Gaping Void Cartoons

The 2013 Nonprofit Technology Conference takes place in Minneapolis next week.  It is the largest gathering of people who work in the nonprofit sector and technology.   This conference will be my 13th one – and every year it is a like a family reunion.    Registration is still available, but you can’t make it register for the online NTC and catch a few sessions.

I have the honor of designing and facilitating three sessions, including a plenary on my favorite topic – learning from failure.

April 13, 2013 – 8:30-10:00

Plenary: Placing Little Bets: Failing Informatively for NPTECH Innovation: Beth Kanter, Erin Shy, Megan Kashner, Brian Reich, Allison Burns

Join us for a discussion about the value of failure in the nonprofit technology sector.  You’ll hear a lot of F words flailing in this highly interactive plenary session – fearless, frameworks, fundamentals, forgiveness, forward-looking, and most importantly FUN!  Through lively sharing and discussion we will dive into the art of placing small bets or affordable losses that can lead to innovation.  This highly interactive and engaging community conversation will look at how nonprofits can create a culture of experimenting, testing, learning and correcting.   Beth Kanter will facilitate this session with a panel of nonprofit tech leaders and the community – and special surprise guests who will join us via video.

I had a blast designing this session to make interactive and invite lots of audience participation on the back channel.     The speakers bring great perspective to the topic and we will have a lot of fun with this topic.

April 12, 2013 – 1:30-3:00 PM

Mindful or Mindfull Social Media? Visual Strategies for Focus In Age of Distraction

This session will explore ways that we can maintain our focus by using visualization techniques such as mindmapping, sketchnoting, and others.    I’ll be joined by Jana Byington-Smith and Rob Cottingham (who draws those awesome Social Signal cartoons) for this fun, interactive, and hands-on session.     And to prove the point that you don’t have to be a Picasso to use visual note taking techniques,  I’ve brought my markers and sketchbooks out of the closet.    We’ve designed this session to be hands-on and will have available lots of magic markers as prizes.

The Benefits of Content Curation

April 13, 2013 10:30-Noon

This session will be brains on and hands on and cover the best practices of content curation for nonprofit.   I had the pleasure of designing this session with Will Coley – who interviewed the best content curators in the world and get them share their best practices.

I’m especially looking forward to learning from these sessions by colleagues:

April 11, 2011 – 10:30 – Noon
Building Movements – with Ivan Boothe and Rachel Weidinger

April 12 at 8:30-10
Keynote by Dan Pallotta

April 12 – 10:30 – Noon
Using Data to Measure Your Mission – Laura Quinn

April 12- 3:30-5:00 pm
How To Implement Multichannel Online Campaigns - Amy Sample Ward and Allyson Kapin

Two very good sessions scheduled at the same time

April 13 – 1:30-3:00
NpTech Fail

April 13 – 1:30-3:00
Organizational Leadership and Social Media Insights

And, of course, a couple of opportunities to connect with long-time colleagues and friends

April 10th – #ntcbeer – 7 PM

April 11th – Day of Service (8-11 am)

April 11th – Tech For Good Happy Hour – 5-7 PM

Teresa Crawford and I hope to meet up with folks doing International training after the Friday evening happy hour and will also host a “Birds of a Feather” table at one of the lunches.   Leave a comment if you do training internationally and want to do a “trade craft” informal session.

Will I see you at the 13NTC?

The annual SXSW Interactive Festival is a geek home coming for those who work on the web, social media, and gaming.  For the last few years, there has been a good nonprofit presence and this year is no exception!

This year SXSW is offering something new: workshops on a wide range of topics from some of the top people in their industry.   I’m honored to be involved with the instructional design and delivery of two workshops specifically for nonprofits.  The workshops are included in the price of an Interactive, Gold, or Platinum Badge. These workshops will be held at theAT&T Executive Education and Conference Center in state-of-the-art classrooms.

Nonprofit Social Media Managers Enter The C-Suite:  Peer To Peer

Sunday, March 10 3:30PM – 6:00PM

The c-suite has just approved your strategy to leverage networks and social media for your mission. But, if your internal culture is not a social one how can you possibly expect to be successful? This workshop will share strategies and techniques for changing your nonprofits culture to be more agile, training other staff to be social to scale, and managing your nonprofit’s c-suite and board. The workshop will share tips and techniques for culture change, training, and adoption. Best of all, there’s nothing like peer to peer support in this effort to keep inspired. Designed as a peer learning session with Internationally acclaimed Master Trainer Beth Kanter and leading social media nonprofit practitioners like NWF’s Danielle Bridiga, Rachel Weidinger from Upwell, Laura Fitton from Hubspot, Brian Reich, and David Neff.    Register here.

Measuring Social Change & Media: Beyond BS

Monday, March 11 11:00AM – 1:30PM

This workshop will dramatically demonstrate how the practice of measurement, social media, social change, and networks have evolved over the past 5 years. In 2009, the “Social Media ROI Poetry Slam” SXSW lead to a book “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit.” The thesis: For nonprofit organizations there are two key processes that lead to social change: To become networked, and to use measurement. The book’s co-authors, Beth Kanter and KD Paine will facilitate an updated of the original poetry-slam session with the same four nonprofit leaders about they have used networked strategies and measurement to improve results and transform failure into success.  Joining us with be Carie Lewis from the HSUS and David Neff to share their case studies.

Prerequisites:
Please pick up a copy of “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit” and read chapters 3 and 4. http://amzn.to/measure-networknp (The book will be used a textbook for the workshop.)

Register here

When I’m not at workshops,  I’ll be hanging out in the Beacon Nonprofit Lounge, now in its 5th year, and will participate in a discussion about measurement and impact on Sunday at lunch.   For more about the lounge and schedule, sign up here.

Are you on a nonprofit panel at SXSW or sponsoring an event?  Let me know in the comments so I can tweet about it!

I’m in Jacksonville, Florida today to open the plenary session of the Legal Services Corporation Technology Innovation Grant Annual gathering. The last time I keynoted was five years ago!

This session is my first interactive keynote based on the content of my book, “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit,” co-authored with KD Paine. I’m working on developing the curriculum for this book as I did for my first book, The Networked Nonprofit, co-authored with Alison Fine.

In today’s complicated and networked world, legal services organizations need to adapt and improve their programs and fine tune their networks at a much faster pace than ever before. In order to scale social justice outcomes, legal services needs to embrace the process of collecting and making sense of data to improve programs and get results. It’s not enough to collect data, the real magic happens when applied to decision making, becoming a data-informed organization.

Many organizations perceive the skills involved in making sense of data to be beyond their organizational capabilities. But in reality it’s not math skills they need, but an understanding of how the organization works, what is important, and learning from failures as well as success. It also requires an institutionalized process beyond having a staff person (or an intern) quickly generate a couple of charts and graphs from a spreadsheet brimming full of trivial data.

This interactive session will provide practical information on how to use data for social change. While most organizations are using technology to realize their missions, few are effectively measuring the results. In a resource constrained world, measurement is seen as – “yet another thing to do for our to do list” or a feeling a helplessness “we don’t have that expertise on staff.”

I’m taking a small bet and presenting some ideas about getting past set backs and failure from my colleague Peter Sims.   I’ll report back on that, but for now if you want to check out other resources, they’re here.

For the past two days,  I’ve been attending (and also a speaker) at The Social Innovation Summit,  a private, invitation-only forum that explores the frontiers of social innovation.   The audience includes top corporate CSR executives, venture capital investors, government leaders, foundations, nonprofits, and social entrepreneurs.   The agenda includes discussion and presentation of the innovative projects and approaches and the challenges of scaling social change.   I attended the conference last year and this year, like last year, was a fantastic learning and networking opportunity.

Marnie Webb and I were the panelists for a workshop session called “How Technology Can Accelerate Social Change:  Social Data in the Cloud,”  moderated by Jane Meseck, Director of Global Citizenship and Public Affairs at Microsoft.    We had a wide ranging discussion about the hot topic of data in the social change sector and some of the challenges that nonprofits face embracing it.      One of the emerging trends that Marnie mentioned that caught my attention was the idea merging of hardware, data,  mobile and social for social change.   It sounds like science fiction, but let me share a few examples I heard about at the conference.

One example comes from, StethoCloud, which developed a solution to diagnose childhood pneumonia.  Hon Weng Chong, a member of the team, described StethoCloud is a “cloud-powered, mobile-hybrid stethoscope for early detection of pneumonia.”   It connects a stethoscope hardware device to a mobile phone and the user is able to transmit diagnostic information into a cloud service, reproducing the diagnostic capability of a trained medical doctor.  This concept was  second place winner of the Microsoft Imagine Cup Grants program (which is part of Microsoft’s YouthSpark Initiative that encourages young entrepreneurs and philanthropists.

The StethoCloud is an extension of telemedicine.    During the conference, we got a live demonstration of how Dr. William Kennedy, Chief Pediatric Urology, uses a video system from Cisco to check in with patients in remote clinics.   (He writes about this on Huffington Post).    He did a live demonstration of a check in with a patient and reviewing his ultrasounds.    It was inspiring to see it in action, but also how they improvised to get it started.  Lacking space to set up the remove video conferencing station, they took over a supply closet.

Jacquelline Fuller, Director of Charity Giving and Advocacy at Google moderated a session called “Changing the World Through Technology” which featured two winners of their recently announced Global Impact Awards.    She framed it as “edgy technology that may not work, but if it does it will leads to dramatic social innovation.”

Not surprisingly,   charity:water was one of the organizations selected.   charity:water is known for being an innovator in social fundraising as well as its mission to have clean water.      They received $5 million for water-monitoring technology at 4,000 wells across Africa to ensure better maintenance of and access to clean water for more than 1 million people.    Paull Young told me later that this was something they had been thinking about and trying to do for years.    ”Field staff and partners visit the wells, but it impossible to know if clean water is flowing 24/7.    The technology, if it works as planned, should give us real-time data and allow to innovate in well maintenance – as well as donor accountability.    Paull said, imagine a kid who raised money for a well when he was 12 and at 18 can look up on an app and get a report on his well.    You can learn more about the project on the organization’s blog.

Another winner featured at the Summit was Barcode of Life consortium (lead by the Smithsonian) received $3 million for DNA barcoding to protect endangered species, of which more than 2,000 are protected from illegal trade by UN regulations. Intercepting wildlife transferred across borders is critical to slowing illegal trade and DNA barcoding provides a public library of DNA barcode tests for enforcement officials to use as a front-line tool.

These innovations take a combination of fearlessness and creativity.     One of the inspiring stories from the conference was Caine’s Arcade as shared by filmmaker Nirvan Mullick who told this amazing story of how one child’s invention with cardboard boxes in Los Angeles, captured on a YouTube Video,  not only raised money for a scholarship for this young boy, but also sparked a creativity in the schools movement and the launch of a foundation dedicated to encouraging creativity, The Imagination Foundation.

This is only a small slice of the ideas and projects I learned about at the conference, but the inspiration will be enough to last the whole year!

I’ve just returned from keynoting  the first Social Good Brazil conference that took place in Florianapolis,  sometimes referred to the “Silicon Valley” of Brasil and where the nonprofit, social good, innovation, and technology community is leading the social change movement.   Magic happens when social entrepreneurs, nonprofits leaders, technologists,  and young people are brought together for a high energy, creative, and interactive event that exposes everyone to new ideas and stories.

I was so happy to hear the story of how the event got started and the beginning of the network from Fernanda Bornhausen Sa. The presentation is in the form of a network map – so you can tell that they already approach their social change work with a network lens.

The three-day conference was amazing (you can view the schedule  here).   I delivered the ending keynote on the second day and my colleague from the UN Foundation, Aaron Shernian started the second day of the conference, a day packed with ideas, content, and inspiration from the best of Brasil.  Other international keynotes included colleagues Simon Mainwaring and Peter Sims (more about their ideas coming later this week in blogs posts, so stay tuned.) I must confess that I heard so many amazing stories and new ideas that I had inspiration overload!  That’s a good thing because it becomes the seeds of many new ideas, connections, and future blog posts.

I had a lot of fun with my keynote.  It was the first speaking engagement that I was able to scale delivery of my  interactive keynote to  1,000 people in fixed seating and in two languages using a translator. (There’s a blog about that brewing for the Chronicle’s Good Advice blog, so stay tuned)   As this was my 7th International training/speaking engagement this year alone, I was able to draw from everything I’ve learned over the years in terms of presenting on the international stage.    It was the last keynote of the day and it was a long day, so I improvised a movement exercise that involved some Samba movements to keep them engaged (see my post over at the Chronicle).    Now, I can’t wait for my international projects in 2013!

Teens As Free Agents

One of things immediately struck me – the crowd was filled with younger people – teens, college students, and millennials who want to use the technology and do social change on their own terms.   I loved hearing Isadora Faber, a pre-teen girl who lives in Florianópolis and creator of page Daily Class on Facebook.  Isadora, who is only 13 years,  created a Facebook group to help other teens in her country who want to make a difference in their communities and to report problems in their schools.   While her parents were concerned about her safety, she kept going.   ”If your cause is true and right you have to persevere. ”

Philantroteens

The UN Foundation’s Aaron Sherinian was next up for the opening keynote where he gave an overview of different global projects that through the power of social media and networks offer scale to social change issues.   One of the words he used caught my attention:  Philanthroteens.     These are teens with a passion for social change and who grew up not knowing what it was like to not to have a cell phone  or be connected to Facebook.      The media has dubbed this generation – “Qwerty Monsters” who send hundreds of text messages a day and don’t even like to use their phone for calls (and with two pre-teens in my house, I can attest this is true).     But it is more than the technology, it is also their passion to do good in the world.

Un Foundation

He shared the story of  the first-ever Girl Up Leadership Summit which brought together young girls who are helping change the face of global philanthropy.  They were joined by celebrities like actress and Girl Up Champion Monique Coleman, global leader Ambassador Melanne Verveer, and more than 100 young women from across the country.  These philanthroteens lead workshops on advocacy, communications and learned about their peers in developing countries.  Their meeting featured a special conversation via Skype with girls in South Africa as part of the Girl Up  Campaign’s emphasis on uniting girls around the world.

Panelists Cassandra Butts (Millennium Challenge Corp), Betty Hudson (National Geographic Society), and Angela Mwanza (UBS Private Wealth Management), taught them about ways to have an impact in their communities and world.  Together they discussed their personal challenges and accomplishments as leaders in their fields. Speakers Sarah Hurwitz (Senior Assistant to President Obama) and Monique Coleman of High School Musical also shared inspiring lessons. You can see it in the video above, well worth watching.

The Power of Networks and Flip Flops

Brasil is famous for its flip flops, a brand called Havaianas.   I visited the central market where there are many  flip flop vendors.    I wanted to bring back some as gifts for my teen girls in my family.  But I didn’t know their color preference.    So, I texted them. Within two minutes I got an answer.   The flip flop vendor was amazed that I could text two girls around the world and involve them in the purchasing decision.     But think about the power of connecting teenage girls in different countries and unleashing their “philanthroteen” energy to support women’s rights or other social causes.  Now that’s a powerful idea.

What programs do you know that help connect young girls to global women’s rights issues using technology and social media?    Is your nonprofit working with “philanthroteens?”

From November 6-8 – 2012 I will be in Florianopolis, Brazil to keynote the Social Good Brazil – The Seminar, which brings together influential minds, social entrepreneurs and innovators, and connecting people from all walks of life to share ideas and actions to make the world a better place using technology, social media and innovative thinking. This will be my first visit to South America and I could not have asked for a more joyous introduction to social good and social media in that country.

The seminar is an opportunity to for a wide range of change makers in that country to engage in the global conversation put forward by the UN Foundation and see the work of inspiring Brazilians such as Reinaldo Pamponet(itsnoon.net), Mauro Segura (aquintaonda.blogspot.com.br) and Rodrigo Bandeira (cidadedemocratica.org.br).   I will be part of a delegation of experts from the US who will be speaking.  This includes:  Peter Sims (Author of “Little Bets”), Aaron Sherinian (VP of Communications and PR of the UN Foundation), and  Simon Mainwaring (“We First”).

Check the agenda, the list of speakers, follow the entire event via live stream and engage in the global conversation through Facebook and Twitter.   Learn more on the web site.

I was in NYC over the weekend and Monday to attend and speak at the Mashable Social Good Summit,   a three-day conference featuring discussions and presentations with global social activists, organizations, and new media experts.  Held during UN Week and Clinton Global Initiative,  the speakers and agenda was diverse, interesting, and inspiring.

The event was designed for the Mashable audience, a younger and social media savvy group that has the hunger and capacity to consumer a lot of content as well as do good in the world.   The agenda was packed, with 30 more plenary sessions per day (highlights here) ranging from 5 minutes solo presentations, 10-20 minute panel discussions, and live interviews via skype.    But the speakers were not just technologists, they included global leaders – many who are used to a different format for conferences.  As one of #sgsglobal organizers mentioned in his introduction, it was a shift for those used to giving 90 minutes!

There were a couple of big takeaways for me:

Inspiration and Feeling Good About The Desire to Do Good

Very inspired by the bloggers and @mashable @92y & @unfoundation at #SGSGlobal. Remember to watch today at 2:45pm! on.mash.to/RxjKbG

— Al Gore (@algore) September 23, 2012

The Mashable audience truly wants to do good in the world and they were inspired to hear and see many different examples and opportunities to support. And, inspiration was not a one-way street – we also heard from world leaders from the US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice to Hilary Clinton and many others about the opportunity that young people have to do good in a connected world.

Encouraging  (younger) People To Follow Their Passion About Doing Good

#scsglobal young people are capable of doing more good in the world than ever before because of online connectedness — Beth Kanter (@kanter) September 23, 2012

A theme I heard throughout the day on multiple panels was a call to action for people in the room to serve the world by following their passion. This was particularly true in Maria Bello’s story about her work in Haiti with creating a women’s network called We Advance.

What better way to see this in action is to hear it and see it from the young people themselves.   The audience got a performance by J.D. Malkin, known as jdviolinboy on YouTube. In addition to being gifted musically, Malkin is also the newest youth ambassador of Save the Children, an institution that serves children in need in around the world.

But, young people are not just advocates, they can also come up with solutions and opportunities.   This was the theme of a panel featuring representatives from Microsoft and Global Giving called “Bridging the Opportunity Divide.”   (Here’s a reflection from Akhtar Badshah)

Thinking Big About How To Use  Technology For Social Change, But Understand the Challenges

How can new media and technology create solutions in YOUR community? #SGSGlobal mashable.com/sgs twitter.com/gatesfoundatio… — Gates Foundation (@gatesfoundation) September 22, 2012

There were many examples of how social, mobile, and other new digital technologies are being used to scale good bridge digital divides.

Larry Irving talked about the many ways mobile is bridging the digital divide around the world and helping to deliver poverty reduction programs.  He mentioned developments in the technology – like the $35 tablet in India – that are getting many more people who were left out connected. Irving also acknowledged that there was a lot more work to do to get nonprofits to adopt these new technologies.  He asked the audience a series of questions about whether or not they thought most nonprofits they knew were using the new tools to the great impact.  Not many hands went up.

I was honored to be on the agenda in the evening – in-between Mira Sorvino and Jane Goodall.  I gave a 5 minute talk with a message that I always share when I speak to young people at universities in other parts of the world — to follow their passion for social change and technology, but make sure they are connect with nonprofits and their collective efforts lead to on the ground change.     That it isn’t about the tools it is what you do with them.

Getting from Collective Conversation to Impact

Right now from the Social Good Global Conversation in Oman.#SGSglobal twitter.com/OmnEntrepreneu…

— Sharifa Al-Barami (@OmnEntrepreneur) September 22, 2012

The most amazing part of this summit was the global conversation that was taking place – not just in the room. There were meetups having on the ground throughout the world where people were watching the live stream and participating. In NYC, in the back of the auditorium, there was a multi-language rumble going on as translators were translating speaker’s remarks into 7 languages. I noticed that colleagues that I have met in different places in the world for my capacity building work were joining the conversation.

Conversation and engagement is the first rung on the ladder of social change.    The next step is action.  Many of the speakers offered specific options for people in the room to take action, hopefully followed by collective impact on the ground.

At this year’s Council on Foundations conference in New Orleans, I had the honor of doing a mini-workshop for CEOs of Community Foundations as part of a half-day pre-conference session organized by the Knight Digital Media Center called “Digital Strategies for Community Foundations.”     The backdrop is a movement to create “Community News Leadership 2.0” and community foundations are big players in this ecosystem.    I got to hear an overview of the ecosystem work that Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo and a presentation by Sara Goo, Senior Digital Editorial, Pew Research Center.   I did a mini-workshop on networked leadership and culture change to support these transformations.

Cara Matteliano, VP of Programs, gave a presentation about three different initiatives designed to create the environment for local news including GrowWNY.org.   The project is a hyperlocal source of information about living green–powered by network of environmental activists, nonprofits, and grassroots organizations.  It celebrates the natural beauty of the area while educating the community about a green life style. Cara talked about the network formation phase of the project.

She opened her talk with, “Is your organization still working the same way it was when it was founded?”    She her organization, founded in 1919, was being catapulted into an age of networks and connectivity – and that while it was comfortable it was necessary for the future of her community.

Sara Goo, a senior digital editor for the Pew Research Center, gave an amazing presentation that shows the all the facts and figures underlying the disruptive changes in our society caused by new technologies.   She talked about the power of “networked individuals,”  people Alison Fine and I described as “Free Agents” in our book, The Networked Nonprofit.    Most of the stories about “networked individuals” that I have shared have  been focused on people who are leveraging their networks for social good or philanthropy.     Sara described another type of free agent or networked individual, the consumer activist.

She told the story of “Poop_Strong” who describes himself in his Twitter profile as “31 year-old sustainability PhD student fighting Stage IV colon cancer. Dropped by health insurance coverage, I’m waging war on potential medical bankruptcy.”     Although he has health insurance, it has a lifetime limit of $300,000 in medical expenses.  He had spent more than the limit due to the need for chemotherapy sessions that cost $11,000 each.   He launched a web site called Poop Strong, a node to Lance Armstrong cancer nonprofit Live Strong.  He used the site as a platform to raise money to cover his medical costs by selling T-shirts and items his friends donate.

In July, he changed his strategy, waging a war on Twitter with his insurance company, Aetna.   He sent a tweet to his insurance carrier, Aetna:  “@Aetna’s 4th qtr profit up 73%: ‘it continued to benefit from low use of health care.’ Helps they can ensure low use.”    He got back the usual responses from PR.    He discovered that the chief executive Mark Bertolini was on Twitter and engaged him in a heated q/a.   The insurance company moved quickly to work out a solution. Within 24 hours, Poop_Strong’s tweets had done more than six straight months online fundraising.  It persuaded Aetna to cover all his outstanding medical bills – demonstrating the power of Free Agents in a connected world.

I facilitated a mini-workshop on “Leading the Networked Foundation” where I shared examples and ideas about how CEO and their organizations can leverage both their organizational and professional networks using a networked mindset.    The discussion focused not only on the challenges to organizational change, but the benefits of working this way and how to begin making steps towards change.

A couple of threads:

• Adaptive or Dynamic Learning: One shift is the need to be constantly learning – whether it is on an individual level – technology or networking skills or the organizational level by sense-making of data.
• Tearing Down the Walls, Literally: Becoming networked has to start inside and the first step is silo busting.  One participant shared how her organization took away all the offices and cubes and created an open space.  This had lead to the informal internal conversations that lead to new ideas and practices – and of course cross pollination.
• Social Media Is Not A Job, But An Organizational Competency: To be community leaders, everyone has to engage.  This takes patience.  It takes training, not only on how to use the tools, but to cover concern areas like privacy.
• Modeling: CEO needs to model the change they want to see inside their organizations.

As I travel around the world to lead trainings or train other trainers to help nonprofits master networked approaches and using social media effectively,  I often get asked this question.  ”What are some must-attend events for someone who works with nonprofit and wants to attend a conference?”   Well, there are many, many options if you take a quick look at this of nonprofit and social change events over at Socialbrite.

We know that most nonprofits have limited travel and conference budgets, so if I cut it down to three options, they would be:

• Nonprofit Technology Conference from NTEN (April 11 in MN)
• Social Media 4 Nonprofits Conference (travels to different cities)
• SXSW Interactive – The mega event for the social media industry in Austin, TX – March 8-11th.

SXSW is a huge event – the hotel, travel, and conference registration fee can add up and be out of reach for many nonprofit budgets.   However, they do offer scholarships!   This program recognizes individuals from all sectors and from anywhere in the world who are using new media to push the boundaries of tackling community problems. Non profit leaders, grassroots organizers, individual citizens, and civic-minded entrepreneurs are all eligible. We’re looking for people whose work (whether it’s a job, a hobby or volunteer) helps people through technology.    You have to submit a 300-word essay by September, 14th.   Details are here.

The SXSW agenda is determined, in part, by a community vote – which closes on August 31st.    There are many proposals for nonprofit-oriented sessions, but here’s a curated list that you can vote for.   KD Paine and I have pitched a panel on Social Media Nonprofit Measurement — and we hope you’ll take an opportunity to vote for our panel before voting closes!   Thank you.

For many years, the SXSW Festival has used an open application and voting process to select panels for the premiere event for digital and online professionals that takes place every year in Austin, TX.      With the launch of “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit” co-authored with KD Paine, we thought we do a reprise of our popular panel in 2009, “Social Media, Nonprofit, ROI Poetry Slam.”   That panel marked the beginning of my friendship and collaboration with KD Paine which lead to our book, which is going to be entertaining and practical look at how to measure all things networked nonprofit.    The panel includes the same participants and will be looking back and forward about how social media measurement practices in the nonprofit sector have evolved.

The description:  Social Media Nonprofit Measurement:  Beyond the BS

This panel will dramatically demonstrate how the practice of measurement, social media, social change, and networks have evolved over the past 5 years. In 2009, the “Social Media ROI Poetry Slam” SXSW lead to a book “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit.” The thesis: For nonprofit organizations there are two key processes that lead to social change: To become networked, and to use measurement. The book’s co-authors, Beth Kanter and KD Paine will facilitate an updated of the original poetry-slam session with the same four nonprofit leaders about they have used networked strategies and measurement to improve results and transform failure into success. Panelists will deliver their case studies in verse and the authors will provide expert feedback .

You can vote for our session here.

There are many, many interesting nonprofit and social change panels in the panel picker.  Here’s a few worth checking out and voting for:

Connective Consciousness: Why Influencer Back Channels Work - http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/5336 This panel I’m on with Sarah Granger, Brian Reich, and Ritambra Rana is going to rawk!

Why are Foundations so behind nonprofits in social: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/2461 coordinated by Jereme Bivins

New Radical Online Community: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/4811 coordinated by Debra Askanese

Humanizing Goes Deeper Then Social Media Tactics –  http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/462 – coordinated by Maddie Grant

New Tools for Digital Justice - http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/3770 – coordinated by Mike Medow

LOL Cats Are Cute, But Can They Save Lives? http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/3643 – coordinated Olivia Melikhov

What’s Up Doc?  Social Engagement in Disasters http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/4209 coordinated by Wendy Harman

Moving Past Pixels: Claiming Your Strategic Voice – http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/228 coordinated by Eve Simon (Be sure to see all the great panels Beaconfire has put together for voting)

Social Media Smackdown: Online VS Offline Impact - http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/2027 coordinated by Kayta Andresen

The Nonprofit Narrative - http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/705 coordinated by Dan Portnoy

Introducing the Giving Graph - http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/4988 coordinated Jenna Sauber

Diplomacy 2.0 - http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/12986 Lovisa Williams, speaker

There were thousands of entries – so I probably missed a couple of good nonprofit panels.  If you are proposing a panel, leave a comment.  I’ll be tweeting out SXSW links this week.

I’m attending the MCON12 a virtual conference to explore ideas, strategies, and to hear directly from experts on how to organize millennial engagement programs.  It is all being done online through video streaming and chats.  The networking sessions are also virtual, being held as chats.

I listened to the morning keynote, “The Entrepreneurial Spirit Millennials” delivered by Scott Gerber who is the Founder and Co Founder of Gen Y Capital Partners and the Young Entrepreneur Council.  He talked about how Millennials are changing the work place.  (See this infographic)

He started some with a personal story of being a Millennial, along with some context of the economic environment and upbringing of Millennials.    That they were told they were the “best generation” and that parents wanted them to be better.  But with economic realities, those promises were broken.

Ten years ago, he made a decision to start his own business while in college.   He made every mistake in the book, but was able to scale a business from 0 to thousands of dollars a month.  He had no education in the school of hard knocks and made it up as he went along.   By his senior year in college, he bankrupted his company.

He was brought up to believe that he could take over the world.    This belief made him take risks and “be stupid” that lead him to failures.

When Millennials graduate, it hits them.  They need a job.  They get underpaid.  Millennials education teaches them to be the king of the castle, not the grunts to get the coffee.  That’s why it is hard to connect to them.

He believes that the new economy will change the way young people will be developed today.    We have to understand what made this generation think in this way and also understand their strengths.   If not, they will have no interest working for established organizations.  They’ll tell traditional nonprofits, we don’t need you.

How to Tap into Millennials

• Stop saying that Millennials are lazy and spoiled.   Leverage that ego.   You are not being creative.  You have to inspire Millennials not talk at them.   Don’t put them down and make them feel like they are the lowly employee on the totem poll.   Talk with Millennials, Work with Millennials.  Collaborative with Millennials.
• Millennials are not a market.    In one blink of an eye, we can unite behind a single cause and take you out or make you a hero.    It only takes one of us to create revolution.
• Millennials are 24-7 generation.  The Internet has caused this.   Babyboomers think Millennials are lazy.  We don’t work hard, we work smarter.    We are 24-7 generation.  We can get you new business at 2 am on Saturday by being on Facebook.    We are a generation that doesn’t know what it is like not to have the Internet or a Microwave.   The traditional workplace norm of a 9-5 schedule doesn’t work for us.
• Speak to Millennials.  In the corporate world, there is a hierarchy that makes decisions.   It’s top down.  The upper generation of a company handle the younger generation.   “Guess what,  we are not good at listening to older folks.  We tune out.”     Babyboomers need to figure out what Millennials are inspired by your organization or mission and take the ball and run with it.  They can be your internal Ambassadors.    If you can find a Millennial brand ambassador, they will find and inspires thousands.
• Some advice for using social media to reach Millennial.  Don’t just put up a Facebook Page or tweet at us.  We’re not stupid.  You need a brand ambassador and authenticity.  You need to build community.  You need real world dialogue.   Get other people to spread the world.     The concept is simple, but hard to implement.  ”Most Millennials don’t read your crap, but if you get those ambassadors you will get their attention.”
• Social media and personal branding are a part of the Millennial culture.   We are a generation of people who feels it is important to tell their friends what they are doing at this second.   If you can tap into the brand of your brand ambassadors you can be successful.     Don’t just throw schwag at young people, but include them the strategy discussion and let them know how important they are to your strategy.   Sit down with your brand ambassadors over coffee and tell them why it matters and how to inspire them.  Tap into their personal brands and find ways to inspire them to promote your brand.
• Millennials want to do something that matters.    Upon graduation, their dreams were burst because they didn’t get the corner office but the mail room.   Babyboomers need to mentor these young people and treat them like equals, not grunts.  Ask the Millennials,  ”What is your opinion?”   Many times those ideas won’t fit, but some will and that could lead to dramatic success.
• Millennial leadership is based on impulse and impatient action.    We don’t want to wait ten years or wade through the bureaucratic stuff.    Find ways for Millennial to navigate.    Let Millennials run with the ball and get it done.   Don’t make Millennials desk jockeys.     Understand that Millennials will not conform to your rules.    Make Millennials leaders and the power to implement their ideas.  Leadership comes from trusting people.    Should that Millennial fail, teach them a learning lesson.
• Millennials don’t want to use your stupid campaigns, your Twitter hashtag, or another platform.   Mediums that didn’t start in our lifetime don’t have meaning for us.    That’s what changes business.  Message before platform.    Your message carries a generation.  Your authority carries a generation.  Your ability to inspire will take your nonprofit through the next 100 years.  You must keep up with technology!
• Let go!!!   Millennials have no loyalty to anyone but themselves.    Let Millennials harness your brand, let your brand harness Millennial power.  Let the crowd own your brand and you will be successful.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity have lunch with Libby Leffler who works on strategic partnerships at Facebook with nonprofits.   If you work in nonprofits and social media, you are likely to be seeing a lot of more of Libby as she will is doing a lot more speaking about Facebook and Nonprofits.   This morning, I attended a meetup for San Francisco Bay Area nonprofits that Libby and her team hosted at Facebook Headquarters in Menlo Park and next week she will be on the speaker line for the Social Media For Nonprofits Conference on July 26th (you can still register).

I sat down for an interview to learn more about her work at Facebook and tips for nonprofits.

What is your current job at Facebook?

I am a strategic partner manager on Facebook’s platform partnerships team.  I focus on the great work that causes and nonprofits do on our platform to engage with supporters and inspire advocacy.

What are some of the big objectives of Facebook as you work with causes and nonprofits?

Facebook is all about sharing and connecting.  On Facebook, people connect with friends, family, their communities and the issues and causes they care about most.  Causes can be some of most personal things that individuals connect with and represent as part of their identity on Facebook.

Our goal is simple: we want to provide causes and nonprofits with the tools that they need to best utilize our platform.  We work to empower the millions of people and organizations that use Facebook to create high-impact solutions to problems big and small, all over the world.

Our team seeks to highlight the initiatives and interesting integrations that happen every day on Facebook that enable these causes and nonprofit organizations to add a social solution to their overall efforts.  We provide resources to effectively share information about the ways that causes can use the platform to engage with supporters — for example, we produce best practice guides and Facebook live talks that we make available online at our Nonprofit Resource Center.  We have also started hosting local nonprofit meetups in different cities in the US to engage with nonprofit partners.

How long have you worked at Facebook?  You’ve had held different positions at Facebook, share an anecdote about an amazing experience you’ve had.

I joined Facebook in 2008 as a member of our inside sales team.  I worked with a number of different clients, including nonprofit organizations.  It was then that I first worked with partners like (RED) that were just starting to use Facebook to build awareness around their various campaigns and initiatives.

After spending a year on our sales team I took a role as the Business Lead to our Chief Operating Officer and managed public appearances, speaking engagements and various research projects.  In that role, I had the exciting opportunity to staff the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 2011 and 2012, which was a hugely eye-opening experience.  In 2012, the themes of inequality and the “forgotten one billion” permeated nearly every discussion about the global community.  I will never forget meeting Leymah Gbowee, the winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize who led the women’s movement resulting in peace in Liberia.  We featured her as a guest on our Facebook Live program at WEF interviewed by New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof.  Watching such a powerful dialogue take place between these two inspiring forces was absolutely surreal.

I understand that you have been making a big effort to reach out to nonprofits at different conferences and have different events, can you tell my readers more about that?

As we focus on the work that happens on Facebook, we know how important it is that we educate organizations on how to best use the tools that we make available.  The top 20 nonprofits on Facebook have, in total, over 25 million people that connect with their Facebook Pages.  I am often asked by these organizations: “what next?”  Our team has found nonprofit conferences to be one of the great places to start the education process.

There are a number of useful conferences that give us a chance to connect with nonprofits and share details on how to best take advantage of the different products on Facebook.  We hosted a roundtable at the 2012 Social Innovation Summit in New York and recently participated on a panel at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service in Chicago.  There are a number of nonprofit conferences that we will join this year in addition to the social good meetups that we have started to host in different cities.  The kickoff to our meetup series took place at Facebook’s New York office in May 2012.  Last month we hosted a meetup in Chicago in partnership with Points of Light and just this week, we hosted a meetup at Facebook Headquarters in Menlo Park for San Francisco Bay Area nonprofit organizations.

What are your five tips for nonprofits?  Do you specific user guides for nonprofits?  What is the url?

There are a number of helpful best practices and awesome examples that we share with nonprofits when asked about the best ways to build a supporter base on Facebook.  We have a Facebook Page called “Nonprofits on Facebook” that we have dedicated exclusively to causes and nonprofits that are looking for resources on how to effectively engage with people on the platform.  At Nonprofits on Facebook, we have a Nonprofit Resource Center that offers downloadable best practice guides for causes, quick tips, inspirational “cause spotlights” featuring individuals and organizations, and Facebook 101 Live Talks.  This is definitely our hub for all things cause and nonprofit-related on Facebook.

I mentioned that we have started to host meetups in different cities and that we use those gatherings as opportunities to share some of the most effective best practices for building a presence with Facebook Pages.  The top five “tips and tricks” that I always share for Facebook Pages are:

1. Find your voice
2. Create a conversation
3. Offer exclusive content & programs
4. Make supporters the stars
5. Push & pull

In fact, if your readers go to the Nonprofits Resource Center on our Facebook Page, they’ll find a recent Facebook 101 Live Talk I recorded that goes into detail on each of these five tips.

These are small tweaks that make a big difference and they are simple enough to implement today.  By visiting our Nonprofits on Facebook Page and downloading one our resource guide for causes and nonprofits, people can learn more about how to apply these five best practices right away.

What are a couple of nonprofit stories that have used Facebook in an effective and inspiring way?

The work that happens on Facebook every single day is pretty inspiring – it’s amazing what people and organizations can do when they add a social element to their efforts at solving societal challenges big and small.  Simply providing causes and nonprofits with resources and guidance on how to add that social element by using Facebook effectively can lead to very impactful work on our platform without much involvement on our part at all.  JustGiving and BlueCure are two different examples of ways that people and organizations use Facebook to make a difference.

JustGiving is an international charitable donations website headquartered in the UK.  The work that they have done is the perfect example of how sharing with friends can have a big impact when it comes to giving to the causes you care about.  Today, nearly 25% of all charity donations on JustGiving’s website come through individuals that discover JustGiving charity projects on Facebook.  In 2011, friends posting and sharing different projects on Facebook resulted in £22,000,000 in donations to worthwhile charities through JustGiving.  From September 2011 to April 2012, another £925,000 was donated through Facebook just by offering people the opportunity to click “Share” after making a donation.  Earlier this year, JustGiving launched an Open Graph implementation that makes it possible for a donor to publish his or her giving actions back to their Facebook Timeline.  By giving people the ability to share with friends, JustGiving has made it easier for people to make a difference on both a local and global level.

Sometimes it is an individual who is passionate about a particular issue that will be the one to do something really interesting on Facebook.  In 2010, 35 year-old Gabe Canales was diagnosed with prostate cancer.  He took to his personal Facebook profile to share the details of his diagnosis and, almost immediately, saw family and friends rally around him with encouraging words of support.  He was also surprised to see a number of folks asking questions — many of these people had personally survived cancer or were going through their own battle with a different form of cancer.  The flood of response inspired Gabe to launch a Facebook Page that he titled Journey with Prostate Cancer.  Today, the community has grown to more than 7,500 people and has not only served as a support network for Gabe, but has evolved into a hub for all things related to men’s health research, education and treatment.  Gabe’s story is inspiring because he is a real person, like you and me, who took an issue he was passionate about and ended up engaging an entire community.  He turned his Facebook Page into a place where people could participate in an open dialogue about serious topics, putting faces, names and real-life scenarios to formerly anonymous individuals who may have never had the chance to interact.  We think this is pretty cool.

I understand that you are looking for examples of how nonprofits have used the platform to do good in the world.   If nonprofits have stories they want to share, how should connect with you?

We are always looking for great examples of how nonprofit organizations are using the Facebook platform around specific projects.  When folks connect with the Nonprofits on Facebook Page, they can send us a message with some of their favorite examples of individuals and organizations that are doing amazing things.  I always encourage people to please reach out to us through the Page — share great things you are seeing or inspiring ideas and we may highlight them in an upcoming post, case study or cause spotlight.  Examples are the perfect way to show our community just how much they can do on the platform by taking advantage of the tools and products on Facebook.

MCON 2012,  a virtual summit to help nonprofit leaders learn how to engage the Millennial generation as donors, takes place online on July 19.   The schedule features an impressive list of Millennials and others who are experts on this topic.   The conference registration is $99-$125, but I have four passes to give away to the four best answers to this question:   Why do you think it is important for nonprofits to engage Millennials both inside and outside of their organizations?

Three years ago, the first study on Millennial donor engagement was published by Achieve and partner JGA. This study provided the necessary understanding of how the generation gives and engages with nonprofit organizations.

This year Achieve, with partner the Case Foundation, is hosting another virtual conference, MCON, to hear directly from organizations on how they are engaging Millennials and to understand how experts in the field are advising nonprofits nationwide on creative Millennial involvement.

What better way to learn about the generation than through the next generation of conferences?

I’m one of the bloggers and I will be covering a session called “Leveraging Peer Influence” with Paull Young, Charity Water and Holly Ross, NTEN.  The description.

Peer influence is the driving force behind some of the most successful fundraising and advocacy campaigns we see today. This session will feature examples from organizations building movements to engage Millennial through their peers, friends, and social networks.

For your chance to win a free pass, leave a comment that answers the question: Why is it important to engage Millennials inside and outside your organization.

Women Who Tech Around the World

Yesterday, I had the honor of participating in the  4th annual Women Who Tech TeleSummit that brings together women breaking new ground in technology who use their tech savvy skills to transform the world and inspire change. Created by Alyson Kapin four years ago, WomenWhoTech is a network for thriving community of women in technology professions by giving women an open platform to share their talents, experiences, and insights.

I organized and moderated a panel called “Women Who Tech Globally.”   Using a webinar and conference call platform, we were able to bring in participants from San Francisco,  Rwanda, Kenya, Algeria, Tunisia, and  Egypt. Unfortunately, our presenter from Lebanon had connectivity issues and was unable to present.   This is a common experience when you attempt to facilitate global presentations, discussions or peer groups.   It is also can be expensive for participants from outside the US, but WomenWhoTech and their sponsors offset the long distance charges and one participant got access to use a faster Internet connection.

I work as a trainer and capacity builder for nonprofits and technology and more lately social media and networked approaches.  Through my work with Packard Foundation and with IIE and the State Department, I have have the opportunity to work with NGOs from places like Pakistan, Rwanda, India, and the Middle East.   Along the way,  I’ve met some amazing women activists and women who run Women’s Rights, Women Leadership Programs and Technology Start Ups.   When Alyson Kapin asked me if I was interested in doing a session for WomenWhoTech, I very much wanted to do a session that could showcase and hear from women in places outside of North America.     I am grateful to Alyson, NTEN and other Summit sponsors for the opportunity to experiment with having a Global virtual discussion.

When you work in the US or  the land of high Bandwidth where FAST internet is accessible and cheap, you don’t realize how good you have it until you experience what it is like in countries where the Internet infrastructure is fragile, non-existent, or slow.   Even worse,you don’t realize how lucky one is on the US to have freedom of expression until you encounter Internet censorship and other barriers.

And, despite Internet connectivity issues and other big challenges,  there is a vibrant network of professional tech women as well as many amazing women’s rights ngos that are creatively using the technology to improve women’s lives in many countries.    The session brought in women from the Middle East and Africa to hear their stories and discuss these questions:

• What is the role of women in Africa and Middle East emerging digital landscape and what types of contributions are they making?
• What challenges do women who tech in Africa and Middle East face?  Are these similar or different than in the US?
• How is technology improving the everyday lives of women and girls in these countries?

Heather Ramsey who is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Center for Women’s Leadership Initiatives at IIE and several participants two programs, E-Mediat, and TechWomen.   Heather gave an overview of the different types of programs that she managed – that help women who don’t have computer skills to gain them to run home-based businesses to supporting highly skilled technical women and social media training to support civil society goals.

Loubna Lahmici from Alergia who is the CEO and Founder of a tech start up in her country that is similar to GroupOn.   Loubna said that being a women can be advantage in starting a company because women work hard, know how to nurture their networks and are trusted.    She talked about how empowering it was to start own company with her sister on a small amount of funding provided by her family.   She also reflected on how she had to quickly learn business skills in addition to her tech skills.  ”She had to learn how to wear many hats.”

We also heard from two amazing women activists and leaders,  Ghada Bahig, Engineering Manager, Mentor Graphics; TechWomen Mentee, Egypt and Chema Gargouri, Manager, Centre for Applied Training (CAT); Director, E-Mediat, WES Tunisia.  Both spoke about how women emerged as new leaders in their respective countries during the revolution.      As Chema noted, “Women’s participation on social media was not shy.”

Next we had a brief overview from Mary Patton Davis who works on communications for the Akilah Institute and who I had the pleasure of meeting when I was in Rwanda.     Mary shared an overview of their program and their first class will graduate this June with 100% job placement.  The program includes an IT program where women receive weekly instruction in using Microsoft Office and navigating the Internet.   This is an important employment skill for them.

It was very inspiring here from Giselle Bhati who will graduate this year and work for the Marriott Hotels.    Part of Akilah’s program is that students start social businesses to give back to their communities.   Giselle’s dream is in her own words:

I have been given an opportunity to attend a human rights workshop in New York City, this summerJune 22-July 14. This is an exciting opportunity because last January, I participated in a human rights workshop here in Rwanda with Global Youth Connect (www.globalyouthconnect.org) where I visited police station, refugee camps and volunteered with a youth association for promotion of human rights (AJEPRODHO). All these taught me how to become a human right activist.

Giselle has been using Razoo to help raise funds for her to make the trip and she still has a way to go before reaching her goal.   (I made a small donation and hope you might consider a small gift too)

Next we heard from Dr. Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg is Founder and Executive Director of Akili Dada and based in Kenya.  She  is also an Assistant Professor in the Politics department at the University of San Francisco, where her research and teaching interests center on the politics of philanthropy, gender, Africa, ethnicity, and democratization, and on the role of technology in social activism.

Originally from Kenya, she earned a B.A. in Politics from Whitman College and Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Political Science from the University of Minnesota. In her dual roles, Wanjiru divides her time between the U.S. and Kenya, where Akili Dada is based. Working at the intersection of academia and social entrepreneurship, Wanjiru is passionate about the synergy between rigorous academic analysis and committed social activism.  Wanjiru has received widespread recognition for her work with Akili Dada, including being honored as a 2012 White House ‘Champion of Change’, a winner of the 2010 United Nations Marketplace of Ideas competition, and recipient of the 2011 Yamashita Prize, the 2011 African Achievers International Award, and the 2012 HOW Fund Fellowship.

She shared Akili Dada’s model and impact for developing high-potential young women from underprivileged families who are passionate about social change.   They offer  comprehensive high school scholarships, personalized mentoring, and leadership training.   Her vision to create an opportunity for these young people share their authentic voice about their work.   They view technology as tool, and use when it has substance to get impact.

All in all, an inspiring start to the WomenWhoTech Summit 2012

Click Thru to See Larger Image

Last week I participated on a panel on “Data Visualization for Nonprofits: A Picture Is Better Than A 1,000 Words” with Johanna Morariu from Innonet and Brian Kennedy of ChildrenNow.      The day of the panel, I published a blog post that shared our slides, wiki, and resources.   But the really wonderful thing about the Nonprofit Technology Conference, is that the knowledge capture is superb.    Our session was documented in many different ways as described below.    Knowledge capture makes it easy to share the learning with others in the community, but as a session designer and speaker – you can also use it to do an “after action” review to help you review the delivery and the content.

Documentation of Session

• Panel Wiki: This is a hub for the panel and includes our session outline, resources, slides, and documentation.
• Graphic Recording:We were lucky to have some terrific documentation of our session, including the above cartoon summarizing the key discussion and points visually by Rob Cottingham thanks to the good folks at Rally
• Text Notes: Every session has volunteer note takers writing notes in a google document.  Our session is here.
• Video: Our session was lived streamed and we have a video.
• Photos: I rounded up the photos and screen captured important tweets and put them into Flickr here.
• Blog Posts: Wild Woman Fundraising and Wiser Earth wrote session recaps.
• Session Hashtaag Archive: I used rowfeeder to capture the tweets from our session #12ntcviz

This post summarizes how you can use session documentation and reflective practice to improve the content and delivery of your session.   Here’s a couple of techniques that I try to use every time I do a workshop, presentation, keynote, or other instruction.

1.  What content, lines, or ideas resonated?

I got through my presentation and look at the Twitter transcript to see what lines or ideas were re-tweeted the most.   I use this information to revise my slides for the next time.    What’s interesting to me is that lines that I improvised in the moment were the ones that got retweeted the most!    The very practical and usable tips resonated.   Also humor, especially with props,  works.

2.    What worked about the audience interaction activities face-to-face?

I always start a panel with a living assessment of the audience to discover their experience, knowledge, and attitudes about the topic to be presented.   This helps presenters gauge the audience and figure out whether to dial up or dial down their presentation.  (I always design to have the visuals be simple, and adjust my verbal presentation in real time to match audience level).     The value of doing an exercise like this is that helps the participants connect with what they already know so they can take in new ideas more easily.

The exercise was to describe a series of  stages that nonprofits go through to get to a data-informed culture.  I asked for volunteers to “hold a sign” and stand in the front of the room.  Then I interviewed them.    It was very informative, judging from the conversation and the tweets.     One insight is that the denial stage is about the perceived lack of time to collect and analyze data.   Many in the audience identified with the “data delight stage.”

3.  What was the experience of the online viewers?

Our session was lived streamed.    I had organized parallel online activities that mirror what we were doing the room.   For example,  for the above exercise, I had the online audience take an online poll.

I have to remember to turn off and on my mic during the audience interaction activities ..

We had an excellent online moderator who was in the room, Ash Shepherd, but the online experience could have been improve with some advanced notice to participants about the online activities.   I followed up with some remote participants and asked them about it.  Here’s what I learned:

The online experience was good, but could use a little polish. Too many of the sessions had audience interaction that was hard to hear and experience online. The slides didnt always match where the speaker was. As an online session it was also hard when the speaker took too long to get to the meat of the presentation. Many of the speakers took time to “warm up” the audience, which is not as impactful online, especially if we cant hear and see it all. It seemed that the online experience was better when the speaker had more detailed and deeper slides. Also the session that had a more tangible topic seemed to work better, rather than those that were higher level strategy.  I think there is a different approach to presenting online versus in person so it doesnt always work well.

I asked for feedback about the hold the sign activity – what was that like for the online audience?

We enjoyed the hold the sign part, it was good to hear from others. The other exercises were tough to follow, but again we didnt look at the session outline online.

I also use a lot of “share pairs” to help people digest the information presented.   For the online audience,  we asked them to discuss the questions in the chat or on Twitter.

Next year, if my session is streamed, I am going to think through the activities farther in advance and see if there can’t be some advanced communications or perhaps a link added to the online streaming part.

How do you debrief for yourself after a presentation, panel, or workshop?

Flickr Photo by Julia Smith

I had the honored of moderating a free wheeling plenary discussion on Day #3 of NTC on “Innovation and Nonprofits.”   The panelists included Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, Meg Garlinghouse, Greg Baldwin, and Brian Reich. You can find the description and bios here and if you want to the video of the whole session, you can find it here.     The conversation was non-linear, insightful, and allowed for debate on different points of view from the panelists.

Source: Rally Graphic Recording

I kicked it off with a provactive question, “Is innovation like porn – we know it when we see it?”  (a nod to the Mapplethorpe/NEA controversy from the 1990′s).       As Rally noted on its blog, “Beth Kanter kicked off Day #3 of NTC with a session characteristically full of zingers and tweetable one-liners.  But the session wasn’t just about soundbites; it was full of insight too.” Rally did a graphic recording of the content and summarized the takeaways as:

• Innovation doesn’t come from organizations. It comes from individuals with ideas. However, one person cannot create innovation if s/he isn’t part of a team that’s willing and ready.
• It’s hard to find funders who will fund a risky idea – they usually want case studies an proven techniques. So philanthropists have a huge responsibility to rethink and innovate around their relationship with nonprofits, no matter what their gift-size is.
• The stakes for failure in the nonprofit community are so much higher in the nonprofit community than in the for-profit community. If people fail in marketing a product, a few people lose their jobs. If people fail in an intervention model, you can destabilize a society.
• Innovation is driven by iteration.
• Sometimes great innovation comes from not knowing any better and being unaware of the status quo. It frees you to think differently and pull ideas from new places.

I’m so glad that there was a graphic recording because when I’m moderating a discussion panel, I’m processing so many different things (audience feedback, watching the clock, intensely listening to panelists to summarize and cue up the next topic or bring out different points of view, etc – that focusing on a content synthesis is difficult without having someone else take notes and do graphic recording.  It is also wonderful to have other people blogging about the session, like this post from the Pew Center.

We got great feedback on the session from the audience, including many people who came up after the session to say how much they appreciated that it wasn’t a boring and polite panel.    Several colleagues asked me, “How do you prepare for a conversation like that?”    That got me thinking about my prep process.     I spent ten years as a focus group moderator so I think that experience was invaluable to learning how to facilitate wide ranging discussions, learning to listen intensely, and bringing out different points of view.   I have also been studying and practicing “unpresenting”  with Heather Gold, plus improv and stand up workshops with others.   But here were my specific prep steps.

1. Think about the end first

What action or new way thinking do you want your audience to embrace. If you doing a plenary discussion panel at a conference, it is a good question to ask the host. One of the first questions I asked Holly, “Why do you want a panel on this topic?”  This panel was design to have a conversation that unpacked innovation for the nonprofit technology field – openly discuss barriers and share inspiring examples.

2. Scaffolding Questions and Diverse Views in the Answers

Next, it is important to think about the framing for your topic. I almost always start with a set of neutral questions that try to pinpoint the divergent perspectives related to the topic. These questions included:

• What does innovation really mean? Is it big change or small changes?
• What are some examples of innovative nonprofits and technology? Why do think they illustrate innovative ways of working?
• Why is innovation so hard for nonprofits?
• How can funders and others encourage innovation in the nonprofit sector?
• What are some of the processes and practices in the for-profit (or already exist in the nonprofit sector) that nonprofits can embrace to be more innovative?
• Prompts (transparency, failure, scaling, partnerships)
• What can people in this room put into practice in the next week or year to be more innovative?

With questions formulated, it is now time to think about who should answer them. The first obvious criteria is to pick people who have spent many years thinking, speaking, and writing about the topic. Or as I said in my introduction, “Eat innovation for breakfast.”

The question in my mind was – how can we get different points of view so could learn through the discussion. I wanted to make sure that we had diversity in gender, but also from different lens including business, a nonprofit, philanthropic, and social investment.   We also had different lens on the innovation topic – from sector/systems view and within organizations or businesses.    It is also great to find thinkers and who will disagree (respectfully) with other panelists.

3. Just Enough Preparation To Avoid Anxiety, But Not Too Much So It Isn’t Boring

I’ve organized a lot of discussion panels so this advice varies depending on your speakers. I usually set up a google document for the panel that includes the script, online interaction design, timings, and logistics (when to arrive for the AV check, etc). We have a preparation call and I ask panelists to add their bullet points (in different colors) to the questions in the script and suggest different ways of asking the question. Depending on the panelists, I schedule a second call to have the discussion close to the panel using the bullet points, making refinements in the questions, etc. For this panel, we didn’t do that given the caliber of speakers and I wanted to keep some spontaneity in the discussion.

I also ask the speakers to include links that would provide good background for someone who didn’t know anything about the topic as well as links that represent their point of view on innovation. I also did a quick and dirty literature search on practical information about innovation from people who write for the nonprofit audience. I used this for my own preparation as well as for resource blog posts or if I’m really prepared, I share the list of links in a google documents or delicious with live Tweeters.

We Think Differently
http://www.scribd.com/doc/29028646/WeThink-Differently-Final

Innovation in the Nonprofit Sector
http://www.newempirebuilders.com/2012/03/11/shiftcast-episode-sxsw-daily-roundtable-day-two/

Daniel Pink’s FLIP Manifesto
http://t.co/bKDnfE1w

Eric Reis, The Lean Start Up
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307887898/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bethkanterorg-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0307887898
http://blog.box.com/2011/11/qa-best-selling-author-eric-ries-on-innovation-in-business-part-1/

Seth Godin on Nonprofit INnovation
http://www.netwitsthinktank.com/marketing-and-communication/seth-godin-on-innovation-failure-and-non-profits.htm

Innovator’s Dilemma
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_i/innovators_dilemma1.asp

Brian Reich’s Interview About the Panel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHqQCxNvcVM&feature=player_embedded

Infographic on Innovation
http://visual.ly/eloqua-x-jess3-disruptive-innovations-infographic

How To Innovate More? Practice, Practice, Practice
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204831304576596714181439514.html

Innovation/Culture of Play
http://www.inc.com/riley-gibson/5-reasons-your-start-up-should-be-playing-more.html

Mary Joyce
http://www.meta-activism.org/2012/03/how-nonprofits-can-encourage-digital-innovation/

4. Design the Audience Interaction

I had initially designed something more complicated, but decided to keep it simple. The complicated design involved the use of text or online flash polls that could be shared on the screen and have the audience take the poll.  These would have questions that allow their audience to share their experience or attitudes about the topic or a speaker’s particular point. This works well your discussion is going to be linear and ours ended up as a non-linear format, so I decided to ditch the live polling.

Instead, we used the conference hashtag and asked people to tweet their comments and questions. Holly Ross was moderating the stream and captured the questions. These were shared on a google document that was projected on the speaker screen.

I would have added some offline audience interaction. Typically, I like to incorporate some “share pairs” some reflective questions that people in the audience can share with each other. I opted to keep this simple. If this was smaller audience (we had seating for 1750), I would have requested a wireless handheld mic and wandered into the audience.

5. Knowledge Capture and Reflection

It is important to have someone capture the conversation in notes and graphic recording (I’ve been arranging my own for many years, but NTEN has Rally sponsor this at the conference).  With every presentation, panel, or workshop, I do knowledge capture and reflection.   I review what I learned about the topic, what new insights were shared.    I also do an after-action review – even if it ends up being with myself (that’s when I get to use my many magic markers to draw out reflections).  This gives me ideas and areas to improve the next time around.

6.  Use Good Facilitation Practices

I practice facilitation which is listening, thinking on your feet, and allowing for discussion all the time — from small meetings to when I’m facilitating a training.   Some specific techniques include:  respecting diverse communication styles, paraphrasing, drawing people out, mirroring, gathering ideas, stacking, tracking, encouraging, balancing, acknowledging feelings, intentional silence, listening for common ground, listening for different points of view, and summarizing.     Over the many years I’ve been doing this, I have practice each technique actively until I don’t have to think about it.   It has taken dozens of years, but that’s how you master the craft.

During the final question about “What is one thing you can put into practice in the next year?” – one panelists suggested embracing failure and making sure there is a #13NTC panel on the topic.  Failure and learning is a topic that I’ve been wanting to dive into a deeper way – so in preparation for that panel submission, I’m going to continue write about it and curate resources.  I would love to see a plenary, interactive fail fest at NTC, perhaps not possible – so at least count on a fun panel submission on the topic next year.    If you’re interested in joining me, sign up here.

The 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) was the 12th conference that I have attended (it had earlier reiterations).    Every year it is like attending a family reunion.      I have some many friends and colleagues that I only get to see once a year at the NTC.   For example, my colleague Shai Coggins from Connecting Up (the Australian version of NTEN), who always brings me Tim-Tams.

The annual awards luncheon is always one of my favorites and this year was a little bittersweet.

The Life Time Achievement award went to Rob Stuart, the godfather of the NpTech movement, who sadly passed away in October.  Vincent Stehl delivered a wonderful remberance and then went on to award a new prize in Rob’s honor.   This prize will be given annually to an organization that leverages networks.    Annie Leonard, the Story of Stuff, was the recipient.

Several individuals in the nonprofit technology community were recognized.  Vinay Bhagat of Convio was given the 2012 Care2 Impact Prize for his outstanding impact in online advocacy and fundraising.  Carie Lewis was recognized for her social media work on behalf of the Humane Society, including mention of reaching 1 million fans on Facebook.    Farra Trompeter was given the NTEN community award for the most valuable person in the community.   After a wonderful video tribute,  she said, “Thanks NTEN, you have my back!”

The winners of this year’s DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards were also announced and you can see them at the  DoGooder Awards website!  Winning Best Small Organization is “Protect Our Defenders”, a gripping account of sexual assault in the military. “Solid Women”, winner of Best Medium Organization, presents a powerful, affirming story of 5 women succeeding in rebuilding their community after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, through the microloans facilitated through Fonkoze. “Adding Tomorrows“, a moving story from Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of perseverance and dogged work ethic in the face of chronic illness, won Best Large Organization. And the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum won Best Video Storytelling with “Yes, That’s My Father“, a stirring narrative about history, memory, and personal closure.

It is always hard to see the NTC Conference come to an end, so now I start the count down to the 2013 NTC which will be Minneapolis, MN.    See you there next year.

NTC 2012: Data Visualizaiton Panel

I’m here at the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco this week.  I am on a panel about measurement:

Picturing Your Data is Better Than 1,000 Numbers:Data Visualization Techniques for Social Change

Are you intrigued by infographics and how they could improve your communication strategy? Are you interested in what it takes for an organization to systematically use data? Or are you maybe even drowning in data and looking for someone to throw you a life-saving suggestion for software and other tools? Then this is the session for you!
Through lively sharing and discussion this session will cover a range of topics related to nonprofit engagement with data and information visualization, including: Organization culture and practice: What does it take for organizations to systematically use their data? Approaches and tools: What are the basic guidelines for designing and using data and information visualizations? What are the go-to tools? Exciting examples: What are some great examples from nonprofits? Data and information visualizations for advocacy, evaluation, social media, network analysis, operations, and more!

I will be joined by Johanna Morariu from Innonet and Brian Kennedy of ChildrenNow.

Our session is part of the online live streaming sessions and it was fun trying to translate some of the face-to-face interactive exercises we’re doing in the room to activities online.   You can take a look at the online exercises here.

The panel will look at data visualization from three different lenses.   Organizational culture,  visualization and data sense making techniques, and a case study from Children Now about they went from sharing all text-based advocacy data to using visualization for policy change.

Since data visualization should be part of an organizational measurement and learning process, it is important to consider organizational adoption challenges.  I’ll be covering that with a brief case study, tips, and interactive exercise.  I’m excited because it will be the first time that I’m speaking about my forthcoming book “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit:  Using Data for Social Change” co-authored with KD Paine.    If you want to be notified when the book is available, sign up here.

Here’s the resources, more on the wiki we created for the panel.

Resources

Data Informed, Not Data Driven
http://www.bethkanter.org/curiosity-driven/

How To Switch to Data Informed Culture
http://www.bethkanter.org/switch-data-driven/

What does the data say?
http://www.bethkanter.org/data-sa/

The Five Stages of Measurement Acceptance
http://www.bethkanter.org/measurement-acceptance/

Measuring the Networked Nonprofit: Get Notified When Book Is Available
http://bit.ly/measure-networked-nonprofit-book

Drawing by the Numbers: A terrific resource for data visualization for nonprofit advocacy
http://drawingbynumbers.org/toolsandresources

Examples of nonprofit infographics
http://pinterest.com/kanter/data-visualization-for-social-change/
http://pinterest.com/kanter/nonprofit-infographics/

100 Infographic Tools
http://dailytekk.com/2012/02/27/over-100-incredible-infographic-tools-and-resources/

Beth’s Curated List of Infographics for Nonprofits: Tips, Tools, Examples
http://socialmedia-strategy.wikispaces.com/Infographics

Johanna’s Resource Guide:
http://www.innonet.org/client_docs/resources_formatted.pdf

Picture This: Expert Opinions On Telling Your Stories With Pictures
http://www.nonprofitmarketingblog.com/comments/picture_this_expert_opinions_on_telling_your_story_with_images/

Does your organization use data visualization?   Share your experience in the comments.

Flickr Photo by The Inadvertent Gardener

I’m here at the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco this week and hope to share some brief nuggets.       The conference got off to an exciting start this morning in a very unique way.   Oakland’s Extra Action Marching Band lead the way into the ballroom  with clinging, clanging, trumpets, drums, flag waving, and dancers who danced their hair off.  It was a high energy, off beat and unique way to open a conference.

Holly Ross welcomed everyone and thanked the event sponsors who made it possible for 50 NTC Scholarships. As it has become an annual tradition, she shared a video saga of how the NTEN team worked hard to help raise the money for the scholarships.   Amy Sample Ward did a hilarious “who is the room” with asking those who had attended their first NTC ten years ago to raise their (Friendsters) and to shake hands with people who are first-timers (pinterest).   This was followed by the NTENanna awards and colleague Debra Askanase was honored for her support to the community.

I’ve been attending NTC since the beginning and every year have watched the community and the conference grow.     It always feels like a family reunion and enjoying reconnecting with long-time and newer colleagues.

Mobile is the Needle, Social is the Thread: How Information Today is Woven Into Our Lives

“Mobile is the Needle, Social the Thread” is the name of  a presentation from Pew Internet data that illustrates the rapid growth of mobile connectivity and social networking in the U.S., focusing on how information consumption patterns are changing in light of these two technological developments.  But it is also theme of a panel that I’m moderating at the Innogive Conference on Monday, April 2 that will focus on how this trend is and will continue to impact nonprofits’ communication strategies.

The panel description:

At the Cross Section of Web, Social and Mobile

Disparate marketing channels complicates the life of the average NPO today. How can a non-profit today use mobile technology, social and web in a way that increases participation, ensures success and provides easier management campaign and their resulting data points. Learn about the tools available that bring mobile, web and social together.

The panelists include:

Amy Sample Ward – Amy is an author and speaker focused on the way social technologies can be used to support social impact by nonprofit organizations and community groups around the world. She is also the Membership Director at NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network.

Amy Gahran: Amy is an independent journalist and general media geek currently focusing on mobile technology. her work appears on CNN.com and Entrepreneur.com, and the’s the author of a forthcoming white paper from the ZeroDivide Foundation about opportunities to use mobile to help serve and empower people in poor/marginalized US communities. Her blog is Contentious.com. Twitter: @agahran

Arlene McCrehan: Arlene directs the digital communications team at Goodwill Industries International which includes their integrated mobile strategy.  She is the co-inventor of Goodwill’s patent pending online donation impact calculator.

Larry Eason: Larry is a web and mobile strategist to causes. He works with organizational leaders to expand their sense of what is possible online and to innovate and succeed. Larry specializes in working with clients to increase their reach, access and influence through strategic, intentional networking. Larry has been working with nonprofits for 28 years.

We will be discussing these questions:

• What are some successful examples of nonprofits incorporating a mobile/social integrated strategy?
• What does a nonprofit need to do to be “mobile ready.”?
• What are the best practices?
• What is the most exciting mobile/social technologies that are on the horizon and hold much promise for nonprofits?

Here’s the links that the panelists will discuss:

Toy Safety Mobi

http://www.toysafety.mobi/

USPIRG ToySafety.mobi  is a 26 year annual report on toy safety. Each year the report is released at 30+ news conferences with significant print/TV/online coverage. The goal of the report is to educate parents and pressure the Consumer Product Safety Commission and elected officials. In 2010 they added a mobile friendly site which A) provided parents a tool for accessing the information when it was needed most – in the stores B) expanded the quantity and quality of coverage traditional and online and C) helped position the organization internally and externally as innovating with technology.  It was relatively easy to add mobile to significantly enhance an existing program.

Ace:  Do One Thing
http://www.acespace.org/dot

This campaign is from the Alliance of Climate Education.   The DOT  is a pledge to Do One Thing to help the environment – and cool the climate.  The campaign is an example of an integrated social/mobile campaign that seamlessly integrates the message across different channels for different audiences.  Check it out on your mobile phone.

Goodwill

Goodwill Industries International provides job training and employment services, job placement opportunities and post-employment support, through its network of 179 community-based agencies worldwide. There are over 2,600 Goodwill® stories worldwide that sell gently used and new items, providing an important revenue stream for its programs.  When Goodwill was planning their mobile site, they knew from their web analytics that their most popular feature would be the store locator; more than 7 million visited the Goodwill website in 2011, and more than 6 million of those visited the locator. Arlene McCrehan, Senior Director of Online Media, says, “We knew that website visitors tended to use that feature as they’re walking out the door to drop off a donation. We felt we could offer better service to our patrons if we set up a mobile site for the store locator. ”

Goodwill considered their  first year an experiment. They tracked the patterns of usage of the mobile site against donation volume data by location. Says McCrehan, “We want to fulfill our mission. We saw the potential for mobile and we knew wanted to get in quickly. We knew it wasn’t going to cost too much. We needed to learn the technology and more importantly, how to measure to improve and make decisions about what to do next.”
Another experiment with mobile is also mission-driven. Says McCrehan, “With the recession, there is higher demand at Goodwill’s stores. That’s why we started the Donate Movement. As part of that strategy, we’ve incorporated a mobile component: a Donation Impact Calculator (patent-pending) for people who want to organize drives. It calculates the impact of their donation, from keeping items out of landfills to benefiting their community by supporting Goodwill.”

Goodwill has learned from measuring its mobile strategy. “We’ve seen the use of our mobile site grow dramatically, from dribs and drabs to 1,200 unique visitors per day. We learned that we have to be in this space and be very strategic about the content we deliver,” says McCrehan. The team at Goodwill has learned that measuring mobile is not different from measuring anything else. McCrehan advises, “Start with asking what mobile strategy fits best with your objective and how you can best deliver your program or message.”

Store Locator: http://locator.goodwill.org/
Donations:  http://donate.goodwill.org/
Mobile Site: http://m.goodwill.org
Donation Challenge: http://donate.goodwill.org/challenge/
Good Prospects: http://goodprospects.goodwill.org/

Other examples:

• Planned Parenthood: Where did you wear it? Condom use campaign: (check that out on your phone. forms are really easy to fill out on a phone)
• Text4Baby:- National mobile health campaign, interactive and somewhat customized SMS messages. Focused on maternal health and 1 year of infant’s life-

Some techniques and resources that the panelists shared:

What is responsive web design? Why should you use it?
http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2011/01/12/guidelines-for-responsive-web-design/
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design

Lots more resources on responsive web design: - http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/tag/responsive-web-design/

Some tools mentioned:

Landr.co:  Good, inexpensive, easy to use tool for building simple mobile websites.  Good to use for a get-your-feet-wet initial project/campaign
Twilio: http://www.twilio.com- Great tool for building interactive text messaging programs.- Developer conf coming up in SF this summer, includes hackathon. Good way to meet good mobile developers.

Mobile Commons: Suite of services geared towards nonprofits, including for mobile fundraising.  Not cheap, but good. May be out of price range of smaller nonprofits, but see if maybe your funders already have access to mobile commons.

Best Practices

• A mobile-friendly web site or mobile landing pages.
• Inbound links must work from mobile devices!
• At least a mobile theme on your site, but responsive design is better. Many feature phones also are web-enabled, so mobile web can broaden your audience.
• Don’t start with apps, and only build them if you have a REALLY GOOD REASON – for example the Planned Parenthood campaign
• Infrastructure requirements are database and cms – make sure they work with your mobile platform
• Need an organizational culture open to failure and trying new things
• Requires strategy
• Think about ways to use mobile to engage major donors (e.g. tablet content)
• Build lists and collect cell phone numbers
• Think about how you can use mobile for professional networking – CardMunch
• If leadership isn’t comfortable with mobile, teach them to use their phones
• Start with small experiments, low risk

The future ….

• The very near future is mobile content, not apps. what does your email, your website, your donation form look like on a phone? For most it looks pretty terrible.
• Don’t forget about the devices most people are actually using.  At any given time, including the future, the low end of mobile will always be the biggest part of the market. You can do a lot of cool stuff with whatever the current low end of mobile is.
• Goodwill’s GoodProspects SMS to bridge digital divide – there is power in SMS

Does your organization have a great example of an integrated mobile campaign?   Let us know in the comments.