Avi's Blog

10:30 Friday session with Wendy Harman, George ??, and Aaron Smith – moderated by Marcia Stepanek. (I’ll try to get the slides up soon from Marcia too)

Slacktivism has a mixed and debated history.

Lots of folks see slacktivism as superficial.

“What plagues most slacktivism campaigns is their unrealistic assumption that, given enough awareness, all problems are solvable” -Evgeny Morozov

Evgeny’s article on the topic set off a flurry of discussion on the Progressive Exchange list.

Examples:

• Project NOAH
• Free Rice Game
• Invisible People -> un-stereotyping
• Armchair Revolutionary – a social game
• Do Something – teen activism program with over 35K active users – encourages on the ground action.

25% of online population is participating in online civic actions and participatory civic culture.

Wendy – shares that she was having a crisis before the earthquake. Red Cross had great presence, but she still felt that people weren’t  meaningfully involved. The mgive text2give program restored her faith, though who knows if it’s replicable. This is a great reminder of the importance of being present before a crisis.

Discussion of the importance of collecting data as you engage with people.

~5% of the 100,000+ Haiti text donors opted in to receive future communications from Red Cross.

Qs from Marcia: What’s a safe bet, the top two things that are sellable to higher-ups to do things differently?

George – the idea that followers are potential money, votes, tangible results. What works. Demonstrate where involved people came from.

Wendy – Facebook Fans doubled and Twitter Followers tripled after Haiti, but what does that mean really? Almost nothing unless you figure out how things connect to and fulfill your mission.

Aaron – Inform people for five minutes a day. If you can engage people meaningfully for a short period you are filling a need and on the right track.

Marcia – Important to be crowd-wise. Chose the right tools for the right task, experiment, start slowly, measure, iterate for success, and keep it fun.

Wendy on ROI – keep stakeholders’ goals in mind and your own ROI will be met. Listen and be part of every conversation going on. Use the tools and live in the communities where you issues are being discussed. (If you can do that and stay sane! There’s another #10ntc session for that.) I pressed Wendy on that a bit and her thought was that you better staff up and get equipped to enter all those conversations if you aren’t already. Make it a business priority.

George – think 90% story, 10% tool

Book recommendations – Zilch, Clay Shirky’s – Here Comes Everybody, Marcia’s – Swarms

I’ve decided to liveblog some sessions here at the NTC.

Charles expressed a big beef with groups claiming to be engaging activists when what they really want is money. Money is a fine goal, but be upfront about your intentions.

Charles offered to create a google group for our session participants. Also a plug for NOI’s upcoming organizing Bootcamp.

More soon!

My friend Tamar emailed me a link to Seth Goding’s nano-MBA program with nothing else but the subject line “YOU NEED TO DO THIS”. After reading about Seth’s idea, I decided I’m down for it so today I’m applying to spend 5 days in May with Seth and ten other remarkable people working at organizations making the world a better place.

Here’s my favorite line from the Squidoo page:

“The leverage you’ve got is incredible, and I want to help you use it.”

The leverage we each have  today is astounding, yet how often do we really leap at the ideas we have, really jump at opportunities?

I enjoyed the questions in the application and it gave me a chance to reflect on my experience at Epic Change so I thought I’d post some of what I wrote for the application here as well.

Here are my reflections on the purpose and mission of Epic Change, the organization I work for:

“Epic Change connects grassroots changemakers with the resources they need to transform their communities. We make interest-free loans to fund infrastructure projects in the developing world. Our pilot project is a partnership with a woman named Mama Lucy Kamptoni, who is building a primary school in Arusha, Tanzania.

Epic Change works with remarkable individuals and trusts them as equal partners to make the right choices for the next steps in their work. The founders have a deep awareness that the best solutions usually come from leaders who understand their own local communities. Many people and organizations working in Africa lack that humility and assume that Western education and funding are the only paths to achieving the best solutions. I chose to work at Epic Change because of this radical trust. I started as a volunteer and then last year applied for grant funding so I could be part of the full time staff.

The most remarkable thing about Epic Change is the way the organization is rethinking the traditional donor – recipient relationship. The stories and voices of our partners are powerful and we make it a priority to put a spotlight on them whenever possible. For example, at Shepherds Junior, our partner school in Tanzania, the sixth grade, many teachers, and our partner Mama Lucy, who founded the school, are all on Twitter. This has enabled students to participate in Epic Change’s other programs, like TweetsGiving, as equal partners since they were able to express their gratitude and interact with other participants online.

I realize and celebrate the reality that tons of nonprofits are using social media tools in their work today, but the depth of connection that we have achieved between our donor and partner communities through these means makes me really proud to be part of Epic Change. We’re forming one community and the stories shared and connections formed are as inspiring and enriching as the infrastructure projects we fund.”

These are my thoughts about where I’m going and where I’ve been? (In 357 words)

“I was raised in a loving family in Norfolk Virginia and South Florida. After losing my dad at a young age, my mother got up off the matt stronger and raised my sister and me by herself. She is a life long role model and I owe much of my integrity, creativity, determination, and joy for life to her. The dinner table conversations we had about her work as a major-gift fundraiser at arts and Jewish organizations continue to inform my career choices working in the nonprofit sector.

In college at Harvard, I was involved in homeless and housing advocacy, directed a student-run shelter, and was a leader in Jewish student life. After graduating in 2008, I moved to Washington DC and worked in online communications for the New Israel Fund, a liberal Israel social justice organization. A year later I had the opportunity to work at Epic Change, where I was already an active volunteer.

By November 2008, I had already been exploring the nonprofit technology field for some time. I subscribed to the right blogs, read a lot of the right books, was learning to use a lot of the tools, and I was meeting great people in the field. Despite all that, it wasn’t until working on the first TweetsGiving campaign that year that the full potential of social media for nonprofits clicked for me. We asked people to tell us what they were grateful for and to help build a classroom at our partner school in honor of that emotion. People brought their hearts in droves and an immediate global and highly emotional community formed.

I believe that relationships make social change possible, so I care a lot about communities. I’m always learning and experimenting. Sometimes my ideas fall flat, but the failures inform the next success. I see myself continuing to work with organizations leveraging technology to empower their communities. The thrill I get from sharing “aha” moments I have had in this learning process makes me confident I’m on the right path.”

Check out the program Seth is putting together – you still have until tomorrow to apply! I think it will be a wonderful week of learning and experimenting, but even if I don’t get to participate the questions made me think and I’m glad I got to reflect in this way.

Happy Passover to all!