Social Good Podcast with Dan Savage of “It Gets Better Project”

My monthly Social Good podcast for the Chronicle of Philanthropy features Dan Savage, a Seattle-based journalist. Dan and his husband, Terry Miller, are the catalysts for a viral video phenomenon called the It Gets Better Project.

This fall has been a dismal and disheartening season for gay teens. Several bullied gay teens felt so alone and hopeless than they committed suicide; Tyler Clementi, Seth Walsh, Billy Lucas to name just a few.

Dan and Terry wished that they had had just a few minutes with each of these boys to tell them, from their own experience, that life gets better after adolescence, after high school. And then Dan realized that he had been sitting back waiting for permission from someone, somewhere to talk to these kids. But in the Connected Age no permission is required, social media allows anyone to say anything to the world. So he and Terry went to a local restaurant and created a video with their own, personal message to gay teens – it gets better, they promised. They uploaded the video to YouTube on September 22nd. Dan then announced the video in his newspaper column and on his podcast. Here is their video:

And the video took off, over 250,000 views in the first two days. And it kept climbing. But then something even more remarkable happened; other people, regular people became to upload videos of their own stories. Mormons and Muslims, big city and small town, men and women, people from every stripe and corner of the country began to respond. And then, of course, the movie stars and politicians followed, including the President and the Secretary of State.

I assumed that since this effort was called a “Project” that Dan had some infrastructure, maybe not professional staff but at least volunteers, who had been driving outreach and encouraging regular and rich and famous to upload videos. Here is President Obama’s video:

But when I interviewed Dan I learned that no one had reached out to anyone! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a free-agent effort take off in quite this way before. Free agents is the term that Beth and I use in The Networked Nonprofit for individuals who create an activism campaign on their own using social media. A free agent campaign that is often cited is Dave Carroll’s “United Breaks Guitars”, one man’s grievance against the airline which cavalierly treated his instrument and has been viewed near 10 million times.  Here it is:

But the difference is that only Dave was making videos. The It Gets Better Project is spectacular because Dan and Terry provided an opportunity for hundreds of other people to share their stories as well. Unasked, unbidden, uncontrolled. Extraordinary. I hope you’ll take a listen to Dan.

Foundations and Social Media: Fad or Future?

The few well-known examples of foundations acting like Networked Nonprofits have become so oft-repeated that they’re almost cliches – the David and Lucile Packard Foundation using a wiki to generate new ideas for their nitrogen program, the Case Foundation’s use of their blogs to weave conversations, the Knight Foundation’s News Challenge to invest in next generation news businesses infused with social media. I began to wonder whether these examples were becoming the few exceptions in foundation world or harbingers for other foundations?

I asked Linda Wood of the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and Elizabeth Miller of the Overbrook Foundation their take on the state of foundations and social media for this month’s Social Good podcast for the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

The answer according to Linda and Elizabeth was unqualified: social media is the future of philanthropy. They both emphasized the risk averse nature of foundations that are just now inching their way into the use of social media and the early state writ large of social media. Linda has been blogging about foundations and transparency and using online videos to share the experiences of the foundation’s leadership program grantees. Linda said that she has couched the use of social media internally as “pilot” projects, which eased the potential fear of senior staff and trustees that social media would turn the entire foundation upside down.

Elizabeth has also written about philanthropy and transparency and said that the Overbrook Foundation was looking for discreet opportunities to test social media. One of my favorite moments was Elizabeth talking about how it feels to her to use Twitter as a foundation staff person. This is perhaps the most oft-cited fear of foundation staff that I hear, “I don’t want to be overwhelmed with requests and criticisms by being online.” Here is what Elizabeth had to say on this topic:

I think thatTwitter has helped me build relationships with existing grantees in a
major way, I’m able to RT their work, learn more about the individuals
working at the organizations etc. If anything it also exposed me to new
organizations that might be right for the foundation, and just generally
kept me up to speed in the issue areas that we fund, what interesting
articles are out there, what other foundations are doing the kind of
work we are, how to collaborate better, who to collaborate with.

There are occasionally people who will follow me or DM asking about
Foundation guidelines, proposals, how to apply for a grant (not as much
as you may think), but for me, I feel like answering those questions is
part of working for a Foundation. And if you’re being open/transparent
(like Linda talked about) then you can be clear about what you fund, why
etc. This might be skewed because I’m a program associate tweeting and
it’s not the official Overbrook Foundation Twitter feed, but that’s my
general feeling.

I love Elizabeth’s take on this – particularly that being accessible is part of her job!  Hope others are listening.

Social Media Fundraising Lessons

Stacy Palmer of the Chronicle of Philanthropy invited me to participate in a reporters briefing called the New Nonprofit Reality. The co-hosts are Edelman, the Chronicle and The Bridgespan Group. I will be sharing the panel with Stacy Palmer of the Chronicle and Ken Berger of Charity Navigator.

My charge is to help answer this question:

How is technology influencing public perception of nonprofits as well as fundraising efforts? (Talk about Haiti as a fundraising case study)

My thoughts:

1. Just to clarify my perspective, I will offer my thoughts on how social media can help build relationships with communities of people. I really don’t know anything about hardware or software, big boxes and cold rooms are anathema to me! But I do know something about ways that nonprofits are using the array of social media channels to connect with people, learn from them, build relationships with them to further their causes.

2. Organizations that are focused on friends first, funds second are doing better with social media. The Humane Society spent several years building their friends on MySpace and Facebook. It was only last year that they asked for funds as part of their Spay Day contest that Beth writes about it here.

3. Beware the silver bullet! Text message fundraising was a perfect vehicle for the Red Cross to use after the earthquake in Haiti. But as I wrote here, it shouldn’t be assumed that other organizations with less urgent needs can use it to the same effect. It was an intersection of tool and time that made it work so well – in addition to Wendy Harmon being a great planner and preparing for just this kind of opportunity.

4. Moore’s Law applies to fundraising with social media. Moore’s Law describes the double of computing speed every two years. In the same way, the use of social media for fundraising (not just using websites as portal for giving but using social media like Facbook to raise friends and funds) will increase geometrically. Blackbaud reported last year that online giving was still small part of the fundraising pie, but the percentage has increased significantly just in the first quarter of this year and will continue to do so. Just because it’s small now, just because people expected Causes to be a money spigot, doesn’t mean that it has leveled off.  We are just beginning the climb.

5. While the volume of giving is growing online, the dollar amounts are low. Are social media channels simply online direct mail, or will donors be able and willing to give larger amounts over time? It depends largely on whether and how relationships are built with donors. It also depends on how Millennials ultimately begin to give to causes. They, like everyone else, are beginning to dip their toe into fundraising using social media, but will they eventually become bigger donors to specific institutions over time, or will they spread themselves around and give little amounts to lots of causes?  We’ll have to wait and see!

So, these are just my thoughts right now about this very big and important topic. Please let me know other things I should be thinking about, thanks!

Social Good Podcast: Drew Olanoff’s Amazing Story

My monthly Social Good podcast is available on the Chronicle website.

This month, Drew Olanoff tells his story. Last May 29 year old Drew learned that he had cancer. An avid user of Twitter, he decided to fight back by having some fun. He created an accounted called BlameDrewsCancer and invited everyone he knew to blame anything bad that happened to them on his cancer.  And a cause was started – but not ended. He tells what happened next on the podcast.

Drew is an important illustration of the power of individuals who are facile with social media to raise awareness of issues and causes and activate a community for them. Nonprofits need to understand, appreciate and learn to work with these free agents.

Digital Games for Change

This month’s edition of the Social Good podcast was is up on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s website. The topic this month are the ways that digital games can be used for social change.

According to the Entertainment Software Industry association’s website, $11.7 Billion was spent on video games in 2008 alone and 68% of American households are playing video games. This doesn’t include the growing number of free games downloaded onto iPhones and other mobile devices. Gaming is HUGE, and will continue to grow exponentially.

A few groups are creatively using them to raise awareness and funds for causes. My guests on the podcast are Alex Quinn, the Executive Director of Games for Change and Brian Reich, who has the coolest title ever, Principle Evangelist of a new for profit venture called GamesThatGive, to talk about the ways that digital games can impact social change.

I was struck during our conversation about how both groups are using digital games for change but in diametrically opposite ways.

Alex and the groups that his organization supports are creating games with a serious purpose. Against All Odds has users experience the life of a global refugee. 3rd World Farmer has players experience managing a virtual farm in a third world country. Players learn about issues and even develop action steps beyond the game. Schools are incorporating these kinds of games into their curricula.

Brian’s group is a for-profit start up that is leveraging the large amounts of time people are playing casual games like Solitaire and Gems. By encouraging casual game playing on their site, the company will be donating a portion of the ad revenue the site is generating to donate to causes like nonprofit organizations like the Wilderness Society.

I love the idea that both of these groups arrived at the idea of using digital games for change in entirely different ways. It is a great reminder that there is no one right way to use social media for social change.

Volunteer TV Challenge

The Chronicle of Philanthropy announced the Video TV Challenge, a video contest for individuals and nonprofits to share their ideas of  how volunteerism can be incorporated into their favorite TV shows. The overall winner will receive $5,000 donation in their name to the charity of their choosing. Two Silver Prize winners will each receive a $2,500 donation in their name to the charity of their choosing. The deadline is October 26th. The winners will be selected by a panel of judges – including me!

This contest is being organized in conjunction with the TV industry’s volunteer week starting on October 19th. That week over 60 shows will incorporate a nonprofit organization or volunteer opportunity storyline into their program. You can read more about this week of events organized by a group called IParticipate here.

A New Relationship with Donors

I was struck a few weeks ago when I read this article in the Chronicle about the rise of anonymous giving this year.  I suspect that this is due to these donors not wanted to be stalked by causes. the giving cacophony for causes is bad enough in a good economy, but the incessant pressure to give to many causes and give larger gifts in a bad economy is overwhelming.

Then I saw this report from Pam Fessler on NPR about the rise of giving circles. Giving circles certainly aren’t new, informally friends have been talking to friends about giving to causes for years, and the more formal versions really started to coalesce about fifteen years ago. But, nonetheless, it’s interesting that they’re on the rise in a bad economy. We all want to feel better now, and talking to friends about causes that we’re passionate about, what we want to share with them makes everyone feel better. Also, giving circles are a good way for everyone to give a little that adds up to more for a cause.

Then I began to think about what Katya might say about all this.  And here’s my guess:

We know that donors want to a real, meaningful connection to causes. We also know that too many causes continue to treat them like an ATM machines.  You gave $50 last month/quarter/year, how about $100 or $1,000 this year?  Causes also treat donors like data points in a big database of givers who are never connected to one another. It simply doesn’t occur to many causes to create a network of donors rather than continue their hub and spoke model of individual to institution giving.

Let’s imagine a different way of doing this. Giving circles are generally oganized by friends to give to a variety of causes, leaving the cause in the passive position of hoping to be supported.  What if causes organized giving circles to support their cause — and other causes. I know, really scary to think about organizing your own donors to possible give to other organizations, but, hey, that’s what people do. What if you took all of your donors in one zip code, regardless of how much they gave and helped them to organize a get together at someone’s house to talk about the cause. Maybe they don’t even talk about giving the first time they meet. Maybe they just to talk about the cause, what it means, what it does, how it could do better, etc. They could come back onto your Facebook page or on Twitter and share what they learned, what they thought and dreamed for the cause. And then the second meeting they begin to talk about giving to the cause.

Maybe you would get less from a big donor this way, but you’d also get more from the little donors – that’s what giving circles do. They would learn from one another, they would feel like a community rather than isolated donors. Maybe it’s worth a try!  So, Katya, how’d I do?

New Podcast: Newspapers, Nonprofits and Social Media

The latest edition of the Social Good podcast that I host for the Chronicle of Philanthropy was just posted.

This month I had a conversation with Jessica Clark,Director: Future of Public Media Project, Center for Social Media, American University. Our discussion is on the topic on many minds lately; the demise of in-print newspapers.The recession has taken a huge toll of many paperse as advertising revenues have, on average, dropped about 30% in the first quarter of this year. Online, in print, even in Congress this week (why, not quite sure, but, I guess, it kept John Kerry out of other trouble this week) everyone is talking about whether newspapers can survive as the recession.

It’s a sad story, but there are bright spots on the horizon according to Jesica.  She points us to great new models of journalism that are hybrids of online and on land and that may be financially sustainable (still the big question) including Pro Publica and WNYCs The Takeaway.  Enjoy!

Andy Carvin of NPR on Social Good Podcast

The latest installment of the Social Good Podcast is up on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s site.

Andy Carvin, the social media mavin of NPR, is my guest.  We talk about how he is helping NPR, and the reporters, use social media to share content and engage various communities in discussions of issues and contributions to content development.

Andy’s advice to smaller nonprofits is to stay nimble and keep innovating and experimenting.  Don’t worry about failing, he said, just keep learning.

He’s currently in search of a good volunteer management software solution for a Web 2.0 environment.  I found this run down of applications put together by Jayne Cravens.  I know folks have used CiviCRM, but wondering if others have thoughts about any of these applications.

Are You a Person or an Org on Twitter?

There was a great post on the Chronicle’s website today about the use of Twitter by nonprofit organizations.

Great quotes from my Social Citizens blog pal Kari Dunn Saratovsky at the Case Foundation and Beth (of course!) on the various ways that foundations and nonprofits are using Twitter to share news, raise money, organize events and generally connect with their supporters.

But one of the tips at the end of the article left me pondering. It said: Be professional. While for an animal-rights group blogging about vegan recipes may make sense, posting about how disappointed you were in last night’s episode of Lost probably doesn’t.

I’m not sure I agree with this. I do like my Twitter friends to focus mainly on their work and our shared passion for the various ways that social media are enhancing social change efforts. But one of the nicest things about Twitter is how easy it is to get to know someone in such short bursts of communication. I’ve learned that my old friend Ruby is pregnant, and my new friend Qui is moving to the Northwest. I hear about job openings, job woes, what people ate at their business dinner and who is stuck on the tarmac. I am getting to know my business contacts as real people, not as suits behind a desk.

Here’s the best way to see the difference. I am friends with Andy Carvin (who I’ve only met through email and Twitter!) through his personal Twitter account, he also writes the more formal NPR tweets. Andy tweets as a person, where he’s going today, what he’s reading, who he’s seeing, and what great stories are online at NPR.org or other sites that I should read. And I often do. But when his tweets behind the formal NPRpolitics logo show up I hardly ever read them. I’m not friends with a logo and I find them cold to look at on my screen.

So, I think I disagree with the advice that one should be professional on Twitter. I think you should be yourself – which is always the best thing to be anyway, right? You should use Twitter to its best advantage, meaning use it to help you to connect in meaningful ways with large numbers of people who care about you and your cause.