Tag Archives: Allison Fine

Learn to Be a Networked Nonprofit

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Beth Kanter, CEO of Zoetica, who has shared her expertise for years on Beth’s Blog an at various nonprofit events, will host a virtual launch party Mon, Jun. 21 for her new book The Networked Nonprofit with co-author Allison Fine.  Beth has long been a proponent for social media, but that’s not all that this book is about.  It’s also about changing the culture of your organization to operate in a network, much as individuals have recently learned the importance of networking from experts like author Keith Ferrazzi in Never Eat Alone and Jason Alba in his JibberJobber career management site and his other resources such as LinkedIn for Job Seekers.

Care2 hosted a webinar this week featuring the authors, National Wildlife Federation‘s Danielle Brigada and Autism Speaks‘ Marc Sirkin, moderated by Care2‘s Jocelyn Harmon who writes Marketing for Nonprofits.  Whether you read the book, attend the virtual launch or hear Beth and Allison’s ideas on the web or at an event , don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to transform your organization to “play well with others.”

Kudos to Danielle, who admitted during this week’s webinar how challenging it can be to change a large nonprofit that often moves slowly.  (My experience has been the same.)   But whatever size organization you work for, becoming more “networked” will better enable you to serve your constituents.

How Connected Is Your Organization?

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In her book Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, Allison Fine asks organizations how well they are handling a new era in online communications:

  • Do other people and organizations trust you and your organization? How do you know? How can you increase and strengthen that trust?

  • Are you reaching out to new people and organizations to learn with and from them? Do you approach networking as an opportunity to push out your “brand,” or to strengthen a connection with others?

  • Do you support and celebrate your alumni and other ambassadors to other groups and communities?

  • What information are you sharing with the world? Are there other kinds of information that you could share?

  • Are your Web site and other communication vehicles inviting to strangers? Can anyone looking at your information figure out who you are? Which individuals are key?

  • Do your materials (your Web site, brochures, plans, proposals, reports) use words that people understand, or language that says that your organization is made up of really smart people?

  • Do you think of questions from outsiders as time-suckers that need to be answered, or as the beginning of a conversation?

  • Do you ever introduce people for no other reason than the fact that they should know one another? Does that include introducing collegial organizations to potential funders? What are you expecting in return for these introductions?

  • Do your participants ever talk to one another about your endeavor without your prompting?

  • Can you help your volunteers start their own conversations, have their own meetings, and develop strategies to support your efforts?

  • Do you celebrate achievements by other organizations in your network?

  • Do your participants (board members, volunteers, clients, collegial organizations) watch you make plans or help you to make them?

In a related article on the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Ms. Fine says: “Today, nonprofit groups are part of a larger network or ecosystem of people, organizations, resources, and information. Relying on old-fashioned, top-down management approaches for setting activist agendas and designing fund-raising and volunteering efforts will lead inevitably to disappointing results.”

How well does your organization meet these challenges?.