Reading, Writing and the Extraordinary Power of Open Books

Open Books

I love Open Books. Did you know that Chicago has a low literacy rate of over 50%. I can’t imagine trying to navigate life as an adult, unable to read what I need to, in order to get through my day. Open Books has the most innovative programs to inspire the love of reading and writing in children and adults. And their bookstore is like none other. LOVE!

So when I was approached by Razoo to chair the Chicago efforts for the national give day, Twive and Receive, I said sure! I got to choose the nonprofit that we would be raising money for in Chicago. You may know how I feel about Open Books and its founder, Stacy Ratner. I am not in a position to make substantial donations to the organization. But I can create great momentum to facilitate others giving to this incredible organization.

So here’s the deal. Today, June 14th, is a national competition. Cities all around the country are spending 24 hours fundraising for their chosen organization. The top 3 fundraising cities will receive additional funds of $15,000, $10,000, and $5,000. How I would love for Open Books to be one of those winners!

If you are in Chicago, join us at Open Books for Literacy Olympics, tonight, from 6-9:00 pm. We’ll have silly and nerdy book games, delicious Wow Bao to eat, and loads of fun. It is $15 to come in and $25 to join in the game playing.

Support the power of books!

If you can’t come, PLEASE go into this site and make your donation to support Open Books. Every gift, no matter the size, will make a difference. So whether you can give $5.00 or $500, please support Open Books.

If literacy and Open Books are not your passion, but you feel connected to me, then do it for me. I can’t even begin to describe what a critical role Stacy Ratner has played for me as I have navigated this journey over the past 3 years.

And if you are on Twitter, the hashtag is #twivereceive.

Thank you! Hope to see you at Open Books tonight and/or your donation in the tally on the Twive and Receive site.

 

I Can’t Find You Part Deux: Now You are Acting Like a Douche

Are you a douche?

I am fed up with all of the e-newsletters coming to my inbox. This frustration stems from the fact that I didn’t sign up for these newsletters. I posted on Facebook that I was on an unsubscribe mission. Based on the many comments posted in response, it seems as though there are a whole lot of folks who agree. So I decided I needed to do a follow up post to I Can’t Find You: How to Self-Promote Without Being a Douche.

I am a firm believer in self-promotion. I wrote that post because I don’t think some people promote themselves enough. But it has to be done right. And for some reason, what is right isn’t always very clear to everyone. So, here is my list of things you shouldn’t do when you self-promote.

1. DO NOT ADD PEOPLE TO YOUR E-NEWSLETTER WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION. Were all those capital letters annoying? Certainly. But not nearly as annoying as all those newsletters I am getting. I got one last week from an African American Evangelical Christian group. I am a white Jewish girl in the suburbs. WTF folks???

Look, I send an e-newsletter. And building the list that receives it has been painfully slow. I think I have under 100 on the list. But everyone on that list is there because they chose to be. And just because I agreed to be your LinkedIn connection or your Facebook friend does NOT mean I agreed to let you sign me up for your newsletter. Capeesh?

2. And speaking of LinkedIn, sending me spam via LinkedIn is a major nuisance. I know you are sending these messages to all of your contacts, so it is just guilt by association. But don’t do it. If you really want me to attend your event, send me an individual, personalized email. That way I know you actually thought about it first. If you keep sending these to me, know that I shall be un-linking with you. Life’s too busy. I don’t need 12 different notifications of your events. And for some of you, I don’t really want any. I don’t want to attend your events. My lack of attendance and lack of response should be an indication that this is the case. Stop spamming me.

3. And still speaking of LinkedIn, do you really think I am going to approve a request to connect from someone I don’t know and have never heard of, with the LinkedIn template? “I’d like to add you to my professional network” is lame. Expediency is sometimes highly overrated. If I don’t know you, why would I approve that? You have to convince me.  So take a few moments to craft an effective ask that explains why it is in my interest to connect with you. It won’t take long, and the payoff is that you get what you want.

4. Unless you and I are close friends, do NOT ask me to vote for you, share your blog post, or leave a comment.  I could spend my day just responding to these requests. And none of these folks are going to pay my rent or any of my bills. And usually they aren’t going to promote anything I do either.

5. When you choose your title, choose wisely and carefully. You are not a ninja, guru, jedi, or expert just because you say so. Leave that to other people to say when they describe you. Otherwise, you sound like a douche. Truly.

I know I am leaving out boatloads of annoying behaviors. Please add your pet peeves in the comments.

 

I’m Not a Fundraiser. Really!

I am not a fundraiser. In reality though, working in the nonprofit sector means everyone is involved in fundraising. So it’s not that I have never worn the fundraising hat. It just isn’t the primary description I inscribe on my shingle. However, social media and the people I have met through those channels seem to be slowly changing that for me.

Gulf fisherman affected by the BP oil spill

It all started a few years ago when I met my friend Geoff Livingston on Twitter. Not long after we exchanged tweets, he traveled to the Gulf with Citizen Effect. Geoff is a talented photographer who used his camera to document the impact of the BP oil spill on the people of the Gulf. His compelling photographs captivated me every day. After the trip, Geoff and the rest of the Citizen Effect group that traveled together decided to create a national fundraising event with coordinators in each city to benefit Gulf fishermen and their families. I was soon recruited via Twitter to be the Chicago coordinator. It was no easy task to coordinate this national event via the telephone, twitter, and email. But Citizen Effect did just that. We spoke regularly to coordinate, brainstorm, and share ideas. Most of the promotion we did was via Twitter, Facebook, and blog posts. That is how the buzz was created for the trip to the Gulf and how the buzz was created for the national fundraising event. Ultimately, I think what made the entire initiative work was the photos that people shared. Whether it was Geoff’s pictures from the trip itself, or the photos from the night’s events, the pictures made it real.

Join in this national effort

And now I am in the midst of getting to work with Geoff once again on a national fundraiser. This time it is with Razoo. On June 14th, cities across the country will join together for a day called Twive and Receive. Each city has a coordinator who chooses a nonprofit to be the day’s beneficiary. I have chosen Open Books to be the recipient nonprofit organization.

Open Books is a nonprofit that promotes literacy

During these weeks leading up to the event, we are using blog posts, Twitter, Facebook, and the website that Razoo has created for us to promote Twive and Receive. Chicago has a pretty large network of people who are involved in and passionate about social good. One of the challenges for us will be that many people already have their pet causes. I have begun reaching out to high impact individuals who are not already tied to another organization. Their support and outreach via social media, blogs, and announcements at events in Chicago will be critical to our success. Additionally, we will use the network that Open Books has created to promote Twive and Receive to their network. I will also be utilizing my own network on Twitter and Facebook to promote this event.

I encourage you to consider serving as a coordinator for your city. Working with Citizen Effect and now with Twive and Receive, connected me with a whole new community of do-gooders and I learned so many great skills about effective promotion, event creation, and utilizing social media in the nonprofit sector. To this day, I still feel pretty great about the money we raised for Gulf fishermen and their families. And I am thrilled to be able to help do the same for Open Books.

 

I Can’t Find You: How To Self-Promote Without Being a Douche

When you send an email, do you have a permanent signature on the bottom? If you do, YEA! If you don’t, why not?  Even if it is your private email, you are  missing opportunities to promote yourself. My email has the following signature:

My email signature

If you are uncomfortable with the idea of promoting yourself, think of it as providing a service to others. Frequently, I need to find people’s websites, blogs, or other online information. It is so easy if they include that information in their email. If they don’t, I have to search for it, which can take several minutes.

Here is a short list of easy things I believe we all should be doing to become more searchable and to promote ourselves-not in a spammy way, but in a professional, appropriate, and helpful way.

1. Email Signature (as mentioned above)

As you can see above, I include a tagline and links to my LinkedIn profile, this blog, and my Twitter account. Once I have a website up, I will link to that, which will include my blog. You can certainly include a phone number, an email address, Facebook page, or any of your other online accounts. I always thought including email was redundant. But it isn’t incorrect to do so.

2. Comment on Blogs

When you read blogs, do you leave comments at the end?  I make it a point to comment on blogs for a number of reasons.

• It is a way to acknowledge that you appreciate the effort someone took to write that post. We all can look at statistics to see that people are visiting our sites, but it is the comments that really provide the proof that folks are reading and thinking about what they read–that we actually had an impact with our writing.
• Great conversations can result from commenting. It gets me thinking and understanding the issues more thoroughly or from a different perspective.
• Commenting on blogs increases my “search-ability” on Google. Yes, really. Comments show up and move you higher up in search.

3. Complete Profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn and Elsewhere

A Twitter profile without a bio or a link to a site means I generally don’t follow them back. That bio and site link give me back ground information so I know a bit more about who he or she is. Plus, why skip an opportunity to promote your website or your blog? LinkedIn is also an incredible way to promote yourself appropriately. Websites, blogposts, volunteer experiences, skills. People are looking at your profile. Why withhold information that may help them hire you or promote your work for you?

There are most certainly many other actions we can all take to promote ourselves without appearing promotional. What did I leave off of this list? Remember, if you comment, it’s great for your “search-ability.”  ;)

 

Because He Is All Of Our Sons Now

(Special thanks to my friend Dwana De La Cerna, for her permission to include her Facebook comments. To read more of her thoughts on the Trayvon Martin killing, see her post here.)

My online network was definitely discussing the murder of Trayvon Martin. I shared a link on my Facebook page to an incredible blog post by Gina Carroll. However, I don’t think I really had internalized what had taken place. We are bombarded by so many stories every day, that we sadly become numb. As a white woman living in the suburbs, the story hadn’t felt personal to me. Until my friend Dwana posted a comment on my Facebook post.

Dwana's comments on Facebook

Dwana and I had shared stories about our sons because they are very close in age. When she posted these comments, the story became personal. This story was no longer just another story. I now felt like I had been hit in the gut when I thought  about Trayvon Martin.

Later in the week, I heard Jonathan Capehart on Al Sharpton’s show on MSNBC. He talked about African American teenaged boys getting taught a list of things they shouldn’t do when out in public. I understand parents having lists of things to teach their children. I taught my kids to say please and thank you. To treat others kindly and with respect. To brush their teeth. To follow through on tasks. But Capehart discussed a different list that was not a part of my world. He was told not to run in public because people would think he was in trouble. He was told never to run in public with something in his hands or people would think he stole it. I googled to see if others knew about these “lists” of items to teach African American teenaged boys. Sure enough, there were several blog posts in which people described these lists.

I want to swear at the top of my lungs at all of this. How can we raise a generation of young, proud, African American men when they are taught these lists? And how can my white sons and African American sons co-exist in fairness, justice, and peace when the terms under which they live in this country are so rife with inequality?

We must speak up about this. Not just African Americans, but all of us. We must do everything in our power to fight racial injustice in our communities. Because I now know that Trayvon isn’t just Dwana’s son. He is all of our sons now.

A relevant quote believed to be by Martin Niemoller: 

First they came for the communists

and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me

and there was no one left to speak out for me.

 

Building Community Connections: Collaboration Facilitated

I am a really good connector. Connecting is like my crack cocaine. I see the extraordinary potential of putting the right people together. I want to see it happening on a much larger scale, beyond what I, as one person, am able to do. A few years ago, I had an idea. And now I am ready to plant my flag in the sand to make it happen.

Imagine a space that serves as the central connecting spot for social good in Chicago. The purpose of this space would be to bring together nonprofit organizations that are working on the same issues and help them join efforts. I see three major components to what this space could provide.

1. Community Meeting and Programming Space

If we want nonprofit organizations to work together, we need to have affordable (or free) spaces in which they can meet. They need to learn about each other and will hopefully want to provide exciting community events that they create together.  We would have facilitators to help develop these relationships because getting organizations to understand, let alone embrace, the concept of collaboration, when they want to protect their turf, is no easy task. Years ago, at a volunteer recruitment event, I met people from two west side nonprofits. One provided literacy and tutoring for children and one ran a summer baseball league for children the same age. They didn’t know about each other but they should have. There are unlimited possibilities for those two organizations to work together to inspire baseball players to do better in school. This scenario repeats itself over and over again in Chicago. By introducing organizations to each other and bringing them together on a regular basis, we can begin to form these partnerships that will lead to exciting collaborations.

2. Group Purchasing

Nonprofits use office supplies like paper and ink jet cartridges. They hire professionals like web developers and lawyers. But they are not coordinating these efforts with other organizations to save money. There is power in group purchasing. The vast majority of nonprofit organizations are struggling financially. By bringing organizations together for purchasing, there will be significant financial savings. Additionally, by having a preferred vendor list, we will save time for nonprofits who need to hire professionals or companies for services because they won’t need to spend time finding these vendors. Eventually, this could also lead to discounts for membership in professional organizations or for participation at conferences.

3. Training

Nonprofit professionals need to wear many hats. And there is no one reliable and affordable place to receive additional training. Whether it is how to best utilize social media, learn about the best technology tools for content relationship management (crm) or how to find corporate sponsors, we need more opportunities for our nonprofit professionals to continue to improve their skills. This site could be a provider of those great learning opportunities.

So now, my calls to action for those who want to help:

1. I need to  find a partner-someone who has business skills who can be the anchor.

They don’t need to provide financial backing, but they do need to be able to create strategy, to break large tasks into small digestible pieces, and to know a thing or two about running a business. If you know anyone who might be a good fit to work with me on this in Chicago, send them my way.

2. I am going to set up a weekly meeting for anyone in the nonprofit world who wants to come together to talk.

We may not have a physical site, but we can begin to talk and to meet and to get to know each other. We will be meeting initially at ING Direct Cafe starting Thursday, March 29th from at least 10:00 am until 12:00 noon every week. (Probably most of the day.)  Join me there. And tell other people too. I will be available to chat about anything you are interested in and over time, I will arrange to have some interesting people with different areas of expertise join us.

If you like this idea of a nonprofit connecting space, please share it with others you know. If you want to help me build it, please join in! And if you have any input or feedback, please share that as well. Let’s meet in the comments for more conversation. I am eager to hear what you have to say.

Thanks!

 

So your organization needs some technology? Perhaps it’s free…

“At the juncture of tech and nonprofits.” That is one of the descriptions I put in my Twitter bio. It is a relatively new place for me. I am not really a highly skilled techie type. However, living in this space has exposed me to a boatload of folks doing all kinds of great tech work for nonprofits. And much of what is available is for free. Yes, you read that right. For free. There are almost an overwhelming number of outstanding tech resources available for nonprofits that are totally free. I have never seen a list of all of these resources. So I decided to create one that includes the best of the best. The folks who run these initiatives are rockstars who you should not only know, but talk to about how they can help your organization. Please share any I missed in the comments. And hurry up and take advantage of all of these great opportunities!

Creative Cares

Connects nonprofits to creatives (photographers, writers, graphic designers, etc.) for pro bono project work.

EPIC

Advertising and design professionals in Chicago work on rallies, (8 week campaigns) to create programs and materials for nonprofits. Limited to organizations that focus on education, children, and families.

FreeGeek Chicago

Provides free recycling of electronic waste (like old computers) and incredibly low priced refurbished computers and other hardware. Their Earn-A-Box training program teaches participants about the workings of computer hardware as well as the environmental impact of e-waste. Graduates of the program can earn a free computer.

Google Apps

Communication, collaboration, and publishing tools, including email, all using your own domain name. If you aren’t a Google Apps shop, why not? It’s easy to use and will elevate your efficiency and productivity as an organization.

HandsonTech Chicago

Founded by Handson Network, Google, and Americorps Vista to help nonprofits deliver their services more effectively through the adoption of new technology. They have chosen 33 nonprofits in the Greater Chicago area for assessment and implementation of technology. They are also doing technology workshops for nonprofits and classes for low income community members.

Mobile Citizen

Cutting edge mobile Internet service for nonprofits and schools, including equipment, service, and access to the Internet. Yearly Internet charge is $120/year. Yes, per year! RUN IMMEDIATELY to sign your nonprofit up for this service.

NetSquared

An initiative of TechSoup Global (see below.) From their site: “Enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.” As an organizer of the local (Chicago) NetSquared meetup, I tell people that we focus on tech, innovation, and social good. If you aren’t attending your local NetSquared meetup, you are missing out on some of the coolest people in your town. They are heavily focused on building community and impacting social good.

NTEN/NTC

Nonprofit Technology Network. Focused on helping people use technology to benefit their nonprofit organizations. They are a membership organization and hold a very large conference each spring, called NTC-Nonprofit Technology Conference.  

Salesforce

This tool is used for customer relationship management (i.e. donors, volunteers, sponsors, etc.) Receive up to 10 free licenses (10 users) for your organization.

Serve.Illinois.Gov

Provides great information on volunteerism, including volunteer opportunities, a volunteer management network, resources on managing volunteers, and more. A highly under-utilized resource. (This is the link for Illinois residents. Check it out for your own state.)

The Analysis Exchange

This unique mentoring program strives to increase the number of people who know how to correctly do web analytics. They provide pro bono analytics for nonprofits. That’s free analytics for your website.

TechSoup Global

A global nonprofit that has created a network of people working to create and share innovative technology solutions. Through TechSoup’s partnerships with large technology companies, nonprofits can receive donated hardware as well as advice about which tools to use.

Volunteer Spot

Online sign up sheets, volunteer scheduling software, and volunteer management software. Loads of folks swear by them and are very satisfied. I love founder Karen Bantuveris. Especially great for schools.

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What did I miss? What are some of the other great free technology resources available to nonprofit organizations? Add them to the comments. And if you have worked with any of the above, let me know how that went.