About a year ago, I sat down to write two white papers on issues I had rumbling around in my head that involved the changing roles, as I saw it, of nonprofit organizations and foundations as well as the changing relationship between those organizations and citizens. Trust me that had I finished writing those, you would have been privy as they would have been up on the blog. Needless to say, my brain was taken over by work as is the problem that always comes up, and they remain strings of thoughts in text files on my computer.
Today, I finally made a little time to read through Social Citizens from Allison Fine and The Case Foundation. It tore apart all of the other things I was thinking about today and threw me back into the subject of those white papers from last year. It was wonderful! So, I took it as a sign that I needed to get some of those thoughts out to you all this time around. Keep in mind that these are my thoughts and I would love a chance (read: the time) to expand on them fully, so I apologize for the brevity. Also, these ideas do not only sprout from this recent publication, obviously, but are inspired through many reports and from my own experiences as a Millenial.
Changing Role of Nonprofits and Foundations
Because so much of the organizing and activism, and thus information and opinion, around issues is done in networks of friends and family, the problem with access to both sides of the story and the opportunity for an independent and unique opinion grows. As views are shaped by those closest to the individual, there is much less of a chance for a network-created cause or action to include full dialogue of an issue.
Nonprofits and foundations will continue to be tied to causes, changes, actions, and groups that form in social networks and elsewhere on the web. The role these organizations have in the relationship will change to incorporate the need for access to the big picture.
Nonprofits and foundations will become sources for information and reliable reporting. They will be the places that personalized campaigns link to for the background and continued data on an issue. As the fundraising and momentum building moves more and more into the hands of supporters across the web and around the world, the relationship with the aligned organizations changes to reallocate responsibilities. As information, data, and reporting providers, these organizations will work to ensure that the multitude of unique campaigns taking place simultaneously by supporters provide an opportunity for those networks and potential interested citizens to learn more (and act more).
Changing Expectations of Government and Corporations
Millenials feel political change by individuals is impossible and that political actions like voting and participating in the political arena as it currently exists do not have the impact they want. This doesn’t mean that young voters aren’t turning out, as we see from the numbers in 2004 and so far in the primaries that the youth vote is taking a big upswing. But, young voters view their action closer to a symbolic step than a concrete motion.
Millenials are also very concerned about and aware of the cause-related work that corporations are involved in, choosing to support (or purchase from) organizations that are environmentally conscious, giving back to the community, and/or contributing to changing social problems. Young people report, as it says in the report, having more confidence in corporations than they do in the government.
This could mean that instead of groups of citizens urging politicians and policymakers to make changes around issues or specific legislation, that citizens instead turn to corporations who are aligned with those issues and support them in pressuring the government. Standing behind more than just a product, but trusting in the clout of a corporation to swing policymakers.
To go further, this could even have implications for key supporters to have a ‘role’ (of some sort) in the leadership of the corporation. This would complete the circle of accountability between the corporation and the supporters who have chosen to be loyal to the organization because of the issue alignment.
Changing Identity
In previous generations, personal identify was defined by career/job title and field. You were an engineer or a teacher or a scientist. That meant something when you said it to a new acquaintance and similarly created automatic circles of colleagues even if you hadn’t met personally.
Now, as taking action for Millenials has become incredibly important and easy via the social communities and world of the web, who you are is no longer defined by the college major you graduated with. Not only are people of my generation projected to change career fields, not just employers, many times over compared to past generations, but we have come of age in a time when learning is no longer a hierarchical or institutional activity.
The power to do something is in our hands and accessed any time we want online. This means, Millenials will be identified with their issue-alignment and causes. The personalized widgets for fundraising campaigns, challenges, and international issues now speak to who we are. We find friends through the interconnected profile links of campaigns to save Darfur or cancer awareness. My online actions and challenges are met by people from all backgrounds, job titles, and locations - but we are all working to protect the environment, or raise air quality standards, or stop human trafficking.
The way I expect not just my friends and family, but also my employers and politicians to identify me and communicate with me is also effected by the way I am defined by issues and not simply where I live or where I work.
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I know that is just the tip of the iceberg for three incredibly large areas, but I was going to burst if I didn’t get at least that much out of my head. I would really, really love to hear what you think and keep this conversation going. As the way individuals ‘live’ online is already drastically changing the way nonprofits do their work.
NetSquared’s n2y3 conference was earlier this week which brought ‘together a unique mix of people from the public and private sectors to develop and release Mashups designed to provide deeper insight into the social issues affecting communities around the globe.’ Of the 21 featured mashups that attended the conference, the winners are:
I have a very quickly growing list (list = delicious tag) of recommended reading for myself. This is mostly blog posts that came through my RSS reader but I didn’t have time to read fully and then blog about myself. Well, it seems the list keeps growing and I’m not reading and blogging quick enough! So, here are some of them in a condensed version of what I would have liked. 
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31-Day Comment Challenge (catching up!)
Day 23: What Makes a Great Comment?
Describe the feature and characteristics of a great comment: Personally, one thing I think makes a blog post interesting, inviting, and better is the questions it asks and not necessarily the questions it answers. So, this carries over to comments. When I leave a comment on someone else’s blog, I like to take a stab at answering or responding to the main question asked but also like to include another question. This keeps the conversation going and what are blogs and comments for but enabling conversation!
Day 24: Comment on a Blog Written in a Foreign Language
There are growing numbers of translating services available online to help you find and read blog posts and websites that are generated in other languages. Although this isn’t a blog, for this challenge I started following and sent messages to a few Twitter users from Madrid. I was actually feeling nervous when I sent the first message in Spanish, but received kind replies and have enjoyed following the new connections.
Day 25: Take a Break!
I have obviously taken a break from some blogging/commenting but it is all due to heavy work load of a project about to launch that I will blog about in a few minutes!
Day 26: Exploring Other Ways to Comment
Explore how you might use multimedia for a richer commenting experience. Consider whether or not you think multimedia is a better option and how it might impact learning.
I am excited by enriching conversations by multimedia commenting and look forward to incorporating more into my own blog. I often find that I begin to leave a comment on another blog and realize I’ve written a few paragraphs and still have more to say. So, I will just turn that comment into a blog post here and link back to the post as a more interesting and fleshed out comment. This is the same for linking back to posts that spur you to get out thoughts using Seesmic, Utterz or something similar. I’m curious if any of you have enjoyed exploring new options for commenting/posting/sharing.
Day 27: What Do You Communicate About Your Personal Brand Through Comments
To me, this goes back to the “What makes a great comment” question. I think that much of what I try to do both on this blog and in the many events/trainings I coordinate and help with is to ask more questions than answer more questions. I love sharing the ideas, thoughts, experiences and opinions I have about nonprofits and social media. But, I think that there is a great deal of value in the questions we can ask to help guide strategies, adoption, decisions, and work. So, in a face-to-face meeting, email, blog or comments, I’m always trying to stir up, consider and provoke questions. How am I doing?
Day 28: What’s Your Blog Commenting Strategy?
Commenting wasn’t something I really looked at strategically prior to this 31 day challenge. Something that I have taken from all of these wonderful opportunities for self reflection and evaluation is that commenting, just like blogging and other social media practices, needs to be done strategically if it is going to be successful and at the same time not drive you mad. There are so many insightful and interesting blogs out there that I could read and comment all day long, every day. That wouldn’t be very strategic, though. I have decided to try to have ‘blogging’ days and ‘commenting’ days where I do one or the other with the amount of time I would otherwise try to spend on both together. So far, I am really finding it a good balance and much less stressful as I’m not worried about commenting too long and not getting to the blog, or vice versa. Do you have a strategy for your commenting? Or commenting rules you use when leaving comments?
There are lots of questions embedded in the different topics above, but, one thing I’d also like to hear from you is a suggestion for a blog you read but have never commented on and what keeps you from taking that next step in the conversation.