Community Mobilization

Life as Idenity Building

Kairos Futures, a European Futures publication, has a very cool article based on a study the conducted that I participated in. The study takes a broad look at how individuals, particularly younger Europeans, feel the need to expose and broadcast their personal lives openly for all to see. The insinuation is the act of sharing helps to shape you identity and shape the image that others have of your identity.

In a historical context there are two important societal shifts that have brought about the importance of identity building: the shift from strict social hierarchy to meritocracy and the shift from collectivism to individualism. Today, people are mostly judged by their own merits and accomplishments and less by where they come from.

That being th case it seems clear that to survive in the meritocracy it is key to broadcast all of your individual accomplishments as well as make sure that you are being a part of the collective forward movement. To be active is to belong, and to be long is to be valuable. We are now living our life not for ourselves but for the perception of other.

Tyson Blogs About Hunger

Ed Nicholson over at Tyson Foods contributes to the Tyson blog Voices for Hunger. Ed gave a very nice reference to me and Comob so I wanted to return the favor and say I find it interesting and refreshing to read some of the posts from the various Tyson employees. The most touching one was the sales person who talks with lower income women shopping on a tight budget and realizing that they are making tough choices particularly when milk is and gasoline are both $4.00 a gallon.

The Tyson blog was timely because I had just read an article in the Wall Street Journal (Arrivederci, Penne? Food Inflation Takes Its Toll on the Italian Diet) about Italians and their lament for their cuisine. As wheat prices skyrocket they are being forced to also chose processed foods that are less expensive, and less nutritious. I am curious to see if and how food conglomerates address the issue and contemplate putting nutrition first.

Sharing Hope TV gets press coverage

Our program Sharing Hope TV recently received press coverage from a local Austin, TX news broadcast. The story takes a look at one user and how she is using the platform to support others in their fight against cancer. Our good friend David Neff was interviewed and really discusses the community nature of the space.

What is of particular interest is how the community at Sharing Hope TV is able to self express and support at the same time. The community is a niche community and they are using the site and the underlying technology in new was not previously designed for. Of major interest is the Creative Commons content compositions, where one artists compiles and reconstitutes works, or pieces of works from other artists into something new and unique.

Quitting Smoking happens in Social Networks

A study from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego appearing in the May 22 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine finds smoking cessation occurs in network clusters. The idea of getting help to achieve a goal is nothing new but here is empirical data that supports the support group. The primary finding of this study is that smoking cessation tends to be contagious, i.e. people tend to make the decision to quit smoking based on the influence of their social networks.

The study is important because it points to the fact that legislating out smoking via taxation and smoking bans push smokers to the fringe of their social networks, and it is clearly important to have a 'quitting network'.

Even the French are Futuring

I just read that the French government is launching a foresight initiative called "France 2025".
The objective of the initiative (I am roughly translating) is to produce a strategic diagnostic for the next 15 years, describing the different possible futures for France, defining the means to seize the best business opportunities and limit risks of more threatening scenarios.

During several months, parliamentarians, social partners, senior servants, experts and civil representatives will work on 8 major issues for the future of France: globalisation and its consequences; organization of the productive workforce; developing France's innovative and creative capabilities; protection against new risks; social cohesion; limited resource management; impact of technology on daily life; and the future of the State and public services.

Poverty and Internet Access

A Cornell University and University of Toronto study address the lack of internet connectivity and the citizens in the lower socio economic classes. An interesting conclusion from the research was that Americans with low income and education levels are less likely to have Internet access than their wealthier, better-educated counterparts, but they spend more time online when they do have access.

Low-income families use the Internet for researching products they may purchase, gathering health information, and reading the news. However they spend more time communicating (e-mail, chat) and gaming. There is a macro economic case to be made here that if everyone had access to the vault of information that is the internet society would benefit.

If everyone had access to information about health and wellness we could lessen the strain on our health care system. If we all had information about products we could expedite recalls and prevent purchases of dangerous or overpriced products. If we all had equal access to art, music, human rights information society as a whole could benefit.

One Man Non Profits - V Getting the Momentum

Any good sports fan or coach will tell you that the key to any game is getting and keeping the momentum. Same is true in business, and social causes. One of the reasons large philanthropies are large is that they have found ways and programs to build and maintain momentum. Nothing is perpetual and maintaining forward progress should be part of any organizations mission.

In terms of one man non profits how much momentum can one person generate. Throughout history individuals indeed have changed the world. Web based tools in this day and age are allowing entrepreneurial philanthropists to gather potential energy and release it once a critical mas  has been reached. The Point is one such system. The Point is a new way of thinking about collective action. People need a way to know where their participation adds the most value. That’s what The Point offers—an environment where people are only asked to participate when their action can be combined with others to create a solution.

Utilizing online systems to gauge the potential energy for any social cause could be a valuable tool for emerging philanthropic activities. More precisely systems like the point can help identify if there is a gap with sufficient interest to create an entity to serve it. Established organizations should use this kind of a systematic approach to fill those gaps. In both cases it reduces cost as an entry barrier as well as helps set potential expectations before a program even gets underway.

One Man Non Profits IV - Direct Restricted Resources

Restricted gifts are a unique topic in our business. Imagine buying a tank of gasoline and saying that you want your profits only to go towards green energy research, or buying a T-shirt and insisting that your portion of profits only go towards subsidized medical coverage for the employees. In non profits restricted gifts work just like that and they can be very effective.

In the realm of the one man philanthropy there is an opportunity to direct donations  towards a single cause or program. A very recent example of this is MalariaEngage.org that requests $10 donations and then affords donors the option to fund  seven projects  recommended by Tanzania's National Institute for Medical Research. Once those have been funded, MalariaEngage.org will look to support new projects across developing countries.

In creating an inexpensive platform MalariaEngage.org can send the sum of its donations to support research. Other organizations are not so lucky, in that they have developed numerous patient support, advocacy, education, and outreach programs that really do help people but require staff to organize and run.  It is not unfathomable that organizations could build micro campaigns around restricted donations to mission critical services. Matching donors to what they are passionate about almost always results in better connection and affinity with the organization, and really makes donors feel like they can see their impact on specific programs. This innate need to feel like you are making a difference is what drove the entrepreneurial philanthropists to create their own activities in the first place.

One Man Non Profits Part III - The Power of Compounding Effort

Albert Einstein said 'The most powerful force in the Universe is compound interest'. To that I say 'the most powerful force in philanthropy is compound interests.' The ability to bring people together based on a common interest and to make an impact is, in my opinion, the most important skill for a philanthropy to develop and hone. Superficially this flies in the face of the idea of the one man non profit. If real ultimate power comes from compounding the interests across as wide an area as possible then how effective can a hyper local one man non profit be?

The short answer is not very. HOWEVER it is my opinion that the large  nationwide organizations should pay attention to this micro trend and formulate a strategy to attract and support these  entrepreneurial philanthropists to further large scale medical and epidemiological research.

Nationwide organizations can leverage their fund raising vendors (Convio, E-Tapestry)for a system to enable one-off events. Beyond the fund raising appropriations there are legal concerns as well. Branding, trademarks, and a host of other technical concerns may stymie entrepreneurial philanthropists from engaging large organizations, and so they create their own.

As much as we would like to dismiss this trend it is building in momentum and volume. The next iteration of philanthropy will be to empower volunteers and donors to create something that they could intrinsically call their own. The association or agency that can make that process as user friendly for the constituent will continue to grow in importance and ability to move mission.

Vote for ACS in the Mashup Challenge

The American Cancer Society is a finalist in the NetSquared Mashup challenge. We would really appreciate your vote. It is a bit of a process to vote but I can assure you that it is worth it 100%! Thank you for your support.
1. You must register with NetSquared's site to vote. NetSquared is cool so it's a good idea anyway.

2. Once you've logged in go to the bottom of the page where you'll see the PROJECTS tab. Click on the N2Y3 Mashups Challenge Project Gallery Link.

3. You'll end up at the project gallery which has a big tag cloud in the section "Explore Project Ideas By Cause Area." Click on Health in the tag cloud.

4. You'll end up on the Health section. Go down the bottom of the page and click "page 2."

5. Scroll down about 3/4 of the page. We're "US Cancer Data and Care Disparities Map." (Right below the SexINFO project proposal. Ya can't miss it.)

6. In the light green field at the top of the proposal space click "Add to my ballot." That gives you a chance to vote for it at the end.

7. You must vote for 4 more. It won't let you confirm your ballot if there is less than five projects on it. Just go to others and follow the same process to get them on your ballot.

8. In the upper right-hand column you'll see the your list of ballot items growing. When you've got 5 or more you can check the "vote" link at the bottom of your list.

9. The ballot list comes up with check-boxes to the left of each project name. Click the check boxes and click "submit" at the bottom.

10. You're done. Next time you log in you won't be able to generate a ballot. But do read some of the other proposals. There are some pretty interesting ones.