nptech.info

• Paul Beaudet | The Center for Effective Philanthropy

  Three nice articles from Paul on effective grantmaking practices

  tags: philanthropy

• ConsiderIt :: framing deliberation on the web

  tags: deliberation collaboration software UW

• Pricing Strategy for Creatives

  tags: consulting business

• NodeXL Graph Gallery: About NodeXL

  “NodeXL is a free, open-source template for Microsoft® Excel® 2007 and 2010 that lets you enter a network edge list into a workbook, click a button, and see the network graph, all in the familiar environment of the Excel® window. “

  tags: social-media research software excel

• Gates Foundation’s Tweets reveal passive, insular global health community

  Interesting social network analysis

  tags: networks analysis research

• Reactivating inactive supporters

  Nice methodology for segmenting, reactivating and gently purging inactive supporters

  tags: organizing activism online-activism

• Mesmerized by Metrics: Is Philanthropy Engaging in Magical Thinking?

  Interesting food for thought.

  tags: philanthropy metrics performance

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Net Tuesday Vancouver is excited to announce NetSquared Camp 2012, an intimate gathering of Vancouver’s online campaigners. This unconference will be a chance for our community to gather and share our hard-won best practices, war stories, and victories!

The event will be held at The Hive on Saturday, April 28 and admission is $20.

There are just 80 spots available, so please RSVP soon to ensure you get a ticket.

Tickets and more information: http://netsquared2012.eventbrite.ca/

Hope to see you there!

For many years I've used this graphic to try to illustrate the need for mentoring and rich learning supports at every age group, from first grade through high school graduation and into the workforce. I've created a concept map to illustrate this idea.

However, in my mind I see a three dimensional map of Chicago where you can see all of the high poverty neighborhoods. I've created maps like this which you can see at the Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator site. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

However, this does not really communicate the long-term nature of support needed the way I see it in my mind. So I tried today to create this image, combining one of my maps with a graphic of an oil well.
I'm sure some graphic designer could do this a thousand times better than I can. Maybe one of our will try.

However, as you read the articles I've posted on this blog, does this help you think of the stages of support that we need to make available to youth who don't have enough natural systems of career-focused mentoring in their neighborhood, because of the high levels of poverty?

I attended a STEM Education Summit in the Chicago area on Friday, hosted at Oak Park/River Forest High School. While the speakers at this Summit were not talking about the high school drop out crisis, which I've written about in past articles, they were talking about a workforce crisis that will result from baby-boomers retiring and not enough young people preparing to go into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) related careers.

Over the past 18 years I've created a variety of graphics to illustrate this problem. The one below shows that the "pipeline to careers" is not working well enough to reach kids at an early age and provide a wide range of mentoring and learning supports that would result in a larger number finishing high school and post high school education and entering careers in STEM or any other avocation they choose.



In the conferences I go to and web sites I browse I don't see many who are using maps and charts and thinking about this problem the way generals and CEOs think about the distribution channels and logistics needed to win military wars, or business wars.

A few years ago I created a graphic that illustrates the planning that would need to take place to enable more and better mentor-rich programs to be in neighborhoods where kids don't have an effective entry point into the "pipeline to careers" nor to that have enough effective supports along the way. As a result, we're losing kids to street violence, bad health, poor nutrition, and lack of preparation for adult jobs and responsibilities.

I've been trying to think of a way to communicate this idea in an article that I could post on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site or in the collection I've been building on Scribd.com.

If you look at this chart you'll see how I compare the planning process needed to support military forces in many places to that needed to make tutor/mentor programs available in many places. While many might want to create "pilots" or "demonstration projects" we can't really afford not to have some sort of learning support reaching K-12 kids in all of the high poverty areas of Chicago with intense forms of learning support and mentoring, while also providing needed supports to kids in all other neighborhoods who may need more inspiration and support to succeed in school and/or choose STEM careers.

Maps can help us focus our attention on speicif parts of a problem. Out of all the people talking about education reform, perhaps some can focus just on high poverty neighborhoods, while others can focus on non-poverty areas. If we can segment our focus then we're talking about the same problems and able to converge on better solutions than if we have a mixed bag of discussion where the words are the same but the meanings are different, depending on what the economic and community support is for the kids you're talking about.

So, if we have a team focused on helping kids born in poverty be starting STEM careers in 20-25 years, the first step is to be building a library of information and ideas that the group can use to innovate new solutions that might generate more consistent support, and a better distribution of resources in more places.

To reach youth at every age level in more places with age-appropriate mentoring and learning a huge range of programs will be needed, meaning the planners need to be thinking of ways to recruit, train and equip thousands of program organizers, leaders, tutors, mentors, coaches, etc.

Imagine the logistics needed to put military forces all over the world and keep them supplied with food, weapons, ammunition, medicine, etc. The army of teachers, tutors, mentors and leaders needed to reach kids in every poverty neighborhood of the Chicago region requires the same type of on-going support.

The War in Iraq lasted over 8 years. World War II lasted 4 years. WalMart has been growing for more than 40 years! Imagine the thinking that is being done some place in the headquarters of the military and at companies like Wal Mart that enables them to constantly recruit and train new talent to take the place of those who retire, resign or are lost in combat. We need this same type of thinking preparing young people for STEM careers, and for careers leading programs that prepare young people for these careers!

We've spent billions of dollars fighting wars. Big business spends billions of dollars on their human resource development so they have well-trained people in the jobs that need to be filled in order for the companies to be successful. We need people who are innovating ways to generate revenue to support this massive infrastructure of youth development, mentoring and tutoring programs in just the same way.

It all comes down to how well you can build and sustain public attention, interest and support for the war effort. Companies spend millions of dollars on advertising and public relations to maintain support for their business strategies and to attract customers to their products and services. While there are events like National Mentoring Month, National Volunteer Week, Make A Difference Day, Black History Month, etc. where is the coordination and planning needed to turn these into an orchestra of events needed to build long-term public support for this battle plan to end poverty by help more kids through school and into 21st century jobs and careers?

I have been trying to map these ideas using the types of graphics I've used in this article, and using on-line platforms like this Debategraph tool.

I'm not sure how clearly I've communicated this idea. I invite others to do their own version of this story. However, while I may not be communicating as clearly as I'd like, I've spent more years thinking about this from a systems perspective than many others in this country. I've written more than 1000 articles on this blog alone, and created numerous illustrated essays posted on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site and in many other places.

If you're trying to develop a strategy to mentor kids to jobs and careers, I'd like to encourage you to read some of the articles I've written. I also encourage you to hire me to help you understand these ideas. I can come to you and talk about any of the articles on this blog, or that I've posted in the Tutor/Mentor Institute library or the Scribd.com library.

If you've been fortunate to amass great wealth and you want to leave a legacy, why not put your name on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC or bring the Institute to alma mater where it can be integrated into the work a university does to prepare young people for adult roles.

If you'd like to connect, just post a comment or meet me on Twitter or Facebook.

I doubt you could have missed it by now, but just in case; Tuesday evening the story broke that  the Susan G Komen fund pulled support  from Planned Parenthood across the US. Rumors abound as to why they did it.Some say it was politically motivated. Komen says it was because their policies changed and because Planned Parenthood is under investigation.

After a couple of days of sticking their head in the sand and hoping it would all blow over, Nancy Brinker, the founder of Susan G. Komen made this announcement:

“We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities”

Supporters of Planned parenthood were excited. A  South Florida office of Planned Parenthood posted this on their Facebook wall:

“Thanks to YOU and people who care about women’s health, the Komen Foundation has reversed its decision…”

That post was later removed.

Although people applauded the apparent reversal of the decision, the fact remains that Komen only changed the qualifications for the next round of grants. That doesn’t necessarily mean they will continue to fund Planned parenthood. 

What about the social backlash?
For me, it started with a flood of requests to join causes on Facebook like “Komen can kiss my mammogram“, started by Alison Fine. supporting Planned Parenthood to replace the lost funding.

Then, as news spread, people started producing graphics representing how they felt about it and this collaborative Pinboard  was created by Beth Kanter allowing others to add “pins” to the board about the issue as well.

Donations flooded into Planned Parenthood to the tune of over $650,000 in 24 hours, effectively replacing what Komen’s grant would have been.

New York Mayor Bloomberg plans to match up to $250,000 in donations to planned parenthood in his own response to the decision.

Petitions started circulating from Moveon, the Breast Cancer Action Network, MomsRising and others to protest the change in policy.

3 of Komen’s top executives quit in protest.

In this screenshot of a report by analytics firm Attensity the sentiment about Susan G Komen is pretty darn clear. While up to now it was largely neutral according to this post on the Attensity blog, things have changed dramatically. Read the post there for Attensity’s take on the matter.

click to enlarge

Oh let’s just move on shall we?
In the official statement Brinker also said she hoped people would now move on. I’ll just bet she does.

“We urge everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue. We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics — anyone’s politics.”

Um, yeah, let’s not. 
Whatever your politics, or how you feel about hot button topics like abortion, this is not about abortion. Abortion makes up only 3% of what Planned Parenthood does.  This is about the right for a woman to get screening services that could save her life. It’s about making donations to an organization and knowing where your money is going. It’s also about showing organizations who do not believe in transparency that WE DO.

While millions of people are watching the superbowl on Sunday, @KomenfortheCurehas plans to use the tag #Supercure on Twitter during the event. (The NFL is/was a major sponsor of Komen). Please help spread the word about the counter-campaign. Here’s a link to share ways to take action. Please share it with your friends. bit.ly/takebackthepink

Share these links in your #takebackthepink tweets:
http://plannedparenthoodsavedme.tumblr.com/
www.causes.com/causes/650458-komen-kan-kiss-my-mammogram
http://pinterest.com/kanter/komen-can-kiss-my-mammagram/ Use these hashtags to show your support when you tweet

#takebackthePINK #SuperCure #Cancer Let’s show Susan G Komen that they need to LISTEN instead of making vague gestures and sticking their heads in the sand.

After the Super Bowl
This doesn’t end after Sunday. In addition to this effort, take a look at what the Breast Cancer Action has to say about the whole pink phenomenon. I haven’t bought pink ribbons for years. I donate to BCA and the Avon Foundation for Women because I can see where the money goes. Please. Think before you buy pink again. Think about how you can help support women (and men) who need these services through other channels.

This one should win a prize for lameness.  No graphics, no links, no attachment, no signature, nothing.  Is someone testing their new spam toy?

Sender: WorldWide Lottery (bevile@bevilehotel.com.br)
Subject: Prize Winning.
Text:
Did you receive our email ??

This one is simple and intriguing, but obviously a scam.  This site says it's a malware delivery mechanism. 

Sender: KATHRINE BURRELL (accounting@rlweiner.com) -- nope, no Kathrine Burrells work here.
Subject: Need your help!
Text:
Hello! Look, I've received an unfamiliar bill, have you ordered anything?
Here is the bill (link leads to http://bodrumadvisor.com/wp-content/themes/yoo_pure_wp/cache/kxwpq.htm?RPSBNA=2LPA6YI4NAA&3K7J=WRCJ3RCLH3O76EI&5LNS4WU=FH8PPJBS1WF&LCL=ATI67T7K&QQX4=8D198B0452RE3D6N&SKX=FIZMNFC5WFILQXA0&)

Please reply as soon as possible, because the amount is large and they demand the payment urgently.

MAILNR : Fingerprint: 80afff5d-97db4138
 

We're excited to announce that the Technology Leadership Academy is returning in 2012. Even better, thanks to the generous support of Google and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, we're able to offer the Academy at no charge to qualifying organizations.

The Academy gets at the very heart of what NTEN does. We believe that with improved tech leadership, nonprofits like yours will provide more and better programs, inspire more communities, and involve more volunteers to share their time.

> Apply by February 24th!

With improved tech leadership, our sector will be stronger, more responsive, and create more impact than ever before.

That's what the Academy is all about. You'll learn from top nonprofit leaders like Kivi Leroux-Miller, Laura Quinn, and Dahna Goldstein. By the end of the course, your organization will be prepared to use technology – in every department – to deliver impact, not just efficiency.

> Learn more and apply today!

We hope that you'll apply.

This week, our members are releasing new fundraising tools, hosting workshops, and even awarding grants. While we’re encouraged by some statistics our members released regarding nonprofits and technology, we’re also thrilled that anyone could like us this much:

Thank you so much for all your help in the NTEN Champions Fundraising Campaign, Corey Pudhorosky!

Have more news to share? Drop us a line or include your links in the comments!

Charity Dynamics released statistics that made everyone here at NTEN excited! A survey of their clients indicates that nonprofits are going to focus on social media and mobile strategies in 2012. We can’t wait to see, hear, and learn from all the innovative ways nonprofits implement their plans.

On February 9th, Health Equity Initiative is offering a workshop for nonprofits. If you’re interested in new media and health care, you may want to register for their workshop: Evaluating Outcomes of New Media-based Public Health and Health Communication Programs!

The CTK Foundation is asking you to nominate a “Hero with a Heart,” and give them a chance to win $5,000 – a simple thanks for the hard work that they do. Nominate your hero with a heart today!

I mentioned a few weeks back that Causes was releasing new fundraising tools for their platform. Well, the details of those applications are now available – and include integration with Facebook’s Timeline!

Microsoft announced the winners of the Imagine Cup Grants program, a three-year, $3 million competitive grant program for student technology and social entrepreneurs. Teams in Croatia, Ecuador, Jordan, and the United States were awarded $75,000, software, cloud computing services, solution provider support, and access to other Microsoft resources.

Anything we missed? Share your links in the comments!

Last week Google announced their new privacy policy to the world. The changes in the way that Google combines and uses information one shares with its services is effective in less than a month, on March the 1st. There is a few absolutely basic facts that every Internet user (be it a Google ID user or not) should be aware of in the context of the change, and I will try to brief them here. I would love to learn and understand how exactly non-profit organizations will be affected by the new policy -- I understand that this is a very complex issue, and it is still hard to distill how this situation will be different and unique for the civil sector in particular. It doesn’t make the questions any less important or urging for an answer though. The new Google Privacy Policy run about 10,000 words, and I strongly recommend the read.

Starting March 1st any information that Google engines tracked so far, and used for customizing a specific tool of your use (e.g. you must have noted the search results being differently positioned based on how you used the engine before) will be now available almost across the entire spectrum of Google products: “If you're signed in, we may combine information you've provided from one service with information from other services (...). In short, we'll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.”-- Google's director of privacy, product and engineering, Alma Whitten wrote in a blog post. 

 

Intuitive Experience vs. Privacy Violation

 

Whitten’s creativity goes further and can be very specific: “Google will be able to provide reminders that you’re going to be late for a meeting based on your location, your calendar and an understanding of what traffic is like that day” -- she wrote. The policy will obviously apply to mobile Internet use, particularly in case of any Android phones, and e.g. a new Kindle Fire. Because you have to sign in to your Google account to do anything except for browse the Web and make phone calls, Google will be able to track practically anything you do on your phone using Google services. 

For many life might become simpler with all the data as well as big data being processed and customized for them by Google -- there is an upside of the change that will add to a Google user experience. However, the levels of your somewhat enthusiastic attitude towards the changes differ according to how much you are willing to share with Google, and how strongly you are inclined to believe in their “don’t be evil” motto. Google pointed out that cookies and 'identifiers' will not be tagged to sensitive categories, such as those based on race, religion, sexual orientation or health. Google has done a great job explaining the change through articles, blog posts and various following the announcement.

 

Coming This March -- Steady?

 

The policy will come to life starting March 1. If you already are a Google ID user you can’t really opt -out. Google can only integrate your information if you are signed in. For example, if you’re signed in to your Gmail account on one tab, and then decide to look up a clip on YouTube on another tab without signing out of your e-mail, the data will be integrated. If you sign out or look up a YouTube clip on a different browser, the data won’t be integrated. 

Another thing, that I would strongly encourage you to do is to take a closer look at your Google privacy settings. As the policy itself advices you can:

• Review and control certain types of information tied to your Google Account by using Google Dashboard.
• View and edit your ads preferences, such as which categories might interest you, using the Ads Preferences Manager. 
• Use Google editor to see and adjust how your Google Profile appears to particular individuals.
• Control who you share information with.
• Take information out of many of Google services.

 

In the end, last but not least, you can always pull out your data from the Google Services. To learn more about liberating your data check out the Data Liberation Front manual. 

 

What Does It Mean For NGOs?

For these who have been observing Google development, and their struggle to monopolize the Internet, the policy change shouldn’t come as a surprise. Nevertheless, it does come as a statement, and should be re-thought by these who wish to be informed Internet users. Apart from asking ourselves questions about how to navigate through the Google changes, we should also take time to decide what should be a stand of a non-profit organization we represent -- work or collaborate with. How will the organizations stakeholders be affected by us using Google tools? How to avoid Google when working on a cloud? Is there a way back?

 

For these who fear the changes there are always, admitteddly less user-friendly but privacy sensitive, open source collaboration tools and platforms such as Etherpads, Zoho (commercial solutions) andalternative social media tools like Diaspora or Identica. In addition, in the shadow of the policy change Microsoft sensed an opportunity to fish for new clients, and claims their products are safer and treat your data with more respect. To see how subtly Microsoft wants to convince you to leave Google for them check this, ironically, youtube video. 

 

What Is Next?

It is probably too early to know how Google privacy policy will drive the change in how we use the Internet, and probably the majority of the users will stay with Google nevertheless.

What will you do? Will this change affect you? Were you heavily  relying on Google product.

Share your thoughts, emotions and questions in the comments or poke us via our social media channels.

 

 

Learn More:

• Read the New Privacy Policy
• Read Alma Whitten Blog Post
• Check Out the Data Liberation Manual

PublishDate:  January 2012            
January 2012

Software to Support Program Evaluation 

There's no one tool specific to program evaluation, but different types of software can help with the different parts of the process. In this article, we explore some of the tools out there that can help you make sense of the data you’ve collected.

Understanding and Improving Email Deliverability
How can you help ensure people receive the emails you send them? In this article, we talk about how to keep your bulk emails in your constituents' inbox, and out of the spam folder. Mouse Clicks for Cash: Supporting Nonprofits Through Online Retail
(A version of this article was originally published in the Non-Profit Times.) Can you make a difference in the world, just by shopping online? A growing number of businesses promise just that.

Looking to master Facebook and Twitter? Look no further than The Advanced Social Media Toolkit!

Upcoming Live Online Training

Looking to boost your software savvy? Here are the online seminars we have scheduled over the next month or so:

Choosing a Low-Cost Donor Management System
January 26, 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm Eastern. $40.00
For this session you've got two options: you can either take the webinar as normal, or join us for our first-ever offering of a webinar/consulting combo pack! 

The Advanced Social Media Toolkit
January 31, 2:00 pm - February 28, 3:30 pm Eastern. $200.00
Step beyond social media basics with this 5-session course. We'll delve into advanced social media strategy and discuss how to use your social media for branding, deeper engagement, and integrated campaigns while exploring how to measure your social media impact and creating a social media policy. Offered in partnership with NTEN. 

FREE! Optimizing Your Website for Search Engines
February 2, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Eastern. $0.00
Does your organization show up on the first page of results in search engines like Google or Yahoo?  This session will cover the techniques that can help for those without technical skills.

The Email Fundraiser's Toolkit
February 8, 2:00 pm - March 7, 3:30 pm Eastern. $175.00
Email campaigns are a fundraising tool within the reach of even the smallest organizations. An effective way to communicate with donors and raise money without much expense, they're an opportunity to provide reasons and reminders for constituents to give. This five-week series of classes will walk nonprofits through the soup-to-nuts process of creating such campaigns, just in time for year-end appeals.

Top Sellers: Telling Your Story with Blogs, Photos, and Videos
February 9, 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm Eastern. $40.00
How do you convey the great work your organization is doing with blogs, photos and videos? These tools are powerful ways to share the difference you're making in the world.  We'll cover the principles of good storytelling, look at examples and research about what's working for nonprofits, and then discuss the tools that can help you put them online.

Top Sellers: Introduction to Website Analytics
February 16, 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm Eastern. $40.00
How many people visit your Web site? What are they doing there? Through demos of AWStats and Google Analytics, we'll look at what analytics packages can tell you about your site.

See more Live and Recorded Online Trainings»

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Author: Cheryl Black

At my wedding rehearsal a couple years ago, the minister asked my groom-now-husband and I if we had any final adjustments to the ceremony. I had just one: “I don’t want to be announced as Mr. & Mrs. Ross Black. I want to be Ross and Cheryl Black.”

 I took Hubby’s last name but then and now I feel very strongly that I have my own name and prefer not to be “Mrs. Husband’s Name.” Everything, from our mortgage to our cutesy return address labels reads “Ross & Cheryl Black”; nothing says “Mr. & Mrs. Ross Black.” Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

When I get mail addressed to “Mrs. Ross Black” I throw it away without even opening it. They clearly don’t know me. Similarly my grandmother used to politely but quickly end any phone call that began with the caller asking for her by her first name. She’s always gone by “Mrs. Husband’s Name.”

Imagine that Grandma or I are your donor. How bummed would you be to learn that you didn’t get to so much as ask us for a donation because you called us by the wrong Mrs.? Wouldn’t that just kill you a little?

It’s just one of the many reasons why you can’t trust your brain or your co-worker’s brain, to house all your donor information. There are simply too many donors (I hope) with too many eccentricities to rely on a human brain. You need a tool to help you manage all those constituents and relationships.

That’s why there’s (enter the heavens opening up, sun shining down between the clouds, other-worldy music playing) the CRM.

 

Heroes with A Heart Grant Recognizes Unsung Nonprofit Heros – Guest Post by John Haydon

If you’re like most people, you get most of your inspiration from people who are quietly changing the world each and every day. They’re not on the front page of the newspaper, and they’re not mingling with the Gates and Buffets of the world. They’re everyday people like you and me who have shown extraordinary commitment to making this world better than when they found it.

The CTK Foundation “Heroes with a Heart” Grant Award asks YOU to nominate a “Hero with a Heart,” and give them a chance to win $5,000 – a simple thanks for the hard work that they do.

What are the details of the “Heroes with a Heart” Grant?

Here’s an overview of awards the CTK Foundation will offer and details on how you can nominate your Hero:

• $15,000 for Three Heroes One Hero with a Heart from each of the three categories of Health and Human Social Service, Animal Rights and Environmental Protection and Arts and Literacy will be awarded $5,000 USD and a professionally produced video about their affiliated nonprofit for use in public awareness or education.
• $1,500 for One Hero The CTK Foundation will also be offering a $1,500 (USD) President’s Choice Award (the Susan Lee Winter Grant Award) for an individual working to provide creative and innovative approaches to HIV/AIDS education or prevention.
• Blogger’s Choice Award Lastly, there will be a Blogger’s Choice Award of $1,000 (USD). The CTK Foundation will choose a blogger (hopefully Beth) who will hand-pick one winner from any category.

Applications for all Heroes with a Heart grant awards open on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 and close Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 at midnight.

Finalists will appear on the CTK Facebook page for public voting during April and winners will be announced on May 1, 2012. This award is open to registered nonprofits or charities of all types and sizes, worldwide.

Go to www.communitytech.net/foundation to nominate your Hero with a Heart today!

For regular updates on the Heroes with a Heart Grant, check out the CTK Facebook Page.

Good luck, Heroes!

John Haydon blogs about social media tips and tools here and is the co-author of Facebook for Dummies.   This post was originally published here.

 

Thanks to Hildy Gottleib over at Creating the Future, I found Hank Green's video on the Webb Telescope. Not that I care terribly much about the Webb Telescope. But I do care about the first minute of Hank's video, which you should watch first if you haven't seen it before.

Here's what Hank says: 

“There are two ways to make the world a better place. You can decrease the suck, and you can increase the awesome… And I do not want to live in a world where we only focus on suck and never think about awesome.”

I do not want to live in this world either. Every day I spend focused on fixing the suck is a day I end up wanting back. Rarely do I look around at the end of that time and think, "Damn. I'm glad I spent my day fixing the suck." Mostly I just want to curl up with a glass of wine and mindless TV, possibly take a bath to cleanse myself of the stench of the suck. 

Unfortunately, for many of us, our jobs are nothing but endless cycles of fixing the suck. This may explain a lot about why we are so depressed and dispirited by our work. All we are doing is thinking about what sucks, why it sucks, who's responsible for how much it sucks, how it's never going to stop sucking, how all we are talking about is how much things suck, etc.

Frankly, it sucks. 

And here's the thing. I'm not even sure that we are truly able to decrease the suck by focusing on that.  The suck is like quicksand or a black hole. It just pulls you in and drains from your mind all memories or ideas of the awesome. When you are thinking about the suck, the awesome no longer exists. You end up spending your time moving between less and more sucky.

I actually believe that the only way to decrease the suck is by increasing the awesome. 

The awesome is inspiring. It shows you what can happen, rather than what can't. The more you work for the awesome, the better you feel. AND the better your work becomes. Striving for the awesome is building something. It's creation. 

I spend a lot of time working with people who are feeling stuck or want something different for their careers. Often their unhappiness can be traced back to exactly how much time they are spending with the suck. Their goal is to find the awesome again. 

So here's a simple career tip I'm trying to live by--if you want to change the world and feel better about what you're doing, increase the awesome. 

Brett Meyer Communications Director NTEN Nearly 90 million Americans use their phone to read email. If you don't improve your email template, you may be ignored by a large part of your audience.

If you've been been putting off accepting the growing reality that people read the messages your organization sends on mobile devices, stop right now. Just stop it.

ComScore reports that nearly 90 million Americans use their phone to read email – and that number grew by 28% over the past year. Mobile is no longer something we need to worry about at some point in the future. To ensure that we're getting our messages out effectively, we need to address it right now.

Fortunately, it's pretty easy to get started.

Karl Hedstrom IT Director NTEN While communications styles may clash, we still need to find ways to work together. Knowing what your own style is may help.

We all have different communication styles. Often, they clash. It's an issue we all deal with in our workplace to some extent. Yes, even at nonprofits. 

I recently attended a workshop during the EDUCAUSE Institute New IT Managers Program, where we took one of the myriad of tests that help determine your primary communication style. For this particular test, explained in much more detail here, the different styles were:

• Thinker (Structure, logic, organization, problem solving)
• Feeler (Expression, human interaction, projecting feelings)
• Intuitor (Imagination, theory, envisioning, speculation)
• Sensor (Doing, competing, getting results)

 

This webinar to happen on Feb 9 is the second one in the TechSoup Digital Storytelling series. It will provide you with great tips for shooting your video, and will be run by David J. Neff.  You'll learn:
 
• What equipment is right for your organization
• How to set up a good shot
• Considerations for capturing indoor, outdoor and event footage
 
David J. Neff is the Co-Founder and CEO of Lights. Camera. Help. He would say that he is a author, teacher, speaker, blogger, network weaver, and social media scientist. For over 10 years he has been helping people and nonprofits focus on doing good all across the world. He did this through 9 years at the American Cancer Society as the Director of Web, Film and Interactive Strategy. While there he started their film and documentary department. David also shot a full-length documentary and owned and operated a film production company here in Austin, TX. @daveiam
 
Be sure to check out the TS Digs page for more information:  http://www.tsdigs.org  

Details:

• Date: Thursday, February 9
• Time: 11 a.m. Pacific (2 p.m. Eastern)
• Capturing Your Story on Camera   
• Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/179411545

 

 

 

 

 

Last week I had a really energizing phone conversation with one of my Career Clarity Campers, someone who has  jumped into the activities with both feet and is swimming joyfully in the experience. 

One of the things I've told the Campers to do is to pay attention to their work experiences, to identify what inspires and energizes them and then to look at how they can bring more of that to their work.   Essentially this is asking people to work with more intention, rather than letting work happen to them. 

This Camper has embraced the idea wholeheartedly, spending the first 30-40 minutes of his day thinking about what he wants to have happen, given the calls, appointments and goals he has for the day. For example, he's identified having more meaningful conversations as being an important value for him, so each day, he looks at how he can listen more carefully, dig deeper in discussions and provide really meaningful follow-up to people. 

He also uses this  morning time to hone in on what's really important for him to get from his day. He's looking for "what's REALLY important?" and finding that frequently it's nurturing connections, building relationships and spending his time on helping people make a real difference.

 He tells me that starting his day this way is energizing and inspiring and that the good results he's seeing are encouraging him to continue the practice even when that little voice inside him says he's should be jumping into email or some other more "productive" activity. 

What's interesting to me is hearing how working with greater intentionality is creating greater intensity for him. He told me that he's "reconnecting with the pleasure of his work," even having entire days where his work felt more like leisure and fun, rather than something he's getting paid to do. 

The tasks of his job have not changed. What is changing is HOW he does his work and, more importantly, how much of his true self he is bringing to that work. The more he focuses on what he wants from the experiences he's having and the more he approaches his work with an idea of creating a different experience, the more engaged and inspired he's feeling. 

 Essentially, the more intention and creation he brings to his daily work, the better it's feeling to him. 

I've found for myself that working more intentionally and focusing each day on what I want to create in my work has great payoffs. Even on those days where I'm having to respond to what other people want from me, I try to bring my intentions for what I want to create to those interactions. It makes a difference. 

So how intentionally are you working? How does working with intention change your experience of your work? 

Author: Miriam Kagan

Did you really just read that?? Is this woman crazy? While I do admit to being a little nuts at times (my mother would say all the time), on this point you gotta trust me. 

When it comes to becoming an organization focused on delighting constituents (i.e. constituent engagement), implementing and optimizing CRM (a constituent relationship management system), is the easy part if you work at an organization whose culture isn't constituent centric. And chances are that if you work at a nonprofit that's been around 10+ years, has 10+ employees, and 10+ constituents, that's you.

Organizational change and evolution from a business unit, process, and progran-centered culture to one that revolves around the constituent and donor experience is a hot topic, with lots of advice being dispensed from very reputable sources. Consultants like myself are full of helpful advice on just how to do that. “Pivot toward constituent engagement,” we like to tell you. Or, “management must embrace and imbue a constituent centric attitude throughout the organization.” Last time you were at the pharmacy, did you pick up the constituent engagement attitude dispenser in the specialty item aisle?

My point here is not to down my own kind. Rather, I want to acknowledge that the change required by an organization to transform to make meaningful use of CRM is more difficult than we'd often care to admit.

Here are a few observations on ways to start thinking about how to make that change.

• Get executive buy in or you'll be swimming upstream. That is just a cold, hard fact. Does this mean you can't build your own CRM fiefdom? Sure you can. And, you can wait for the benefits of what you've done to be eventually acknowledged.  Once you've shown impact to the bottom line, maybe even the executives will change their mind. But, if you don't have a C-level champion, and one who can get stuff done, you have a long road ahead of you.

So, step 1: figure out who at your organization is in a position to say “we are doing this and that's that.” See what you can to get them on board. Use case studies, board members, major donors, promises of home-baked goods, to champion your cause.

• It takes time for people to change, so keep beating the drum. So you're the executive that's on board with constituent engagement, and you've pronounced “that's that” but your staff seem to be going about their business the usual way. Are you assuming it's because they just 'don't get it’ or maybe because they don't want to change their process?

Could be. But look at your internal structure and ask yourself: how are my employees incentivized? Does our culture and reward structure support collaborating to engage constituents?

Let's say your development director owns offline marketing and your director of communications owns online marketing and online giving. How would you behave if you were the development director with $100K lying around as the fiscal year winds down? Would you give it to the marketing person to use for an online stewardship effort that they could claim the “benefit” of in their bottom line, or would you pre-pay some of your future production costs to make your own future bottom line look better? I bet the answer would depend on how your performance would be measured.

So step 2: Ask yourself: How do we measure staff performance? Do they each have a number to meet? Or, are they collaborating toward an organization-wide goal and everyone wins if the goals are met?

• One department or one program at a time is just fine. Got a particularly stubborn (and maybe influential) detractor? Not in a position to change that equation? That's ok.

So Step 3: Change what you can.

In fact, even if you don't have that problem, you probably don't want to swallow the whole constituent engagement cake whole. Start with digestible bites. That's how we do it when we're working with our customers to move to CRM – in phases.

Maybe you can bring together the events and advocacy folks, and get them to create a combined calendar--sort out the “this name is mine” business (let's say we can all agree that during a legislative session, advocacy wins if someone has to).

Or, bring together your communications and development teams to align offline production schedules with online message planning. Yes, your offline folks need to know 4-6 months in advance. How do you make that happen?

Your daily affirmation:

A final point here, and I want everyone to look in the mirror and repeat this until you believe it:

Unless you've never heard the word CRM, you are not behind yet.

Constituent-engagement is the holy grail of our industry. Yes, there are the leaders and the laggards, but, if you are thinking about it, dreaming about it, trying it, you're in the race. Don't feel like you are lagging behind because everyone else has it figured out. They don't. Even the fancy pants commercial folks don't have it all figured out. For proof, ask one of their CMOs or CTOs about social media interaction attribution (and duck).

Interested to see how fellow nonprofit are measuring up (and rating themselves) in the CRM race? Check out Convio's Integrated Multi-Channel Marketing Report.

Source: thefastertimes.com via Noland on Pinterest

 

On Tuesday, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, a leading breast cancer charity,  pulled hundreds of thousands of dollars in breast cancer screening funds from Planned Parenthood.  Each year millions of women are screened for breast cancer at Planned Parenthood, and Susan G. Komen’s funding pays for about 170,000 of those screenings.  These services are particularly important for women from under-served communities.

The AP reported that Komen for the Cure has decided to halt grants to Planned Parenthood and the decision was politically motivated.   Within hours, Planned Parenthood sent a fundraising email out to its network, asking supporters to replace the money that Komen had pulled for breast cancer screenings for low-income women.   As the news traveled from email boxes to social networks to mainstream media, activists, men, and women expressed their outrage.

My Networked Nonprofit co-author, Allison Fine, started a fundraising campaign on Causes this morning called “Komen Can Kiss My Mammagram”  quickly raising several thousand dollars.    I observed conversations happening in threads on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks – people urging their friends to donate or take action.        I started receiving emails from organizations like Momsrising urging us to email the Komen organization and ask them to restore this much needed support of women’s health.

My colleague, Kivi Leroux-Miller, wrote an astute case study documenting the social media response and provided an analysis about why it happened.    As Kivi says, “This is what happens when a leading nonprofit jumps into a highly controversial area of public debate without a communications strategy, stays silent, and therefore lets others take over the public dialogue, perhaps permanently redefining the organization and its brand. Watch and learn, so you don’t make the same mistake on whatever hot button issues your organization might be wading into.”  Read her analysis.

Let me go a little meta here.  Last week Kivi wrote about “newsjacking” the technique of piggy backing on a crisis to get more media attention.   And it worked!  Kivi got a call from a newspaper in Dallas writing about the nonprofit marketing angle.  She also got quoted on an influential blog.

I asked Kivi to share her process:

I was on the Washington Post site reading something else when I saw the AP story. Literally five minutes later (around 4 pm ET), I got the fundraising appeal email from Planned Parenthood (nicely customized with my name and state, I might add). I immediately forwarded it to Nancy Schwartz, because she had blogged about Komen’s Kentucky Fried Chicken partnership and I knew she’d want to follow up. Again, literally minutes later, I started to see mentions on Facebook and Twitter.

Nancy and I tossed around the idea of doing some kind of joint post about the story, her on the branding, me probably on how Planned Parenthood grabbed the moment, to publish on Thursday since Nancy was busy all day Wednesday. But then the story just exploded on Twitter and Facebook in the early evening, and I kept waiting to see what Komen would say. And I waited, and waited, and waited.

Absolutely nothing.

The fact that they had this totally inane tweet about prostate cancer in a mummy as their most recent tweet when they were getting eaten alive on Twitter just made me crazy. Same thing on Facebook — their most recent post was about a partnership with Energizer and people were just going wild on Energizer, because they just happened to be the most recent update on Komen’s page.  I probably checked Komen’s Twitter and Facebook pages 20 times Tuesday night, pleading with them in my head to say something to their supporters. All the while, I was taking screen captures, which I’ve made a habit, because it’s so much easier to just grab it as you see it, rather than trying to find it later.

Whenever I get obsessed on a nonprofit story like this, where I find myself spending an hour, or two, or more focused on it, I know I have to blog it right away. If I’m that taken by a story, I know my readers will be too, and if I’m going to put that much time into something, I have to turn it into content I can use — I’m trying to blog five days a week after all, and it’s not always easy!  Before I went to bed, I’d decided to post on Wednesday and to focus on Komen’s non-reaction and how I really believed they had completely changed their positioning within field, I assumed without really meaning to do so. I’d posted on both my personal and Nonprofit Marketing Guide Facebook pages that I was probably going to write about it the next day.

Got up Wednesday morning, saw that Komen still hadn’t said anything, and started writing. Building out a blow-by-blow post like that, then adding your own commentary, takes some time, especially when dealing with a controversial topic like abortion. My own personal feelings aside, I really wanted to focus on the nonprofit marketing angle, because that’s why people read my blog.  I probably spent a solid two hours on the post this morning, not counting all the research the night before.

I really didn’t think about the newsjacking potential of the post until I got into writing the commentary, and decided to really call out Komen for the lack of responsiveness to their supporters. I knew it would be a good lesson for my blog readers, but then mid-morning, Komen posted on Facebook (but still not on Twitter), and I found the response to be really lacking given the outrage.

I published around 11:30 a.m. ET, and at that point, I figured my post would probably get covered by the nonprofit trade press, like the Chronicle of Philanthropy (which it did). I really didn’t appreciate that the story had gone beyond the nonprofit news world until my phone rang around 1:30 pm and it was Kate Nocera from Politico.com. That’s when I thought, “Damn, I just newsjacked this story!” She had been searching for reaction to the Komen story and came upon my post. I was so irritated with Komen at that point that I was pretty critical in the interview.

I usually publish my weekly e-newsletter on Tuesday or Wednesday and hadn’t gotten to it Tuesday, so it only made sense to include the Komen story in the e-newsletter too. I had planned for that edition to be a longer article on using photography, but I cut that back and led with Komen. Traffic to my site was so heavy this afternoon that the site started crashing every 15 minutes, so I had to call my hosting company and upgrade (I was already on a decent virtual private server, but had to double the capacity.)

 

This isn’t the first time that Komen has endured a social media backlash. It’s ill fated “Buckets for the Cure” backfired.

 

Source: Uploaded by user via Beth on Pinterest

As I reading the comments on Allison’s campaign wall over at Causes, my friend Stephanie Rudat has posted some of the visuals.    This made think of Pinterest.  Given that Pinterest’s demographics are mostly women, I wondered whether it might be worth experimenting with some “Pinactivism.” I set up a board named after Allison’s Campaign, “Komen Kan Kiss My Mammagram” and invited other women who work in social media and activism to add to the board.   All the visuals are linked to Allison’s campaign. The board got over 500 followers in less than half hour.   Whether they donate or not is another story.

The point is that social networking platforms provide a canvas for people to find each other, self organize actions in something they believe, and do it.   A lot more nimbly than the most likely fortress like communications machine at Komen.   In the book I just finished with KD Paine,  we talk about the importance and a method of measuring relationships.    This public relations disaster also shines a light on the importance of measurement of relationships and the ability to respond in real time.