Social media challenges and opportunities for nonprofits

The Guardian today carries an excellent article by Megan Griffith on the importance of social networking and social media to nonprofit organisations. It raises themes dealt with in a longer report, available here, that Megan has authored for Third Sector Foresight.

People have always come together through membership of formal organisations and informal groups, whether for mutual support, to provide a service or to campaign for change. It is this coming together that is the lifeblood of civil society.
The rapid growth of the internet and its ability to connect people in new ways is impacting on the relationships that individuals have with each other and with organisations, and on the communities of which they are a part.
If the late 19th century was the golden age of mutual institutions, clubs and societies, the early 21st century is a new golden age of networks and online communities, a virtual replication of what went before. This presents new opportunities and challenges for voluntary organisations.
From the earliest email lists and bulletin boards, to the blogs and social networking sites such as MySpace which grew rapidly and gained wider coverage in 2006, the ease with which individuals can now be linked across electronic spaces mean that niche communities can be identified and their interests aggregated.
In particular, this has enabled marginalised groups to communicate, support each other and to mobilise more easily and effectively than was previously possible.

OK, I'm a little biased because I contributed to the report, but Megan has pulled complex ideas together from a wide range of sources, and in the main report looks at the potential impact of new media on membership, information management, transparency of operation, collaboration, fundraising and marketing. I'll be speaking tomorrow at the ICT Hub conference on these issues, when the report will be available. Megan adds in The Guardian:

For many voluntary organisations, online social networks such as these have the potential to be disruptive; that is, they have the power to change the model of organising upon which many voluntary organisations, and particularly membership bodies, are based.
The connections that ICT facilitates suggest that some organisations increasingly may be bypassed, and that power may shift away from top-down hierarchical organisations and towards more fluid and participative networks where there is less need for a centralised "bricks and mortar" coordinating organisation.

After quoting a number of examples, Megan highlights the importance of dialogue with, rather than broadcast communication from an organisation

The idea that it is the network that generates content - ideas, policies, advice - is in some ways what the voluntary sector has always done, and done well. But in other ways this represents a leap in the dark for organisations for whom being "on message" is seen as an important discipline.
Bertie Bosredon, head of new media at Breast Cancer Care, explains: "A charity's brand does not have the same protection as a commercial company because your supporters feel strongly about the charity they support and feel they have some ownership of the brand.
"You don't have 100% control over what they say and this can sometimes become an issue. So blogs can be powerful but they must be carefully managed and resourced."
Where organisations traditionally may have focused their communications on pushing information out from the centre, people now also expect organisations to pull in information from other sources. As such, cultures of engagement present more of a challenge than the technologies.

It's these issues of control and collaboration that I want to explore tomorrow - neatly summarised by Beth Kanter and Bev Trayner as Are you Yes 2.0 or No 2.0?

Previously: Nonprofit leadership means networking, socially and openly

Technorati Tags: nptech, nptechuk, socialmedia, socialnetworking

Comments

[Megan Griffith]

Thanks for the mention David. I'm looking forward to your talk tomorrow. I'll be doing one on ICT and fundraising in a breakout session, which will hopefully kickstart another ICT Foresight report!

Megan

[Beth]

Hi David,

I pointed to the report in summary, am now recommending it to someone from China .. who is working with nonprofits and wants to incorporate web20 ...
excellent slide deck