1. Governing the Networked NonprofitIn Age of Social Media Beth Kanter, Visiting ScholarSocial Media and Nonprofits, David and Lucile Packard FoundationNovember, 2010 – BoardSource
4. What we’re going to cover today ….. 9:45-10:15 Introductions, Icebreaker, Networked Nonprofit Overview 10:15-10:45 Social Culture 10:45-11:05Transparency 11:05-11:15 Reflection and Book Raffle
5. Share Pairs Introduce yourselves and your organizations Just Two Words Photo by Franie
19. Demo of Social Media at Board Meeting Twitter and Flickr
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22. Will board meetings of the future allow us to reach out to professional networks and get advice and input for decision-making?
23. Loss of control over their branding and marketing messages Dealing with negative comments Addressing personality versus organizational voice (trusting employees) Make mistakes Make senior staff too accessible Perception of wasted of time and resources Suffering from information overload already, this will cause more
33. Is there a marketing or communications tactic that your organization is using and needs a joyful funeral?What would you say before you bury the body?
34. Your organization has a social culture if …. Treats skepticism as a conversation starter, not stopper Leaders understand the power behind the tools Leaders are open to reverse mentoring if needed Describe results Try it and fix it approach vs blame game Value learning
35. Reflection: How social is your organization’s culture? NOT AT ALL VERY Somewhere in between? Flickr photos by heydee and intherough
60. Theme 2: Transparency Networked Nonprofits consider everyone inside and outside of the organization resources for helping them to achieve their goals
86. Two guiding principles in social media are to Be Human and Be Honest. Had the National Theatre adopted either policy, they might have done themselves a service.
87. How does your organization deal with mistakes? Share an example of a mistake that ended up being a valuable organizational learning experience?
I wear many hats these days. I’m the CEO of Zoetica, write Beth’s Blog, and Visiting Scholar for Nonprofits and Social Media at the Packard Foundation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/franie/471300085/What do you want to learn today about social media strategy?What’s your burning question?What’s one thing you know about social media that you can share with others today?
I’ll be talking about a couple of themes from my book, The Networked Nonprofit.
It isn’t a nonprofit with an Internet Connection and a Facebook Profile …Networked Nonprofits are simple and transparent organizations. They are easy for outsiders to get in and insiders to get out. They engage people to shape and share their work in order to raise awareness of social issues, organize communities to provide services or advocate for legislation. In the long run, they are helping to make the world a safer, fairer, healthier place to live.Networked Nonprofits don’t work harder or longer than other organizations, they work differently. They engage in conversations with people beyond their walls -- lots of conversations -- to build relationships that spread their work through the network. Incorporating relationship building as a core responsibility of all staffers fundamentally changes their to-do lists. Working this way is only possible because of the advent of social media. All Networked Nonprofits are comfortable using the new social media toolset -- digital tools such as email, blogs, and Facebook that encourage two-way conversations between people, and between people and organizations, to enlarge their efforts quickly, easily and inexpensively.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicmcphee/422442291/Problem statement: Explosion in size of nonprofit sector over last twenty years, huge increase in donations and number of foundations, and yet needle hasn’t moved on any serious social issue. A sector that has focused on growing individual institutions ever larger has failed to address complex social problems that outpace the capacity of any individual org. or institution to solve them. Our interest and passion is in solving these problems.
Problem statement: Explosion in size of nonprofit sector over last twenty years, huge increase in donations and number of foundations, and yet needle hasn’t moved on any serious social issue. A sector that has focused on growing individual institutions ever larger has failed to address complex social problems that outpace the capacity of any individual org. or institution to solve them. That’s why feel strongly that nonprofits need to work more like networks.http://www.flickr.com/photos/sorby/258577150/http://www.flickr.com/photos/uncultured/1815645413/
Solution: Networks of individuals and institutions that reduces the burden on everyone, leverages the capacity, creativity, energy and resources of everyone to share solutions, solve problems. This changes the definition of scale for social change – was institutions now networks. The transition from working like this to this – doesn’t happen over night, can’t flip a switch
Pratham Books – mission to get high quality children’s books to rural villages in IndiaEveryone in their organization is using social media to spread missionA few months ago, they blogged about a newspaper article about a group of young people in Kolkata who collected books for kids in a rural village.A board member offered to donate money to cover cost of books for the kids to make a second trip.They contacted the newspaper to get the kids names/cell phone numbers, but no luckTheir entire board is using Twitter – as well as the staff – so they started tweeting they were looking for the cell phone numbers of these kids.Within a half hour the message was Tweeted and retweeted, and within a day they got the cell phone number and within the weeks the kids did a second run with the books in their BoiGari – Book Van ….
In our book, we interviewed traditional institutions in the process of transformation – like Red Cross, Humane Society.The transition of how a nonprofit goes from institution to looking like and working more like a network is what our book is aboutThe transition isn’t an easy, flip a switch – and it happens – it takes time I want to quickly share a couple of themes …
I’ll be talking about a couple of themes from my book, The Networked Nonprofit.
So what happens is that we treat this skepticism like the black smoke monster on LOST – we’re afraid to have those difficult conversations that gets us to a social culture.
How many LOST Fans? Pick your boggyman – the blob, the attack of the killer tomatoes
Andy Bales Union Rescue Mission
There is also a need to describe your social media strategy in terms of the value – how it will help you reach your goals. Many leaders are “yellow thinkers” – that is they need to see the results laid out in advance before they will say.Pre-school California – there is also a conversation about value – and that happens by connecting social media strategy to communications objectives.
Rewards learning and reflectionTry it and fix it approach – fail fastAppreciates individuality and that does not indicate a lack of professionalism or caringTrusts staff to make decisions and respond rapidlyIt is more important to try something new, and work on the problems as they arise, than to figure out a way to do something new without having any problems.”
Rewards learning and reflectionTry it and fix it approach – fail fastAppreciates individuality and that does not indicate a lack of professionalism or caringTrusts staff to make decisions and respond rapidlyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vo4M4u5Boc
They also know that in order to have more impact, they need to scale. They wanted to go beyond having social media be a silo in the communications department, and through the Target experience they realized the value of employee use of social networks/social media. They worked on a social media policy, guidelines and an operational manual so that anyone working in affiliates as well as national could be ambassador on social networks. The guidelines also extend to volunteers. The overall policy is encouraging, not controlling. The operational handbook gives them specific steps, examples, and tips for being effective.
Testing of the policy – and there may be things that you didn’t think
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/444790702/Fortresses work hard to keep their communities and constituents at a distance, pushing out messages and dictating strategy rather than listening or building relationships. Fortress organizations are losing ground today because they spend an extraordinary amount of energy fearing what might happen if they open themselves up to the world. These organizations are floundering in this set-me-free world powered by social media and free agents.This trajectory changes when organizations learn to use social media and actually become their own social networks.
The opposite of Fortresses, Transparents can be considered as glass houses, with the organizations presumably sitting behind glass walls. However, this isn’t really transparency because a wall still exists. True transparency happens when the walls are taken down, when the distinction between inside and outside becomes blurred, and when people are let in and staffers are let out.University of California Museum of Paleontology, “Introduction to Porifera,” http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/porifera/porifera.html (accessed on May 21, 2009). Opening the Kimono in Beth’s Blog: A Day in the Life of Nonprofit Social Media Strategists and Transparency,” Beth’s Blog, posted August 3, 2009, http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2009/08/opening-the-kimino-week-on-beths-blog-a-day-in-the-life-of-nonprofit-social-media-strategists-and-tr.html (accessed September 30, 2009).
How many are more like fortresses?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uncorneredmarket/370672187/“You cannot be fully transparent all the time because you need to give people a safe place to have the discussion without disrespecting others.”Not black and white – line the Esther Dyson Story at Transparency CampWhat is TransparencyTransparency isn’t black and white. It is very tempting to grade organizations as either transparent or not. However, transparency isn’t quite that simple, it is a sliding scale of openness that changes upon the circumstances and needs of an organization and its network. Organizations certainly need to be open to people on the outside, easy to enter, understand, and navigate. However, this does not mean that every conversation, every piece of paper, every decision, needs to be open to everybody. “You cannot be fully transparent all the time because you need to give people a safe place to have the discussion without disrespecting others.”This black and white notion scares a lot of organizations. Their is definitely a need for a safe place for private conversations – but I our default impulse is to do things in screen – is to build a Robert Frost mending wall. I wonder what it would be like if the default was – everything is open and you had to decide what should be closed?
Amy Boroff (@njdevmgr), development manager for Junior Achievement of NJ in Princeton [emphasis added], discovered one of her new Twitter followers was Kate Specchio (@ecsfoundation), co-founder of Morris County-based The Emily C. Specchio Foundation. Through their tweets, Amy recognized the potential for working together. They continued to communicate on Twitter in real-time, after working hours, to learn more about each respective organization. After several weeks, JANJ submitted a proposal to ECS for funding for an inaugural event: the Women's Future Leadership Forum. The ECS Foundation accepted the proposal and granted funds to help support aspiring female high school students become future leaders.
I’ll be talking about a couple of themes from my book, The Networked Nonprofit.
I wear many hats these days. I’m the CEO of Zoetica, write Beth’s Blog, and Visiting Scholar for Nonprofits and Social Media at the Packard Foundation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/3058182308/Social media is transforming how nonprofits do their work and relate to external audiences. Strategic use of social media allows organizations to reach new people and bring added value to social change-driven work. A social media strategy is a powerful way to spread your advocacy messages, attract new members and donors, and increase awareness of your brand throughout the community. But how do you get started?A best practice is thoughtful experimentation…. but what fun is that to do it alone? Remember those hands-on science experiments in elementary school? Well, that’s what we’re going to be doing together – hands-on experiments, low-risk, high learning. This is an intimate, laboratory for a maximum of 12 like-minded, children-focused organizations in California.
Steve Norris, ex-Tory Mayoral contender and adviser to Boris Johnson, says: “Not only do I not want the Southbank Centre to be listed — I think the National Theatre should have a Compulsory Demolition Order!” The Londoner, however, has a soft spot for Sir Denys Lasdun’s National. So there.
