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Networking your NGO for the Citizen Age
Washington, DCJune 2013
Who is this guy?
About Communicopia
About us
We are a boutique digital consultancy working
globally for change. We lead transformational
digital projects that help social mission
organizations increase their impact &
effectiveness in a networked world.
Our clients
Include Human Rights Watch, NRDC, Tar Sands
Solutions Network, UN Foundation, The Elders, &
the TckTckTck global climate campaign. We also
founded the Web of Change community.
We live in times of massive systems change
The web & networks are creating new models
Audiences have tuned out
Faith in institutions is at all time low
Complex world. People see connections
They expect more. Want to give more.
Rapid growth of networked orgs
Rise of “free agent” changemakers
The web has changed advocacy
Initial web = publishing
Networked web = conversations
The web past & presentTraditional Web Today’s Web
• Knowledge share via textPublishing
• Drive traffic homeMy Site
• Email list• Site trafficGrow Base
• Asks: send $ or “form email”
Simple Advocacy
Storytelling
Meet Where They Are
Social + Distributed
Meaningful Participation
Most institutions lack the people, structure, &
culture to lead in this new world
Everyone a campaigner
25 Mill
• MOBILISATION STRATEGY AND DESIGN :: creative and collaborative
workshops with multidisciplinary teams
• ASSESSMENTS AND REVIEW :: evaluating past performance to inform
future mobilisation efforts
• DATA ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH :: building a culture of data-driven
campaigning, designing tests with campaigns and offices, and setting up
controlled experiments to optimize and improve performance
• TRAINING AND PEER LEARNING :: skill-building, knowledge sharing, and
network building
• STORYTELLING AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER :: sharing innovations,
lessons learned, fail stories, and emerging best practices
• STAFFING SUPPORT :: advising on staffing structures, integration efforts,
and hands-on support with talent recruitment and hiring
• INNOVATION INCUBATION :: piloting new ways of working, from
practices to technologies
• SYSTEMS CHANGE :: advising global organisation, campaign teams, and
national/regional offices on new ways of working
4 Models +
A Digital Team Developmental
Framework
Digital Team Development
Foundation Optimized Integrated Low
per
form
ing
Hig
h pe
rfor
min
g
A framework to understand digital evolution
Informal
Centralized or Independent
Hybrid
Goal Online Presence Acquisition & Retention Innovation
Key Activity Publishing Managing Engaging
Culture Reactive Strategic Transformative
Foundation Teams
26
Foundation Teams
27
You are probably at this level if you…
• Are not focused on digital as a core competency, or have
just started to look at it more closely
• Have one or two junior staff working on digital who are
likely overwhelmed, reactive, and in a tactical support
mode
• Primary focus is publishing: basic digital content on a
schedule or in reaction to internal demands, with little time
to curate, connect, or promote key content
• Have basic but limited website + technology in place
• Are not actively driving traffic to campaigns or fundraising
Optimized Teams
28
Optimized Teams
29
You are probably at this level if you…
• Have a digital director who provides some leadership
• Have a centralized or independent digital team(s),
supported by reliable contractors and partners
• Have a stable website and core technology framework
• Have a growing or flat constituency and fundraising base
• Manage an outbound marketing plan, track sophisticated
metrics, and know what is producing the best results
• Are focused on refining and optimizing digital activity in
order to grow & retain supporters
• Are able to respond well to changing external conditions
Integrated Teams
30
Integrated Teams (are very rare!)
31
You are only at this level if you…
• Are good at optimizing and maintain your lead here
• Have excellent technology that is agile and adaptive
• Have a high level organizational strategy (ie focus)
• Use digital channels strategically to build community
and relationships with supporters at all touchpoints
• Digital is integrated w/program, comms, fundraising
• Have a team focused on some core digital services but as much on supporting and enabling others to lead
• Are focused on continuous learning and innovation of the whole institution rather than pure departmental goals
Networked Nonprofits
A term coined by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine
Networked Nonprofits
Simple & Transparent OrgsNetworked nonprofits are easy for outsiders to get in and insiders to get out. They engage people to shape and share their work.
They work differently than other orgs. They engage in conversations with people beyond their walls to build relationships that spread their work through the network. Relationship building is a core responsibility of staff. They are all comfortable using social media to encourage two way communications between people.
Networked Nonprofits
Beth’s Three Attributes: Social culture. Transparency. Simplicity.
Other attributes:
• Smaller budget, less reliant on staff-driven model
• Focus on doing a few things well
• Hold back resources to jump on big, emergent opportunities
• Project based structures focused on outcomes
• Staff are ambidextrous + sometimes younger (Millennials)
• Listen well. Many are actually member-driven
• No barriers between “online” and “real world” work
Institutions born after the Internet
How are they different?
Driven by policy, run by experts, focused on elites
Traditional Nonprofits
Create & promote policy solutions
Find the right policy answers. Run many long
term campaigns promoting or defending them.
Expert based culture
Program / policy professionals drive the ship.
The “real work” of the institution. Senior
leaders were often experts previously, not
managers.
“Grass-tops” audiences
Communications & campaigns typically
targeted at senior decision makers or media.
Policy
Traditional Nonprofits
• Very silo’d structures: departments compete for resources,
disincentives to collaborate
• Hierarchical, top down cultures: young/web ppl not asked
• Gap between what supporters are interested in (cause) and
most organizational comms work (policy) is very wide
• Small donor fundraising drives “regular people” work & owns
supporter lists. Sometimes even runs parallel programs
• Typically very protective of & conservative with brand
• Incentive to always promote their own experts/reports/wins,
acting somewhat narcissistically
• Often work in isolation, or in cumbersome coalitions
Additional attributes
Online is a faux grassroots strategy
NGO’s struggle with digital
Online is separate: Run within one silo, it has metrics focused
on list growth, struggles to keep up with publishing demands,
much less drive new outreach models based on engagement.
Other challenges:
• Online lives in communications, driven by content needs
• Communications is under-invested in across the sector
• Dept that does “real world” is separate from “online”
• Culturally, leadership built careers being experts, being
perfect, being professional, being the best, having control
It’s not about building a big list
Network orgs are built around a high
engagement model
People lie at the core of their Theory of Change
Network Orgs
Social culture
Co-create or improve solutions along with
partners & people outside their walls.
Transparent model
Openly share theory of change. Comfortable
with emergence, testing, & learning in public.
Simple focus
A clear goal and limited program areas. Also
stronger investment in comms, messaging, UX.
People
The model suits our times
Maps directly to web values: Transparency. More
conversational style. Meet people on their terms. Enable self-
organizing systems. Offer meaningful participation.
Other benefits:
• Complex world, difficult issues take many players
• Can stretch fewer resources a long way
• Engages talents locked up in our communities
• Can turn on a dime; focus big attention on opportunities
• Innovation doesn’t always come from experts; front lines
An adaptive model for a rapidly changing world
Greenpeace Mobilization Integration Toolkit
http://www.mobilisationlab.org/integration-toolkit
Innovations in people-powered campaigning and digital mobilisation from around the world.
Signup for dispatches:MobilisationLab.org
Join campaigners from 350.org, ActionAid, Oxfam, Red Cross, Save the Children and otherleading organisations.
@MobilisationLab
Digital Team Development
Foundation Optimized Integrated Low
per
form
ing
Hig
h pe
rfor
min
g
A framework to understand digital evolution
Informal
Centralized or Independent
Hybrid
WITNESS
Continue the conversation
Communicopia
Communicopia.com
@communicopia
@mogusmoves
How to get in touch with us
Mob Lab @Greenpeace
MobilisationLab.org
@mobilisationlab
@silbatron
Thanks to our co-sponsors
This is not about technology.
It’s about relationships.
