Did You Know CH.O from CanadaHelps on Vimeo.

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

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

“As social technologies change the way that leaders interact with customers, employees, & partners, what one thing should they do to prepare for this change?”

That’s right – ONE thing. Not a dozen good ideas, not a list of four starting points. What is the single most important thing a leader can do to deal with the change foisted upon them by social technologies?
To answer, visit http://bit.ly/aZkE3z to get directly to the Question of the Week. During the week, I’ll add to this post and also tweet out some of my favorite responses as we go along. To keep track, please use the hashtag “#ideasproject”.

Jacqueline Novogratz on how to recognize a linchpin from Seth Godin on Vimeo.

Will Davies reflects on Social Capital and Digital Inclusion from Tim Davies on Vimeo.

In an environment where cynicism prevails, the challenge of tapping into new and creative actions seems daunting at best. To me, the driving questions at this point revolves around “how do we create a stronger sense of belonging, marked by authentic engagement (in its many forms), in our community”.

When we talk about community, belonging, engagement, systemic barriers, authentic dialogue, inclusive processes etc.. we are talking complexity. How do we have a meaningful and sense making discussion when we are constantly wearing our silo centred, agency representative hat? It’s a bit like seeing the fairy dancing on the head of the pin. You know that fairy is there but you just have to hold the pin in the right way to see him/her.

I think that one of the ways to see that fairy is to somehow suspend or put on the shelf for the moment our agency representation hat and just wear our community citizen hat. When we do that, we can engage with each other and talk about what community means, where does belonging fit into community and what might our community look like if we waved our magic wand and on and on. I think there would be wonderful lessons in that discussion that we can build on and potentially influence policy makers in our organizations. Even more importantly, those lessons can impact us on individual (personal) levels as community citizens, potentially creating a ripple effect in our relationships within our spheres of belonging.

This video by Mark Schenk from Anecdote expands the explanation of the Cynefin model. I like this model as a tool that can help us understand what we are getting into with our community roundtable planning discussions. I think there are some great tips in the Cynefin framework that we can incorporate in our planning for of the roundtable. I especially like the simplicity of the Cynefin framework and how it points to the importance of looking at patterns and building on patterns that show promise.

I recorded Jame’s presentation as I was very interested in hearing from a person with lived experience speak about their participation in a community based research project. A few years ago, I co-managed a community based research project. We had 46 youth take on the role of youth researchers, examining youth poverty in York Region from a young persons perspective. Since then I continue to seek out learning opportunities related to community based research. If you are interested in learning more about community based research, the Wellesley Institute in Toronto offers in-depth training and workshops.

Jame’s talk was outstanding. He spoke so genuinely, honestly and expertly about his work and the special talents that he brought to the research project. I especially appreciated, as did other in attendance, his account of how taking on the role of Peer Research Assistant transformed his life, his sense of purpose and career direction.

Dr. Sean Rourke spoke very succinctly about community based research from his perspective. There is no doubt this report is a benchmark example of the potency of Community Based Research.

The full report can be accessed through the Positive Spaces, Healthy Places web site. This report is a great example of the benefits of community based research as a means to bring about change on the policy, service, practitioner and consumer levels.

James Watson – Peer Research Assistant, Community Based Research from Brent MacKinnon on Vimeo.

See also:

Youth Community Mapping Program – community based action research

Non Profits Stretched to the Limit – An Economic Impact Survey

Stomping Out Stigma in York Region – Talking About Mental Illness (TAMI)

Non Profit Starvation Cycle

Mobilize This: Research Impact KM Unit @ York University

Danah Boyd – Not So Hidden Politics of Class Online

Toronto Teen Sex Survey – What Can York Region Learn

Building Resiliency with Learning Networks