:

• Google Alerts
• Measure your online identity
• Feed your ego with RSS by Life Hacker

Nina Burokas handed out a 5x8 card that listed some personal branding dos and don'ts.  I went searching online to find it, but was not successful.  However, I did find a post on Nina's blog pointing to some additional resources from the session.

Learnings and Reflections from BlogHer about Mobile Phones for Video Blogging and Beyond

Photo 1

Photo 2

I'm going to the Cambodian Blogger Summit in a few weeks.  One of the ideas I've been exploring is the whole notion of video blogging from Cambodia by Cambodians.  While I was in Chicago, Ryanne Hodson, who I met at last year's BlogHer, is in Cambodia and Southeast Asia with Jay Dedman to document the work of Project Hope International.  (The back story is here)   

I'm going to bring over video blogging kits - inexpensive cameras, rechargeable batteries, SD cards, and Ryanne's book.  However, in one of the discussion threads on the Summit wiki, there has been mention about using cameraphones or smart phones for this in addition to. 

So, while at BlogHer 07 I had a little bit of a personal learning mission: What can I learn about mobile video blogging in a global context?    My travel hassles combined with sleep deprivation made it really difficult to write complete sentences.  But, the brain fog has started to fade.    As always, I got a lot out of BlogHer, so I wanted to capture here in case anyone else is wondering about this topic.

The photographs above were taken on the last day of Blogher, at the Unconference on Sunday morning facilitated by the talented Kaliya Hamlin who blogs about unconferences here.  My first exposure to "unconferences" or Open Space Technology  was during a week-long arts and education professional development seminar in 1997.  I remember being inspired by it.  It's been a year since I had an "unconference experience," having participated in the Dialogue and Deliberation Conference last summer and facilitated by Lisa Heft.

The group organizes and selects the topics and the learning is through discussion, peer to peer. One of the rules of Open Space Technology is "prepared to be surprised" and the people who show up are the right people.   I put out a call for a session "Mobile Blogging and Video Blogging: I know nothing, educate me."   Three other people, Elizabeth Perry, Valerie Brown, and Snigdha Sen came to the table.  (Snigdha Sen is a journalist and contributing editor at Blogher)

After introducing ourselves and realizing that we all thought we knew nothing about mobile video blogging, we decided to identify what we didn't know by formulating questions.  This is a great method for peer learning.  The questions are way more important than the answers.  Our questions were:

• What do you need to know about web/blog design so that your blog can be read by people on a mobile phone?
• What is the best blog platform for mobile bloggers?
• How do you make your blog/web site mobile friendly?
• How to best encourage people to engage in an online project/group that is discussing a physical location in the location itself using a mobile phone?  (This was Liz's question and it relates to this art project)
• How can a mobile device connect you to the physical environment?
• If you were creating some instructional materials about mobile video blogging in a developing country, like say Cambodia, what are the most important points to cover? (that last question was mine and I had to draw myself a picture)
• What video hosting platforms support cell phones?

Here's where the coffee cup photos enter.  Liz answered my question with another question, "Perhaps it would be important to understand how to apply good asethetics to a tiny camera?"  This lead us to brainstorm a list:

• Closeups are a must - for picture and sound
• Rule of thirds
• Use of negative space
• Don't use zoom with cameraphone
• Shoot b-roll if you're doing editing and if it is in a noisy environment, include a b-shot of the noise source

Of course, we pulled out the digital camera because we're experiential learners and started to explore the ideas with hands-on practice.  The coffee cup photos show that it is important not only to photograph the object, but to consider the space around the object.

We had a few "bumble bees" buzz by our table.  One of them told us that there was a special plugin for wordpress that display the blog in style sheet that is readable on cell/mobile phones.  Something must have jogged Liz's memory and she said, Jan ChipChase.  It's a wonderful blog about mobile design and cell phones and I can't wait to dig in.

It was wonderful to see Georgia Popplewell (send from left) from Global s. I realized that it had been two years since we met face to face at the Global s Summit in London.  (As Ethan says - "the more interaction we have virtually, the more important it becomes to see people face to face).  Georgia moderated the Global Women's Panel with Amira Al Husseini (who also writes for Global s), Snidga Sen from BlogHer, and the incredibly smart Julia Rotich.  She pointed to a case study of using cell phones for mobile reporting.  (And, this was also mentioned on our discussion thread for the Cambodia Bloggers Summit too, but a different blog post.)

After the lunch on the second day, I sat down with Marshall Kirkpatrick to pick his brain on mobile video blogging and camera phones.   Marshall shared his personalized Google search engine and we used to identify a few good links which turned out to be very valuable.  The bookmarks are here.

This lead me to a little experiment with Blip.TV mobile posting.

Click to Play

When I got home, I remembered the work of colleague Joitske Hulsebosch who has taught video blogging in Ghana. I went back to look at her how-to which could be adapted easily for Cambodia.  As I was reviewing it, I noticed that Preetam Rai, who is in Singapore and is the Southeast Asian editor for Global s and who writes the fantastic blog "Better Days" was online.  I pinged him the link and some questions.  He suggested that a few pointers on shooting techniques and showing something like jumpcut because the video editing can be done online and convenient from a Internet Cafe. I edited this video for the campaign using jumpcut.

While at BlogHer, I was also online at the Cambodian Bloggers Summit page using the discussion area to get more background about mobile phones.

I was also curious about what brand of smart phones were primariliy in use in Cambodia. I learned about a mobile phone magazine in Khmer.  Virak Hor mentioned:

The most popular brand is NOKIA which has many smart phone series and price is cheaper than others, and the rest are those phones that is running Windows Mobile OS. Sony Ericsson is also a popular brand even most of their phone are not smart, but they are good for photo and video capturing.

Some Cambodians may have more than one phone as Borin explains here   Borin also writes about how he uses his mobile phone with his laptop to get online.  As Jinja pointed out, there is an issue around sustainability.

UPDATE:   Published on Mobileactive.org