Mark Holmgren and I met quite a few years ago in Edmonton Alberta. I had taken on the challenge of launching and managing Edmonton’s first inner city street youth program and Mark was an Executive Director at a inner city housing project that served homeless and hard to house inner city residents.

Mark is a highly sought after consultant (Mark Holmgren Consulting – MHC) serving the non profit sector throughout Alberta and for a time in southern Florida. Over this past year, Mark and I resumed our relationship thanks to the wonders of the social web. It didn’t take us long to recognize how aligned we are in our desire to help non profit groups adopt social web strategies for strengthening their services and deepening their relationships with stakeholders.

Mark and I will focus our business alliance on helping non profit organizations develop and execute their online communications strategies to engage their supporters, donors, users and partners. Our collaborative work will include the design & development of websites, and the deployment of social media tools to engage stakeholders and meet organizational business goals.

Our first contract together is delivering a social media strategic plan to a collaborative, rural-based organization, Return to Rural.

Return to Rural is an exciting project aimed at attracting and retaining early and mid- career families to the rural remote communities of the Special Areas and MD of Acadia No.34 region (Southeastern Alberta).

The return to rural philosophy is built on the idea that by blending technology and community, it is possible to create an environment where anyone can live their dream life in a rural community.

MHC has also been contracted to deliver two learning workshops related to social media in the late summer and fall by another client.

If your organization needs help understanding social media and developing strategies to reach and engage your stakeholders, give Mark a call at 780.244.8686 or email him at mark@markholmgren.com

You can reach me by calling (905) 751-6075 or emailing me at brent at socialmediatools dot ca

I am in the final stages of designing a new web site for Social Media Tools for Work & Learning.

My blog has served me well but my new Drupal powered web site will enable me to showcase more of the work I’m doing with organizations and still offer all the benefits of a full blogging platform. Stay tuned!

This is post originating from Louise Suarez a Knowledge Manager, Community Builder & Social Computing Evangelist in the IBM Software Group division has stirred me up like no other post. He puts forth a personal insight that others around the world have being hinting at and writing about for some  time.

Maybe it was just the way he shared his story or the fact that he connected the best of what was happening in the 60’s and 70’s with how the social web is enabling creativity and innovation in people who who care about our future.

The post is a heartfelt revelation from someone immersed in the social media world within IBM. The accompanying video interview with Alexandra Wheeler (Starbucks’ Director of Digital Strategies) on the topic of social strategy and social philosophy underscores Luis’s contention that adopting a social philosophy is an integral ingredient to any social media strategy.

We need some fresh thinking; we need to break the barriers of how business has been conducted in the last few years; we finally need to break free from that financial yoke and eventually strike for that sustainable economy that everyone keeps talking about, but that doesn’t seem to come along as quickly as we thought. It keeps slipping away from our fingers, when we know it’s just so close to us! We need to stop thinking about social strategy and push more along the lines of social philosophy.

Because, after all, who wants to live in a world like today’s, yes, like today’s (With the current financial crisis and all) in say 30 to 50 years from now? Would you be willing to make the same mistakes we have made in the recent past and go through the same painful experiences again? And again! And again!! Would you? Would you like your children to inherit such unsustainable world? I am not sure about you, but I wouldn’t, and somehow something tells me that I will be around, like most of you folks out there, to witness what it would be like. And, for sure, I would want to see a better picture than what we have today! Otherwise, why bother altogether, don’t you think?

Did You Know CH.O from CanadaHelps on Vimeo.

Here  is how Imagine Canada describe it’s cross country mission.

First, in its role as convener of a national dialogue on how to strengthen the collective voice of the sector and develop a common agenda for action, Imagine Canada will use this draft framework to facilitate a nation-wide conversation about what is driving change in the sector and what actions must be taken to maximize the contributions of the sector to Canada and the world over the next decade.

I haven’t being following Imagine Canada’s work but after reading Mark’s post, and the Framework for Action document, I’m going to delve deeper into their resources and cross Canada campaign.

Over the past few months I’ve become more aware of the huge gulf that separates the non profit sector from the business sector in the eyes of the general public, government and media sectors.

As I read the Framework For Action paper that Imagine Canada was using to engage audience’s across Canada, I felt some optimism that Canada was taking a major step to address the misconceptions about the non profit sector.

In its draft “framework for action” Imagine Canada identifies 7 drivers of change, which are:

Driver 1: The increasing importance and influence of social innovation in Canada

Driver 2: Structural shifts in the revenue base which supports the work of charitable and nonprofit organizations

Driver 3: Shortage of talent to strengthen and lead charitable and nonprofit organizations

Driver 4: Lack of growth in the number of volunteers to govern, support and promote civic and community organizations

Driver 5: Heightened demand for transparency, accountability and communication of impact

Driver 6: Growing need for transformative partnerships among charities and nonprofits and with other sectors

Driver 7: Increased use of social media and new technologies for community engagement, outreach to youth and networking

While I recognize these Drivers are important considerations, I think that it would be a useful exercise to frame them as strategic directions for organizations (large or small)  instead of prioritized (numbered) drivers of change. Mark makes a similar point in his post and I support his notion that prioritizing these drivers in terms of their importance isn’t exactly a constructive exercise.

If each driver was framed as a strategy, here’s how these strategies would look like from my perspective.

Strategic Directions: Each organization can address any one or all of these strategies to the degree they are ready and capable.

1. Foster social innovation as a cornerstone value and practice in your organization’s programing

2. Identify potential new funding opportunities that are emerging as a result of the cultural shifts in the revenue base which supports the work of charitable and nonprofit organizations.

3. Create new incentives to recruit and retain leaders that will strengthen and lead charitable and nonprofit organizations

4. Develop new models of volunteer engagement that will address the unique expectations of the emerging cohort of people interested in contributing to social causes.

5. Use social technologies to in creative ways to respond to the heightened demand for transparency, accountability and communication of impact

6. Seek out opportunities to form transformative partnerships among charities and nonprofits and with other sectors

7. With each of the above strategies, increase use of social media and new technologies for community engagement, outreach to service users, youth and networking

I like my new list of strategies because these statements can give an organization a lens to look into the future and encourage them to plot activities that will meet these current challenges.

It’s a bit like looking at the glass and seeing it half full or half empty. Or, is your organization at risk or is it at promise.

In closing I echo Mark’s comment about the need for everyday citizens to shift their understanding of the non profit (social benefit sector).

It’s not enough that organizations undergo a shift in understanding and practice about their work. All citizen’s involved in creating the future we want are needed to do re-think the role of non profit organizations.

]]> http://www.socialmediatools.ca/2010/06/21/imagine-canada-framework-for-action-community-consultations/feed/ 0 http://www.socialmediatools.ca/2010/06/11/robert-eggers-%e2%80%93-bridging-the-division-between-the-dot-com-and-dot-org-world/ http://www.socialmediatools.ca/2010/06/11/robert-eggers-%e2%80%93-bridging-the-division-between-the-dot-com-and-dot-org-world/#comments Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:44:43 +0000 Brent http://www.socialmediatools.ca/?p=3410

Net Change Week 2010 – Robert Egger keynote from MaRS Discovery District on Vimeo.

My charity rocks, it’s a rooting tooting, awesome, knock em dead, rock and roll, sweet baby James of a charity. Maybe not his exact words, but Robert’s genuine passion, sincerity, pride, anger and commitment flowed through every word he uttered in his keynote.

I was guest blogging at the Net Change Week and was lucky enough to sit in on a speech that altered my view of the social benefit sector and has re-stocked my own passion for change in my community.

Robert Egger is the Founder and President of the DC Central Kitchen, the nation’s first “community kitchen”, where unemployed men and women learn marketable culinary skills while donated food is converted into balanced meals. Since opening in 1989, the DCCK has distributed over 20 million meals and helped 700 men and women gain full-time employment.

I think his message was a bit like the Matrix movie. Take the blue pill and continue believing that the non profit (he hates that term – as I do) sector is just fine. Take the red pill and see how the non profit sector has being convinced into believing that’s all it can be and should be, as after all, it’s the business world that really counts.

Robert told his story from start to the current moment. He put a challenge into the room. He implored us, as representatives of the non profit or 3^rd sector to wake up and stop accepting that it’s OK to continue as if it’s business as usual.

His presentation contained historical, sociological, political, cultural, demographic and economic references. He has done his homework well and armed with this awareness he put forth his challenge. Take the red pill and see the past for what it was and move forward with that awareness to build a true equitable and inclusive community were the weakest, most marginalized and forgotten people are brought in from the margins to fully participate in the community.

Here is a short list of semi quotes I quickly scratched out on my notepad – apologies in advance for my possible misinterpretation:

• Division between dot com and dot org is what keeps us apart. In reality it’s a foolish wall and nothing but a tax structure;
• Went to India and discovered that division kept the Indian people oppressed;
• We can no longer use the mantra “give back” We cannot ask this generation to give back as this generation is inculcated in giving back;
• We are on the verge of transformation away from grant cycle model;
• Demographics spell out that we have a generation that is in great need, our senior population;
• Face of hunger in America is a single mother –feeding people is not enough;
• Non profits have no say in local governments; We need to demand that our politicians present their vision for our sector’s role in the building community;
• The 3^rd sector (non profit) is susceptible to governments who sees us a charity
• Non profits have a vital role to play and politicians need to present a detailed plan to tap into the innovativeness and talents of it’s people.
• Politicians and the media are not informed and don’t make effective judgements about the non profit sectors;
• Let us (non profits) own our economic value; the general public wants what we want; we can use new media to express our position;
• We have a younger generation – completely bent towards doing good by merging work, spirit, leisure;
• How is that we have all this power and we don’t own it.
• The dot com model was designed to divide, but that was then ….we can now break open the model ; we are on the brink of  a powerful time and some of us won’t make it;
• Look to Britain and Estonia as effective models of bringing people from the margins into the centre;
• Women forced into the charity world; by the dot com world; they were put on a short leash and told to that they could “do their thing” for the poor.

Robert has helped me see my terrain in a new light. I’ve swallowed the red pill and I think I’ll put the pills in the muffins at my next community planning roundtable.  I look forward to having the video of Robert’s presentation so I can share it with my colleagues and networks in my my community of York Region.

Thanks NetChange for choosing Robert Eggers as a key note speaker.

Brent MacKinnon

Social Media Tools for Work & Learning

One of the reasons I embrace social media is that it enables conversations to continue. Indeed, I am of the opinion that a community is a continuous conversation.

The Planning Forum for York Region sponsored the first Community – Funder Roundtable. The goal was to begin an ongoing dialogue with funder and policy makers about building our York Region community. Michael Johnny, Manager of the Knowledge Mobilization Unit at York University welcomed everyone and explained what we hoped to accomplish.

To help participants understand the challenges and envision a future where funder groups and community groups work in sync with eachother, the planning group brought in Liz Weaver from the Tamarack Vibrant Communities organization. Liz is also the lead spokesperson for the Hamilton Round-table on Poverty. The Hamilton Round-table has done incredible successful work combining support from the grass roots, government, corporate and community service sectors. The collaboration amongst stakeholders in Hamilton is a success and we (the planning group) felt that we could emulate their process or  at least learn from their experience.

We did learn a lot from Liz about the ingredients that made the Hamilton Roundtable a success and I’m sure many in the room started to imagine how those lessons might apply to York Region.

Like other participants, I thought there would be an opportunity to discuss important and emerging issues about our community. Unfortunately, the dialogue process didn’t get off the ground as a few of the funder representatives felt that it wasn’t necessary to start a new dialogue on building community as there wasn’t any tension on  these issues.

As a member of the planning group, I was very frustrated  by the position taken by a few of the funders. On a personal note, I was disappointed that I didn’t have a chance to talk about how the funding sector can help non profits invest in social web 2.0 strategies and tools.

Liz Weaver
Liz Weaver gave a very inspirational presentation. Despite not be able to engage funders on a new conversation about our York Region community, her talk got us going in the right direction. It’s about 9 minutes long but well worth it. Here is a quick bio taken from her Linkedin site

From 2006-2009, Liz Weaver was the Director for the Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction a cross-sectoral community initiative with a strategic focus on poverty reduction and the aspiration of Making Hamilton the Best Place to Raise a Child. Liz brings a wealth of community based experience, knowledge and leadership to this position. In June 2009, the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction was recognized by the Canadian Urban Institute with the David Crombie Leadership award.

Dennis Bailey
Dennis Bailey, Executive Director of the Community Legal Clinic of York Region gave a very timely and important talk about community collaborations. He talked on many other important topics however this video only covers his perspective on collaboration amongst community groups.

Well that is my quick synopsis of our first community – funder roundtable. I’m looking forward to hearing from others who where present.

How did you feel when the dialogue process came to a standstill. Where you disappointed or upset with the objecting funder representatives or with the planning group? Did the speakers, Liz, Joanna and Dennis add to your understanding of the current realities faced by service users and social benefit groups in York Region?

I’m interested in hearing from others who were part of our Community – Funder Roundtable.

I was interested in hearing about her new book “The Networked Nonprofit“. I am using this term in my posts about social benefit groups becoming a networked organization.

Beth Kanter says, “Go Slow, But Go!” from Communications Network on Vimeo.

Running time of this episode is 27 minutes. To view selected sections, use the guide below to forward to the time indicated:

• Beth Kanter may not be human (or what 100,000 Twitter followers get you.) (00:27-3:30)
• Disciplined use of Twitter and what you can expect to get 3:30-8:00)
• Why incremental approaches make sense for your social media experiments (8:00-14:44)
• What about the skeptics in our midst? (4:44-17:04)
• How program and communications staff are partnering for greater impact (17:04-20:00)
• What does the future hold for foundations and social media? (20:00-23:50)
• What is Beth’s new book about? (23:50-2625)

Related Posts:

From the Balcony to the Dance Floor – incremental changes over time

I’m sure you appreciate the impact social technologies are having in all sectors locally and around the world. Your leadership role now includes managing how your organization connects, networks, and collaborates with your diverse stakeholders. Also, your new role includes learning how to listen to your stakeholders in new ways so you can adapt and respond to a rapidly changing environment.

These are challenging & exciting times, full of new opportunities to engage the communities you serve in furtherance of your Mission. To move your organization on to (or closer to) the social web dance floor, I’ve put together a simple model that illustrates what I see as the building blocks necessary for supporting a dynamic and engaging web presence. A core value that is front and centre of your organization’s transition to the social web is “incremental changes over time”. The transition doesn’t’ happen overnight – take it slow!

Here are the building blocks for your web site:

1. An organization’s willingness to engage their constituents with online technologies in places where your stakeholders currently inhabit  i.e. social networking sites, collaboration & networking platforms, videos, photos, blogs, twitter, etc.
2. A well crafted online communication strategy based on your organization’s Mission and goals. With your online strategy you will develop specific policies and procedures so that your staff and your organization operate safely within your online policy framework.
3. A web site that is user friendly with a content management system that allows you and your organization’s staff to add content, monitor & evaluate the conversations and interactions taking place on your site.

These building blocks were applied in a recently completed project for the York Region Alliance to End Homelessness. The YRAEH’s willingness to use social technologies, coupled with their online communication goals and use of a staff driven web site has transformed their organization. YRAEH is now actively enrolling members in their network and collaboration groups. They are also using a range of social media tools such as blogging, video and photos to engage their constituents.

In another example, our building blocks are part of the Multi Media Film Council of York Region. My partner Alain Hurtubise (iAutomate) and I developed the first phase of the Film Festival site. Now that the first year of the festival is drawing to a successful close, the Film Festival Council has asked us to broaden the ways in which multimedia artists can interact and share their productions on the site.

To meet this goal we will add features such as photo galleries, video exhibits, membership options, purchasing options, private spaces for networking and collaboration etc. The Film Council is also interested in having us develop a resource bank of multimedia tutorials, social media guides and an online peer mentoring system that can support youth as they develop their skills.

We are using the term “networked social benefit organization” to describe the results that are achieved when you combine these three vital building blocks.

Thanks for  reviewing our building block framework. If any of these ideas resonated with your situation or your organization’s online goals, please give me call or an email. I would be happy to  chat with you about your vision for a stronger more responsive web presence for your web site. Better yet, leave a comment on this post so others can follow our conversation.

P.S. I took the metaphor “From the Balcony to the Dance Floor” from Beth Kanter’s blog post titled The Dance Floor and the Balcony Social Media Training. As usual, Beth’s perspective is spot on. Here is how she explains her metaphor.

I used this metaphor to talk about the importance of having both the strategic view of social media as well as the hands-on experience of the tactical and tools. It is important to shift between the tools and that strategic overview. As one participant noted in the discussion, a big problem she observes with social media within nonprofits is that the leadership is “divorced” from the social media and tactics are delegated to the “young person on staff” without strategic insight.

Related Posts:

Building Networked Social Benefit Web Sites – were getting there

Canada Online With Social Media – implications for non profits

Building Better Relationships in Your Non Profit – Canadian Data Released

Cooking Up a Collaboration Web Site with Drupal and Open Atrium

I recognized that it was time for me to combine my expertise in the non profit sector (herein called social benefit sector) with my passion and experience for using social media strategies and tools in my programs. I knew that organizations would need help in figuring out how to shift their thinking as they begin exploring how to adopt and integrate social media strategies and tools into their organization.

Not having the in depth skills of a web designer, I was very pleased to form a partnership with Alain Hurtubise (iautomate). In addition to web site design, Alain’s consultancy focuses on major software development projects in the corporate enterprise sector. Alain is deeply committed to helping the social benefit sector accomplish their goals through the use of web 2.0 technologies.

Suffice to say, joining forces with Alain has being a great fit for both of us. When we take on projects requiring both our services, my  role is help the social benefit organization develop their online strategies, guidelines, policies procedures and tools. Alain’s role is to handle the design and development of the web site along with integrating the social media strategy and tools into the site design.

Together we mentor the organization’s staff on web 2.0 thinking and tools, then train them to use the content management system (CMS). Having the organization’s staff learn how to use the CMS, puts full control and ownership of the web site onto the organization and no longer are costly fees paid to outside contractors who know little of organizations purpose or Mission.

My in depth understanding of the social benefit sector coupled with Alain’s web design experience gives us the depth and reach to help  groups extend their Mission using the social web but don’t know who to trust, where to start, what are mine fields, what to expect and most importantly how can I measure the outcomes of my strategy.

In our first major web development contract  we were selected to design and develop the web site for the York Region Alliance to End Homelessness (YRAEH). We were fortunate in that YRAEH had just completed a major organizational strategic business plan. Their strategic plan included some clear goals related to networking and supporting communities of practitioners along with marketing their new business of serving as a catalyst for collaborative solutions to homelessness and poverty.

As I discussed in earlier posts, we have concluded that the open source software platform Drupal is the most powerful and flexible web design platform for our work. Drupal is supported by an extensive community of software developers and is becoming the platform of choice by corporate and social benefit groups around the world.

With the Drupal platform, Alain was able to design and develop the YRAEH’s collaboration and networking components. The software platform that the networking component operates within is called Open Atrium and is integrated within Drupal. Open Atrium has the flexibility of allowing you to set up independent web sites exclusively for your networking purposes. Large and small organizations seeking an internal private intranet or a public platform to engage groups or strengthen networking and collaboration capacities are discovering Open Atrium as a preferred solution to their needs.

The YRAEH site was successfully launched in November of 2009 and is steadily building it’s membership, collaboration and networking groups. the YRAEH staff quickly learned how to  enter their web site content without having to call their web site developer or outside contractor. The YRAEH staff are learning how to analyze the reports  generated by Google analytics and are listening to their members in the collaborative and networking groups.

Well, that’s my story of building our first networked Social Benefit web site. We see a bright future ahead for social benefit groups who are willing to embrace the social web using an open source platform like Drupal. For those organizations who wish to deepen relationships and include their members, partners, donors and service users in meaningful ways, Open Atrium can deliver all the networking and collaboration features you need.

Let me know what you think of networked social benefit web site and what we see as the key components needed to embrace the social web.

A little girl in the film made by a  grade 3 and 4 class from the Waabgon Gamig First Nation School on Georgina Island said – “Community is when we all stick to together; when you don’t stick together, your like a twig that falls broken to the ground” That line broke me up!

A young lady who spoke eloquently about how youth culture is actually saving civilization by taking control of and using technology to create, publish, solve and innovate. She said that youth culture is using technology to create while previous generations only wantonly consumed technology. Her comments contradicted the perspectives of the film makers who suggested that youth are obsessed and addicted to technology and are less for it….

Hillary Van Welter who engaged, joked, provoked, pushed and had fun with the student audience. She did a great job of connecting the schools to each other and coping with the minor streaming glitches.

The live art production that summed up the whole morning of films. It was a wonderful example of art voice in action. Their LOL and WTF acronyms were outstanding additions to the mobile art production.

The occasional cell phones going off as the discussion on teen obsession with technology was taking place.

A school board trustee who gave congratulatory props to the Family Services York Region Prevention Diversion Program for their work in schools around supporting, facilitating and celebrating youth assets and voices in the Georgina community.

Related Posts:

Michael Bowe – Chair, Multimedia Film Festival Council of York Region