What are excellent practices and what questions are good to ask when you want to create a thriving community while maintaining your organizational effectiveness? Having a conversation with your community of stakeholders is an essential activity for nonprofits. Keeping tabs on sentiments, opinions and ideas can help you understand the priorities of your communities and provide useful ideas for your organization.
[Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from an article that first appeared in the June 2011 issue of NTEN:Change. Read the complete article in NTEN's new quarterly journal for nonprofit leaders by subscribing to the journal for free!]
It’s easy to get the impression that everyone is on Facebook these days, and maintaining a presence on the site is increasingly expected of organizations interested in engaging constituents. It seems like a logical assumption that Facebook should also be a good way to attract volunteers—but is that true?
“I treat an Internet presence like a garden. You need to cultivate it.”
“Facebook is a good way to attract new volunteers,” said Jayne Cravens, an independent consultant at Coyote Communications who has vast experience in online volunteerism. But she cautioned that organizations can’t just update their status to say that they’re looking for volunteers and expect their phones to start ringing.
“I treat an Internet presence like a garden,” she said. “You need to cultivate it.”
Every campaign, every organization, and really, even every individual engaging with others online has a set of tools and techniques they've learned from and rely on every day. Building community and maintaining engagement is often a full time job – even if it goes unpaid!
Epic Change is no different. The ToMamaWithLove campaign saw them try some new tools as well as some trusted favorites, even with a budget of $0 and a lot of volunteer time.
Whether your nonprofit organization provides services or advocates for a cause, your stakeholders have common interests. Perhaps you already provide them with relevant content through a website, e-newsletter, e-mails, or social media channels. Maybe you’ve also taken the next step of strengthening your stakeholder community by engaging in back and forth dialog online – whether in existing social spaces like blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, or in a custom built online community.
But are you ready to take your community to the next level of maturity?
NTEN is excited to announce a new opportunity for year-round community engagement: Communities of Practice (CoPs).
CoPs are being established at NTEN to create deeper networking and educational experiences for members of the NTEN community at large. They will replace our current Affinity Groups, and will remain open to NTEN members and non-members alike.
A Community of Practice will be more focused than an Affinity Group. Themes will reflect both a specific programmatic focus and an ongoing opportunity for growth – for example, Public Computing (vs BTOP grants). NTEN will facilitate ongoing growth and community development with the help of volunteer organizers who agree to nurture and ignite conversation and engagement.
Community. We all want it. We know we need it. Making it happen? Well...
With "The Rucksack", Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) have actually managed to build an online community that works. Even with a very high bar for membership – members must submit a copy of their military discharge paperwork – IAVA’s confirmed veteran membership increased fivefold with the launch of "The Rucksack".
This is such a dramatic example of using technology effectively for mission-driven program delivery, we're bringing you a behind-the-scenes look at how they did it. Because this gets at the very core of what NTEN wants you to get out of your Membership, it's free.
All on its own, your data can tell you amazing things about your work. You can learn where you're providing services, what people think of them, and how that's changing over time. It's great stuff – but it's not enough.
Your data isn't meant to be consumed all by itself. Like any main course, it needs sides.
Your work happens in a variety of contexts – the work of other organizations, the economy, and your local government, to name a few. When you can see your data in those contexts, you can learn a heck of a lot more than you can by looking at your data in a vacuum. Take, for example, housing data.
The Games for Change Festival is the largest gaming event in New York City and the only international event uniting "games for change" creators, the public, civil society, academia, the gaming industry and media. Learn more »
By Arthur Coddington, Director of Online Programs, 
By Amy Sample Ward, Membership Director, 
By Laura Norvig, Special Librarian, 