My latest contribution to the Stanford Social Innovation Review is now published. You can read the post and join the conversation on the SSIR Opinion blog, or read the full post below.

—–

Inevitably, January is filled with predictions and resolutions. We ponder the innovations and evolutions that may unfold in the technologies we use, and consider the issues we want to tackle in our work and communities.

Me? I’m focused on data. This year will, I hope, be the year of data. I see more organizations looking for ways to be data-driven in decision making, communications, campaigning, and marketing, and I see a growing interest in and understanding of the value in sharing data. The more we share our data with each other inside and outside of our organizations, the more data-driven we can be in our work collectively.

If you’ve been waiting for an invitation to dive into data, this is it. You are cordially invited to start tracking, measuring, evaluating, and sharing! Here are a few ways to get started:

Data for Promotion

Many organizations use selected statistics, data, or other information in press releases and calls to action, but we may not look at those numbers or statistics as stories that compel us to share, respond, and take action. There are ways, however, to use data to tell a more active story. Here’s an infographic that Points of Light shared during the ramp up to its 2012 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day service events. Looking at the cumulative impact of volunteers is really powerful when it’s presented in this way:

Data for Engagement

Using real-time tools to engage people through data can help increase both the time people spend on your site and the amount of information you can convey quickly. Mapping is one of the most-used and easily recognizable options. It’s easy to see and understand a map right away (especially using something like Google Maps, which most people have seen before or even used themselves). One great example is the wayEpic Change uses a map as the main interface for its To Mama With Love campaign.

The To Mama With Love site encourages visitors, without any written instructions, to click locations on the map, read through the user-created word, photo, and video dedications to moms (or, “heartspaces”), and engage with others’ stories by sharing or donating.

Data for Reporting

Organizations are also sharing data in many ways. Some if it is visual, such as in this terrific infographic that illustrates trends for where we are giving our time and money:

This year, I would love to see nonprofit organizations, service agencies, and local groups working together to share their data in the effort to more accurately map our collective impact and to identify new opportunities for partnership and collaboration. Imagine if you could see a map of hunger in your city that included a broader set of data than what Share Our Strength, Feeding America, or your local food bank has collected. What if the map included information from service providers, schools, and other local organizations? You would get a clearer picture of the issues causing hunger in your community—and be that much clearer about how to tackle the problem. Maps can reveal things such duplicated efforts and can help us understand where to invest. I would love to see that map! And I would love to help.

What are you looking to do this year with your data? What are you working on now? I would love to see or hear about any examples you already have.

I come across so many great conversations, ideas, and resources all over the web every day. Here are some of the most interesting things I’ve found recently (as of January 24th). You can join the conversations in the comments, or click through to the original posts to find what others are saying.

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• Eric Lanke: Stop Calling It Strategic Planning – "So I'm working my way through Humanize, and like most everyone else, I'm really enjoying it. This will probably be the first of several posts describing the thoughts it provokes for how I am and should be running my association. But dare I start with the endlessly controversial subject of strategic planning? I've heard Jamie Notter (and others) decry this staple of association board meetings as a tool whose time has come and gone, but it wasn't until I read the treatment of it in Humanize that I really understood what he was talking about. And it's convinced me of one undisputable fact. I need to stop calling what my association does strategic planning."
• 2011 NTEN Champions Fundraising Campaign by the Numbers | NTEN – "The funny thing about being the Nonprofit Technology Network is that it can be really hard to practice what we preach. You may recall that the NTEN community recently helped us raise over $15,000 to host more local events throughout 2012. We learned so much while running that campaign, but we also made lots of mis-steps along the way. One of the things we wished for as we navigated the campaign: benchmarks. Besides average gift amount, what might we expect?"
• New Research Proves the Business Case for Product Giving : PitchEngine : Get the Word Out™ – "New research from Indiana University concludes that businesses can do well by doing good through product philanthropy.  Donating products to charities helps corporate bottom lines, reduces waste in landfills, and provides relief for people in need. With a record number of Americans living in poverty today, product donations allow people to use their limited resources to pay for food, health care, prescription drugs, utilities and other vital needs. The study, released today by Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA), provides the first detailed examination of the return on investment for donating merchandise as opposed to liquidating or destroying it."
• Is email going out with 2011? | craigconnects – "I took a look at a few articles and studies, and according to ComScore's 2010 Digital Year in Review, email use dropped 59% among Internet users ages 12 to 17 in 2010. Users ages 18 to 54 have reportedly turned away from email, as well — many are instead communicating through social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. An increase in email use, however, was visible in the 55+ age group, who used web-email 15% more in 2010 than in 2009. The report also went into detail on what sites people spent their time on: it illustrated that time spent on webmail sites declined while social networking sites increased considerably." Would love to hear what your experience and perception of email use is! For me, I see the way I use email and treat email changing, but the importance and irreplaceability (is that a word?) of it staying the same. You?
• Multiple Constituent Groups, One Database: Case Studies | Idealware – A great collection of three case studies from very different organizations, including Fight Colorectal Cancer, Sarah's, and Earthjustice. How are you managing your data?

Earlier this week, I had the terrific opportunity to participate on a panel at the US launch event for “Philanthropy and Social Media”, a whitepaper from The Institute for Philanthropy and The Indigo Trust. Download the full white paper or share it using this link: http://bit.ly/oii1Vr Below are notes from my remarks.

The internet is not new. The last few years, though, have been dramatically impacted by the real-time web. The real-time web is a paradigm based on pushing information to users as soon as it’s available, instead of requiring that they or their software check a source periodically for updates. Social media is one of the most tangible examples of the real time web. 

We want to share while we are doing and have people respond immediately. Why be in just one place when we can be in many? That might look like sharing a picture from a concert, while you are still at the concert. It could be checking in with people on a location-based social network. And so on. This focus on collective participation and 24/7 connectivity has impacted more than just our social lives.

In 2009, for example, two trapped girls in Australia chose to post to facebook for help rather than dialing emergency numbers directly. A similar example is that of an Atlanta city councilman who chose to post a message to Twitter asking for a medic to respond to an unconscious woman on the street rather than to dial 911 when his mobile phone battery was very low.

The real-time web has also revolutionized the way we support local communities in disaster. Ushahidi, an open source project originally deployed in Kenya to report post-election violence has since been downloaded and deployed for many other events and disasters, including Haiti, Chile, and Japan. Philanthropy has been able to move into the real time web, too.

Another great example is Epic Change. Their Tweetsgiving campaigns were fundraisers benefiting Mama Lucy’s school in Tanzania and connected the students to their supporters through Twitter. Donors could communicate with the students, and they thanked participants directly – building lasting relationships. Their To Mama With Love campaign also leveraged the power of our social ties online through “heartspaces” people could create with embeded video and photos, and then share with social media, donate, etc.

Impacts to Society

What does all this really mean for us now? I see three pillars of our real-time society emerging:

1.People believe in the internet. They don’t necessarily think they need an organization in order to make an impact. So, for an organization to really win over supporters, they need to do a lot more today than they ever have to earn their trust. Part of believing in the internet means that you know you can (or believe you should be able to) find out historical, operational, and financial information on the organizations or people you might support.

2.People believe in their contributions. Even if it is just $10, they really believe that it is enough. Maybe it isn’t even money, but feedback or advice, maybe an introduction or volunteer time. People want to be recognized for contributing anywhere along the spectrum.

3.People believe you should listen to them. Whether that “you” is the government, business, public services, other community members, or even philanthropists. The internet is an endless stage and platform, and when we are up there speaking, we expect you are all listening.

Impacts to Philanthropy

For any investors or philanthropists, I’ve probably just reinforced any fear you had about the internet with those three points. But what does all this mean for philanthropy?

1.We can’t only invest in new. There have to be other criteria for defining and evaluating innovation. You may laugh, but I’ve reviewed grantmakers and government funds where that was actually the only criteria, other than going through the process of filling out the application form. For many start ups and even nonprofit groups doing something truly innovative, they totally blow it the first time around. A mulligan fund for projects that completely fail, but pay attention to what went wrong and how to do it right this time around could be the difference between many more failed attempts over years and jumping to a solution today.

2.We can’t only invest in a product. Instead, we should put the problems first and invest in a project. For many developers, including many of the projects we funded through NetSquared Challenges, the ultimate tool or application that was created was vastly different than the one they originally thought of or thought would work. But we invested in the project of trying things out and iterating towards a solution.

3.We can’t focus just on money. Especially as philanthropists, whether it is you or your organization, you have so much to offer beyond money. For many project teams I’ve worked with, having an endorsement actually took them further than having a chunk of change. Maybe it’s an introduction or a recommendation, or just a place to sit and work and have meetings.

What do you have to share? What does your real-time philanthropy or social impact look like?

[Image credit: Philanthropy and Social Media whitepaper]

Date: January 17, 2012, 6 pm EST

Location: New York, NY

Topic: Philanthropy and Social Media

Description: To launch the whitepaper, Philanthropy and Social Media, presented by The Institute for Philanthropy and The Indigo Trust, this panel discussed the impact of social media on philanthropy and giving from various perspectives. In addition to myself, the panel included: Ben Scott (Policy Advisor for Innovation at the US Department of State), Mayur Patel (Vice President of Strategy and Assessment, Knight Foundation), Scott Oki (Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist, and Co-Founder of SeeYourImpact.org).

Related Links:

• The Institute for Philanthropy
• The Indigo Trust
• Download the whitepaper (PDF)
• Blog post with speaking notes

“The revolution will not be televised.” Maybe not. Be as we have seen in events around the world, the revolution will be tweeted, photographed, mapped and posted to our status. And most importantly: it will be documented and shared by large numbers of people, experiencing it first hand, and sharing news and updates in real time. The revolution may not be televised, but no matter where you are, you can now have a front row seat to the broadcast.

As a community organizer and network weaver myself, I am incredibly excited by the #OccupyWallStreet movement that started in New York just over three months ago now (on September 17th) in response to a failing federal economy and political process that impact local, national, and international markets. In less than a month, over 1,700 other cities started Occupy events – both in solidarity to the thousands protesting around the clock in New York’s financial district, and with a loud voice that these issues are not unique to the US. The “leaderless” organizing of the Occupy Wall Street movement has helped avoid strategic arrests or censorship but has also prompted a powerful use of social technologies.

Online Homebase

Over the past few years, the use of social technologies during disaster response has become a central component to news and information delivery. One key element is the use of an online homebase. We are now seeing this put to great use with #OWS. There are many free online website and content creation tools available. Creating a space where you can collect and aggregate the news, content, and updates of your movement is important for people to better understand, follow, and join you. It doesn’t have to be fancy (remember: less is more) – it just needs to pull all the pieces together for your community.

Brought to you Live

The power of “now” is what makes something go from news, to breaking news. Thankfully for members of #OWS, there are various tools to livestream events, just from your mobile phone. The livestream – whether it’s video, audio, or just text – can be embedded in your online homebase and shared across social networks. The updates and first-hand accounts bring attention to a movement and generate more participation.

Personalize It

The most successful fundraising campaigns, advocacy efforts, and even personal experiences center on one person, one animal, one story, especially when trying to support a huge, faceless issue. #OWS has made the economy and political process a personal issue, inviting people around the US and the world to put their story on paper and share a photo of themselves with the story online. This level of personal connection inspires sharing and participation by those on the ground, and those following remotely.

How To: Use Tech to Organize Today

1. Build your online homebase with a wiki, a website (like WordPress.com or Google Sites), or a blog (like Tumblr or Posterous).

2. Keep people connected to live video (like Livestream or Vimeo), regular audio updates (like CinchCast or Audioboo), or live feeds of text from a Twitter hashtag or an open chat like CoverItLive.

3. Invite everyone to join the movement by sharing pictures, stories, and signs to spread your message (try Flickr or Tumblr).

I come across so many great conversations, ideas, and resources all over the web every day. Here are some of the most interesting things I’ve found recently (as of December 22nd). You can join the conversations in the comments, or click through to the original posts to find what others are saying.

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• Why Real-World Socializing Is the Next Big Thing for Social Media – "From the Latin root socials, meaning “united, living with others,” the word social is firmly grounded in the physical world and implies face-to-face interaction. If you’re a social person, it means you like to spend time with other people. But this definition conflicts with today’s concept of social networking, in which we interact primarily with screens rather than with people."
• Here’s What People Look at on Facebook Brand Pages – "In an effort to catch your eye on their Facebook pages, brands have experimented with apps and splashy profile photos. But in almost all cases, it turns out, the humble Facebook wall itself steals the show. In an webcam eye-tracking study for Mashable by EyeTrackShop, the 30 participants who viewed top Facebook brand pages almost always looked at pages’ walls first — usually for at least four times longer than any other element on the page."
• The Buzz Builders Blog – "As Habitat for Humanity celebrates their 35th anniversary, along with the completion of their 500,000th home this month, they’re jumping on the “social” train and investing in new web tools that integrate the “social media experience” with the “volunteer experience.” Check out these three great tools that Habitat has developed to make volunteering more social in this digital age."
• How One Company Saved Thousands of Dogs Using Social Media – Great post from Frank Barry with beginner, intermediate and advanced levels! "Social media is all the rage, but does it actually help create real change in the world? The folks at Best Friends Animal Society would answer with a resounding yes! Best Friends has introduced the Invisible Dogs Campaign, a nod to the invisible dog leash from the ‘70s and ‘80s. “Invisible dogs” refer to the forgotten pets found in city shelters that face tremendous odds to get adopted. “[We’re] turning that into a real message about adopting dogs unseen in the nation’s shelters,” explains Claudia Perrone, marketing manager for Best Friends. Best Friends provides a valuable example of social media mobilizing people to take action in the real world."
• What Nonprofits Can Learn From Occupy Wall Street – Social Good – The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas – "In the six week since Occupy Wall Street began its protests, the movement has spread across the country. Nonprofits that want to create movements that take hold and spread fast need look no further than the We Are the 99 Percent Tumblr blog, says Micah Sifry, co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum. Where nonprofits often stumble in their social-networking efforts, he says, is by creating campaigns that are "a little too slick, a little too professional, a little too cautious, a little too controlled.""

[Note: The following is an excerpt of an article in the December 2011 issue of NTEN:Change. Read the complete article, "From Outcomes to Impact," by subscribing to the journal for free!]

By Julie Macalik, with Greenlights for Nonprofit Success

The first step in starting to measure your impact is to identify the major outcomes that you want to examine. In order to be successful in this step you will need full management support and a dedicated key project lead for your team. This person will take the helm on laying out tasks in a sequence, informing other staff of their roles and assignments, and providing assistance to people as they complete their parts of the evaluation.

The standard nonprofit data points come from fundraising, communications, programs, and finance so consider these sources when gathering your team.

The standard nonprofit data points come from fundraising, communications, programs, and finance so consider these sources when gathering your team. For example, a representative from the fundraising department can make sure you consider when your funders’ reporting cycles are so that you are producing outcome measurement results at a time that aligns with their requests for information about your programs. Also, those most directly affected should provide meaningful participation, so don’t forget about your front-line staff directly involved in providing services.

Next you will want to select the outcomes that you want to examine and prioritize them. For each outcome, specify what observable measures, or indicators, will suggest that you’re achieving that key outcome for impact. After you have made your selection you can then identify what information is needed to show these indicators.

There are many types of technology and other management tools available to assist in this process, and now is the time to take stock of your technology and the tools you are going to use to track your data. Decide how information can be efficiently and realistically gathered utilizing the different methods that are best for your organization including:

• Surveys - Consider what features you will need. If you’re just looking to get your feet wet with a quick survey, one of the many free or low cost online tools will do the trick. In fact, a more sophisticated survey package could be considerably more difficult to use. On the other hand, if you’re looking for survey software to support rigorous research, the more advanced packages are more likely to have the features you need.
• Interviews and focus groups - The desired outcome of this type of method is to solicit data without any influence or bias. This also allows you to develop a relationship with clients or other key stakeholders and get a full range and depth of information. One benefit of focus groups is the ability for participants to feed off each other’s energy and bounce ideas off one another. Consider using an outside facilitator to help develop questions and protocol and to help identify themes from your data.
• Documentation Review - Looking at internal records including applications, forms, procedures, and finances allows you to get an impression of how programs operate without interruption and identify new methods of collection.
• Databases - Nonprofits can use these tools to track data in real time and report on results. Internally they can assist in managing performance at the departmental or affiliate-level using dashboards and benchmark progress over time.

After the data is collected, organize the information into similar categories (i.e. concerns, suggestions, strengths, etc.). From here you can identify patterns and themes to help you categorize and analyze data according to the indicators for each outcome.

Continue reading this article, which includes more resources and tips, when you subscribe to NTEN:Change for free!

My latest contribution to the Stanford Social Innovation Review is up on the opinion blog – you can read the post and join the conversation on the SSIR blog or read the full post below.

—–

Google+, the social network launched by Google nearly 5 months ago, has recently opened up the platform to organizations and brands with a profile type akin to the options for individuals and Pages on Facebook. Many early adopters in the nonprofit community were already working hard (despite announcements from Google that they would police use and roll-out an organization-specific profile option) to start building a space for their organization’s profile on the new social network since it originally launched. Those same early adopters and others have now jumped right in to create an official profile for their organization in Google+, with many sharing some concerns or complaints about the options and functionality available.

In a sector where we are always trying to do more with less, we can’t be fooled into thinking our strategies for engagement on online networks can be cut and pasted from one space to the next. Here are a few reasons why using multiple social networking platforms doesn’t just mean you repeat your effort.

Community First

Who is using the platform? Is your community largely tech-savvy early adopters? So far, the demographics of Google+ skew toward American males working in technology. By last month, the user ratio between male and female had come up to about 70/30 and the country with the second highest number of users was India at about 13 percent. One of the core principles in community engagement is to use the tools your community is using. If your community meets offline at a local watering hole to share opinions and make plans, don’t bother setting up a Twitter account with the purpose of influencing them. But if they congregate online, on a community news site or blog network, join them in conversation there.

It’s the same with any platform. Pay attention to your community. If they are using the tool, then join them. If they’re not, it’s OK to wait—especially if time and energy are scarce.

The Price of Early Adoption

Organizations that joined Facebook early on endured the “price of early adoption”—they were the guinea pigs for a platform that was still figuring out just what to do with this form of user. Just as Facebook experienced users putting an organizational profile into the system designed for individuals, Google+ attempted to swiftly moderate nonindividual profiles and publicized an application form for first-round brand profiles once the functionality was available. Now that it is here and organizations are jumping in to create their profile on Google+, they’ll need to work through the kinks.

Changes, new functionality, and platform iterations will continue indefinitely—for better or worse. The difference is that in these early stages, changes could mean your investment literally disappears or you need to start over. As many have already complained, you cannot (for the moment, at least) share access to a brand page on Google+. If your current social media plan and strategy calls for staff transparency and shares responsibility across staff, Google+ may not work at the level you need just yet.

Apples and Oranges

Ultimately, though Facebook and Google+ (or any other networking platform for that matter) are both social networking tools, there are important differences. MySpace, Friendster, FriendFeed, Diaspora, Bebo, and others all offer plenty of fuel to the argument that comparing two social platforms has to go beyond the functionality of messaging, commenting, and connecting to your friends. The differences between the platforms are real and important to consider when deciding whether or not it’s a place where you can advance your goals—whether they’re engagement, communication, fundraising, or anything else.

For example, if your organization currently uses Facebook as a major channel for fundraising, you are probably actually using Causes—an application that runs within Facebook—for the management of the campaigns, communications, and donations. That’s an important clarification because it means that your strategy doesn’t use “Facebook” as the tactical level of implementation, and you can’t simply duplicate that on Google+ now. If, instead, you use a private group on Facebook to organize volunteers or champions who are instrumental to your fundraising efforts, but your activity, communications, and donations are taking place elsewhere, then creating a similar strategy for Google+ could work. It’s integral to the success of online efforts to recognize just where these various tools and platforms compare and where they are dramatically different.

What do you think? Are you using Google+ now and have you set up a profile for your organization? Please share the link and your thoughts about the experience so far!

Last week, I had the opportunity to run a webinar on Nonprofit Webinars. I had thought to myself that there wouldn’t be anyone registered because it wasn’t a very buzzy topic. I was presenting on the way we can identify metrics in social media that help us reach our mission and how to use those metrics strategically. No “make money on social media” or “top 5 Twitter tips”. I was so thrilled, then, to see a couple hundred registered! Thank you to everyone who participated and recognized the value in being strategic with our use of social media!

Strategic Data

I have done a few webinars and presentations about social media tracking and metrics and frequently used the phrase “actionable data.” After one of these presentations, a participant came up to me and pushed back a little on what I’d said, explaining that data was for evaluation and that seemed very passive. I responded that data, without action, isn’t worth our effort to track it. That’s what actionable means.

But then I realized, the reason people didn’t see action tied to their data was because they didn’t see how the data, or even the actions that data could indicate, were strategic. Data we don’t want to take action about is even worse. We need strategic data. And, as it turns out, that doesn’t just mean data from your programs and services, but from your social engagement, too.

Step 1: Linking Strategy to Goals

Most of us on this call probably have an elevator speech or even a few that we use to explain what it is we do as an organization, what our role in the organization is; maybe even why people would want to get involved or donate. That’s where we start. We can use that general or generic even mission statement to start putting our social media use into a strategic place.

If your organization has a strategic plan or even a Theory of Change, you are already equipped with even more deliberate language that can help you get started. Most strategic plans include program area or service area specifics and you can use those to help frame why you use social media.

Step 2: Linking Goals to Social

Now that we have identified some areas where social media fits with the overall purpose of the organization, we can start putting certain aspects of social engagement into goal areas. We want to be specific here about the why and less specific about the what. For example, our goals with social media should identify the influence or impact we want to make, but not necessarily say we will do it on facebook. You may, actually use facebook for part of your social media activity, but you want to form your goals so that they are impact-specific, and open to either multiple or changing platform use.

Step 3: Acting on Strategic Data

And the last part, identifying your metrics to track and really tracking it! When it comes to tracking, there are a few things I recommend:

 Get Started

You can use this template to get you started. Be sure to change the blue rows in the document to reflect your goals and align your various metrics underneath. Make a copy of the file for your own use (otherwise anyone on the web will see your data if you put it in my template), or download the file.

>> http://bit.ly/DIYmetrics

Slides & Video

You can review the slides below, or check out Nonprofit Webinars to watch the full recording!

Photo credit: Flickr myklroventine