Where are the twenty-something or GEN-Y Bloggers Who Are Writing About Social Change and Nonprofits?

Even though I'm more like twenty-something times 2.5, I attended the "Twenty-Something Meet Up" at the BlogHer Conference.    Why did I go?   I keep hearing from nonprofits that one of the reasons they want to incorporate a social networking or media strategy is to reach a younger audience.  So, having this opportunity listen was very valuable.

Zandria did a fabulous job of facilitating the session.  There were probably about 40 or 50 women in the room - not all were twenty somethings.

I wanted to listen to what was on their minds in general, although I was particularly keen on hearing any discussions or snippets about social change, nonprofits, and activism.  Julia Smith, who blogs at the idealist and was in the room asked "Where are the twenty something/millennial bloggers writing about social change, activism, and nonprofits?"

I thought to myself, now that's a list I'd like to see.

There are lots of twenty-something bloggers and gen-y bloggers.   If you work in nonprofits and track relevant research, you no doubt have come across the Social Citizen Blog from the Case Foundation and the paper, Social Citizen, from Allison Fine.  Both are essential reading.  And, on the sidebar, there are some links to young people's blogs. but I couldn't  find an extensive list of twenty-something bloggers who focus on nonprofits, social change, and social action. 

So, I decided to reach out and see if I could start to compile a list.  What follows below is no doubt incomplete and I sure I've gotten ages wrong too --  so please make additions and corrections in the comments. Here's a few good blogs written by GenYs that cover nonprofit technology, philanthropy, social change, and more.   

Blogs by Gen Y

Nonprofit Technology

Amy Sample Ward.  I discovered Amy's NpTech blog about a year ago, maybe longer.   She covers nonprofit technology, social actions, and social change.  She is a real community person and is often promoting other people's projects. 

Johanna Bates, a gen y and nonprofit techie, who works with a health care advocacy nonprofit, has recently take up blogging.  Her writing is reflective and brilliant.   She offers a perspective of what is like to be a GenY working for a nonprofit.  Thoroughly enjoyed her post about 140 character filters.

Pulse and Signal covers the intersection between healthcare and social media and is written by Andre Blackman who is totally awesome.  He is a terrific blogger, knows his beat, and very generous too.  When I put on my Facebook status that I was looking for blogs, he wrote on my wall recommending many of the blogs that follow.

Girls With Macs is written by Michaela Hackner one of the smartest nonprofit technologists and marketers around.  If I was working for a nonprofit that was doing a job search for a technologically savvy marketing person, I wouldn't even both posting a job description - I just hire her.

ConnectionCafe: Connection Cafe has a quite a few Gen Y bloggers - Taylor Shanklin, Misty McLaughlin, Brandy Reppy, Lacey Kruger and Jordan Viator

Tim Davis is working as a freelance consultant on youth participation.  His blog covers social technology, social action, philanthropy - with a UK perspective.

EngageJoe.com blogs about his experiences spearheading and contributing to social change mashups and working with nonprofits on online strategy.

Philanthropy

GenYGive is written by Miriam Kagan and talks about motivations and trends related to philanthropy and Gen Y.   I discovered Miriam a month ago and have been fan.  One of her recent posts, "Research Points Out That Gen Y's Give" is very informative.

New Voices of Philanthropy is written by Trista Harris and it covers issues of generational change in the philanthropic sector and more broadly trends in philanthropy.

Do Good Well is written by Nathaniel Whittemore who is the founding director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University.  The blog is about citizen-led social change efforts.

$5 Philanthropist by Tom Williams is the CEO of GiveMeaning and writes about philanthropy and social networks.

MyKro is a blog about micro finance, one of the bloggers is Drew Meyers.

Epic Change Blog is written by Stacey Monk.  Epic change raises money to provide micro-loans in developing countries.

Nonprofits - Management Issues

From the Pipeline Rosetta Thurman is an emerging nonprofit leader of color sharing career advice, nonprofit management and other wisdom on her blog.  I've been following her work for about two years now and excited to learn that we're going to speaking at the same conference come November - so we'll meet in person too!  She is one of several bloggers part of the Brazen Careerist Nonprofit Network.

Subject To Change is written by a recent Yale alum, Vanessa Mason, who is just starting out a career in public health.  Read her post "Gen Y and Global Health - Not A Match Made in Heaven".  I discovered her on Twitter recently because she is connected to Andre Blackman.

Non-Profit Chas shares his experiences as he helps take a small non-profit organization to the next level.

Entry Level Living is written by Miss Jones who blogs about what she is learning as a recent college graduate with her first full time job in the nonprofit sector and as a young woman of color living in a new city trying to find herself.  Very refreshing. 

Social Citizen is written by Tera Wozniak from the League of Women voters and covers nonprofits, civil society, and more.

Nonprofit Leadership Blog 101 written by Heather is one of the best that talks about leadership and nonprofits.

Nonprofit Leadership, Innovation and Change: Christopher Scott is a nonprofit leader who founded A Day of Hope, a student based organization that delivers baskets of food and turkeys to families for Thanksgiving.

Nonprofit Programs and Social Actions

Nina Simon a proud member of Gen Y, writes the very awesome Museum 2.0 blog, but you don't have to be a museum person to get a lot of value from it.

Ivan Boothe one of my all-time favorite GenY social media for social change people. 

The Stupid Cancer Blog  is written by Matthew Zachary who founded the social enterprise I'm Too Young for This."  I had the pleasure of interviewing him about his he formed his organization.

Enviroblog blogs about latest science and news on toxins in your food, water, and air, and what government agencies should be doing to protect public health.  Amanda Hanley is the editor. 

Orrdinary Life - First hand account of doing global international development work in a remote area in Southeast Asia.

Holy Meatballs is Global Kids project blog - I've pointed to the posts by teens. Global Kids uses interactive and experiential methods to educate youth about critical international and public policy issues and provides them with opportunities for civic and global engagement.

SpeakUnited and  Inspire4life come from the United Way of Merrimack Valley focused on social issues affecting the region and written by Gen Y.

Mobilizing Youth: Ben Rigby of MobileVoter incidentally also wrote the book Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Technology to Recruit, Organize and Engage Youth, a book with lots of answers for those of you who are just looking to break into this.

Change.Org is covering news about social change on its site.   I didn't cull through all the content to pick out the Gen Y perspective, but I did notice that Vanessa was blogging over there.  A blog network will be launched in about another month.

Marketing

Media Awaken
Maria R. Thurrell is the blogger.  She's awesome.

Michael Silberman from EchoDitto

Alex Rampy writes a blog called Social Butterfly that covers social marketing.

Qui Diaz has a blog called Evange.LIST that covers social media for social causes.  She also blogs at The Buzz Bin (her day job)

Association Marketing is written by Linda Dreyer who is very active with ASAE and recently cofounded a networking group for young association professionals.  Also, Maddie Grant who started blogging about a year ago to write about associations and web 2.0. - Even though as Maddie notes in the comments that they are more Gen X, we'll give them an honorary place on the list.

My research also found some excellent how-to blog posts about reaching out to Gen-Ys as potential donors and more general articles.

Some Relevant Blog Posts about Gen Y and Philanthropy (via Step by Step Fundraising)

• Giving is for all ages from Inside Philanthropy
• Youth Philanthropy: Growing the Next Generation of Givers from New Voices of Philanthropy
• Understanding the “Millenials” from The Agitator
• Young vs Older Donors: Who is More Generous? by Joanne Fritz, About.com
• An Interview With Matthew Zachary, Founder I’m Too Young for This by Beth Kanter
• Don’t Wait to Engage Millennial Donors by Derwin Dubose
• Make Way for Millennials by Kim Carpenter Drake
• Giving Generation from Bicentennial Baby

Some Relevant Blog Posts about Gen Y and Impact on Workplace

• How will digital natives impact the workplace? by Connie Bensen
• Everyone's Talking About Gen Y by Sam Davidson
• When I was your age, I had to walk ten miles in the snow to use the Internet by Beth Kanter
• I only use email to communicate with old people, by Jeremiah Owyang

Initiatives for Youth and Philanthropy (via Forum of Regional Grantmakers)

• Coalition of Community Foundations for Youth (CCFY)  a network of community foundations in the United States dedicated to improved conditions for children, youth and families.
• Do Something  a nationwide network of young people who take action to change the world around them.
• The Giraffe Project  the purpose is "move people to stick their necks out for the common good."
• Learning to Give goal is to educate children about the independent sector and philanthropy.
• Resource Generation Offers programs for young people with wealth to explore how their financial resources relate to social justice and provide tools for them to take action.
• SV Kids To engage the next generation in giving the SVP way
• Youth on Board prepares youth to be leaders in their communities.

Other Blogs written about or cover Gen Y in general

Danah Boyd
Ypulse



What Gen Y/Twenty-Something bloggers who write about nonprofits, social change, philanthropy, or social action did I miss?  What other relevant blog posts or web sites would you add to the resource list?

Update:  Thanks for the additions.  Keep 'em coming.  I'm adding to the list.

Comments

[Nathaniel Whittemore]

Hi Beth,

Great list and one I haven't come across before. I'm just a few years out of undergrad at Northwestern University (where I now work running the Center for Global Engagement - www.mycge.org) and blog at dogoodwell.wordpress.com.

Keep your eyes out for more and more of my peers who begin think of their 'careers' as portfolios of activity that include normal 'career' desires as well as integrated efforts towards social change. I bet more of us will begin to use personal blogs as part of this 'portfolio.'

Thanks as always for your writing

[Alex, aka Socialbutterfly]

Beth,

Thank you for including my blog. I also want to point out some others. Brazen Careerist is a blog aggregate/network for millenial bloggers on a range of topics. They have bloggers organized by topic. There is a topic for both 'activism' and 'non-profit' that lists many of the leading 20-something bloggers. One that I would def. add to the list is Rosetta Thurman at Perspectives from the Pipeline.

Great post!

[Chas Grundy]

Great list - I'm already subscribing to a bunch of these, and adding the others right now. Excellent idea!

I'm a twenty-something... I started my NonProfitChas.com blog a few months back after I realized my non-profit posts were overtaking my normal blog. Now it's the focus of my blogging. I write about my "learn as I go" experiences in a very small non-profit - marketing, fundraising, strategic planning, etc.

[Ivan Boothe]

Hi Beth! This is a great list. I definitely second a lot of these blogs and the Social Citizen paper. You've hit most of the people I would suggest, the only one that occurs to me is Michael Silberman at EchoDitto, one of the veterans of the Howard Dean campaign and the original co-organizer for NetSquared DC. Admittedly he doesn't post as often as I'd like him to. :)
http://www.echoditto.com/blog/12

Also while she's not quite a Millennial (she was born in 1977), danah boyd's writing is, I find, pretty useful in exploring the social implications of online social networks, implications that she definitely connects to social justice, if not to nonprofits, on a regular basis.
http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/

I also do blog about these issues as well, such as my most recent post, "Just what kind of social change are you interested in?"
http://quixoticlife.net/journal/2008/05/14/just-what-kind-social-change-are-you-interested

Thanks as always for your work in collecting and furthering resources!

[Vanessa]

Beth,

Thank you so much for including me. I will be sure to add these to my feed reader. I have been looking for more Gen Y changemakers because I would love to feature them on my blog. I will be sure to check in here to see the suggestions in the comments.

[Maddie Grant]

Beth, this list is awesome and I plan to post a pointer to it on my blog! Thanks! But does it matter that Lindy and I (although she is younger than I am) are firmly planted in Gen-X...? : )

[Lynn from Organicmania.com]

Hey Beth, wonderful list. One of my fave blogs advocating for change in health and environmental policy is Enviroblog. I *think* Amanda at Enviroblog is Gen Y!

[Michael Waugaman]

If I read this right you're not just looking for female gen-y bloggers so I thought you might want to consider adding Tim Davies (www.timdavies.org.uk/) here in the UK to the list?

[Andre Blackman]

Thanks again for including me Beth! Always a pleasure :)

[Heather Carpenter]

Beth:

Here's a link to my new blog

http://www.nonprofitleadership601.blogspot.com

gen Y about Nonprofit Leadership with an academic twist.

Thanks,

Heather

[Sam Davidson]

This is a great list and is only getting better! I second the need to highlight Brazen Careerist.

And, here's a piece I penned recently about nonprofits and Gen Y...look for more as I continue to lead workshops on the topic.

[Beth Kanter]

@heather .. I had a case of social media alzheimers .. slap me .. you're on the list now

[Joe Solomon]

What an awesome list - I can't wait to explore and discover new bloggers @ the intersection of social media and social change. Thank you!

At EngageJoe.com, I blog about my experiences spearheading and contributing to social change mashups (like the Knowmore Extension and the DonorsChoose WordPress Plugin) and working with nonprofits on online strategy.

[Geoff Livingston]

Thanks, beth. It's an honor to have Qui on the Buzz Bin writing about Social Causes. This is the best use of social media that I can think of, and thus our editorial focus on the topic.

[Meghan]

Beth,
This is such a comprehensive list and enormously helpful. Thank you. My reader has just picked up some good ones! Another category that I think overlaps here is blogs that address social issues. I think these are interesting because they put into action some of the concepts talked about in the nonprofit marketing or nonprofit tech blogs. At our organization we've been trying this out with two blogs. One focused on social issues affecting our region (foreclosures, early education, youth violence etc)and one focuses specifically on providing youth with better options and adult guidance. They are:
http://speakunited.org
http://inspire4life.org

Both started by bloggers in their 20 somethings. I blog on the first along with several others.

Outside of our organization, I've also liked "Do you stand for something" a blog on cause marketing, which I believe has some young bloggers.

Thanks again... this is really useful.

[Jordan Viator]

Thanks for taking the time to pull this list together, Beth! Like the others who commented here, I plan to add the blogs here that I don't already follow to my RSS.

Though it's a group blog, and I don't know if it fits the bill for what you are looking for, Connection Cafe has a significant number of Gen Y bloggers - Taylor Shanklin, Misty McLaughlin, Brandy Reppy, Lacey Kruger and I are all in Generation Y and blog on technology and Web 2.0 for nonprofits (coincidentally all women). There are also a good number of contributors who are right on the cusp of this generation in their early 30s.

Looking forward to reading the continued comments with new blogs to read!

[Lindy Dreyer]

I honestly don't know if I'm X or Y--I identify with both groups fairly well--still, I'm definitely psyched to be included on this list. There's no doubt that the combination of young, female and nonprofit produces a unique voice. I'm proud to be among these women for as long as I can hold on to my youth. ;-)

Thanks, Beth!

[Lynne]

I realize the focus here is in social change, but I wonder if you can point me in the right direction for blogs about local community nonprofits? I was just talking with my mom, who heads her historical association, about the value of social media in getting her publics more involved. They do a lot of outreach into the high schools with a great forensics program (http://www.gcha.info/), and I think the passion of those kids could continue after the program if they had a good way to keep the dialogue going. I'd appreciate any suggestions.

[Amy Sample Ward]

Great list, Beth! I'm honored to be on it and happy to represent :)

Christopher Scott's blog on nonprofit leadership should probably get added as well.

Thanks!

[Amy Sample Ward]

It would be helpful if I put in the link, would it? :)

http://www.christopherscottblog.typepad.com/

[Beth Kanter]

@amysampleward thanks for the pointer to new blog. Trying to be inclusive with this list!

[Beth Kanter]

@lynne - try this
http://bethkanter.wikispaces.com/listofnonprofitblogs

[Kari Saratovsky]

Beth, per usual you've done your homework and have made it easy for the rest of us! Thanks for the terrifically thorough list and the shout out and link to Social Citizens we'll be sure to solicit our readers for their suggestions.

[Julia Smith]

Beth, this is so exciting! I feel extra motivated now to get my group blog off the ground. Hope to be back with a URL soon. :)

[sally]

This is a great list! I write a bit about activism on my personal blog, and will be doing more of it soon (highlighting current causes/campaigns, non-profits that I like, etc.).

BUT, the more exciting news is that an organization I work with, The Women's Mosaic, is going to be launching a blog this September that is written by Gen Y and is about our experiences, our work, connecting with other non-profits, and reflecting on the power we hold and potential we have (rather than the negative "you can't do this, you're too young" message).

I look forward to checking out all of these!