Mobilizing Communities in a Connected Age Funders Edition

Mobilizing Communities in a Connected Age:Using New Tech Tools & Strategies for Impact
Dial in to 866-740-1260, Access code: 7730388
Thursday, July 21, 2011

Motivation for this Project
How can nonprofits improve their use of new technology tools and strategies for social impact?

Research Questions and Methodology
Research Questions:
What are key characteristics, practices of successful orgs?
What can funders do to better support nonprofits’ efforts?
Methodology:
16 nonprofit advocacy organizations – California, national
Grantees of Mitchell Kapor Foundation & ZeroDivide
2 non-grantees for benchmarks
Color of Change & CREDO Action
Intensive interviews, reviewed websites, collateral material
Full report at http://zerodivide.org/tech_advocacy

Rubric for Evaluation
Color of Change
CREDO Action
Ella Baker Center
Green for All
Netroots Nation
Voto Latino
Leading
Aspiring
Emerging

I. What makes a Tech “Leading” organization?
Strategic use of technology across operational functions
Databases talk to one another
Tech integrated into business strategy
Organization embraces tech as a lever to improve org processes

I. What makes a Tech “Leading” organization?
Strategic use of tech to engage different stakeholder groups, for development work, communications, and program
Fosters a dialogue with different audiences
Segments constituents
Consistently uses analytics (A/B Testing)
At least one high-level Marketing/Communications expert on staff

II. Success - It’s all about leadership
Single largest determinant = Leadership, not size or budget!
Nonprofit Leadership
Interest in technology
Understand tech as an “enabler”
Hire tech-savvy staff members

Future Funding Projections

How funders are investing in grantees’ tech use
Technical assistance, trainings - one-offs, boot camp, weekly
Operational functionality - website, CRM integration
Program-related - funding social media component
Cohort - tech capacity building, leadership dev, social media
Staffing up - hiring online engagement director, etc.
Innovation challenges - health monitoring app, asset building
Gen Ops

III. Recommendations to Funders
Fund tech for
long-term
Pair funding
with consulting
Foster leadership
development
Build a community
of practice
Provide thought
leadership
Fund tech for
movement
building
Enable automated
performance
evaluation
Fund integrated
CRM systems

Special Guests
Gabriel Rey-Goodlatte & Raven Brooks

Raven BrooksExecutive Director
Special Guest

About Netroots Nation
What is Netroots Nation?
How is it different than many nonprofit organizations?

Case Study: New Media at Netroots Nation
Quick usage examples with primary goal:
Mobile app - engage attendees
Video - engage non-attendees & potential supporters
Twitter - rapid response & assessment

Learnings and recommendations
Setting a strategy and goals is far more important than the tools and tactics
Measurement and analytics
The crucial role of leadership

Special Guest
Gabriel Rey-GoodlatteCampaign Director

Case Study: Breitbart / Huffington Post Campaign
Pushed Huffington Post not to feature Breitbart’s column
Traditional email petition campaign PLUS use of Twitter - took it to scale, beyond existing membership and signers

Maximizing advantages of chosen tool’s functionality
Use of Twitter served several strategic purposes:
Pass along – spread word, encouraged friends to sign
Direct pressure on Huffington Post, in real time, didn’t need to wait to deliver petitions
Ability to quickly refine message - achieved swift victory and changed suggested tweet to stop directing pressure at HuffPo, spread news of victory:
Victory! After 43k @ColorOfChange members speak out, @HuffingtonPost agrees not to run front-page @AndrewBreitbart http://wapo.st/gRGF9Q

Learnings: How we integrate social media
Social media built into planning, execution of each campaign
Each program staffer, not communications person, takes the lead on drafting social media content (across usual silos)
Focus on unique properties and opps of social media tools vs. replicating old models using new tools

Key take-aways
Success is due to leadership fostering tech-fluent culture
Tech integration across org: from ops to comms to program
Systems to support day-to-day and seize opportunities: importance of planning and workflows
Experimentation, analysis, re-implement
Drive decisions based on org goals and strategies, not tools

Conversation plus Questions and Answers
Unmute yourself via *7 and join the conversation!
Questions about the research and presentations?
Do the findings sync with your experience?
How are you investing in grantees’ tech use for impact?

Thank you + Resources and Next Steps
Raven Brooks - @ravenb on Twitter
http://netrootsnation.org
Gabriel Rey-Goodlatte – gabriel@colorofchange.org
http://colorofchange.org
ZeroDivide – jeff@zerodivide.org, @FundingMedia
http://zerodivide.org/resources_1
The Mitchell Kapor Foundation
http://mkf.org

Mobilizing Communities in a Connected Age:Using New Tech Tools & Strategies for Impact

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Mobilizing Communities in a Connected Age Funders Edition

by Margaret Stangl on Jul 21, 2011

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Mobilizing Communities in a Connected Age Funders Edition — Presentation Transcript