Why nonprofits are afraid of online communities

Eric Ries on the power of online communities –

When does engagement lead to donations?

One of the most popular questions nonprofits ask our Giving Gurus is “Where’s the money in social media?” (Sometimes folks say ROI, but they usually mean fundraising.)

Could lean startup techniques work in the social sector?

In the lean startup, product and management team build quickly, then iterate based on statistics gathered from real users (that’s Eric Ries’s excellent description below). When Seth Godin gripes about lack of vim in the nonprofit sector, this is the approach he’s missing.

The Point (of #DCTwestival)

Talk about social media. Last night’s Twestival in Washington DC raised funds for Miriam’s Kitchen, which provides meals and support for DC’s homeless. While the organizers have yet to announce how much money was raised, Miriam’s Kitchen says that last night they received enough to provide more than 10,000 meals for the homeless.

Organizing the World’s Emotion: YouTube and Our Video Identities

What we are encountering is a panicky, an almost hysterical, attempt to escape from the deadly anonymity of modern life… and the prime cause is not vanity… but the craving of people who feel their personality sinking lower and lower into the whirl of indistinguishable atoms to be lost in a mass civilization. – Henry Seidel Canby, 1926

Using Flickr Creatively: 3 Arts Organizations Innovate

Flickr combines the power of visual storytelling with the very nature of a social network - engagement and conversation. Three arts organizations (Houston Ballet, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and Luce Foundation Center for American Art) are innovating ways to use Flickr creatively, and in the process offering backstage passes to the organization, amplifying programming, and engaging stakeholders in real decision-making.

Collaboration at National Geographic Explorers' Symposium

The National Geographic Society, in addition to making a magazine, TV shows and website, also funds research and exploration. Once a year, they bring their grantees together for an Explorers’ Symposium in Washington, DC. I had a chance to attend some of the sessions.

FrontlineSMS at NetSquared Mobile N2Y4

Collaboration at NetSquared N2Y4

I spent much of the week at the NetSquared N2Y4 conference in Silicon Valley. NetSquared brings together social entrepreneurs, whose tech projects compete for funds. Last year the projects were mashups. This year’s theme was mobile.