The Path to Product Excellence: Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Enhancing Commun...
Kansas City Keynote Deck
1. Becoming a Networked Nonprofit
Be Networked, Use Measurement, and Learn from Your Data
Beth Kanter, Master Trainer, Author, and Blogger
Nonprofit Solutions Conference
October 21, 2013
13. If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t
walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep
moving forward.”
14. Maturity of Practice: Network Nonprofits
CRAWL
WALK
Communications
Strategy
Development
Linking Social with
Results and
Networks
Culture Change
Pilot: Focus one
campaign or channel
RUN
Ladder of
Engagement
Content Strategy
Incremental Capacity
Best Practices
Some measurement
and learning in all
above
FLY
Network Building
Many champions &
Influencers
Multi-Channel
Engagement, Content, and
Measurement
Reflection and Continuous
Improvement
15. Maturity of Practice: Crawl-Walk-Run-Fly
Categories
CULTURE
Practices
Networked Mindset
Institutional Support
CAPACITY
Staffing
Strategy
MEASUREMENT Analysis
Tools
Adjustment
LISTENING
Brand Monitoring
Influencer Research
ENGAGEMENT Ladder of Engagement
CONTENT
Integration/Optimization
NETWORK
Influencer Engagement
Relationship Mapping
1
2
3
4
16. A Networked Mindset: A Leadership Style
• Leadership through active social participation
• Listening and cultivating organizational and
professional networks to achieve the impact
• Sharing control of decision-making
• Communicating through a network model,
rather than a broadcast model
• Openness, transparency, decentralized decisionmaking, and collective action.
• Being Data Informed, learning from failure
18. One Tweet by Director = 1,000 by Staff
Open and accessible to the
world and building
relationships
Making interests, hobbies,
passions visible creates
authenticity
26. SMALL NONPROFITS CAN BE DATA INFORMED!
PEOPLE: Artists and people in their community
OBJECTIVES:
Increase engagement by 2 comments per post by FY 2013
Content analysis of conversations: Does it make the
organization more accessible?
Increase enrollment in classes and attendance at events by
5% by FY 2013
10% students /attenders say they heard about us through
Facebook
STRATEGY
Show the human face of artists, remove the mystique, get
audience to share their favorites, connect with other
organizations. Editorial Calendar.
TACTICS
Focused on one social channel (Facebook) to use best
practices and align engagement/content with other channels
which includes flyers, emails, and web site.
41. Results
Value
Metric
Increase donations
More efficient fund raising
% reduction in cost per dollar raised
Increase donor base
More revenue from a more diverse
base
More gets done,
Less burden on existing volunteers or
staff
Increase donors/volunteers
Change in behavior
% increase in new donors
Increase number of volunteers
Increase awareness
Improve relationships with existing
donors/volunteers
Better management, more stable
finances
Improve engagement with
stakeholders
Better feedback and ideas for
innovation
Better understanding of attitudes
and perceptions of stakeholders
Achieve the mission
Change in behavior
Change in attitude about your
organization
Increase in skills and knowledge of
staff Learning
% likely to volunteer or donate
increases
Improved results from intangible to
tangible
Using best practices, saving time
% increase in volunteers
% increase in awareness,
% increase in visibility/prominence,
Positive correlation between
increase in donors vs. visibility
% improvement in relationship
scores,
% increase in donation from existing
donors
% increase in engagement
(comments on YouTube, shares on
Facebook, comments on blog, etc.
% decrease in bad behavior,
% increase in good behavior
% increase in trust score or
relationship score
Increase in revenue per employee,
% employees understanding their
roles and organizational mission
43. Pick the Right Tool To Get the Right Data
Content
Analysis
Survey
Research
Analytics
• Sentiment
• Messaging
• Attitudes
• Preferences
• Traffic
• Engagement
• Action
47. Summary
1. Different stages of maturity, requires incremental
steps to improve organizational practice
2. Measurement discipline but not at the expense of
being networked – balance serendipity with
strategy, relationship building with ROI
3. Linking social media to outcomes requires silo
busting for both effective strategy and metrics
4. Data literacy - working with experts and
improving organizational skills
5. Go beyond counting your data, learn from it
Thank you so much for that wonderful introductionI’m delighted to be with you today to talk about some of the big ideas in my book, “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit,”Beth Kanter "Becoming a Networked Nonprofit" Explore how nonprofit leaders can improve their organization’s social media strategy and embrace the best practices of a “networked nonprofit,” while avoiding some Thahttp://www.npconnect.org/page/2013_Fall_Conference/Becoming Networked Nonprofits: What Nonprofit Leaders Need to Know to Succeed in the Age of ConnectednessNetworked Nonprofits and the people who lead them are taking advantage of social media’s ability to facilitate and expand their impact by combining an organizational strategy with their professional online personas to connect, build relationships, and establish trust and thought leadership. This way of operating goes beyond simply using tools like Facebook or Twitter and requires a networked mindset where openness and authenticity are essential. This interactive will explore how nonprofit leaders can improve their organization’s social media practice and embrace the best practices of a “networked nonprofit,” avoiding some of the pitfalls and challenges.
np sector 35 years, 20 years front row seat at the creation of a field –how nonprofits can leverage online tools for mission drive workI started as trainer, helping nonprofits learn how to embrace tech strategically – and it is more than job – it’s a calling and I’ve been honored to facilitate trainings with thousands of nonprofits – on alllcontenints of the world accept AnarticaWhile visiting scholar at David/Lucilie Packard Foundation – I wrote two books – Networked Nonprofit and Measuring Networked Nonprofit – my greatest hope for the second book was that nonprofits could improve their results/outcomes by adding measurement/learning to the mixAs I was writing the book, I worked with 60 grantees who tested the frameworks and contributed some of the case studies – all the time I was asking – is this practical, will you do it? If they said, no, re-thought the frameworksI also hope that my book will make a big difference in the life of one young woman from Cambodia – KeoSavon – I’m donating my author royalties to send her to college. Junior Year of a Civil Enigneering major. Met her. She said, thank you and told me she hoped to go to graduate school – MIT, Harvard, or Stanford!
My kids were adopted from Cambodia and I took them to visit their homeland last month – and there is now pervasive broadband wifi and even 3 g in the on smart phones that can be access in rural areas CHEAPLY
I originally got started blogging in 2002 because I had adopted two beautiful kids from Cambodia – early on combined my love of Cambodia with experimenting with social fundraising – raised money on my blog and took first place in America’s Giving Challenge to support the Sharing Foundation’s education programs – and to send LengSopharath to college. My kids got to meet her finally her face-to-face and communicating with her through Facebook …
Also through Facebook, I’ve kept connected to the bloggers, like Mongkol who we met in Phnom Phnom. We decided to take a taxi from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap – a five hour drive – the road was good, but still the safety standards are not what they are in the US – and the drivers go fast. So I had mongkol write a sign in Khmer that read …
We made safely to Siem Reap and the Temples – and even climbed up to the top and got a blessing from this monk – because I was afraid of the drive back to Phnomon Penh ..
But we had to drive back to Phnom Penh. This time, the taxi had seat belts in the back of the card, but thee road often looked this … Our driver didn’t understand much english, and was talking on his cell phone a lot of the time!
I distracted myself by looking at Facebook with my 3G connection! So I posted this status update …
http://www.pewinternet.org/Presentations/2012/Oct/Networked-and-Hyperconnected.aspxDigital Revolution 1: BroadbandInternet (85%) and Broadband at home (66%)Revolution 2: Mobile – 89% of adultsDigital Revolution 3:Social networking – 72% of all adultshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/51541045@N06/8663772811/sizes/o/in/photolist-ecA6Pi-9zmDs8-a8q2qL-dVxkYT-bkWwB9-a9g4FV-9YdVHZ-9DnoMC-8Y72va-c21yrG-7LaMDC-dWCGm6-9aRmCN-fkWD4W-a1SCfx-83rwo6-9ZPLrU-7zHo4h-avVij4-cp5dpu-eTcK5w-949gre-9Lmchv-7W3aq1-gtMuj9-94vwRj-byD8a1-97QuS9-ayb3dt-9bq1KJ-7zuUJG-cTtMX1-e9b8T7-941CWz-9Jk75u-eF84dF-9wRXE7-9NJgcm-8r7b9W-cNV1D9-7Yfagh-dJYCw6-8pQJzS-b9MArn-bGCeGF-8o25t7-bGU2nZ-ecSurP-8if7Ra-8qZu6X-8r3V4y/
"We'd like to thank Blazer for her heroic efforts," the Multnomah County Animal Services website reads. "Sir Stuffington's Facebook Page will not only help him and his siblings find homes, it's also a wonderful example of how people can make a difference and get involved with Portland's own local shelter—either by volunteering, fostering or donating."He is the cutest one-eyed, disfigured pirate cat you've ever seen.Over the past few days, pictures of Sir Stuffington (pictured above) have been widely sharedonline, making him the latest in a rich tradition of feline internet obsession. But there's so much more to Sir Stuffington than his adorable and funny Facebook photos. His story is one of perseverance and love, as well as internet fame.Earlier this month, the cat and his two brothers were taken into Multnomah County Animal Services, an open-door animal shelter in Troutdale, Oregon. Sir Stuffington wasn't in good shape—his damaged jaw, his missing eye, his upper respiratory infection, his heart murmur, his body covered in fleas and dirt. (All three were about six weeks old, and came in withcalicivirus.) But even before the kittens had been taken to the shelter, local resident Blazer Schaffer had stumbled upon a Facebook photo of Sir Stuffington suffering in the street, and was determined to track him down. Schaffer, an animal lover who has worked with the shelter for a decade, soon found the three kitten there. She promptly took them home as their foster parent, and is taking care of them at least for a couple months until they're healthy enough for adoption.Let tell you about this wonderful story about Sir Stuffingon– a cute kitten that had its eye scratched out by a raccoon – and was brought into an animal shelter in Oregon by a teenager who has no formal connection to the shelter other being a fan on Facebook … --- the teen wanted to make sure that the kitten found a good home and medical care for its.. So, he started a Facebook Page – that included photos of the kitty – and to help find a home. The page got over 36,000 likes in 24 hours. It attracted the attention of the local TV station, but also national news – NPR, online blogs – and people started to donated, tell their friends – before you know it – they not only had someone who would adopt Sir Stuffington and his siblings, but had the medical expenses covered – plus many other animals in the shelter were adopted. All because a teenager was able to leverage their networks -- These tools allow us to scale very quickly -- connect with others, and make change happen on the ground .. Outside the walls of institutions.http://multcopets.org/news/sir-stuffingtons-storyhttps://www.facebook.com/Sir.Stuffington?ref=br_tfThese trends are making networks part of our everyday and social change is becoming network-centric, happening anyplace, anywhereh – in the palm of our hands.As you can see networks are a part of our every day and social change is be becoming network-centric.Nonprofits need to do – connect with their networks to create on the ground change. …Collaboration, coordination, and working in networks are becoming the new normal, as leaders across sectors work to move the needle on today’s most pressing problems. One of the words he used caught my attention: Philanthroteens. These are teens with a passion for social change and who grew up not knowing what it was like to not to have a cell phone or be connected to Facebook. The media has dubbed this generation – “Qwerty Monsters” who send hundreds of text messages a day and don’t even like to use their phone for calls (and with two pre-teens in my house, I can attest this is true). But it is more than the technology, it is also their passion to do good in the world.He shared the story of the first-ever Girl Up Leadership Summit which brought together young girls who are helping change the face of global philanthropy. They were joined by celebrities like actress and Girl Up Champion Monique Coleman, global leader Ambassador MelanneVerveer, and more than 100 young women from across the country. These philanthroteens lead workshops on advocacy, communications and learned about their peers in developing countries. Their meeting featured a special conversation via Skype with girls in South Africa as part of the Girl Up Campaign’s emphasis on uniting girls around the world.
How do you adapt your organization to a networked nonprofit?Agile, transparent --- organizations that allow outsiders in and insiders out – are masters at using social media tools for social change .Change happens slowly …So, in the many years I’ve been working with nonprofits on becoming networked nonprofits, I found that change happens slowly and incrementallySo, I developed a framework for Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly – inspired by this Maritn Luther King quote…
This is the overview of the framework .. We’re going to dig into three important areas: culture, capacity, and measurement.
To work with a network mindset means embracing an emerging leadership style that is characterized by greater openness, transparency, decentralized decision-making, and collective action. It means operating with an awareness of the networks you are embedded in, and listening to and cultivating these networks to achieve the impact you care about. It means exercising leadership through active participation. It means sharing by default. It means communicating through a network model, rather than a broadcast model—finding where the conversations are happening and taking part.Individuals leading with a network mindset are prioritizing activities that are often associated with facilitative or collaborative leadership. They’re seeking opportunities to distribute, rather than centralize, responsibility and authority. They’re convening diverse stakeholders, reaching out and engaging new participants in dialogues and projects, and generating coordination, cooperation and collaboration. They’re also working with an attentiveness to the nature of networks by creating and protecting spaces that build social capital (connectedness, trust, reciprocity), by brokering connections, especially across difference and nurturing self-organization, and by genuinely participating in networks and thereby leading by doing.More concretely, leading with a network mindset might, for a funder, mean:Developing an ecosystem awareness by mapping funding flows or relationships in order to better understand an issue area.Openly asking important questions, like the Packard Foundation did when they hosted their public Nitrogen Wiki for generating input to a new program strategy.Hosting town halls for listening to stakeholders—online and in-person—like Marguerite Casey Foundation has been doing with its Equal Voice campaign.Making and strengthening connections among other funders and stakeholders in an issue area.Pooling funds like the Hewlett, Packard, and McKnight Foundations have done to launch ClimateWorks.Listening to and participating in the blogosphere and Twitter stream related to an issue area, like program staff at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are working to do as part of their Web 2.0 Philanthropy initiative.
OdiUfer, he took over the positoin of CEO of the ACLU of NJWhen came on board, his staff said, you should have your own Twitter account – you giving press conferences, this is another channel where you can do the sameHe had never tweeted before! So, his staff gave him a tweetorial .. And he was up in running – with “Ask me Anything”His job as CEO is to advocate for policies that ACLUNJ is working on – and Twitter helps him reach policy makers and the press ..He answer queries from reporters .. He educates policy makers. When makes a visit with a legilstator, they already know the issue because they have connected on Twitter.For CEOs in the room, think about what you already do that can be amplified by social …It’s not that you don’t think it is a good idea. But you are probably, like most who work in the social change sector, incredibly busy. Maybe you are muttering to yourself ”Who can find the time to do social media?” It isn’t a matter of finding the time, it is a matter of making the time and starting with some steps. Have a conversation with your social media team and ask these questions:What do you spend time doing now that you could do better via social?What other executive directors in your field that you respect, follow or and feel inspired by are using social creatively?What are your strengths and preferences and what is the best match in terms of social channels?How will social improve things you already KNOW and value?The executive director for the ACLU-NJ, UdiOfer, had that exact conversation with his staff when he was started last February and set up a Twitter account @UdiACLU and started using Instagramand YouTube to answer questions about marriage equality, DOMA, police misconduct, and other issues on the organization’s docket. While the communications department has suggested the idea, he was on board from the start. He does his own all of his own tweeting and as his communications staff reports, “enthusiastically at that!”Udi was not on Twitter before he started tweeting for his organization and was a Twitter novice, but he was opened to sitting down with his communications staff for a half hour tutorial where they showed him the basics of using Twitter and how to do it from his mobile phone. What did the trick was a “How To Tweet” cheat sheet that not only included the simple mechanics, but also sample tweets from other ACLU leaders around the country, subtle form of peer pressure. Says Eliza Stram, ACLU-NJ Communications Associate, “I was able to make the sometimes intimidating prospect of tweeting approachable and very doable. In other words, if your peer at another ACLU Affiliate can do it, then so can you!”Stram also says that her new boss was very open and enthusiastic in trying out this new way of communication with reporters, civil liberties activists, and their supporters. Says Stram, “Without that openness, I don’t believe he would be having nearly as much fun with Twitter as he is now.”By using twitter, the ACLU-NJ’s is not just sharing what ate for breakfast, Udi provides quotes on his organization’s most important cases and issues to reporters, in addition to their traditional press release or emailed statement. He is also publicly debating civil liberties issues with reporters, lawyers and followers. As Eliza notes, “Something that would have been impossible to do unless you were sitting with him in his office. ” There is the occasional personal tweet, but these serve to make him seem approachable and human.While Udi is the face of the ACLU-NJ in the organization’s “official” communications such as press releases or in newspaper articles or sound bytes on the evening news, Twitter has become the place where he injects warmth into the organization. Says Eliza, “This is accomplished through the “Ask Udi Anything” project, which asked ACLU-NJ’s followers to pose questions about his goals for the organization and even what his favorite karaoke song is! By answering the public’s questions in a video Udi became an accessible, humorous, and more personal face for the ACLU-NJ.”Udi is just one example of nonprofit CEOs and leaders who use Twitter and other social media platforms. Take for exampleRobert Falls who is the artistic director of the Goodman Theater he not only uses his personal Twitter account to highlight the Goodman’s shows, but also to share creative ideas, connect with peers, and discuss the art of theatre.Getting Past the Learning CurveDon’t let the learning curve get in the way of adopting social media as a personal and organizational leadership tool for your organization as Alexandra Samuel advises in this recent post on the WSJ. While learning any new skill or tool will feel daunting when you start, if you can get started with small steps and practice it daily for a short amount of time, like Udi you’ll be a whiz in a matter of weeks. Samuel also offers some ways to approach social media as a personal leadership tool. This include:Create a Leadership Dashboard: Using a tool like Mention or Feedly, you can put together a small list of leadership blogs or publications and set aside 15 minutes a day to read.Stay Focused: Use online visualize tools to mindmap ideasAmplify Your Voice: If you are sharing articles suggested your staff or colleagues “read this,” switch the channel to something like Twitter.Social Media Golf Course: Find a tool or channel that is simply fun and have some play time.If you are a nonprofit CEO, how did you get comfortable with incorporating social media into your personal and organizational leadership tool kit? What support and encouragement did your staff provide? Do you have an “ah ha” moment from social media a leadership tool that convinced you it wasn’t a waste of time?
This is what feels a little bitt difficult – that you are open and accessible to the world and building relationships ..Here’s an example from the Goodman Theatre - - they have an org profile on Twitter, but their artistic director does too Both support of the goals of engaging audiences and selling tickets
It’s about making the time …. Using found time
http://www.bethkanter.org/staff-guidelines/
Bob Filbin from DoSomething is here at this meeting – so if you want more details be sure to talk to him today – and he can tweet more detailsDoSomething has a mission to get 1.5 million teens active on social change campaigns by 2015Starts at the top … with the HIPPO …. Reid Hoffman and DJ Patel – at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mkrigsman/3428179614/DoSomething has three data analyst positions on staff .. And they aren’t sitting in the corner playing with their spreadsheetsWhile a big part of their job is to become the stewards of the dashboard, they work with staff – so that making sense of data Is not an adhoc process, but one of continous improvement of the programs. The data analysts work collaboratively with staff to help them apply and understand their data.
This is an example of a recent campaign to help reduce the number of dogs/cats being killed in kill sheltersResearch found that this was happening because many aren’t posting good photos on social networks and the internetThey created an app to recruit “furtographers”
Back in the office, the data scientists were looking at the data in real time to figure out what was driving people to their landing page and getting them to sign up.
Upwell is definitely flying …..Upwell is focused on Ocean Conservation – their goal is to increase engagement and conversation about ocean conversationThey focus on listening, using Radian 6 and monitoring key words like “Ocean” and look at the “chatter” out there on social networks about these topics. They have developed a baseline methodology so they know what the base is for “share of conversation” on a particular ocean conservation conversation they are monitoring. They identify opportunities to engage to “increase the conversation” on the topic and measure it. One might say they have one metric that matters or “Lean impact” - increase conversation about ocean conservation. As a networked nonprofit – and hoping to build a movement, they are also transparent and share practices - iteratehttp://www.bethkanter.org/upwell-campaign/
This chart is probably very appealing to all of you – and if you want details – Rachel is out there hanging out in our hashtag and can point you to more details ….This graphic is a snap shot of their social media monitoring of eight different ocean conservation areas ..Each line represents the social mention volume in one of our issue keyword sets.The pair of pink lines are mentions of sharks and cetaceans. Shark week makes big spikes, but cetaceans get more social mentions a day. Hanging out on the bottom of the graph are tuna, overfishing, the Gulf of mexico, ocean acidification, sustainable seafood and tiny tiny MPAs.
They were monitoring and saw this opportunity around the keyword “Shark” because of shark week was the biggest attention spike within the eight ocean issues they monitor – it provided a big opportunity to expand audiences, and to grow their distributed network. They campaign was to set an ambitious goal to spike a conversation around shark conversation.More detail on Shark Week:We tried about a dozen things to make that Shark Week conversation bump, including live tweeting ourselves, image macros, and a toolkit for shark evangelists. What really worked was the pair of sharkinars we hosted for shark evangelists. We shared that the big attention spike was coming up, reviewed top hashtags, identified shark influencers, and that YAY chart was our tone/sentiment analysis of #sharkweek tweets. We taught the shark evangelists that it was mainly a FAN conversation on Twitter, not at FEAR (sensationalized) conversation.
They packaged content and worked with partners working on Shark – and were able to analyze and attribute the increase of conversation in 2012 to the campaign tactics. Through this, were able to target new activists/champions – not on their Radar through social media conversations.Then that bar chart with the knitting: the shark week conversation grew 109% over 2011, but the shark conservation mentions grew 210% year over year. That made us happy!
We’ve seen some of the flyers but not all nonprofits are quite there – and there is a lot of room for improvement – so I’m going to end with a couple of quick points of about where ….Measurement DisciplineSmall pilots Data LiteracyImproving and Proving Results
Counting is just counting – and to get at better impact you have to understand the numbers, put it in context, look at the numbers against your strategy and goals
-What’s hard is having the conversation to connect social media strategies/metrics to ladder them to organizational outcomes-Takes some time to get everyone on the same page, but can be done …..
There’s a big need for improved data literacy – both in-house for the basics – and but also working with measurement and analytics geeks – data nerds, and data scientists. There are a number of orgs that do volunteer matching. Raise the level of in-house literacy – much more effective working with professionals. Peer learning networks are also another good intervention.
Measurement tools collect data, generate reports and visualization – and different tools collect different dataIt falls into three different categories If the goal you are measuring is about sentiment or messaging, you want a content analysis toolIf the goal you are measuring is about attitudes or preferences, you’ll be doing a survey – If the goal you are measuring is about reach, engagement, or action – then you want to use an analytics tool
The best tool is excelMany of these professional and free tools export to excel – need to do a little more work to make it a dashboard, not just the data – otherwise it is just triva
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40991157@N02/3923081100/Learning from failure ..