Wired Causes

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Fundacja TechSoup, which I’m working at (Fundacja is a European hub for the TechSoup Global Network), is running a project that is to be developed in 10 new Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The Project is funded by the Mott Foundation and serves as a great and challenging opportunity. The project’s goal is to strengthen the capacity of non-governmental organizations in the CEE region to access modern information and communication technologies and facilitate their use to increase the impact of their work. This project, designed to kick off TechSoup’s work in these countries, is complex and based on three pilars of TechSoup Global: product donation, community-driven innovation and data. 

No matter from which TechSoup perspective (products, community or data) we look at the countries of focus, we need to learn more about each of them to run the project effectively. As a community builder, my specific role in this project is to work with communities of technology oriented social activists and non-profits to offer them support and expertise. That is why I wanted to learn more about those countries.

Here I would like to share my experience of working remotely with people whom I’ve mostly never met to create the foundation for a strong social project in 10 different countries. This post covers my assessment after the research in 5 countries – Russia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Serbia and Belarus .

The Beginning

So we started by asking what information we needed and how much detail was really necessary. It took a lot of time to find the right balance, and we ended up with about 90 questions from which we would describe the situation in these countries. We called our assessments “landscapes,” and to build them, we defined six broad categories:

• IT/new media market
• tech initiatives for social change
• intersection of non-profits and technology
• situation of civil society
• social problems
• basic information about the countries

Lessons learned

We started to look for researchers in each country, which led to our first lesson: the human factor is always the most challenging. (I’m sure your experience, dear blog readers, is similar).  For the same question we got 5 different styles of answers. Even though I like diversity, it showed us to what extent we need to be specific about what kind of information we want to get. And it turned out that this must be articulated in great detail while highlighting the goal to which we aspire.

We also learned that taxonomy matters. It really does. What do you call a “non-profit” or a civil society organization in every country? What is a foundation? What is an association, and can we call them non-governmental? Take Russia as an example where they have public organizations, foundations, institutions, non-profit partnerships, and autonomous non-governmental organizations. At the same time, Russia’s neighboring country, Belarus, identifies several other types of public associations: public and religious organizations (associations); unions of legal entities (associations); funds and institutions; and consumers’ cooperatives.  And although it is obvious from the legal or political point of view that every country is independent, undertaking any project activities in these conditions poses a whole lot of difficulties that we have to deal with.

No matter how silly it sounds, we had big problems with finding reliable, up-to-date data on many questions, particularly about technology for social change. For readers of the NetSquared blog, it’s neither difficult nor exceptional to say something on the blogosphere about citizenship 2.0 or even to name some successes of virtual civil society. However, outside our community this expertise is rather rare. Our researchers had to be quite omniscient to know a lot about so many topics, especially when some phenomena are not yet well examined and most are not at all described.

This problem was also visible when we asked the researchers about new trends. Sometimes while creating a question, we didn’t even think about clarifying what we meant by terms like “open data.” Sitting in our nice nptech bubble, we forgot to explain what open data is.

What does it mean for community work?

Those lessons were important because of the diversity of answers we got as well as personal feedback from our researchers. From the community point of view it leaves us no doubts that we need to be respectful of the conditions in each country as well as the culture when proposing any activities. Historic disputes, cultural differences, variety of languages – the region is built on very rich foundations. It all matters when creating sustainable actions even in one country, but it grows to be major issue when working in a region consisting of 10 countries (and some of them being very large).

It was also interesting get so much information from non-English countries. The atmosphere is vivid and a lot is going on, but because of the lack of translation, usually we underestimate the power of non-English societies and their development. We could see it during the Arab Spring, but I can assure you, the CEE region is as strong as the Arab world in terms of citizenship 2.0. One source is especially worth mentioning – Global Voices platform is the unique source of this information that is otherwise difficult to find. I recommend it to anybody who wants to learn more about what one won’t find in the mainstream traditional or internet media.

Finally, we learned how important it is to ask questions and actively listen to the answers. We need to take taxonomy and language differences into account. To avoid cultural misunderstanding and because we’re just starting to work with different CEE partners, we need to meet more face-to-face and then start partnerships in online mode. Most of the countries rely on offline relations rather than on building trust via the internet.

Next steps…

It would be premature for this post to include formal conclusions because the project will last for a year more. There will only be a promise to all our CEE countries – Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo that we won’t give up, and we will use all the information we receive to empower civil society there.

However, the lessons we learned will have a big impact on planning our undertakings when it comes to community building and are our points of reference when shaping these activities. Values of respect and trust can’t be artificially rushed, so first we’re going to focus on building our credibility in the partnerships, hoping that the effort put there will enable common endeavors to empower CEE civil society organizations.

If you have any tips on what to look closely for when doing a project on social change in these countries, please leave a comment, or just drop me a line @adrebiluka or akuliberda@techsoupglobal.org.

My dream is to see more robust informal peer learning networks in the nonprofit sector. As a trainer,  I’m intensely interested in creating learning experiences that integrate or about how to use the technology for nonprofits that engage and inspire people to put the ideas into practice.    I’ve been obsessed with peer learning and self-directed learning [...]

AdAge had a very useful article last week that summarized new millennial research from ComScore, based on nearly 1,000 TV tests and 35 digital advertising tests.

The key finding? Millennials react to marketing differently.

Here were the takeaways:

1. Millennials don’t respond to TV ads as much as their elders. Younger people have always measured as less responsive to TV ads than older people, but the gap has grown with Millennials.

2. With digital, you don’t see that difference.  Millennials are about as responsive to digital ads as other generations.

3. Millennials respond to the same advertising approaches as prior generations. They care most about what makes a brand unique or better - and they react best to the product and brand shown clearly.  In other stories, they’ve also been shown to put a premium on trust.

4. Millennials are more engaged in all kinds of media than older folks. For example, millennials had engagement scores that were 22.2% higher than boomers with digital media.

5. Millennials may respond less to TV ads, but at least they remember them longer. This finding was amusing to me - as someone with a fading memory, I think that’s just the gift of the young—total recall!

So what does this mean to you?  If you’re seeking to engage younger supporters, the digital avenue is the best.  Make clear what makes your cause special.  Be authentic.  And don’t be so creative you forget the basics: clear, simple communication and a memorable messaging wins the day, whatever the generation.

Source: developers.facebook.com via Beth on Pinterest   Remember last September when Facebook announced all those changes to individual profiles, including the timeline?    One of the changes  was that your friends and fans can do more than “Like” or “Comment”  on Facebook. Three new actions were announced at the time, including:  Read, Watch, Listen to  help [...]

The following post, third in the Net2 2012 Look Ahead series, focuses on protips for making the way you run your office more environmentally friendly. The article is authored by Jim Lynch who is TechSoup Global’s Co-Director of the GreenTech program, as well as the Community Driven Innovation team member. Jim has been involved in creating all of TechSoup’s environmental programs. He has written extensively on electronics recycling and reuse, cloud computing, greening offices, and many other green IT subjects. Over the years he has been interviewed on computer recycling and related issues by the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, Voice of America, PC World Magazine, and many other news outlets. 

Most NGOs and libraries work out of small- and medium-sized offices – and it’s not just the social sector. In fact, the vast majority of people everywhere work out of offices with fewer than 250 people. That’s actually good news for those of us interested in greening up (i.e. making more environmentally friendly) our workplaces — using less paper, electricity, and other resources as well as exposing ourselves to fewer toxins. It’s much easier to do that in smaller workspaces.

The Basics:

Office greening strategies are tried-and-true: recycle, use less paper, use less electricity, and use fewer toxins. Those 4 recommendations have been offered for years. What’s new are the types of products that are always coming out to save energy and resources. Conservation in the office most often saves money as well.

Tip 1. Recycle More and More 

Paper is getting easier to recycle in most places. Harder are electronics — not only computers, but also mobile phones, batteries of all types, old CDs and DVDs, lights, and sundry cables and cords. In 2012, lots of offices are also finding ways to begin collecting food waste and composting it either industrially or arranging for it to be picked up by a community garden.

Tip 2. Use Less Paper.

Of course it’s great to recycle paper of all types, but it’s even better to buy recycled content paper, and better yet to use as little paper as possible.  Tools for using less paper have been making major progress recently. 

In 2012, new cloud services are arriving to make using and sharing electronic documents ever easier. Online faxing services are now available in most places, as well as a much broader use of free online document sharing services like Google Docs or Microsoft Office Web Apps. You can even sign contracts online with services such as Docusign. 

Tip 3. Use Less Electricity

It’s easy and free to set all computers, monitors, copy machines, and printers to go to sleep after a few minutes of non-use — and newer IT equipment now wakes in almost no time. Doing just this one things saves a good deal of energy and money each year. 

Energy efficient lighting is also a big topic in office greening. We’re now in the era of energy efficient compact fluorescent or conventional fluorescent lighting, but in 2012 look for even more energy efficient LED lighting to become more affordable.

In 2012, buying energy efficient IT equipment is now about the same cost as non-energy efficient IT equipment, and there’s a great new NGO online registry for environmental IT equipment now available in many countries. The Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) is a project of the NGO, Green Electronics Council. The EPEAT Web site offers easy-to-use search tools in many languages to find new computers, monitors, and printers that use less electricity and also have fewer toxics in them. This noncommercial free service rates IT equipment on a bronze, silver, and gold scale. It’s a great international resource for 2012.

Tip 4. Use Fewer Toxins

Finally, office greening also means using less toxic janitorial and cleaning supplies. It’s a blast from the past: the cleaning products people used in 1912 still work well in 2012. Check out the roster of green cleaning products at GreenDepot that are now available. For cost-conscious greeners, it’s pretty easy to make your own non-toxic cleaning supplies out of common materials like baking soda, vinegar, borax, etc. 

Of course there’s a good deal more to greening up offices than just these four things, but at TechSoup I’ll be very pleased if we can do more recycling, composting, and energy and paper conservation. There’s always more we can do.

This TechSoup webinar run by Rich Vazquez will cover what you need to know before you record your video. Topics include: 

• The importance of storytelling 
• Creating a script and production Guide 
• Finding free music, stock video and photography 

Rich Vazquez is the co-founder and current Board President of Lights. Camera. Help. His current causes include promoting open source software, creative commons and computer security. He alsos serve on the board for the Austin Time Exchange Network, Single Parent Resource Network and EFF-Austin. Rich attended Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, majoring in Dramatic Writing and serve as webmaster for the Cine Las Americas film festival. @drapetomaniac 

Be sure to check out the TS Digs page (TechSoup Digital Storytelling) for more information

Details

• Date: Thursday, February 2
• Time: 11 a.m. Pacific (2 p.m. Eastern)
• Before You Push Record
• Register:  https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/688211161

Dear Nonprofiteer: I recently joined the board of directors of a small nonprofit (4 staff, $200k budget). Within a month of my joining, our executive director announced she would be leaving as her partner has a new job in another state. In addition, while she won’t move for a couple of months, presumably giving the [...]

Edelman’s 2012 Trust Barometer is out, and the biggest finding is the increasing stock people put in the recommendations of their peers - who surpass nonprofit staff in terms of their trustworthiness as messengers.

In speaking about this finding, David Armano of Edelman notes, it is important that we “share the stage with ‘regular’ people who have a voice via a variety of social channels,” as well as to be “in tune with the topics and issues they care about and discuss. Last year I speculated that the decline in attention given toward people like ourselves—our friends and peers may have been related to social media fatigue. This year, it’s possible that many of us who make social networking part of our digital routines have gotten a bit better at filtering the signal from noise, thereby being both more generous but focused with our finite attention spans.”

From my perspective, this is just one more piece of data illustrating the importance of third-party endorsement in all of your outreach and engagement.  (More evidence is here.) You can’t be your own, only messenger.  You need respected authority figures, experts and definitely, everyday champions - who are more powerful than ever.

Take two minutes and look at your latest outreach piece or your website or your organization’s Facebook page.  Who is speaking for you?  Where are they on the trust barometer?  If it’s your CEO or ED, you may need additional voices.

(Hat tip to Caryn Stein here at Network for Good for the data!)