Tag Archives: nonprofits

Facebook, Meta, Virtual Worlds – Benefits? Risks? Does Second Life offer lessons?

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a screen capture of a webinar that took place in Second Life, an avatar-based virtual world.

An online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and “live” in an online virtual world. Avatars interact with places, objects and other avatars, exploring the virtual world, meeting other residents, socializing, having business meetings, hosting events, participating in group activities, building, creating, shopping, collaborating, even trading virtual property and services with one another.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse? No! I’m talking about Second Life, which launched back in 2003. The image at the top of this blog, and the image below, are of me, as an avatar, leading an event in Second Life for TechSoup back in 2014:

An image of Jayne Cravens as an avatar in front of a giant silde from her event within Second Life.

TechSoup was an early and passionate adopter of Second Life, hosting numerous online events there. If you do a search for Second Life on the TechSoup forum, you would find numerous references to the platform and TechSoup activities there over the years.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook (now Meta), said to much fanfare that he wanted to launch his own metaverse. The new virtual-reality app Horizon Worlds is Facebook’s first foray into the much-hyped “metaverse” for Facebook parent company Meta. Horizon Worlds, a beta version of which featured prominently in Zuckerberg’s announcement, launched Dec. 9 in the United States and Canada on the company’s Oculus virtual-reality platform and represents its first major attempt to deliver on his vision.

Were you on Second Life? Are you still on Second Life? Did you participate in TechSoup’s events on Second Life, or any other nonprofit-related activities? What do you think emerging virtual worlds, including Meta’s projects, can learn from Second Life? Comment below!

This article from The Duke Law Journal, The Development and Failure of Social Norms in Second Life, seems like something that the Meta folks should read. Its conclusion about Second Life:

Second Life is so thoroughly steeped in conditions that have impeded the development of successful social norms in other communities that any system of social norms in Second Life will ultimately fail. Because social norms will likely fail to successfully maximize resident welfare, regulatory schemes imposed both by the operators of the virtual world and by real-world governing institutions are needed to enhance the functioning of this particular alternative reality inhabited by millions.

Do you think Meta’s virtual world is addressing this issue? Do you think they need to plan for how to address such? And are you worried about safety at all with any online platforms? Comment below!

Nina Jane Patel was targeted with sexual harassment in Facebook/Meta’s platforms. “Within 60 seconds of joining — I was verbally & sexually harassed — 3–4 male avatars, with male voices, essentially, but virtually gang-raped my avatar & took photos…” The 43-year-old mother said it was such a “horrible experience that happened so fast” before she even had a chance to think about using “the safety barrier,” adding that she “froze.” She continued by confessing how both her “physiological and psychological” reaction was similar to it happening in real life. “Virtual reality has essentially been designed so the mind and body can’t differentiate virtual/digital experiences from real,” Patel wrote.

This is similar to assaults that happened in Second LIfe. Examples:

Horizon Worlds is supposed to be limited to adults 18 and older. In practice, however, very young kids appear to be among its earliest adopters. Some say the presence of children in Meta’s fledgling metaverse raises a grave concern: that by mixing children with adult strangers in a largely self-moderated virtual world, the company is inadvertently creating a hunting ground for sexual predators.

When new online forums arise that attract kids, sexual predators “are often among the first to arrive,” said Sarah Gardner, vice president of external affairs at Thorn, a tech nonprofit that focuses on protecting children from online sexual abuse. “They see an environment that is not well protected and does not have clear systems of reporting. They’ll go there first to take advantage of the fact that it is a safe ground for them to abuse or groom kids.”

More on safety for children in virtual worlds from the Washington Post.

Could nonprofits that engage in an online metaverse be putting their clients or others at risk by asking them to be there too? Comment below!

There’s one more consideration: accessibility. If you engage with people in a graphics-based environment, you are leaving out people who have sight-impairments. How will auditory displays work for graphics-based environments to address accessibility issues (I’m asking because I really don’t know)? Or is it a matter of ensuring you never limit your service delivery and volunteer engagement to only a graphics-based environment?

cover of Virtual Volunteering book with hands raising up various Internet connected devices

There is section devoted to virtual volunteering and avatar-based environments in The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. The section offers some examples of nonprofits using Second Life to engage with clients and volunteers, and offers specific advice on how a nonprofit should get started using such environments, considerations to explore and pitfalls to avoid – all of which is relevant for any graphics-based virtual world. The rest of the book is easily adaptable to engaging with volunteers in graphics-based/avatar-based virtual worlds as well.

Looking forward to hearing your comments!

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.

Volunteer Bill of Rights – a commitment by a host organization to volunteers

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteers

I ask this on the volunteer subreddit and got just one response… maybe I will have better luck on my own blog.

In 2010, Robert Egger, the founder of the nonprofit DC Central Kitchen, proposed a national Volunteer Bill of Rights. In an interview, he said, “If a program can’t tell a volunteer what they accomplished, allow them to talk to any staff member, provide financial data or allow a volunteer to rate their experience or provide feedback—then volunteers should feel free to call them out.”

His Volunteer Bill of Rights, which he implemented at DC Central Kitchen, included the following:

  • The right to work in a safe environment.
  • The right to be treated with respect by all staff members.
  • The right to be engaged in meaningful work and be actively included regardless of any physical limitation.
  • The right to be told what impact your work has had on the community.
  • The right to ask any staff member about the organization’s work.
  • The right to provide feedback about your experience.
  • The right to receive financial information or an annual report.

In 2019, the Association for Women in Communications created its own Volunteer Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. In their document, they said that it is a Volunteer’s Right to:

  1. To be assigned a task that is worthwhile and challenging.
  2. To receive the orientation, training and supervision needed to do the job.
  3. To feel that your efforts have real purpose and contribute to the organization’s mission.
  4. To receive useful feedback and evaluation on the volunteer work that you perform.
  5. To be treated with respect and as an equal partner within the agency.
  6. To be trusted with confidential information necessary to carry out your assignment.
  7. To be kept informed about relevant matters within the organization.
  8. To expect that your time will not be wasted because of poor planning or poor coordination by the organization.
  9. To ask any questions that will clarify a task or assignment.
  10. To give the organization input or advice on how to better accommodate the needs of present and future volunteers.

And they said it is a Volunteer’s Responsibility to

  1. Not to take on more responsibility than you can handle.
  2. Meet time commitments or to provide notice so alternative arrangements can be made.
  3. Perform the tasks assigned to you to the best of your ability.
  4. Provide input on ways your task might be better performed.
  5. Follow organization policies and procedures.
  6. Respect those confidences entrusted to you.
  7. Be open-minded and respectful towards opinions shared with you.
  8. Notify the organization in advance of absences or schedule changes that may affect them.
  9. Accept reasonable tasks without complaints.
  10. Communicate and work with others in the organization if the task calls for it.

I would add that I believe a volunteer has a right to:

  • Ask for a description of a role or task in writing, detailing time commitments, responsibilities, impact of the service to the organization, etc.
  • Ask why a role, or certain roles, are reserved by the organization for volunteers (as opposed to paying people for their time and expertise), and get an answer that is not “because we can’t afford to pay people.”
  • Expect a role to be fun and/or personally fulfilling and/or professionally helpful.
  • Complain and be treated with respect if complaining when an organization has not fulfilled its responsibilities to the volunteer, in terms of providing a safe environment, being treated with respect, addressing harmful and or toxic behavior, provided with appropriate preparation and support for a role or task, information-sharing by staff, what a role is versus how it was described initially to the volunteer, etc.
  • Say no and withdraw from a role without penalties to future volunteering or program participation if a role the volunteer has successfully undertaken changes substantially later in terms of the amount of time required, the responsibilities, the training required, etc.
  • Not face any financial burdens to volunteering in their own communities (where they live geographically) or online, in terms of having to pay a prohibitive fee to the organization in order to volunteer.

What would you add? Or reword? Or do you even think such a Bill of Rights is necessary? And when I say necessary, I mean that nonprofits sign on to it, post it, and voluntarily adhere to it (or try to) – not a legal document, just a promised MO. Please add your ideas in the comments section below.

And what might prevent you, as a volunteer-hosting organization, from implementing such a Bill of Rights for your volunteers? Please comment below!

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.

Me as a volunteer? More frustrated than ever.

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I’m a consultant regarding volunteer engagement (among other things). And one of the ways I keep my skills sharp and I keep learning and evolving, is by volunteering myself, both online and in traditional, face-to-face assignments.

In October 2011, I wrote a blog called How to get rid of volunteers, based on a really bad experience I had as a volunteer.

In February 2012, I wrote a blog called I’m a Frustrated Volunteer., based on more bad experiences as a volunteer.

In May 2018, I wrote a blog called Still trying to volunteer, still frustrated, based on even more bad experiences I’ve had as a volunteer.

And now, in 2021… I’m still here and still frustrated. The upside is that it helps me to keep creating what I think are practical, highly-relevant guidance for successfully engaging volunteers. The downside is… I don’t like being repeatedly frustrated, and it’s a reminder that volunteering is NOT always the uplifting, inspiring experience so many say it is.

I saw this meme and it hit so close to home regarding my own volunteering experiences in 2021 I almost burst into tears.

Never push a loyal person to the point where they no longer care.

When I express interest in volunteering with a nonprofit or program, I’m excited. I’m energized. I’m inspired. I’m highly motivated. I’m ready to help regarding a cause that I’m feeling strongly about. And very often, I’m hoping for a long-term experience. I’m hoping to volunteer for months, maybe even years, not just a few times. I’m hoping to enjoy myself.

Too often, I leave a volunteering experience that I’ve wanted to be a long-haul after a year or less, feeling overwhelmed, taken advantage of, ignored and/or under-appreciated. And I haven’t enjoyed myself. At all.

As I read the message in that image, I immediately thought not just about my own experiences as a volunteer, but also how many programs have lost fantastic volunteers because of not being clear about expectations, or changing those expectations, or asking too much of a volunteer’s time, or not welcoming and showing appreciation for a new, enthused, passionate volunteer, or otherwise “pushing.”

For this latest experience, I joined a county advisory board regarding the arts. It was a really nice experience the first year, though quarterly meetings were always in-person and held in places that were extremely difficult to get to via public transport (that’s how I get around weekdays, pre-COVID). The second year of my volunteering service was dominated by the global pandemic, and suddenly, we were allowed to do something our host organization assured us was absolutely impossible and not allowed: have meetings online. At the end of 2020, I was asked if I would consider being chair and thought, hey, what the heck, I should step up and do this for one year.

At my first meeting as chair, the bomb was dropped: our government host organization was dropping our board as a responsibility and we would move under the fiscal sponsorship of a nonprofit. At that first meeting, it was said several times, “Things won’t really be changing.” That proved to be a gross misstatement: my required time commitment skyrocketed as I realized a whole host of new processes would have to be researched, developed, proposed and voted on by the board members in a very, very tight timeframe. I went from meetings once a quarter to two or three times a month, and dozens of emails a week – sometimes dozens of emails in one day. Lots of steps in the transition hadn’t been identified by the previous host and the new host, and as I asked questions for clarification, more and more work to do got revealed. I was no longer a part of an advisory group; I was a full-fledged board member of a brand new nonprofit that the board had not asked to be a part of. And I was the chair. And that is NOT what I signed up for when I agreed to volunteer.

My passion wained quickly. My excitement evaporated. My energy and motivation have been squashed.

How did this happen? The people who created this substantial change:

  • did not consult with the volunteers who would be told to take on the responsibility.
  • were in denial that it was a substantial change.
  • have not taken a volunteer management 101 workshop or read any of Susan Ellis’ books.

Yes, I’m still a frustrated volunteer. I still haven’t found a volunteering experience since returning to the USA that’s been what I’m looking for. I still haven’t really had fun volunteering since 2009. But I’m so happy to have yet another experience that will help me as a consultant regarding volunteer management.

Other blogs inspired by my volunteering:

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site or my YouTube videos and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

Milestone: more than 100 virtual volunteering research articles

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As of October 2020, a milestone has been reached regarding virtual volunteering: I’ve found more than 100 research articles, dating back to 1997 and most with a university association, related to virtual volunteering. These are all listed here at the Virtual Volunteering Wiki.

I started tracking published research regarding virtual volunteering – using the internet to engage and support volunteers – when I directed the Virtual Volunteering Project at the University of Texas at Austin. I began heading the project in December 1996 and within several months of looking, I not only had found about 100 programs, most at nonprofits, a few at schools, that were involving online volunteers, I also realized that the practice was at least a couple of decades old, first starting at the Project Gutenberg, a volunteer effort that began in 1971 to digitize, archive and distribute the full texts of public domain books, such as works by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Mark Twain. But what I had trouble finding was academic research on the subject. I had found a fair amount by the time The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook was published, but even so, it seemed still to be rather on the lean side for a practice that was so well-established.

I had no funding to research and write The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook, and I’ve had no funding to continue maintaining the Virtual Volunteering Wiki, which tracks news and research regarding using the Internet to engage and support volunteers. But, indeed, I’ve maintained the wiki all these years, focusing on things that I deemed newsworthy and, especially, academic research. When I realized that there are now more than 100 research articles, dating back to 1997 and most with a university association, related to virtual volunteering, I felt it was worth celebrating. And this is just the English-language material: I bet there is a fair amount in Spanish, given Spain’s leadership in virtual volunteering for a couple of decades now.

Note that sometimes research articles do not call the unpaid contributors or unpaid virtual team members “volunteers.” For instance, any research paper on Wikipedia contributors could be considered research on virtual volunteering, as Wikipedia contributors – Wikipedians – are unpaid by Wikimedia for those contributions.

Also note that many of the papers make the mistake of talking about virtual volunteering as new, ignoring or overlooking its more than three-decade history. When I read that this is a “new” practice in an academic paper recently published, especially a thesis or dissertation, it makes it very hard for me to take the rest of the research seriously. I wish more university professors would catch that inaccurate point of view early on in a PhD student’s exploration of the subject.

It’s so wonderful to see that virtual volunteering now has a rich research history to go along with its rich history of practice, and I love reading perspectives about virtual volunteering by people who ARE NOT ME. Look, it’s been fun to be the world’s expert regarding virtual volunteering, but I’m so hungry to read perspectives by other people, particularly regarding what works best in supporting online volunteers, particularly different demographics of such volunteers – is it different to involve teen online volunteers in India versus tech-savy senior volunteers in Germany? Is there something that works well supporting online volunteers in South Africa that is different than what’s done in Spain? Is engaging and supporting rural online volunteers different from engaging and supporting urban or suburban online volunteers, even in the same country? I’d love to see such comparative studies!

What’s not needed? Research on the motivations of people who volunteer online. Good grief, people, ENOUGH!

I would also love beyond words if a university would step forward and be willing to take over management of the Virtual Volunteering Wiki. Having university students and faculty maintaining this would make it a much more rich and valuable resource. Any takers?

Let me be frank: I’m going to eventually retire. I’ll always be interested in virtual volunteering, and I’ll be an online volunteer myself for, I hope, decades to come (in between my extensive motorcycle riding). But just as there is no one Queen or King of All Things Volunteer Management, there shouldn’t be just one person, or always the same person, keeping track of news and research regarding virtual volunteering and distilling the key points of such. It’s overdue for new leaders, and a diversity of new leaders, to emerge in this field. I stand ready to support those new leaders (or, at least, figuratively – I can’t stand as long as I used to).

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

Saying “no” to recruiting volunteers for certain tasks

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Volunteer recruitment has always been easy for me. Often, when I post an assignment to a third-party platform like VolunteerMatch on behalf of whatever nonprofit I’m working for, I end up having to take it down two days later, because I get plenty of candidates to choose from.

I try to craft volunteer roles in a way that will benefit the volunteer (enhance or show-off skills, give them an opportunity to be involved directly in a cause, maybe even have fun). I also am explicit about why the task is important to the organization and those we serve. And I’m detailed in the role description of exactly what the expectations are in terms of time commitment and deadlines.

I also almost always get to make a commitment to involving volunteers in my work at a nonprofit – if I’m working for a nonprofit that already involves volunteers. I don’t involve volunteers in my work because “I have all this work to do and I can’t afford an assistant.” I do it because I think volunteers might be the best people for a task – like when I need more neutral eyes, when I need people who might be more critical in surveying participants or in reviewing the data they are compiling than a paid person. I do it because I think non-staff should get to see how a nonprofit works in a transparent, first-hand way – and I think those people turn into amazing advocates back out in the communities around the organization.

Sometimes, other staff see these volunteers involved in my work and are inspired to involve more volunteers in their work too. But they often just see “free labor” and want to treat VolunteerMatch like Task Rabbit: we’ve got work to do, let’s find someone to do it – for free!

I once had a staff person ask if I would recruit a new volunteer for her to serve food and then clean up after a breakfast meeting. I said no. At this particular organization, I believed strongly that every volunteering opportunity should include an emphasis on the volunteer learning what the nonprofit did, who it served and why the nonprofit was needed. Serving food and washing dishes didn’t do that. I also felt like involving volunteers in this way would contribute to the idea that so many staff members have at that organization: volunteers are free and do stuff we don’t want to do. I also didn’t like the idea of board members thinking of the “other” volunteers as merely waitresses and dishwashers.

It’s not a black or white issue: if someone contacted me and said, “I urgently need volunteering hours for court-ordered community service,” I might offer them that waitressing and dishwashing volunteer gig, knowing how hard it is for them to get the hours they need, but I would also offer all the other volunteering opportunities we have available as well and, if the volunteer was qualified, consider them for other, more significant roles too.

If this was a big fundraising event for the nonprofit, I might feel differently about having volunteers staffing the coat check, making sure there is plenty of coffee and helping clean up – but I would recruit the event-support volunteers from the ranks of our current volunteers, and those volunteers would be identified to all attendees: “We want to let you know that the staff you see here helping you all have a great experience here tonight are some of our volunteers. These are the volunteers who work with our clients, work on our web site, edit videos for us, research grants for us, etc. They are students, web designers, lawyers, job seekers, etc. They are here tonight, as volunteers, to further show their support for our organization and we encourage you to talk to them about what they do as volunteers for our organization.”

Why am I so concerned with the appropriateness of volunteer roles? The titles alone on these blogs and web pages that I have written should explain why – but if they don’t, then you’ll need to read them:

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

Call for papers on Marketing to Cultivate & Retain Donors, Members & Volunteers

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Call for papers: special issue of International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing on marketing to cultivate and retain donors, members and volunteers. Submission deadline: June 15, 2020.

From the marketing blurb:

Charities and other nonprofit organizations rely upon marketing to cultivate and maintain relationships with supporters, without which most nonprofit organizations would not have resources to fulfill their missions.  Given the mission-critical need for effective marketing strategies and tactics in order to attract and retain supporters such as donors, members, and volunteers; this special issue is especially timely. 

Manuscripts that further our knowledge on cultivating and retaining support from donors, members, and volunteers are encouraged.  A wide variety of related topics are desired beginning with identifying prospects to deepening the commitment of supporters.  Theoretical, empirical, and literature review articles (including meta-analyses) are welcome.

Manuscripts should be prepared following the normal guidelines for the journal and should be submitted through the journal’s online system.  Please be sure to submit your manuscript for this special issue when submitting through the online system.

The guest editor is Professor Walter Wymer, University of Lethbridge, Canada and he can be reached at walter.wymer@uleth.ca – for more information, refer to the journal’s website at https://www.springer.com/journal/12208

Easy way to get a video made & posted re: your org

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You don’t have a video on YouTube, with a link on your own web site, that talks about how great your nonprofit is? Or a video that shows what volunteering is like at your organization or celebrating volunteers at your program? SHAME ON YOU! In this era of smart phones, there’s no excuses for not having such a video – or more than one!

Here’s how you can get such a video produced and online QUICKLY, with the help of volunteers.

First: make sure every volunteer, employee and consultant at your organization has signed a photo and video release form – examples of these are easy to find online. You want to have signed permission from all of your staff, always, to take video of photos of them and use them in promotional materials. It’s a good idea to require that any person sign these on their very first day of working at your organization. If you haven’t been doing this, then print several copies out and have volunteers sign them when they sign in for their next shift, when they attend an event, etc., and keep track of everyone who has and hasn’t signed. You will also need to have releases on hand for members of the public or clients to sign if you film them at your facilities. If anyone refuses to sign – and that is their right – you may not film them.

From among your current and previous volunteers, or through whatever volunteer recruitment tools you use (like VolunteerMatch, AllforGood, posts to your web site, posts to Facebook or other social media, etc.), recruit volunteers who will pair up during volunteering activities: one volunteer will do the actual task, as usual (this should be one of your veteran volunteers) and one will record the volunteer for a few moments doing the task with his or her smartphone (always landscape – hold the phone sideways!). Sound isn’t important. Each volunteer should try to get at least a full 60 seconds of footage.

So, for instance, at a nonprofit animal shelter, if you paired up volunteers, you would have raw video footage from various smart phones (they can all be different kinds) of:

  • a volunteer staffing the front desk and interacting with clients
  • volunteers interacting with animals
  • volunteers dealing with inventory
  • volunteers pouring dog food or cat food
  • a volunteer taking photos of new animals for your web site
  • etc.

Recruit a video editing volunteer who will gather all of the videos together in one place online, a place where staff at your organization can always access the raw footage in case this volunteer is unable to complete the task. For instance, all volunteers could be asked to upload their footage to a YouTube account set up specifically for this project, and for footage to be uploaded so that it is not public. If they don’t know how to upload footage, they could get guidance from someone at your organization the next time they are onsite at your organization.

Where to recruit a video editing volunteer? From your current volunteers (and have them ask their family members), previous volunteers, via a post on your web site which you link to from an announcement on your social media channels, via a video production class at the nearest high school, college or university, via employees at a large company where they have an in-house marketing staff, etc. What about asking the faculty of such a class to turn your video needs into a class assignment, with different teams of students each producing a video based on raw footage and then your voting on which you think is the best? Be sure to write a full description of what the volunteer video editor’s duties are, that you will include in all recruitment materials so expectations are clear.

This video editing volunteer will be charged with:

  • editing bits and pieces of the raw video into a 2 or 3 minute video
  • adding in copyright-free music (easy to find such via archive.org)
  • adding in titles and captions that say whatever it is you want to say about your organization and how great it is, perhaps also about why your volunteers are so wonderful and essential

The video editor presents the first draft of his or her work to appropriate staff and, once staff approves, up it goes onto your organization’s YouTube channel.

You could do something similar regarding interviewing clients to talk about how they have benefitted from your services, or talking to volunteers about why they enjoy volunteering, or talking to donors about why they donate money. For videos where people will be interviewed and sound during recordings IS important, recruit your video recording volunteers from a video production class at the nearest high school, college or university, via employees at a large company where they have an in-house marketing staff, etc. Be sure to write a full description of what the volunteer video recorder’s duties are, that you will include in all recruitment materials so expectations are clear. What about asking the faculty of such a class to turn your video needs into a class assignment? And, again, this person or team should put all of the raw video footage in one place online, a place where staff at your organization can always access the raw footage in case this volunteer is unable to complete the task.

For any video where words will be spoken, you will need to recruit a volunteer who will caption the video on YouTube. I have recruited online volunteers to do this for my short video projects for nonprofits via VolunteerMatch – recruitment of such a volunteer has always taken less than three days! Here’s more about recruiting volunteers to caption videos.

There is no excuse whatsoever for NOT having such videos about your organization’s work! And video editing is shockingly easy: I do it myself, self-taught, on my ancient Macintosh computer. Here’s a video I put together for Knowbility, a nonprofit in Austin, Texas, showcasing nonprofits it was working with in its OpenAIR program. I had video footage from various organizations, all remote to me (hundreds, even thousands, of miles from me) – none of the video was what I had shot myself. I also had some slides of information as visuals. I spliced it all together using the free video-editing tool that was on my ancient Mac, then laid in some music – something I’d never, ever done before – using copyright-free music I found on archive.org, and finally transcribing using the free captioning tool on YouTube. My video is not going to win any awards: my transitions between videos and “moments” arent’ very good – but I had just one day to do it, and the video was VERY effective at the event at which it was shown. Imagine what a volunteer who DOES have some video editing experience, with several days, could do for YOUR organization!

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.

Also see:

What managing & growing a Twitter account looks like for small nonprofits

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There is a lot of advice out there for nonprofits regarding how to use social media, but it is often written using corporate perspectives: success is only in terms of huge numbers of followers and messages that go “viral.” That type of pure quantitative measurement is meaningless and unrealistic for most small nonprofits, community groups, schools, small government programs, etc. There are far better, more realistic measurements of social media success for these small organizations – and this blog entry that you are reading now is an attempt to provide an example of that.

In addition to writing about volunteerism and community engagement, I am also a volunteer in my local community. I volunteer for all the usual altruistic reasons, but also to keep my skills sharp as a paid consultant regarding marketing, public relations and community engagement for mission-based organizations. One of my current volunteering activities is being a part of the League of Women Voters – specifically, the Washington County, Oregon unit. The League of Women Voters started as an organization engaged in activities to educate women as voters – it was formed just before women got the vote in the USA and to encourage them to vote. Now, it is open to all people and has a similar mission, now universal: to educate people regarding issues their legislators are voting on, to educate them on issues they will vote on in upcoming elections, and to encourage them to vote. The League takes stands on issues, but not candidates. Here in the USA, it’s often a local chapter of the league that hosts forums and debates for candidates running for office, and these chapters are all-volunteer staffed and managed.

One of the activities I’m doing with my local League of Women voters is overseeing the Twitter account, @LWVWashcoOR. I’m not looking to have massive numbers of followers. Rather, I’m thinking about engagement. So my goals regarding followers for the league account are that:

Every elected official representing Washington County, Oregon that has a Twitter account follows the local League. There’s no master list for this: there are more than 10 Census-related cities in this county, each with some form of local city council members. Plus there’s a county government, a Portland Metro government with a representative for our county on it, state legislators and federal legislators (the easiest to find). That’s almost 100 people try to find on Twitter – and I’m still trying to figure out who is and isn’t on Twitter. I follow all that I find, retweet their relevant information, and often ask them, point blank, to please follow our League’s Twitter account.

Key Washington County government offices on Twitter follow us. This is not easy, because many don’t understand what the League is – they think it’s a political organization in the sense of promoting agendas, rather than a non-partisan organization that’s promoting civic engagement – civic engagement that their programs need more of!

Every local political group (or state version of such) follows us. This is a double challenge because, per the non-partisan political nature of the League, I can’t follow them back: instead, I put them on one of our Twitter lists, so I can read their tweets. For that same reason, I refrain from retweeting many of their messages because of their partisan nature. It’s hard to get someone to follow you when you don’t follow them back.

Most nonprofits working in Washington County follow the League. Many of these nonprofits work with the most marginalized in our county, as well as young people, all of whom need the most assistance in understanding the political process and how to engage civically. As with elected officials here, I follow all that I find, retweet their information I think relates to the mission of the League, and often ask them, point blank, to please follow us.

Any individual that cares about voter education, voter registration, civic engagement and civic education follows us on Twitter. There are individuals in this county that, independently, tweet regularly about these issues. I put them on a list of politically-engaged local folks so I can check in with them regularly and I retweet their messages if they relate to the mission of the League. How do I find them? I look for people tweeting about town halls by our US Senators and US Congressional representative, for instance.

I find more followers to target and subjects to tweet by using various keyword searches, like the names of city and county officials, or the words Oregon and voting. I tweet original content every time I log in – could be a reminder regarding Oregon state legislation that’s coming up for a vote, could be a reminder about our own unit activities, could be a poem for #WorldPoetryDay.

How do I get followers for the League’s account. Various ways:

  • From tweeting information that relates to our mission and that our desired followers will find relevant
  • From looking for and using keywords so that people looking for those keywords can find us. That includes #Oregon, #voting, #voters, #legislation, #elections, #electionday, etc. I also look for what’s trending and seeing if there is a way to use such in a tweet of our own in that moment. And I create content specifically to tag with certain phrases, like #blackhistorymonth, #internationalwomensday, #humanrights, #fairmaps, #gerrymandering, #veterans, etc.
  • From following someone that I want to follow the League
  • From retweeting someone that I want to follow the League, even just once (but it usually takes more than that)
  • By thanking someone for a retweet of our information
  • By responding to someone’s tweet with a question or comment
  • By asking someone to follow

I tweet a thank for every account that follows @LWVWashcoOR or that retweets one of our messages, so that their account can be shared with all of our followers, which I hope, in turn, gets them more followers.

I log in at least three times a week to do all of the above – it takes about 30 minutes each time. I try to mix up the times – sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon and sometimes in the evening, to reach different followers. I also schedule tweets via Hootsuite, so that something goes out most every day, but the reality is that I must spend actual time on Twitter, engaging with others, in order to get more followers and keep the ones we have.

My desired results of all this? I hope these officials, agencies and nonprofits will become more open to coming to League events and promoting our resources. I hope they will see the League as a resource. I hope more people in general will attend our events and see us an election and legislative resource. I hope more people will pay and join the League of Women Voters Oregon Washington County Unit. I hope we will see more diversity among people who attend our local events and who join the League.

How many Twitter followers will achieve those results? I’ve no idea. But I do know that these results won’t come from massive numbers of followers outside of Washington County, or a post going viral. I believe these results will come from having local followers and local engagement. When I started, there were less than 10 followers for the @LWVWashcoOR account. Now, less than six months later, there are 100 – not a huge number, but when I look at who those followers are, I know that we’re on the road to achieving some of those goals.

My only complaint: local league members rarely retweet our unit’s tweets. Without their participation in helping to further amplify messages, it’s going to be difficult to reach all that we want to.

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into developing material, researching information, preparing articles, updating pages, etc., here is how you can help.

 

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Expand national service programs in the USA?

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteersAccording to this story from National Public Radio, the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service, a federal panel (USA), says it is working on answers to those questions — and is considering how the USA could implement a universal service program and whether it should be mandatory or optional. The commission is due to submit its final report in March 2020. Between now and then, the panel will hold public hearings on ideas of how to meet America’s service needs. The first such hearing is slated for Feb. 21 in Washington, D.C.

The possibilities under consideration range from boosting the stipend volunteers receive during service to awarding college credit for national service work. Another potential plan would create a Public Service Corps program, similar to the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, which could offer scholarships and special training to “students at colleges throughout the nation in exchange for a commitment to work in civil service.”

And the commission noted an option to “retain programs to forgive student loans for Americans who work in public service careers for at least a decade.”

My thoughts: initially, President Trump proposed eliminating all of the current USA national service programs – AmeriCorps, SeniorCorps, etc. – so any recommendation to actually expand national service would be DOA during this administration. Also, mandatory service is VERY expensive to implement: this new, additional workforce, even if they are entirely unpaid, must be properly screened, trained and supported in whatever volunteer role they take on, and organizations will need funding to create roles for this new volunteer workforce – where will those additional funds come from? Young people who engage in community service for several weeks will need to receive something substantial, such as a living stipend (in lieu of paid work – money they very much need), or significant breaks on tuition. Finally, Germany got rid of its mandatory service requirements a few years back – it was just way, way too expensive to maintain anymore.

Your thoughts?

Free guide updated: Basic Fundraising for Small NGOs/Civil Society in the Developing World

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I’ve updated Basic Fundraising for Small NGOs/Civil Society in the Developing World for the first time in four years. I swore I wouldn’t anymore, and even said so on my web site… it’s quite the beast of a project, given that it’s entirely unfunded work. And I’ve been updating it since 2004.

But the continued pleas on sites like Quora from small NGOs in Asia and Africa, including very specific questions about crowdsourcing, a topic not covered in the 2015 version of the document, prompted me to spend oh-so-many hours updating it.

The PDF book is now 41 pages long and is available to download, for free, from my web site. It includes chapters on:

  • Fundraising: Some Things You Should NEVER Do
  • Networking & Establishing Credibility
  • Guidelines for Integrity, Transparency & Accountability
  • Using Social Media to Build Credibility
  • Absolute Essential Preparations To Solicit Donations
  • Finding Donors & Making Contact
  • Proposal Writing
  • Ethical Principles in Fundraising
  • Crowdfunding & Online Donations
  • Beware of Fundraising Scams
  • Financial Sustainability Action Planning
  • Individuals Raising Money in Another Country for Your NGO

The work of small community-based organizations (CBOs)/civil society organizations (CSOs)/non- governmental organizations (NGOs) in developing countries, collectively, is vital to millions of people. There is no group or institution doing more important work than CBOs / CSOs & NGOs. They represent local people and local decision-making. They often are the only group representing minority voices and the interests of those most-marginalized in a community. I call them mission- based organizations: they are organizations that exist, primarily, to fulfill a mission. They have a mission-statement that is supposed to guide all of their activities – in contrast to a business, which exists to make profits.

Financial support for their vital work, however, is hard to come by, and staff at these organizations, whether paid or unpaid (volunteer), have, usually, never had training in how to raise funds, what different funding streams can look like (individual donors, foundation grants, corporate grants, fees-for-service, government contracts-for- service, etc.), or how to maintain an accounting of funds.

I can’t solve this challenge with a book, but I hope I can give these NGOs the most basic information they need to secure funding. I hope it also helps consultants who are trying to help these small NGOs in developing countries.

Will I update it again? Not any time soon, barring the correction of some egregious mistakes, and maybe not at all. I need money too, folks. I need to devote my energy to projects that pay me. Please read more about my consulting services and let me know if you might like to work together!

vvbooklittleA resource that isn’t free but is very much worth your investment – at least I think so – is The LAST Virtual Volunteering Guidebook. The book, which I co-wrote with Susan Ellis, extensive, detailed suggestions and specifics about using the Internet to support and involve volunteers: virtual volunteering. It includes task and role development, suggestions on support and supervision of online volunteers, guidelines for evaluating virtual volunteering activities, suggestions for risk management, online safety, ensuring client and volunteer confidentiality and setting boundaries for relationships in virtual volunteering, and much more. The LAST Virtual Volunteering Guidebook is available both as a traditional printed book and as a digital book.

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