Pressing Corporations to Behave Better

Oh, so many funding contests, so little time! My inbox is flooded by announcements about contests from companies like the Serious Good contest for nonprofits to win refurbished computer equipment, PayPal’s “Regift the Fruitcake” fundraising contest , Chase Bank’s Community Giving Contest, and now the big one, $50 million, from Pepsi’s Refresh Everything contest coming in 2010.

As you may have read, Chase has taken quite a bit of heat for their lack of transparency with their contest. I am a bit abashed about this as I lauded the effort initially because of the focus on local nonprofits as opposed to large national groups. I missed the alarming lack of transparency, like no leaderboard, which as Beth rightly points out is now standard practice for online voting and fundraising efforts. Worse, still, Chase apparently pulled a bait and switch according to Nathanial Whitemore on Change.org when they disqualified anti-choice and pro-Marijuana groups because they found their missions controversial. In my opinion, their lack of a transparent culture is really the culprit here.  There are no statements from them, no people to get out from behind the logo and talk about their choices and decisions. Chase is a huge fortress dictating the rules from on high.

So, what are nonprofits to do in the face of big money being made available by companies that are using social media but not necessarily using it well? Kjerstin Erickson writes on Social Edge that there are opportunity costs for organizations that enter contests. Asking one’s network to participate in contests means that the organization isn’t doing other things – like building relationships or writing grant proposals. It also means that the network isn’t doing other things, like crowdsourcing new programs.

However, in a year that seems certain to be dismal in terms of foundation funding, the large amounts of money that corporations are willing to give as part of their advertising and marketing efforts shouldn’t be ignored. Nonprofits should participate in the contests. But there is something that we can do, collectively, when corporations bring their old, proprietary, closed behavior online. We can state loudly and clearly what we expect in terms of normative behavior from the funders. We have the power of persuasion on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and email to nudge, encourage, recommend and, yes, shout when necessary, that the contest organizers practice good behavior.

C’mon corporate funders, get out from behind your logos, talk with us about the contest and the rules, admit your mistakes, tell us what you’re learning as well.

What Does Sustainability Mean?

I saw this thoughtful post by Michael Bear on Change.Org entitled, Please, Stop Saying Projects are Sustainable. I found this post through the terrific Give & Take blog on the Chronicle’s website.

Michael is writing about the great myth of sustainability for international aid efforts. He writes, “What does sustainability mean when the government lacks the capacity – or the will – to assume responsibility for service delivery?”

I think it’s interesting that Michael’s assumption that sustainability could come from government funding. It’s one difference, I suppose, between an international and domestic context. We moved away from the notion of government sustaining efforts started by nonprofits here about twenty years ago when government funding for social service efforts dried up. Out of that development came the trend of  nonprofits creating for profit subsidies to make themselves to provide a revenue stream outside of individual and foundation grants.

The for profit subsidiaries were launched with mixed financial results, most failed in the first several years, and Burton Weisbrod writing in the Stanford Social Innovation Review skeptically observed, “the drive for profit exposes nonprofits to the charge of losing site of their social goals.”

So, how’s a nonprofit supposed to sustain its efforts here or overseas?

We’re not. It’s the wrong word to use. Sustaining something means that it runs on its own, without the help of anyone else on the outside. Nonprofits not only can’t accomplish that, we shouldn’t try to. That’s why it’s social change work and not for profit work. We don’t have revenue streams that can scale like iPods, and we can’t expect government funding beyond the stimulus package. What we have is you, people, individuals who give small amounts by writing a check or clicking on Causes, or larger donations either personally or through foundations. That’s why nonprofits have tax exempt status – we provide a public good — and the public has to support the work.

Social change efforts need broad-based support for a wide, network of individuals and foundations to sustain their efforts. That’s what sustainability is, not looking to some other sector to foot the bill, but relying on the generosity of growing number of caring people to generously give and work on their behalf.

Foundations often ask what the sustainability plan for a potential grantee. The real question that lies beneath that is “when and how is our foundation going to be off the hook to fund you?” Fair enough, foundations give very generously to causes and it is human nature to want to spread their largess around. But the real isn’t isn’t about becoming sustainable, it’s about building your social network to involve more people and grantmakers in your efforts over time.

Change.org Launches Jobs for Change

Received an email from Ben Rattray, the founder of Change.org, about the launch of Jobs for Change on their site.

My first thought was, “Hmmm, do we need another job bank?” But then I read Ben’s message further (always good to read the whole email, right?) and saw that what the Change.org folks are doing is fundamentally different from other efforts.

Here’s the key:  “We’ve created the site in partnership with more than a dozen nonprofits, including Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, AmeriCorps Alums, Echoing Green, Network for Good, and Encore Careers.  Among other things we’ve hired a team of career advisors to help people find and advance a career in social change – whether that’s in the nonprofit, government, or social enterprise sectors – and are hoping to serve as a gateway for people looking to enter the sector.”

The bottom line is that this is an effort to not only share great job opening using the social networks that Change.org is building, but also offer people-to-people help for folks looking for careers in the social sector.  All good stuff.

I signed up as an ambassador for the program here, take a peek.

Who Are You?

In find myself asking this one question a lot recently.  And it’s making me cranky  (yes, I know, crankier than usual!) Because one of the greatest attributes of the Connected Age is people connecting with one another. But when companies or organizations hide behind social media tools and make it difficult to figure out who they are and what they’re trying to accomplish it is very aggravating.

Here’s an example: ActiveCause.  It is part of a slew of new social networking sites for causes.  The site is very slick, calling for a higher purpose in philanthropy:

Financial donations are just one part of your giving power – learn how to take philanthropy to a higher level with The Social Giving Network.

I don’t really know what that means. So, I click on the tab for contact us and get a form. I clicked around and can’t find any people on this social site – no Twitter feed, no blog, no About Us. I assume it is intended to be a money making operation, perhaps by taking a percentage of donations given, but that isn’t specified anywhere.

Beth wrote the other day about the difficulty that she had tracking down the cause associated with the Tweetathon:.

I looked the charity up on guidestar and could not find a nonprofit named “Water for Life” that had Ken Surritte listed as the contact.   On the Water is Life site there is not a fleshed about “About” page that tells me anything about the organization’s board, founding, budget, or a donation link.  After a bit of googling, I discovered that the nonprofit has a different name “Hearts and Hands International” and the Water Is Life is a project. (Still couldn’t find them on Guide Star or Networked for Good perhaps their 501-c3 is under a different name?)

Should it be that difficult to track down a legitimate cause?

A few thoughts.

First, radical transparency has to become a standard operating procedure for nonprofits and companies using social media.  The onus isn’t on us, the user, to figure out who you are. The responsibility lies with you to explain who you are and what you’re doing.

Second, if you’re in the business primarily of making money, please tell me rather than hide behind phrases like “giving power”.  I’m not fragile, I won’t crumble because a dot com has found out that millions of people give millions of dollars to causes every year and you want a piece of that.  Of course, it’s a crowded field and others are already doing it, and doing it well, like Network For Good and Change.org.

Third, nonprofit organizations have an even greater responsibility to be radically transparent than businesses — and no reason not to be.  Please put up your tax returns, your board minutes, your strategic plans, org charts, whatever you have, put them up and show the world that you have nothing to hide. It’s going to be a very difficult year to raise money, and transparency will help you to do that.  It used to be that all you needed was a heart-tugging cause.  There are too many causes and too much need to rely only on that strategy now. We need to know why you need money, how you use it, and, most importantly, who you are to make our giving decision.

But most of all, I need people to talk to online.  I need to see the faces of staff people, I need someone to answer questions who has a name, I need to connect with them personally.  So, please, tell me Who You Are!

The Social Giving Network.

What is the Tax Choice Program?

Well, it’s nothing yet, I just made the term up. But it could be something really interesting.

Yesterday, I came across a site called, Pick. Click. Give. It is a site created by the Alaska state government to encourage Alaskans to apply for rheir PFD (Permanent Fund Dividend, not to be confused with PDF, Personal Democracy Forum) the money that each resident gets as part of the state’s oil fund, and give a percentage of it to a variety of nonprofits in the state.

Nice idea, although perhaps more idealistic than realistic in today’s economy.

Nonetheless, I started to think that redistributing part of a government refund isn’t that far from possibly redistributing part of the taxes that we pay to government. Because paying taxes feels just awful, doesn’t it? Even when I know in my head that the bulk of the money is going to things that we all need; roads, military defense, education, Social Security, it doesn’t feel any better. The government just keeps taking and taking from our paychecks and purchase and investments and it all goes into this big, black hole that the politicians and lobbyists get to play with while we’re struggling to make ends meet. But maybe for just a small portion of our taxes we could use social media to change the dynamic and give us more choice as to where our taxes go.

Why can’t we create a Tax Choice Program whereby we all get to determine where, say, 10% of our state and federal taxes will go. It would be our own personal tax discretionary fund.

Imagine submitting your taxes electronically and then clicking on a button that says Tax Choice. A screen pops up that provides choices of where your 10% can go – a school infrastructure program, a clean, green recreation program, mass transit, health clinics. Maybe we’ve voted on what these choices are before hand, similar to the terrific effort just concluded by Change.org called Ideas for Change in America.

We know, scientifically, that giving money to causes and programs that we care about makes us feel better, not just psychologically, actually, physically makes us feel better. So maybe,  just maybe, the other 90% wouldn’t feel so bad if we felt really good about our discretionary 10%.  Maybe.

Ideas for America Update

Two weeks into a grand experiment of crowd sourcing ideas for the incoming Obama administration, Change.org has received 3,659 ideas to date in almost thirty different categories.  They also have a huge and growing list of partner nonprofit groups including Campus Progress, People for the American Way, Oxfam, well, and well, go and see here .  Some hot topics are:

Build a US Service Academy

National Election Day Registration

National Strategy for Sustainable Development

Keeping Toxic Toys off Shelves

So, get in there, make your voice heard and vote your top priorities!

Change.org and MySpace launch “Ideas for America”

Change.org and MySpace have launched Ideas for America (or http://www.myspace.com/changedotorg on MySpace). The idea for Ideas is simple; post an idea for reforming government, get your friends to vote for it, watch your idea rise (or not!)

The top ten ideas will be matched with advocacy groups to follow through to try to make the ideas a reality.

So, want to shut Guantanomo Bay, eradicate global poverty, find a cure for AIDs, make sure every child is literate? Or maybe your idea is much better than that — let America know through Ideas for America!

Big Change at Change.org

My friends at Change.org made a big announcement at the end of last week.  The email said that there is a total graphic redesign — but that’s not all.  Over a dozen bloggers have been hired to really drill down in a specific issue areas in a way that isn’t done elsewhere on the web.  According to the Change folks, “Each of these causes is guided by a leading activist who will be writing every day about their topic of expertise – covering news and commentary, profiling innovative organizations, and highlighting ways you can make a difference.

You can check out the new causes by going to http://www.change.org/causes or sample any of those below:
Global Warming – http://globalwarming.change.org
Women’s Rights – http://womensrights.change.org
Social Entrepreneurship – http://socialentrepreneurship.change.org

You can read more from Micah, and Newsweek.  Looking forward to participating here and watching the community grow.

Bloggers Wanted for Change.org

Change.org is hiring part-time bloggers in specific issue areas.  Here’s the announcement:

Hiring Bloggers for Change.org!

Want to blog on an issue you are passionate about for an audience of hundreds of thousands of activists and nonprofit leaders?

Want to create the premier online space for your issue and become a leading voice for social action?

Change.org is launching a social action blog network this summer and is currently hiring a team of blogger/editors to help create a movement for change around the major causes of our time.

Positions are part-time and paid.

Each blogger will lead an online community focusing on a different social, political, or environmental issue, maintain a daily blog covering news and offering commentary, convene leading nonprofits and activists working on the issue, and help people translate their interests and passions into concrete action.

Change.org’s blog network will include dozens of communities around issues, including:

Global Warming
Human Rights
Universal Health Care
Poverty
Human Trafficking
Homelessness
Gay Rights
Global Health
Women’s Rights
Public Education
War in Iraq
Global Hunger
Animal Rights
Fair Trade
Racism
Peace in the Middle East
Promoting Democracy
Immigrant Rights
Microfinance
Darfur
Prison Reform
Disaster Relief
Humanitarian Relief
Autism Cure
Cancer
Domestic Abuse
Mental Health
Rights of the Disabled
Sustainable Agriculture

For more information and to apply, go to www.change.org/bloggers

Carrotmob Launches

I was speaking at the Hillel conference in DC on Monday and talking about social entrepreneurship. I likened it to organic food –the words are thrown all around now but I’m not quite sure what they mean anymore.

Social entrepreneurs used to be people like me who ran nonprofits that has sustainable revenue streams. But, then something changed and for profits that have a nonprofit sense of purpose began to emerge: Meetup.com, Change.org, Razoo.com. And then mainstream businesses got into the act donating portions of their profits for causes (Ben & Jerry’s) campaigns to press companies to give more (Red) and now a new effort called Carrotmob.

Brent Schulkin, the founder of Carrotmob, reached out to me about a year ago to tell me about their plans. It’s a very interested connected activist idea. Brent wants to reward companies that are committed to being environmentally friendly. Carrotmob’s first campaign is planned for this Saturday. Here’s how the effort is described on the website:

On Saturday, March 29th, at 1pm, come to K & D Market (on 16th St at Guerrero in San Francisco) and buy whatever you want. Buy a lot. We’re going to be tracking everyone’s purchases and then calculating how much revenue we brought to the store. K & D has committed to spending 22% of all the revenue we bring in on energy-saving measures identified by an SF Energy Watch audit, in order to make their store more environmentally friendly!

You can see more here.

Good luck, Brent, on launching this very interesting, positive approach to consumer activism!