Civil Society LifeWork Survey
We're pleased to announce that our new Civil Society LifeWork Survey is now open. It takes about 90 seconds to complete and it will help us develop a view of the quality of work life in the field of civil society. Please help spread this particular survey far and wide. The larger our base of respondents the more we will learn about specific communities and regions.
Migrating from Innovation to Entrepreneurship
I want to be really clear that, despite misgivings that I hope would make a fun conversation with the author, I highly recommend Jerr Boschee's book Migrating from Innovation to Entrepreneurship. The book is a valuable addition to the shelf of any nonprofit leader who wants to take earned income seriously. My misgivings center around the book's frame of reference, rather than its core lessons. That frame of reference, based on anecdote as far as I can tell, is that the culture of the nonprofit sector is f
LinkedIn: Michael Gilbert
For several years, I've been waiting for there to be a successful open architecture (like the web itself) for the functions performed by so-called "social networking" sites. But all through that time, I received LinkedIn invitations pretty much every week. So, I've decided to relent and experiment with it a bit. Despite my many concerns (such as the way the company encourages and profits from unsolicited commercial email within the system), here is my profile. If you're on the system, please drop me a line
A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods
Lots of good sources have been linking this week to the excellent Periodic Table of Visualization Methods. While I'm not sure that the structure of the periodic table really adds meaning to the presentation, I've rarely seen a more engaging portal to learning about the extraordinary range of methods available for the visualization of information.
Roundup 2003: Technically Speaking
I had no idea the good folks at N-TEN were offering video segments from the plenary panel at their 2003 conference, entitled Technically Speaking. If I'm not mistaken, that was the last time N-TEN had colleagues of the audience in the opening keynote. (They've since moved to authors -- usually from the mainstream technology industry -- whose fame might draw more people to the conference.) The segments include "Funders are not Venture Capitalists," "The Carrot Story," "Why Evaluation is Hard," and "Sabateurs
The Modern Nonprofit Web Site: Strategies, Patterns, and Tools
As part of our ten year anniversary process, we are doing a fair amount of evaluation of our own online efforts. As a result, it's great to be teaching our web site seminar again. Entitled The Modern Nonprofit Web Site: Strategies, Patterns, and Tools, this seminar covers designing web sites around your relationship building goals, content management systems, and the effective use of weblogs.
Dark Cloud over Good Works of Gates Foundation
The Los Angeles Times took a close look at the investment practices of the gates Foundation and found a dark cloud in the form of substantially greater financial investment in the oil companies destroying the health of Africans than the amount they make in grants to help in improve such health. I would be very curious to know how many lives the Gates Foundation would save if they were as aggressive in leading a divestment campaign against the oil companies as they are in trying to eliminate malaria. We need
Nonprofit Technology Conference 2007
I'll be attending the Nonprofit Technology Conference in Washington DC during the first week of April this year. Most likely I will be talking about listening (isn't that an interesting phrase), introducing papers from the Journal of Information Technology in Social Change (a special issue of our Journal), and meeting with prospective bloggers for our network. Look me up if you're there, and don't forget to register soon if you want a discount.
Good Capital Projects
I had a very rewarding conversation a few months back with some of the principals of Good Capital, a fascinating model for stimulating investment in social ventures. In the context of current capital markets, they make a good case for the need for finance models somewhere in between grants and traditional venture money. There are other such intermediate forms, of course (program related investments of grantmakers come to mind), but I'm hoping Good Capital can scale it up.
Darwin Rules
In his most recent article for Tropes of the Times, Phil Bereano looks at why Darwin Rules at the New York Times. My own higher education focused heavily on genetics and the more I learned the less I wanted to try to explain, especially in the context of the Social Darwinism that seems so pervasive in the mainstream media. The Times article he critiques here is actually about frogs, but the generalizations are profoundly relevant to civil society and anyone who cares about social solutions to social problem
Cherish the BBC, the Best Innovator of All
I share Victor Keegan's annoyance at the cliche about the private sector being more innovative than everyone else. In Cherish the BBC, the Best Innovator of All, he looks at one of the best counterexamples in recent years. I have my concerns about the BBC, but as an innovator, they are really top notch.
Grant Thornton 2006 Board Governance Survey Report
Despite its prominence, I don't consider the corporate model to be well suited to the needs of civil society. So, it's with a certain sense of bemused distance that I read the Grant Thornton 2006 Board Governance Survey Report (16 page PDF). However, if you concern yourself with the policies and procedures of nonprofit boards, this report is a must read.
Three Resolutions for Capacity Building
In my New Years' feature for 2007, I offer Three Resolutions for Capacity Building in the form of questions: Are you pursuing your life's work? Do you have a book you ought to write? And are you bringing out the best in people?
The Wheel of Engaged Buddhism: A New Map of the Path
Images have the ability to help us focus. When I wake up in the morning, I make a point of looking west in the hopes of seeing the Olympic Mountains. When they are visible, as they were this morning, the sight of them reminds me how small I really am and helps me shed the grandiosity that comes from excessive responsibility. I cherish that focus. Symbols authored by our fellow human beings can often accomplish similar effects and thus aid us in our emotional and intellectual discipline. In his book The Whe
Email Newsletter Reinvention & Improvement (Online Seminar)
We're taking some new directions with our online seminars in 2007 bridging the most successful of our high level tools with tightly focused, practical workshop objectives. The first of these new seminars is entitled Email Newsletter Reinvention & Improvement: A Hands-On Workshop For Your Newsletter. The objective is simple: Take your existing newsletter and give you short term and long term improvements based on the practical advice of both peers and experts.
The Gilbert Center is Ten Years Old - Part 2
In Part 2 of our series on the first ten years of The Gilbert Center I talk about: the Internet Nonprofit Center, the Nonprofit FAQ, early nonprofit content management, our early articles, and an exploding mailing list.
Storytelling by Design
As you probably know, I am a strong believer in designing communication tools and practices around the relationships they are supposed to serve. In Storytelling by Design, David Seah looks at the role of storytelling in helping us do this. He starts with a familiar theme - the failure of thing-focused design - and then explores the reasons why storytelling is such a compelling technique.
Applied Empathy: A Design Framework for Meeting Human Needs and Desires
Dirk Knemeyer has written a thoughtful article entitled Applied Empathy: A Design Framework for Meeting Human Needs and Desires. He challenges some of the conventional notions of user centered design and proposes that we go even further. His innovations include five levels of success in design: participation, engagement, productivity, happiness, and well-being. I'm looking forward to seeing how these ideas develop.
More Money, More Demand: Results of the 2006 GuideStar Nonprofit Economic Survey
In More Money, More Demand, Suzanne Coffman presents the highlights of GuideStar's 2006 Nonprofit Economic Survey. I would question whether most nonprofits have the tools in place to accurately assess demand for their services. (And what exactly does "demand" mean for social change groups anyway?) Nevertheless, these results (also available in more detail than these highlights) are consistent with the devolutionary trend in the U.S. nonprofit sector.
Five Organizational Influencers on Emotional Skills
In my ongoing exploration of The Authentic Organization, my most recent thinking has been about the emotional skills of staff and stakeholders and how they are effected by the organizational environment. I propose that there are Five Organizational Influencers on Emotional Skills: recruitment, intake, structure, consequences, and leadership. I would be very grateful for any examples, counterexamples, and critical thinking you could offer.
Network Learning Management Skills Resources
Network Learning has some very impressive resources available online for people doing development work, in both the North and the South. I was particularly impressed with their collection of management guides, which includes How to Build a Good Small NGO (83 pages), Information - Its Collection and Use Throughout the Project Cycle (30 pages), Better Ways to Manage Meetings (18 pages), and Guidelines for Writing Reports.
2006 Year End Holiday Sale
In honor of the Winter Holidays that are celebrated by many of the readers of Nonprofit Online News, we are putting nine of our most popular products on sale, organized into bundles for executive directors, development and communication professionals, nonprofit technologists, and officers of organizations. Discounts run from 10% to 40%, depending upon the mix and configuration. Take a look at the order page to familiarize yourself with this further. We set this up so that you can buy either individual items
An Inconvenient Truth DVD Giveaway for Teachers Entry Form
Remember when the national science teacher's organization rejected 50,000 copies of An Inconvenient Truth, the global warming documentary? It seems they were more concerned about getting money from Exxon, which in my opinion is just shameful. Now the producers of the film are offering those free copies directly to teachers.
Anger
There is a lot of suppression of difficult feelings among people in civil society. Whether there is more or less of that than there is anywhere else in our various repressive cultures, I don't know. But I see the impact in the nonprofit sector up close. I would love to see some discussion of this. I recommend Asher Bey's great advice on anger and corresponding exploration of how people who have influence on others have a responsibility to deal with it mindfully.
Nonprofit Online News Journal: December 2006 Edition
Despite holiday delays and a twenty year storm, we have completed the December 2006 Edition of Nonprofit Online News Journal. We have Andrew Himes on reconciliation, Grantcraft on executive transitions, and GBN on scenario thinking for nonprofits. There are twenty-two annotated resources and five book reviews. I've contributed my blog survey report and another original Quicksheet (with which I'm particularly pleased) that presents the After Action Review technique in nonprofit terms.
Storm Knocks Us Offline
The storm that recently knocked over a million homes and businesses offline, hit The Gilbert Center pretty hard. We went down Thursday night along with both of our ISPs. Our generator brought us up partially on Saturday, but our ISPs did not restore reliable service until today. They say this was a twenty-year storm and this is the worst outage we have had with our services and online presence in our history. My local colleague and I have managed to stay warm ourselves. We hope to be completely back in busi
The Art of the Start Video
If you are not familiar with Guy Kawasaki's speech The Art of the Start (based on his book of the same title), then you are in for a treat if you watch it online. I recommend it to beginners and seasoned social entrepreneurs alike. At least, you will be humorously reminded of what you already know to be true about start-ups and sometimes that re-learning is exactly what we need.
Creating Passionate Users: "Dignity is Deadly." - Paul Graham
Quoting Paul Graham, Kathy Sierra says that Dignity is Deadly. Damagingly serious demeanors are indeed a problem, in the nonprofit sector as much as anywhere. But I also see a fair number of tech oriented nonprofit efforts projecting a cool demeanor without nearly the substance that I would say is needed to back it up. I appreciate the spirit and character of openness that is communicated, but I don't like it when it's just hip.
Hungry For a Month
During this period of high consumption in the rich north (of which I am, like many of you, a conflicted participant), we are often in need of a little extra consciousness raising. To that end, I recommend Hungry For a Month, in which Evan Stein, a young man of otherwise fairly common American privilege, documents his month of eating on one dollar a day in East Lansing, Michigan.
The HIMS Matrix: A Tool for Assessing Listening
I've been talking a lot about what "organizational listening" means and I plan on talking about it a lot more in the coming weeks. I want to start by sharing The HIMS Matrix: A Tool for Assessing Listening, which explains how stakeholders can end up feeling Heard, Ignored, Misunderstood, or Spied Upon. Take a look and see if you can use this framework to help you do more than just talk at your stakeholders.
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Another Plant Headed for the Memory Hole >>> The US Consciousness Police have their sites set on a new plant that they're moving to outlaw. Says USA Today: Federal drug agents are so concerned about the growing use of a little-known and accessible herb with hallucinogenic qualities that they are taking steps to treat it like cocaine, heroin and LSD, and make it illegal.... ''It's not like this substance is overtaking the streets of America, but I could see it becoming a pro
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Inquiry widens into soldier's 'torture photos' posted 04 June 2003
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Get the Dismal Economic Report That the White House Shelved From "Washington Shelved Report of 44-trillion-dollar Deficit" by Agence France-Presse, 29 May 2003: In the midst of negotiating a steep tax cuts package, the US government shelved a report that showed the United States faces future federal budget deficits of more than 44.2 trillion dollars. President George W. Bush's administration chose to keep the findings -- commissioned by then-Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill -- out of
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Attempted Suicides at Guantanamo Bay Stop, Then Reverse >>> Unknown News places 3 articles side by side so you can see the startling news about suicide attempts among the prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay. In early October of last year, there had been "at least 30" such attempts. But in late May, there had been only 27. Not only had all the prisoners completely stopped trying to kill themselves for almost seven months, but at least three of the early attempts weren't really
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posted 04 June 2003
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Moore Has Footage of Bush and bin Laden Families Dining Together >>> Ain't It Cool News, the scoop-filled Website that always has advance word on upcoming movies, has a report from an anonymous person who attended a private Michael Moore interview. The setting was Cannes, and Moore--via satellite--was pitching his new documentary, Farenheit 911, to distributors. Here's the crux of the matter: Its about the Bush family, their extensive connection with the Bin Laden family and the envi
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Congress Has a Way to Release the 9/11 Joint Inquiry Report Despite Bush >>> In his seminal e-newsletter, "Secrecy News," Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists discloses an obscure way Congress could release its 9/11 report despite the Bush Administration's attempts to block it: Five months after the completion of an 800 page report by the congressional joint inquiry into the September 11 terrorist attacks, the report remains classified and unavailable to the
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AFL-CIA? >>> Longtime labor activist Harry Kelber writes in his 21 May newsletter: Are Secret Activities Being Conducted By AFL-CIO’s International Affairs Dept.? Unbeknownst to most trade unionists, former AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland, as head of the International Affairs Department, ran a global empire that consisted of about 100 full-time professionals in international relations, operating in some 80 countries through four regional institutes, which he tightly controlled for more
Multi-Family, Affordable, Urban and Green
Sarah Rich: When green building jumped off the hippy boat, it landed on a shore where most homes were the domain of a wealthy elite. As a...
Integration Proclamation
Jon Lebkowsky: Nonprofit organizations increasingly depend on data to be effective, but databases are far less effective than they might be because it's so hard to integrate...
Transforming Philanthropy
Alex Steffen: Giving well -- giving money which provokes positive transformation over the long haul -- can be like juggling porcupines: things can easily end in tears,...
Veja Fair Trade EcoSneaks
Sarah Rich: When piecing together a sustainable wardrobe, it's easiest to start from the top, because finding hip green footwear takes work. There are some companies, including...
Sustainable Development: Jubilee Wharf, UK
Hana Loftus: For too long now, BedZED has been the quoted example of zero-carbon sustainable development in the UK - and its many teething problems and some...
Stefan Sagmeister on Designing the Worldchanging Book
Alex Steffen: One of the things I most enjoyed about editing Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century was working with designer Stefan Sagmeister. Stefan has...
Ten Democracy Projects in Seventy Minutes
Ethan Zuckerman: After lunch, the Sunlight/Berkman conference moved to a format that I usually find pretty painful - the Speed Geek session. In these sessions, people give...
Big Bang
Sarah Rich: Today we stumbled upon a guerilla campaign against CO2 emissions documented through a short sequence of photographs that speaks for itself. But to expain briefly,...
2010 Imperative Global Teach-In
Sarah Rich: Ed Mazria is a committed pioneer on the frontier of climate-conscious building. His Architecture 2030 agenda has gained recognition this year as an exemplary model...
5 Things
WorldChanging Team: We recently got "tagged" by some friends in the blogosphere to respond to the chain mail-style 5 Things You Don't Know About Me. Below are...
Massive Change and the City
David Zaks and Chad Monfreda: In conjunction with the Massive Change exhibit that recently ended in Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the City of Chicago Department of the...
Local Online Organizing
Ethan Zuckerman: I'm spending a cold, rainy Martin Luther King day at Harvard Law School with a room full of geeks and political activists. It's a day-long...
Eat What You Want, Pay What You Can
Sarah Rich: According to many restaurant industry stats, well over 50% of new dining establishments fail before their one year anniversary. This would seem to be a...
In Honor of a True Worldchanger
WorldChanging Team: Today is Martin Luther King Day in the U.S., a holiday that honors one of the most influential worldchangers of the 20th century. Martin Luther...
BillHop
Jon Lebkowsky: I've been thinking very hard about political technology, an area I've focused, worked, and consulted on quite a bit since 2004. Most recently, I was...