Final Blog

My campaign evaluation was on the Red Shoe Society’s event, From Greenville with Love. The event was held Nov. 4 at Zen in downtown Greenville. This was the second one that the RSS had planned and it was noticeably better. There were more people, more donations and better food (in my opinion). I looked at the Dragonfly Effect online and realized that though the event was good, they were missing a key element. The four wings are: focus, grab attention, engage others and take action. While the RSS managed to get three of the wings, they did not engage others. This is where I had to critique a great event, and the more I dug the more I realized that this is not a networked nonprofit, in fact they have all the tools readily available, but they are not using them correctly. Their websites are a mess, with very little information, and with two it’s confusing. Their Twitter account is attached to the Ronald McDonald House global account so you get tweets from all over the world, not just the one in your hometown. RSS is for Greenville, SC not the rest or the world. Then there is the Facebook page, which definitely needs improvement. The RSS only uses their Facebook page to promote an event, but does nothing to engage followers. The last post was the day before the event, and the last picture was from a car wash over a year ago! They have all the right tools available to them; they just are using them correctly. They should have a post that talks about the success of the event and post pictures of people having a good time and be more transparent with the amount of money they raised for the Ronald McDonald House.

The event was a great success, and if they could just be more engaging and make people feel more included with the bigger picture, they could have an amazing event next year.  

10 & 11

Chapter 10 starts to build on the ground work of being transparent, simple, and listening and building relationships. Funding is one of the staples of a nonprofit organization, and methods of special events and mailing potential donors are practices we have all heard of. A new way is donating online, like the “Donate Here” button. This does nothing to build relationships, but during Haiti, the Red Cross had a text ability to donate that went along with commercials that showed the massive destruction on Haiti and pulled on your heart strings. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34850532/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/t/mobile-giving-help-haiti-exceeds-million/

They also engage you people by using celebrities by using people they look up to, like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. This made people feel like they were a part of the help instead of just a text and a dollar.

Storytelling is how the Susan G Colman Foundation makes such a powerful impact on people, even if they don’t know someone personally that has breast cancer, they still can relate to the person telling their story.

Thankfullness in another point the book makes and I saw it first hand with the event Jessica and I planned. The fact that Julie Meredith came by to say thank you made such an impact that the restaurant owners kept the Safe Harbor information and wanted to pass it along to Certus Bank.

Chapter 11 talks about governance and its need for an organization to succeed. They safeguard the organization so to speak, but social media can play a curtail role in bringing in expertise and live, new energy. Without social media it can seem like a monarchy and people will not want to just go out and ask for money when they don’t get a say in what’s going on within the organization.

The lack of diversity doesn’t surprise me at all. I mean, look at the big 6 that control the media in the first place. All white, all male, all wealthy. I makes since that some nonprofits would have certain “cliques” as well. A way to help get an organization networked in a sense of governing is to give people options. Just because their job title says they are to answer the phones doesn’t mean they can’t participate and contribute their ideas. Also, the project should be out in the open, not hidden in a boardroom. Create an online, private, social network. This will engage everyone, even the shy member that would normally keep to himself. Allow people to participate in meetings and draft agendas online, and again, the meetings don’t have to take place in the boardroom. If it’s easier for people to meet at a public library, then that’s where the meeting should take place.

8&9

Working with a crowd can be both a blessing and a curse. You can break down barriers between your organization and the public and coheres many people to participate in small or large ways. Crowdsourcing can also be put into four categories: Collective intelligence, crowd creation, crowd voting and crowd funding. Collective intelligence is just what it sounds like, a group of people are ging to be smarter than one individual… two heads are better than one. Crowd creation is when the crowd literally creates or contributes directly to something, like a project, work of art or as the book uses an example of, an opera. Crowd voting is nothing new; people like to put their view points out there. Finally crowd funding, which is either by donation or purchase, as well as the understanding that no reimbursement will be made.

You also need to know how to work with a crowd. One thing to keep in mind is to connecting with the correct audience. This idea is explained in an article http://alasdairmunn.com/2011/10/crowdsourcing/. You have to have the right crowd for a particular project, they need to have the specific expertise to turn an effort into a success. The task also needs to be interesting but not overwhelming. People also must feel that their input matters, even if it’s a disagreement. At least they know their voice was heard.

Then there’s microplanning, which is an iterative process of small experiments that lets organizations change, scale, or scrap them easily, quickly and inexpensively (p 110). There are cautions to look out for. One caution, crowds are unpredictable, they just show up. You can’t plan or predict when or why, and they can be mean. Crowds in general are fine, but when they turn into big scary mobs, that’s a real problem, and Motrin found out the hard way.

The second chapter, 9, I took some issue with. If you look at what interests and audience, then Michael Vick wouldn’t have been the only reason a dog fighting ring was such a hit. Yes, the fact that he is a celebrity football player made the world hear about it, but the social media circuit is what really launched the whole thing to another level.

And since this is my blog, I rescue mini bull terrier which are NOT pit bull terriers. Both are loving and wonderful dogs, but they are two completely different breeds. They don’t even look alike! I will get off my soap box now.

Videos came out as part of a Humane Society challenge, and people went crazy. Why did it reach so many people? The 1:10:100 rule, if one person makes it, ten share it, one hundred will watch it. The advocacy is called a learning loop. Like the Humane Society, they had a specific , narrow objective, that was low cost/low risk, and it created a sort of outreach to educate people.

Engaging with people is very important. There are ways to measure if your blog is getting through to people, like how many subscribers do you have and reviewing monthly trends. Comments are the most powerful measure though, when people comment that means you are influencing them in some way. You are getting your message across and people are responding.

Chapters 5 and 6

The fifth chapter in our book talks about Listening, engaging and building relationships. Showing that you are listening in social media is huge. As Chapstick recently found out, if you delete criticism and appear you are not listening, it can blow up in your face. Always keep in mind you may not always hear what you want, but listening to what the public (supporters or not) have to say is the only way to ensure you can build strong relationships. Engaging is the next step. Safe Harbor does a great job in this department. They Twitter and FB constantly educating people on victims and survivors and inviting people to functions and events. They are also building strong relationships by being who they are; authentic.

The story about the CEO of Whole Foods (or as some call whole paycheck) astroturfing is hilarious. The funny thing is, he’s still in the news for using a pseudonym, like in this article here:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/23/rahodeb-returns-whole-foo_n_103244.html

It is also true that social media cannot create friendships, people create friendships. You can enhance your relationship through social media, but still, how close are you to your 18 long lost middle school friends on Facebook? These people may fit into the category of Happy Bystanders on the Ladder of Engagement. Some people may want to be more engaged but don’t have time, or know how, others just may be happy to spread the word when asked. The largest point is to ASK.

In Chapter six the book talks about Dashboards and how important they are for an organization to measure their progress. The website: http://www.nten.org/blog/2009/04/16/dashboards-track-your-organizational-progress has a very impressive list of what to include, how to include it and how it make it look presentable. This is information that should be shared with the organization, but what about the public? The book gives an example of what happens when a Dashboard goes public:   http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2009/11/is-a-publically-shared-dashboard-your-nonprofits-best-friend.html  and in this case it was a good decision. They offered transparency, which is more important now due to the rapid development of social media.

There are three types of organizations when it comes to transparency; the fortress, the transactionals and the transparent. The fortress is exactly like it sounds, guarded with high walls and zero transparency. If this sounds like the DMV you would be correct. The second is transactionals, these organizations base decisions on cost. Finally there are transparent organizations. These organizations are like glass houses, and they are much stronger because there is that element of trust involved.   By making your work public, you are setting a standard for your organization. People will trust you more if you are not hiding behind walls or secrets. It will make your network stronger and larger than any fortress. 

Chaters 3&4

Chapter three begins with describing and organizations ecosystem, and how humans gather themselves in what used to be called tribes now as social networks. The book also talks about how people are staying at their jobs for a shorter length of time compared to our counterparts in the 80’s. I, of all people, understand that statistic. I left college in 2002 and had six jobs until I came back to college last year in 2010; eight years and six jobs. That pretty much fits what the book says. I also reluctantly joined Myspace and then Facebook which I, like most college students, am hooked to now.

Next, looking deeper into social networks, the book talks about the components that make up the network itself. The words that are used are nodes (people or organizations) and ties (the connection between them). Hubs are larger nodes, and basically “make things go viral online”.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/13/five-viral-rules-video/

I liked the section on how easy it is to create “loose ties” with former grade-school friends and how hard it would have been in previous analog times and how easy it is to keep these ties. Though loose ties are easy to create, you also need strong ties to expand the social network. Mapping an organizations network is important, it shows what is working and what could use some work with your organization. There are many tools available, but the simplest and least expensive (or free) is Twitter and Facebook.  It can also show what other organizations could be missing from the ecosystem. Something else that is also needed, social capital, or trust and reciprocity. Helping Safe Harbor could show social capital. Even though I do not suffer from domestic violence,  it affects women my age.

The next chapter talks about creating a social culture and most importantly LISTENING. This could be from developing a social media site, reading what Bloggers write about you, Facebook or Twitter posts; everything! Organizations can’t stop this from happening, and it can cause them fear of losing control of what goes on with the organization. The fear that the organization will look unprofessional or that opening up to social media will also be opening the organization up to criticism. These fears are true, but shouldn’t keep the organization from opening up to social media. Developing media procedures and rules can reduce possible problems and help the organization gain more control. Once everyone in the organization understands these rules, they can represent their organization well.

NNP chapters 1 & 2

The first chapter in NNP describes that networked nonprofits are easy for outsiders to get in and insiders to get out… this made me think of the Susan G Coleman breast cancer foundation. If you want to help or donate or have an event (because they are everywhere) it seems fairly simple. But the more I read, networked nonprofits are completely different. They aren’t worried about losing control of a piece or program because people still here the message and get involved and want to help. Safe Harbor could widely benefit with the social media trend, the book describes them as a new way of life, not a trend or fad. That is why I think the REP project is so important. People are turning to the internet now more than ever, and if Safe Harbor doesn’t have an easy to navigate site for someone young, they may give up. That being said, there also needs to be a face-to-face connection there for both kids looking for answers to adults looking for solutions.   http://measuredoutcomes.net/blog/best_practices-resources/top-7-reasons-why-nonprofits-fail-and-how-to-avoid-them-2/   is a great website about understanding what is needed to keep a nonprofit afloat, but it lacks one important thing. Social media! Yes it mentions a website, but nothing about Facebook or Twitter.

I also found it interesting that my age group is called Millennials, which are people born between 1978 and 1992 and we could be the demise of nonprofits. For reasons of social media being so accessible they will jump from organization to organization as they see fit. I completely understand, I worked with the Red Shoe Society for two reasons, one, because I know friends and family the RMH has helped, and two because of the networking capabilities (I know, I am horrible but if you met my boss at the time you would understand). Once the purpose was served I went on to Paws for a Cause because I have rescues and the fact that I worked with Petsmart. It is an example of how my generation will move from organization to organization depending on their passions for specific causes. I guess you could also call our class free agents when it comes to Safe Harbor, I think that once the tasks are complete, and there will not be too many people who continue to help with fundraiser or organize events once the class is complete. I love the fact that Safe Harbor has embraced the fact that we are here to help for a short period of time, which also goes to show that they are learning to adapt to the Millennial generation.

Chapter 9 and 10

Chapter 9 focuses on selecting an appropriate spokesperson, either a celebrity or someone within. Though with celebrities, with one slip you could have a major fiasco on your hands. Take Tiger Woods for example. As soon as details about his “sexcapades” came into the public eye, all of his endorsements dropped like a ton of bricks! And what about Michael Phelps, his marijuana accusation made Kellogg yank the cereal promotions off the shelves.    There is also trouble with having the CEO of your nonprofit being the elected spokesperson, but as long as you cover all your bases, it should be much easier to handle than a Michael Vick eruption. The chapter then delves into on and off the record, and to sum up what it means: never speak off the record unless you want your words to magically appear in print. I found a funny and interesting blog that talks about the issue: http://blog.braudcommunications.com/?p=43 Also, looking good in front of the media is always a plus, and that includes getting your message across. It may sounds obvious, but repeating your message, sticking to a guideline of what to say, speaking in complete sentences, be genuine and memorable, and remembering to say your organizations full name all play a huge part in successful media coverage. Also, know who you are up against, if you are invited to speak in front of the public, just expect that an opponent will be present. Putting a face to the problem always helps raise awareness to the issue… and example I have used before is the Humane Society commercials:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Xh-tZrzwk whether you are a dog lover or not, these commercials put a face to a larger problem. (And if this doesn’t pull on your heartstrings there is something deeply wrong with you). Safe Harbor does an excellent job of inspirational true stories from victims of domestic violence, and their success.

Chapter 10 talks about partnerships, working with other companies and nonprofits to boost your organizations message and work. The section on Media Working Group gave me an aha moment when it talked about serving food and making meetings worthwhile. Every campus event I have seen via email has always had the promise of pizza or some sort of refreshments offered before or shortly after a presentation. I guess it works! Getting a little off topic, but a strong point the chapter made was to keep the communications strong. Hold communication meeting with everyone in your organization, from the intern to the CEO.  If everyone understands the communication plan, there is less likely to be a problem when combining forces.