What I Learned about Nonprofits at the NC Conference
I was at the annual conference of the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits late last week. Here are a few things I learned there.
1. Nonprofits are very excited about Web 2.0, but also completely freaked out by the idea of people saying bad things about them online.
I tweeted (used Twitter) from the conference, along with a handful of other people. Check out our coverage of the conference. Several people who had never heard of Twitter were fascinated by the idea, but also alarmed at the prospect that someone might actually tweet that a speaker was boring. While they know that everyone would say the same thing to each other in person, or in private text messages or email later, or in the conference evaluation survey, the thought of it going out live in real time in a more public forum really bothered several people.
I heard a similar fear about blogging. The questions were not about how best to use the tool to market a nonprofit’s activities or mission (which is what I’ll be talking about during next week’s webinar on nonprofit blogging), but more like “What if someone says something really awful about us in the comments?” and “What if someone puts something mean about our blog on their own blog?”
2. Nonprofits are very concerned about copyright and privacy issues.
Several speakers suggested using Flickr for group photo sharing and to easily integrate rotating photography into a nonprofit website. In just about every case, again, the first question was not about how to use the tool most effectively, but rather “Won’t we need model releases from everyone in every photo?” and “Won’t people steal our photos?”
3. Nonprofits find the array of Web 2.0 options overwhelming - before they’ve even tried to use them.
Even though people were genuinely excited about the potential they saw for using the tools in their own organizations, especially after seeing some great examples of what others were doing from Katya Andresen, Angela Connor and John Kenyon, that excitement quickly turned into anxiety about trying to figure out what would work best for their particular situations.
What this tells me is that it isn’t enough for trainers like me to talk about the benefits and how-to’s of Web 2.0; we also need to address the very practical and real fears that come with this major shift in how nonprofits relate to their supporters online.
And here is something I was reminded about . . . It is SO GREAT to meet people face-to-face who you have only known online previously, and to catch up with great friends you don’t get to see often enough. Two cases in point:
- Meeting Leandra Ganko and Elizabeth Turnbull in person
Leandra, a web designer, connected with me through a mutual contact on LinkedIn several months ago and Elizabeth, a fundraising specialist, has been reading my blog for awhile. They have worked on nonprofit projects together here in North Carolina and I was on their “must meet at the conference” list. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them both in person and I hope I can find a project for the three of us to work on together in the coming year.
- Catching up Katya Andresen and Claire Meyerhoff
Katya is not only one of my favorite bloggers and an inspiration to all of us in nonprofit marketing, but she’s also a great friend. And even though media maven Claire Meyerhoff lives in NC and we email constantly, I don’t get to see her in person nearly enough either. Here we are getting ready to watch the presidential debate together the night before the conference got started.
While I’m certainly a huge advocate of online training, by all means, get to a conference when you can. There’s nothing like spending time with people face to face!
Sounds like much of what I learned right there with you, and I did enjoy twittering from the conference! It was really interesting to hear all of the different perspectives in my session and some of the fear that the industry seems to have about social media particularly. Good post. I do hope to help put some of that fear aside so that this industry can ultimate thrive using these important social tools.
Angela - I’m so glad you commented. I meant to link to your slides in this post and then spaced it! Editing now. Thanks for a great summary at the conference — and your fabulous sense of humor definitely helped put people at ease with this “scary” stuff!
Thanks for the shout out, you found me so quick on Thursday, I didn’t even have to look for you!
I think this post is a great summation of the reactions to Web 2.0 at the conference. It is important to remind folks that not all of these tools are relevant to their organization and everything gets easier with a little practice.
Hi Kivi,
This is great on the ground info about Web 2.0, and the things that nonprofits are thinking about. I think one thing that is a shift in culture/consciousness is the increasing focus on transparency. What if something bad is said? How do you respond? What affect does that have? All great questions to ponder.
I enjoyed your post as it helped me understand the resistance of non profits to using social media to reach constituents. It’s partly ignorance, lack of experience, fear of the unknown, being closed to becoming vulnerable, doubts about technology and much more. I’m working with non profits who want to use these tools but have all of those issues.. One step at a time and use familiar language to get people engaged is a good starting point.
Thanks, love your site.
Kivi,
Thanks for posting this. I was curious to learn more about your experience when you tweeted “Nonprofits are completely obsessed with people posting negative comments, bad photos, and being ugly based on all the questions.”
I’ve gotten the same sense from the NPOs I work with directly and those that I communicate with on Twitter and LinkedIn.
John
Kivi,
Thanks for the shout out! I had a blast at the conference, and, like you said, I got to meet interesting people face to face. For the record, you’re one of my favorite bloggers. In fact, you’ve inspired me to take a slightly different turn with my No Bull Fundraising blog. I’ll keep you posted on the developments. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the great time watching the debate — and debating over how to help nonprofits. You’re a great asset to our field and the work of nonprofits everywhere!
Photos Your Way is a photo sharing website that may be of interest to you. You get 7Gb of free storage to store and share your photos. You can keep them private to share just with certain friends and family or choose to make them public for the world to see.
You can also choose to sell downloads of your photos. If you do, your images will be licensed for use in print, brochures, websites and more! By doing this you are upgraded from 7gb of storage to unlimited storage!
They also have a program in which non profit organizations earn money by referring friends and family. The non-profit organization earns $1 for each person who registers and upload photos. Here is a link to check it out.
http://photosyourway.com/non_profit_request.aspx
Great recap, Kivi. Thanks for sharing. After recently leading a nonprofit workshop in Nashville on viral marketing via new Web 2.0 tools, I received much of the same feedback about fear, concern, privacy, etc.
One thing I remind NPs is that these tools need to be a part of an overall communications strategy, and don’t necessarily stand alone. Thus, it’s important to think about what you want to say, to whom, and why, and then find out which tools you’ll need.
Thanks again for being an important voice on this topic.
Interesting. Do you ever encourage nonprofit staff to use Web 2.0 tools on a personal level first, as a way to familiarize themselves with what’s possible?
While it may not alleviate all of their fears, experimenting with their own personal social networking account, for example, may help them see the potential for their organizations more clearly.