Category: Uncategorized

#CommBuild: Mergers & Acquisitions: Combining Communities

Commbuild - combining communities 2013-06-26

I’m gonna host a #commbuild chat on July 2. You should join us!

TOPIC: Mergers & Acquisitions: Combining Communities

DATE: Tuesday, July 2, 2013

TIME: 1–2 PM ET/ 10–11 AM PT

Mergers and acquisitions are all the rage on Wall Street, but can you combine communities too? Sometimes we want merge two communities together because alone they are too small to be self sufficient, or because we think that they’ll be stronger working together.

But will the shock of melting two cultures together destroy the delicate balance that keeps a community intact? Will a merger kill the patient, rather than make it stronger?

What are the secrets of combining community? How do you know when you should consider a merger? When should you avoid mergers at all costs? And what are the benefits of merging communities?

#Commbuild tackles these difficult questions using case studies from NetSquared/501 Tech Club mergers. Bring your own examples, too!

Join the tweet chat and follow the hashtag #commbuild.

YOUR FACILITATOR

Elijah van der Giessen has been a community manager since the beginning of his career, but he didn’t know that until recently. Eli is the NetSquared Local Community Manager supporting a global volunteer network of 50 groups bringing together the nonprofit technology sector. He’s also been the volunteer coordinator for outdoor festivals, environmental NGOs and Canadian Idol.

ABOUT #COMMBUILD

These conversations are focused on issues and topics relevant to those working on community building or in community management roles. They are open to anyone interested in learning and sharing about building community, on and offline, with the use of social media or other technology tools.

Photo adapted from epicharmus, CC on flickr.

June 25: Social Media for Nonprofits Conference [discount code]

Net Tuesday is proud to be a media partner of the Social Media for Nonprofits conference.

If your charity is based in or near Vancouver, then be sure to check out the first Social Media for Nonprofits conference in BC on June 25. What time should you post to Facebook, how can your cause raise money online, and how do you coordinate social media posts across your organization? Get answers to these questions and more.

The all-star lineup includes Jason Mogus, Darren Barefoot, Brady Josephson, Susanna Haas-Lyons, Constant Contact’s Guy Steeves, Jonathan Christian & more. SM4NP is the world’s premier conference series devoted to social media for social good, they’re heading to BC after educating over 5,000 charities across the world.

Tickets for the full-day conference, including lunch and breakfast, start at just US$145 and you can save $20 off $175 (budget >$500K) and $225 (corporate & consultants) tickets with the “Tuesday” discount code. Hope to see you there!

For more information or to sign up, visit http://www.sm4np.org/vancouver/.

Into Focus: The First-Ever Benchmark Report and Guide for Nonprofit Video

Net Tuesday is planning an eight month Video for Nonprofits series of events that will start this summer. Check out this new Nonprofit Video benchmark report.

 

What is Into Focus?

It is clear to everyone in the nonprofit world that video is a critical communications tool. Video is everywhere, online and on mobile. YouTube alone delivers 4 billion video views a day. How nonprofits can effectively use video is less clear. This benchmark guide is the first ever to examine how and what nonprofits are doing with video and to begin to identify best practices. The guide can be downloaded at http://see3.com/intofocus/

What are the top take-aways?

1.    Video is important, and getting more important

·         80% of respondents said video is important to their origination today

·         91% believe video will become more important in the next 3 years

·         92% value the investment they have made in video

2.    Orgs want to make more video, but aren’t allocating the funds to do so

There is a massive disconnect between the belief that video is really important, working and wanting more of it, and allocating the funds to make more videos.

Nearly 2/3 of organizations say their video budgets will stay the same or decline!

3.    Metrics with video are hard and is probably one thing holding back investment.

The survey reveals that organizations are counting what is easy to count: views, likes, and clickthroughs. These numbers only have real meaning and value if you understand their connection to the underlying organizational goals that the video was meant to achieve. If, for example, your goal is email sign-ups, how do views translate into constituent engagement?However, when it comes to analyzing the impact of their videos, 76% of the respondents either don’t know how it’s measured or they only track it anecdotally.

4.    Change the Culture, Be Successful.

“If you went to a nonprofit in 1995 and said they needed a website, they would probably have seen the writing on the wall and said, ‘Yes, we will get a website.’ If you told them that within ten years they would have a whole web department, they would say you were crazy. They would ask, ‘Where could we possibly get the money to do that?’ Nevertheless, the culture started to shift – even before organizations had the ability to assign money and staff. We are in the same place now with video. People know they need it, or they are about to discover they need it, and nearly all of them intend to use it more. But many nonprofits are still figuring out how to integrate it into their work and allocate funds for it in their budgets.” Michael Hoffman, CEO, See3 Communications

 

 

Why does it matter?

Nothing grabs the public’s attention like video. A majority of bandwidth online is already carrying video and it is also the fastest growing service on mobile phones. To attract the advocates and donors they need to their causes, nonprofit organizations must effectively use video or risk being drowned out of the conversation.

What do nonprofits need to know about this report?

Even though most nonprofits recognize the “video revolution” and want to do more, few are prepared to make video really work for them. There are many barriers to having an effective video program at nonprofits. Budget, for example, is one of those barriers. The biggest challenge, however, is not about money— it is about culture. Video, like websites before it, will become one of those communications tools that are indispensable to organizations. Organizations will find a way to build internal capacities and think differently about how they use video, because they have to. This report is a first step to understand how to move in that direction.

How Can I Use This Report?

By understanding how the nonprofits that are leading the way on effective video communications are approaching their video work, users of this guide can apply key insights and takeaways to their own organization’s efforts. Understanding what metrics of measurement matter for video, as well as the time, budget, and overall focus that winning orgs put into their video effort, will help users to create goals for video production and distribution within their own organization. Also, the guide provides examples of videos that are most successful in fundraising, advocacy, and general communications.

Who we are? And why did we do this?

We are See3, YouTube and Edelman. While each of us works with nonprofit organizations in a different capacity, each of us is committed to moving the sector forward with communications.

·         See3 is the leading provider of video strategy and services to the nonprofit community and works internationally with social causes to engage and activate people.

·         YouTube is committed to assisting nonprofit organization to use their channel to advance their missions. Through its Nonprofit Program, YouTube grants nonprofits special benefits that enhance their use of the platform.

·         Edelman, the world’s largest public relations firm, is committed to CSR, sustainability and citizenship and invests in research to advance the field.

How did we compile this report?

We began with a quantitative survey. The participation of 7,000 nonprofit stakeholders was solicited directly, via email, as were 200 nonprofits representing a diverse range of missions, sizes and locales. A call for respondents and survey links appeared on 50 nonprofit-affiliated blogs and on social media networks. Results were tallied from almost 500 respondents, including senior management and staff working in development, marketing and communications and, of course, video production.

The demographics of respondents reflect the diversity of the US/Canada nonprofit sector: 30% were from small organizations (annual budgets under $500K), 25% from medium ($1-5 million) and the remaining 45% represent organizations with budgets that range from $5 to $250 million. The greatest number of responses came from Education (21%) and Human Services (27%). Health, Arts, Culture and Humanities, International, Environment and Animal organizations were also represented.

In addition to the survey data, we conducted more than 20 “qualitative” interviews, selecting subjects with an eye to diversity of the organizations, the interviewee’s area of expertise, and the organization’s experience (or lack thereof) in the production and integration of video into communications and development strategies.

Finally, YouTube provided previously unreleased statistics on views, numbers of videos/hours uploaded, subscribers, comments, users of nonprofit tools (annotations, Google Wallet, live streaming, etc.) and others insights into those 20,000 organizations in the YouTube Nonprofit Program.

 

For press inquiries or other questions, please contact Nasser Asif, Director of Marketing, See3 Communications:nasser@see3.com

Net Tuesday in June

Can you keep a secret?

Hey Net Tuesday Friends,

We entered June with last weekend’s NetSquared Camp. Now it’s time for us to learn about Google Adwords grants, Social Media for Nonprofits, and NetSquared Surrey.

UPCOMING EVENTS

See you soon!

Why I Became a NetSquared Organizer

NetSquared logoMy response to a discussion on the NetSquared  Local mailing list asking “Why did you become a NetSquared organizer?”

When I was in my 20s I had two groups of friends: nerds and activist hippies. There was no crossover between the groups and I kept these two communities and parts of me separate like matter and antimatter (that’s the nerd talking!)

When I moved to Vancouver in 2007 my workplace sent me to the Web of Change conference (they noticed that their volunteer manager kept asking why the database was broken) where I first encountered the progressive nonprofit tech community. IT BLEW MY MIND!

It may not seem strange you, being worldly and reading this in 2013, but for me the idea that nerds and activists could co-exist or even be the same person had never crossed my mind. These communities had always been oil and water in my mind. Activists are anti-technology:   that’s what I had learned (growing up on a commune.) 🙂

I discovered an entire new universe that week at Web of Change and it changed the course of my life irrevocably.

The friendly conference attendees scoffed at my naiveté  and recommended that I start attending Vancouver’s Net Tuesday, which had recently been formed. I did. And I learned, while sitting quietly in the back.

But after a few months the organizer (Joe Solomon, who went on to 350.org and #GreenMemes) left town. The idea of the group folding was too tragic, so I volunteered to take it over. And four years later here I am!

But WHY did I decide to take on Net Tuesday Vancouver?

I wanted to find my tribe

I was in a new city and I didn’t know anybody. I discovered that being a NetSquared organizer turned me into a community hub – I quickly met all the key players in the sector, many of whom have become friends. It can be hard to find local nptech-ies without a Net2 group!

I’m shy(ish)

I can get really quiet in a group of people, unless I have a clearly defined role. Being the “host” of a meetup gives me an “in” to talk with people.

I like organizing events

I spent my 20s doing production on large outdoor festivals. I didn’t want my event skills to atrophy.

I wanted to learn more

I had learned at lot at the local meetup. The best way to learn more was to schedule more events! And this time I could guarantee that I’d be interested in the topic, because I was planning it. “Scratch your own itch” they always say. 🙂

I wanted to build a reputation

As I developed my career in nonprofit tech I quickly realized that being a Net2 organizer was doing wonders for my reputation. People (irrationally!) assumed that I was an expert on every topic I had a speaker present on! I started to receive job offers…

Net Tuesday fit with my values

Somewhere along the way life taught me that the more I gave the more I received. I enjoy serving others, and being a NetSquared organizer has been the most rewarding volunteer gig I’d ever taken on.

And that, in a giant nutshell, is why I become a Net2 organizer. 🙂