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Not perfection. Just consistency.
Supporting people in addition to institutions is only the beginning of ways that foundations can help bring about social change in the Connected Age.
Foundations need to invest in training and support to enable people to become “network-ready”— fluent in the use of current social-media tools, curious enough to learn about new tools, and excellent in connecting skills like openness and listening.
Activists spend more time and energy doing, thinking about, and worrying about fundraising than any other task. As a community, it is critically important to our success and long-term sustainability that we come to a more natural place for both givers and receivers of funds.
Activists need to ask themselves hard questions about their own fundraising: What do I need to do versus what can others in the network do? How much can I raise from my community and how much needs to be supplemented by foundations and other grant makers? Where and how can I involve people in building my base of support?
Donors also need to become increasingly transparent and forthright about what they will and will not fund. Like a good baseball coach, we’re not asking for perfection, just consistency.
Using Social Media - & virtual world environments
- In January, I helped found the Non-Profit Global Network in Second Life. Sometimes it's the expense of connecting on-the-ground local information with the resources and intentions of donors and investors. A presence in Second Life could help connect the neighborly pastor, practitioners, NGOs, etc.
- these "critical connectors" -- with investors/donors.
I'm Dr. Leslie Jarmon / aka Bluewave Ogee in Second Life. I am involved in using Internet virtual world environments (Second Life) to complement and extend international development efforts. A growing number of non-profits are joining the growing number of corporations and educational institutions to leverage the powerful communication affordances of Second Life. Please contact me if you are interested. In the 80s, I served as Regional Coordinator of the Micro-Enterprise Development Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean with the U.S. Peace Corps. I am a Senior Lecturer on the faculty at The Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin. I have designed and taught graduate courses since 1998 here at the University of Texas at Austin's Professional Development & Community Engagement Program. In Fall 2007 I will teach a pilot graduate course held largely in Second Life called Communicating Across Disciplinary Cultures in Second Life. My research interests focus on Second Life and communication, technology, education, culture, and applications for developing countries. I also served three years as Community Outreach Officer for the Science, Technology, & Society Program at UT-Austin where I was Principle Designer of the Nanotechnology Civic Forum and of the "nano scenario" civic engagement model. I coordinate the Business Across Borders programs for the McCombs School of Business Plus Program. I am looking forward to working with anyone interested in exploring social entrepreneurship opportunities in Second Life. Contact email: LJarmon@mail.utexas.edu. In Second Life: Send IM to Bluewave Ogee (that's me). 512-232-3617. Office of Graduate Studies. The University of Texas at Austin. Austin, Texas USA.
Much ado about technology little ado about fundraising.
I couldn't agree more. Too bad it is still a hard sell despite your wonderful hype.
Do you think foundations still focus on primarily the organization as the unit of analysis rather than the organization within a network context?
I also worry that the buzz about all of the social media technology will overshadow the people side organizational development. Funders and activist geeks love the gadgetry but have a history of forgetting the fundamentals.
Most chronicles of social movements and community organizing document how the most successful and entrepreneurial organizations and movements have always been "network ready" even before the present techno-filled era.
It comes down more to leadership and an intuitive understanding of how to create inclusive and participatory networks and organizations.
And all activists worry about funding, but as a whole they don't often think hard about or do much fundraising. I ask them every day. Fundraising is organizing and networking!
If they did, as you say, they would have a bigger supporting membership bases, and more sophisticated communications tools that communicate with their diverse constituencies.
They tell me, "Tidy, we are focused on the work. We hate fundraising". Activist organizations come and go because they hate playing the distasteful foundation game and they do not view their members as potential financial contributors. What's up with that?
And you are right about another thing: Foundations ain't never going to pick up most of the tab for the revolution. Never have. Never will.