Non-profit 2.0

Posted on November 7, 2007
Filed Under Social media |

About eight or nine years ago, during the crazy days of the dotcom bubble, when I was a struggling freelance technology journalist, I came up with an idea that we would today refer to as social networking.

That’s right, back before Facebook, MySpace or even Friendster, when Google was nothing more than Yahoo’s search engine, before YouTube, back in the early days of instant messaging (about the time ICQ sold out to AOL), I predicted that the future of the Internet lay not in e-commerce and that content’s revenue models made it a tough business to succeed in, Instead, I saw the real strength of the Internet was its ability to connect individuals.

I envisioned a place or rather a forum at which people from around the world could come together and share ideas or discuss common interests. A place where old friends and distant relatives could reconnect – after all isn’t it central to the human condition that we are all just trying to connect with someone, be it another person or with God?

I’m telling you this, not to impress you, or to humour you – yes I can hear you laughing at the back – but to help you understand that the success of social networking sites has not been a huge surprise to me.

Anyway, fast forward to autumn 2007: Two weeks ago, Microsoft announced its going to pay $240 million for a stake in Facebook, and a week later rejected Facebook suitor, Google announced OpenSocial, its own social networking strategy. Clearly, social networks are a big deal and businesses are beginning to take notice. A quick Google search tuned up over two million hits on making money from social networking.

And, of course, whenever there is a lot of media attention on businesses doing something, everybody else has to do it too. Having been a long-term missionary for a year and three days now and having been involved in the management of non-profit organisations for the last 12 years on and off, I’ve been watching closely what charitable groups are doing with Web 2.0.

Unfortunately, many non-profit organisations are still struggling with Web 1.0. They’re not ready to think about building online communities, or interacting with people who share their cause.

Back in September, before leaving for Hong Kong, I went online to find a church in Bangkok. I was going to be spending a Sunday in Bangkok on my way back to the SAR, and thought it would be a good opportunity to visit an English speaking Evangelical church.

I was particularly interested in Nwesong Bangkok. My cousin Elana attends their parent church, Newsong church in Los Angeles, and she had raved about the church, so I thought I’d give them a try. However, looking at their web site, I was unable to find information on where they meet or what time the worship starts!

During my time at Community Church Hong Kong, I was involved in redesigning the church’s web site on two different occasions. The site in its current incarnation is still not perfect. But, one thing we did learn from our previous efforts is that people visiting the site will have different interests. For instance, church members might want to check the schedule for small group meetings, while someone who stumbled upon the site while using a search engine to look for a church to visit during a weekend in Hong Kong will probably want directions to the church and some idea of the kind of church CCHK is.

We even had a discussion board in a previous redesign, which was an idea before its time, as hardly anyone ever used it. But, there in lies the crux of the problem for non-profits looking at embracing Web 2.0: To be truly interactive means the interaction goes both ways. It’s no longer a case of the organisation feeding information to various stakeholders. Those stakeholders, be they volunteers, donors or just people interested in the cause can now share their ideas and opinions with the organisation itself. But, what do these people have to say that the people running the organisation need to hear?

Complaints are best made by Email, messages of support can also be sent by Email, although a hand written letter would be more personal and perhaps more effective, requests for information should be unnecessary if the organisation’s web site is well designed and properly referenced.

The one area social networking can benefit non-profits is with grassroots movements. Witness the growth of the Support the Monks protest in Burma group on Facebook. At the time of writing, the group has almost 439,000 members. While the vast majority of those people are inactive and most likely only joined to register their support for a popular cause, there are plenty of active members. They are busy, posting information on protests in their hometowns and discussing ideas for new protests.

Meanwhile, older more established players in the Burmese democracy movement are playing catch up. Partners Relief and Development, a Christian relief group that I have contact with here in Mae Sot recently launched its own Facebook group.

At present, it includes a lot of text that seems to have been copy and pasted from their web site, and some news culled from other sources. The only item on the ‘discussion board’ was posted by the group’s creator (a Partners staff member) and appears to be copied from an Email that was sent out to the group’s mailing list last week. The purpose of the Email was to encourage supporters to buy Partners’ cards, books and calendars as Christmas gifts. The discussion board posting ends by referring readers to the Partners’ web site for more details.

And there in lies another challenge for non-profit organisations. Many have invested a great deal of time and money into developing their communication strategies. Typically, these include web sites, magazines and newsletters in both print and electronic formats. Now, they need to integrate social networks and Web 2.0 technologies into their communication strategies. But, with non-profits needing to maintain control over their message what role is there for interactivity?

After all, interactive and open means you are also providing a forum for those who are opposed to your goals or critical of your methods. Or, it could become a channel for spreading negative publicity.

Unfortunately, many non-profits are looking at the numbers involved with social networks (Facebook has 40 million users, OpenSocial potentially has 100 million), and concluding they have to jump on the bandwagon. The result is many are choosing to ignore the interactive component of social networks and simply replicating their existing web sites. Take for instance, the Burma Campaign UK’s recent news section of their FaceBook group includes a series of links including one to their MySpace page! Apparently maintaining a presence on two social networks is too much effort.

Is there a place for social networks in a non-profit’s integrated communication strategy, or is it just another medium for getting the message out. And, if it is, how do you make best use of its unique characteristics?

I admit I don’t have the answers to these questions. And, I’m probably not the best person to come up with them. After all, I had the idea for social networking before anyone else and never did anything about it.