Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media

Congrats to David Neff: Special Recognition from the American Marketing Association

 

I was delighted to receive a text message the other day from David Neff letting me know that the  American Marketing Association (AMA) and the American Marketing Association Foundation (AMAF) selected him for special recognition for social media. Eric Overman, Operation Smile, received the Nonprofit Marketer of the Year Award, and Anne Bergquist, YMCA of Metro Chicago received the Special Marketing Initiatives and subcategory award.

David J. Neff is the Director of Web, Film and Interactive Strategy for the American Cancer Society's High Plains division (www.cancer.org) and is also the Executive Director of Lights. Camera. Help (www.lightscamerahelp.com). 

In his capacity at the American Cancer Society, David directs all Web and interactive strategies and online properties for six states in addition to managing the division's eRevenue strategy, social networking/media strategy, and online community strategy.  As the executive director of Lights. Camera. Help, he is working to start the world's first nonprofit-focused film festival. 

David is a two-time recipient of a Futuring and Innovations grant, which he used to create C-Tools and SharingHope.TV (www.sharinghope.tv).  C-Tools was the first PDA software tool for the prevention of cancer developed by the American Cancer Society, and SharingHope.TV is the nonprofit world's first totally user-generated content Web site.  In 2009, the Austin American Statesman recognized David as one of the top 25 Social Media People in the state of Texas.

David earned his BS in Public Relations from the University of Texas with a minor in Business from the McCombs School of Business.  He currently lives in Austin, TX.

Some Great Conversations about Nonprofits and Social Media

Photo by Lecerle

Today is a bit a whirlwind for me.  I only had time for a quick dip into the social media and nonprofit stream and found a couple of hot conversations.  Enjoy!  

Why Non-Profits Are So Good at Social Media: Alexandra Samuel of Social Signal has a post over at the Harvard Business School that makes the case that nonprofits have a long history of relationship development and positions them well for social media success.  She summarizes five key lessons from early adopters in the nonprofit sector.  In the comment, there is a hearty debate going on about whether Alexandra's premise is spot on or not.  What's your take?

Early Adoption:  Not Just for Technology:  Amy Sample Ward looks at Louis Gray's early adopter model and wonders if it can be applied to social change work.  There's a lively discussion in the comments.

Change Native to the Digital World:  Lucy Bernholz is for examples of social change organizations that are totally native to the digital world. They were created in and around digital tools and they use these tools to manage their work, communication, programs, fund development - everything.   So, check out her list and if you know of organizations that should be on it, please add to it!

Happy Mother's Day!

I had a lovely surprise this morning!  Flowers, cards, and kisses.  Had a great Mother's Day.

Every year, I send my own mother flowers that also support our local NPR station, WBUR.  I'm one of those people who orders the flowers during the last hour.    This year, somehow the card accompanying the flowers got mixed up.   My mom got a card signed from a strange name saying "Hope this makes it up for it."    So, somewhere out there today, another WBUR's supporter's mother got some flowers signed "Happy Mother's Day from Beth."

Happy Earth Day!

 
Click to see larger image

After many, many years working as an independent consultant out of my home office, there are some wonderful benefits of being in an office - particularly a sense of community. 

The photo above is a series of Earth Day tips that are posted in common areas around the office.  These are two simple tips related to technology:

• Turn your computer off at the end of the day
• Think before your print something out

There are benefits to working remotely, of course, as Rosabeth Moss Kanter points out in her piece, "Stay at Home and Work."  In terms of sustainability, you can reduce your carbon footprint.   There are policies and change management issues around working remotely.   David Neff is wondering how nonprofits handle remote working arrangments, specifically "How do you interact/manage/meet/discipline employees that work from home or even work across the globe?"

The online celebration of Earth Day is in full swing as evidenced by the Google Earth Logo and Twitter hashtag #earthtweet.  Lots of great resources being shared, including using social media to promote sustainability ( see "The 12 Faces of Social Media for Green Marketers and Sellers of Sustainability"

An excellent resource for everything green and nonprofits and tips for celebrating Earth Day, check out GreenNonprofits.   They are encouraging all nonprofits to take the green pledge.  GreenNonprofits is also writing a book and is crowdsourcing the cover art work and title.  Take the quick survey here.

My Earth Day celebration was to take public transit.  But, I've been doing that every day I'm here in Palo Alto or riding a bike as I've decided to go carless.   Aside from the sustainability benefits, I also get exercise.

What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day personally or in your nonprofit's office?

Share My Inauguration

I'm following the inauguration from up here in New England.   

Fellow Bostonian, Gerald Jimenez, from Boston, Massachusetts, is lucky enough to be in Washington, DC.  He is the winner of the “Change Begins With Me” campaign giveaway of two tickets to the Inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama and related Inaugural festivities.  Jimenez was randomly chosen out of 12,000 entries that visited the Case Foundation’s web site and made a personal commitment by finishing the sentence in 250-characters or less, “Change Begins With Me, I commit to…”

His submission was, “To empower. To change. To motivate. Giving all the heart, all the creativity, the resources and the life long education invested in me towards the development of inner city youth through the arts.”

McCormick Foundation, a large non-profit in Chicago, has a project where they made it possible for 24, 5th & 6th graders from one of the roughest Chicago neighborhoods to be in DC last weekend and this week attend the inauguration. The kids are blogging and vlogging at ShareMy Inauguration in hopes to be a voice for all those kids who weren’t able to travel out there.  This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for these kids and you can feel their excitement in their videos. They ran into ABC’s Robin Roberts yesterday and she let them interview her.

I'll be watching the TV, but also monitoring Twitter and especially those who are live tweeting from Washington, DC.

Obamacon Me!

Photo in flickr

Could not resist! You can "Obamacon" yourself here.

Hat Tip to Michele Martin for the link!

Happy Holidays!

We made this last year and it has continued to be one of my favorite videos of the kids and appropriate for the Holiday Season! A special holiday greeting to the readers of this blog and many thanks for all your insightful comments, support, and just being there!

Expect some light blogging in the next few days.

Blogging and Streaming My Layover in Heathrow

Expect light blogging this week because I have no idea whether or not I will have decent Internet access. I'm doing a whirlwind in 7 days - Boston - Miami - London - Romania - Miami - Boston. I'm leading some workshops and doing some presentations and other work.

I left Boston on Thursday for Miami for a meeting on Friday. I left Miami on Friday evening at 8:50 PM and landed at Heathrow 11:00 AM local time, on hour delayed. Since I had an eight hour lay over in Heathrow, I decided to book a Yotel. for a shower, nap, and wifi. It was worth it. The only mistake I made is that the transit between terminals is confusing if you are jet lagged, sleep deprived traveler. I was not able to figure out via the Internet the fastest way to travel between terminals and I did not account for flight delays.

I arrived in Terminal 5, but Yotel was in Terminal 4. I was told there was no bus and had to take the underground which took too long. There was a bus. So, make sure you take the bus.

The Yotel was great - I got a shower, nap, and wifi. I was able to call home quickly with my n95. After my time was up, I took the bus back to Terminal 5 and eat something and then boarded my flight to Romania.

If you ever go to Romania, and need to take taxi into town - don't let any "official tax drivers" fool you. There are different rates, etc. Take a yellow cab and look at the rates posted on the doors and pick the cheapest.

I'm finally at my hotel. It is 2:00 am Romania time, but 7:00 PM east coast time. I'm gearing up for a workshop on Monday. So I have Sunday to recover and prepare.

I am really curious to see if the profiles that exist in the US about Web 2.0 show up here in Romania or they are different. 

Any advice?

Cracking the Boys Club in Web 2.0: Ten Women Pioneers of Web 2.0

Allyson Kapin has a post on the Huffington Post called Cracking the Boys Club  that shares her top 10 women pioneers of Web 2.0.  I'm honored to be on the list along with some awesome women.

• Gina Bianchini, CEO and Founder of Ning
• Mary Hodder, Founder of Dabble.com and VP of Product Development, Apisphere
• Tara Hunt, Co-Founder Citizen Agency and Citizen Space
• Sandy Jen, Co-Founder of Meeboo
• Lynne D. Johnson, Director of Social Media, Fast Company
• Charlene Li, Consultant and Blogger
• Susan Mernit, Co-Founder, People's Software
• Rebecca Moore, Director of Outreach, Google Earth
• Rashmi Sinha, Co-Founder SlideShare

I was also interviewed by The .Org Blog this week.

RIP: Treo

I've had treos since they first came out.  My latest one was about three years old and it just died.  It won't boot up, keeps looping, and both the hard/soft boot won't work.   Time for a new phone/Internet PDA.

I must have qwerty keyboard as I can type really fast that way.   Suggestions?

UPDATE:  Some suggestions from Twitter

Rob Ashton HTC TyTN II

William Nourse: Helio Ocean http://www.helio.com

Nokia E71 from Joshua Gunn

Peter Campbell - First Android Phone

Susannah Porter -
 

 

More vacation responders ...

I thought this vacation message from Holly Ross was the best ever.  But Thomas Taylor just forwarded me one that tops that ...

-----------------

Sorry, I missed your e-mail, but I am not in the office

due to an "emergency."

I received a call from MADONNA that she needed to see me

immediately.  I assumed that she came to her senses and

wanted to hire me as one of her (18) dancers for

the "Sticky & Sweet Tour."



But instead, she took off to Kaballah Summer Camp and I am

babysitting the  kids for a few days.

Ballet for Lourdes @ 10:00am, soccer practice for Rocco @

1:30pm & then poor David found out that Madonna once dated

Michael Jackson and we have a 4:00pm therapy

appointment....just to be proactive.



I will be back to my home stage on

Monday, July 21st and until then will have limited service

to e-mail. If you can wait for my return, I will contact

you on Tuesday.

Can't Blog Without A Roof ...

You might notice that I haven't been blogging at my usual frenetic pace, cranking out blog posts many times a day.   You may also wondering why I have this YouTube music video from Parliament singing "Tear the Roof Off the Sucker."

In my high school days, Parliament was what my friends and I listened to.  (I was a little weird in that I would alternated between "We Want the Bump" and Beethoven's 9th Symphony, but I'm getting distracted.)  I was trying to find some image, some song, some metaphor to express what happened to me today that has disrupted my work flow ...

Let's just say that I live in an old house, it's been raining like crazy, and there appears to be a hole in the roof.

Let your imagination do the rest.  Oh, no, gotta empty the buckets ...

Is (insert name of favorite web service) down or is it just me?

Okay, how many times have you thought that when you tried to access a site and you got that message.  Now, here's a way to check it.  It's called "Down for everyone or is it just me?"  I really needed to end today with a little fun.

An Interview of Me in GEO Magazine in Italy - Anyone Understand Italian?

GEO magazine writer Marta Mainieri did an interview with me recently for the magazine.   She just skyped me to let me know it's on newstands now (in Italy).  Anyone speak or read Italian?

Allison Fine asks, "Is it time for nonprofit leaders to extol the virtue of government service?"

Flickr Photo by Dogs New Cloths

Allison Fine, who authored "Social Citizens", a paper recently released by The Case Foundation on the intersection of Millennials, social change and social media, wonders whether  it time for nonprofit leaders to extol the virtue of government service?

In a piece that Allison Fine has just posted on the Social Citizens blog she points out a hidden cost to the explosion in the number of and interest in causes the past decade that can be summed up by one statistic:  A study by the International City Manager’s Association in 2006 found that only 13% of professional local government managers today are under 40.  In the early 1970s nearly 71% were 40 or younger.

We have been witness to an explosion in interest in volunteerism and nonprofit careers, while interest in government careers has waned. Elected officials and other community leaders regularly laud the importance of the nonprofit sector … but is it time for nonprofit leaders to extol the virtue of government service?

The Social Citizens paper is focused on Millennials (ages 15-29) a super-sized generation in terms of their total number, their passion for causes and their use of social media. Their size and passion are mirrored by the increase in size and relevance of the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. As I say in the paper, young people are marinating in causes as volunteers, nonprofit careerists, and social entrepreneurs.

I told a friend of mine about this statistic the other day and she said, “Of course, who wants to work for government, it sucks!”

What Allison asks is this really a problem or just a reflection of a changing notion of "service" in our society? Go read the piece and respond at the Social Citizens Blog.

Web 2.0 Ennui Season? no? or yes? Is it just me?

Confession.    Before I focused on music performance in college, I was on a path of creative writing and poetry.   I took a course on French poetry and Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil was on the reading list.  He is one of my favorite poets and one of my favorite poems is from that volume, it is called "To the Reader." 

Baudelaire famously ends that  first poem in this volume by personally addressing his readers in the creation of his poetry: "Hypocrite reader--my likeness--my brother!"   Hmm .. 19th century social media? 

The poem is rather dark and has some disturbing imagery.   Baudelaire points out that  boredom or disinterest is the worst of the evils:

There is one more ugly, more wicked, more filthy!
Although he makes neither great gestures nor great cries,
He would willingly make of the earth a shambles
And, in a yawn, swallow the world;

He is Ennui!

Fifteen years ago, I was the community builder for an online network of artists.  The Web just hit the mainstream and people were giddy with excitement.  From October until June - we played and played and played. Then summer hit.  A colleague from a performance artist group in NYC posted a discussion thread with the title "Web Ennui."   It was about what happens when the early adopters fascination with a new technology wears off or maybe it was that were spending too much time online and needed to turn off the damn computer and go outside. 

It stuck with me because I connected it to Baudelaire.

I don't have blogging Ennui (or as Steve Rubel calls it "Bored 2.0") - but after a very hectic travel season, I'm enjoying the fact that I don't have to hop a plane for several weeks.    But I still feel like the end of every June is Web Ennui sets in a for a week or two.    Is it just me?

The Make Something Happen Blog, from the Point

Alex Steed is the blogger at Make Something Happen Blog, the blog of the Point.  Alex is doing interviews, articles, and roundups.   I was just interviewed!

From The Point's About page:

The Point is a website for organizing group actions.  The Point can be used for:

• Activism: Advocating an issue on The Point is different from organizing a traditional petition or boycott -- on The Point, no one acts until enough people agree to take action to force a solution to the problem.
• Fundraising: Unlike traditional fundraisers, on The Point, no one parts with a dime until enough people pledge funds to reach the tipping point.
• Creating a Social Contract: Some group activities require safety in numbers to be worthwhile. The Point lets you form a contract with your peers that no one is obligated to uphold until the tipping point is reached.

I haven't had time to explore it - anyone else?  Your thoughts?

New Tools, New Audiences NDN Event In DC on May 9th

I'm leading a session at NDN Event the week after next in DC. Are you planning to go?  Let me know.

Book Giveaway: Mobilizing Generation 2.0

Ben Rigby of Mobile Voter, and the folks from Rock the Vote have just written a new book, Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Web 2.0 Technologies to Recruit, Organize and Engage Youth.   I haven't received my copy yet, so no review (yet), but Ben has kindly offered to give me a book for a book giveaway.   Here's the table of contents if you want to learn more about what's inside.    (I contributed a big picture essay in one of the chapters)

(On a related note, I also got word from Allison Fine that she has released a new paper commissioned by The Case Foundation  about the emergence of Millennials, 15-29 year olds, as activists.  It is about how these young people are using all of their widgets and gadgets for causes.  Here's more about what's in the paper and what isn't.  You can grab the paper from this cool Sprout Widget.)

Anyway, I'm giving away a copy of Ben's book.  Here's how it will work.

1.)  Leave a comment in this post about why you want the book and how you might use it
2.)  Leave your comment before May 9th, 2008 at midnight EST
3.)  We'll pick a winner by random and announce the following week

Deliberative Democracy at Work in North Quabbin, Massachusetts

Photo from Audience Works

Hands Across North Quabbin Network (HANDS) serves the nine-town North Quabbin region of north central Massachusetts and is a deliberative democracy project that seeks to bring members of the nine town North Quabbin community together to form a solution to community problems.  Many local communities often can't get to solutions because of attack politics that divide people,wastes energy,keeps many people from running for elected office, builds cynicism and allows pressing problems to go unsolved. To reduce polarization and strengthen local democracy, HANDS is experimenting with methods to help residents with competing ideas find common ground over how to address the tough problems they care most about, like education, jobs, housing, crime, health care, land-use and taxes.

The Hands project is a top 20 finalist for the Make It Your Own Awards, a grants program that forgoes the traditional grant application model to embrace a more grassroots, "citizen-centered" approach to seeking funding. After selecting the top 20 ideas from an initial 100 announced this past October, the Case Foundation is now inviting America to get online and vote for the Final Four, each of whom will be awarded an additional $25,000 in grant dollars to help realize their dreams.

Voting is happening online at www.miyo.casefoundation.org/vote.

Here's but one example of how this process works.   On Saturday May 3, from 10:00 to 4:00 at Mahar High School in Orange MA, HANDS will hold an "Action Forum" where participants will first identify a priority community problem, then spend the rest of the day developing the rough outlines of an action plan for addressing the underlying causes of that problem. Everyone living in the North Quabbin or affiliated with organizations serving the North Quabbin is welcome to attend. 
   

HANDS is sponsored by six North Quabbin organizations: The Ralph C. Mahar Regional School District; Athol-Royalston Regional School District; the Athol Area Interfaith Clergy Association; Orange Ministerial Association; Athol Lions Club; and the Institute for Community Building. HANDS was founded by representatives of these organizations who saw a crying need to revitalize the North Quabbin region's democracy so that it has a stronger capacity to meet the increasingly complex challenges our area is facing and is likely to face in the future.


The Case Foundation selected HANDS' Deliberative Democracy Project from a nationwide pool of nearly 5,000 applications evaluated not only on subject matter, but on their strength as examples of "citizen-centered" change. All top 20 finalists have already received $10,100 and one year's worth of counsel from a Case Foundation Social Investment Manager.
   
"The Make It Your Own Awards" said HANDS Network Coordinator Mark Shoul, "has really helped make possible the HANDS founder's idea of revitalizing our region's democracy. Not only will our project improve the community, but it will provide a chance for citizens to come together to make a difference as a group. We truly appreciate the Case Foundation's help with this project and their belief in our ability to make it happen.  We're excited to keep building on the lessons we've learned about gaining community support for our efforts."

Do you have something similar in your community?  How does it work?  What are the secrets to success to finding a solution that works for all?

Heads Up: The Week Ahead ..

It's been a crazy month of being on the road, workshops, keynotes, and conferences. I've been behind in posting slides and notes from sessions here and many are in draft and a flood will appear shortly. Then, I'm off for a week for a brief break. So there will be lighter blogging except for a few pre-planned posts and perhaps some quick notes about what I'm learning about the N95-3 video camera.

RIP: Ergo Keyboard - 1997-2008

Today my 11 year old keyboard died. (Full body view here) I'm devastated.  If you look closely, you'll see the coffee stains.  And, my panic button.   The letters had worn off.  Most importantly - I can't type as fast (I do like 100 words a minute on it).   

I got the keyboard after experiencing some carpal tunnel issues when I learned how to hand code HTML and was coding for hours a day.  I sure hope there is a replacement out there ...  It was called the "natural keyboard" from Microsoft.

I also had a catastrophic computer crash which required wiping the hard drive and reinstalling windows (rebuilding the RAID array too).   While a pain, everything was backed up.   This happens every time I'm about to do an important preso and I take it as a good omen.

And I really wish we had freegeek here in Boston to recycle it.

 

Beth Dunn is a Tech Star!

Last month I got a chance to hang out with nonprofit tech blogger Beth Dunn in Woods Hole.    She's been honored as a tech start at @bar.  Congrats!

Open Source Your Love: Geek Candy Hearts Messages

I had it all planned.  I was going to blog the handmade Valentine's Day Card that I scanned and uploaded into Flickr - to wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day.   And to remind you that there is still time to make a donation to A Day for Hearts Congential Hearts Defects Awareness Day or another charity of your choice.  (Don't see your charity listed, well go promote over here.)

Or send some geek love from NTEN.  I was gonna take a trip down memory lane and point you to this hilarious Web2.0 Valentine that Alex and Rob created lat year.   I was going to rehash how to quantify love ..   But I just couldn't resist "Open Source Your Love."

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ironweed: Austin Barbecue

\

During all this, I was in Austin, TX for the Legal Services Tech Conference.   So was Holly Ross from NTEN.  Corey P and his wife, Katie, found out via Twitter that we were in town so we met up for some Barbecue.  Yummy. One thing that Corey said to me was that he waited until the last minute to donate.  He told me that he liked that feeling of helping with the surge.   I didn't orchestrate this.