Monthly Archives: May 2011

Nonprofits & Tech Discussions – Jump In!

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Share a resource, ask a question, or offer your own thoughts about any of these hot topics relating to nonprofits, NGOs, libraries, schools and other community-focused initiatives over on the TechSoup Global Community Forum. Here are four threads on TechSoup that I’m watching in particular:

Tags: communications, public relations, engagement, engage, community, nonprofit, NGO, not-for-profit, government, library, libraries, school, schools, outreach, innovation, non-traditional, innovative, staff, employees, volunteers, civil society, social media, technology, microblogging, microvolunteering, micro, volunteer, volunteering

What is impressive, what is not

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Things I’m not impressed by:

  • How many Facebook “likes” or “friends” your organization has
  • How many times your organization “tweets” or your tweet has been retweeted
  • That your organization received an “award” from one of your VENDORS
  • That you “gave up” a corporate career to work in the nonprofit sector
  • How many hours your volunteers contributed last year
  • How many hours of overtime your organization’s employees work most weeks
  • That you are hiring a Rock Star-anything (Rock Star Membership Coordinator, Rock Star Social Media Manager) unless you are PAYING a Rock Star salary and providing Rock Star benefits.
  • Your web site’s use of stock photos
  • That your new web site is coming soon and all your descriptions of how great it’s going to be.

Things I am impressed by:

  • Online activities leading to offline action
  • How your organization handles negative comments on your Facebook page
  • That your organization was recognized by your Governor’s volunteering awards
  • That your tweet last week resulted in a $5000 donation (or more) than you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise
  • What your volunteers accomplished last year, in terms of tangible results (literacy among your clients increased, trees planted, perceptions changed, legislation passed, etc.)
  • Volunteers in leadership positions at your organization (leading a project, serving on an advisory board regarding marketing and outreach, producing a publication or online video, etc.)
  • Happy employees that love going to work and supporting each other, that love collaborating internally and sharing information and resources with each other
  • A competitive salary and benefits package for employees
  • Photos of your own organization’s actual volunteers or clients, however out-of-focus such may be
  • That your new web site is launched, on time, that it’s easy to navigate, that I can quickly find what I’m looking for without having to sit through a video or shut down your blaring audio that starts up automatically, that it works with any browser, and that you obviously incorporated the suggestions of others into the new design.

 

Recruiting board members with LinkedIn?

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On LinkedIn, in the Answers section for nonprofits, someone asked:

How can a non-profit recruit board members through LinkedIn?

Recruiting board members successfully comes from a lot of ongoing cultivation. Using LinkedIn or any other online networking tool to recruit board members has to be a part of a comprehensive, ongoing strategy that involves a lot of different activities, IMO.

It not only doesn’t work to just post somewhere and say, “Hey, we need some board members!”, it also makes it sound like you don’t treat board membership seriously.

The following suggested activities to recruit board members will show that you are a competent, credible, transparent organization, and will give candidates an idea of how seriously you take your organization’s work and how well you support your board members. It also shows you aren’t looking for just anyone. Board membership is an honor, a leadership volunteering opportunity, and should be treated as such in your recruitment!

Start with your web site:

  • Have a full description of what board members do, what weekly or monthly time requirements a board member is committing to (onsite meetings once a month? online meetings once a week?) and for how long (a year? two years?), if attendance to a certain number of meetings is mandatory (IMO, you should always have such a requirement if you want board members to take attenance seriously), if board members are expected to give or raise a certain amount of money each year (you don’t need to say how much on your web site; you can leave that to an interview later), etc.
  • Note on your web site how many board members you are looking for. Two? Three to six?
  • Have photos of your board in action, and a list of all current board members with short bios about each – not just what companies and constiuencies they represent, but also, a personal statement from each about why they volunteer for your organization, why they think such is important, etc.
  • Have complete details on how someone could nominate themselves as a board member, or how they could suggest someone for possible nomination. Make this process super easy.

This information on your organization’s web site is not an afterthought. They are super-important steps that they show how much your organizaton values board members. This information will wow a potential candidate. It will also screen out people who don’t understand the very real commitment of board membership.

Then talk to your current board and map exactly what will happen when a nomination comes in:

  • What research will be done on a candidate, and who will do that research? How and when will a candidate be interviewed, and who will do that interview?
  • What questions will be asked in that interview?
  • What will be the reasons to turn a nominee away, and how will this rejection be communicated?
  • If you turn away a board member, will you encourage that person to volunteer in other ways? (advisory board? volunteer project leader? special events volunteer?)

And once you have done all of these steps, you are ready to:

  • post this leadership volunteering opportunity (that’s what board membership is!) to BoardNetUSA, VolunteerMatch, etc., pointing back to your web site with complete details about what board membership really looks like
  • post something about the opportunity on your own, individual LinkedIn status update for your network (you may want to do this more than once)
  • ask each of your existing board members to do the same on their status updates on LinkedIn, to reach their network
    if it’s appropriate 
  • ask all of your volunteers to post about the opportunity to their LinkedIn status updates as well, if they feel comfortable doing such
  • do the same on Facebook, if it’s appropriate – but note that Facebook is a social networking site, and many people don’t like mixing their business or volunteering with their social activities.

If you have a Come learn about our organization event/open house, list it on the events function of LinkedIn as well, and make sure all staff, board members and other volunteers that will attend RSVP on LinkedIn, so that all of their connections see the attendance, and ask all board members and staff to mention the event in their status updates as well.

Also, look for LinkedIn groups that are regionally-focused on your geographic area; these can be focused on business, on a particular issue, on on someone else’s group, etc. Some of these LinkedIn groups may be appropriate for posting about your board opportunities (most won’t be, but it’s worth it to look). You can also troll those groups and look for people that you think would be great board members based on the quality and content of their posts, and the ask your board member, your staff, your other volunteers and your own professional network if anyone knows a person you’ve identified as a potential candidate and if anyone in your network would be willing to make the initial invitation to an open house or event so that person can get to know your organization.

After three-six months, evaluate your efforts. How many inquiries did you receive? How many formal nominations did you receive? How many new board members have joined or are in process? If people dropped out of the process after expressing interest or being nominated, why did they? If people were rejected, why were they rejected? In answering these questions, you will know what adjustments you need to make in your board recruitment – on LinkedIn and otherwise!

And one final thought: what a great volunteering opportunity it would be for someone to be in charge of this board recruitment process! You could recruit a volunteer just to do all of the above for six months. Designate one staff member to be the primary contact and support person for such a volunteer, and start recruiting just for this position first! There are so many university students studying nonprofit management, business management, HR management, or any number of other subjects, as well as people who are job-hunting, who would love to be able to put on their résumé: instituted and managed a successfully recruitment campaign for such-and-such organization, resulting in three new board members.

Zombies aren’t real, but disaster preparedness is

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As has been reported in all over the news for the last few days, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the USA has released a new document that offers suggestions on how to prepare for a zombie invasion. Here’s a nice blog summary of the CDC’s recommendations.

The recommendations are serious, even if the reason is not what the CDC is trying to do is get people to have the preparations in place for a variety of real possible disasters: destructive storms, earthquakes, floods, etc. And it turns out that the preparation for a fictional attack – could be zombies, could be space pirates – are surprisingly similar for reality disaster scenarios.

It’s a daring exercise by the CDC. I love it, but I’m already hearing pundits say, “This is what the CDC uses our tax dollars for? To be cute?” But the CDC isn’t trying to be cute; it’s trying to get the message out about disaster preparedness to people who aren’t getting traditional messages. There have been so many disasters just in the USA lately – massive flooding and highly-destructive tornadoes – not to mention the disasters overseas, and many people are becoming unconsciously resistant to calls to be prepared. 

The CDCs effort is getting huge media play, so the message is definitely reaching many more people. But is this campaign really a success? It’s a media success, certainly, but to know if this is really garnering outcomes, the CDC will have to find out if people really are better prepared for a disaster. Are more people storing the appropriate amounts of water, food, medications, tools and supplies, etc., as a result of this campaign? Have more people sat down with their families and come up with an emergency plan as a result of this campaign? Are all the people blogging and tweeting about this also making appropriate preparations? (before you ask – my husband and I have been prepared for natural disasters, zombie attacks and space pirates for many years now)

And note that the very real disaster of Joplin, Missouri is unfolding before our eyes, and as I am sitting here watching TV and writing this blog, a Joplin official is begging people NOT TO COME INTO THE CITY. Gawkers and un-prepared do-gooders are already getting in the way of rescue and relief efforts. If you don’t have training and resources to help people and animals in that area, if you aren’t prepared to be completely self-sufficient while in the area, providing for your own gas, food, shelter and safety while you are there, please stay away!

If you want to help Joplin, donate to the American Red Cross office nearest the area or to the national office. Also, look for animal shelters serving the area Joplin, Missouri area – all those that are not damaged will soon be over capacity with dogs, cats, horses and other pets and livestock from the area. They will be desperate for funds to transport animals elsewhere, provide food and medical care to the animals they have, etc.

And don’t forget Alabama: The Tuscaloosa Metro Animal Shelter is in desperate need of support, as they are completely overwhelmed with lost and abandoned pets, as is the Humane Society of West Alabama. The Greater Birmingham Humane Society will also need help with the influx of lost and abandoned pets. Making a donation will help buy food and pay for medical services. Adopting a pet from this or any nearby shelter will free up space for other animals.

Here’s advice for Volunteering To Help After Major Disasters. Please call your local American Red Cross and get training NOW for disasters LATER. They have training specifically for disaster response! Or consider volunteering with your local animal shelter NOW and build up your skills and your credibility so that you will be in a place to provide critically-need help in the future.

AND HAVE AN EVACUATION PLAN THAT INCLUDES YOUR PETS!!!

Social media realities for Friday

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logoSome resources, stories and events regarding social media that will help you balance all the hype with the reality of using such:

  1. TechSoup’s final live Twitter chat in its Nonprofit Social Media 101 (NPSM101) series is Monday, May 23 at 9 a.m. Pacific Time USA. Join in for a lively discussion on the value, ways to use, and best practices in tagging. Tagging is used in almost all major social sites, including 5 of the 6 TechSoup features in its newly launched NPSM101 wiki (Flickr, Delicious, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook). Thinking about how to tag your messages and photos will substantially increase the number of people viewing your online activities – and, ultimately, getting involved in your organization. You participate in this TechSoup Twitter Chat by following the tag #nptagging on Twitter, and including that tag in any of your own questions or responses during the event. You can also follow on this Tweetchat.com link. A Twitter chat event an intense experience, but I have enjoyed my participation in two of the last three TechSoup events way more than I thought I would.
  2. Few charities are raising significant amounts of money via social media, says a recent study regarding such. Fewer than 3 percent of the survey’s 11,196 nonprofit respondents reported raising more than $10,000 through such tools. Does that mean nonprofits, NGOs and other mission-based organizations engaging in social media isn’t really worth the effort? No. But it does mean that we need to stop talking about social media the way so many talked about the web back in the 1990s – that just having a presence will be a financial windfall. Donations come from cultivation, trust-building and proven results that an organization is getting results. Social media needs to be used strategically, and should be integrated into a variety of other, OFFline activities.
  3. By posing as a savvy junior analyst or a graduate student seeking sources for a paper, some people have been successful at building relationships with employees at certain companies and getting those employees to divulge sensitive information, as this story relates. I find it amusing that people ask me endless questions about Internet security related to protecting their nonprofit organization from a hacker, or preventing volunteers from violating confidentiality policies while never wondering if paid staff might do the same, but they never think about this very real scenario: staff willingly handing over information in a kind of online seduction. Confidentiality is an onling training issue, one that needs to be revisited repeatedly at organizations, and this proves it.
  4. Social media will be used against you. That’s one of the statements by an organizer of the Social Media, Internet and Law Enforcement conference in Chicago. Police have been using social networking sites to identify and investigate suspects, but now criminals are using such sites to identify and investigate law enforcement officers, including undercover police. In addition, hostage-takers and suspects who barricade themselves in buildings are monitoring social media to track police movements in real time, and gang members are launching their own surveillance operations targeting police. Nonprofits, NGOs and other mission-based organizations often have activists working against their work as well, and need to remember that those program saboteurs are also online.
  5. The U.S. State Department has quietly abandoned its America.gov site to refocus its efforts on social media. And I think it’s a bad idea. Not the social media part, but the abandoning the web part. Embrace social media – but do NOT get rid of your web site!

Happy Friday, everyone.

Ever-Changing Landscape of Nonprofits & Technology

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What nonprofits are doing now with the Internet is not much different from what online nonprofits were doing in the 1980s and early 1990s – offering questions to their networks to see what answers they might get (crowd-sourcing), talking about challenges they are facing and offering each other advice, reaching out to current and potential supporters, promoting activities and events, working with volunteers, etc. You can read more about these early days of nonprofits and the Internet in the 1980s, through 1995.

By 1990, there were already several nonprofit organizations and many dedicated volunteers and aspiring consultants who were helping to promote nonprofit use of the Internet and computer technology. Some of these organizations helping nonprofits with Internet technology survived and some didn’t. Their networks of regional offices grew – and sometimes broke up, with individual members going off in new directions. Some changed their names, and some changed their missions.

One of the organizations that grew late in this movement, NPower, a national network of nonprofit technology consulting and training organizations, is now restructuring, and this article in the Nonprofit Times details this restructuring, as well as touching on the ever-changing landscape of support organizations for nonprofits and Internet technology. And it’s written by Tim Mills-Groninger, someone who has been immersed in the nonprofits and tech scene as long as I have (and that’s a frighteningly long time, relatively speaking), so it’s details are right-on.

I know this isn’t breaking news. But it’s important news, because nonprofit organizations, NGOs, schools, libraries and other mission-based organizations need to know where they’ve been in order to know where they are going. Mistakes that were made in those early days of tech are being made again as the Internet gets rebranded as the Cloud and online social networking, as episodic online volunteering gets rebranded as microvolunteering, and as people are starting nonprofits or social enterprises to do with Facebook or Twitter what many nonprofits were doing with USENET back in the 1980s. Let’s learn from those mistakes instead of repeating them!

Governor’s Volunteer Awards Coming Soon

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In many states in the USA, the governor of that state has an annual event to recognize outstanding volunteer efforts. There are lots of categories of recognition for these award programs: for an outstanding senior volunteer, a youth group of volunteers, an individual youth volunteer, a corporate volunteering program, a life-time volunteer, and more. And in many of these states, like Oregon, applications are being accepted NOW.

(I just wish these award programs all also recognized outstanding volunteer managers – those who recruit, support and supervise volunteers, and make volunteer engagement possible!)

Some of these governor’s award programs also award people and groups on the regional level. And many of these award programs have trouble getting enough nominees to give an award in every category.

To find out if your state has such an award’s program, go to Google and use these searches:

  • yourstatename governor volunteer award (such as Kentucky Governor Volunteer Award)
  • yourstatename volunteer award (such as Oregon Volunteer Award)
  • yourstatename community service volunteer award (such as Iowa Governor Volunteer Award)

If your state never comes up in the search of any of those phrases, your state probably doesn’t have a state award for volunteers (and maybe you should start a petition so they do!).

I served as a judging panelist for the Governor’s Volunteer Awards in Texas in 1999; my category was group volunteering. I was also a judge for the National Volunteer Awards by Women in Community Service (WICS) (part of JobCorps) in 1998 and a member of the 1995-96 San Jose (California) Festival, Parade and Celebration Grant Review Committee. Having read so many applications for these awards – as well as reviewing more grant applications over the years than I care to say – I know what things that you need to include in a nomination form to make sure your effort gets considered for a governor’s award:

  1. Follow the nomination form guidelines precisely. Read the directions carefully and provide every piece of information asked for.
  2. Don’t just focus on number of hours done. What difference did this volunteer effort make? What is different now because of this volunteer effort? Answer this question in detail: So what? If you can include any hard data that proves you made a difference – changed minds and perceptions, a reduction in crime or pollution or hunger, an increase in something good like people people able to read or dogs being adopted – that better ensures your nomination form will go somewhere.

And don’t think this is a wasted effort if your nomination doesn’t get recognized; for students, you now have great information to use on scholarship and university applications. Nonprofits, you now have great information to feature on your web site and in funding proposals. You also have some fantastic information to blog about!

All this comes to mind because the Oregon Governor’s Volunteer Awards are now accepting nominations. A cash award of up to $500 will be given by presenting sponsor Wells Fargo to a non-profit of choice for each state and regional volunteer award recipient.

And unlike other governor’s award ceremonies I’ve been to, the Oregon awards ceremony is focused ON THE VOLUNTEERS. There are no high-profile guests, no long speeches by politicans – it’s all about hearing about the difference the award winners have made (are you listening California? Or Texas?).

Better life in rural communities with ICTs

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Sometimes, it’s a two-blog day…

I’ve already blogged today, about how training opportunities are all around you, but I have to blog again to note that today, May 17, is World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. The theme is Better life in rural communities with ICTs. It is the subject of NetSquard’s May Net2 Think Tank.

Some things I’ve written related to the subject of phones, smart phones, computers, Internet, etc. – improving lives in rural communities:

It’s a subject I’ve long felt passionate about!

The purpose of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) is to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT) can bring to societies and economies, as well as of ways to bridge the digital divide. 17 May marks the anniversary of the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention and the creation of the International Telecommunication Union.

The WTISD web site has lots of free information you can download and use to help you promote the day, and the material is in a variety of languages (English, ????????, ??????, Español, Français, ?????????????? and no text). Too late for this year? No worries – start planning now for next year!

 

Tags: ICT4D, net2thinktank, NetSquared, access, ICT, United Nations, rural, communities, community

Training opportunities are all around you

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If you are in the Portland, Oregon area, here is a great training opportunity: DIY TeamWorks, a program by Hands On Greater Portland, gives participants the opportunity to investigate Do-It-Yourself community projects related to mending clothes, growing plants, remodeling houses, cooking, or making crafts in the North/Northeast Portland area. The DIY initiatives that the Hands On Greater Portland program will focus on encourage people to make goods themselves rather than buy mass produced items, to create quality items (“better made”), to recycle, and to reduce waste. The DIY TeamWorks sessions combine DIY-oriented volunteer projects with educational materials to help participants better understand the “why” of DIY, and ways they might want to incorporate DIY approaches to their own organizations and programs, or in their individual lives. TeamWorks teams consist of approximately 10-14 individuals, led by a Hands On trained volunteer leader. These team members commit to volunteering for every project in the series, so check your schedule before signing up. When you sign-up for the first project, you are registering to participate in the entire TeamWorks experience.

Why is this a great training opportunity:

  • If you work in a program focused on children, on people re-entering the workforce, on immigrants, on victims of domestic violence, or on any population that could benefit from learning DIY projects, your training in this initiative could lead to the creation of a new program at your organization, or, at least, some new activities.
  • If you are an environmental organization, you could use this training to help your staff and volunteers become better advocates of DIY among your clients, customers and the general public.
  • If you work in a government housing project, you could use this training to develop programs for the residents with whom you work.
  • It could eventually lead to a partnership in some way between you and any of the organizations you encounter through this program.
  • If you want to work at any of the aforementioned types of organizations, this training would not only bump up your résumé, it would also help you get to know nonprofits in the area.

These kinds of training opportunities at nonprofit organizations abound: Girl Scouts offers training in leadership, event management and other areas, and many training activities for volunteer programs at various organizations give you knowledge you can use in the work place – someone who is trained in crisis counseling, for instance, may get noticed among a stack of job applications, because it will be seen as an ability to identify and help stressed co-workers. There is often a small fee associated with any of these trainings through nonprofit organizations, but the fees are more than affordable.

And that leads me to start thinking about volunteering itself as skills development for the work place, but that’s another blog…

Helping Southern states in the USA

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Disaster is striking in the American Southeast. Recent tornadoes and current flooding have brought devastation and heartache to many parts of the South, and messages are everywhere on various online communities, asking how to help. There is an incredible amount of misinformation being posted about how to help as well.

If you want to help the states affected by recent tornadoes and current flooding in the USA, you can:

  • Watch the news, and when you hear a county name for a state that is being affected, or a city name, look up the American Red Cross chapter, or the local Humane Society/ASPCA/animal welfare organization serving that area on Google. Most of these will have a web site that allows you do donate directly to the organization. The Red Cross provides emergency housing and various other emergency services to local people, but usually doesn’t allow pets in their emergency shelters; local animal shelters are struggling with abandoned pets and pets that aren’t allowed into emergency shelters. Your donations provide desperately needed funds to help both food and animals! The Red Cross estimates that it will spend as much as $31 million responding to these recent disasters; you can donate to the national chapter, but many feel better donating directly to chapters serving an affected area.
  • If you want to volunteer in a disaster-affected area, you need to be entirely self-funded and self-sufficient, formally affiliated with a credible organization, and have full approval of that organization to go to the area and serve as a volunteer. People affected by these disasters need to be protected from unscrupulous people who may use this situation to take advantage of others (it’s already happening), and people affected by these disasters deserve trained people who won’t end up having to be cared for themselves because they are woefully unprepared (yes, it happens). Here’s much more about the realities of volunteering to help after major disasters.
  • Unless you have read on a web site by an organization in the affected area that they are accepting donations of food and clothing, do NOT start gathering food and clothing for the affected area. It’s often much cheaper – and much safer – for a relief organization to buy food and ship it to an area, knowing they are buying exactly what’s needed, knowing the food is not spoiled, knowing it’s appropriate, etc., than to ask for donations and have to spend endless hours figuring out what food is usable, what is not, and trying to put together meals based on what is donated. If you are determined to donate items for an affected area, then call the local Red Cross and local communities of faith in the affected area and ask if they will accept what you are gathering to donate. And be prepared to drive to the area yourself – no one is going to come pick them up from you, as they are much too busy dealing with disaster victims. Also, note that organizations are saying they CANNOT handle any more used toys or cast-off clothing (they would prefer cleaning supplies and diapers!). More on donating things instead of cash or time (in-kind contributions).
  • You can also look at the web sites of high schools serving these affected areas; if they are in need of something (prom dresses, school supplies, etc.), they will say so directly on their web site.

Obviously, donating financially is the way to go if you really want to help. Even just $10 will help – and, yes, you can afford $10 (don’t buy coffee shop coffee for a few days, make your lunch for a few days, don’t eat from any restaurants all week, reduce your cable package subscription to the most basic for a month or two, etc.).

Use this as an incentive to call your local American Red Cross, right now, and start getting training for disaster in your own area. Why not at least call and attend the next volunteer orientation? There’s no obligation to volunteer just for attending the orientation!

Tags: nonprofit, NGO, not-for-profit, outreach, disaster, volunteer, tornado, flood, earthquake, tsunami, volunteers, donations, donate, canned goods, clothing, clothes