In light of the recent high profile suicides by Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain,  Vu Le wrote an excellent piece on what nonprofits need to know about mental illness.  One of the points he brings up is the importance of creating an environment where life/work balance flourish.  Overwork and stress can lead to burnout and depression and that can lead to even bigger problems. As a sector, we need to understand that working endlessly long hours is not productive.  And here's a summary of the research that proves it.

Dying for A Paycheck: How Modern Management Harms Employee Health and Company Performance and What Can We Do About It by Stanford Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer is an examination of the sources of workplace stress, its impact on employees, and how to change it before we're all dead or sick from overwork.   One of my motivations for writing "The Happy Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact without Burnout" was to advocate for healthier and happier nonprofit workplaces and I'm happy to see another book that is tackling the monster that is work related stress.

RESEARCH ON TOXIC WORKPLACES

It is too often written off by leaders as not important and there is significant resistance to change.  After reading this book that examines the research on the negative health and productivity impacts on overworking, one can't help to wonder why we are still doing it.  Pfeffer explains some of the whys, but more importantly how to change.   Here's a summary of the research cited in the book:

* Toxic workplaces are taking a toll on our physical and mental health.  Professional “white collar” jobs are as stressful as manual labor. Stress is considered an inevitable part of the modern workplace, including nonprofits. * Leaders and employees differ on their view of cause of workplace stress according to research.  This disconnect that can undermine the success of any initiatives designed to increase well being the workplace.  Leaders identified big-picture challenges like technology, which makes it harder to separate work and home, and organizational change as top contributors to stress while employees were focused on concerns like low pay, unclear job expectations and company culture. * Stress in the workplace is expensive for organizations according to research. The American Institute of Stress, a nonprofit that aims to educate the public, found that job stress costs U.S. industry more than $300 billion annually in absenteeism, turnover, diminished productivity and medical, legal and insurance costs. * Stress is the leading cause of turnover.  Employees feel pressure to accomplish more with less resources and they are not happy. Nearly 50% report having changed jobs to escape stress.  Approximately 61% report that workplace caused them actual physical illness, insomnia, depression, or family issues. LONG HOURS CULTURE IS NOT PRODUCTIVE

The book devotes an entire chapter to the problem of working excessive hours.   The Japanese have a word for it, Karoshi, which means working yourself to death by working long hours. This phenomenon not just a Japanese thing, it is happening all over the world and in the US.  There are many manifestations of overwork and all have negative impact on employee health and the organization's productivity and effectiveness.  Here's a few:

* Working long hours during the day/evening and being sleep deprived which can weaken the immune system and lead to illness or lead to family conflicts * Working excessive hours during the year, but not taking paid time off. It is well documented fact that Americans are taking fewer and shorter vacations or forgoing them all together, despite having paid vacation benefits from work. * Working when sick. Not taking sick days when you are ill because of the belief that your job would be danger or you would get too far behind. This does not allow you to recover and it spreads your germs to other people at work. Why are we doing this?  These instances of overwork are not necessarily needed for the organization to be successful. There is a “work long hours” culture where people work long hours, even if it is not needed. Some employers see this an expression of loyalty.

But it’s not for-profits are alone in the arms race toward constant overwork. Research has even found that people who work at nonprofits tend to put in longer hours–some call them “hero hours”—than others, with higher rates of burnout and turnover, possibly because they’re driven by a higher purpose.  Over the last 25 years, we've shifted from leisure time as status to busy and stressed out as a badge of honor.

HOW TO CHANGE

The book concludes that if anything is going to change to cultivate workplace well being, several things need to happen:

* Employees need to understand the stress-related factors in an organization and make that part of their decision to work there. (Easier said than done)  They also need to take care of themselves and have a self-care plan - even if their workplace does not support or encourage it. (Of course, The Happy Healthy Nonprofit has lots of practical advice for nonprofit professionals on how to practice self-care in and outside of the workplace.) * Employers need to measure and and understand the costs of toxic workplaces - what it is costing in terms of health costs, sick days, and loss of productivity. This is a first step towards change.  Most importantly, it is about workplace culture. Work environments matter for people’s engagement, performance, and satisfaction - but they also matter for physical and mental health. Creating a culture of community and giving more control to staff over their jobs create workplaces are less stressful. When people care and feel connected to each other, there is less toxicity. Creating more opportunities where staff can socialize together - share a meal or celebrate birthdays, program launches, and other milestones and testing initiatives like Google's "Dublin Goes Dark" and other ways to encourage work/life balance. * Governments should address toxic workplaces in policies. This is already happening in Europe (France has a no after hours email law) and many Scandinavian countries focus on work life balance.  Finland ranked first in happiness. * Movements that focus on workplace sustainability just as their movements to protect the environment.  The Center for HumanTech is an example. During the past year, I have been delivering keynotes on this topic as well as workshops and staff retreats on how to activate a culture of well-being.  Here is a simple recipe and tips for getting started.  Don't wait until horrible happens or everyone burns out.

How does you handle workplace stress as a nonprofit professional?  How does your workplace mitigate or contribute to workplace stress?  How has your nonprofit activating a culture of work/life balance?

_NOTE FROM BETH:  Blocking out time for your nonprofit's staff to do planning and work on areas like organizational culture is essential for success.  Designing the meeting so it is effective and encourages team-building can be tricky.  Here's some terrific advice from Sarah Axelson._

HOW TO DESIGN AN EFFECTIVE STAFF RETREAT: A LESSON FROM LIFE - GUEST POST BY SARAH AXELSON FROM ETR

When is the last time your organization held a staff retreat? Did it help you accomplish your organizational goals?

A few weeks ago, ETR held its annual staff retreat. I was genuinely inspired. The planners of this event offered some valuable lessons for any organization on how to design effective and engaging retreats.

I’m a relatively new employee at ETR. This was my first retreat, and I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. “Staff retreats” can mean all sorts of things: hours-long strategic planning sessions, reviewing annual reports and budgets, feedback sessions where staff are encouraged to ask questions of leadership but no one speaks up because everyone is in the same room. The list goes on.

I was optimistic that ETR’s retreat would be something different—that it would, in fact, exemplify the professional development principles that ETR holds dear.

Knowing those principles, I anticipated that the retreat would be meticulously planned and organized, with clear intent about goals. Pre-work would prime me for the learning objectives. There would be plenty of activities that asked me to think hard, interact with colleagues, move around the room, and spend some time in personal reflection. There would be lots of opportunities for meaningful face-to-face connection with other ETRians. There would be follow-up.

And of course, we’d have fun while we did all of these things. Lucky for us, this retreat delivered!

ABOUT THE DISTRIBUTIVE LEARNING PROCESS

The principles used in ETR’s retreat come from the Distributive Learning Process. Developed by ETR in 2014, this is a research-based approach for designing and delivering skill-building trainings. It reflects best practices in adult learning and provides a framework that results in positive change.

The goal is to ensure that adult learners are _prepared to learn_ new information, and then able to _transfer _that information to_ application_ after the event. Now, our staff retreat was not actually intended as a skill building training. But it turns out that applying the relevant elements from the DLP into retreat designs _is_ an effective way to engage staff and ensure that relevant content “sticks.”

STEP 1: BE INTENTIONAL ABOUT INTENT

The first step in the DLP is identifying projected outcomes: what do you want learners to achieve? What are your goals and objectives? Clarity of intent is key for any learning event.

ETR’s retreat planning team set objectives that Goldilocks herself would have been proud of. They didn’t set the bar too low, aiming only to “network” with colleagues or “learn something new.” They also didn’t overreach, promising to deliver a deep understanding of organizational concepts that would require hours of discussion and reflection.

Instead, the objectives were just right. The day included a healthy mix of connection and social interaction, with appropriate work on key organizational concepts that could be covered sufficiently during the time we had available.

Our Intent: Bringing Together Our Patchwork of Connections

We are a distributed workforce of 90, with folks located all around the country. Staff are in one of three offices in California or are part of the Remote Team (R-team for short—people who work from their home communities, wherever those may be). It’s rare for us to see everyone in the organization, all at one time. That’s why the planners asked everyone to make connections at the retreat with at least 15 people they hadn't known well before. Following up on this intention, the planners presented activities that made this possible.

They also wanted staff to make connections with our newly reworked mission and vision statements, as well as our recently developed organizational norms document. They wanted to strengthen connections with ETR’s Health Equity Framework, an evolving model that is essential to all of the work we do.

Our theme, “A Patchwork of Connections,” brought us back to these goals throughout the day.

Taking Care of the R-Team

In a distributed workforce like ETR’s, one of the keys to building an engaged and energetic culture is making an extra effort to respect and celebrate remote workers. To this end, the day before the all-staff event, the R-Team participated in a half-day retreat of its own. Their retreat helped solidify connections within the team and identified practical steps to enhance their inclusion and leadership throughout the organization.

STEP 2: SET THE STAGE THROUGH PRIMING

The Priming phase of the DLP sets the stage for learning before the event takes place through two processes: pre-assessment and pre-work. Pre-assessment gathers a sense of participants’ current knowledge and skill so that facilitators can tailor training designs to “meet participants where they are.”

Similarly, pre-work gets participants focusing on the content that will be delivered during the event. They complete a few key activities on their own, get thinking about the issues, and then use the meeting time to process and apply the information together.

As ETRians, I think it’s safe to say we knew pre-work was coming. And it did, but not in that way that so often feels like busy work. The pre-assessment asked what we wanted to get out of the retreat. It included items that were fun and made us feel part of something bigger—like adding a song we loved to the “ETR playlist.” (This music was played in the meeting room during transitions and breaks. Copies of the playlist were included in all of the participant folders. Let me tell you, our staff has some great taste in music!)

We also took part in pre-work addressing diversity and inclusion. We engaged in thoughtful dialogue with our colleagues on some pretty difficult issues. This is something we don’t often get to dive into during busy days. This work was connected to an activity in the retreat addressing similar issues.

The priming work didn’t take much time, but the value of the pre-work was equal to the work we did on retreat day. I can’t overstate the importance of this part of a learning event.

STEP 3: TRANSFER OF LEARNING

Learning transfer is the heart of any learning event. Here are some common elements for engagement:

An inclusive, learner-focused environment Group interaction, discussion and sharing Development of concrete action steps Our retreat had all of these elements. I was most impressed by how seamless they were, and how they moved the day forward in an exciting and engaging way.

Over the eight hours we were together, our group participated in more than 15 unique activities, exercises or discussions. The design of those activities reflects two important principles of adult attention: (1) most adults have relatively short attention spans, and (2) attention will be enhanced when people are enjoying themselves, motivated in what they’re doing, and fed (or at least are not hungry, thirsty, stressed, etc.).

Our retreat had plenty of good food. We were never sitting and listening for more than 10-15 minutes. Longer activities were interrupted by physical movement that supported the learning goals (e.g., “Rotate to a new table and discuss this question…”).

Activities were separated by Pop-Ups, delightful little three-minute segments where staff members “popped up” and shared information about something helpful for others to know. Our Pop-Ups covered our active ETR Steppers group, leadership team office hours, and social media strategies within and beyond the organization.

Through it all, what mattered was that we were engaged in the learning, even when it just felt like fun.

STEP 4: IMPLEMENTATION AND BEYOND

The intent of most learning events is to help learners apply the information—to change something for the better when they return to their work settings. The DLP suggests this is best achieved through follow-up support and post-assessment. These steps reinforce the content, skills and information from the learning event. They remind participants of what they learned, and encourage them to apply new skills, even though they are no longer in the learning environment.

Not more than a day or two after our staff retreat, the planning team was operationalizing our follow-up support. They emailed a checklist “so our retreat learnings, connections and commitments stay alive.” It included action steps (literally: “Join the ETR Steppers and thrive!”), key learning, and reminders of where and how to access resources discussed during the retreat.

Don’t Forget the Fun!

We did a lot of work over the course of the day, and we modeled the Distributive Learning Process in a way that I found incredibly valuable. What I loved most about the retreat, though, was that none of that was at the cost of having fun. Julie Dirksen, author of the awesome book Design for How People Learn (2016), makes the point that “a lot of what makes for a great learning experience is not about the content, but about the way the content is taught.”

For ETR, that meant music, games, photos with colleagues and so much more. It was truly a wonderful experience, one that I can’t wait to repeat next year. I can only hope that those of you who don’t work at ETR can take a little bit of our retreat and infuse it into your own, so that your staff retreats can be ever more exciting places of learning and connection.

Sarah Axelson, MSW, is the Director of Training at ETR. She leads the conceptualization, expansion and management of ETR’s training and professional development work. She can be reached at sarah.axelson@etr.org.

Is your nonprofit grappling with digital transformation of its programs and operations? BoxWorks 2018 is just over three months away on Aug 29-30 in San Francisco and the nonprofit sessions are a great place for learning about digital transformation (and networking too.)

The good news is that your nonprofit can request a full scholarship . The first 800 eligible nonprofit leaders will receive a full scholarship (a greater than $1000 cost savings)! The simple application to request a scholarship is here.

Check out this year’s agenda and nonprofit track starring Teach for America, DonorsChoose.org, Relief International, PATH, Global Fund for Women and more. Also, plan to connect with leaders from the TechSoup, NetHope, Tides and all ten #ImpactCloud coalition members. Over 650 nonprofits registered for BoxWorks last year; get a feel for what nonprofit leaders experienced through this gallery

See you at BoxWorks event on August 29-30!

_NOTE FROM BETH: Digital storytelling is key to fundraising success, but using a storytelling lens in your organization can have further benefit of busting organizational silos.  Miriam Brosseau and Stephanie Corleto share why._

HOW AND WHY STORIES CAN BUST NONPROFIT SILOS - GUEST POST BY MIRIAM BROSSEAU  AND STEPHANIE CORLETO 

Silos are for corn. Stories are for people.

Fortunately, storytelling busts silos.

Organizational silos are the bane of too many nonprofit communicators’ existences. Artificial barriers among program areas and staff can breed reactionary environments that are frustrating at best and debilitating at worst. Worse is the impact of siloed organizations on nonprofit audiences - cuz really, how many emails can you get from the same organization before you go a little nuts?

To be fair, silos do exist for a reason, and do have their benefits. In fact, we (that is, we organizations) kind of love them. They’re easy to manage. They make it easier to harness specific expertise. They create a sense of belonging (within the silo), trust (again, within the silo), and provide focus.

But in the individual-centric digital age, silos are doing nonprofits zero favors. The challenge is to reach our audiences where they are, in that moment, with compelling content and a call-to-action… Not exactly what siloed organizations are best at.

Delivering on that promise on the outside means making some changes on the inside.

Inspired by a session on busting organizational silos through digital storytelling delivered by the See3 team at the most recent Nonprofit Technology Conference, the National Institute for Reproductive Health is using its web content to move out the silos and bring in the stories.

“Addressing the website in the first place came from a recognition that it just wasn’t functioning for our constituents,” says Stephanie Corleto, Digital Communications Manager at National Institute for Reproductive Health. “We had to shift our content from speaking to our core constituents in the reproductive rights movement to being more approachable and externally focused.”

That meant shifting the organization of the website, but also adjusting the lens. “The website can’t be movement-centric; it needs to be supporter-centric,” says Corleto.

And that’s where the opportunity lies to not only improve the website, but to bring the NIRH team closer together.

The silo-busting is beginning with the planning process.

“We met internally with the communications team, but then also with Policy and Partnerships. We needed eyes from other departments to get buy-in on the project, bring in their expertise, and identify holes in the content,” Corleto relates. Those meetings led to content assignments, so everyone was contributing based on their role in the organization and the unique perspective they could bring to mission-driven content.

NIRH now has a solid plan to update the content on the website - and they’re starting their implementation this month.

“It’s really just the beginning. We have existing meetings with departments across the organization, but now we’re approaching them with an eye for  _their _stories of impact and success. We’re going to be working with departments across the organization to create content, instead of just reporting out from a policy or movement perspective. Bringing in those diverse voices means we can tell more stories and invite in new audiences.”

Those stories, then, have become both a tool for aligning the team and can act as the main pillars of NIRH’s digital engagement. Win-win!

At See3, we’ve observed that marketing challenges are often actually organizational alignment challenges. The messaging itself is almost a function of way the internal team is structured and communicating. Is the organization really set up on the inside to deliver on the promise they’re making on the outside?

There are three basic steps that anyone trapped in the communications department can start taking now to drive more engagement with their external audiences while knocking over silos internally:

* TELL THE WHOLE STORY. IF YOU’RE ONLY FOCUSED ON TELLING THE STORY OF HOW AWESOME YOUR IMPACT IS ON YOUR ORGANIZATION’S DIRECT BENEFICIARIES, YOU’RE MISSING OUT ON A WORLD OF CONTENT, IMPACT, AND NEW DOORS TO WELCOME IN NEW SUPPORTERS. TRY SHIFTING THE HERO OF YOUR STORY TO A VOLUNTEER, DONOR, SPONSOR - WHAT’S _THEIR _JOURNEY? THAT PERSPECTIVE SHIFT FORCES YOU TO CONNECT WITH OTHER DEPARTMENTS TO GET INSIGHT INTO THOSE MOMENTS OF TRANSFORMATION, IT EXPONENTIALLY INCREASES YOUR ORGANIZATION’S IMPACT, AND IT PROVIDES ASPIRATIONAL MODELS FOR ENGAGEMENT WITH YOUR CAUSE. (HERE’S A BIT ABOUT HOW SEE3 IS DOING THAT WITH THE GOOD FOLKS AT MAKE-A-WISH.) * BUILD STORY-GATHERING INTO YOUR PROCESS. NIRH is building story-gathering into its website content refresh. Your organization may add it into your content calendar. Every See3 client is encouraged to include storytelling moments in their cross-departmental meetings. Some use Slack channels to share ideas and elevate small moments of success. See3’s clients at Hillel International integrated storytelling into their team meetings. How can you lead with stories? * TREAT YOUR TEAM LIKE DONORS: REPORT ON IMPACT. Busting silos is ultimately about culture change. Any culture change initiative is most effective when you start with what’s working and nurture that, as opposed to focusing on what’s lacking and trying to fix (read: complain about) it. So, take those little moments and let your team know when their contribution made all the difference in, for instance, an especially popular blog post. Or share that an anecdote that came from another department led to a personal response from someone on your email list. Notice and lift up the bright spots. Start with what’s working to build trust and momentum. Organizational silos aren’t going away anytime soon. But communications folks are in a unique position to use storytelling to start building some windows and doors between them.

Tell us how you’re letting the corn out and the stories in!

Miriam Brosseau is Chief Innovation Officer at See3 Communications where she consults, coaches, and trains clients like Make-A-Wish, Alzheimer’s Association, and Ceres on digital strategy and storytelling.

Stephanie Corleto is the Digital Communications Manager at National Institute for Reproductive Health and NIRH Action Fund, and has previously worked at WNET New York Public Media, French Institute Alliance Française, and Girl Scouts of the USA.

_NOTE FROM BETH: In my recent book, THE HAPPY, HEALTHY NONPROFIT and leading workshops for nonprofits all over the world on this topic,  I continue to be passionate about the need to build resilient and sustainable nonprofit leaders and organizations. This is true now more than ever. And new report, The New Normal,  spells out exactly why that is important_

A CULTURE OF WELLBEING AS A NEW NONPROFIT STRENGTH: BUILDING CAPACITY DURING A TIME OF DISRUPTION - GUEST POST BY HEATHER MCLEOD GRANT, ADENE SACKS, & KATE WILKINSON

Let’s face it: being a nonprofit leader is hard. And in the past year, it has only gotten harder. The current political administration and U.S. Congress are undermining decades of the sector’s work on immigration; women, minority and LGBTQ rights; the environment; and the social contract with government—among other issues. Recent federal spending cuts, paired with a tax bill that may de-incentivize giving, only add further uncertainty to the mix.

Eager to understand how nonprofits are faring in this challenging environment, we recently interviewed a number of diverse leaders about their capacity-building needs. Funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, our research was recently published in “The New Normal: Capacity Building During a Time of Disruption.” What we learned—among other things—is that “wellbeing” has become a new capacity.

Why? Many nonprofit leaders and organizations are literally under attack in this political environment. In our interviews, we heard stories of physical attacks on clinics, on individuals being served, and on staff. Cyber-security threats have increased, as opponents leverage hacking and social media to harass, terrorize, and even shut down nonprofits. As a result, leaders are needing to keep their staff and communities safe, which increases the complexity and cost of their work, and creates greater stress. “Staff is doing work to address the attacks, AND they are targets of the attacks,” said one interviewee. “Our need to support the wellness of staff has increased drastically in this time.” This includes creating opportunities for staff to unwind, practicing mindfulness, developing sabbatical programs, and planning for succession as more staff burn out.

In addition to facing these attacks, many nonprofits are seeing a rising demand for their services and are scrambling to secure revenue in the face of impending budget cuts. Larger nonprofits like the ACLU face the opposite challenge, as they grapple with how to absorb donations driven by political headlines and aspire to step into a larger role on behalf of under-resourced communities. Meanwhile, existing gaps within the sector have grown, including: the unequal distribution of resources between large and small nonprofits, the chasm between the skills leaders possess and the ones they want to develop, and the disconnect between what funders provide and what nonprofits actually need.

Welcome to the new normal. Social change leaders are tasked with doing what they have always done _and _collaborating more readily, while under threat, and at the current speed of change. As one leader put it, “Since the election, people need to work harder and more efficiently. There’s no more ebb and flow in the work—it’s a constant flow. It’s taking a toll on people, and some may not be able to keep up.” This has important implications for how the sector thinks about building social change capacity, now and in the future. Indeed, the sector’s current approach to “capacity building” needs an overhaul. Even the outdated term is insufficient to describe the broad range of needs across the diversity of individuals, organizations, and networks working in the sector today.

As if these challenges weren’t enough, many of the nonprofits we interviewed shared that they don’t feel well supported by their funders. To them, institutional philanthropy seems calibrated for an era that no longer exists, and foundations seem largely insulated from the disruption facing the sector. Universally, we heard social-change leaders wanting funders to understand their realities, struggle alongside them, and trust them enough to make multi-year, unrestricted operating grants. As one leader said bluntly, “The foundation world is out of touch and too slow. Their ways of doing business and the ways that organizations are supported by foundations are archaic. Funders need to listen and follow local groups to understand what the community needs.”

If there is good news, it’s that the old social change model is breaking down, and we now have a chance to invent a new one. We think this begins with social sector leaders adopting a “both/and” mindset and navigating the following tensions. These leaders must:

BE RESPONSIVE _AND _STRATEGIC. The lines between “strategy” and “capacity building” are
 blurring, if not outright disintegrating. Social change leaders need more-flexible 
strategies, adaptive leadership, organizational wellness, unrestricted funding,
 and short-term feedback loops that enable them to react to a rapidly shifting environment and assess whether they are gaining traction.

BUILD INTERNAL _AND _EXTERNAL CAPACITY. The traditional notion of capacity building is sequential: Strengthen organizations, then catalyze networks and movements. But in a moment when organization building often _follows _collective action (as with #MeToo or Black Lives Matter) social-change leaders don’t have the luxury of thinking this way. They must invest in capacity at different levels of systems, and they must also build the resilience and capacity of their staff.

THINK SYSTEMICALLY _AND _ACT PROXIMATELY. Social change leaders need to continue to think and act at different altitudes: They must see the systems of which they are a part and understand their role, while simultaneously staying proximate to needs on the ground. And funders should recognize that nonprofits are closest to the end-user and have important knowledge and wisdom to share.

Funders must also embrace these “both/and” tenets and make a commensurate shift in their own work; they should be as nimble and adaptive as they are asking their grantees to be. Critically, they must get over the overhead myth, and fund the full cost of social change by giving nonprofits what they are most desperate for: flexible, long-term capital. As one interviewee said, “Multi-year, unrestricted, general operating support is what nonprofits need most. It’s so obvious, especially in a moment like this.” Many leaders and funders are already on this path, and we highlight several examples in our report.

Regardless of where you work in our sector, we believe this is a moment of both crisis and opportunity. The “crisis” is about protecting the values, people, and priorities that our sector holds dear. The “opportunity” is about addressing the inequities and dysfunctions in an outdated system and innovating to create a better model going forward. As one interviewee asked, “This moment has only accelerated the work and added urgency. How do we match the bigness of this moment with the bigness of our strategy?”

Authors

HEATHER MCLEOD GRANT is the cofounder of Open Impact, a social impact advising firm, who has 25 years of experience working with social change leaders. She is coauthor of the bestselling _Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits_, and numerous other reports and articles.

ADENE SACKS is a senior advisor to Open Impact, and a social impact strategist with decades of experience advising entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and foundations on how networks, design, and strategy can amplify social change efforts.

KATE WILKINSON is an engagement manager at Open Impact, has spent 15 years working in nonprofits and philanthropy, and recently led the research team for _The Giving Code: Silicon Valley Nonprofits and Philanthropy_.

_NOTE FROM BETH: George Weiner from Whole Whale wrote this insightful piece about the Google Ad Grant program. He kindly offered to let me republish here.  _

HELP I JUST LOST MY GOOGLE AD GRANT  - GUEST POST BY GEORGE WEINER

The title of this article is becoming more frequently used by the roughly 35,000 nonprofit recipients of the popular Google Ad Grant. The Google Ad Grants program gives nonprofits up to $10,000 per month in free in-kind AdWords across the search network through the Google for Nonprofits platform.

On December 13, 2017, the Ad Grants team announced significant changes to the program that went into effect on January 1, 2018. A statement to the international news agency Reuters read:

“We revised our Ad Grants policies to help nonprofits be more effective with AdWords and improve the quality of their ads, which will lead to targeted awareness of their projects and mission.” We’ve posted the exact email at the bottom of this post.

WHAT ACTUALLY CHANGED

The upbeat tone of the Google Ad Grant email, that highlighted the lifting of the $2 bid max for maximize conversions buried the real lead. The email was in fact a huge alert that many accounts needed to make serious adjustments on the quality of their ads to remain eligible.

The big 5 changes that call for a restructuring of most accounts:

* Minimum 5% CTR account-wide. Accounts will be suspended after 2 consecutive months with a CTR below 5%. * Minimum keyword quality score of 2 * Minimum of 2 ad groups per campaign * Minimum of 2 ads per group * Minimum of 2 sitelink ad extensions The timing of the mid-December notice, when many nonprofits are knee-deep in end-of-year giving campaigns and then holiday breaks, made it especially easy to overlook the changes required.

Whole Whale has managed tens of millions of dollars in Google’s amazing grant. As of this writing, we also have the only online course through Udemythat trains nonprofits in managing this grant.

Our team of account strategists, who know this stuff cold, had to spend around 11 focused hours on each of our accounts across 4 weeks. For each account, this process involved cleaned up (~2hrs) and then optimizing for spend and CTR including re-writing ads, restructuring campaigns, and creating new maximize conversion campaigns/ad groups. We were able to save 95% of our accounts managed, losing one due to English ads in non-native English geographies (since regained). Even as an agency specializing in managing the Google AdWords Grant, we found the shift in strategy required for this policy update to be far from a few tweaks in order to be more effective.

WHY DID YOU DO THIS, GOOGLE AD GRANT TEAM?!

Whole Whale believes that the Google Ad Grant is an unbelievably generous in-kind gift to nonprofits in both dollars and the impact it has. We love this grant so we contacted the Ad Grants Team for comment and they were nice enough to explain what is going on.

Michelle Hurtado, Head of Google Ad Grants, explained that the program is focusing on quality and performance to make the offer more valuable to both nonprofits and people searching for nonprofit causes.

As explained in Google Executive Chairman and ex-CEO Eric Schmidt and former SVP of Products Jonathan Rosenberg’s _How Google Works, _all Google employees are held to Objectives and Key results (OKRs), a goal system that aligns ambition with measurable performance indicators. For 2018, Michelle’s team is driving toward higher CTR and conversion rate in order to connect more people with social causes..

One of the big problems that has arisen with the grant is that, in order to use the full amount, many spend excess money on broader terms that may not apply to the organization rather than losing the chance to spend the money. “Ads for terms like ‘movies’ or ‘children’ are common in accounts looking for broad awareness,” Michelle pointed out. “But these rarely result in good connections made between people and nonprofits.” Google wants us to also see the big picture: “The Ad Grants program is here to stay, and we hope that our policies serve as a guide on how to use Ad Grants better.

This will hopefully lead to more intelligent uses of the Grant across all grantees though it is clear that there are going to be a number of growing pains in the coming months. Michelle was careful to add the word ‘temporary’ to the suspensions that have impacted a small proportion of Ad Grantees as of this writing. “It is our goal to get these accounts back in action once the necessary changes are made to increase the quality and relevance of ads.”

THIS IS STILL AN AWESOME GRANT

In dollars, let’s do the math: Based on Google’s data, 35,000 nonprofits spent at least $10,000 per month in 2017 (not accounting for those who were receiving the now-discontinued GrantsPro, which gave $40,000 a month in ads) equals $4.2 billion in potential ad spend.

That’s for one year, and this thing has been around for 15!

Now, compare that with Google’s competitors and you’ll be hard-pressed to find something that stands out as analogous. Facebook, for example, has never had a formal ad grant system for nonprofits — though they did have a one-time nonprofit ad credit program that discontinued in 2016.

Turning to impact, Google cares about using its platform to make a difference. Awesome organizations use these ads to drive more people to their websites and engage them in their causes. At Whole Whale, we’ve driven over 6 million site visits to our nonprofit clients’ websites this way. And believe me, those nonprofits feel that impact in the form of more people learning about, engaging with, and becoming committed to their cause.

Most nonprofits simply can’t compete in the crowded marketplaces of social media and digital advertising. AFS-USA Intercultural Programs, which has been the leading study-abroad organization for high schoolers for over a century, is now facing greater competition with for-profit companies that run similar, but far more expensive, programs. In order to regain exposure in the crowded study abroad marketplace, AFS and organizations in a similar position will increasingly rely on the support of platforms that believe in a greater mission and not just a one-size-fits-all pricing model for advertising. Google Grants are helping AFS — and thousands of organizations like it — reclaim their spot in the front of users’ minds.

GOOGLE AD GRANTS AS AN ANSWER TO #FAKENEWS

The 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer data are in, and while we are living through a multi-year decline in public trust, the NGO sector remains the leader in what trust we have left in four major sectors.

This erosion is a symptom of globalization, polarization, attacks on the media, and a general lack on consensus on facts. The net effects of the current U.S. leadership pushing out terms like “alternative facts” and trumpeting #FakeNews haven also accelerated distrust in the Government and Media sectors.

If NGOs are the kings and queens of trust, it’s time to double-down on the investment in content. The idea of #FakeNews and overall public distrust means that important information around health, education, unemployment, and the environment are being lost in a sea of finger-pointing and gerrymandering. There is an incredible opportunity for NGOs to fill this gap through reporting on and disseminating trusted information around the issues they cover.

To make this point a bit more tangible, consider some of the following Google autocomplete searches. Autocomplete shows the collective result of trillions of searches that are done on the search engine, narrowed down by searches across the world. When people want to learn something, they Google it and then let the algorithm sort out what they should see based on myriad factors.

The question is, who is fighting to answer these questions and win the battle on consensus? Take a minute and explore how people are searching for terms around your cause with this simple and powerful tool:

For 15 years the Google Ad Grant has helped nonprofits get an equal playing field in the online dialogue and discovery around key issues. Issues that companies and special interests spend billions to manipulate. The value of allowing small nonprofit players to show up when it matters most cannot be underestimated, especially in our current media and political climate.

HOW DO I GET MY GOOGLE AD GRANT BACK?

If you haven’t already, make sure that your CTR for active keywords is above 5% and keywords are all relevant. The Google AdWords customer service team is awesome and has been fielding our calls and emails regularly. In order to regain your Ad Grants, you need to follow the details of their notice, completely removing irrelevant keywords/ads. Then consider contacting the Google AdWords support line and explain that your grant was “temporarily suspended” due to Ad Grants’ policies. They should be able to help you understand exactly which ads, groups, or keywords caused the issue.

Beyond this, Whole Whale will continue to create Google Ad Grant trainings, webinars and courses.

PS  The full text of the email from Google can found here.

George Weiner is the founder of WholeWhale.

Last month, I was honored to present and facilitate an all-day workshop for nonprofit leaders at the Oregon Nonprofit Leadership Conference on how to activate a culture of well being in the nonprofit workplace, based on my book, The Happy Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact without Burnout. I also delivered a workshop to South Carolina nonprofits on the same topic hosted by Shine The Light, Nonprofit Forums. The participants were amazing and came up with some terrific strategies and action plans.

Many times the reaction to focusing on organizational culture and wellbeing is considered "soft" or "nice" stuff that not lead to results or impact.  There is now enough evidence from research that focusing on resilience in the workplace is an essential strategy for sustainable results.

And there is another reason to focus a culture of wellbeing.  We are living in an age of radical transparency, powered by movements like #metoo, it is beginning to shine a light on toxic nonprofit workplaces for all to see what was once hidden. Potential job applicants are beginning to place as much emphasis on positive organizational culture as they do on job tasks and salaries. This means activating a culture of well being in the nonprofit workplace is even more important to avoid turnover and attract top talent. Organizational culture really matters when it comes to high performance and results.

The workshop focused on how nonprofit leaders can activate a culture of wellbeing in their organizations.  Leadership skills are only just about our inner-selves, it is also how we relate to other people and manage those relationships, especially in the workplace. If we lack the skills to avoid collaborative overload, manage difficult conversations, learn from failure, the resulting physical, emotional, and mental strain gets in the way of a nonprofit organization’s success.  Why?  Because staff turnover challenges effectiveness and poor morale does not inspire staff to move the organization's forward to great heights.

One of the workshop exercises was to teach leaders a process they can facilitate back in their organizations to begin the discussion about how to activate a culture of well being. I use framework developed by Laura Putnam, from her book, Workplace Wellness that Works.The framework helps us better understand and how to shift organizational culture. The framework is based on Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, mapped to an organization’s hierarchy of needs:

• LEVEL 1: Functioning Factor – Do people have what they need to do their job? • LEVEL 2: Feelings Factor – Do people feel appreciated and respected? • LEVEL 3: Friendship Factor – Do people feel connected to one another? • LEVEL 4: Forward Factor – Do people feel like they have opportunities for growth? • LEVEL 5: Fulfillment Factor – Do people feel like they are inspired and working towards a higher purpose?

As part of the set-up to the exercise, I share some examples from the Happy Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact without Burnout.   Then, I have participants work in small groups, using a structured brainstorming process. We had a dozen small groups that each brainstormed 20-50 ideas each.  Participants prioritized the ideas by combining and evaluating the cost/impact, boiling down to a couple of ideas to present to the whole group.

Participants were able to share what they were doing to activate a culture of wellbeing with each other as well as come up with new ideas.  Here's the list:

FUNCTION

* Building basic processes for getting work done, for example collaborative calendar planning * Enough staff to cover work or prioritize work flows * Improve internal information systems * Responsive tech support * Make sure there are enough basic supplies * Sound proof the office * Better lighting in office, natural light * Adequate desks and chairs for how people want to work * Encourage staff to take breaks, go outside to get fresh air * Healthy food and snacks available at meetings * Use surveys to find out what staff need * Remote working policy with flexibility * Flexible hours to accommodate personal time FEELINGS

* Clear expectations with supervisor and employee through regular check-ins * Give real-time feedback and praise, established feedback loops for employees * Work anniversary celebration, shout outs to staff, hand-written gratitude notes * Birthday cards from the board, celebrate staff birthdays at monthly staff meeting, give staff member the day off for their birthday * Whiteboard of love - written praise for staff accomplishments, * Reserved parking space awarded to an employee each month who had done a great job * Ritual of staff praise at meetings or monthly award, not just a raise * 80/20 rule – 20% leaders talk at meetings * Do walking meeting one-on-ones and train staff to listen to each other * Start meetings with a feelings check-in – how are you feeling today * Encourage genuine curiosity for others’ wellbeing * Encourage more dialogue and discussion at staff meetings, team retreats * Create safe space to discuss any negative issues, * Provide clear procedure for reporting grievances or complaints so people feel heard * Honor healing time needed to heal from trauma from work if working with vulnerable populations * Review self-care activities and celebrateFRIENDSHIP * Establish norms around compassionate behavior and modeled by SLT * Motivation Monday, Taco Tuesday, Waffle Wednesday, etc. * Staff goes out of the building for a meeting at least once a quarter * Understand diversity and blind spots and how they might hurt people * Casual Fridays or "Fun Fridays" * Encourage staff to ask for help * Give comp time or days off after stressful weeks * Do fun icebreakers at meetings and other team building activities * Hike during staff retreat * Connect through moments of play * Take other teams out for lunch * Ice Cream for staff appreciation or other staff organized social activities * Gift exchanges or potluck not during the holidays * Volunteer on a project together * Leadership training on communications styles FORWARD

* Robust on boarding program * Special projects that are professionally fulfilling and interesting * Promote from within * Include personal growth in professional development plans * Encourage staff to be creative or do creative things * Asking about career goals and how they might be pursued at current job * Paid volunteer team at another org * Encourage sharing what is learned at conferences with staff * Professional development plans/funds * Create a leadership library of nonprofit books for staff to check out and read * Allow staff to identify “stretch assignments” * Mentoring program and cross training * Create a norm about respecting work in progress and need for quiet time * Minimum mandatory meetingsFULFILLMENT * Annual retreat to remember why everyone does the work and be client focused * Celebrate our organization’s accomplishments once a month – but also share frustrations as well as joy * Have staff share their origin stories, why passionate about nonprofit work * Mission moments – photos, videos, make them visible * Mission statement and values on the wall * Staff meetings that have some time to share accomplishments, not just problems * Transparency * Create mission moments collage and put on the wall * Accomplishment wall related to mission/program success * Field trips to visit programs and clients Working on improving workplace culture is always a work in progress. But an exercise like this done with your staff can generate a lot of great ideas and help your team land on a small pilot to work on.  If you are curious about the implementation requirements for any of these ideas - many are low cost - The Happy Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact without Burnout has more.

IN LOVING MEMORY OF RUTH D. KANTER

My mom passed away peacefully last month a few months shy of her 90th birthday. My mom was generous and supportive of everyone in her life and those less fortunate than her. Even though I lived 3,000 miles away, I was blessed to get to spend time with her in the last five years since my Dad died. Her memory is a blessing and my comfort is that she and my Dad (who were married for 60 years) are together again.

To honor her memory, I'm raising money for NTEN to offer diversity, local, and general scholarships for the 19NTC in Portland.

The Facebook data scandal (reports that Cambridge Analytica, a firm used by the Trump 2016 presidential campaign, scraped Facebook data for millions of users without their knowledge or permission) that erupted in mid-March and prompted user outrage, including a hashtag #deletefacebook, continues to grow. Yesterday, Facebook dropped another bomb: It now believes that information of up to 87 million members may have been "improperly shared"  with Cambridge Analytica. [* nearly 71 million U.S. users are included in that number]

The new number is much higher than previous estimates of around 50 million. The revelation was a footnote in a blog post from Facebook's CTO and also described some additional steps that Facebook is taking to better protect users’ information going forward.  Yesterday, Zuckerberg did a call with the media saying the main goal going forward is to get all of Facebook's systems under control, keep users safe and ensure that the site isn't being used to undermine democracies all over the globe.  He also mentioned that on Monday, users whose data was compromised will be notified in the newsfeed. This could prompt even more outrage ahead of Zuckerberg's appearing before congress next week.

How will users react?  Will the #deletefacebook movement swell with millions of people deleting their accounts, leaving Facebook an empty ghost town? Will it become the MySpace of 2018?  Hard to predict, however bear in mind the following:

* This analysis, "Is Facebook Doomed?"  by co-founder of LikeFolio, says that their data on the daily account deletions shows that people quitting Facebook have doubled their previous high, but the #deletefacebook movement has petered out and the indicates (for now) that it there was not wholesale user revolt.  Also, there was no impact on Instagram (owned by Facebook) as a result of this scandal. * While I have seen a number of friends say they were going to delete their accounts, some did and some are already back on Facebook, quitting Facebook is psychologically difficult.  Apart from our "addiction," many year have invested so much time and sharing content that it is hard to cut the cord.  Here's an analysis of the reasons why quitting is difficult. Given this all might change after users get a direct notification that their personal data was used by Cambridge Analytica - this will cause more outrage and probably regulation. The optimists in some of us hope that Facebook might be able to fix the problem.

What does this mean for nonprofit digital strategy?  As much as many of us would like to use this scandal as an excuse to quit social media or maybe stop investing time and resources into Facebook, I think that might not be the best approach.    The important points is that your digital strategy has to be more than Facebook -and that you need to be strategic and consistent.

* Measurable objectives, well-defined target audience, and personas * CONTENT: Storytelling that creates community and meaningful interaction and engagement: Focus on quality, not quantity * CHAMPIONS: More important than ever to leverage your supporters’ networks as well as “insiders," but train them on how to protect their privacy and personal data. * CHANNELS: Don’t abandon other social media platforms, but you’ll need to invest in the right ones for your audience and capacity. * CHANNELS: Don’t build your house on rented land. Make sure you make the best use of "owned": web site and email newsletters * CHANNELS: Facebook - Video, especially Live is top performing content to maximize organic and paid reach. Consider using groups in conjunction w/ your Brand Page – link and promote. Paid advertising budget, can be small * Small pilots with the next wave of disruptive technologies – the age of automation: messaging, and bots. Messenger integration on FB easy place to start How is your organization reacting to the latest Facebook/data scandal?  Have you changed your digital strategy?

Back in November, 2014, Henry Timms and Jeremy Heimans published an article about “New Power” in the Harvard Business Review that caught my eye.  The concepts around connectivity and leadership were synergistic with the concept of networked leadership that Allison Fine and I wrote about in the Networked Nonprofit, published in several years before.

The article caught fire - not only in nonprofit and philanthropy circles - but also business, government, and beyond. Today, after several years of researching and writing, Timms and Heimans have finally published their book called “New Power: How Movements Build, Businesses Thrive, and Ideas Catch Fire in Our Hyperconnected World.” It is a sector must read.

The book is a guide about how to navigate and thrive in a connected world that has been increasingly been influenced and increasingly defined by two different forces, old and new power.  Here is how Timms and Heimans define these terms:

* OLD POWER is held by a few, once gained is jealously guarded, and the powerful have a substantial store of it to spend.  It is closed, inaccessible, and leader-driven. It downloads and it captures. * NEW POWER is made by many.  It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. It uploads and it distributes. It surges.  The goal is not to hoard it but to channel it. As we have seen over the last decade, with the power of connectivity comes the opportunity for people with similar interests to come together and organize themselves in ways that transform geographic boundaries. Connectivity helps facilitate highly distributed groups of people to work on a campaign, project, or share ideas that spread with unprecedented velocity and reach. We also seen how organizations can harness connectivity as well as movements. This way of working requires a different, more participatory leadership model and mindset that Allison Fine and I first wrote about in The Networked Nonprofit and others have written about called "networked leadership."

And, as we've seen in the past year and especially in the few last weeks, new power can be harnessed for evil just as it can for good. New power is behind some of the most impactful movements (and business models) of the decade.  This includes social good movements like #metoo, #marchforourlives, #icebucketchallenge #givingtuesday and others. The book suggests that those who want to reach their goals and be successful whether it is for good, bad, or the trivial, need to know how to best channel this participatory energy.

We, in the social good sector, especially need to keep honing our skills in unleashing new power for good causes.  As Henry Timms says, "Will the voices of reason be drowned out by extremists of all kinds? Will the platforms we are all addicted to truly make us more powerful, or will they simply be participation farms? These are key questions of our times.

The book is filled with stories of people and organizations that have more recently harnessed new power, both well-known examples like the Pope and lesser-known examples too.  It also analyzes the skills - which are often misunderstand as the ability to use the social network platforms like Facebook. It encompass mindset and ways of working which can be used to exercise new power despite whatever platform or tool is available to us.

The books answers many questions that are useful to nonprofits in their quest to spread and harness social good.  Here's a sampling of just a few:

* How do you create ideas that the crowd embraces, makes stronger, and spreads? * How can your organization internalize new power values like radical transparency or constant feedback to achieve success? * How can your organization inspire an enduring and loyal following in an era of transient affiliations? * How can your organization harness the best of both new and old power? How do you blend? How do you decide which one is best for a particular situation? New power is not just a passing trend, it matters for civil society.  Connectivity and platforms like Facebook can bring us closer together and inspire amazing work or they can be weaponized to drive us further apart as we've been witnessing over the past 18 months. Here and now, it might feel less like the utopia that tech leaders envisioned a decade ago, especially when platforms like Facebook can harvest our data and that of 2 billion users for their own gain and the highest bidder. We are also seeing that our hopes for toppling dictators are diminishing because the authoritarian leaders are mastering new power techniques.

One of my favorite chapters of the book describes different leadership profiles based on the values and leadership approaches that different leaders use.  Each profile is illustrated with an in-depth case study.  It goes like this:

* THE CROWD LEADER:  Combines new power leadership model with a commitment to, and articulation of, new power values.  The Crowd Leader wants to do more than channel the power of their crowd; they want to make their crowd more powerful. Examples: #BlackLivesMatter leaders, Candidate Obama, and Beth Comstock. * THE CHEERLEADER: Champions new power values like collaboration, transparency, and participation, but leads in an old power way. They either aren't able to do not want to genuinely distribute power.  Examples:President Obama and Howard Schultz. * THE CASTLE:  Pairs old power values with an old power leadership model.  This is the traditional hierarchical and authority-based model of leadership that many of us are familiar with and is widespread in across different sectors such as business, military, education, and nonprofits. An example is Kim Jong-un. (In the Networked Nonprofit, Allison Fine and I called this type of leadership "The Fortress.") * THE CO-OPTER: Deploys a crowd and skillfully uses new power tools and tactics, but does so in service of old power values, and to concentrate power for themselves. Examples: Mark Zuckerberg and Travis Kalanick. As Henry Timms says, "More than ever it is becoming clear that new power - the ability to harness the energy of the connected crowd - is the essential skill of the 21st century. In an age of participation, those who mobilize best will win. We need this on the side of the angels - non profit leaders, academics, journalists - to master the methods and mindsets of new power."

If you are a leader of a nonprofit, this book, New Power is an absolute must-read.

Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons is a collection of 137 case studies and policies in 11 categories how self-organized, democratic, and people-powered policies and initiatives can help solve some of the most thorny problems we face around the world in urban areas. The problems include inequality, climate change and fiscal challenges.

The book's case studies offer us hope and inspiration for urban dwellers - that if we put people at the center - not markets, technology, or government - that people can meet their own needs by sharing resources. The book is a practical reference guide for neighborhoods, citizens, and communities that want to create solutions for affordable housing, food desserts, transportation, and more.

The book was created by Shareable, an award-winning nonprofit news, action and connection hub for the "_Sharing Cities Movement_."  The way the book was produced also embraces the idea of sharing through collaboratively publishing with a team from nine countries to crowd source the book proposal and write the book. And, the paperback version includes a library card inside the back cover to encourage sharing.

There are many inspiring examples in this book, but a few of my favorites:

* Walking School Bus: Concerns over safety for children translates into children being driven to school.  That leads to traffic congestion, increased stress on parents, and lost opportunities for physical activity.   As the name sounds, it is self-organized groups of parents and children that walk as a group to school providing many benefits.  The Walking School Bus (and the Bicycle Train) have become a global phenomenon, widely adopted in the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the US. *  Restaurant Day:  In many cities, people from different cultural backgrounds live near each other but rarely get to experience each other's diverse traditions.  In an effort foster cross-cultural interaction, local organizers in Helsinki created "Restaurant Day," where residents create pop-up restaurants all over the city.  The event is run by a distributed organization and become a global movement with over 270,000 pop up restaurants in 75 countries. * Kitchen Share:  Kitchen appliances can take up space and be expensive.  Yet interest in healthy eating is growing and people are experimenting with different techniques that require different kitchen tools.  This project is a lending library for home cooks in Portland, Oregon.  It helps residents save money and learn new skills. You can learn more about how to get your copy of the book here.

In the aftermath of the reports that Cambridge Analytica, a firm that worked on President Trump’s 2016 campaign, used private data on 50 million Facebook users has erupted into a strong backlash against Facebook. The hashtag #deletefacebook has been circulating on the Internet.   I have seen many posts of outrage from friends and colleagues, all angry at Facebook and threatening to delete their accounts.

There was radio silence from Facebook until 24 hours ago when Mark Zuckerberg released an apology and made the media rounds to begin to regain trust and save its reputation. There were many questions about how Facebook will fix it, regulation, and more.

_In an interview with The New York Times, he noted the company would soon institute new policies to cut back on the data given to the third-party apps that many Facebook users have opted into over the past decade. _

_“A lot of people have been on Facebook now for five or 10 years, and sometimes you signed into an app a long time ago and you may have forgotten about that. So one of the steps we’re taking is making it so apps can no longer access data after you haven’t used them for three months.”_

_Zuckerberg also addressed the ongoing #DeleteFacebook movement, which has urged social media users to delete their accounts on the platform._

_“I don’t think we’ve seen a meaningful number of people act on that, but, you know, it’s not good,” he told the Times. “I think it’s a clear signal that this is a major trust issue for people, and I understand that.”_

But deleting your Facebook account and extracting yourself from Facebook is harder than pushing the delete button. Facebook does not make it easy and it can take 90 days to delete your account. (Watch this video and read this report from the New York Times.)

But many people are dependent on Facebook personal, professional, or business reasons, yet we have not fully understood the data policy.  Some are saying don't delete your account, call for regulation.

The privacy issues at the platform and business model level are not a quick fix. But if you want to guard your data, here's some basic steps you can take from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a more comprehensive guide to a "data detox" from Mozilla.

You can also use this Chrome plugin to take a "data selfie" that tracks you while you are on Facebook to show you your own data traces and reveal what machine learning algorithms could predict about your personality based on that data

In a conversation about this with colleagues (ironically on Facebook), colleague Vanessa LeBourdais, pointed me to this thought piece by Rebecca Solnit.  She advocates fixing your privacy settings, but not deleting Facebook.  Here's what she said:

_I'm not deleting my FB account anytime soon. We are in a constitutional crisis/slo-mo coup (in part thanks to Facebook and Cambridge Analytica), and in responding it we will need to share information. FB is how I stay in touch with a lot of people (including many I am in touch with no other way), send out some news and analysis and occasional calls to action, follow many activists and find some news stories. Shutting down that capacity now would reduce my range and access to information and allies, and I doubt it would harm Facebook._

_Use them. Try not to let them use you. Remember to disable Platform, which is how they pimp your data, use Adblock and Ghostery, don't click on the ads, and say as many bad things about FB as you can on their platform (and cheer their stock crashing). The time may come when we can say goodbye to a destructive and amoral corporation without saying goodbye to each other._

_p.s. I'm glad people are outraged but they could've been outraged last June when most of this information was summarized in the NYRB or earlier when other versions of it appeared. I might add that all this data was to manipulate us. What makes people manipulable is lack of scrutiny of sources, being uninformed, herd behavior, unexamined assumptions, gullibility, jumping on bandwagons, taking slogans for ideas, etc. Critical intelligence, being well-informed, and researching what you're responding to are acts of resistance._

For now, I'm not deleting my account just yet, but I did spend time doing a data detox and privacy settings check and deleting apps.  What about you?

_Allison Fine and I have been collaborating on research and writing about the next wave of disruptive technologies (AI, Bots, and Robots) and what it means for the nonprofit sector.  We have a couple of opportunities coming up for you to join the discussion.  On March 29th, we'll be doing a FREE webinar hosted by Cloud4Good called "The 4th Industrial Revolution: Artificial Intelligence, Bots, and Your Nonprofit."  If you are attending NTEN's Nonprofit Technology Conference in New Orleans, we'll also be leading a featured session "The Age of Automation: Bots, AI, and the Struggle for Humanity."  _

The Age of Automation has arrived. It is an array of technology that includes: robots, chat bots, artificial intelligence, machine learning, conversational interfaces, smart devices, drones, self-driving cars and others which are increasingly becoming the interface between organizations and humans.  These technologies have been in development for decades starting with a group of academics who got together to build artificial intelligence, a machine that would mimic the intelligence of a human. These technologies are increasingly becoming part of our daily lives and will continue to have significant impact on our work and lives.

Bots and other technologies can add huge value to our personal and professional lives by completing basic tasks for us and freeing up our time for other pursuits. Bots can help nonprofits do more with less staff and time.

In fact, some of the new technologies can do tasks that surpass human capacity.  For example, artificial intelligence can do a facial recognition analysis of hundreds and thousands of photos in minutes. (That technology is already here and is used on Facebook to tag photos of people). Recently, a robot designed to flip burgers for a fast food restaurant had to be reprogrammed because humans could not keep up with its pace.

There is also a dark side, popularized by evil robot science fiction books, movies, and television shows.    It goes something like this: Evil robots programmed by AI gets smarter than its human creators and takes over the world.  And while that is a remote possibility now, experts are concerned that robots/bots programmed with AI will be able to learn in ways that we cannot completely understand (or be able to control the actions that result from that learning.) (More about that scary scenario here)

But, there are also concerns that need to be considered now, including ethical issues and loss of jobs to robots.   Experts predict that robots and bots could eliminate human jobs  or parts of those jobs that are repetitive in the next five years in many industry sectors.

Let's take a look at a few examples:

* MAJOR GIFTS OFFICER:   A new platform called First Draft developed by Gravyty uses AI to identify and draft emails to prospects in an organization's database. These “unassigned” prospects immediately become “assigned” because staff members with minimal training can substitute for gift officers and manage the cultivation process.  It is a huge time saver, but how does that help sustain a talent development pipeline of experienced gifts officers who understand donor cultivation at all levels. * HUMAN RESOURCES:   The chatbot Spot mimics a confidential conversation with HR about sexual harassment leading to the generation of a report. It is hoped this bot can remove some of the stigma associated with making a formal complaint – and lead to a safer, more open environment for all employees. * LEGAL COUNSEL:  The world's first robot lawyer is a chatbot that help you fight a parking ticket called DoNotPay and is just the beginning. Robot lawyers probably won’t dispute the finer points of copyright law or write elegant legal briefs just yet. Experts suggest that chatbots could be helpful in certain types of law such as bankruptcy, divorce disputes, and other areas that typically require navigating lengthy and confusing statutes that have been interpreted in thousands of previous decisions. Given that nonprofits are so under-resourced, replacing interns with bots might be provide a big boost in productivity for some. But it requires careful thought. As automation begins to change nonprofit workplaces,  it doesn’t mean that boards can should slash staffing costs in favor of automation. Instead, it is important to consider how to channel human knowledge.  The question to ask is: “How do we make the most of all of that knowledge, experience and expertise, even if the mechanical aspects of their work have gone away?”

_Is your nonprofit using bots to do staff tasks? Is your nonprofit thinking about using bots?   Come join me for FREE webinar hosted by Cloud4Good with Allison Fine called "The 4th Industrial Revolution: Artificial Intelligence, Bots, and Your Nonprofit."  If you are attending NTEN's Nonprofit Technology Conference in New Orleans, we'll also be leading a featured session "The Age of Automation: Bots, AI, and the Struggle for Humanity."  _

Does your work at a nonprofit include facilitating meetings or trainings? Looking for new  techniques to add to your facilitator's toolbox?  This is the focus of a session called "The Big Bang Theory: Creative Facilitation and Training Techniques," that I'm co-facilitating at the Nonprofit Technology Conference with Cindy Leonard and Jeanne Allen.

I'll be sharing tips and techniques on how to generate ideas or "brainstorming" techniques.

WHAT IS BRAINSTORMING?

 

Brainstorming can be done as a solo activity or group or collaborative brainstorming.  Alex F. Osborn, an advertising executive, invented the latter process of “organized ideation” in the 1930's and popularized the technique in several books he authored called "Your Creative Power" and "Applied Imagination."  The nickname “brainstorm sessions”  because participants were using their brains to storm a problem.

Osborn outlines the essential rules of a successful group brainstorming session. The most critical thing that distinguishes brainstorming from other types of facilitated group activity is the absence negative feedback. If participants are afraid that their ideas might be shot down by others, brainstorming will not be productive. As Osborn wrote in his book,  _“Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom while discouragement often nips it in the bud.”  _The simple rules of brainstorming are typically articulated at the beginning of a session as ground rules and include the following:

* NO criticism or debate. All ideas are as valid as each other * Quantity matters. Encourage as many ideas as possible * Free-wheeling. Don't censor any ideas, keep the meeting flow going. * Listen to other ideas, and try to piggy back on them to other ideas. * Avoid any discussion of ideas or questions, as these stop the flow of ideas. It is really important because sometimes bad ideas lead to good ones.

WHEN TO USE BRAINSTORMING OR IDEA GENERATION TECHNIQUES IN TRAINING

Brainstorming is very useful for staff meetings to generate ideas for different programs or campaigns. It can also be used to create work norms or processes.  Used as a facilitation technique in training can also help people generate ideas on how to apply the skills or concepts being taught. Brainstorming generates creative solutions to a problem in the hope of finding the best solution. Furthermore, including people in your organization in problem-solving on a regular basis develops your organization's problem-solving muscle.  It also improves overall staff engagement because it gives everyone a voice.

BASIC APPROACHES

There are two basic ways to facilitate a group brainstorming session.   Overall, the process takes less than hour.  You can do brainstorming with a group as small as 6 people or scale it for larger groups by having people brainstorm in breakout groups.

* GROUP IDEA GENERATION:  After laying out the ground rules and a simple warm up exercise, participants are encouraged to share their ideas verbally.  The ideas can be captured on a flip chart or participants can write them down on sticky notes and post them on a wall.  The group spends 20-30 minutes simply identifying ideas.  A second process is used to evaluate the ideas - clustering the ideas into themes and identifying the best ones. * INDEPENDENT IDEA GENERATION: After laying out the ground rules and a simple warm exercise, participants quietly brainstorm ideas individually by writing them down or using sticky notes for 10 minutes.  Once everyone generates their own ideas, they come together as a group to share their ideas and discuss them.  A second process is used to evaluate the ideas - clustering the ideas into themes and identifying the best ones. While recent research suggests that the first method may not be as effective because of "group think" and produce fewer ideas, you can combine the best of both approaches.

BRAINSTORMING WARM UP EXERCISE

To get everyone into a brainstorming mindset, you can facilitate a simple icebreaker called "Yes And" based on improvisation exercises.  “Yes, And” improvisers always agree with the partner’s statement, then build on that premise with something new.  This leads to an abundance of ideas.  One warm up is to have folks go around in a circle and share items they are going to bring to a party. The first time you do it, you ask each person to respond to the idea with the word no, then say their idea. The second time around, you ask participants to respond with yes and.  Then you reflect on the difference in creative energy - typically yes and has more of it.

ASKING THE RIGHT BRAINSTORMING QUESTION OR PROBLEM FRAMING IS SECRET TO SUCCESS

It is critical to success to spend time before the session identifying the right brainstorming question and the problem definition.  The key to unlocking great ideas is to ask the best question, one that challenges participants to think creatively. You can brainstorm questions to kick off your session.  By spending 10 minutes of your session brainstorming the brainstorming question as group can create a safe space for more powerful problem-solving, avoid bias, and unproductive group dynamics.

Questions are most productive when they are open versus closed, short versus long, and simple versus complex. Brainstorming questions are typically formulated as "How might we …?" questions. They can also be descriptive questions such as "what is working, what is not, and why?"

The question can't be too general or too narrow. Luma Institute has a technique called "abstraction laddering" that can help find the right brainstorming question. Hal Gregersen, executive director of the MIT Leadership Center and author of the forthcoming book, Questions Are the Answer, has this useful article about designing better brainstorming questions.

STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO FACILITATING A BRAINSTORMING SESSION

BEFORE THE SESSION

* Identify the problem and brainstorming question and ask participants to think about it in advance. * Participants.  The ideal number: follow the pizza rule (6-10 people). Make sure you have enough diversity of perspectives in the rooms. More diversity will generate more diverse ideas, ultimately leading to a better solution. * Room set up.   Your room arrangement can bolster or squash creativity. Go with a circle to encourage full participation. Sharing ideas and giving input is easier when people face each other. You’ll also reduce the opportunity for social loafing — everyone contributes because people can’t hide. DURING THE SESSION

As the facilitator of this session, here's is the recipe.

* Say the ground rules for brainstorming. Write them on a flip chart, white board, or slide so everyone can see it. (see above) * Do a warm up exercise to get people in a positive mindset (see above). * Write the initial topic on a flip chart, whiteboard or slide where everyone can see it. * Ask people to suggest brainstorming questions - no solutions or no preambles.  Capture the questions on the white board or flip chart. Redirect any responses that suggest answers. Do this for 10-15 minutes. You can set a timer. * Most of the time, this exercise produces a question or two that re-frames the problem. Select one or two questions for the brainstorm. * Generate ideas, either in an unstructured way (anyone can say an idea at any time) or structure (going round the table, allowing people to pass if they have no new ideas) or have people brainstorm ideas individually and then share them.  See below for more detail on the techniques. * As the facilitator, you will need enforce the rules and capture the ideas as they occur. You can assign a second person to be a scribe or you can have participants use sticky notes to document their own ideas. * Clarify ideas. You can cluster similar ideas, but all others should be kept. You can also use the Osborn Checklist  or this simplified version called "Scamper" * Close the session.  It is useful to get a consensus of which ideas should be looked at further or what the next action and timeline is. One technique you can use is sticky dot voting to see where there is consensus.   Book the next meeting. FOLLOW UP

* You’re not going to make any final decisions during a brainstorming session. It’s the first step in an ongoing process. Let the brilliance of the ideas marinate  for a few days before you bring them together to make any decisions.  Send out a summary of the ideas generated. * After people have reviewed the ideas, it is time to have a follow up meeting to evaluate the ideas.  Set ground rules for this meeting as well.  Try a process for idea evaluation like the Six Thinking Hats. * When you facilitate a brainstorming session, it’s a process. Stick to your facilitator role and encourage feedback, but prevent people from blasting others’ ideas. Creating a positive culture of brainstorming. If people think their ideas will be shredded, they might not want to contribute in future sessions. OTHER BRAINSTORMING METHODS AND TECHNIQUES

Once you master the basic approach for conducting brainstorming meetings, there are many other methods you can use to generate ideas. during the meeting.

WORD STORM

To create a word storm, you share one word that might be the answer to the key question at hand, and then the group generates a slew of words that come to mind from that first word.

To facilitate the exercise, hand sticky notes to everyone. Write your word on a sticky note and place it on the flip chart.  Ask participants to work in pairs or trios to brainstorm words. Encourage participants to think about the function of that word, its aesthetics, how it’s used, metaphors that can be associated with it, and so on. Encourage your team to let the ideas flow naturally.

Give participants several minutes to brainstorm in pairs and ask participants to group them together according to how they’re related to one another. Ask each small group to share their sticky note brainstorm by placing the post-it notes on the flip chart, organized in different themes and clusters. If groups have similar themes or ideas, have them add their sticky notes to existing clusters. As the small groups report out, you can reorganize categories on the fly.

Once everyone has shared their sticky notes and clusters on the flip chart, close the exercise with this question: What are some of the less obvious words or phrases you might associate with this project? What solutions or ideas does this spark? Capture their reflections on the flip chart by writing down key phrases.

SCAMPER

Scamper stands for:

* Substitute: What are the alternatives to materials, processes, methods you’re already using/doing? * Combine: How can you combine seemingly disparate ideas? * Adapt: How can you adapt something you’re already doing/using for a project? * Modify: What materials, processes, methods can you modify to solve a problem? * Put to other use: Can you put a material, process, method to another use? * Eliminate: What can you do to eliminate problems and inefficiencies? What materials, methods, and steps, can be eliminated? * Rearrange: How can you move around materials, method steps, and processes, to solve a problem? You can use the above definition to create a worksheet, slide, or write it out on a Flip Chart. Hand out pieces of 8.5 x 11 paper. Ask participants to think about the main brainstorming question or their own and systematically go through the SCAMPER process. Give them no more than 10 minutes and time it for them.

Once time is up, ask the group: did the SCAMPER framework help you think of an unusual idea or solution to the question?  What was it

ROUND ROBIN

Handout blank white pages of paper to participants. Ask them to write the key question on the top of the paper. Next, ask them to write down a crazy, out of the box answer or solution to the question. Tell them they only have a few minutes and they can draw or write phrases or bullet points, but not to get stuck.

Once everyone is finished, ask them to pass their paper to the person to the right. Then ask them to pass the paper to the person to the right again. Next, ask them to write the following question underneath the idea, “Why won’t this idea work?” and then give five minutes to write down the reasons the idea won’t work.

When five minutes is up, ask participants to pass their paper to the person to the right. Then ask them to pass the paper to the person to the right again.

This time, ask participants to revise the idea based on the critique. Give them five minutes to do this.  Have everyone present their ideas.

In addition, here are a few more techniques and facilitation playbooks to explore:

* MashUp Brainstorm Activity * The Paper Clip * Rapid Research * Lego Serious Play CONCLUSION

There are many benefits to facilitating brainstorming techniques into your training and meetings - from generating better ideas to getting buy-in for the implementation.

Have you facilitated a brainstorming session at your nonprofit?  What was the purpose?  What techniques worked?

Last month I was lucky enough to run into Maia Duerr who participated in Wake's Tech2EmpowerUSA at a workshop I was facilitating on the Happy Healthy Nonprofit. Maia Duerr recently published a book called "Work that Matters: Create a Livelihood that Reflects Your Core Intention." Given our mutual interests, we had a lot to share about mindfulness and well being.

A writer, consultant, and coach, Maia Duerr draws on her decades of Zen practice and training in anthropology to create powerful tools for integrating mindfulness into the workplace and in the everyday lives of the people she works with.  Her book addresses the big barrier to happiness in our personal/professional lives.  It is the idea that work is not just about earning money, but it is about finding meaning.

The heart of this book helps you find work that matters (and pays the bills) or what Maia calls "Liberation-Based Livelihood."  The steps and exercises in the book help you look inward, reflect, but also seek out help from others. The advice is based on Maia's extensive experience as a career coach and mindfulness practice.  The book focuses on six principles:

* Become intimate with your core intention * Value your gifts and time * Break through inertia and take action * Make friends with uncertainty * Think big and make the most of your resources * Build a circle of allies and ask for help

Maia introduced me to this wonderful collection of reflection processes called "The Tree of Contemplative Practices"  which is also in the book.  Some of these exercises are intended for you to do alone, but others can be done in groups. In thinking about mindfulness in the workplace, some exercises are very appropriate as part of meetings.

Is your work also your calling or just a job?  How do you bring together intention and your professional work?

As we all know, in early January, Facebook announced some sweeping changes in the News Feed to prioritize content from friends and family and fewer updates from brands and news.  The intent as described by Zuckerberg was to encourage meaningful interaction and ensure that time on Facebook was well spent.

The changes have also prompted nonprofits to reevaluate their digital strategies and make changes in strategies and tactics. But one thing I've been noticing about my friends on Facebook, particularly nonprofit professionals, is that they are signaling that they are spending less time on Facebook. For example, my one colleague replaced her profile photo with a black and white image that states "Away."  Another announced that they were taking a few months off from Facebook.

What does the research say over Facebook usage after the News Feed changes?

When Facebook announced it fourth-quarter earnings at the end of January, it also mentioned that users were spending less on Facebook. Zuckerberg went on to say that this was a good thing. _“Helping people connect is more important than maximizing the time they spend on Facebook,” he said, later adding that more “meaningful interactions” are the key here. We think that that’s going to be positive. We think it’ll help make the community stronger over the long term, and we think it’ll be good for the business over the long term.” _ Facebook also stated that the reasons for the decline where unclear.

Outside of Facebook's data, Edison Research and Triton Digital conduct and share results from the Infinite Dial study that examines how Americans use social media and other technology. This year's edition, according to a blog post by Jay Baer on Convince and Convert, the headline finding is:  _For the first time ever, usage of Facebook went down.   _Usage on Facebook across every age and gender demographic is down and down overall from 67 percent of Americans to 62 percent.  Many people, not just my colleagues, are using Facebook less.

Jay shares three plausible reasons why:

*  Distrust of Facebook *  Increased discord on Facebook *  Increased disinterest with Facebook He says the following about reason number 3:

_But a third explanation is that this drop represents a natural shifting of users to other parts of the Facebook ecosystem. While Facebook’s usage declines, Instagram’s usage continues to march upward, as does the number of people consistently using Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp._

_This may be a purposeful segmentation approach by Facebook. It’s particularly true among young Americans ages 12 to 24, where Edison Research observed the largest drop in usage._

_After all, one of Facebook’s most attractive elements is that you can do a LOT of different things on the platform. But that’s also one of its great weaknesses. Is Facebook the BEST place for video? Probably not. Is it the BEST place for photos? Probably not. Is it the BEST place for messaging? Maybe._

_As Facebook usage goes down, Instagram and WhatsApp and Messenger usage go up because they offer a more tailored experience. As social media progresses, IT IS NATURAL FOR OUR OWN USAGE TO GRAVITATE TOWARD ONE OR MORE PLATFORMS THAT OFFER A MORE SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE that is more relevant to what we personally enjoy best about social media. Thus, some people gravitate toward Instagram. Others, Linkedin. Others still, Snapchat._

Over the last month, there has been much advice to nonprofits about how to adjust their digital strategy. This research further confirms this advice, especially about not putting all your social media eggs in the Facebook basket and exploring other tailored experiences on social media that align with your target audience.

If you are interested in learning more about the Edison Study, there is a free webinar next week.

Are you spending less time on Facebook?  How has your nonprofit adjusted it digital strategy in light of Facebook News Feed changes?

Online collaboration tools and platforms give nonprofits the opportunity for connectivity and collaboration internally as well as with external stakeholders like volunteers and board members. And, that's a good thing. But it can lead to being overwhelmed or what has been dubbed "Collaborative Overload" or "Collaboration Tech Tool Overload." This is the burnout from too many emails, meetings, and collaborative tech tools that limits our organization's ability to get stuff done.

The worse part is that can lead to overwork because we end up working evenings and weekends to do that important focus and strategic thinking work. Or to catch up on all those emails that were sent while we were in back-to-back meetings all day.  And, as more and more nonprofits offer workplace flexibility and remote working opportunities for staff, they are relying more on online collaboration platforms to get work done - including tools like Zoom, Slack, Box, Google Drive, and others.

If your organization has not spent the time to map out work flow norms related to the tools, it can result in a lot of stress, misunderstanding, and a big loss of productivity.  Establishing work flow norms is very different from training people about how to use the tools.  It is about how we do the work together effectively and efficiently. But how exactly do you do this with your nonprofit staff?

One of the best resources I've discovered is this blog post from the Lucid Meetings Blog. It describes a step-by-step process called ICC which stands for: Information, Communication, and Collaboration.

The process is simple - any nonprofit team, staff, or even board could facilitate this process in less than hour in three steps. It could be done face-to-face or as a virtual or hybrid meeting.

STEP 1:  BRAINSTORM

Have participants use sticky notes to do a rapid brainstorm answering these questions related to your online collaboration platforms:

* INFORMATION: What kinds of information do you need to share? Is there a centralized task system? A shared calendar? Do you need access to a database? An intranet? * COMMUNICATION: How will you communicate with each other? Some people might prefer having live discussions in-person, over the phone or via video chats, and others might prefer email or instant messaging. What are your expected response times? Do you need to set core hours? * COLLABORATION: How will you know what tasks are being worked on? How will you give each other feedback? STEP 2:  SYNTHESIZE

As a group you can cluster the ideas or task someone to synthesize the ideas into a set of work flow norms and expectations.  They can be shared back with participants in a google document for feedback.

STEP 3: USE IT

As issues come up, revise your work flow norms to see how well you are following through.  One approach is to take a few minutes at the beginning or end of your meeting to reflect on how well you are applying the norms to your work. It is a good idea to update the norms process annually, as you change or add collaboration platforms, or when new staff come on board.

You can download a free copy of the agenda for this process from Lucid Meetings.

I'll be presenting on the topic of how nonprofits can avoid technology distraction inside their organizations at the NTEN Nonprofit Technology Conference on a session called "How To Conquer Technology Distractions and Burnout and Be Present for Yourself, Your Organization, and Stakeholders" with Carrie Rice and Meico Whitlock. (You can register for the conference here)

_Note from Beth:  Is Facebook Live or posting videos part of your nonprofit's strategy for 2018?  It should be. Using a tool like Animoto can make it easy for your nonprofit to create DYI videos, but to be successful you need to develop a strategy and use compelling storytelling.  This article shares insights from nonprofit marketers. _

FACEBOOK VIDEO TIPS FROM NON-PROFIT MARKETERS - GUEST POST BY REBECCA BROOKS, ANIMOTO

Mark Zuckerberg’s recently announced that Facebook’s News Feed will be veering away from branded content to prioritize content posted by personal accounts. In the wake of that proclamation, many non-profits are understandably bewildered, wondering what this will mean for their Facebook marketing strategy.

To get perspective on how to handle the changes to Facebook, I consulted with some of the non-profits who use Animoto, asking them how they're adapting to the new Facebook landscape and how it'll inform their 2018 social video marketing strategy.

JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE: STORYTELLING ON FACEBOOK AND BEYOND WITH SQUARE VIDEOS

Ashley Sullivan, Community Engagement Specialist for The Jane Goodall Institute, underscores that storytelling is key to getting seen on Facebook. “As a non-profit founded by one of the world's greatest storytellers, Dr. Jane Goodall, telling our story is essential and the best way to present ourselves as the holistic conservation organization we are, on social media and other platforms. Video is a medium uniquely suited to do just that.”

However, storytelling isn’t enough. Videos have to be formatted to stand out on mobile. Over 80% of Facebook’s users are checking out the app on mobile. 16:9 ratios require that the viewer tilts their phone and watches it in a non-vertical orientation. Square videos take up 78% more real estate on a screen than landscape videos plus it’s more user friendly.

In March 2017, The Jane Goodall Institute put a $50 ad spend against two variations of a video created in Animoto. Both versions were identical except for one key difference—aspect ratio. One was in a 16:9 landscape ratio, and the other was in a 1:1 square ratio. The non-profit saw a huge difference in results, with the square video receiving 2x more views and 3x more shares than the landscape version, largely due to mobile traffic.

But The Jane Goodall Institute is also combating Facebook’s changes another way: by diversifying where they share. Even prior to Facebook’s recent announcement,  the non-profit had decided to expand the number of platforms on which they share video, while still focusing their videos on storytelling to engage their audience. In mid-December 2017, the organization posted an Animoto video on Instagram about a chimp named Wounda. This video showcased the progress this chimp made thanks to The Jane Goodall Institute. Clocking in at less than 60 seconds, the square video was heartwarming and incredibly shareworthy. So shareworthy, in fact, that it racked up 500,000+ views—more than double the number of Instagram followers they had at that point. The reason? The non-profit’s followers tagged friends in the comments section to share Wounda’s story.

“Telling the story of Wounda through video allowed us to use the essence of how social media "moments" happen (as it did initially with footage of their embrace), while also tapping into the exceptional connection people have with her and Dr. Goodall. The video tells more of the story in a complete, but consumable and share-able, way. It helps us share the great and vital work JGI's Tchimpounga Sanctuary does through her individual story, and makes people FEEL how their own story connects to Wounda's story and other chimps."

The lesson? You can showcase the impact a non-profit has by following the story of one person (or in this case, a chimpanzee) who is positively affected by your non-profit’s mission and work, by doing it in a video format that is suited for that platform. For Facebook and Instagram, square is a great option."

SHELTERBOX USA: SHARING REAL-TIME UPDATES ON FACEBOOK WITH VIDEO

ShelterBox USA had a very busy year, due to the sheer number of natural disasters that struck in 2017. The organization’s mission is to bring shelter to families who have quite literally lost everything. They kept their followers informed on a per-disaster-basis through video shared on Facebook.

“We have a great partnership with Rotary International and also have so many passionate individual supporters. Providing concise, informative and timely videos empower our supporters to help spread our mission of providing emergency shelter and drive donations on our behalf,” said Sarah Robinson, Director of Fundraising and Strategic Partnerships at ShelterBox USA. “With the recent changes Facebook is making to the algorithm, this makes our videos all the more important since we have our most passionate supporters in mind when creating them. We rely on our supporters to share these videos on their personal feed to help spread our message,” Sarah added.

Sarah’s strategy won’t be changing too much, though, since their real-time updates during disasters prompt an outpouring of engagement she believes will connect with ShelterBox USA’s audience. For example, when Hurricane Harvey hit, ShelterBox USA was swift to put out a video letting their audience know that they had people on the ground assessing how they would be able to help. They put around $200 to advertise their video to maximize its reach, given Hurricane Harvey’s prevalence on social media.

They used text in this video, which makes it easier for connect with people on mobile, who usually prefer sound-off viewing. This video (and more that followed) did indeed empower their most impassioned supporters to raise money for them. Some supporters even created fundraisers on Facebook and shared ShelterBox USA’s videos to encourage friends and family to donate. Others shared the videos on their feed and endorsed ShelterBox USA’s history of expertise and care, noting their ability to create a safe haven for families in distress.

Despite its success, the ShelterBox USA video had just two photos from Harvey in their video and one satellite shot of the hurricane. To fill in the gaps, they used other assets from previous disaster work to show and tell how they’d be responding to Harvey, but ultimately the video was able to tell their story in just 7 photos. ShelterBox USA regularly creates videos with minimal photos and video clips shot on a mobile device, and they’re still successfully able to illustrate how they are having an impact.

BERKSHIRE HUMANE SOCIETY: FREQUENT, QUALITY VIDEO POSTS WITH ENGAGEMENT IN MIND

Berkshire Humane Society is a community-supported, open-admissions shelter that serves Berkshire County, Massachusetts. They hired marketing consultant Mary McGurn to oversee their social media and online marketing.

Mary now creates a weekly video (in square format) for Berkshire’s Facebook page featuring an animal in need of a home. These videos get shared about 100 times on average and drive thousands of views. Given the changes to Facebook’s recent algorithm, Mary has these recommendations for non-profit marketers:

“Don't back off of producing original video content for your page. It is still the most preferred medium to deliver status updates on Facebook. Just start or keep telling compelling, personal stories that speak to your mission.”

That’s how she handled an emergency fundraising drive last year, when the Berkshire Humane Society’s water heater broke. The $21,000 repair was necessary in order to make the shelter habitable for the many animals awaiting forever homes. Mary quickly created a video sharing the story of the shelter residents who were waiting for a new water heater and asking for assistance. She then took to Peer-to-Peer Fundraising on Facebook, which made it easy for supporters to fundraise on behalf of the shelter.

"It makes sharing your favorite causes on social very easy and quick to do. It’s like sitting over coffee with friends and asking them to pitch in,’ Mary said. She had used this tactic before to raise $5000 for Berkshire Humane Society, but needed to ensure this time around that she would raise four times more than she had last time. “We used video to amplify this campaign. The video spoke to people and showed them how their donation would save the shelter and its four-footed residents.”

But before starting a Peer-to-Peer fundraising campaign, Mary suggests non-profits get fans ready to receive their message. Organizations can remind fans to customize their News Feed, setting a non-profit as a "See First" page and asking fans to check off what notifications they want to receive.

“Note that Facebook caps the number of See Firsts to 30 pages. On [your non-profit’s] Timeline posts, consider using Preferred Audience to tell Facebook what subset of your fan base should see this post. Preferred Audience does not exclude your entire base, but it tells the algorithm to favor some over others. This works best if your base is reasonably large— - over 1,000 and up,” Mary adds.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

* Use square video to grab the attention of your mobile audience * Storytelling is key for shares * Hone in on the story of one individual, town, or animal when storytelling * Share on more than one platform to expand your reach * Timely video updates with ad spend help amplify a non-profit’s response to what’s trending in the news * Use text in your video to ensure it makes sense in a sound-off environment * You don’t need many assets to create a video, and mobile photos and video clips can add a sense of authenticity to your marketing * Utilize Peer-to-Peer Fundraising combined with video to empower supporters to fundraise for you Animoto recently partnered with Mari Smith to offer a free webinar on how to create compelling video content - you can listen to the recording and download resources here.

Rebecca Brooks is the Director, Communications at Animoto

For the past five years, I've been an adjunct professor at Middlebury College in Monterey teaching a graduate course called "Networked International Organizations" for students pursuing an advanced degree in International Development.  As part of the class, we look at different examples of  networked strategies and digital platforms and tools and how they can be used to advance civil society goals. Going beyond content delivery, I also use a lot of participatory and hands-on learning techniques to help students gain a deeper understanding.

As a long-time trainer, professor, and teacher,  I feel strongly that interactive learning activities – going beyond the death by Powerpoint Lecture – is the key to retention and application for participants.    Your room set up can support your instructional activities that engage participants or get in the way.

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand how the feng shui of a classroom impacts learning.  Circles without tables, just chairs helps promote group discussion. Having a large enough space so people can move around and self-organize into small groups also promotes peer learning.  Classroom style with desks puts a barrier between the students and the instruction, especially when people are using laptops or tablets to take notes.   If you are trying to do an interactive lecture, it stops group interaction.   That’s why I always enjoy teaching in flexible classroom spaces.

In class, one of the efforts we analyzed was #SharedFuture, a campaign launched by the World Economic Forum in advance of the annual meeting at Davos to engage with world leaders. WEF encouraged people to create a selfie video for 20 seconds asking a question that a world leader would answer.  Rather than just talk about the campaign, students has to participate. As part of our class, students composed a question and recorded a video related to their area of study and sent it off to Davos.

As you can see by looking at the WEF Instagram account, they recorded the answers to the questions during the meeting and have been sharing the Q/A on video here.  So far, two of my students have had their questions answered.   Oliver, (photographed above recording his selfie video), got a response from the Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation and Development Agency. Here's how they combined the videos.

For each of the topics we cover in the class, students are assigned reading and I do a brief presentation of examples, frameworks and open it up for discussion.  Then students complete exercises, either in small groups or solo.  They have to do a network map and analysis as well as strategy for a development organization in their area of student.  They also have to present their ideas to the whole class and do a brief write up.

I also invite guests to come into my class via Zoom video conference. The guests are professionals who work in International Development for large and small agencies or organizations or work for an embassy. This gives the students an opportunity to interact with professionals and learn more about how what we cover in class is applied in the real world.

Since many of the guests are from time zones that are far away, to make it convenient, I will pre-record a video interview for students. They can follow up with questions on Twitter or LinkedIn. I select guests who can answer a specific set of questions related to my lesson plan or expand on an example of a campaign or example that I share. Nothing like first-person accounts.

Designing training that is interactive, that goes beyond presenting takes upfront planning.  I always create a lesson plan, a more detailed agenda, that includes topics, bullet points, timings, processes, and materials, even if I am the only one facilitating the class.  I use this design checklist to identify interactive exercises.

More importantly, after every class I facilitate, I do a debrief with students as part of evaluating the training. I ask them to generate a list of keep, tweak, and delete. In addition, I write a reflection on my lesson on what I felt worked best or how to modify for the next time. This combination of advanced planning and evaluation helps one continuously improve their instructional design.

If you do training, how do you continuously improve what you are doing?   And, if you are planning on attending the 2018 Nonprofit Technology Conference in New Orleans, I'll be co-leading a session with Cindy Leonard and Jeanne Allen on creative facilitation techniques for training.

Having trouble getting that mobile phone out of your hands and checking it when you need to focus on work? There's an app that can help you break your mobile phone addiction and it makes it fun.  The app is called Forest that turns putting down your phone into a game.

Here's how it works. You open the app, you plant a digital tree and it will thrive for as long as you stay in the app. Once you start tapping other apps, the tree start to die. The longer you get the mobile phone out of your hands and not check email or social media or open other apps, the longer this tree will grow. It is a little bit more fun locking your phone in your desk drawer or closet. The app even partnered with Trees for the Future to help plant real trees.

If gaming and a higher purpose doesn't work in curbing your addiction, then maybe try adding apps on your phone that can enrich your life versus wasting time.  Or maybe you should become more aware of how often you pick up and how many hours per week you spend on your phone.  The Moment app will give you a regular report as well as what apps you are using. Next, use this list of tips to tweak your mobile phone so it can reduce or eliminate your addiction to your mobile phone.

But technology addiction is only the tip of the iceberg, it is part of something much bigger.  According to a recent New York Times article,  several Silicon Valley insiders, early employees at tech giants Facebook and Google, have come together to form a coalition of concerned experts called the Center for Humane Technology.  Working in partnership with Common Sense Media, they will launch education campaigns about anti-addiction to tech and also make tech companies more accountable in the way they design products.

They've outlined their strategy on their web site. Technology products have trapped our attention and the down side, according to Center for Humane Technology is that it is impacting our social relationships, mental health, children, and ultimately chipping away at civil society. The site clearly outlines the ills that technology has on our world, but it also offers a solution going forward. It includes humane design, political pressure on companies, create a cultural awakening about the perils of technology addiction, and employee engagement.

The Center for Humane Technology includes large group of former tech company employees. The co-founder and executive director is Tristan Harris, a former Google employee, an expert on how technology steers the thoughts, actions, and relationships impacts everyone. You can read more of his writing and about him here.

In the Happy Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact without Burnout, we looked the important of technology wellness as part of a self-care strategy for nonprofit professionals and to activate a culture of wellbeing in the nonprofit workplace. If you are concerned about your own technology use or are experiencing collaborative overload, come join me for this FREE webinar hosted by Salesforce Foundation on February 13th.

What's your best tip for avoiding mobile phone addiction?  I just learned about turning my phone to grayscale because the brightly colored icons give your brain a shiny reward every time we open up our phone.  Grayscale removes those rewards and can help you check your phone less.