Category — Viewpoints
Encourage supporters to become activists
Priscilla Brice-Weller on working with supporters:
I think that the best way to encourage supporters to become activists is simply to ask them how they want to be more involved. Sometimes when I do this, they are honoured that I’ve asked. Other times, they apologise that they can’t help right now because of personal circumstances. Nobody has abused me yet, so I’ll remain with this strategy for now and will let you know in time how I get on!
[Via Solidariti: Levels of engagement.]
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December 15, 2007 No Comments
Why should not-for-profit organisations use social media? Five good reasons
I was in Sydney last week attending a workshop focused on using social media for work-related purposes. One of my main goals was to see what all the fuss was about and how community and not-for-profit (CNFP) groups might use social media to achieve their goals. Here are some initial insights.
What are social media?
Social media are also sometimes referred to as Web 2.0. They’re social and interactive, allowing people to share ideas, opinions, and insights rather than just communicating one-way, as in the case of an old fashioned website. Social media include things such as blogs, wikis, discussion boards, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and YouTube. Now, many of the applications on that list look like entertainment rather than serious work-related applications. But there are at least five needs that many CNFP groups have that social media may help address.
Need #1: Create a community (or communities)
Many CNFP groups want to find better ways to create a sense of community among stakeholders–that is, members, volunteers, trustees, supporters, or clients. Social media can help do that. Whereas a static website is okay for letting people have access to important information such as upcoming events, it doesn’t do much else to get people involved. Imagine instead a blog in which someone in the organisation puts up brief articles on issues of interest to members, and members then engage in online discussion by posting comments to the blog. Or imagine a wiki where members equally contribute to sharing their knowledge and building up their collective knowledge on an issue of importance. Or a Facebook or MySpace group in which people engage in topic-specific discussions and post pictures, ideas, links to other websites, etc. A sense of community is formed by interacting together on issues of common concern.
Need #2: Monitor and understand evolving issues, concerns, and needs
Getting stakeholders involved in the organisation’s social media increases the likelihood that you will understand emerging concerns and issues as they emerge rather than finding out (perhaps too late) that stakeholders needs have changed or that recent political, social, or technological changes have led to new concerns. Social media keeps you engaged in ongoing conversations with stakeholders so you’re aware of issues and concerns in real time.
Need #3: Provide timely, helpful responses
This is the natural follow up to the previous need. CNFP groups need not only to know what stakeholders’ concerns are, they also need to respond in meaningful ways to those concerns. Even if limited resources or other matters prevent the ideal response, being engaged in the conversation enables you to respond in some way and to do so immediately. And who knows? The conversation may lead to feasible solutions.
Need #4: Generate ideas and innovations
New ideas will emerge in the conversations with stakeholders as they discuss needs, concerns, and possible solutions to problems, and as they share practices from other organisations, ask “dumb questions” (that turn out not to be so dumb), etc. Get people communicating with each other about issues they care about and innovative ways of solving problems and improving practices will emerge. The interactive nature of social media also lets us bounce those new ideas off others, test them, and refine them before trying them out.
Need #5: Collaborate
I suppose all of the above is about collaboration, but it needs to be said. Social media allow stakeholders to collaborate in solving problems, creating plans, developing policies, etc. Wikis are especially good for this. Think of the best known wiki, Wikipedia, which has grown enormously as thousands of people have collaborated to build it. Google documents (see the Google website) is another good tool for collaboration.
I don’t want to over-hype social media. There will be a learning curve in using them, and there will be problems they can’t solve. But the tools are out there, they’re often free, and they can go a long way toward helping CNFP groups address these five needs.
[Via Ted Zorn's Blog]
November 2, 2007 No Comments
Code Blacks to continue work with Grampians
One of the problems community groups have is when people want to do stuff for them, rather than with them. A danger of the recent Full Code Press challenge was that the beneficiary community groups would end up with a superb new website but no support or assistance with using and maintaining it.
While the organisers had some plans in place for keeping an eye on things, it’s thrilling to read that the Code Blacks have volunteered an ongoing relationship:
The true winners, though, were the clients. We’d formed a really strong bond with Debbie and Mr Debbie from Grampians disAbility Advocacy Association, and it was all quite teary at the end. Thomas gave a lovely speech and we presented Debbie with a thankyou card from all of us - and a promise in writing that in addition to “smoothing out the rough edges of the site” (as Thomas described it) over the next couple of weeks, we will also provide them with 15 hours per month of Code Blacks time for the next year at least - to grow the site and to show them what web 2.0 is all about. We’re really looking forward to it.
The boys are going to do some initial training with Debbie in Sydney tomorrow (they are all staying an extra day - Thomas and I were the only ones to come home tonight) and we’ll also put together some training documentation for them. There’s so much stuff we want to add to the site (quite a bit of which we’d either finished or nearly finished over the 24 hours but just didn’t have a chance to implement), and we hope we can really make a difference with this website - both for Debbie and her team, and for the people she helps. It’s an awesome organisation. I’ll write more about it tomorrow.
[Via WebWeaver's World: FullCodePress - we won!!!.]
How pleasing to see this partnership arise. I hope it’s the start of a greater liaison and understanding between web designers and community organisations.
Some points of interest
- I (Miraz) was one of the selection team for the beneficiary community groups, and am one of the organisers for the Webstock Conference.
- Several NZ groups applied to be the beneficiaries of the Full Code Press challenge but just didn’t get selected.
- There will be another Full Code Press challenge in February 2008. Keep an eye on this blog for notices about your opportunity to apply for a free professionally designed website.
- The next Webstock Conference is being held in Wellington in February 2008. You should consider attending. We’re trying to make some scholarships available for community groups, as we did for Webstock 2006.
- On 15 September 2007 a BarCamp1 around making a difference to egovernment in New Zealand will take place in Wellington. Stephen Blyth and I plan to run a workshop for people interested in community groups / non-profits and Internet. I hope you’ll join us there.
1Never heard of BarCamps — don’t worry: it’s a kind of relaxed conference with lots of participation, rather than a bunch of ‘talking-head experts’ making presentations to a passive audience.
August 20, 2007 No Comments
Technology won’t save you money
The bad news is that adding technology to your community group probably won’t save you money. The good news is that it may help you achieve more of your goals, more efficiently and at a lower cost:
Information technology, no matter how strategically you apply it, will probably never save your nonprofit organization any money.
It will, however, enable you to work more effectively. You will probably be able to do more work, of higher quality, with fewer person-hours. But don’t be surprised if this raises the bar of expectations on the part of the board, the community, the clients, the constituents, and the donors!
July 20, 2007 No Comments
