Community Building In the Real World & Online

Category:Bootcamp
Back to Notes
Atashi Chakravarty - East Bay API Coalition to End Domestic Violence; Narika
*Community-building in real life
*Community-specific domestic violence intervention; community outreach a key
*Toll free hotline; most people they serve are not online; counseling and hands on services
*Perceived as feminists from Berkeley; people would tear down our posters; how get message out there and not be so in your face?
*Challenge: diversity of South Asian community; not a culturally homogeneous group
*When approaching faith-based and other organizations/communities for collaboration/outreach, first ask "what can we do for you?", not "what can you do for us?"
**Example: approached a Sikh temple for domestic violence outreach
**Asked what are their needs? Answer: legal services for immigration issues
**Narika is not a legal service provider, we went back to our network, what can we do?
**Found a partner that held pro-bono legal clinics; Narika made their materials available (domestic violence prevention info); men & women would pick them up; nonthreatening
**Built trust with temple community
**Eventually temple leadership opened up to hosting their domestic violence prevention outreach programs
Melinda Kramer - Natural Capital Institute; Women's Earth Alliance
*Convening women virtually
*Avoid missed opportunities due to orgs, funders, others who can help each other not coming together, because they don't know about each other
*Check out Wiser Earth at www.wiserearth.org. From their website: "a community directory and networking forum that maps and connects non-governmental organizations and individuals addressing the central issues of our day; climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights and more." [Note from kfb: I checked out their website and surprisingly they already have my (tiny!) org listed! All I have to do is make some minor updates.]
**Website that helps people in environmental sustainability & social justice work together
**A meta resource, orgs, events, jobs, resources
**Can narrow to specific need, and where silos are broken down
**Like Wikipedia – community generated content
**A reflection of who we are as a movement
**Growing every day, launched May this year – a foundation of a house – inviting all people and orgs to build upon the foundation
**Great example of community that exists in real world, leverage by tools on the internet
**Place to convene when we can't be face to face; bridge real and virtual worlds o be more effective as advocates and active community members
Ben Rattray - Change.org
*debunking myths
**myth 1: social networks are for kids
**myth 2: social networks are for socializing
**myth 3: social networking is a fad
*new form of communication
**eNewsletter - 2.25% response rate
**two-way communication – media production youtube, wikis
**peer-to-peer interaction – rich relations – way for members to connect
**empower supporters – advocates, resources, donations
**overcoming barriers to involvement: power of personal connections
***reasons people give for not getting involved: lack of personal connection to cause or org; paradox of choice, so much to do, ignore them all
***use personal connections – people care about issues vicariously – transmit personal stories and empathy more effectively
**collective action and magnified impact
**social recognition and reinforcement
*the present, what orgs are doing now
**many orgs are excited and dedicating resources
**focused primarily of myspace (60mn users) and Facebook (34mn)
**bottomline: not fully embraced – using as marketing vehicles – to get new members; instead of tapping into existing members, engaging them better; not using social net tools to empower them
*the future
**deep integration with existing processes
**use those tools to host own content, comment on work you're doing, see their photos
**allow collaboration among orgs with overlapping missions
Q&A
*How do you convene when you can't be face to face?
**discussion forums
**area focus portals
**wiser earth groups – for existing communities
**people don't just come unless they have a compelling reason to be there
*Build your own?
**very few can
**needs critical mass, sufficient content
**nonprofits swimming upstream, building what's already out there
* MySpace, Facebook
**get an intern to manage
**make sure you get url
**soup it up with videos, photos, put bling in your blog; photostreams; customize it
**proactively friend people 70 a day; go to top friends who are most active
**send bulletins, mass spam in myspace
**3-5 times a day so not get pushed down, then eliminate the old ones
**small things matter – name of your url, design
**some things will not work on myspace, distracting ads
*six degrees org – create a fundraising widget
*second life – facilitate meetings around the world; nonprofit commons within secondlife; feels a little overwhelming
*integration – email, discussions group, social networking, wikis – not one tool out there that does everything
*how to pull people in – real stories that we experience in our communities – nothing more powerful than a personal account; her stories on narika's website; march of dimes –Share Your Story – blogging their day to day struggles.
*how sustain 
**wiser earth – same model as Wikipedia – user generated – become more valuable – no ads – tiny staff – low costs – funded by foundations
**change,org 1% donations
Online communities & tools
*Facebook
*MySpace
*Six Degrees at www.sixdegrees.org - person-to-person online viral fundraising, leverage the connections/communities people already have
*Ning create a customized social network and share it
* Groundspring for donation page
*Craigslist Foundation resources & online community