SocialButterfly

Four Phases of Online Social Change

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 | Changeblogging: NP, activism, social change +, Social Media | 3 Comments

You may agree or disagree with me on this, so I encourage your thoughts as I’m transcribing some of my own observations into the online social change field. These observations boil down to four “phases” of online social change that I think reflect our maturity into using social media tools to meet our organization’s aims:

1. Awareness Building
2. Fundraising
3. Contests and Competitions for Change
4. Advocacy

In the beginning, I feel many tools were leveraged as awareness-building mechanisms. From the initial launch of Causes to recruiting fans, followers and friends, many tools were initially set out to further awareness-building of an organization.

Then, I felt like the tools and our use of them matured as we discovered ways to leverage the tools into dollars–from Twestival to Tweetsgiving to Goodsearch. Even Causes adapted and identified birthdays as a way to increase micro-donations. You could say that online fundraising in and of itself has seen a phased formation and continues to evolve. See Beth’s Kanter’s recent post: 5 Social Media Fundraising Trends for 2009.

Then, enter the behemouths–contests and competitions like “America’s Giving Challenge,” hosted by the Case Foundation entered in the next rendition. You could say this ties into a more advanced type of fundraising, but I felt like it deserved to be on its own. As, I don’t yet think this area has been “tapped out” and neither do organizations according to Andre Blackman who interviewed the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who uses contests and competitions to further public health innovation.

However, where I feel we are still in our infancy is with online advocacy for social change. It’s starting to creep up–just look at LiveEarth’s 2009 campaign “Love, the Climate” where people were encouraged to write love letters to office holders who worked to prevent climate change or the “Be a Voice for Darfur” movement which utilized activist and blogger toolkits to further realize the campaign’s objectives. Even act.ly provided a way for people to create and spread petitions with a call to action via Twitter.

Like I said, I think advocacy is where we have the most potential to further expand. I could be biased based on my government and citizen engagement day-job type of work–but I think there’s more ways we can get involved, as citizens, in decision making and peace keeping in our local, state and Federal governments–even internationally. What about you? Where do you think we have the most room to grow and what do you predict as being phase 5? Perhaps, partnerships and collaborations might be a phase five as we see how online and social media open up new doors of opportunity across organization firewalls. Or, another phase 5 might be storytelling–as more of these functions become interwoven and organizations get better at telling their story.

What do you think?

flickr credit: flatfield

Tags: advocacy, America's Giving Challenge, awareness, awareness-building, Be a Voice for Darfur, causes, change, competition, contest, contest for change, fundraising, good, Goodsearch, innovation, Live Earth, maturirty, online media, opportunity, phases, Public Health, social, social change, social good, Social Media, Tweetsgiving, Twestival

Happy Birthday SocialButterfly…and Me!

Monday, December 22nd, 2008 | SocialButterfly | 7 Comments

Today marks SocialButterfly’s 1-year birthday.

This past year was full of surprises, new adventures, and has been such a great whirlwind that I feel much like the kitten in the picture - trying to catch my breathe and “paws.” My anthem for 2008 was “Too Blessed to be Stressed,” and many times, I found myself needing to be reminded of just that.

This past year, I:

• Moved 4 times, one being from the middle of the Missouri River in Columbia, Missouri to the row houses of Capitol Hill.
• Have been deliriously happy as a new bride-to-be. After a two-year, long distance relationship, my honey and I are now sharing the same city and enjoying building a new life together. Bless our hearts, we looked at 33 different places in DC before we decided upon our current apartment. Needless to say, I felt like we had earned our real estate licenses!
• I graduated grad school, finished a fellowship, wrote and presented my thesis paper across the pond, and began a full-time gig doing what I love - social marketing and social media marketing.
• Worked with a total of about 8 part-time volunteers, including my parents, one of my best friends, and a few people from our community in Arkansas, through a grassroots effort, created and built a fund raiser for Multiple Sclerosis and raised over $70,000 in one night - making my total efforts in four years of MS fund raising a total of $325k+.
• Made many new friends and colleagues that continue to inspire me through Changebloggers, motivate me through connections on Twitter and online community, support me in my development and run the race with me….so to all you readers and friends, I hope I have done the same for you in return. If not, give me a little kick in the pants, and I’ll get going.

For 2009, who knows what will be next….but I promise you, we’ll be sure to keep it interesting. As a fellow reminder to both myself and my readers, keep perspective, and as a friend of mine once told me, “Keep the main thing, the main thing.”

Not only is it the blog’s birthday this week, but it’s also mine…in case the title through you for a loop. =)

flickr credit: loveberries
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Tags: 2008, 2009, birthday, blogging, blogversary, Changebloggers, education, fundraising, happy birthday, inspiration, motivation, online community, perspective, professional, support, twitter, Washington D.C.

Carnival of Non-Profit Consultants: Cha-Cha-Chaaange

Monday, June 9th, 2008 | Blog Talk, Carnival of NPC | 2 Comments

Hello and welcome to my first time as a host for the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants! This week was an open call, with a personal preference for social change and social marketing type posts.

The posts listed below largely discuss and point to current nonprofit marketing trends and potentially future marketing trends. Though this might not reflect social marketing per say, it is a reflection of social change….how trends surface, alter, flourish, downsize and in essence, change. So enjoy this week’s carnival!

• Jordan Viator at Connection Cafe’s post Glimpses of the Past, Present and Future Online Communication Practices for Nonprofits provides an audio file from a panel discussion with nonprofit guru Vinay Bhagat. In the discussion and as Mr. Viator reflects, marketing techniques have largely changed from 2003 to 2008…greatly thanks to new media, pointing out the next big trend of constituent empowerment.

• ***Inserting my special ‘bonus host post’ here, as it follows up well with Mr. Viator’s idea. In my post Consumerism. What’s Your First Reaction?, I too coin my own term ‘optimistic consumerism,’ explaining that with changing media and times, the consumer is becoming more empowered than ever by having a choice. In particular, not only do we have a choice of what products or services we consume, but we also have a choice in the place we consume our information. *Props to choosing the Carnival,

• Rebecca Leaman at Wild Apricot continues the discussion of change in her post titled 5 Keys to Effective Knowledge Transfer for Nonprofits, where she outlines how effective communication can transfer through each phase of a message. No matter how the times and technology change, Ms. Leaman’s insights and download-able resource is priceless.

• Bryan Miller at Giving in a Digital World maps out the technology hype cycle in his post titled Online Fundraising and the Hype Cycle. Mr. Miller points out how web 2.0 is making the way for community fundraising 2.0 and that knowing where your nonprofit’s fundraising efforts are will put you and your organization ahead of the curve.

• Jason Dick at A Small Change-Fundraising blog outlines three core values of traditional nonprofit fundraising in his post: Cultivation, Solicitation and Stewardship. However, Mr. Dick points out that while the traditional model is good, the big umbrella term that deserves attention is relationship. According to Mr. Dick, a good relationship means good fundraising and “all bets are off” on the traditional process.

• J. Karlin at Marketing and Fundraising Ideas sets the stage on how to implement change in the post Powerful yet Reasonable Goals. Karlin says that before change can even be accomplished as was in the case study given of Tufts University, one should dream big, and not overlook setting reasonable, attainable goals.

• Last but not least, Jeff Brooks at Donor Power Blog offers up that any amount of change, is good change, in his post Tiny Gifts: Good or Bad?.

Thanks for tuning in to this week’s carnival. Thank you for all of the submission’s this week, as I’ve found new blogs and bloggers to follow, along with some great ideas about cha-cha-chaaaange!

Keep track of the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, no matter which blog is hosting, by subscribing to the Carnival feed.

Tags: Carnival, carnival of nonprofit consultants, Carnival of NPC, change, choice, Communication, community, consumerism, core values, digital, fundraising, giving, goals, Marketing, marketing trends, non-profit, nonprofit, Nonprofit sector, online communication, online fundraising, online trends, philanthropy, relationship, social change, Wild Apricot

The Neighborhood is back: Welcome Jason Dick @ A Small Change

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 | Blogger Neighbors | 2 Comments

The neighborhood is back (after my stint away) with Jason Dick at A Small Change who blogs about the ins and outs of fundraising and more. Jason was nominated by our last addition to the neighborhood: Stacey Monk at Epic Change.

Read below to learn more about Jason, fundraising, and Jason’s message towards what he terms the ‘new philanthropy.’ Enjoy, and stay tuned to see who Jason nominated for next week!

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Blog Name: A Small Change - Fundraising Blog

Blog Topics: Online Fundraising, Everyday person philanthropy, general fundraising tips, and corporate philanthropy

About the Author: I have worked in the nonprofit world for the last several years. Currently I’m managing an advancement campaign for a community college but I have also worked in social services and healthcare. I have a passion for seeing small nonprofits raise the funds they need to fulfill their mission.

If you could live on any street, what would that street be named and why?

A Small Change Avenue (because it’d be the same name as my blog and that’d just be neat.)

Who would be your dream real-life neighbor?

My dream real-life neighbor would be living in a luxurious sky scrapper that had all of my friends in it, so I could have everyone I know close by all the time.

If you were in charge of planning the neighborhood’s block party, what entertainment would you plan?

I would probably be a part of the group of people calling and sending invitations. I’ve been fundraising long enough now that I like calling people to get them to come out to my events.

If you customized your own license plate, what would it say and why?

FUND 20 - As a way of saying I want to bring web 2.0 to the fundraising world. My wife would never let me put that on our license plate.

What you gift to a new neighbor as the perfect welcoming gift?

An annual report and a pledge card. No just kidding! Probably flowers or something like that. Everyone likes flowers.

What’s your favorite blog post and why?

My ‘All Donor’s as Major Donors‘ post because it was the culmination of a lot of thinking I’ve done regarding the value of every donor.

Or my ‘A New Kind of Philanthropy‘ post because I believe philanthropy is for everyone, not only those with lots of money.

What’s one lesson you’ve learned from blogging?

There are amazing things happening in philanthropy and we are only at the beginning of seeing what can happen. Through tools like Linkedin and Facebook, we are able to connect to and stay connected to people better than ever before. When the ordinary everyday person realizes that they can change the world and starts to use their network to do so we will see amazing global change.

Past Blogger Neighbors Include:

• Osocio @ Osocio nominated by SocialButterfly
• Beth Kanter @ Beth’s Blog nominated by SocialButterfly
• Beth Dunn @ Small Dots nominated by Beth Kanter
• Len Edgerly @ LenEdgerly.com nominated by Beth Dunn
• Stacey Monk @ Epic Change nominated by the Twitter-verse
• …and now, Jason Dick @ A Small Change, nominated by Stacey Monk

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This continuous weekly series highlights different blogs and their respective bloggers in the blogosphere neighborhood. Following the great Mr. Rogers, who tells us to ‘Get to know your neighbor,’ this series introduces us to our blogger neighbors, making for a more unified, collaborative voice for the social sector. Like to nominate someone or be featured yourself? Contact me @ socialbutterfly4change@gmail.com.

photo credit: Flickr: Société Royale d’Horticulture

Tags: A Small Change, blog, Blogger, Blogger Neighbors, bloggers, blogging, donate, donors, fundraising, get to know your neighbor, Mr. Rogers, neighbor, non-profit, non-profit organization, philanthropy, philanthropy 2.0, the new philanthropy