Beth Kanter and My Intern Experience

As noted in class, last semester PAFF 551 were introduced to the idea of Social Media for nonprofits. One of the materials we analyzed was Beth Kanter’s Stanford Social Innovation podcast. At the time, I valued her insight on educating a nonprofit’s internal market (staff and volunteers) about social media. I appreciate the opportunity to further discuss “the importance of social media in the eyes of a nonprofit. Especially since as ‘millennial’ leaders in the nonprofit and/or public sector, we will be forced to engage in social media at one time or another.

Some of us have already engaged in social networking sites for nonprofits. Reading “the Networked Nonprofit” forced me to reminiscent on my intern experience as a ‘Community Ambassador’ for United Way of Buffalo and Erie County. I and seven other ‘Community Ambassadors’ were responsible to recruit and engage young people (Millennials) to volunteer for their community. Naturally as Millennials ourselves, we thought of creating a Facebook group.

Here is a link of our group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2377354942&v=app_2373072738#!/group.php?gid=2377354942&v=wall

This group was created before Facebook features such as ‘Like’, ‘Causes’ and even 'statuses’. Such features would have ideally simplified our communication attempts to our peers about volunteering. We were able to reach a few young people through Facebook but not our initial goal. As Kanter would note, complexity served as a barrier for our social media attempt. Kanter would also acknowledge the fact that the organization’s social culture was not codified. At the time a Facebook group was innovative for the organization. As interns, we were instructed on the media policies but not the social media policies. Such knowledge would have possibly generated more results.

Overall, my intern experience and Kanter confirmed to me that simplicity is necessary for networked nonprofits. Who would have thought that it can be complex to be simple?

The Dragonfly Effect

I know that extra reading is probably not what everyone is looking for but I found this article and thought it was relevant and interesting. Here is the link: http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_dragonfly_effect/

Social Media as More than Social Media

After reading the first assigned section of The Networked Nonprofit, I find the authors’ recommendations practical and intuitive. In providing nonprofits a “how to” guide for venturing into the world of social media, Kanter and Fine clearly underscore the importance of maintaining a modern presence in this rapidly changing world. As the authors state, “Social media are not a fad or a trend” (p. 5). I agree that these new social outlets are not an ephemeral fad, in which it behooves nonprofits to digitally connect. After all, networking has been a central tenet to management for quite some time. Social media provides yet another venue for connecting, albeit in a very powerful way. Though social media may not be a fad, it may be part of a transformative technological pattern, as detailed by the authors.

Kanter and Fine describe the evolution of the social media revolution (p. 5). In the 1980s, personal computers gained much use, transforming information storage and organization. In the 1990s, the internet began to drastically connect people with others and information in a profound manner. In the 2000s, with the advent of social media, the human-information connection has become that much more intimate, in which traditions and institutions are changing quite intensely. As the authors state,

The rise of social media seemed to happen in an instant. One minute we were marveling at fax machines’ speed, the next minute hundreds of millions of people are connecting with friends and sharing photos and news on Facebook. (p. 11)

Fellow PAFF 551 bloggers from the prior semester may be well aware of my interest in technological advancement. Now that this course emphasizes technologies’ great effect on the nonprofit field (as well as society in general), it may do us all a great service to reflect upon the nature of such developments.

Near the end of last semester’s administration of PAFF 551 (Introduction to Management & Leadership in Nonprofits), students were assigned a Beth Kanter podcast. In the podcast, Kanter suggests non-profits should harness technology and social media to increase impact. In a blog post for last semester’s course, I wrote,

Beth Kanter suggests non-profits should harness technology and social media to increase impact. Though utilizing these strategies is wise and rational, we must question whether we are really harnessing, or controlling these resources. Perhaps the opposite is true: we are controlled, or part of something larger that is beyond our control.

The need for advancement, as exhibited by for-profit organizations’ efforts to produce increasing annual profits, drives innovation and creation, popularizing technologies such as the internet and interactive social media. Though some suggest that we may harness these resources to advance social change, consider the possibility that these outlets themselves, as advancements, are advancing social change as the embodiment of progression. Naturally, individuals will view these resources, including the now ubiquitous internet, as tools to increase capacity. These resources, rather, are forcing social change, as they are the manifestations of advancement. These resources are much more than controllable tools. Perhaps contemporary social change and social entrepreneurship are enormously dependent on such advances, whereas advances are part of an all-encompassing trend.

With a slight bit of effort, we are able to discover a trend of transformative advances that may not be so distant. These advances emanate from the scientific and technical disciplines. We are dependent on common information technologies in a control-like manner. Instead of perceiving advancements as enablers, consider them as fundamental to our existence. We need advancement as our species and society are the product of advancement.

I still agree with myself, but not as to undermine the importance of the Kanter and Fine book. However, with the trend of the personal computer in the 1980s, the internet in the 1990s, and social media in the 2000s, we can only speculate what will come next. What will be the mark of the 2010s? Whatever it may be, will it render the authors’ recommendations obsolete? What will the updated edition of The Networked Nonprofit entail? How relevant will social media be in another decade? Will the nonprofit sector (amid society) have changed that much more? To quote Ozzy Osbourne, “Don’t ask me. I don’t know.” Congratulations to those of you who have reached the end of this post. You are virtuous.

Improvement in Chinese Government Network

Having read The Networked Nonprofit, I gradually realized the necessity for Chinese government to improve the network and do feel happy for they have started put attentions on it.
When I was in my 2nd undergraduate year, I took part in a student NGO program. One program in that time was cooperating with a women organization which helping unemployed women in age 40s, 50s. Our main target was making a connection between the agency, government, and public. At that time, local government did have policy to help this kind of organizations, but for lacking of good communication channels and methods to the public, we spent lots of time on initial steps and missed many good opportunities if we could use that policy immediately. Women organization is the most common not-for-profit organization in China. Our group then made unique website and blog for our target organization, which help them to be known and understand. Also, we posted their information on school's website and Blackboard. In this way, we easily made more profit than they did before, which mostly depended on the help from students and faculties.
Though Facebook and Twitter have been blocked in China, but we still have effective and effecient way to communicate as those two.
In this winter section, some of our classmates went to China. They told me there was a new issues in Chinese Public Administration field these years - increasing the transparency and publishing more information to public. As a Chinese, I can say the relationship between new generation and government is not that good as before. Chinese government no doubt has to balance a lot for the economy and political reasons, but the good relationship between government and public is much more crucial. The officials find the fundamental problem is that with the high speed of digital technology development, mass information may lead public to the wrong directions. From the Chairman to the common supervisors, governors created more chances to built a good network with individuals, companies and organizations. Though there are still many problem, but it is really good for them and public.

Networked Nonprofits: Innovation?

While reading "The Networked Nonprofit," I was struck by its similarity to a volunteer recruitment strategy that we read about in 551 called "concentric circles recruitment." This volunteer recruitment strategy attempts to capitalize upon the personal and professional contacts of organization members to interest and enlist volunteers for that organization or cause. To me, Kanter, Fine, and a number of nonprofits have taken this concentric circles recruitment strategy to the next level by using social media and its infinite networking capacity as a tool to mobilize people for social good.

Indeed, social media like Facebook or Twitter have allowed nonprofits to substantially increase the amount of people and networks they are able to reach, and thus expand their pool of potential supporters, fundraisers, and donors. Even my own employer, Roberson, has dramatically sought to increase its social media appeal through Facebook, but have yet to post their audits or 990's online.

Thus far, I find the Kanter/Fine book very interesting, considering last semester we concentrated on innovation in nonprofit organizations, specifically social entrepreneurship. In the beginning of last semester I had a preconceived notion of innovation as a revolutionary or novel idea that would transform the way that an organization, group, or individual could achieve social change, a "reinvention of the wheel." However, by the end of the semester I came to the realization that most innovation is merely using existing ideas or technologies to initiate beneficial social change. Kanter/Fine's ideas concerning "Networked Nonprofits" are a future means for nonprofit organizations to advance their cause or mission and are indispensable to future managers in an increasingly computerized world.

Let’s Get Social! Learning Social Media from Business Sector

It is generally known that nonprofit sector and business sector are quite two different stories. However, after reading Networked Nonprofits, which talked a lot about developing nonprofit organizations by using social media, we can hardly avoid taking a look at the for-profit area. When it comes to marketing and promoting production (if we consider donation a behavior of buying idea as a production from nonprofit), no one thinks more thoroughly than business people. So knowing cases from business area may give us more ideas in nonprofit area.
Let’s look at Emerson Salon in Seattle, an example that might be help for new and small nonprofits. See the link below:

http://www.localadzoom.com/blog/?p=14

From the case of Emerson Salon, there are at least two lessons that can be learned for small nonprofits: first, start using social media! It won’t hurt, and may surprisingly help. Don’t worry too much about potential risks and intangible costs, from the book, we know that getting involved in social media is not to ask you to discard the present way of running your organization, but to combine co-location work with social media. Face to face is important, but why don’t do something more? Second, for new or small nonprofits, this most important way to expand donors is to let more people know your existence. So consider each staff member a potential resource of promoting yourself. If one staff member has 100 friends on facebook and more on twitter, there is a chance that 100 more people will know your organization. As example of social capital in the book, getting a Email asking for donation from a friend increases the chance for people to donate than getting that from strangers, start expanding your social network from people you know can be a good idea for small nonprofits.

Social Media in North Africa

There has been considerable discussion in traditional media and the blogosphere about the role social media are playing in the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.  Keep an eye on what the writers in our blogroll and others are writing.  Today's New York Times has a story about the decision of the Egyptian government to shut off internet access. I've hyperlinked it above; here's the full link:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/technology/internet/29cutoff.html

An update:  Here is another Times article (from the Week in Review) that emphasizes the role of social media in social change.  I've hyperlinked and provided the full link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/weekinreview/30shane.html?hp  

Creating a Social Culture

While reading the Networked book, I had a lot of "aha" moments, and a few "well, of course" moments, because I would consider myself to be right in the middle of the social media savvy spectrum. After reading, I have one comment and one question...

First, one of the most important sections in the book was the chapter that discussed creating a social culture. I agree so much that becoming a Networked Nonprofit, and using social media effectively requires so much more than just setting up a Facebook page, making some "friends" and moving on. I have seen non-profits use social media to varying degrees, but many are ineffective. Administrators rarely update pages or information, the sites cannot be found through general searches, and information found online is very limited. However, I have seen others use social media very effectively, such as a church using the "events" tool on Facebook to let members know what is happening at church, pastors uploading sermons as podcasts online, and more. I think if non-profits want to use social media to advance their message or cause, it is important that the organization as a whole learns how to use and embrace social media as means for change.

Secondly, I remember last semester, as we discussed various social entrepreneurs, many of us had that "it would never happen to me" feeling. We learned about people who seemed to make a lot of connections based on "luck" (although more went into the equation than happenstance alone) and wondered how that worked. While reading, I had similar thoughts - many people and organizations we read about seemed to just get lucky by knowing the right people who would continue sharing their causes and help them raise piles of money for them. So, my question, to bring it a little more close to home, is this: Has anyone in the class has ever been more directly involved in any of these bigger projects of using social media to bring in funds or other support for an organization?

Kristen

Technology and the Daily Deal

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported yesterday on the development of a new site called Philanthroper which allows people to donate $1/day to a particular charity.  The idea builds on "deal" sites like Groupon and Living Social.  What do you think?  Would you use a site like this?  I was asked by the BU Magazine at the end of last year about what I would predict for the world of philanthropy in 2011.  Here's what I said.  I made a prediction that new organizations might try to build on the example of Groupon, but I wasn't quite sure how it would unfold...This example suggests one way in which technology is changing philanthropy and nonprofit practice.  Consider how you would market your organization so that you could take advantage of this kind of opportunity. 

Social Media Changing the Non-Profit sector

I responded to Andrea's post wondering just how much social media can have an effect on the non-profit sector. I then researched some articles and found that it has, and will continue to create a huge undertaking. Facebook is not the only way to connect with members of the community. Of course we still see commercials on TV, or hear ads on the radio but those come at a cost. During tough economic times, some non-profits can ill-afford to pay for these ads. You Tube is a great way to advertise for free.

This causes many people to catch up with the times. With the rise of social media, many of the folks leading the non-profit organizations today may not be very comfortable with these new trends. This is a great time for our generation to come to the forefront in the non-profit sector and continue to promote our organizations through the social media. We use so many of these tools in our every day lives to communicate with others and it will be to our advantage to use them as we enter the workforce. Here is an interesting article on this topic.

http://mashable.com/2009/05/22/non-profit-social-media/

-Matt Schofield

Slacktivism: Friend or Foe?

Before I begin to formally write this post, I would like to ask all of
you a question simply because I am curious and would like to see if
there is a variety of opinion; what do you think of
slacktivists/slacktivism both as a busy student and as someone deeply involved
in public service? Also, how many of you were already aware of what the term
meant?

I did not know what it meant until I read Allison H. Fine's A. Fine
Blog, but since we are discussing social media and nonprofit
effectiveness/performance in class I thought it might be an
interesting topic.

"Slactivist" is a not-so-nice term for someone who joins face
book groups, signs e-petitions, posts badges or buttons, changes their
avatar image, or sends out chain emails or messages. The argument,
and root of the term, is that these individuals are passive in
creating social change because the above activities give them a sense
of having done good, while in reality the action alone did very little to
create any actual social change.

There seems to be some debate as to whether slacktivism is good or bad. I think for the most part it can be good. The more people retweeting or sharing something on facebook, the more it is seen by others. One of those hundreds of folks might donate time or money to a cause they might otherwise not have thought about.

Two interesting posts I found on the topic are:

Geoff Livingston: HOW TO: Turn Slacktivists into Activists with Social Media
http://mashable.com/2010/05/13/slacktivists-activists-social-media/

I thought the tips offered by Livingston were good for organizations to think about and offered a more sympathetic viewpoint to slacktivism. (FYI Beth Kanter also makes an appearance here.)

Slacktivisim: A gateway drug to activism by Populista:

http://mydd.com/users/populista/posts/slacktivisim-a-gateway-drug-to-activism

Populista makes an interesting point; some people are just very shy. The internet gives shy people a way to get involved who may not have otherwise done so because of meeting and introducing themselves to strangers. From my experience with volunteers, some people are terribly hesitant to even ask local business for donations.

To touch on the topic of Effectiveness, do any of you feel that Slaktivism has anything to do with organizational performance? If there are a lot of people just “liking” their local library’s status update on facebook but not really attending the committee meeting to plan the annual Library Book Sale, is the library doing something wrong? I am thinking about this myself (as someone who has served as president of a library fundraising board) and don’t have an answer yet. It is hard to get people in the community (especially if it is fairly small and the library is competing with Barnes and Noble or a large library branch) to get involved with planning events and commit to more than a few hours of their time to sell books.

Hi everyone! This semester my first blog post will be short and sweet, at least compared to last semester. Those of you who were in PAFF 551 last semester may remember that the main – in fact, only – reason I follow individuals on twitter is to keep up with a few of my favorite professional cyclists, since American TV coverage of their races is limited, at best. Last week, the Santos Tour Down Under was held in Australia and was Lance Armstrong’s last international race. After completion of the tour, Lance and Robbie McEwen (an Australian rider on the American RadioShack Team) organized a “twitter ride” to benefit the Queensland flood victims. The event ended up raising AU$125,000 (US$124,000) and all began on twitter, being organized in a matter of days. It definitely proves that using social media effectively can produce solid results.

Here is a link to an article I found:

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/Lance-Armstrong-raises-125-thousand-dollars-with-Twitter-ride-for-Australian-flood-victims-012311

accountability and effectiveness

In class on Tuesday we discussed what accountability and effectiveness were as separate entities but we didn’t link them together. Most of us already know this, but just to reiterate, effectiveness and accountability go hand in hand as most organizations hold themselves accountable by showing their program’s effectiveness. If an organization can show that its program is effective it can show community members, clients, donors, etc. that the program is worth using, donating to, and/or volunteering for. Can an organization show accountability if it isn’t effective?