Mobilizing Communities in a Connected Age:

Using New Tech Tools & Strategies for Impact

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Dial in to 866-740-1260, Access code: 7730388   

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Motivation for this Project

How can nonprofits improve their use of new technology tools and strategies for social impact?

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Research Questions and Methodology

Research Questions:

• What are key characteristics, practices of successful orgs?

• What can funders do to better support nonprofits’ efforts?

Methodology:

• 16 nonprofit advocacy organizations – California, national– Grantees of Mitchell Kapor Foundation & ZeroDivide

• 2 non-grantees for benchmarks– Color of Change & CREDO Action

• Intensive interviews, reviewed websites, collateral material

• Full report at http://zerodivide.org/tech_advocacy

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Rubric for Evaluation

Emerging

Aspiring

Leading

Color of ChangeCREDO ActionElla Baker CenterGreen for AllNetroots NationVoto Latino

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I. What makes a Tech “Leading” organization?

Strategic use of technology across operational functions– Databases talk to one another– Tech integrated into business strategy– Organization embraces tech as a lever to improve org processes

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I. What makes a Tech “Leading” organization?

Strategic use of tech to engage different stakeholder groups, for development work, communications, and program

– Fosters a dialogue with different audiences– Segments constituents– Consistently uses analytics (A/B Testing)– At least one high-level Marketing/Communications expert on staff

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II. Success - It’s all about leadership

Nonprofit Leadership

Interest in technology

Understand tech as an “enabler”

Hire tech-savvy staff members

Single largest determinant = Leadership, not size or budget!

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Future Funding Projections

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How funders are investing in grantees’ tech use

• Technical assistance, trainings - one-offs, boot camp, weekly

• Operational functionality - website, CRM integration

• Program-related - funding social media component

• Cohort - tech capacity building, leadership dev, social media

• Staffing up - hiring online engagement director, etc.

• Innovation challenges - health monitoring app, asset building

• Gen Ops

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III. Recommendations to Funders

Pair fundingwith consulting

Fund tech forlong-term

Provide thoughtleadership

Fund tech for movementbuilding

Fund integratedCRM systems

Enable automatedperformanceevaluation

Build a communityof practice

Foster leadershipdevelopment

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GABRIEL REY-GOODLATTE & RAVEN BROOKS

Special Guests

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RAVEN BROOKSExecutive Director

Special Guest

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About Netroots Nation

• What is Netroots Nation?

• How is it different than many nonprofit organizations?

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Case Study: New Media at Netroots Nation

Quick usage examples with primary goal:– Mobile app - engage attendees– Video - engage non-attendees & potential supporters– Twitter - rapid response & assessment

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Learnings and recommendations

• Setting a strategy and goals is far more important than the tools and tactics

• Measurement and analytics

• The crucial role of leadership

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GABRIEL REY-GOODLATTECampaign Director

Special Guest

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Case Study: Breitbart / Huffington Post Campaign

• Pushed Huffington Post not to feature Breitbart’s column

• Traditional email petition campaign PLUS use of Twitter - took it to scale, beyond existing membership and signers

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Maximizing advantages of chosen tool’s functionality

Pass along – spread word, encouraged friends to sign Direct pressure on Huffington Post, in real time, didn’t

need to wait to deliver petitions Ability to quickly refine message - achieved swift victory

and changed suggested tweet to stop directing pressure at HuffPo, spread news of victory:

Victory! After 43k @ColorOfChange members speak out, @HuffingtonPost agrees not to run front-page @AndrewBreitbart http://wapo.st/gRGF9Q

Use of Twitter served several strategic purposes:

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Learnings: How we integrate social media

• Social media built into planning, execution of each campaign

• Each program staffer, not communications person, takes the lead on drafting social media content (across usual silos)

• Focus on unique properties and opps of social media tools vs. replicating old models using new tools

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Key take-aways

• Success is due to leadership fostering tech-fluent culture

• Tech integration across org: from ops to comms to program

• Systems to support day-to-day and seize opportunities: importance of planning and workflows

• Experimentation, analysis, re-implement

• Drive decisions based on org goals and strategies, not tools

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Conversation plus Questions and Answers

Unmute yourself via *7 and join the conversation!- Questions about the research and presentations?

- Do the findings sync with your experience?

- How are you investing in grantees’ tech use for impact?

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Thank you + Resources and Next Steps

Raven Brooks - @ravenb on Twitter

http://netrootsnation.org

Gabriel Rey-Goodlatte – gabriel@colorofchange.org

http://colorofchange.org

ZeroDivide – jeff@zerodivide.org, @FundingMedia

http://zerodivide.org/resources_1

The Mitchell Kapor Foundation

http://mkf.org

Mobilizing Communities in a Connected Age:

Using New Tech Tools & Strategies for Impact

Thursday, July 21, 2011