Guest post by Katrina Heppler
envisionGOOD.tv

Last October, 630 people interested in advancing the social good through social entrepreurship flocked to San Francisco for the first Social Capital Markets conference (@socap09 on Twitter).

envisionGood.tv caught up with Kevin Jones, co-founder of the conference (and @kevindoylejones on Twitter) at The Hub in Berkeley, Calif., to get the lowdown on this year’s SoCap, which will bring together leading catalysts of positive social change for a day of learning, knowledge exchange, and connecting in San Francisco on Sept. 1–3.

For more info or to register, visit http://www.SocialCapitalMarkets.net.

Visit envisionGood.tv for more interviews with thought leaders in the social causes space.

Like millions of Americans, I’ve been looking for ways in which to get more involved in worthy community efforts. The traditional ways in which you can volunteer and gave back at the community — say, working in a soup kitchen or signing up for AmeriCorps — just expanded exponentially with the recent rollout of the United We Serve initiaitive at Serve.gov. Above is a video of some recent United We Serve activities, including a visit by players from the WNBA’s Detroit Shock to the White House.

Monday I was one of 75 people to join a United We Serve conference call featuring Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement (who reports to Valerie Jarrett, Senior Adviser to the President, and Christina M. Tchen, Director of the Office of Public Liaison); Yosi Sergant (@a35mmlife on Twitter), Director of Office of Communications, National Endowment for the Arts; Michael Skolnik (@michaelskolnik on Twitter), Political Director to Russell Simmons and Editor for the politics section of GlobalGrind; Nellie Abernathy, director of the outreach program for United We Serve; and Thomas Bates from Rock the Vote, among others.

The call’s goal was to enlist grassroots organizers to spread the word about United We Serve and highlight the role that the arts community plays in documentnig stories of how arts service can be fun, engaging and youthful.

United We Serve: What it is

As Yosi Sergant put it on the call: “What the hell is national service, and how do i get kids with fancy clothes and haircuts to pay attention to it?”

The first thing to know about United We Serve is that it’s an initiative in which people in nonprofits, community organizations and government agencies — at the local, state and federal level — join together to enable and facilitate greater community service. People can get involved in two ways: By posting a service project to the Serve.gov site and engaging others who may be interested in the same issue, or by signing up for a project. Your commitment level is up you, and it’s easier than ever to find a project that matches your interests through the easy-to-use tools on Serve.gov.

We’ve already written about All for Good (a “Craigslist for service”), which lets you easily volunteer for community efforts. (See the widget in the sidebar at the right — enter your zip code to find matching volunteer opportunities in your area.)

United We Serve initially runs from June 22 through September 11, culminating in a National Day of Service and Remembrance on 9/11, but it will grow into a sustained, collaborative and focused effort to promote service as a way of life for all Americans.

Wicks said the idea is to persuade people that “I can be an agent of change in my community,” and to tap into existing civic engagement efforts by cities, nonprofits, community groups and federal agencies to “create sustained relationships we can all build on.”

Key areas of focus

The United We Serve team helped bring some focus to the countless volunteer opportunities by keying in on four main areas:

• health care (in fact, this is health week)
• energy and the environment (eg, weatherizing homes or League of Conservation Voters or the Sierra Club)
• education (educators are concerned with “summer reading loss,” — the dramatically decreased reading ability of students when they return to school in a few weeks)
• community renewal

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A video tutorial that takes ‘manual’ out of the process

I recently spoke with a non-profit client who I’m working with on social web strategies. At the end of our call, she complained “We’ve been so busy recently. I can barely remember to paste our blog posts onto our Facebook Page.”

When I told her that she could automate the feed, she almost jumped through the phone with joy. I promised her that I’d make this video.

If you don’t have a Facebook Page yet, go watch How to create a Facebook Page in less than four minutes. I’ll wait right here.

This tutorial on how to import your blog posts into your Facebook Page covers the following steps:

• Adding the notes application to your Facebook Page
• Adding your blog’s RSS feed to the application
• Confirming and importing your blog posts

Did I miss anything? Add a comment below.

Open records, FOIA Act are pillars of journalism — and a free society

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, journalists, NGOs, general public.

Guest post by Dan Gillmor
Director, Center for Citizen Media

“Freedom of information” is not just a phrase. It is a pillar of an open and free society.

Nowhere has that pillar been more solid than in the United States. Congress and most state legislatures have enacted laws designed to keep governments more honest by opening up the information flow.

A key point about the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and various state “open records” laws: They are not designed solely for journalists, although that is the popular mythology, sometimes encouraged by professional journalists. They are for everyone, not any special profession or group of people.

Indeed, the uses of open-records laws vary widely. Among other uses: Lawyers file requests for information on behalf of corporate and other clients. Interest groups file to pry loose information of various kinds. Journalists file requests so they can cover the way governments do the people’s business. And average folks file requests to learn about governmental activities that escape the notice of the traditional media.

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The Bill of Rights

A brief guide for citizen journalists and bloggers

Target audience: Journalists, bloggers, nonprofits, cause organizations, NGOs, general public.

Guest post by Mitch Ratcliffe
RatcliffeBlog

There is much that bloggers can learn from journalists, who have learned how to cause the most trouble possible without landing in jail over the course of centuries. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law ($13 at Amazon.com, which is the essential text for many journalists.

In addition, here’s a good source for students and other beginners.

If you want to go deep and learn a lot, read this piece from the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Journalists’ Handbook.

It’s worth understanding this stuff even if you don’t want to be a journalist, because anyone can be sued for libel, slander or defamation.

The first thing to understand about all subjects relating to journalists’ privileges is that they are different everywhere. There is no international standard set of laws, though journalistic professional societies have pressed for these kinds of uniform expectations. Most of what I’ll lay out here relates to the United States, where the press enjoy the most liberal protections available. In Canada, for example, there is no presumption that a journalist can protect their source. In much of Europe, the subjects of photographs retain far greater control of pictures through their moral rights (PDF), or “droit moral,” which provides both the photographer and the subject protection from the unauthorized reuse of the image in whole or in part — juxtaposing the image of a person into an advertisement, for instance, which is common in digital media is prohibited without their permission.

Elements of defamation

Defamation, slander and libel are the same thing, essentially, but each is defined based on the way a false statement about a person is conveyed. According to ExpertLaw.com’s entry on Defamation, Libel and Slander Law, the general principle behind all three must include the following elements:

1. A false and defamatory statement concerning another;
2. The unprivileged publication of the statement to a third party (that is, somebody other than the person defamed by the statement);
3. If the defamatory matter is of public concern, fault amounting at least to negligence on the part of the publisher; and
4. Damage to the plaintiff.

In the context of defamation law, a statement is “published” when it is made to the third party. That term does not mean that the statement has to be in print.

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National Wildlife Federation from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

Recently I had the chance to sit down with Danielle Brigida, social media outreach coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation, the enormously important nonprofit organization that inspires Americans to protect wildlife for our children’s future. They do that by combating global warming, protecting wildlife and wildlife habitats and connecting people with nature.

NWF (which is not a government agency, as some think) has been a leader in the use of social media over the past year, and a major reason for that has been Danielle’s work within the organization as well as outside, interacting with supporters and putting a human face on the institution.

“We have a new wave of members and donors coming in — people who want to get their hands dirty,” Danielle says in this 6-minute video interview conducted along a busy street in Berkeley, Calif. “Social media is a great way to start the conversation — and then you have to take it offline. You’re not having a big giant brand tell you what to do anymore. All of our members have a say in what we do.” Many of NWF’s program managers are using Twitter to connect with people and to use it as a sort of instant focus group.

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Beth Kanter this week cited 10 examples of thought leadership from foundations:

• Share history (Detroit Foundation)
• Talk vision and mission (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
• Share important research (Kauffman Foundation) (Hewlett Foundation)
• Retweet useful links shared by colleagues (Greater Cincinnati Foundation)
• Recruit job candidates (MacArthur Foundation)
• Important program deadlines (Hawaii Community Foundation)
• Reveal field insights (Columbus Foundation) (Case Foundation)
• Recognize employees or fellows (Kellogg Foundation)
• Profile grantee success  or support their efforts (CF Community Foundation)
• Be responsive (Skoll Foundation)
• Ask questions about the future (Cleveland Foundation)
• Answer questions about the future (Knight Foundation)

And the Philanthropy411 Blog listed 90 foundations that tweet (and foundation staffers who tweet), along with a Google spreadsheet showing how many people they’re following and how many followers they have, as well as additional notes. Together with the comments on the Philanthropy411 blog, here is an updated list of:

99 foundations that actively use Twitter

• Alexander Abraham Foundation (New York, NY) @aabrahamfound
• All for Africa (New York, NY) @allforafrica
• American Heritage Education Foundation (Houston, TX) @ahefoundation
• Annie E. Casey Foundation (Baltimore, MD) @AnnieECaseyFndn
• Armstrong County Community Foundation (Kittanning, PA) @ACCF
• Atlantic Philanthropies (New York, NY) @atlantic
• Australian Cancer Research Foundation (Sydney, Australia) @Cancer_Research
• Baltimore Community Foundation (Baltimore, Maryland) @baltcommfdn
• Black Card Circle Foundation (Los Angeles, CA) @BCCF
• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Seattle, WA) @gatesfoundation
• Bridge Builders Community Foundations (Oil City, Pennsylvania) @BBCF
• Broad Foundation (Los Angeles, CA) @BroadFoundation
• Carl B & Florence E. King Foundation (Dallas, TX) @kingfoundation
• Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Stanford, CA) @CarnegieFdn
• Case Foundation (Washington, DC) @CaseFoundation

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My latest post is up on the Stanford Social Innovation Review opinion blog. You can read the post and join the conversation on SSIR or below, where I’ve republished the full post.

My current job title includes the term “Community Builder” and I get asked nearly every day just what that means: How do you build community? Where is the community you want to build? How can I be a community builder online? Tips, secrets, ideas?! I want to take a break from all the hard work building community (does that get a wink?) to share some of what I believe is the core of successful community building (on or offline).

“Community building” is about a lot of things. Some people define it as organizing, especially around specific events, campaigns, legislation, or fundraising. Others see it as specifically applying to online community spaces, like a social networking site. I believe that community exists everywhere, really. That the Internet is a huge community of people looking to connect with others like them to form smaller, more specific communities. Those of us in positions to support those connections and collaborations are some of the luckiest people in the global network, acting as the email or Twitter post or blog reference that helps individuals make networked jumps to where they really want to be.

Gardening vs. landscaping

So, what’s the secret to successful community building? You guessed it: Be a great gardener and avoid the temptation to landscape. Here’s what that means:

• A gardener only takes out the weeds; a landscaper takes out everything that isn’t part of the design. Think about the number of beautiful plants or trees that have sprung up in parks, your yard, or even out in nature that weren’t “intended” to be there but quickly grew to be a valuable part of the ecosystem.
• A gardener isn’t afraid to mix things around; a landscaper plans and plots and plants.  Sometimes you can’t know ahead of time just which plants will respond well or want more sun or shade so you need to be flexible.
• When a storm hits, a gardener can remain open to planting anew and rejuvenating others; a landscaper may just order more of the same. Sometimes it takes a storm to realize which plants just weren’t going to make it or which were able to stick it out.
• When in doubt, a gardener will try more plants or kinds of plants and see which take root; a landscaper may default to less. What about the plants you had never used before to know about and how they took root, flowered, and bolted up right before your eyes?

Clearly, this is all very metaphorical here with the back yard options. It is, though, meant to paint a picture:

The Gardener creates an ecosystem open to change, available to new groups, and full of fresh opportunities to emerge naturally. The approach is focused on organic collaboration and growth for the entire community. The gardener is simply there to help, cultivate, and clear the weeds if/when they poke up.

The Landscaper creates an ecosystem that matches a preconceived design or pattern. The approach is focused on executing a preconceived environment, regardless of how natural or organic it may be for the larger area. The landscaper is there to ensure that everything stays just as planned.

Your community

How can you apply these ideas to your community building? The first question I always ask myself when considering a new tool or functionality online, a new project or campaign, or even new partnerships or members is: “Is this something the Community wants or something I want?” It doesn’t matter what I want, really. It matters what the Community wants. And how do you know if or what they are interested in? ASK! Be sure to always provide opportunities for your community members or those who come across your work to share their ideas about what they would like to see, how they’d like to connect with each other and how they would like to work with you. And when considering anything new, ask for feedback and share your ideas and plans ahead of time. You may be surprised, but your Community often has even better ideas than you!

What do you think? Do you have other ideas about successful community building? Have a great example or case study you want to share? Looking forward to more!

You can read the post and join the conversation on SSIR here.

Photo by Seerjith

CNET’s Caroline McCarthy published an article called “Crowded Roads Ahead for Charity 2.0” based on an interview with Toby Daniels of Think Social and Scott Harrison of charity:water reflecting on how the landscape has changed for fundraising on social networks. (Disclaimer:  I am on an advisory group for Think Social and I’m a huge fan of Scott Harrison, Twestival, and charity:water)

There’s great fodder for discussion from the ideas in the article.

Toby Daniels and Scott Harrison raised important questions about whether the approach used for Twestival back in Feburary 2009 — described as part fundraiser, party publicity blitz — is sustainable given the dramatic growth of Twitter and other social media outlets like Facebook. The article points out that many, many more organizations and individuals are using social networks to spread the word about their fundraising efforts and solicit donations from friends and this could lead to cause fatigue (as was discussed a few months ago on Social Edge).

As the Web is flooded with more and more charity initiatives, both large, well-established ones and new nonprofits created specifically with harnessing social media in mind, problems can arise. At best, donations could be spread too thin, rendering many organizations less effective.

Of more concern is the fact that the influx of charities and nonprofits to platforms like Facebook and Twitter could result in noise, congestion, and outright apathy. Spreading awareness of a good cause grows difficult when that good cause starts to seem like spam. If one tweet after another is seeking donations, people might just get fed up.

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