Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media

Guest Post by Michaela Hackner: Community Matters Even At SXSW

Note from Beth:  Every now and then, I get asked when did you first discover the power of the social web?  I actually have a repertoire of stories, but one of them is about Michaela Hackner (Kalabird.)   I connected with her through her amazing photos of Cambodia on Flickr when I was covering the Cambodian blogosphere for Global Voices over five years ago.

Somewhere around 2006 or 2007, I got a call from Michaela asking for advice on a career path for Nonprofit Technology.  I spent some time on the phone answering questions, referring resources,  and later introduced her to colleagues.   

In 2008, I had my first opportunity to speak on a panel at SXSW called "Pimp My Nonprofit" with Ed Schipul as the moderator. We had to replace one of the speakers and I recommended Michaela. She did a fantastic job.   At this year's SXSW, I was invited to participate on a flash panel about women and technology conferences which ended up being about mentoring.  I used the example of recommending a Michaela, relative newcomer to the nonprofit technology field at the time,for a SXSW panel. 

So, it is with a great pleasure that Michaela shares some of her experience and takeaways from this year's SXSW.

Andrew, Bill, and I just got back from the South by Southwest Interactive Festival, where we spent nearly a week drinking from the proverbial technology innovation firehose. We attended numerous panels, connected with colleagues and friends on nonprofit technology and social good, and had skillets of queso in between. We heard a lot about the use of crowdsourcing, the latest Twitter apps, and why content strategy is so important. We also "checked in" using FourSquare and Gowalla everywhere.

But beyond all of the hype and noise, the most dominant theme I keep coming back to is that community is and always will be King. Even if you have the most awesome web site, campaign, or cause out there, you need a thoughtful and dedicated community behind it in order for it to be successful.

Both online and offline, communities are not only the way we identify ourselves, but more importantly, they are the most authentic and powerful vehicle for change.  Our communities vet good ideas, apply the "trust" layer, and motivate us to take real action — from donating to becoming an advocate. It is the groundswell of communities that provides the momentum and sustainability for social change.

This week has reminded me that the power and benefits of getting communities together in person shouldn't be overlooked.  We are all part of several communities in our own lives — some we connect with regularly, others maybe every few months. Some may exist solely online. South by Southwest reinforced the true value of connecting like-minded groups in person — particularly in our field. It will not only strengthen pre-existing ties, but that real-time collaboration and connection will also lead to innovation and initiate numerous trajectories for social good.

And, it's amazing what we can accomplish when we get together. For example, through a Twitter campaign during the conference, Mark Horwath raised $50,000 for his organization InvisiblePeople.tv to help promote awareness of homelessness in America. During a panel on fundraising, Donors Choose raised enough money to fund a music classroom project in Austin. Other panels on social good explored crowdsourcing ideas to change the world, and brought folks together during the CauseLabs to brainstorm offline solutions to ending hunger in America. Many of these examples leveraged online network lessons, however, the follow-through and enthusiasm around them was fostered by in-person connections.

Human contact leverages passion that sometimes gets lost online. It re-energizes and inspires. It reminds us why we do what we do. And am I ever energized.

My first South by Southwest experience was three years ago, when I wandered from panel to panel, seeking like-minded folks, intent on using technology for good. I came across very few and was slightly discouraged that the groups that mattered most weren't tapping into the valuable information generated by the conference.

Two years ago I was a panelist on one of the few nonprofit technology panels, "Pimp My Nonprofit." A few of us got together to talk about nonprofit technology in the hopes of generating more interest from our community and broadening the focus of the festival. We received a lot of great feedback and the idea took.

This year there was an entire conference track dedicated to social good. In the maelstrom of consumerism and high tech gadgetry, the idea of changing the world bubbled to the top.  Even if people weren't nonprofit technologists, many were still focused on making the world a greener, more diverse, and selfless place. The positive intentions from folks were heartening and awe-inspiring, and contagious. I felt honored to be part of such an amazing group of people using their awesome technology powers for good. And, being there in person allowed me to build new relationships with other changemakers, and further cement the connections I had within the NPTech community. I am ready to do big things, help people, and make some real strides this year. I know my dreams are possible because of everyone else I met who is equally committed to those goals.


Together we can do it.  We will use technology to stay in touch and collaborate on ideas. Hopefully, just as our passion starts to dwindle, we'll find ourselves in the same room again, sharing examples and learnings, promoting the causes we care about, and collaborating on how we can heal this world a little bit more each day. And that will make all the difference.

Michaela Hackner is a senior project manager at Forum One.  This blog post was originally published on her blog.

Congrats Mark Horvath & Invisible People TV for Pepsi SXSW Challenge Win

Mark Horvath, known as "HardlyNormal" on Twitter and who is a tireless advocate for the cause of homelessness, was the winner of the SXSW Pepsi Refresh Challenge.  Gary Vee, a social media celebrity champion and many others, helped this cause win the contest and receive a grant of $50,000 for Invisible People TV.

Mark uses social media to tell the story of homeless people in America. He plans to use the grant to create a training program to teach homeless people to use social media tools to tell their own story. As his celebrity champion, Gary Vee, says in this video, having homeless people use social media to leverage their situation is a powerful idea.

The SXSW Pepsi Fresh Challenge matched three different causes with three social media rock stars.  The rules were simple, the winner who got the most retweets of a unique tag won. Gary Vee used the tag RefreshGary as part of the session hashtag which was certainly helped, although the rules only counted a specific user's retweet once within a two-hour period.

Social media celebrity charity endorsements with social media rock stars helped raised the visibility of the contest and as a by-product, the different causes.  I think it is important for the contest design to think about sustainability, longer term results, and doing no harm to charity.   I think what propelled Mark's success are the very principles that Gary Vee lives and breathes everyday and writes about in his book, Crush It:

• Passion:  You can hear it when Mark talks about his issue, you can see in his tweets, and in everything he does to raise our awareness of homelessness.  He doesn't give up.   I had the opportunity to watch him work first hand as he gave pizza for some of Austin's homeless outside the bars where other SXSW attenders were having a good time at parties.

• Community Builder:  Mark never pitches his cause when he first meets you.  He doesn't pitch. He tries to help you.  He reciprocates, he listens.  He has built a supportive network of people who help him fuel his cause.   He knows how to empower people in his network as well as say thank you
  

During SXSW, Mark was doing interviews in the Beacon Nonprofit Lounge. I was honored that he asked me for an interview and even more honored that Debra Askanase was on the room to live blog the answers.

I sent a note thanking Debra for her post and we had a quick email. She shared a wonderful story about yet another one of the wonderful people in Mark's Network, Jessica Gottlieb

She's quite a powerful force.  She tweeted last night something like "if you want to talk to me tonight, you'll have to use the hashtag #refreshgary."

I thought it was such a great idea I told her so and tweeted: "I love that @JessicaGottlieb says "If you want to talk to me tonight you'll need to use #refreshgary." I'll ask the same, pls. Good cause."

She responded to my later tweet to her pointing out that people could only tweet the hashtag once every hour or so: "@askdebra yep. but there's one hour left and I have 13,000 followers. I'd like as many replies as possible."

Then she tweeted to me: "@askdebra I'm totally aware that I'm spamming, I've been so impacted by @invisiblepeople that I'll ask forgiveness of my followers tomorrow."

Jessica shares how she helped in the contest. 

Conclusion

There are trade offs that happen when a cause, free agent fundraiser or nonprofit participates in one of these "vote for me contests" sponsored by a corporate brand.  People are smart enough to know what is authentic and what is not.  And, sometimes cause marketing from brands can get in the way of building a passionate and committed community around a cause, particularly when heartfelt thank yous are edited out.  Nonetheless, this is a victory for Mark's cause!

Congrats!  Applause!  Hi Fives!  Hugs!

A Few Reflections from SXSW Crowdsourcing Panel

Crowdsourcing

View more presentations from Beth Kanter.

I was honored to design and facilitate a panel at SXSW on Sunday called "Crowd Sourcing Innovative Social Change."  The panelists were Holly Ross, Amy Sample Ward, David Neff, and Kari Dunn Saratovsky. We were also very lucky that Claire Sale volunteered to be our Twitter advocate who monitored the Twitter stream and verbalized important points and insights.  

We addressed two content areas:

• The art and science of crowd sourcing for social change
• Next practices in integrating social media for program delivery that leads to social outcomes

We used a broad definition of crowd sourcing, simply stated as:

Getting ideas, content, volunteer tasks, money, or other things from a wide swath of people. And that’s good thing for solving complex social problems with innovative ideas.  During the session, it was pointed out that crowd sourcing is a way to people, organizations, and communities work together for mutual good, and without competing.

The second topic started percolating at last year's SXSW Social Media for Social Good BBQ and a question - so where are the good examples and techniques?  And, of course, crowd sourcing is a technique being used across the social sector for different goals.  So, we decided to "eat our own dog food" that is model the use of crowd sourcing to design and implement the panel.   Amy Sample Ward and Holly Ross came up with the "Social Media for Social Good Case Study Contest" and did all the heavy lifting to make it happen.

For the Case Study Contest, we used a submission form and then asked our networks and communities to participate by submitting examples of how they have integrated social media into program delivery.   We also asked the community to vote and rate the examples.  Then, we asked the panelists to pick a few to share during the panel.  These were (as captured by blogger Marcia Stephanek):

• Open Green Map, offered up by Holly Ross, helps communities map their eco-friendly spots, whether it's a bike rack or a solar-heated apartment complex or a public herb garden. Using this open source collaborative platform, the Manhattan-based nonprofit has so far engaged more than 600 communities in 55 countries in creating citizen maps to catalyze new environmental projects, large and small. The maps are made by community members. OGM helps.
  
  
• Seattle Free School, suggested by Amy Sample Ward, uses social media to organize classes and teach students. “The owners found each other via social media and the project was born from the interaction,” Ward said. “This is ‘for the community by the community’ education and engages the best local experts to share their knowledge and experience for free."
  
  
• Invisible People, an nonprofit that uses video storytelling to help de-stigmatize homeless people. "Our hope is that you'll get mad enough to do something," its Website reads. Invisible People uses crowd sourcing to select the best stories and interviews.

My goal for the session was to create a fusion between the traditional talking head panel, followed by Q&A and a core conversation.  I was also wanted to interject crowd sourcing from the audience in the room or via the hashtag on the Twitter (crowdx) in real time.   So, armed with an improvised mobile wireless mic, I used an Oprah style facilitation.  So after introducing the panelists and topic, I quickly left the platform/stage and roamed the audience to ask them questions or share stories related to the topic. 

So, for example, after our panelists briefly shared the above examples, I asked the audience for other examples.   A funny thing happened.   I knew a number of folks in the room and I was staring them down, hoping they would speak up first.  I think with Oprah style "person on the street" type interview - you want to begin with someone you already know, perhaps seed a few opening stories.  

I noticed  the brilliant Andy Carvin in the front row and looked him straight in the eye and he waved me off.  Then I asked Claire Sale if anyone had offered an example on Twitter.  Claire, who didn't know Andy, said "Someone named Andy Carvin mentioned that I asked each of the panelists to create an ignite style presentation cited Project NOAH. I told the audience that I was hoping he would speak and Andy shared a few more examples, captured here by Marcia Stepanek.

I was modeling crowd sourcing and my new definition of an expert:  Your expertise is in your network.  I wanted to make sure that the backchannel was less of a place for snark, but more a place to capture ideas, insights, and resources.   I kept encouraging people to add their urls or best resources into the stream, add insights, or make corrections.  

Ben Rigby, who was also in the room, was testing an awesome new twitter tool he created called "Tweet Notes" which helps you summarize the tweets, add the most tweeted links, and most frequent participants.  We had a total of 1500 tweets during our panel and this tool made it easy to sort through.   Peggy from Wiser Earth went through the resulting transcript and pulled out some of the key tweet points and users.  We were also lucky to have Sarah Davies live blogging notes as well.

In order to pull this off (and I think it worked out), it required some preparation before the session.  We had several phone calls and collaborated using a google document to capture notes and tasks.   The first layer of preparation was the content.  I created a script of conversation starters/questions about crowd sourcing and using social media for program delivery.  I asked each panelist to create an ignite style presentation to answer the questions briefly.  Amy Sample Ward shared her thoughts in a blog post along with her presentation.

Then I reviewed each slide deck and created a compilation (see above) and developed the final script.  The only rule I followed was that not every panelist had to answer every question.  I identified a person to kick off the answer.  I wanted to leave space to improvise question probes and pull in people from the audience or encourage people to put ideas into Twitter.  We had too much content, so next time I'd only prepare half as many questions. 

I also prepared a list of urls for the Twitter Advocate, Claire Sale, to share in the stream to model sharing of resources.   I also promoted the session to people in my network who were not attending SXSW to participate via the hashtag, an example of real time web.

What would I do differently for next time?

• Get a hand wireless mic
• Get to the room early and rearrange the furniture to accommodate better moving around during the discussion.  The seats were set up theatre style and 15 minutes before the panel, the room was packed.
• Have fewer discussion questions - focus on one topic, not two
• Have a brief over that lays out the definition and concept models
• Have a few "plants" people willing to share a story or resource or disagree with a panelist come early in the session
• Test Guy Kawasaki's 30% rule for Q&A and eye contact tip.

What I do the same?

• Have brilliant panelists like Amy, Holly, Kari, and David - they truly made it work!
• Have a brilliant audience
• Prepare enough to be able to improvise and riff but not  too much

My biggest regret is that I didn't get a chance to give shout outs to every single person in the room who had something to offer and particularly to those folks who I know and love and couldn't get to them because of the layout of the room.

Holly Ross created a page over at the WeAreMedia wiki summarizing the posts and links.   If you were in the room or not or have additional thoughts on crowd sourcing, please add them to the WeAreMedia Wiki. 

If you were in the session or participating through Twitter, I'd love to know how it could have been improved for next time?

Update: 

Paul Massey:  How Crowdsourcing Adds Value

What Gives:  Challenges, Tips, and Lessons from Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing Our SXSWi Panel on Crowdsourcing Innovative Social Change

I'm moderating a panel at SXSWi called "Crowdsourcing Innovative Social Change." The panelists include Amy Sample Ward, Holly Ross, David Neff, and Kari Dunn Saratovsky.

Everywhere you turn, you're hearing about social media. Especially when it comes to fundraising.  We know that social media is good for a lot more than raising money.  We know that social media can be used to change the world.  That's why we're asking you to share your case study so we can feature it on our SXSWi panel.

We're looking for stories and examples of how nonprofits have leveraged social media tools in  their program work. Have you used social media as part of your volunteer or board recruitment strategy, outreach or educational program delivery, crowdsourcing ideas for program development, professional development or integrated in other areas of your nonprofit's work?  We want to know about it

And the best part - We'll choose three case studies to be featured at our SXSWi session and, of course, add the information to the WeAreMedia Wiki.

Submit your case study here

Last Chance to Vote for Nonprofit SXSW Panels: Closes September 4th

The SXSW Interactive Festival (scheduled March 12-16, 2010 in Austin, Texas) is a mega huge social media industry event.  The final program is done through a combination of an open submission and community voting process.   The panel picker process just opened - so you can vote yes or no for the panels you think are worthy of being on the program or not until September 4th.

I did a roundup of nonprofit panel proposals a few weeks back and wanted to give you an updated list.

The nonprofit presence at SXSW has been growing steadily over the past couple of years.  In 2008, I was on one of the few nonprofit panels on the agenda.  It was organized by Ed Schipul.  At the end of that panel, we all hoped there would be a larger nonprofit presence on the agenda for this 2009.    And yes, indeed, in 2009 there were many more panel proposals about or by folks who work with nonprofits and voting.   Last year, many more nonprofit panels made it onto the agenda and there was even a nonprofit lounge hosted by BeaconFire.  

So, let's get out the nonprofit vote for panels at SXSW!

Last year, there was an event called "Social Media for Social Good" organized by Jeff Pulver that prompted quite a rich discussion on whether social media for fundraising and marketing can effect real on the ground change. 

These ideas inspired the SXSW panel proposal I submitted:

Crowdsourcing for Innovative Social Change
Social media builds buzz and raises money, but what about real, on-the-ground change? The Social Change Challenge will crowdsource innovative ideas from nonprofits to change the world. We'll share big ideas for using social media for nonprofit program delivery and some good tips for crowdsourcing for social change.

The panelists include Holly Ross, NTEN;  David Neff, American Cancer Society;  Kari Dunn Saratovsky; Case Foundation; Amy Sample Ward, Netsquared; and Joe Solomon.   And like last year's ROI Poetry Slam, our session will be interactive, thought-provoking, and dare I say, fun!  In addition, there's be lots of learning shared freely.

Jordan Viator invited me to be a panelist on this panel and I agreed because David Neff is a fellow panelist and I bet Jordan will make him wear an apron!   Also rockstar, Carie Lewis, from the Human Society is participating. 

The Real House Wives of Social Media
You've heard the buzz around how nonprofit organizations and corporations are using social media for social good. Now hear from the "real housewives of social media" who are driving successful online campaigns, as well as others who are helping lead the social media revolution.

So, yes, please vote for these panels, but  .....  There were over 2200 panel ideas submitted and they only have space for 300. Since you can vote for as many panels as you want, why don't use some of our mutual leverage and vote for each other!

Advanced Brand Monitoring: Let the Haters Hate: This panel will get into the whys and hows to monitor your brand in a social world. you'll hear case studies of social media disasters and how they could have been prevented, as well as how brands have dealt with potential PR nightmares. Twitterstorm, anyone?  Carie Lewis.

Service 2.0: Evaluating Next-Gen Volunteer Opportunity Platforms: Forget about the high school community service club:  The next generation of volunteering platforms is here -- from Google's All for Good to the President's Serve.gov. But can they also combat apathy? We'll speak with experts about recent efforts to revolutionize the service space and see what gaps remain.  Submitted by Michael Silberman.

Change: Examining Competitions For Social Change:  Organizations, foundations, even individuals are creating social innovation competitions, hoping to drive social change projects and solutions into the global marketplace. What are these new competitions about—are they working? How do we—innovators, entrepreneurs—know what's going to make real-world impact and where do we start? Let's discuss: join us! Submitted by Amy Sample Ward.

Community Funded Reporting: The news industry is dying but in its wake are new business models to support investigative journalism. One of these is "community funded reporting" which is being pioneered by Spot.us but is happening around the country by various individuals. What is it? How does it work? What are its pitfalls? Where does it surpass the traditional advertising model? This will be a conversation that explores the changing media landscape and how the web can rise to the challenge of supporting our communities and their information needs. Submitted by Dave Cohn.

Evolution, Creation and Extinction (of the organization) Organizations, political campaigns, newspapers. While they're scrambling to figure out "new media" alternate entities spring up around them that exist only online. Is one better than the other? Are older groups evolving quickly enough? Is it better to start from scratch? Will new "online" groups drive their predecessors to extinction?  Submitted by Ted Fickes

Networking Good: How to Win Money and Mobilize People!  Social networks are transforming how people support causes, how ideas are shared and how nonprofits raise money. Today’s online communities go beyond posting photos or finding dates—they are building social capital, increasing awareness and raising millions of charitable dollars. Learn from innovators how to leverage the web for good!  Submitted by Michael Smith.

Can Double Clicking Save the World? Sl’ack-Ti-vism. Noun. Taking action for social change without lifting a finger. As the latest technology allows people to “engage” from their computers/phones rather than getting their hands dirty IRL, will this impact the future of volunteerism? A panel of experts will debate the pros & cons of couch potato activism. Submitted by Jacob Colker.

Digital Protests This session will explore the role that social media plays in protests, through the lens of recent events like Iran and the American health care debate. The panel will cover the various tools (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook) that are being used to elevate protests, examine the benefits and drawbacks of the internet's involvement and whether social media makes protests more or less efficient, and discuss the issue of authenticity in information dissemination.  Submitted by Ramya Raghavan.

The Socially Conscious Geek: Makin' Money While Doin' Good:  Can you make a living as a geek without sacrificing your ideals? Definitely. These pros have carved out a niche working with mission-driven, ethical clients in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors – and want to show you how to bring your values to work while keeping a roof over your head.  Submitted by Leif Utne.

Non-Profits and Social Media: Not the Usual Suspects:  A panel of 5 nonprofit leaders, social media monsters, and how they leverage their social networks, to advance their respective organizations missions, collaborate with one another and use social media for social good.  Submitted by David Neff.

Handheld Awesome Detectors: Sustainable Apps  Making more sustainable choices is getting easier with help ubiquitous information, thanks to passionate geeks. Check in with the game changers beautifully hacking tech to fight climate change. Learn direct what it takes to change behavior at the plug, grocery, sushi bar, and tractor. Submitted by Rachel Weidinger.

Connecting Communities for the Common Good: Owning Online Organizing When community transcends “place,” how do you create dynamic online spaces for activists to connect and take action? How do you use the latest technologies to build active networks and roadmaps for action? How do you balance online action with offline engagement? Come to this session and find out!  Submitted Kari Dunn Saratovsky.

LIVESTRONG: The Lance Armstrong Foundation Takes Advocacy Digital : LIVESTRONG has taken the fight against cancer digital, connecting people and communities to drive social change. Using new media tools, we’re recruiting people around the world to build a grassroots movement to help raise awareness, fund research and end the stigma many cancer survivors face. Come hear how we’re changing the world.  Submitted by Doug Ulman.

Doing More With Less: How Not-for-Profits Leverage Technology for Change:  They've won Webby Awards. The sites attract millions. And the user-adoption numbers are ridiculously high. How is it that not for profits are managing to use communications technologies to rock social change--when they've got pennies to spend? Ami Dar and Nancy Lublin, two social change leaders, present best practices and spot current trends.   Submitted by Nancy Lublin.

Museum APIs: What Are They Good For?  In Museums, context can be hard to come by. We have basic metadata but the richness of object records is so varied that it ultimately limits use of collections information. Cultural institutions are increasingly developing APIs and linked-data repositories. Who are these for? And what can we build with them? Submitted by Piotr Adamczyk. 

Cultivating the Web: Netroots Action for Grassroots Food: The “organic” nature of social media creates fertile ground for activists, but how can online advocacy move beyond e-actions and Facebook Fan pages, translating to local, on-the-ground actions? This panel will explore various innovative and creative uses of social media and online technology to support the local food movement. Submitted by Leslie Hatfield

Social Change for Zero Dollars a Day Using Social Networks: Join SM4SC's co-founders, Gradon Tripp, Meg Fowler and Matthew Knell as they talk through their experiences raising money for needy charities with no fixed budget. Topics covered include pro-social brand development, the real value of social capital and networks and harnessing social media for good. Submitted by Gradon Tripp.

Will Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit? Donations 2.0: Connecting donors directly to the beneficiaries of contributions is a game-changing fundraising strategy. Will traditional nonprofits need to adopt new technologies and fundraising models as donors demand greater accountability for their funds? This vibrant, moderated discussion will include representatives from Kiva, OptINnow, and 2 national advocacy organizations.  By Skylar Woodward.

Generation Y and the Future of Nonprofit Communications  Generation Y engages more frequently and deeply with nonprofits than any previous generation. Bleeding edge technology has allowed for nonprofits to reach millions of people with nonexistent budgets. This panel will go over success stories from nonprofit organizations and professionals. Learn the secrets of social media, interactive technology, and grassroots support.  Submitted by Sarah Davies.

Yoga For Social Networkers: Striking The Right Pose: There are hundreds of social networks, but only one you. Instead of overextending yourself, you need to bring focus on the important things and let go of the rest. Learn how to center your social media practice and balance your online activities. Bring your yoga mat!  Submitted by Amadie Hart.

Networked Love, Bonding, Intimacy: Our Interactive Culture Clouds  Visual mapping of relationship circles: exploring tools for appropriate social technology in conference cultures where work and pleasure meet. Intimate boundaries, mixing business and love and the essentials of compassion in network culture will be explored through interactive visualization Q&A. Fluid dynamics and connections discussed.  submitted by Evonne Heyning

How to Make Your Users Love You We love the energy in the room as people get hands-on experience with boosting community participation, instead of listening to talking heads. Alexandra Samuel (She's put together a fabulous list of panels by women at SXSW)

Open Leadership: The Upside of Giving Up Control: A social or digital strategy often fails because the culture doesn't support it. The rise of participation puts pressure on an organization's traditional way of doing business. A new way of leadership and managing is needed, called "Open Leadership". New technologies make open leadership not only possible, but a necessity.  Submitted by Charlene Li.

Additional panels mentioned in the comments of the earlier roundup are here: 

Who are you? Identity trends on the Social Web

Data, Data, Everywhere: Drowning in a Sea of Analytics  

It's Not All About You: Respecting Your Users

Dinosaur to Digital: A Museum Convergence Success Story

Tools for Good: Design Meets Technology in Service

There's Gold in Those Archives: Long-long-tail filmmaking

Remix Goes Mainstream: Making Mashups Pay 

Doing Good Online: Mobilizing Community Action

Do Cool Kids Leave When The Suits Arrive

The iPhone Volunteer: Can Mobile Devices Save Society?

Design and Development Powers for the Social Good

Tweet-vivors: Social Media Conquers Cancer

Mobile Platform Battle Royale

Evolution, Creation and Extinction (of the organization)

So please go vote! 

Guest Post by Ali Cherry, Beaconfire Consulting: Seven Thoughts on Slacktivism

Photo by Cell105

Note from Beth:  Last week, I hunted down the nonprofit panel proposals for SXSW including one submitted by me on crowdsourcing social change (see the NTEN blog post).   There was a panel on slacktivism which caught my eye and later I spotted this post by Ali Cherry unpacking the concept posted on the Beaconfire Consulting blog.  She graciously allowed me to republish the post.

While it’s not a new term, a few months ago, “slacktivism” became the topic of a firestorm debate among nonprofit advocates, online marketing professionals and social change proponents after a series of media stories including an article by Warren Clements of Toronto’s Globe and Mail, “A slacktivist and his crackberry are seldom parted.” The fire doesn’t seem to be going out any time soon.

While the definition is its own debate topic, most agree that it is the act of doing something that requires very little effort and has only the perceived effect of impact. Or in the words of Urban Dictionary, “the act of participating in obviously pointless activities as an expedient alternative to actually expending effort to fix a problem.”

So do “click actions” like signing a petition and becoming a Facebook fan actually make a difference? We want to get the best and brightest in a room at SXSW and go at it. Help us out and vote for our panel “Can Double-Clicking Change The World? Slacktivism 101″, leave a comment and come to SXSW in March to join the debate with Jacob Colker (Co-Founder and CEO of The Extraordinaries), Premal Shah (President of Kiva) and Jason Cooper (Online Coordinator at Kaboom.org).

And in case you’ve missed the debate,  I’ve done some of the reading for you…in the true spirit of slacktivism.

1. “For [Jacob] Colker, the idea of spare-moment do-gooding is ‘transformative.’ He takes the long view of short attention spans…it’s sometimes hard for people to find the right organizations to volunteer for, and it can be equally hard for organizations to capitalize on the various skills that volunteers bring to the table… But microvolunteerism, Colker says, ‘is perfectly suited for the Millennial Generation. They are used to text messaging, MySpace, Facebook, get-in, get-out, instant gratification. For them, going out and cleaning up a park — that’s not necessarily attractive to them…’” – Linton Weeks
2. “Are the publicity gains gained through this greater reliance on new media worth the organizational losses that traditional activists entities are likely to suffer, as ordinary people would begin to turn away from conventional (and proven) forms of activism (demonstrations, sit-ins, confrontation with police, strategic litigation, etc) and embrace more ’slacktivist’ forms, which may be more secure but whose effectiveness is still largely unproven?” – Evgeny Morozov
3. “Sure, each new technology comes with Faustian ambivalence, but even though the Twitter protesters may not have lead to any substantial change (yet), I’d argue that the worldwide attention (and sympathy) for the cause of the Iranian people was significantly enhanced through the hundreds of thousands of Twitterers who used #iranelection (especially given #CNNfail). Was this ad-hoc Twitter community a political movement? Maybe not. But it politicized and generated social power that can instigate political change.” – Tim Leberecht
4. “These groups will need help to find ways to break down their efforts into bite-size pieces while maintaining the thread of connection between these immediate actions and their intended longer term results. And it is exactly these results that are at risk within the micro-environment. It is quite possible that we will become frantically busy doing a lot of change stuff that does make the doers feel great (which is important ) but doesn’t add up to the systemic social change needed in communities. Does busy mean the same thing as impact?’ – Allison Fine
5. “VolunteerMatch is different from slacktivism services because we’re using technology to help nonprofits and volunteers create enduring relationships based on real-world contributions of time and energy (and often skills as well). Whether these contributions are on-the-ground service roles like working in a soup kitchen or reading, or whether they are “virtual” opportunities like providing Web design or grant writing help from home, the support VolunteerMatch volunteers provide can often be measured in sweat rather than clicks or page views.” – Robert Rosenthal
6. “But we have to recognize that just because someone is using social media as a part of their “strategy” does not automatically mean they are using it strategically. There are ways to waste time with campaigns that, in the end, don’t really bring about social change, but there are ways to waste time with direct mail and organizing rallies too. This flaw is not that the tools are ineffective; it’s rather a misuse and missed opportunity by the organization.” – Kristin Ivie
7. The recipe for effective slacktivism is embracing technology to attract and organize mass amounts of people combined with an authentic belief on the part of the slacktivist and action sponsor that it will make an impact, add in a dose of creativity and recognize that a click is part of a portfolio of other actions – numbers, stories, face to face meetings, etc. – both offline and online. Ideally a click action is used as an entry point for new supporters, or supplemental, and that most people engage in many forms of action when they care about an issue. – Ali Cherry

Don’t forget to vote for our SXSW panel “Can Double-Clicking Change The World? Slacktivism 101″.

Note from Beth:   You can vote for more than one panel.  So, why not lift the collective voices of nonprofits and leave some votes for these other awesome panels while you are there.

Ali Cherry is the Online Campaigns and Marketing Director at Beaconfire Consulting, where she helps nonprofits grow their supporter networks, enhance engagement and convert donors.

Vote and Comment for ALL these Awesome Nonprofit Panels at SXSW!

The SXSW Interactive Festival (scheduled March 12-16, 2010 in Austin, Texas) is a mega huge social media industry event.  The final program is done through a combination of an open submission and community voting process.   The panel picker process just opened - so you can vote yes or no for the panels you think are worthy of being on the program or not until September 4th.

The nonprofit presence at SXSW has been growing steadily over the past couple of years.  In 2008, I was on one of the few nonprofit panels on the agenda.  It was organized by Ed Schipul.  At the end of that panel, we all hoped there would be a larger nonprofit presence on the agenda for this 2009.    And yes, indeed, in 2009 there were many more panel proposals about or by folks who work with nonprofits and voting.   Last year, many more nonprofit panels made it onto the agenda and there was even a nonprofit lounge hosted by BeaconFire.  

So, let's get out the nonprofit vote for panels at SXSW!

Last year, there was an event called "Social Media for Social Good" organized by Jeff Pulver that prompted quite a rich discussion on whether social media for fundraising and marketing can effect real on the ground change.  There's quite a buzz right now about whether or not "Slacktivism" doing activism online, all the time - can effect change.  (There's even a panel proposal for Slacktivism)

These ideas inspired the SXSW panel proposal I submitted:

Crowdsourcing for Innovative Social Change
Social media builds buzz and raises money, but what about real, on-the-ground change? The Social Change Challenge will crowdsource innovative ideas from nonprofits to change the world. We'll share big ideas for using social media for nonprofit program delivery and some good tips for crowdsourcing for social change.

The panelists include Holly Ross, NTEN;  David Neff, American Cancer Society;  Kari Dunn Saratovsky; Case Foundation; Amy Sample Ward, Netsquared; and Joe Solomon.   And like last year's ROI Poetry Slam, our session will be interactive, thought-provoking, and dare I say, fun!  In addition, there's be lots of learning shared freely.

Jordan Viator invited me to be a panelist on this panel and I agreed because David Neff is a fellow panelist and I bet Jordan will make him wear an apron!   Also rockstar, Carie Lewis, from the Human Society is participating. 

The Real House Wives of Social Media
You've heard the buzz around how nonprofit organizations and corporations are using social media for social good. Now hear from the "real housewives of social media" who are driving successful online campaigns, as well as others who are helping lead the social media revolution.

So, yes, please vote for these panels, but  .....  There were over 2200 panel ideas submitted and they only have space for 300.   I just scanned the list to SXSW in search of nonprofit oriented panels (in addition the two I submitted) and found a number of them for your consideration.  Please try to vote for as many nonprofit panels as possible.

(And, if you submitted a nonprofit panel - and I managed to miss it while scanning 2200 in ten minutes - please add the link and description in a comment.  I'll do another Get Out The Nonprofit Vote at SXSW Post and include. I will also be tweeting this post.)

Advanced Brand Monitoring: Let the Haters Hate: This panel will get into the whys and hows to monitor your brand in a social world. you'll hear case studies of social media disasters and how they could have been prevented, as well as how brands have dealt with potential PR nightmares. Twitterstorm, anyone?  Carie Lewis.

Service 2.0: Evaluating Next-Gen Volunteer Opportunity Platforms: Forget about the high school community service club:  The next generation of volunteering platforms is here -- from Google's All for Good to the President's Serve.gov. But can they also combat apathy? We'll speak with experts about recent efforts to revolutionize the service space and see what gaps remain.  Submitted by Michael Silberman.

Change: Examining Competitions For Social Change:  Organizations, foundations, even individuals are creating social innovation competitions, hoping to drive social change projects and solutions into the global marketplace. What are these new competitions about—are they working? How do we—innovators, entrepreneurs—know what's going to make real-world impact and where do we start? Let's discuss: join us! Submitted by Amy Sample Ward.

Community Funded Reporting: The news industry is dying but in its wake are new business models to support investigative journalism. One of these is "community funded reporting" which is being pioneered by Spot.us but is happening around the country by various individuals. What is it? How does it work? What are its pitfalls? Where does it surpass the traditional advertising model? This will be a conversation that explores the changing media landscape and how the web can rise to the challenge of supporting our communities and their information needs. Submitted by Dave Cohn.

Evolution, Creation and Extinction (of the organization) Organizations, political campaigns, newspapers. While they're scrambling to figure out "new media" alternate entities spring up around them that exist only online. Is one better than the other? Are older groups evolving quickly enough? Is it better to start from scratch? Will new "online" groups drive their predecessors to extinction?  Submitted by Ted Fickes

Networking Good: How to Win Money and Mobilize People!  Social networks are transforming how people support causes, how ideas are shared and how nonprofits raise money. Today’s online communities go beyond posting photos or finding dates—they are building social capital, increasing awareness and raising millions of charitable dollars. Learn from innovators how to leverage the web for good!  Submitted by Michael Smith.

Can Double Clicking Save the World? Sl’ack-Ti-vism. Noun. Taking action for social change without lifting a finger. As the latest technology allows people to “engage” from their computers/phones rather than getting their hands dirty IRL, will this impact the future of volunteerism? A panel of experts will debate the pros & cons of couch potato activism. Submitted by Jacob Colker.

Digital Protests This session will explore the role that social media plays in protests, through the lens of recent events like Iran and the American health care debate. The panel will cover the various tools (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook) that are being used to elevate protests, examine the benefits and drawbacks of the internet's involvement and whether social media makes protests more or less efficient, and discuss the issue of authenticity in information dissemination.  Submitted by Ramya Raghavan.

The Socially Conscious Geek: Makin' Money While Doin' Good:  Can you make a living as a geek without sacrificing your ideals? Definitely. These pros have carved out a niche working with mission-driven, ethical clients in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors – and want to show you how to bring your values to work while keeping a roof over your head.  Submitted by Leif Utne.

Non-Profits and Social Media: Not the Usual Suspects:  A panel of 5 nonprofit leaders, social media monsters, and how they leverage their social networks, to advance their respective organizations missions, collaborate with one another and use social media for social good.  Submitted by David Neff.

Handheld Awesome Detectors: Sustainable Apps  Making more sustainable choices is getting easier with help ubiquitous information, thanks to passionate geeks. Check in with the game changers beautifully hacking tech to fight climate change. Learn direct what it takes to change behavior at the plug, grocery, sushi bar, and tractor. Submitted by Rachel Weidinger.

Connecting Communities for the Common Good: Owning Online Organizing When community transcends “place,” how do you create dynamic online spaces for activists to connect and take action? How do you use the latest technologies to build active networks and roadmaps for action? How do you balance online action with offline engagement? Come to this session and find out!  Submitted Kari Dunn Saratovsky.

LIVESTRONG: The Lance Armstrong Foundation Takes Advocacy Digital : LIVESTRONG has taken the fight against cancer digital, connecting people and communities to drive social change. Using new media tools, we’re recruiting people around the world to build a grassroots movement to help raise awareness, fund research and end the stigma many cancer survivors face. Come hear how we’re changing the world.  Submitted by Doug Ulman.

Doing More With Less: How Not-for-Profits Leverage Technology for Change:  They've won Webby Awards. The sites attract millions. And the user-adoption numbers are ridiculously high. How is it that not for profits are managing to use communications technologies to rock social change--when they've got pennies to spend? Ami Dar and Nancy Lublin, two social change leaders, present best practices and spot current trends.   Submitted by Nancy Lublin.

Museum APIs: What Are They Good For?  In Museums, context can be hard to come by. We have basic metadata but the richness of object records is so varied that it ultimately limits use of collections information. Cultural institutions are increasingly developing APIs and linked-data repositories. Who are these for? And what can we build with them? Submitted by Piotr Adamczyk. 

Cultivating the Web: Netroots Action for Grassroots Food: The “organic” nature of social media creates fertile ground for activists, but how can online advocacy move beyond e-actions and Facebook Fan pages, translating to local, on-the-ground actions? This panel will explore various innovative and creative uses of social media and online technology to support the local food movement. Submitted by Leslie Hatfield

Social Change for Zero Dollars a Day Using Social Networks: Join SM4SC's co-founders, Gradon Tripp, Meg Fowler and Matthew Knell as they talk through their experiences raising money for needy charities with no fixed budget. Topics covered include pro-social brand development, the real value of social capital and networks and harnessing social media for good. Submitted by Gradon Tripp.

Will Kiva Kill Your Nonprofit? Donations 2.0: Connecting donors directly to the beneficiaries of contributions is a game-changing fundraising strategy. Will traditional nonprofits need to adopt new technologies and fundraising models as donors demand greater accountability for their funds? This vibrant, moderated discussion will include representatives from Kiva, OptINnow, and 2 national advocacy organizations.  By Skylar Woodward.

Generation Y and the Future of Nonprofit Communications  Generation Y engages more frequently and deeply with nonprofits than any previous generation. Bleeding edge technology has allowed for nonprofits to reach millions of people with nonexistent budgets. This panel will go over success stories from nonprofit organizations and professionals. Learn the secrets of social media, interactive technology, and grassroots support.  Submitted by Sarah Davies.

Yoga For Social Networkers: Striking The Right Pose: There are hundreds of social networks, but only one you. Instead of overextending yourself, you need to bring focus on the important things and let go of the rest. Learn how to center your social media practice and balance your online activities. Bring your yoga mat!  Submitted by Amadie Hart.

Networked Love, Bonding, Intimacy: Our Interactive Culture Clouds  Visual mapping of relationship circles: exploring tools for appropriate social technology in conference cultures where work and pleasure meet. Intimate boundaries, mixing business and love and the essentials of compassion in network culture will be explored through interactive visualization Q&A. Fluid dynamics and connections discussed.  submitted by Evonne Heyning

How to Make Your Users Love You We love the energy in the room as people get hands-on experience with boosting community participation, instead of listening to talking heads. Alexandra Samuel (She's put together a fabulous list of panels by women at SXSW)

Open Leadership: The Upside of Giving Up Control: A social or digital strategy often fails because the culture doesn't support it. The rise of participation puts pressure on an organization's traditional way of doing business. A new way of leadership and managing is needed, called "Open Leadership". New technologies make open leadership not only possible, but a necessity.  Submitted by Charlene Li.

So please go vote!  If you submitted a nonprofit panel for SXSW and I missed it, please share the link and title in the description.  I'll do another round up in the next week or so.

Thank you!

What is the distinction between social media for charity and social good/systemic change?

Photo by Becky J McCray

At SXSW, I participated in the "Social Media for Social Good BBQ" co-hosted by Jeff Pulver and Porter Novelli.  The other panelists included David Armano, Scott Goodstein,  Stacey Monk, James Young and Randi Zuckerberg.

More than 700 people RSVPed to the event, far more than the capacity of Stubbs BBQ.  This is yet another indication of the growing interest in the charity sector at SXSWi.  

The panel represented different points of view.  The first three panelists, including myself, spoke about the using social media for fundraising from the perspective of an individual leveraging their network.   I spoke about creating a culture of authentic generosity in your network, Stacey Monk talked about her organization, Epic Change, and Tweetsgiving Campaign, and David Armano talked about how social media is strengthening weak ties and how he leveraged his network to help a woman named Daniella.

The next three panelists spoke about the topic from the institution and campaign perspective.  James Young talked about how nonprofits are using these tools for campaigns, Randi Zuckerberg gave an overview of Facebook and nonprofit activity and Scott Goodstein shared his experience from the Obama Campaign.

The panel format was conversational.  We each spoke for five minutes and answered the question, "What surprised you about social media for social good?" Then audience questions.   In retrospect, I wish I had used my five minutes to contextualize.

While I was on the stage, I was monitoring Twitter hashtag #socialgood.  The audience represented a wide range: activists with expertise in using social media and mobile phones, pr agencies, staff members responsible for social media strategy from large nonprofits organizations, social entrepreneurs, and people who were new to the whole idea. 

Some people in the room were frustrated because the discussion focused on social media for charity and did not include social media for social change.  Twitter comments included:

• @Katrinskaya : #socialgood panel. Fundraising is great but what abt engagement and action?
• @unikrm need more substance and more sustainable and transparent action for #socialgood to do any good

Defining the phrase "social media for social good"

That phrase is used to describe social media campaigns implemented by individuals, nonprofits, and  corporations to accomplish different objectives.   These objectives broadly include those with financial objectives - fundraising and marketing and objectives focused on social change.

Here's a few examples of the latter that were mentioned on the Twitter stream. 

• Peta uses Twitter to encourage Zappos to stop selling fur products
• Information Age Volunteerism from The Extraordinaries
• Unicef's Rapid SMS

There were some snarky comments on Twitter and during the Q&A wasn't the best time for exploring and understanding different points of view.  An opportunity for a teachable moment lost. 

Nonetheless, in reflection, I wonder:  Is it time to stop using the phrase "social media for social good"  when we're talking about the use of social media for charity?  Or should we simply just call fundraising and charity?  This debate and others should be explored further.

The term "social good" implies that there is social impact, a change of behavior on the ground or systemic change.  So, perhaps some in the audience were concerned that  "Social Media for Social Good" is not accurate and falls into "feel good fluff" when what we were talking about was using social media for charity, not change.  

I think there is some indirect social impact when we use social media for charity.  It happens through the organization that receives the funding. Of course, it depends on the capacity of the organization and its programs.  Obviously this isn't systemic, societal change.

Some feel that "nice social media" isn't effective and that we should be focusing on real social change.   "Do Gooders,"  "Feel Good Marketing", and "Nicey Nicey Social Networks" irk social change activists using social media.

Lina Srivastava says much better:

As a sector, we still have work to do to clarify the distinction between charity and social good/systemic change. The "Social Media for Social Good" panel, in particular, led off with stories of fundraising and good deeds on behalf of individuals, as opposed to scalable social change. I'm not making a value judgment against fundraising here (had they titled the panel "Social Media for Fundraising," I would have had less of a problem with the focus-- though I will continue to argue the prevailing system of fundraising needs a major overhaul). But I and a few other attendees later voiced the view that charity is an entry point, not an endpoint, in sustainable social change.

I thought this would be a good opportunity to look at the landscape of social media and charity:

Individuals

These are campaigns undertaken by a person, a wired fundraiser, who leverages their social connections to raise money for another person or a nonprofit.  We've seen campaigns launched by everyday people as well as by social media influencers.   

Human to human charity using social media is where an individual reaches out to people they're connected to online to raise money to help someone else.  We're seeing more human to human charity driven by social media and the bad economy.    

Random acts of kindness are not unique to social media.   Turn on the evening news and watch the human interest segment on the nightly news (Making A Difference) and there are story and after story about people helping their neighbors, strangers helping strangers.   

In the 1930's during the Great Depression, people reached for help via letters. Social media and social networks simply allows us to take this behavior online and do it faster.  Social networks let ask people for help who we haven't necessarily met face-to-face.  As David Armano said during the panel, our connectedness lets us strengthen loose ties.  His Daniella story is an example as is the story of Hollis Hawthrone and probably countless others.

Another examples is "Free Agent" fundraiser, someone who is using social media to reach out to their social network to ask for money to support a nonprofit.  They are either fans of a particular charity or volunteers serving on the board.  I've experimented with this approach to raise money for the Sharing Foundation where I am a board member.  There are many others like Drew Olenoff and Paull Young.

Stacey Monk's Tweetsgiving and her organization, EpicChange, is an example of an individual or social entrepeneur raising "seed capital" through social media to implement programs with a social good purpose.

There are social network applications designed to facilitate free agent fundraisers, for example Facebook Causes Birthday Campaign and some of the earlier experiments over at Social Actions. The Case Foundation's America's Giving Challenge and Make It Your Own were designed to encourage participation from individuals on behalf of organizations. 

On the Twitter stream during the session, there were differences of opinion as to whether this type of fundraising can bring about social change in the real world:

• jaybaer: @armano - Social media helps strengthen loose ties, which can then be used for social change
• benrigby: #socialgood using social media to raise $ for more social media fundraising campaigns doesn't get us too far...
• jordanv: Real change *always* starts with individuals and that's what we are seeing now #socialgood

Margaret Mead was quoted on Twitter:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

James Young, who works for Convio and was on the panel writes:

I came away from the experience with a clear message, that it all starts with one person deciding to act. If one person acts to help another, then at least two people know about it. If social media tools are involved, then the chances are good that a lot more people know about it, and the chances are equally good that the message will be passed on at least a few more times in ever expanding circles.

Nonprofit Organizations

These are online fundraising campaigns branded and implemented by professional staff at nonprofit organizations and use social media.  These organizations typically have a paid staff member (not necessarily full-time) implementing the tactics.  While there are some exceptional examples (see the examples from the Social Media ROI Panel at SXSW) , effective use of social meida in the nonprofit sector is not widespread.

Social media strategies are part of multi-channel campaigns.  A recent example is the Humane Society's Spa Day Photo Contest which raised over $600,000.  Another example is the campaign Holly Ross, at NTEN, just finished to raise $10,000 for NTC scholarships using social media tools and a lot of her personality.

James Young, from Convio, spoke about these types of campaigns on the panel.  There are numerous examples in NTEN's WeAreMedia Wiki focused marketing and fundraising objectives.

Networked Fundraising

Networked fundraising is where many individuals leveraging their personal networks to make a donation to a charity and in some cases it is self-organizing.   Twestival is the most famous example.  It was a networked fundraiser of a scale we haven't seen before, raising over $250,000 from over 200 cities around the world via Twitter.   As my colleague David J. Neff from the America Cancer Society quipped during our panel at SXSW, "Twitter meetups just to meet are so 2008. We want to meet up and do something with more purpose than just have a few beers."

I described the Twestival as "Look Out Here Comes Everybody To Raise Money for charity:water on Twitter" with a wink to Clay Shirky's work.  This raised some interesting discussions among nonprofits about networked fundraising, namely "Are Groundswell Fundraisers A Distraction or Opportunity?"

I had a chance to meet Twestival's founder, Amanda Rose at SXSW and chat with her.  Last month, I did a reflection interview after the event with her to discover what worked and what didn't.   Amanda organized the event as a volunteer and she is looking at the next version of the Twestival. 

What makes Twestival unique is that it didn't start as a project of charity:water, the nonprofit that benefited.  I wonder if we will see more of these self-organizing campaigns or will the next reteriation be a nonprofit organization powering a groundswell.

Corporate Campaigns That Use Social Media

Given the bad economy, generosity is replacing corporate greed.  Or maybe just as a marketing strategy. A recent report called "Generosity Generation," suggests there is a societal shift to more open and sharing behaviors.  Or maybe an opportunity to make money.   It goes on to say that corporations and businesses should become "caring brands."

Can a caring brand be authentic and have on the ground social impact?  Perhaps only social business might:

• benrigby: @jsteig #socialgood re: for-profits for social good. have been looking deep into this - Yunus is inspiration. http://tinyurl.com/b7e98h
  
  
• benrigby: Yunus defines a "social business" which is a for profit - doesn't rely on donations/funding. http://tinyurl.com/cj48bk

We are now seeing corporate sponsorship of an event or program or marketing campaigns that use social media and also generate donations for the nonprofit.  Not surprisingly, these campaigns help improve the reputation of the corporation or are designed to sell more products.  These campaigns are undertaken by the corporate marketing department and/or outsourced to their marketing, PR, or cause marketing agency.  The nonprofit is the recipient of this largess.  (To follow the field of cause-related marketing, read the "What You Stand For" blog.)

I suspect with the economy and the generosity driver, we will many more of these to come.  We're still in the emerging stage. Some early examples have used the comments on blogs to generate product donations.  The next wave of experiments have taken their cues from the nonprofit sector and incorporated contests and competitions as well as getting influencers to leverage their networks in the hopes of unleashing a groundswell.

Right before SXSW, Tide launched a campaign that benefited a charity, Feeding America.   The idea was to get a group of social media influencers to reach out to their networks to purchase a $20 t-shirt with the Tide logo and a percentage of the proceeds would go towards disaster relief efforts should they happen.   Here's David Armano's blog post asking his network to pass along the $20 for a t-shirt for a cause.

Those who participated reflected on their key takeaways.  Here's a roundup of their reactions and others including this critique called "The Feel Good Social Marketing Bribe."  I wonder if this law suit over the harmful ingredients in the detergent has any connection to this campaign?  As David Armano mentioned during the Panel's Q&A we'll see more corporate cause-related marketing campaigns using social media and leverage influencer networks.   But will they truly benefit nonprofits?

On the Twitter stream during out panel, there were concerns about transparency and corporate responsibility:

• geogeller: @jeffpulver what are the tradeoffs and check lists in doing #socialgood - not all good is good for everybody - what are red flags to watch
  
  
• geogeller: @jeffpulver ? what is #socialgood how do we know who its good for? investigate pple tell truth & not hidding an agenda socialgood tradeoffs

• @wtd RTweet - makes sense- transparency needs to go hand-in-hand with any kind of #socialgood campaign

And, of course, if economy continues to falter, we might see companies acquire their venture capital in the way that nonprofits ask for funding.

Cause Fatigue

The idea of many corporations using "social good" to sell their products makes me wonder how much faster we'll see a backlash and whether this will spillover into donor fatigue for nonprofits and their own fundraising campaigns.  I'm probably over stretching here.

One of the questions that was asked at the BBQ panel was, "How do we avoid cause fatigue?"    The person had no doubt read Jill Finlayson and Hildy Gottlieb's post at Socialedge which talks about all the requests we're all getting to support issues, causes, and charities and asks aren't you tired?

I don't think we can avoid it.  It's a new form of Internet overload.  We don't have to respond to every request and the ones we respond to should be part of a giving strategy.  Allison Fine offers some more advice:

... is to go back to basics: building strong relationships with your supporters. For all of the pinging and poking and clicking and razzle dazzle of cause chatter, social change continues to happen through social connections. For causes it is more important than ever that they focus on how to strengthen those ties, with and without social media, online and on land, to support their efforts. This year, in particular, social capital trumps financial capital - so we better get to building it one person, one connection, one conversation at a time.

In the Twitter Stream during the panel BBQ, some great advice suggested:

• NurtureGirl: Checkbook charity via social networks is SO not strategic giving. What if a cause is not on my map of social change.

• NurtureGirl: Hmm message to nonprofit->learn to market. Message to donors->don't be fooled by marketing: be strategic and look for impact 

What's your take? 

• When is social media actually useful for advancing change -- as opposed to charity?  What is the difference? And why is it important?
• Should stop using the phrase "Social Media for Social Good" if we're just talking about charity and fundraising?
• Does using social media to raise money charity or fundraising for nonprofits have any intent for social good or should we simply called it fundraising and marketing?
• Does "feel good" social media help or hinder social change, real impact on the ground? 
• What are the best examples of social media for social good that have real, on the ground social impact?

I'm speaking at SXSW or rather reciting a poem!

I'll be attending SXSW in Austin, TX the week after next.

I am participating in several panels and events at SXSW.   I'm really excited about the Social Media Nonprofit ROI Poetry Slam.  This is a new and improved version of the Social Media Case Study Slam I organized at the NTC last year. 

So, what's a poetry slam?  It is a competition at which poets read or recite original work under a five minute limit.  These performances are then evaluated by judges and the audience.

I've gathered up some of best of the best folks in the nonprofit tech field to share their social media measurement lessons learned.  The panelists or poets include Danielle Brigida (NWF), Wendy Harman (Red Cross), David Neff (American Cancer Society) and Carie Lewis, Humane Society of the US.   The judges represent the best of the best in the social media strategy, measurement, and nonprofit technology fields and include KD Paine, Geoff Livingston, and Holly Ross.  

Each panelist will share a story about how their organization has successfully implemented a social media strategy and how they considered the ROI.  Their presentations will be delivered in a poetic format ranging from Poe to Dr. Seuss to spoken word and rap.

I will introduce the panel with a spoof on Longfellow. (Listen social media geeks and you shall hear ..)    I hope it will be informative AND entertaining.

And there will be plenty of opportunity for audience interaction.  I've designed some fun ways to incorporate Twitter into the experience.

Here's my schedule for SXSW.  I'm blogging this for two reasons - so I have it in one place and so if you want to meet you'll know where to find me.  If you are attending SXSW, please seek me out and we can try to meet.

Friday, March 13th

Events
SxSW Mix at Six Launch Party
Hosted by Social Media Group
Friday March 13, 2009 from 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Six Lounge and The Tap Room
117 W 4th St
Austin, Texas

The TechSet Meets The Rat Pack at SXSWi
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Belmont Lounge
305 W 6th St
Austin, TX 78701

Saturday, March 14th

Panel
Social Media Nonprofit ROI Poetry Slam
Room 18BCD
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Events
PBS' Interactive Social Media & Online Video Studio
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
PBS Studio (406 E 6th St)

OK! Happy Cog'aoke
10:00 pm - 1:00 am
The Scoot Inn (1308 E 4th St @ Navasota)

Sunday, March 15th

Event:
1522 South Congress Ave and Guerros
Noon
All Hat, Not Cattle

Clicks Session:
Holly Ross and I will be joining Convio Founder and CSO Vinay Bhagat and Scott Goodstein, the former External Online Director for the Obama for America campaign to discuss how new media channels and how they are (or should) being used in outreach efforts by nonprofits and advocacy groups.
4:30-5:30 PM

Monday, March 16th

Event:
Social Media For Social Good
11:30 am - 2:00 pm
Stubb's BBQ (801 Red River St)

Panelists include Scott Goodstein, Beth Kanter, Stacey Monk, David Armano, James Young and Randy Zuckerberg. The panel will be moderated by Jeff Pulver and Tikva Morowati.

Convio Nonprofit Technology Bash

8:00 pm - 9:30 pm
BD Riley's (204 E 6th St)

Convio proudly presents the first-ever SXSW nonprofit technology bash, featuring Social Actions and the celebrity judges of their Change the Web Challenge. Join us for live music, drinks, nptech application demos and plenty of free swag!

Mashable Party
Monday, March 16, 9:30pm-12:30am
Six Lounge, 117 W 4th, Austin, TX 7870

There will also be an effort to help raise awareness of childhood hunger issue during SXSW, so stay tuned.

SXSW: Last Chance to Vote for Nonprofit Panels! Some more thoughts about the Nonprofit, Social Media, and ROI Case Study Slam

Magnetic Poetry by Surreal Muse

The SXSW Interactive Festival panel picker process closes on August 29th at 11:59 PM which means you have only a couple of days left to vote for as many panels as you think are worthy of being on the program or not.  I did a roundup of all the fantastic nonprofit panel submissions if you want help nonprofits get on the agenda there.

I've been in brainstorm mode for a panel called Social and Nonprofits ROI: Case Study Slam that I submitted.

Here's the description:
Using a poetry slam format, each panelist will present a five-minute poem or story about how their organization has successfully implemented a social media strategy experiment and how they considered the ROI. The audience will have ample opportunity to ask questions and respond.

This is a new and improved version of the Social Media Case Study Slam I organized at the NTC last year. I've gathered up some of best of the best folks in the nonprofit tech field to share their stories, metrics, and lessons learned in verse or story format.    I will do an overview connecting the idea of metrics to poetry ... How do I measure thee, let me count the ways, etc) or social media metrics haiku or limerick, or maybe create fridge magnets.   I hope it will be informative AND entertaining.

So, what's a poetry slam?  It is a competition at which poets read or recite original work. These performances are then judged on a numeric scale by judges.  I happen to notice that was a there's a rock star panel (Charlene Li, formerly with Forrester and co-author of Groundswell; Katie Paine, of KD Paine & Partners and author of Measuring Public Relationships; and Avinash Kaushik, Google evangelist and author of Web Analytics: An Hour A Day) with measurement gurus called "Measure This!"  organized by Kami Huyse. 

I thought it might be possible to get a few judges from this esteemed group -- if this panel gets accepted.

However, I'm going to suggest a tweak in the judging concept because I think holding up a number score alone won't help with learning or insights about nonprofits and social media ROI.  I think the judges should offer a brief reflection in response.   What do you think?

(I've also submitted another panel titled THIS is Iron Chef … Battle Non Profit  and will participate as a panelist on Social Change Behind the FireWall submitted by Holly Ross

Vote and Comment for ALL these Awesome Nonprofit Panels at SXSW

The SXSW Interactive Festival (scheduled March 13-17, 2009 in Austin, Texas) is a mega huge social media industry event.  The final program is done through a combination of an open submission and community voting process with staff and advisory board feedback.   The panel picker process just opened - so you have until August 29th to vote for as many panels as you think are worthy of being on the program or not.

Last year, I was on a panel organized by Ed Schipul and we were hoping that there would be a larger nonprofit presence on the agenda for this year   I just scanned the list of over 1200 panel submissions to SXSW in search of nonprofit oriented panels (in addition the two I submitted) and found a number of them for your consideration.  Please try to vote for as many nonprofit panels.

(And, if you submitted a nonprofit panel - and I managed to miss it while scanning 1200 in ten minutes - please add the link and description in a comment.  I'll do another Get Out The Nonprofit Vote at SXSW Post each week)

To vote:

1.  Create an account

2.  Vote for the choices below

3.  If you want to search for others, scan the list

Social and Nonprofits ROI: Case Study Slam submitted by Beth Kanter
Using a poetry slam format, each panelist will present a five-minute poem or story about how their organization has successfully implemented a social media strategy experiment and how they considered the ROI. The audience will have ample opportunity to ask questions and respond.  (I've gathered up some of best of the best folks in the nonprofit tech field to share their stories, metrics, and lessons learned - this will be informative AND entertaining.  I will do an overview connecting the idea of metrics to poetry ... How do I measure thee, let me count the ways, etc)

THIS is Iron Chef … Battle Non Profit submitted by Beth Kanter
Using just one special ingredient (a small in-need non profit), three web teams will meet  in the heat of Austin to craft an exceptional meal, featuring a tasty new homepage design, a well-seasoned fundraising email and a perfectly balanced social networking plan. Who will prevail? It’s up to YOU, sxsw!

Social Change Behind the FireWall submitted by Holly Ross
Successful nonprofits using social media are masters of social change behind the firewall.   This panel shares best practices through stories from nonprofit institutions and examines  how to get past resistance,uncooperative IT departments, and skepticism from management to  reap the power of social media for social change beyond the firewall.  (PS - Jonathan Coleman, David Neff and I will be on this panel and we'll be wearing special costumes ..)

Social Media for NonProfit Rockstars submitted by Ed Schipul
Nonprofits wanting to enter into the Social Media arena are faced with endless new networks and tools to try, but a few have kicked some major butt. We’re here to share real NPO Social Media stories and solutions that rock it and rock it good.

Real Time Representation - How Social Media is Changing the Face of Government  submitted by Erica O'Grady
2008 marked the year of the first Twitter from inside the Oval Office. As more and more politicians dive into the world of Social Media, the way we communicate and interact with our local and national representatives is changing. This panel will explore and discuss the impact of tools like Twitter, Qik, Utterz, Ustream, and more on current and future elections.

Understanding Social Networks, Beyond the Graph submitted by Ruby Sinreich
We all know it's the network, stupid, but what what do we really know about networks? This 
session will get beyond the trendy obsession with social networks and help participants better understand the dynamics and metrics of successful networks. We'll touch on academic research, business implementation, and grassroots organizing strategy.

Lessons in Local Tech: Sustainable Food 2.0 submitted by Rachel Weidinger, Common Knowledge
Are you eating well? Accessing sustainable food is easier with for mobile access to databases (Seafood Watch), delivery of hyper local foods (Spud.com), online links for farmers and buyers (Roots of Change), and maps of food grown in your neighborhood (Forage Oakland). Learn how shortcodes, custom social networks, and mashups are delicious. With snacks!

Open Source Disability Gadgets: DIY for PWD submitted by Liz Henry, Blogher
Gear and software for people with disabilities is usually provided through charity or from medical supply companies. It's hard or impossible to repair it, or get anyone to repair it. We need to hack the model for accessibility tools! With a culture of open source designs, Instructables, wikis, and blogs, we can start an international movement.

Convergence of Social Health Media With Youth Culture submitted by Matthew Zachary Social media healthcare means a revolution in consumer-driven and patient-focused content delivery. The convergence of click-and-mortar youth culture trends, coupled with Search2.0 is yielding a new generation of advocate, fostering social enterprise to drive change in a broken public healthcare system.

Non-Profit Technology Work: How You Can Do Good submitted by Fred Benenson, Creative Commons
Do startup phrases like "exit strategy" and "vested options" turn you off from working in the tech world? Ever wonder if there's a higher good you could be serving with your tech skills? Come for some quick presentations from some of the hottest tech non-profits and a discussion about the perks, achievements and challenges you can look forward to.

How to Save the World with Firefox Extensions! submitted by Joe Solomon (@engagejoe)
Get ready to explore the world of Firefox extensions that are helping to save the world – from replacing ads with art to alerts when you visit the websites of companies that threaten the environment. We will talk about the challenges, best methods, & incentives for creating your own superhero extension!

Nonprofit RockStars: Using Video to Share Your Message by David King
Video is a great way to share your organization's message, start conversations, and move  people to action. How do online videos fit into your non-profit's digital space? This panel discusses ways to incorporate online, interactive video into your organization's digital space.

Social Networking Lessons from Nonprofits Jeff Patrick, Common Knowledge
We believe that social networking is the most important trend on the Internet for  nonprofits. We are creating dramatically more engaging websites for clients like the Sierra Club, Community Gatepath, IFAW and the Arthritis Foundation. How should nonprofits plan for staffing and growth? How can you leverage your existing online supporters? Should you build from scratch or use a commercial solution?

The Mobile Web for Good submitted by Katrin Verclas
80% of the world will access the web first through a mobile -- what does that mean for social good? Panelists will include app developers of mobile web solutions for health, environment, economic empowerment, and social justice. Do they make a difference? Explore cases and key issues in a fast-paced and interactive session.

My Life With NF in Web 2.0 submitted by Reggie Bibbs
Reggie Bibbs is on a one-man mission to raise awareness of his disorder, neurofibromatosis.  His "JUST ASK!" campaign has utilized all facets of Web 2.0. Reggie was also be the first non-profit to take part in Reggie Camp. Come learn how to take your non profit to the next level.

Using Microformats to Save the World, or at Least Try submitted by Ruby Sinreich
Shared data standards, open source, Creative Commons, and portability seem like lofty ideals, but how practical are they - especially for the typical nonprofit with little or no technology budget? We will hear nonprofit and geek perspectives on how these tools can help (or hinder) the good work of nonprofit organizations.

Breaking Through the Digital Ceiling Allyson Kapin, Women Who Tech and Rad Campaign
Are you a woman (or a man) who loves to tech out but is tired of sexism, ageism, and the lack of diversity? Women in tech and social media experts identify strategies for breaking through the digital ceiling. The panel will discuss topics such as getting heard by upper management, how to effectively advocate for your work and expertise, what men can do to help promote women in technology as well as how to break through the barriers of being too young or too old in the tech sector.

Non-Profit Communications in the 2.0 World  by Ted Fickes, The Wilderness Society
The death of traditional media is old news to some but has left non-profits and advocacy groups without familiar platforms for distributing information. How do organizations successfully distribute facts and data in the media-rich but journalism poor world? Can (and should)non-profits become news sources themselves?

ACLU-WA's Drupal redesign! submitted by Sarah Davies
This presentation will go through the technical details of a start to finish Drupal redesign, including theming, plugins, coding, testing, and cost. A basic knowledge of php and css is highly recommended for this panel to make sense to you.

Plus Ed Schipul has a list of panels from folks in Houston.

Doing a panel about nonprofits at SXSW?  Not on this list?  Probably missed it from scanning the 1200 panel names and titles - so add it in a comment.  I'll plug the list again next week or closer to the deadline.

And, thank you for voting for panels as well as those submitted by my colleagues.

 

Mommy Went To SXSW and All I Got Was A Utterz Cow!

The best kid schwag from SXSW were the too cute cows from Utterz distributed to people who asked questions during the micro blogging session.   

So, You Want To Be A Nonprofit Tech Consultant? NTC Session Next Week

At South by Southwest Interactive on a panel facilitated by Guy Kawasaki called "True Stories from Social Media Sites" - one of the panelists made a comment that I tweeted to Holly Ross.   Ed Schipul and I were in the room, and by the time he got to the mic to ask her clarify her remarks in public, time ran out.   So after the session, I went up to her asked her why she thought nonprofits were bad clients.  I mentioned to Holly who blogged it here.

In all fairness, the panelist also said that people who run nonprofits are very passionate people and that their passion drives them to ask for a lot on little money.  And she added, "I can't say no and get sucked in."  Made me think of that Godfather clip.

I've been on the nonprofit side and I have let passion turn into being pushy about asking for money or asking people to ask their friends for money or asking for things for free.  I've also been on the consultant side and been asked.   

So, if you are attending the NTC in New Orleans next week and are thinking about becoming a consultant, please do come to our session, "So You Want To Be A Consultant?" with colleagues John Kenyon, Eric Leland, and Robert Weiner.   We'll be covering some nuts and bolts about getting started as well as consultant/client relationships.   (John is also doing another panel and hosting a dinner too).  And, if you are doing a session at NTC on the topic of consulting - drop a line in the comments with a link to your session.

Thought I'd also gather a funny clip about how to deal with over passionate clients.  I'm also going to refresh my memory about time management for techies and how to say no.  Meanwhile, read what Chris Brogan wrote last month about "Scaling Yourself" and "How to Say No."  I need to eat my own dog food.

Reflections from SXSW: The Shift from Me To We in Panel Design

After three years of virtual conversations, finally meeting Alan Levine, Cogdog Blog.

I'm just back from SXSW and exhilarated and exhausted.  It felt like social media Hollywood -- everywhere you turned you would bump into a social media celebrity!  It was a huge conference, with lots panels and parties and places to hang out and make the scene.   I was on overload.

It was also awesome to run into so many of my colleagues from the nonprofit and education worlds.  (Holly Ross, at NTEN, learned how to use utterz and did some quick interviews from nonprofit folks attending - here)

What I found really exciting was to finally meet a couple of people face-to-face after following them on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, or their blogs.   

One such person is Alan Levine who writes Cogdog Blog.  We've been commenting on each other blogs and bumping into each other all over the social web.  So, it was great to be able have a conversation face-to-face and feel like you know the person already.  I also got to meet (finally) Betsy Weber from TechSmith (she put a Jing sticker on my laptop and still searching for the photo in flickr!) and Lee and Saatchi (who I connected to Mongkol and they ate weird duck eggs in Cambodia!).   I also got a chance to meet briefly Kami Huyse - we share a passion and interest in ROI and metrics.  And, Rox of Beachwalks!

What keeps me excited about social media is the ability to connect with people who you have never met and have a conversation about ideas you care about.  And, the weaving of the face-to-face with the virtual.  But these individual connections can also lead to a groundswell (the title of a new book by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff from Forrester.

Jeremiah Owyang has a meta synthesis of the SXSW experience and has identified four points where this groundswell occurred.  He also raises a few good points about how what we observed at SXSW may change conferences in the future - remember SXSW is a conference for tech innovators and early adopters - so these are the early warning or where we can see the social impact of social media and how it is going to change us.

Being one week away from the NTC COnference, the nonprofit technology industry's major event - his points about the shift from Me to We and conference panels are really important:

Speakers, Panelists, and Moderators must monitor back channel
Recently, I wrote a post that has been passed around many conferences on how to successfully moderate a panel. I’m now adding a section suggesting that the moderator first poll his community using some of these tools, and to also monitor the back channel in real time, while not all conferences will embrace a back channel, it’s safe to assume that Twitter will be found at many tech and marketing conferences

Back in 2005, I got a little obsessed with backchannel - after my experience at the London Global Voices Summit.  Those were the days before twitter and when we used IRC to facilitate a chat discussion with both remote participants and people in the room.   What Global Voices did that was particularly effective was to appoint a "Back Channel Advocate."   I can't remember if it was pre-assigned or whether the moderator asked for a volunteer in the room - but that person monitored the back channel and moderator looped them in read out loud the comments or ask speakers questions.

There are different methods of incorporating the back channel depending on the format of the panel or session.  What are the best practices for blending face-to-face and online so it adds to the conversation in the room and doesn't cross the line to "rude" or "heckling"?

Now I'm wondering how to do this for the NTC social media ROI Case Study Slam I am facilitating.  I think because we're using the "Ask Later/Ignite" style, I'm going to ask people to also @kanter their questions and then after each presentation take the five minutes of questions from the room and the tweets.   It is another layer to facilitation a session in the room.

What has been your experience incorporating the "back channel" in your facilitation at a conference panel, a conference call/meeting, keynote, or other instructional situation?

Pimp My Nonprofit Panel at SXSW

Photo from Ed Schipul, taken by Eloy Zuniga

Yesterday's panel Pimp Non Profits  at SXSW was brilliantly moderated by Ed Schipul.  Ed is also a very good session designer too.  He got us together on the phone to discuss and design the panel in a month in advance, reviewed slides, help get us organized on-site and gave us some great last minute tips in the green room. 

The rest of the panelists included Rachel Weidinger, Erin Denny, and Michaela Hackner.   Rachel and Erin spoke about advocacy applications.  Rachel shared some great examples of social media advocacy campaigns. (Long Station blog has great notes here) Erin talked about the NetSquared Mashup (deadline on March 14th).  Michaela Hackner shared some insights on what it is like to be the sole techie in an organization and encouraging adoption of social media tools. (Her slides are gorgeous and you find the talking points on her blog.)  You can find a copy of my slides, notes, and resources on this wikitation)

A few bloggers blogged great notes and some other commentary below -- thanks so much.

Long Station
Patty in the Burbs
07G
Community Mobilization
David Lee King

Guy Kawasaki Pimps the Pimp My Nonprofit SXSW Panel

Guy Kawasaki wearing my pimp hat


Guy Kawasaki moderated a panel called "True Stories from Social Media Sites" with six awesome panelists including Slideshare's Rashimi Sinha, Erica O'Grady, @pistachio - and four others.  (Sorry I was tweeting this panel and I'm a little tired this morning - late night last night).

A few great micro quotes:

• Online communities is where people put their ears back on
• Can passion scale?
• There is something called powerpoint porn and it is linear
• Give people useful and easy stuff to do at your site - the slide
• Be yourself on Twitter

I had to get a fan photo with Guy Kawasaki.  He even agreed to wear the pimp hat for the Pimp My Nonprofit Panel I'm doing at 5:00 PM.

Photo by Steve Garfield




Ran into Steve Garfield in the hall - and he took this awesome photo of me in my pimp gear.  Thanks Steve!

MIcroblogging Panel SXSW

The Scoop the Story panel started by having us break into small groups and do microblogging and then return and discuss what we learned.   The panel was sponsored by Utterz and they gave out nice cow stuffed animals. 

A few points.

• It's Fun!
• Push the on button before you speak
• Be succinct
• Weaknesses - not high quality, producing so much content how to filter/find good stuff
• The role of video - do we need to hear or see?
• Capture now, publish later or publish than edit or add text - flexible
• Listen to random Utterz on the subway - people are comfortable to say things into a phone without photo
• Utterz - breaking news opportunities - from a journalist
• Can have some private Utterz - talk to family/friends
• Building Community -The commenting in Utterz, Jonny's Haiku Project
• How to get people to avoid feeling scared and not wanting to make fools of themselves - e.g. how can artists leverage this tool.  Moderated utterz - not live, not filtered.

Social Strategy for Revolutionaries - Charlene Li at SXSW

Nelson Piedra Flickr Photo

Charlene Li of Forrester Research, lead a session called "Social Strategy for Revolutionaries.She picked this topic because the SXSW crowd are at the vanguard of the social media revolution.  She started off with a few stories that defined what she meant by the term groundswell. "A social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions and corporations."

She shared the POST strategy, the "ladder of participation" and explained the technographics chart. She also told some stories that illustrated different objectives or outcomes of how businesses were using social media tools. She talked about how important "revolutionaries" were to the adoption of social media tools behind the firewall. The term "revolutionary" is what I've been calling the "network weaver" for external strategies and what Nancy White has called the "technology steward" for the internal revolutionary.

There was a lot of resonated from what I've seen with nonprofits - particularly the story of stealth adoption of a wiki at Intel. (It is similar to the story of water wiki at the UN). 

Key Takeaway points

• Find the people most passionate about developing relationships
• Educate your executives - Facebook on Friday - the benefits of how the technologies work and reach business objectives
• Put someone in charge - responsibility - up and down the line
• Define a box - policies and processes - what we will and will don't do - what is the worst thing that could happen.
• Make it safe(er) to fail -- risk adverse - you will fail, blow ups, mistakes - how you can increase the risk adverse
• Start small, but think big (reiterated over and over)
• Make social strategy the responsibility of every single employee - it's everywhere
• Patient - cultural change does take time
• If you don't feel quesy, you're not moving fast enough
• Letting go of control, mindset and habits for collaboration

3 Years of Social Media Conversations Online Will Lead To Face-to-Face Meeting With CogDog Blog's Alan Levine at SXSW!

This is an example of the types of ongoing, online conversations I've been having with CogDog blog's Alan Levine over the past three years.  His blog was one of the first I discovered and have been hooked ever since.  Alan was the winner of my 50th Birthday Flickr Photo Birthday Card  Remix contest in 2007.   (And he loves dogs)

I've learned a lot from Alan.  I trust him.  I refer people to his blog.  But we've never met face-to-face.  It's been three years and our paths have only crossed online. He recently tweeted that he is going to SXSW.  I am too. So, we'll get have a conversation that isn't mediated by technology ...

SXSW Panel: Adapt or Die : The Future of Volunteers and Non-Profits

David J. Neff from the American Cancer Society just gave me a heads up that he is speaking on a SXSW Panel called Adapt or Die: The Future of Volunteers and Nonprofits. 

Who else is attending or speaking at SXSW?
 

I'm Speaking at SXSW About Nonprofits and Social Fundraising

 

I'm speaking at SXSW. The panel is titled "Pimp My Non Profit - Real Non-Profits Kicking Ass with Online Technology."  Ed Schipul, the session designer, came up with the title.   The panel will also include Erin Denny, Rachel Weidinger, and Michaela Hackner. (And, we're going to wear pimp hats)

Monday, March 10th
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Non profit groups struggle with funding and public support issues on a daily basis. Yet many have overcome the odds and made a splash online and offline by using the latest Web technologies - for pennies on the dollar. This discussion will center around the stories, strategies, triumphs and challenges of innovative non profits with a passion for change and the cajones to rock it out online.

I'm excited to finally meet Michaela face-to-face after following her personal blog and flickr stream over three years.  We connected through the "cambodia" tag on flickr because I was tracking it for Global Voices back in 2005.  The first photo of hers from Cambodia was this one of the four monks crossing the street titled Abbey Road. 

Michaela is now director of online strategy for World Learning.   We've paired up to give a 15 minute talk about using social media for fundraising -- she'll be talking from the perspective of someone inside a nonprofit and I'll be talking from the perspective as an "extra organizational activist" who is not a staff person, but someone who is working as an individual on behalf a case.    

The term "extra organizational activist" comes from Alison Fine's book Momentum and I first heard it back in September 2006 when I read the book and reviewed it over at Blogher.   Here's what she had to say about this role:

Fine says that it is important to encourage individual activism and that social media has become the "extra organizational lifeblood" replacing memberships, the lifeblood of the pre-Internet activist world.   Fine tells us, "When activist organizations take on the role of working within networks and choose to push power to the edges, they shift from doing activist work to facilitating activist work."  She concludes the chapter with some ways that activist organizations can support the efforts of individuals and stay relevant.

The other term that has been used to describe these individuals is "Wired Fundraisers"  by Network For Good in a recent report.    Peter Deitz of Social Actions has a slideshow that walks organizations through the definition and pros/cons of working with a Wired Fundraiser.

Peter identified the pros/cons as:

Pros

• Year round
• New Donors
• Builds Community
• Human Voice

Cons

• Low success rate (not everyone!)
• Steep learning curve
• Difficult accounting issues

Michaela and I thought we might tackle this as a point, counterpoint.  I wondered about whether there is organizational resistance to the idea of working with "extra organizational activists" or  "Wired Fundraisers."  I asked colleagues Katya Andresen and Stacie Mann from Network for Good. 

We’re seeing less resistance as nonprofits witness the effectiveness of wired fundraisers.  We’re seeing increasingly that volunteers/wired fundraisers run the campaign in coordination with the nonprofit or vice versa.  I’d say there’s a high degree of cooperation among the most active fundraisers. 

More often it is not resistance on the messaging, but a lack of understanding/fear of how it works and ultimately benefits the org (tools to get/cultivate the new donors etc.). Once that is clear almost always they are on board.  We are definitely starting to see an interesting spectrum of coordination.

So, it may be less of an organizational attitude of "Help, my fundraising has been abducted by aliens ..." to "how can leverage these extra organizational activists for our organization?"

The audience at SWSX will consist solely of nonprofit folks and the ones that are there are probably already putting these new web tools to work.   I suspect (could be wrong) that there may be a few potential wired fundraisers -- so, have a few questions:

• If you were talking to some potential "wired fundraisiers" what advice would you give them in terms of connecting and coordinating with the nonprofit organization?  What advice would you give them to increase the changes of success in their campaign?
• If you're from a nonprofit organization, have you had discussions about working with wired fundraisers or extra organizational activists?  What were some of the difficult issues you needed to address?  What were the adoption issues?   What did you need to think about?  What's your advice for making this a successful partnership?
• Have any recommendations for a hat?

Update:  Drew Bernard's pointer to correcting Evangelists

Panel at SXSW 08: Pimp My Nonprofit Made the List

Tunnel by Eschipul on Flickr

I'm stunned .... The SXSW 2008 Panel initial results are in and the Pimp My Non Profit Panel made the list!  The initial SXSW panel description is posted on the SXSW site.  Ed Schipul, the official cat herder for the panel, has all the details.

I'm looking forward to this only to have the change to think together with my highly esteemed panelists about the topic.    They include:

Rachel Weidinger, Strategy for Social Entrepreneurs and on Netsquared here.
Michaela Hackner, Girl Next Door Productions and World Learning.
Erin Denny, Senior Product Manager, YouthNoise Initiatives

I have met Rachel, Ed, and Erin through Netsquared face-to-face.   I don't know Michaela face-to-face, but we know each other through our mutual connections in blogging, nonprofits, social media and Cambodia.  I know I'll be blogging about this topic to flesh out my thoughts for next March, but   Michaela had an idea that we develop our panel thoughts through a cross-blog conversation about the topic.   

So fellow panelist, before we dive into content, I wonder how we can have this conversation, manage it, invite others in, etc?  For one thing, I created a new category on this blog ...