Northern California Grantmakers

I wonder, am I somehow dating myself by using the phrase “mad props”?

Well, there’s no time to ponder this question because it’s a busy Thursday here at NCG. But even though it’s super busy, I wanted to take a bit of time to highlight a particular NCG member whose staff are coming out in full force on Twitter.

Speaking of Twitter, you can always follow NCG at twitter.com/NorCalGrant.

Twitter Props

Now, if you’ve seen our other Twitter Thursday blog posts, then you know that I’m usually highlighting philanthropic professionals and grantmaking organizations who we’re following on Twitter.

This week, however, I wanted to praise the efforts of NCG member The James Irvine Foundation for encouraging and supporting more of their staff members to join Twitter.

Last week I noticed that the three Irvine tweeters I follow were all tweeting about a social media workshop. Turns out it was an internal workshop for Irvine staff interested in experimenting with social media.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed. As I mentioned yesterday, Philanthropy 2173 blogger Lucy Bernholz also took notice and ended up interviewing Irvine CEO Jim Canales about how the foundation is experimenting with social media to enhance their grantmaking.

According to Jim, Irvine staff are jumping into the Twitter fray to explore how social media “might serve to advance our Foundation’s programmatic goals.”

More specifically, we are interested in exploring ways to use social media to: (1) share what we are learning more rapidly and broadly; (2) listen more actively to our partners and key stakeholders, building greater two-way exchange instead of one-way transmission of information; (3) build alliances and broader networks of support to advance our program goals; and (4) demonstrate Irvine’s continued commitment to transparency and openness.

Now, I won’t spend this post pointing out all the Irvine staff on Twitter, because there’s a lot of them. But you can sleuth them out just by heading over to Irvine’s Twitter profile under the list of who the organization is following.

It’s really great to see so many staff at one foundation experimenting with social media. Keep up the good work, Irvine! Hope to see you out and about on Twitter.

NCG’s New Arts List On Twitter

NCG has a new Twitter List. This one is specifically following arts funders, arts organizations and arts advocates.

Check out http://twitter.com/#!/NorCalGrant/arts to follow these arts-related tweets.

Happy Thursday, everyone!

It’s hard to believe that January is already behind us. I’m always amazed at how it seems like I just did a Twitter Thursday post, but there you have it. Time waits for no blog.

If this is your first Twitter Thursday blog post: welcome! Twitter Thursday is a regular NCG blog feature where we highlight the philanthropic thought leaders, individual grantmakers, foundations and other philanthropic organizations we’re following on Twitter.

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

Here’s Who We’re Following

artsted
With 20 tweets under his belt (ostensibly new to the Twitterverse) is artsted, NCG member Ted Russell. Ted is a Senior Program Officer for the Arts at The James Irvine Foundation and, I should mention, Ted’s also a member of NCG’s Arts Loan Fund.

So far Ted is using Twitter to share information about arts funding and highlighting the work of arts organizations. Here’s a sampling of his Twitter activity:

‘Take It Artside!’ is an iPhone application for public art in Kentucky, developed by UK students & faculty. http://t.co/snfjO7u

RT @p2173: No state funds to NPOs? That would change things rather…er…dramatically. http://bit.ly/gOJdPE #philpo

Check out this dashboard for the Indianapolis Museum of Art: http://ning.it/gGJAv5 Nine key stats, easily digested.

OpenSociety
Created by philanthropist George Soros, the Open Society Foundations “are a family of offices and foundations” that “work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens.”

Open Society uses their Twitter account to promote causes that align with their mission to promote democracy and share information about their work as an organization.

Here are some of their latest tweets:

Perils & Promise of Mass Action Against #Genocide in #Africa – book event w/ @bechamilton Feb 8 NYC http://bit.ly/eE2iSy #darfur

Live in Baltimore? Sign up for a pilot program to help residents get better access to quality news http://bit.ly/dT5xDe #journalism

Nominations wanted: Freedom From Fear Award – for acts of courage on behalf of immigrants & refugees http://bit.ly/gGrfte RT @willcoley

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

At the end of last year we introduced NCG Twitter Champions*, individuals and organizations that share our tweets with their legions of followers. Whether through ReTweets or Mentions, our Twitter Champions have shown us some Twitter Love and we want to return the favor.

Our Newest Twitter Champions

ElzbthMllr
What’s great about Elizabeth R Miller‘s Twitter handle is that your brain automatically fills in the missing vowels. And what’s great about Elizabeth R. Miller’s Twitter activity, is that she has regularly ReTweeted NCG tweets and Mentioned us. Take today. She announced to her followers that we were live tweeting a Net Neutrality funders conference call.

We most definitely appreciate all the online support. Thanks, Elizabeth. You’ve earned a spot on our Twitter Champions list.

p2173
Since NCG ventured into the Twitterverse we’ve enjoyed many Mentions and ReTweets from Lucy Bernholz a.k.a. p2173. And with Lucy’s 4,000 plus followers, well that’s a big service to NCG, helping us to share member news, resources and reach a broader audience within the philanthropic sector.

So thank you, Lucy. You are truly an NCG Twitter Champion.

Check out all of NCG’s Twitter Champions online.

And of course, you can always follow NCG on Twitter at twitter.com/NorCalGrant.

*Starting a Twitter Champion list was an idea I got from a social media strategy webinar hosted by Care2. Panelist Alan Rosenblatt suggested highlighting your social media rock stars and champions.