1. Meyer Memorial Trust’s recent blog asks nonprofits how they are dealing with the crunch
   I am always impressed by the level of conversation, honesty, and engagement MMT’s blog presents both in content and comments.  Check it out!
2. NPR’s segment on assessing the impact of the crisis on nonprofits
   All Things Considers discusses nonprofits’ income streams in threat (corporate grants, etc.)  Listen here!

So, what do you think?  How has your nonprofit been affected, taken note, or answered funding questions about the financial crisis?

The Knight News Challenge is giving away around $5 million in 2009 for the development and distribution of neighborhood and community-focused projects, services, and programs!

What fits the challenge?

Knight wants to hear your ideas for improving local online news, growing community engagement, integrating Web 2.0 tools with local neighborhoods, developing publishing platforms and standards that support local conversations or innovatations for visualizing, experience or interacting with information. Share your ideas and you can win the funding for your project and support within a vibrant community of media, tech and commnity-oriented people who all want to improve the wold.

Who should apply?

Applications for the 2008-09 cycle will be taken starting September 2, 2008 and close on November 1, 2008. For more information, visit the Knight News Challenge site. Here some easy rules for application in the 2008-09 Knight News Challenge:

1. Use or create digital, open-source technology as the code base.
2. Serve the public interest.
3. Benefit one or more specific geographic communities.

You can even get support for your application before you submit! The brand-new News Challenge Garage is a site where prospective applicants can talk with mentors and peers, check out previous winners’ applications and improve applications before the final submission.

Connect in person!

Knight is hosting meetups around the country to connect with interested participants in person, to share ideas, ask questions, and start brainstorming. Here are some upcoming events:

• Oct 6 - Vancouver: 7:00pm - 9:00pm; Rain City Studios, 420-1 Alexander Street, Vancouver, BC RSVP
• Oct. 7 - Seattle: 7:00pm - 8:30pm, Fremont Abbey Arts Center, 4272 Fremont Ave N. RSVP
• Oct. 16, 18: Austin, Tex.
• Oct. 21 - San Francisco RSVP
• Oct 25-26: Boston, TBD.
• Atlanta, TBD.

An RSVP is required for all events; contact Susan Mernit for more information.

For more information, visit the Knight News Challenge site.

As part of my offline community building for NetSquared here, I’m laying the ground work for the first Net Tuesday London!  I’m hoping we can hold our first monthly event this November, and want it to really be something that fills a niche, connects nptechers, technologists, consultants, nonprofits and social changemakers.

If you are here in London or the UK, below is a link to a survey to help gauge what your goals and preferences are for Net Tuesday London.  I’d really love to hear your thoughts, and to see you there in November!

Thanks so much for taking the time to fill out the short survey; it should only take 5 minutes or so.

Here’s the survey!

Let me know if you have any questions about NetSquared, Net Tuesdays, the survey or anything else!

Why?

Because I want to be sure we can all easily track our efforts to raise money for classroom projects across the US!  I am part of DonorsChoose.org’s BloggersChallenge this October, activating bloggers from all sectors to create giving pages that readers and supports can contribute to.

I chose projects asking for technology from teachers who are integrating new technologies into the classrooms and lessons.  I think we are all looking at new technologies every day and fitting them into our offices, organizations and lives - so why not help teachers do the same?!

How you can help right now:

1. Support classroom projects by donating!
2. Find more projects you think should be added to our Challenge, just put a link in the comments and I can add them to our challenge page!
3. Send this link to others to participate and donate!

Thanks so much for your support!  Let’s make an impact on classrooms this month that will last!

Last year, the BloggersChallenge raised $500,000 through the help of nearly 50 bloggers!  I’m excited to see the impact we can make for classrooms looking to use technology in the way they learn, share, and collaborate together.

Why Technology?

I use technology every day, and can’t really function effectively without much of it.  Just think about the impact simple tools like a digital camera or headphones make on the way we are able to share with my family, friends and colleagues on a daily basis by sharing photos or using the internet to make a call and connect personally—don’t you want those simple tools available in classrooms?  I’ve selected proposals from teachers integrating technology into their classrooms to make learning exciting and effective.

Why DonorsChoose?

DonorsChoose.org is an organization and an idea that I really like: the simplicity and the purpose.  Connecting teachers directly with people who could help them in their classroom, whether they are interested because they share a geography, a subject matter, or just an awesome idea for igniting learning in students.  I also added the DonorsChoose recommended actions from Social Actions earlier this summer.

What can I do?

Please participate this month in the BloggersChallenge, here’s how you can get going now:

1. Support classroom projects by donating!
2. Find more projects you think should be added to our Challenge, just put a link in the comments and I can add them to our challenge page!
3. Send this link to others to participate and donate!

I’m excited to tackle this challenge together.  Let’s make a difference in classrooms across the US!

Jeff Trexler asked if nonprofit staff using Twitter, Facebook and other social media during the election are doing so responsibly.  On the uncivilsociety blog, Jeff writes:

One effect of online social networking technology is that it intensifies the environment that Marshall McLuhan called “all-at-onceness.” Old divisions fall away–near and far, high and low, word vs. picture–in favor of composition.

Part of this integrative process is the fusion of the personal and professional. Topics that were once taboo in polite conversation–money, religion, politics–are now a salient feature of the connected self.

In most respects I have no problem with this. I see myself primarily as a Watcher when it comes to organizational technology–I’m interested in seeing what happens but have little to no personal stake in any particular tool.

But there’s something going on that’s gotta stop.

Namely, political campaigning in social networking accounts connected to 501(c)(3) organizations.  Read more…

Jeremy Pepper, a friend and PR-Social Media guru, coins a new term with Twitteriocy, claiming too many companies joining Twitter are doing so irresponsibly.  He suggests six rules for organizations adopting Twitter (and really, these rules can be expanded to work for most social media tools):

1. Don’t have your PR firm set up and be your Twitter account.
2. Don’t follow everyone willy nilly.
3. Get Tweetdeck.
4. Be engaged. Be personable. Be responsive.
5. Be a person.
6. Twitter is not for everyone.

You can read more of Jeremy’s post as well as explanations to all of these points on the POP! PR Jots blog.

What concerns has your organization had with using social media?  What policies has your organization adopted that really work for helping staff use social media tools responsibly?

Here’s an excerpt from her first post about how the web 2.0 community came together to develop hurricane08.org:

When Hurricane Gustav threatened to crash into New Orleans and bring more destruction to the city that never recovered from Hurricane Katrina, Andy Carvin, a social media strategist for National Public Radio, used his Web 2.0 savvy skills to take action and start the websites hurricanes08.org and hurricanewiki.org. The sites serve as an information aggregator for the latest information on hurricanes threatening the US and provide an easy way for volunteers to connect with communities.

“I thought we needed something that could connect the dots,” said Carvin. Once Carvin developed the idea he put up the “Bat Signal” and friends and volunteers including Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigs List and Deanna Zandt, a media technologist for progressive and grassroots activist organizations pitched in to help. Newmark helped promote the site while Zandt spearheaded the development of the wiki.  Read more…

I’m looking forward to Allyson’s weekly posts and seeing what the conversations and community are like on the Fast Company site.  Find Allyson’s Radical Tech blog here.  Congrats again!

The questions from Google’s Project 10^100 are: what would help? And help most?

According to the Project, we are in an interesting time.  One in which individuals have more information accessible at their fingertips than ever before and yet there are so many people who need help; while studies show that ultimately it is helping others that makes us the most happy.

“At Google, we don’t believe we have the answers, but we do believe the answers are out there. Maybe in a lab, or a company, or a university — but maybe not.  Maybe the answer that helps somebody is in your head, in something you’ve observed, some notion that you’ve been fiddling with, some small connection you’ve noticed, some old thing you have seen with new eyes.”

If you have an idea about how to help someone, especially how to help lots of people, share it!  Submit your ideas by October 20th!

But, how does it work?

1. Send in your idea by October 20th.
   Fill out the submission form here. (You can supplement your proposal with a 30-second video.)
2. Voting on ideas begins January 27th.
   A selection of one hundred ideas will be posted publicly for you to choose twenty semi-finalists. Then an advisory board will select up to five final ideas.
3. Project 10^100 will help bring the ideas to life.
   We’re committing $10 million to implement these projects, and the goal is to help as many people as possible.

Next Steps:

• Read the Guidelines
• Submit an idea!
• Learn more about the project, the name, the ideas behind it and more!

What ideas do you have about helping other people in your community, country or even the world?  Does your organization have an idea?  Does your child?

Bounce your ideas off the NetSquared community for feedback or collaboration by posting to the NetSquared Community blog! Can’t wait to read your ideas!

Jonathan’s presentation focused on some great examples of nonprofits using a range of social media tools.  My presentation concentrated on the why and how side of things, including some examples from the e-Nonprofit Benchmarks report.  You can see Jonathan’s slides here.  After our presentations, we had a few rounds of small group activities with short scenarios and prompts calling on the new online engagement and fundraising ideas Jonathan and I talked about.  The groups did an excellent job creating strategies for engaging their fake organizations’ communities.  Thanks so much to everyone who was there!

Here is my presentation:

Here is the PDF version with all my speaker notes:

My main points included:

Conversations = Conversions

• shouting rarely works!
• two way conversation empowers your constituents and the larger community to:
  - give you feedback when things are bad
  - give you praise when they are happy
  - ask questions
  - get involved
• two way conversations also turn your staff into real people.
• if a conversation is taking place online and you aren’t there to hear it, does it still happen?  YES!
• by putting yourself and your organization online, you can be part of the conversation that is already taking place.

Management = Messages

• people are all different, even if they are all interested in your organization.  what they want to do for you, how they want to hear from you, what they plan to say about you and even how they want to support you.
• comprehensive donor/volunteer/constituent management software will let you track, trace, separate
  and sort your members.
• better messages means more messages, but not drastically different.  just enough so that your online
  activists have something they can do when they get an email from you, your donors can donate, your
  supporters can spread the word, and your lurkers can keep hanging on.

Testing

• testing can be small scale to large scale - really just depends on your budget, your time, and your staff capacity.
• start small and in-house and see how much you can learn right away
• try changing simple things with small groups: subject lines, images, calls to action, etc.

If you were at the session today, what questions did you leave with?  What conversations helped you the most?