A. Fine Blog

Allison Fine Writes About Social Media and Social Change

Posts Tagged ‘Nonprofits’

More on Branding

Posted by Allison Fine on November 30, 2009

Carlo M. Cuesto asked readers to comment on an article he wrote about six years ago entitled, “Building the Nonprofit Brand from the Inside Out.” He asked for input to help update the article to today’s reality. As you know, I started to think about nonprofits and branding last week and thought it would be fun to continue the conversation.

It’s a great article, and here are my reactions

I was first stopped short by this sentence: “With growth of field twice that of for-profit businesses in the United States, competition among nonprofits is rapidly increasing across the country for contributed support and, in certain sectors, for participants (customers) who impact an organizationís earned revenue.”

It’s not a surprising sentence. A common refrain in the sector is the presumption that there are too many nonprofits and that they are all in competition with one another. Lucy rightly dismisses the fallacy that there are simply too many nonprofits. We need to begin to drill down to understand what the growth in nonprofits really means for communities, and whether the growth is in advocacy organizations more than services.  (I don’t ever recall anyone in a community saying, “There are just too many darn nonprofits trying to serve poor people here.) The blanket statement that the growth in the number of nonprofits is automatically a bad thing doesn’t hold water.

But, I digress.

The more important part of the sentence is the presumption that nonprofit organizations are in competition with one another. And here is one place in particular where I would urge Carlo to rethink the idea of branding based on the advent of social media. Social media makes social networks visible through channels like Facebook and Twitter. Once they’re visible they can be energized to work on behalf of causes and organizations. Nonprofit organizations are part of this landscape of networks. In a networked environment, organizations aren’t competition with one another but resources. This might make sense if one is an arts organization and another is an after school program where they can envision working together to create a program.

But, how would it work if they were two after school programs, presumably in competition with one another for the same population? Beth and I think it comes down to a question of organization’s getting back to the fundamentals of what they are trying to accomplish. If there are two groups serving the same population, it would make sense for them to figure out which one does which parts of that service better, which one has the capacity to do what and serve whom. Or perhaps they ought to merge, although that doesn’t happen often in the sector. These organizations need to focus on what they do best and then network the rest.

OK, onto the rest of Carlo’s article. He has a beautiful diagram that I unfortunately couldn’t replicate of branding. It is a large circle with mission in the center and then consecutive outer rings of Promise, External Factors and the outer ring is Participant Perceptions. Within the ring on External Factors is also results.

I think that what is missing now that wouldn’t have been possible for nonprofits several years ago is the opportunity to use social media for conversations with large numbers of people about their organizations. What was the realm of market researchers with their toolset of surveys and focus groups only then, is now the commerce of sites like Facebook where large numbers of people are there and available for conversations. Carlo’s old diagram feels like a series of activities that an organization pushes outwards. I’d love for it now to represent a more open and porous two-way street of conversations. It’s still the same end goal of building to organizations that are trusted by the public to do good work and raise funds and other resources. But the process of getting there now doesn’t happen from the inside out, but from outside in and inside out.

Organizations need to focus on relationship building online and on land. This comes from listening and talking with their communities. Every day, as a fundamental part of the way that organizations work. When relationships are strengthened so are brands.  Thanks Carlo, for giving me a chance to think about this more!

Posted in Social Media | Tagged: , , | 8 Comments »

Crowdsourcing Nonprofit’s Good News

Posted by Allison Fine on March 5, 2009

Who doesn’t need good news these days?  I sure do.  In a nice bit of crowdsourcing, Heather Carpenter is using Delicious to tag articles, web sites, blog posts on the positive ways that nonprofits are surviving, even thriving, in these tough economic times.

As a riff on the Homeland Security signs, if you see something, tag something.  In this case, tag anything positive you see about nonprofits npoeconomy using Delicious!

Posted in Social Media | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

Social Citizens is a Top 10!

Posted by Allison Fine on December 2, 2008

Blogs.com published it’s top ten nonprofit blogs last night — and wahooo, the Social Citizens blog that I blog for is listed!  We are very grateful to our friend, Beth Kanter, for including us on this list of outstanding blogs.  Here is the entire list:

Top 10 Nonprofit Technology (NPTech) and Social Media for Social Change Blogs

Amy Sample Ward’s Version of NPTech

CauseWired

Have Fun Do Good

Katya Andresen: Nonprofit Marketing Blog

Laura’s Notebook

Qui Diaz – Evange.list

Social Actions

Social Citizens Blog

SocialButterfly

ext337

Posted in Social Media | Tagged: , , | Comments Off

How Nonprofits Need to Use Connectedness For Survival

Posted by Allison Fine on October 22, 2008

I was in Los Angeles yesterday visiting with the Southern California Grantmakers.  They shared with me that there are whole blocks in LA with foreclosures signed up and down.  It’s gonna be ugly for a while, I fear.

To that end, I posted a column on Opportunity Knocks yesterday on the critical importance of nonprofits focusing on their connectedness with their constituents to survive — and maybe even thrive — in this bleak economy.  Feel free to read the entire post, and here are the highlights:

  1. Focus on What You Do Best. It is critically important for nonprofits to go back to basics and ask yourself what you are fundamentally in the business of accomplishing – and get rid of the rest.
  2. Rethink success. Did we add more revenue/staff/programs this year? That’s the question that boards ask year after year, as if the only way to serve communities better, or have a greater impact, is to do more of the same – at the cost of doing whatever you do really well. We need to rethink this, and educate board members about the difference between impact and growth.
  3. Live Within Your Ecosystem. When each organization is focused on what it does best, not becoming sprawling growth machines themselves, then they can connect with like-minded, collaborative partner organizations to serve their communities and constituents better.
  4. Nurture Your Networks. Connect with your constituents in real, meaningful ways. Too often, communications between organizations and constituents has devolved into a one-way ask for money. We’re not really interested in you, most organizations are saying, unless and until you write us a check. People have lots to offer organizations in terms of what they know and who they know.  This is the giving up control part – and if your organization isn’t ready to give it up, don’t bother asking people for advice.
  5. Trust yourself. In trying times it’s important to remember why you do the work that you do – to make our corner of the world a better place. We need to reject the Phyrric belief that success will come from being closed, competitive, opaque and hard of hearing. If it ever worked, it certainly won’t now. The elixir is to be your best self; open, transparent, connected and courageous.

Posted in Social Media | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

 
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