|
[Printer Friendly Version]
News for April 2009
|
 28 April 2009 |
|
| "Delivering Online Seminars" Seminar Now Available On-Demand |
|
The increasing maturity of the technology and the pressures of the economy are combining to make distance learning of increasing interest to many organizations. I was encouraged a few years back to start teaching how we do our online seminars and I eventually developed a planning model to help keep people from the lock-in that I see plaguing so many organizations. That material, along with an entire approach for developing, delivering, and evaluating seminars, is taught in a seminar entitled, appropriately enough, Delivering Online Seminars. It's now available on-demand and includes, as do all our on-demand sessions, a 30 minute consultation.
Posted: 4/28/09; 5:27:51 PM # |
|
27 April 2009 |
|
| Diary of a Failed Startup |
|
In the nonprofit world, we bury our failures under layers of obfuscation and misdirection. At Diary of a Failed Startup, Jonathan Tag writes about what happened to a business of his called Diffle. I would love to see a lot more of just this sort of commentary in our sector.
Posted: 4/27/09; 4:56:23 PM # |
| Are You Giving Away Your Power? |
|
Whether in the form of individual empowerment, community action, or large scale changes in political influence, civil society organizations are frequently engaged with issues of power in the world. Despite this engagement, we often manage to tiptoe around issues of power within our organizations and networks. The Hollyhock Leadership Institute (which will be closing its doors soon, unfortunately) has shared a nice piece on this topic, entitled: Are You Giving Away Your Power?
Posted: 4/27/09; 4:53:30 PM # |
| Call for Participation: Open Technology Assessment Instrument |
|
Technology consultant Paul Melnikow has posted the contents of his communication-centric Technology Assessment Instrument online in a wiki, under a Creative Commons license! He's inviting other nonprofit and small organization technology consultants to use the tool and to participate in developing it. These are the actual questions that he uses with his clients. I know that lots of you are thinking along these lines and I encourage you to participate. The sector needs tools like this and being able to share one in this manner seems ideal.
Posted: 4/27/09; 4:49:35 PM # |
| 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference Live! |
|
NTEN has gradually expanded the online presence of their annual signature event. The 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference has a remarkable range of freely available means of participating in the conference for those of us who can't be there this year. As with previous years, there is the tag that you can use to promote and track content related to the conference across multiple media - blogs, photo feeds on Flickr, and the inevitable Twitter hashtag. (It's '09NTC', rather than "NTC09', for some reason.) They are turning a number of sessions into online seminars (for which you register, but can therefore also actually participate) and are livestreaming others. They list fifteen people who will be liveblogging sessions, though I'm sure the real number is probably twice that. This is all happening right now, so check it out!
Posted: 4/27/09; 4:44:12 PM # |
|
22 April 2009 |
|
| Nonprofit Blogging Strategies on June 3rd & 10th, 2009 |
|
We've been working a lot on blogging lately, both in our own projects and those of some clients. The subject of nonprofit executives blogging seems to have reached some sort of tipping point of interest. So, it seems like a prime time to present our two-part "Nonprofit Blogging Strategies" seminar. I teach a solid strategic approach to the topic, with advice on community building, editorial processes, and maximizing the effectiveness of your blogs. It will be held on June 3rd and 10th, 2009.
Posted: 4/22/09; 5:49:51 PM # |
|
21 April 2009 |
|
| Finance Fear Factor Ratios |
|
Steve Zimmerman's recent article for Blue Avocado is entitled Finance Fear Factor Ratios. (I think that's a reference to a TV show, though I'm sure I'm displaying my terrible pop-culture ignorance here.) Basically what he covers is four numbers that nonprofit leaders could benefit from understanding and which would help them manage risk: (1) the ratio between cash on hand and the total outlay for one payroll cycle, (2) the ratio between this month's payables and last month's, (3) the ratio between this year's revenue and last year's, and (4) the ratio between cash on hand plus receivables and outstanding obligations to funders.
Posted: 4/21/09; 4:35:59 PM # |
| Nonprofit Lobbyists Want Exemption From Some Ethics Rules |
|
ALthough the presence of corporate influence in the Obama administration is pervasive, there are rules in place preventing lobbyists from stepping into appointed positions. In civil society, unfortunately, it's often the lobbyists that we would most like to see step into government work. (We don't generally have the privilege of quite as many law firms, public relations firms, and other positions from which to rotate people as the corporate world. A number of organizations have come together to seek exemption from these rules, including the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest, the Open Society Policy Center, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, OMB Watch, and the Project on Government Oversight. Although I think it's something of a challenge to define "public interest" work in this age of Fox-news-like language distortions, I must say I agree with them.
Posted: 4/21/09; 4:14:08 PM # |
| How to Quickly Build Your Email List |
|
The only thing I'm less likely to link to than an article entitled How to Quickly Build Your Email List would be an article entitled "Seven Free Ways to Quickly Build Your Email List" and yet here I am linking to it. The author of the article, Ken Mahar, is the CEO of a company called Email Broadcast, which also just makes me want to cringe. (Sorry Ken.) But I now I could learn a few things from his advice: (1) Just start with what you have, right now. (2) Consider all the points of contact you have and use the best ones to consistently collect email info. (3) Get your people on board. Measure and recognize good performance. (4) Always ask permission before adding anyone to your list, and give it a cool name. (5) Disregard temptation of list buying as fools-gold. (6) Deliver great content and your list will grow virally. (7) Collect more than just an email address so you can make content relevant.
Posted: 4/21/09; 3:51:00 PM # |
| NYC Venture Philanthropy Fund Focuses on Social Capital |
|
I recently wrote an article about the importance of social capital during hard times. Although I got some criticism for being out of touch with reality for that one, I was pleased to read the What We Do page of the NYC Venture Philanthropy Fund and see that two thirds of what they do is build social capital - capacity and connections - in the organizations they support. This seems to be a pretty strong pattern in "venture philanthropy".
Posted: 4/21/09; 3:37:10 PM # |
|
16 April 2009 |
|
|
15 April 2009 |
|
| Visionary Budget Cutting Seminar Now Available on Demand |
|
Budget cuts can be a time for fear and habit, or they can be a time for vision. They will be painful no matter what, but with vision, in the end, they can leave the organization stronger, with more capacity, rather than less. Today we're releasing my workshop on "Visionary Budget Cutting: Enhancing Mission and Capacity in Hard Times" as part of our on-demand catalog. I look at ICT-related savings, of course. But the methodology I teach in this workshop is a neutral one that can reduce arbitrariness, preserve strengths, and leverage timely opportunities. As with all our on-demand seminars, it includes a free consultation.
Posted: 4/15/09; 6:12:49 PM # |
|
14 April 2009 |
|
| The Bob Ottenhoff Blog at GuideStar Launches |
|
I believe that personal publishing, with blogging being the canonical form, is a powerful tool for transparency and building of trust. If you're a donor, volunteer, or other stakeholder and you have access to the voice of the head of an organization through their blog, that can have a big impact. So, it's with some pleasure that I can say that we just had a small part to play in launching the blog of the CEO of GuideStar, an organization whose very mission centers on transparency and trust. The Bob Ottenhoff Blog has just the welcoming post so far, but I'm looking forward to reading more. I hope to see blogging spread to other members of the GuideStar staff, in the months to come.
Posted: 4/14/09; 4:16:48 PM # |
| Recession Will Change Nonprofits |
|
After looking over the results from thirteen surveys of organizations in various regions of the U.S., Rick Cohen concludes that the Recession Will Change Nonprofits. Some of the themes he identifies are: (1) As the economy went into a tailspin, many agencies ended 2008 in the red. (2) Large numbers of nonprofits report increasing service demands. (3) The sources of cuts vary, though the big losses are predictable -- government funding, foundation and corporate giving, and individual donations. (4) For most nonprofits, by far the largest budget item is personnel, making it a necessary target for reduction in times of fiscal stress.
Posted: 4/14/09; 4:02:53 PM # |
|
8 April 2009 |
|
| Online Marketing Reinvention & Improvement Seminar Now Available On-Demand |
|
Two seminar milestones in one day for us. I had a great time earlier today doing a micro-seminar on why Social Networks are not Mailing Lists. There were a huge number of participants and some very thoughtful questions. And now, a few hours later, I'm pleased to announce the latest addition to our on-demand catalog: Online Marketing Reinvention & Improvement. This is one of our two-part, hands-on seminars that is probably more useful on-demand than it is live, given how much it asks of the participants. It helps you take apart and reassemble your online marketing efforts to leverage your strengths and covers a full spectrum of media including websites, email, blogs, community, and, of course, social networks.
Posted: 4/8/09; 4:53:51 PM # |
|
7 April 2009 |
|
| 27 Things To Do Before a Conference |
|
It's a popular saying that the most important things that happen at conferences happen outside the sessions. I would go even further and suggest that, in terms of getting the most out of a conference personally, the most important things don't even happen at the conference at all. I'm coaching a couple of people right now on how to prepare for a big professional gathering, so I'm pleased to come across Chris Brogan's 27 Things To Do Before a Conference. These ideas all make good strategic sense to me.
Posted: 4/7/09; 5:13:20 PM # |
| Kelele! The African Bloggers Conference |
|
The African Bloggers Conference - Kelele! - will be held in Nairobi on August 13-16, 2009. It's great to see Ethan Zuckerman and the Berkman Institute offering their support for this event. I see gatherings of peer bloggers as one of the fundamental building blocks of the emerging democratic media landscape. I can't imagine being able to get to the gathering itself, but I'll be keeping an eye out for news and lessons. No doubt, it will be blogged about plenty.
Posted: 4/7/09; 5:10:03 PM # |
| Propaganda.com |
|
Evgeny Morozov's recent New York Times Op-Ed, entitled Propaganda.com takes a recent report by Reporters Without Borders, expands on it, and presents disturbing conclusions about the Internet as a medium for free expression. Not only is outright censorship and intimidation rampant, but governments are developing a very wide range of strategies for controlling online communication, including unscrupulous corporate assistance, price manipulation (particularly metered service), and paid Internet "trolls" (the equivalent of online militia squads). PR firms are more than willing to do "astroturfing" for these governments, including setting up fake nonprofit front groups. The one thing he misses, as do so many authors on this topic, is that coordinated efforts by large private corporate interests can be much worse than many governments.
Posted: 4/7/09; 5:02:10 PM # |
| Tweet Quality: Daniel Jalkut On Conversation and Propaganda |
|
In Tweet Quality, Daniel Jalkut offers a fantastic analysis of the effect of two trends on the popular microblogging platform. (I suggest that his insights can be applied to many networks at various stages of their growth.) The first trend: The increasing use of Twitter as a conversational tool, combined with the growth of people's networks, has resulted in a dramatic increase in challenging and defensive exchanges. More relevant to organizations is the second trend: Twitter's success is attracting a wide range of propaganda strategies, which further dilutes the personal relevance of the content. Although I'm not a personal fan of Twitter, I think it will adapt to both of these trends. The author's advice as to how is right on: The more intimate the network of people following and being followed and the more personal the content shared, the more powerful the medium will be.
Posted: 4/7/09; 4:39:39 PM # |
| Freedom to Surf: Workers More Productive If Allowed to Use The Internet for Leisure |
|
Many organizations I work with invest substantial resources in preventing people from communicating, either by policy or by technology. Aside from the fact that this is a losing battle in the age of ubiquitous networks, it's also a sad expression of a managerial death spiral: Lack of clear criteria for organizational and individual success means it's easier to fall into a fear and scarcity orientation, tracking what you want people not to do, rather than what you want them to accomplish. This focuses everyones attention on rules, procedures, and internal relationships and further distracts from whatever goal-related energy people had.
So, I make this case from time to time and one common retort relates to inbound communication. Shouldn't we stop people from wasting their time on sites and other communication that isn't related to their work, they ask. Well, as it turns out, if we stopped to take a look at our own needs for just a moment, we might reach the same conclusion as the research. We all need some breathing room. In Freedom to Surf, Brent Coker of the Department of Management and Marketing at the University of Melbourne shows that workers are more productive if they have online leisure time.
Posted: 4/7/09; 4:30:09 PM # |
|
1 April 2009 |
|
|
|
RSS