Nonprofit CEOs and the Network Mindset. SF Goodwill's CEO, Debbie Alvarez-Rodriguez Source: Flickr, Goodwill SF Today, I have the honor of doing a session at The Allstate Foundation‘s 60th Anniversary Executive Summit (hashtag #60summit) where I’ll be talking about leading nonprofits with a network mindset. Last week, I gave the ending keynote about Mindful or Mind Full Social Media at the Social Media for Nonprofits Silicon Valley Conference. I stayed for the entire, listening to the presentations (Check out summary for tweets, slides, and resource links). SF Goodwill’s CEO, Debbie Alvarez-Rodriguez, gave a compelling talk about her personal journey as a leader of a traditional nonprofit transforming into a networked nonprofit. Here’s how her talk was described in the program. Social Media: Getting Leadership Buy-InSocial media presents incredible opportunities for nonprofits, both large and small.
“We all want to be relevant & impactful”-Deborah Alvarez Rodriguez#sm4np— Social Media 4 NPOs (@SM4Nonprofits) July 26, 2012. Style Guide for High-Impact Nonprofit Communications. Here’s a problem nonprofit communicators like you share with me time and time again: Due to the ubiquitous nature of information and promotion, we’re all bombarded by content—every waking minute. In the face of this flood, inconsistencies in your organization’s content—both editorial and graphic—make it difficult for your audiences to digest, at a glance, that these varied communications are all coming from your organization.
Here’s the problem with that: When you’re recognized, it’s much more likely your email or envelope will be opened, which is the only way it will be digested and acted upon. Consistency Is the Long-Term Solution Consistency – cross-channel and over time – is the key to your audiences absorbing your messages, and for them to be able to “whisper down the lane” – repeating those messages to friends and family. Keep in mind that this consistency must stay flexible, to be adapted when the channel, audience or other factor is radically different from the norm.
Nonprofitsocialmediaaudit - home. Deborah's NPtech Update. Social Media Audit: Understanding and Implementation. Becoming a Networked Nonprofit. Redesigning your nonprofit organization to become more participatory, open, authentic, decentralized, collective, and effective—via social media, networks, and beyond. The environment in which nonprofits are doing their social change work has changed dramatically over the past five years. It’s more complex, online networks are central to our lives and work, and stakeholders want more involvement.
Seeing tangible results from your organization’s social change efforts now requires two things to be successful: leading with a network mindset, and using measurement and learning to continuously improve. It is just not about using the tools—having a Facebook brand presence or tweeting as the CEO of your organization—it is a total redesign of your organization. A network mindset exercises leadership through active participation, openness, decentralized decision-making, and collective action. Success happens for nonprofits if they take small, incremental, and strategic steps. The Crawl Stage.