Mindful Media: Using the Matrix to Plan Your Messaging

August 16, 2010

Deciding what communications mediums to use should not feel like trying to read this.

What is the Matrix you ask? No, I’m not talking about the mind-bending late 90′s sci-fi flick. I’m referring to a nifty tool developed by Aspiration that helps you sort out the mind-bending  myriad of mediums both online and off that so many are using to spread messages these days.

Referred to as the publishing matrix, the tool is a simple grid that lists the types of messages you produce, and then has a column for each of the communications mediums that you currently are using. Using an “X” you can indicate which type of message, whether it be a press release or a blog post, should receive what type of distribution (e.g. facebook post, tweet, etc.)

It’s an excellent method for documenting what your promotional practices are for your messages among staff, especially if you have multiple staff members or even volunteers producing and distributing messages for your organization. You can download an example of the publishing matrix  at aspirationtech.org.

I learned about the tool at a presentation that Allen Gunn, executive director of Aspiration, gave at the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmaker conference. Located in San Francisco, Aspiration is a 501 c3 organization that specializes in connecting nonprofit clients with software solutions to help them better carry out their work. There is a variety of free resources for nonprofit communicators interested in streamlining their use of social media on aspirationtech.org.

- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate

Image CC Patrick Hoesly

2 Comments | communication, technology | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by MCF Webmaster

Google Moderator — Your Key to Community Input?

June 3, 2010

“Don’t do something about me without me.” I first heard Tamar Cloyd of Education Voters of America speak these powerful words during a talk on diversity and the leadership pipeline on Rosetta Thurman’s podcast.

The Suggestion Box

Google Moderator, it's like the suggestion box for the 21st century.

This phrase succinctly states the importance of community engagement in the work we do as philanthropists, and the words come echoing back to me like an idiomatic boomerang every time I recognize a new tool for grantmakers to engage their grantees and community stakeholders.

Today I’d like to share with you one of those tools, Google Moderator, and discuss how using it to crowdsource decisions can help you tap into the communities you seek to serve.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term crowdsourcing, let me give you the quick explanation. Crowdsourcing is when you use an online platform such as a website or a web application to allow people to do an activity, like donate to a cause or create and rate solutions to a problem. Minnesota Idea Open is one such example of how a foundation is using crowdsourcing to determine how to solve pressing social issues and, in turn, who should receive its grant money.

Google Moderator is a free online tool that allows anyone who has a Google account and something to talk about to start a discussion. It allows the moderator to post a question in text or now in the form of a YouTube video and solicit feedback in the form of ideas, suggestions or questions. Anyone who has a free Google account, like a gmail account can submit a response. Once a response is posted, it can in turn be rated by other users for quality, so that best input gets pushed to the top.

To see an example of Google Moderator, you can view this discussion that I just made on the topic of using tools such as Google Moderator to crowdsource philanthropy (I know, it’s so meta!) While you’re there, feel free to give the platform a test drive by posting your own thoughts.

One of the most obvious limitations of the tool is that there’s no way to pick the crowd that you’re sourcing. Currently, if you create a discussion, anyone can participate. So, if you’re a grantmaker looking to engage a very specific community, then there’s no way to ensure that you’re engaging only your target population.

However, despite limitations, it’s exciting to think how grantmakers, policymakers and nonprofits can use tools like this to partner with communities in problem solving.

For grantmakers concerned with upholding the principles of transparency and the engagement of diverse communities, figuring out how to harness these online tools effectively to support grantmaking decisions will be where the rubber meets the road, and support of these values translates to action in the 21st century.

- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate

Image CC Peter J. Bury

1 Comment | principles for grantmakers, technology | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by MCF Webmaster

Minnesota Idea Open Asks, “What Next, Minnesota?”

May 28, 2010

First off, kudos to the folks over at Minnesota Idea Open for being recognized by nonprofit and social media expert Beth Kanter as “an online social good contest that works.” High praise from a woman who has critiqued other past social good contests by corporations and foundations for poor planning and execution.

CFL lightbulb

Got a bright idea for Minnesota Idea Open's Challenge II?

Fresh from crowning their first victor, Minnesota Idea Open is already at it again searching for the next pressing social challenge of the day. If you’re a Minnesotan, they want to hear from you! Take a quick online survey to help determine what topic innovative Minnesotans will compete to help solve in 2011.

Some of the different social issues that the Minnesota Idea Open team is looking for feedback on include:

  • Water stewardship
  • Early literacy
  • Financial fitness
  • Sustainable living

If you have an idea for another focus area that you’d like to suggest for next year’s challenge, there’s also a field where you can submit your own idea.

As they say @MNIdeaOpen, Game On!

- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate

Image CC Outsanity Photos

1 Comment | technology | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by MCF Webmaster

A Video for the Social Media Doubters on Staff

May 24, 2010

Sometimes it can be challenging to communicate to higher-ups about the importance of experimenting with social media, especially if you are a communicator working in the philanthropic field. To be frank, with the exception of some brilliantly shining examples, the field has a reputation for being “behind the times” when it comes to online communications, a fact underscored by a recent Foundation Center survey that found only 29% of foundations reported having a website.

This is due in part to limitations of capacity (for example, there are a lot of no-staff family foundations out there). That being said, sometimes people are either not really aware of the sheer size and potential of social media, or may be thinking (or hoping) that social media is a fad and that they can safely wait this one out.

So, if you’re an internal change agent at a grantmaking organization or nonprofit, let me suggest the following video as a nice ice-breaker that vividly illustrates the scale of the social media sphere. Although it has a definite private sector flavor, it’s still a great conversation starter.

This video is by Erik Qualman of the Socialnomics Blog. To see the video in its original context, along with a full list of references for each statistic in the video, check out this post on his blog.

- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate

14 Comments | technology | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by MCF Webmaster

How Information Networks Are Transforming Philanthropy

May 20, 2010
Information networks and the response to the earthquake in Haiti

New information networks like Ushahidi are changing how funders large and small are giving.

In the paper Disrupting Philanthropy: Technology and the Future of the Social Sector, author Lucy Bernholz writes that nearly one-hundred years ago Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller established the first modern foundations. These foundations were centralized, vertically integrated institutions that closely resembled the businesses that produced the surplus of wealth upon which they were founded.

These rigid, hierarchical organizations were appropriate for the time — but new technology in the form of information networks has enabled philanthropy to take on never-before-seen shapes. Empowered by more and better data than ever before, institutional funders – and now networks of digitally-connected individual donors – are making giving decisions that are transforming the philanthropic and nonprofit fields.

What do these changes look like, and how will these trends continue to transform giving? These are the questions that Disrupting Philanthropy tries to answer.

For traditional funders the report states that this new abundance of data has begun to transform how decisions are made at five key points in the grantmaking process as they:

  • Set goals and formulate their strategies
  • Build social capital to support one another, cooperate and collaborate
  • Measure progress through benchmarks, outputs and make course changes along the way
  • Quantify outcomes and impacts
  • Account for their work with the public at large and to regulators

The paper includes two case studies of FasterCures and the Edna McConnel Clark Foundation that illustrate how information networks have reshaped the grantmaking strategies of some institutional funders.

Interestingly, the authors emphasize that the changes in the philanthropic paradigm are less about the new technologies themselves, which will continue to evolve and change overtime, but instead about the behavior and expectations that result from this abundance of information. No longer will funders, both individuals and institutional, be in a position where they give “blindly”. This data will allow all of us to make more strategic, informed decisions about who receives our giving dollars.

- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate

Photo CC AlphaChimp

1 Comment | technology | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by MCF Webmaster

Mapping Grants in Realtime: A Taste of the Future of Philanthropic Transparency

May 13, 2010

Imagine being able to map a disaster in real time. Imagine thousands of people with mobile phones sending texts that post up-to-the-minute data points as disasters (and solutions) unfold, whether it be the exact position of oil on the Gulf shore , where crimes have occurred in your neighborhood, or where to find resources to help your grandma to dig out of her snow-bound house in Washington, DC.

The Ushahidi platform allows users to do just that. Ushahidi, which means “testimony” in Swahili, is a free, open-source web application that allows users to create real-time visualizations of data that’s sent to the system via SMS (texting), email or the web.  Originally developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the 2008 post-election fallout, Ushahidi has been deployed by dozens of organizations for a variety of applications from reporting on the Gulf oil spill, tracking voting in Sudan, and much more.

The potential of a tool like this for relief organizations is obvious and compelling — but I think there could be interesting applications for grantmakers as well.

For instance, a foundation could create a map to which grantees and even their constituents, the ultimate users of a nonprofit’s services, could post.  The geographic reach of a grant, as well as to some extent a representation of its impact, could be revealed in interesting, previously-difficult-to-visualize ways.

Other grants visualization tools exist. But current tools fall short in that the mapped data points apply only to the physical location of the grantee organization itself. Useful data — absolutely, but if the nonprofit provides services in other locations, the reach of that organization and its impact on those communities is not currently represented.

Imagine a nonprofit staff member using a tool like Ushahidi to send a text message to the system to map out different service locations, which would then feed back to the centralized database and be displayed. Grantmakers, policymakers and nonprofits could then use this data to identify gaps where communities are under served, and use that data to make more informed decisions about their work to support the common good.

This is just a taste of what philanthropic transparency may look like in the future. I’m looking forward to seeing what innovative grantmakers do with new technologies like Ushahidi and, most importantly, the ultimate impact the data unleashes.

- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate

Thanks to Lara Hoke at NonprofitNext, whose post on the Ushahidi platform introduced me to the tool.

2 Comments | technology | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by MCF Webmaster

“Too Small” to Have a Website? 71% of Foundations Not Online

May 12, 2010
Cat plays with Iphone.

In an age when even pet cats have twitter accounts, a majority of foundations remain without a website. Are there costs for this dearth of online information?

According to a recent Foundation Center survey of 11,000 U.S. foundations, only 29% report having a website. When you consider that the 1,000 top U.S. foundations account for nearly two-thirds of annual giving, it’s a little easier to understand why this disparity exists.

But what are the costs of this disparity? Bradford Smith, president of the Foundation Center wrote a recent blog entry that examines those costs and challenges assumptions that are holding back many foundations from being online.

Smith’s post got me thinking. What are the most compelling arguments for small foundations to make the leap onto the web?

Transparency helps create public trust. Discretion, born out of modesty or a desire for privacy, can be misconstrued by the public as secrecy. In the age of social media, businesses have learned the hard way that the best strategy to control your story is to be the one telling it. Having a website can help get ahead of misunderstandings about what your foundation funds and why, and it can be a key component in upholding the principle of transparency, described in MCF’s Principles for Minnesota Grantmakers.

Clear guidelines enable nonprofits to screen themselves out. Applying for a grant requires a big investment of time and resources for a nonprofit.  When foundations have clearly articulated guidelines that are easily accessible 24/7 on the internet, nonprofits can assess for themselves whether they’re good candidates for grant opportunities, saving both sides time and money.

Maintaining a website yourself is easier – and cheaper – than ever. Gone are the days when you needed a full-time webmaster to maintain a website. Grantmakers looking to administer sites themselves have many low-cost and no-cost options that are built on systems that allow individuals with no experience with code to create and maintain their own sites.

The decision to go online can be difficult, particularly for family foundations who want to maintain a sense of privacy. But as information becomes ubiquitous in the age of web 2.0, the importance of telling your own story about your foundation’s giving will become more and more apparent. This fact, coupled with affordable, easy-to-use technology, means the “too small” excuse is quickly losing its relevance.

Join the Conversation: Has your foundation actively made the choice to get on or stay off the web? If so, why did you come to that decision? Do you think, as Smith does, that having a website is inevitable for small foundations?

- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate

Photo CC Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten

1 Comment | technology | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by MCF Webmaster

Vote for the Winner of the Minnesota Idea Open!

May 10, 2010

Have you cast your virtual ballot for one of the three finalists of the Minnesota Idea Open yet? Voting is only open until Friday, May 14, so make sure you visit mnideaopen.org and submit your vote before time runs out!

If you’re unfamiliar with the project — here’s an overview. Minnesota Idea Open is the brain child of the Minnesota Community Foundation. Leaders at the foundation saw the incredible popularity of social giving contests and philanthropic awards like the X-prize and asked why not use these trends to unlock the ingenuity and creativity of Minnesotans to solve the social and economic problems of our region?

Minnesota Idea Open will be an annual contest where Minnesotans can submit their own ideas to tackle a tough social issue of the day. This year’s topic? The obesity epidemic. After reviewing dozens of submissions, three finalists were chosen by a panel of community, nonprofit and grantmaker leaders.

The final winner of the Open will receive $15,000 to support the creation of a project to help end obesity that can be easily brought to scale and repeated in other communities across the state.

The finalists are:

  • Take the Soul Patch Statewide: A program where a group of community members partnered to tend a small garden that supplied 2,000 lbs of fresh, organic produce to a local food shelf.
  • Kids Lead the Way: A school-based program where youth will create once-a-week field activities for their classmates and community partners, with the idea being that students will bring these activities home with them. Personal trainers have also agreed to volunteer their time to assist community groups in creating collective health goals and fitness programs. Ultimately all the games, recipes and fitness tips will be collected in a book that will be sold to support the future continuation of the program in other communities.
  • Library Wellness Challenge: Starting at the Hamline Midway Library, the Hamline Midway Library Association will sponsor a wellness challenge for community members. The challenge will use the existing space and resources of the library to help small groups of individuals meet up and track how they’re progressing towards wellness goals. In addition to group sessions, there will also be monthly informational workshops on health and wellness, and an initial check-in where participants will be given their current BMI, blood pressure and other health indicators that they will continue to track during the course of the program.

There’s more information about each entry, including videos where the finalists explain their projects, at mnideaopen.org. Be sure to visit the site and cast your vote by May 14!

1 Comment | awards, technology | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by MCF Webmaster

« Previous Entries