Northern California Grantmakers

Is it Thursday already?

Not that I’m complaining. It’s been a little quiet here on the blogging front because I’ve been in the throes of putting together our Fall All Member Newsletter. Members, check your inbox for the email announcing the newsletter, or read it online (login required).

But back to Thursday. It’s once again that day of the week where we try to share some Twitter love and highlight some of the organizations and individuals we’re following on Twitter.

And you can always follow NCG on twitter at twitter.com/NorCalGrant.

Here’s Who We’re Following on Twitter

CEP_CambSanFran
The Center for Effective Philanthropy, a.k.a. CEP_CambSanFran, is committed to helping grantmakers better “define, assess and improve their effectiveness and impact.” To that end, they use their twitter feed to posit questions and share research on effective grantmaking.

For example:

RT @edwarmi Would love to see a critique like this of standardized measures of non-profit performance – any takers? http://bit.ly/csL9QT

Report Watch: recent research echos what CEP’s data has found to be true: foundation communications is not easy. http://bit.ly/cQIQC7

chickeneggpics
chickeneggpics is the twitter handle of NCG member Chicken & Egg Pictures, “a hybrid film fund and non-profit production company dedicated to supporting women filmmakers who are as passionate about the craft of storytelling as they are about the social justice, environmental and human rights issues they’re embracing, translating and exploring on film.”

Chicken & Egg Pictures uses twitter to share news about their grantees and announce information about their grantmaing. Here’s a sample of some recent tweets:

Chicken & Egg’s WHICH CAME FIRST FUND, a fund dedicated to supporting environmentally-focused stories, is open to… http://fb.me/Ae4H6Fdt

Chicken & Egg grantee Lynn Hershman Leeson will premiere her film, !Women Art Revolution – A Secret History,” at… http://fb.me/C3UJoyW8

familygiving
The National Center for Family Philanthropy uses their twitter feed to share philanthropic news pertaining to family grantmakers, their programming, and information relevant to the wider philanthropic audience.

Here are some of their recent tweets:

NCFP Teleconference Sept. 16 – Funding Volunteer Capacity to Create Change http://conta.cc/al256K

More on deciphering donor intent: What Would Grandpa Want: http://bit.ly/arxPfC & In Loving Memory: Legacy Grantmaking http://bit.ly/cU7l7C

jacobcharold
NCG member and Program Officer at The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation Jacob Harold explains that on his twitter feed he’s expressing his own opinions on philanthropy, climate change, strategy, economics and not those of the foundation.

Either way, we’re glad he’s adding his voice to online conversations.

Here are some of Jacob’s musings via twitter:

It’s not that our planet is fragile; it’s that we’re fragile because we count on it acting a certain way.

Strange that this article doesn’t mention @Philanthropedia, @GiveWell, @RootCause, @GreatNonprofits: http://bit.ly/aZKbmf

Birth of another online giving platform: http://giveloop.com/tour. Some good innovations; but the market’s so crowded already.

Have any Twitter recommendations for us? Let us know who you think we should be following.

At the beginning of July when I first started this blog series I had no idea that I would be writing at least 10 posts. I do feel like we’re in the home stretch a bit…or at least the halfway point (I sure hope so).

But before we dive into the topic of social networks, let’s take a moment to celebrate this 10th blog post on Social Media & Grantmaking. Here’s what popped into my head the minute I began reflecting on the number 10:

Online Social Networks: What The Big Deal?

I’ll be honest, when I first started receiving invitations from friends to join Facebook I hit the “ignore” button plenty of times.

I became a convert. Especially when I saw how useful a social networking site could be for connecting with peers and colleagues, re-connecting with old acquaintances and meeting new collaborators.

But I think the real “big deal” is that social networking has changed how people stay in touch with one another, how we communicate. Facebook has over 400 million users and LinkedIn has more than 70 million professionals using their network service.

Who are all these people?

They’re grantees and individuals in the communities who benefit from the work of foundations. They’re current (and future) trustees and donors. They’re colleagues and peers from other foundations. They’re advocates for the issues grantmakers care about. And they’re policymakers whose constituents directly benefit from the work of foundations.

Well, What Is It?

Here’s a description of a social network from Wikipedia.

“A social network service focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, e.g., who share interests and/or activities. A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web based and provide means for users to interact over the internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging.”

Say Again?

Let’s break it down a bit, shall we?

“A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services.”

So a social network service like Facebook or LinkedIn allows an individual to create a personal account, or profile that appears as a web page online.

Your profile has information personal to you. And it can be as informal (as Facebook tends to be) or professional (as LinkedIn tends to be) as you want.

Once you create a profile you can connect to people you know, those are your “social links.” And often you may find yourself linking with someone you don’t know.

Why would you do that?

Say for example Grantmaker A receives an invitation from Grantmaker B, a former co-worker. Grantmaker A accepts the link because they actually know Grantmaker B.

Then Grantmaker C, a current coworker of Grantmaker B decides to link to Grantmaker A. Why? Because both Grantmakers A and C work on children’s healthcare.

Naturally Grantmaker A is excited to make a connection with another funder who does similar work and accepts the invitation to link.

As you can see a person’s network has many tiers of social links:

• people you know on a personal level;
• people who you know through another person; and
• even people you connect with because of a similar interest.

And it’s in this way that:

“A social network service focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, e.g., who share interests and/or activities.”

Phew. And what about the last bit of that definition:

“Most social network services are web based and provide means for users to interact over the internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging.”

And don’t forget “a variety of additional services.”

On second thought, I think I’ll save the different features of both Facebook and LinkedIn (the two social networking sites I’m familiar with) for another blog post (or two).

Foundations on Social Networks

Here’s a list of NCG members who have Facebook and LinkedIn accounts:

* The East Bay Community Foundation (LinkedIn)
* The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (Facebook)
* Marin Community Foundation (LinkedIn)
* The David and Lucile Packard Foundation (Facebook)
* Quixote Foundation (Facebook)
* Silicon Valley Community Foundation (Facebook)

And if you’re thinking you have to be a large foundation with communications staff to handle these types of online presences, take a look at the list Glasspockets provides of foundations using social media. The total assets range from $29,889,702,125 to $2,148.

Imagine what an online presence provides those foundations with smaller assets and staff:

• a way to connect with new partners and collaborators
• a platform for the issues they care about
• a way to interact with grantees and the communities they care about.

I bet they’d say this social networking thing is a pretty big deal.

The Social Media & Grantmaking blog post series will cover a wide range of topics. Check out the introduction post outlining the series.

To see all the posts in this series, simply type “social media series” into the search box located upper right of this web page.

This is the second post on Twitter for the social media series I’m writing for this blog.

In the last post for this series I covered some of Twitter’s basics:

• What it is
• How to set up a Twitter account
• How to use Twitter to listen to online conversations about Philanthropy

As I mentioned in the first post that kicked off this social media series, if you’re just beginning to explore how to use social media listening is a good first step. The next step is sharing.

We use NCG’s Twitter account to share member news, share our own news and point people to news articles, research and/or commentary that we think is relevant to the philanthropic community.

Think of your emails. When you get one that you think your colleagues would find useful, you forward it along to them.

But instead of sending an email to 100 people about the latest report on grantmaking, you use Twitter to announce the report.

The Anatomy of a Tweet

Okay, so you’re ready to do more than just listen on Twitter, you want to actually post your own tweets. Here are some Tweeting basics:

• Tweets can be no longer than 140 characters.
• A ReTweet (RT) is a repeated tweet. It is sometimes used in a reply to allow everyone to see the original tweet. It is also used to forward a message onto one’s own followers.
• The hashtag (#) is a community-driven practice of tagging an individual tweet by using a hash in front of the tag. Example: Putting #philanthropy in a tweet about the grantmaking. Hashtags allow the community to easily stream a particular subject.
• Because of the limited characters in a tweet, if you want to include a url (web link) in your tweet you have to shrink it using one of several URL-shortening services such as tinyurl.com, is.gd, ow.ly, and bit.ly.

For a more detailed explanation of these terms, check out an expanded Twitter glossary on Blogging Bits and PC Magazine’s Top 10 Twitter Tips for Beginners.

So How Are Grantmakers Using Twitter?

Not sure exactly what it is you want to share on Twitter? Aside from re-tweeting (RT) other people’s tweets or tweeting links to your organization’s latest press releases, what else can you do on Twitter?

In 2009 social media guru Beth Kanter examined how different foundations were using Twitter. Here’s what she wrote in a blog post on the subject:

In an earlier post, I found the following types of patterns related to content shared on Twitter.

* 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)

I also recommend reading Beth’s blog post to learn more about the different types of voices that were being employed by these foundations: pure branding, personality, staff perspective, and pure personal accounts.

Go At Your Own Pace

Don’t worry, no one is asking or expecting you to become a Twitter maven right out of the gate.

You can ease into it. Start by just listening and re-tweeting if that’s what your comfortable with. Start with just tweeting your foundation’s news.

In its own time, I think you’ll find your own voice will evolve on its own. And that’s what you really want, to have your own unique voice (as a foundation or as an individual), so that these technological tools don’t completely sterilize who we are. After all these tools are in service of us, and not the other way around.

The Social Media & Grantmaking blog post series will cover a wide range of topics. Check out the introduction post outlining the series.

To see all the posts in this series, simply type “social media series” into the search box located upper right of this web page.