See What’s Out There

I wrote recently about the decline of newspapers and the rise of the web. Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape, Ning and an internet thinker (and billionaire), wrote a post today on his blog called Inaugurating the New York Times Deathwatch.

Reading it you get the sense that these folks just won’t face the music. Their business model is near death and they better move faster to preserve whatever value they still have.

He shows vividly how the New York Times business has eroded, how their ad revenues are way down, circulation is down, etc. He makes fun of The Boston Globe’s (owned by the NY Times) decision to raise prices:

“When you have an obsolete, inconvenient physical product that nobody wants in an era of universal online access, the appropriate strategy is clearly to raise the price.”

He says “Sometimes it’s darkest right before it’s pitch black.”

The punchline is this:

Well, given that the Internet is the central force dismantling the company’s business, I’m sure that by now they’ve stocked their board with noted Internet experts. Let’s see:

* Brenda C. Barnes — CEO of Sara Lee; noted snack cake expert

* Raul E. Cesan — former CEO of Schering-Plough; noted Levitra expert

* Daniel H. Cohen — president of DeepSee LLC, “an oceanic exploration and submarine leasing company”; noted Jacques Cousteau expert

* Lynn G. Dolnick — former head of exhibits for the National Zoologic Park in Washington DC; noted marsupial expert

* Michael Golden — current publisher of the International Herald Tribune; former head of the company’s Women’s Publishing Division; noted sundress expert

* William E. Kennard — former head of the FCC; noted “seven dirty words” expert

* James M. Kilts — former CEO of Gillette; noted smooth, smooth shave expert; prior to that, unindicted coconspirator at Philip Morris; noted expert on your grandfather’s hacking cough

* David E. Liddle — here I have to take a pause as I actually know this one; based on what’s happening at the company, it could be reasonably asked whether he’s actually attending the board meetings.

* Ellen R. Marram — former CEO of Nabisco; noted Oreo expert. Oh, wait, she actually ran an Internet company: “From 1999 until 2000, Ms. Marram was president and chief executive officer of efdex Inc. (the Electronic Food & Drink Exchange), an Internet-based commodities exchange for the food and beverage industry.” Ooh. I wonder if that ended well.

* Thomas Middelhoff — former CEO of Bertelsmann; noted expert on complicated family politics — well, that’s probably coming in handy…

* Janet L. Robinson — current CEO of the New York Times Company; noted expert on horrific business implosions

* Doreen A. Toben — CFO of Verizon; noted 30-year debenture expert

* And finally, Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr. — the Big Kahuna — the Man — the Guy In Charge — the chairman and scion — the dude with the cojones to actually defend Judy Miller. Not noted Internet expert.

So, if you want to issue bonds to pay for FCC-approved snack cake manufacturing in a submarine on display at a national park by a sundress-wearing cigarette-puffing Levitra-popping Judy Miller, you’re pretty much set.

Go team!

I had a conversation today with a major Jewish Federation about technology change. They are thinking about the future and wanted to look seriously into how changes in technology will impact their activities in the future. They are thinking beyond fundraising to service delivery, health care, and many other segments of community activity for which they are responsible. I tried to give them a framework in which to think about this kind of change and we discussed different models to explore and teach this subject.

The change taking place with technology isn’t simply about operational efficiencies. These changes in technology are creating fundamental changes in how people see their role, the community and their identity. In philanthropy, for example, the people-to-people connectivity of a Kiva is not a new concept, but the internet makes it possible on a new scale.

Not too long ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Ariel Beery, one of a whole crop of young technology savvy Jewish thinkers and creative types. Walking in the footsteps of my friend Yossi Abramowitz, these folks are putting out cultural products and shaking the traditional tree with new ideas.

Ariel Beery’s ideas are included on a blog I have been reading called The New Jew: Blogging Jewish Philanthropy. I was turned on to this blog by a friend and then given it to review as part of the Nonprofit Blog Exchange, which introduces nonprofit bloggers (like me) to other nonprofit bloggers through our work.

How do you think the web and technology change will impact identity? Is Facebook and MySpace a trend? a tool? or a fundamental shift in how people connect and communicate and create networks. Read Ariel Beery’s ideas here and let me know what you think.

Wow. A Black guy wins the Iowa caucus. That is so 21rst Century. Whether he goes on to win the nomination and becomes president or not, the fact that Barack Obama won in Iowa, a 95% white state, says something about the ability of Americans, especially younger Americans, to put race aside. It gives one hope.

With my marketing hat on I see something else. I see a campaign that will be studied for years to come. As a former political consultant, I know that it is much easier to get people who you know are going to vote to vote for your candidate than to get new people to vote. In the past 20 years most of the efforts to get new people to vote in large numbers has been short on real results. Whether the focus has been on the young or the low income, the results have rarely equaled the resources expended.

The Obama campaign was able to use the internet to mobilize people and then turn that online juice into offline action. “The Iowa Democratic Party says at least 227,000 people took part in their caucuses, a much higher turnout than the 125,000 who cast their votes four years ago.” according to CNN. That is an amazing number. That is something all nonprofits should be looking at closely.

The implication is that Obama had a lot to do with this increase in turn-out. Some random thoughts on how this happened.

* People were excited about the product.
Marketing is great, but if the core message and the messenger aren’t compelling you will only get so far. Obama’s message, which include his words, his color, his life experience and his age, combined to become something people could rally around.

* Video
The Obama camp used more web video in more quantity and with more impact than the other campaigns. Coincidence? I think not. The videos were able to bring people to the events who couldn’t be there in person. The videos were able to give voice to real supporters. The videos were able to animate Obama’s words in a way text could not.

* Data and organization
Turing the excitement of people into action starts with good data. The Obama people — like the other candidates — invested heavily in being able to track and follow-up with everyone who took actions on their site and to marry that data with data about Iowans in order to mobile people precinct by precinct and household by household.

Nonprofits should be excited about the possibilities of their investment in online tools and offline organizing. They can take their real stories, the compelling work they do and use social networking and video to turn it into online excitement and activities. They can marry it to offline action and, like the Obama camp, see real results.

The folks at the One Voice Movement — who have been supporting Israeli-Palestinian negotiations toward a two-state solution — launched one-year of civic action and a countdown to a peace agreement. They are hoping to pressure the parties to continue the momentum from the Annapolis meeting, resulting in a Palestinian state at peace with a secure Israel.

One of the tools they are using are large public countdown timers in Tel Aviv and Ramallah. And, they have this web widget with the countdown. This is an example of portable content online - bringing the campaign to the people and not just bringing the people to the campaign. You can learn more on their site.

Today is the first full day of the Convio Summit. More than 700 people are here in Austin, both clients and partners, to learn about what Convio is up to, and to learn from each other about best practices for nonprofits online.

This morning’s keynote address was from Convio CEO Gene Austin. He made an engaging presentation, the highlight of which was his demo of their Facebook application. He started by putting on a baseball hat backwards, saying he needed to get into his Facebook clothes. He then described (in a very funny way) how upset his college-age kids were by being “friended” by their father on Facebook.

I am genuinely impressed by what I am seeing here. The main thing for me is the level of transparency they show in terms of issues. Gene Austin talked about issues they had this summer with their infrastructure, he talked about their “patient investors” and the IPO as a way to reward them in addition to being fuel for further grown, and he talked about the GetActive merger in a very transparent way, admitting that some things were good from Convio and some things better from GetActive and that it took a couple quarters for them to figure out where they were taking it.

The biggest buzz here is about the API and the initiative they call Open. “The proof” of the success of the Open initiative, Gene Austin said, will be 12-18 months from now — when we see what people are doing with it. The other thing he did that was interesting was take a big swipe at Blackbaud. He said, “we got religion” on the issue of openness. Our product can stand on it’s own and we are confident. Blackbaud, in contrast, wants you to only use their products and only live within their system. “We don’t think that’s good for the environment.”

In addition to conections to Facebook, they have built connections to Raiser’s Edge (without the benefit of a Blackbaud API). They have also built connections to Flickr, a Plaxo tool for importing contacts and Salesforce. He described how much easier it was to work with Salesforce, with a published API, than to work with Blackbaud.

More to come from the Convio Summit 2007

At See3, we have been building our capacity to support web projects running on Drupal. Drupal is an open-source content management system with lots of great functionality. One issue that comes up when we talk about Open Source software is a kind of fear of the unknown among people who were taught software by Microsoft.

The Nonprofit Open Source Initiative has just published an updated primer on choosing free and open source software for nonprofits. What do you need to know before choosing to move to Linux or use Drupal or any of the hundreds of popular FOSS products? Michelle Murrain, a great contributor to the NTEN community and the nonprofit tech community generally, has clearly worked hard to bring this out. It’s worth a look. You can see it live here or get a PDF version here.

From the conclusion:

FOSS is, on many levels, a good fit for nonprofits. FOSS can provide less expensive, easier to maintain, more extensible, more secure implementations of software than proprietary alternatives. FOSS development and FOSS communities often work in ways that are consonant with nonprofit mission (in fact, many FOSS projects are nonprofit organizations themselves.) The development of FOSS specifically for the nonprofit sector provides the possibility of freely available community-driven, community-owned software, that can change and grow with organizations as they grow and change.

Free and open source software still, after all these years, provides real promise for the nonprofit sector. Our challenge is to find ways to work together to further and more fully realize that promise.

Our client, One Economy Corporation, is all about getting low-income people access to technology tools. The bottom line is that these tools — high speed internet access, for example — are not luxury items, but essential items for participation in the global economy.

Here is One Economy’s Vision for Technology in the Public Interest

Technology has improved the lives of many Americans, but its benefits have failed to reach millions of low-income people. Less than 45 percent of Americans earning under $30,000 per year have in-home access to a high-speed internet connection. In order to jumpstart the creation of an agenda that promotes the use of technology in the public interest, One Economy Corporation has released “A National Blueprint for Technology and the Public Good,” a set of achievable goals and policy ideas for reshaping America’s technological landscape.

This ambitious agenda focuses on three strategic areas of technology that will enable the United States to prosper in the 21st century:

Universal Access: An executive order that directs the Department of Housing and Urban Development to promote high-speed Internet access in affordable housing and reform of the Universal Service Fund will help bring affordable and accessible broadband to all Americans.

Develop New Technology Applications: Harnessing technology to create new applications will improve health care, disaster relief, and education.

Expand and Encourage Civic Participation: A National Youth Tech Corps, available to low-income communities in all 50 states, will immerse youth in technology training, and help them build their leadership and workplace skills to enter the new economy.

“Technology is changing lives, but too many Americans remain locked out of the economic mainstream,” said One Economy Chief Executive Officer Rey Ramsey. “The ideas in this Blueprint will open the doors of opportunity for everyone.”

The Blueprint was released in conjunction with a forum on telecommunications featuring former FCC Chairmen William Kennard and Richard Wiley, and technology leaders Bruce Mehlman and Blair Levin. A video of that conversation, including the panelists’ comments on the Blueprint, is available online at www.247townhall.org, One Economy’s home for civic engagement on social, political and economic issues.

What the Orthodox Jewish sect can teach us about how to use Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and the emerging social web.

It would seem that the ultra-orthodox Chabad Lubavitch have little in common with your nonprofit. Whether you are a direct service provider, an international relief agency, an advocacy group or a trade association, you probably couldn’t imagine what a bunch of black-suited, black-hatted ultra-religious Jews could teach you about outreach, marketing and fundraising. And it seems far fetched to imagine that they have something to say about social networking and internet strategy, in all of its universalistic narcissistic decadence.

But alas, they have a lot to teach us.

I don’t know what you know, if anything, about the Chabad-Lubavitch, so first, a little background. Here I am going to quote extensively from the Wikipedia article on Lubavitch.

Chabad-Lubavitch (also known as Chabad, Habad or Lubavitch), is one of the largest branches of Hasidic Judaism and one of the largest Jewish movements worldwide, especially in the United States, the Former Soviet Union, Europe and Israel. Chabad (חב”ד ) is a Hebrew acronym for “חכמה Chochmah, בינה Binah, דעת Da’at” (”Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge“). Lubavitch, taken from the Russian Любавичи, Lyubavichi, is the name of the town that served as the movement’s headquarters for over a century. In 1993 there were over 200,000 adherents to the movement some estimate today that there are over a million.

OK, so we have this Jewish sect with maybe a million members. If you live in New York, or a college town, you have probably seen some Chabaniks around town. They look like this.

(photo by Mordechai Der Yid)

Chabad, unlike other ultra-Orthodox Jewish sects, don’t keep to themselves. They have it in their DNA to go out into the world and, with incredible passion, reach out to every Jew they can.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson spurred on the movement to what has become known as shlichus (”being emissaries [performing outreach]”) after becoming Rebbe in 1950-1951. As a result, Chabad shluchim (”emissaries”, sing. shliach) have moved all over the world with the stated mission of helping all Jews, regardless of denomination or affiliation. They assist Jews with all their religious needs, as well as with physical assistance and spiritual guidance and teaching. The ultimate goal is to encourage Jews to learn more about their Jewish heritage and to practice Judaism.

The movement, motivated by Rabbi Schneerson, trained and ordained thousands of rabbis, educators, ritual slaughterers, and ritual circumcisers, who are then accompanied by their spouses to many locations around the world. Typically a young Lubavitch rabbi and his wife, in their early twenties, with one or two children, will move to a new location, and as they settle in will raise a large family who as a family unit, will aim to fulfill their mandate of bringing Jewish people closer to Orthodox Judaism and encouraging gentiles to adhere to the Seven Laws of Noah. They will carefully seek out and search for and recruit Jews they have identified and contact them and start the process of encouraging them to observe Judaism, encourage Jews to strengthen their commitment to Judaism. All over the world Lubavitchers (including those not formally in the position of emissaries) assist and support the religious needs of tens of thousands of Jews.

Chabad Houses

Chabad today has centers around the world. Centers are called a Chabad Houses. They are Jewish community centers providing educational and outreach activities for the Jewish community. Level of observance is irrelevant; no minimal level of observance is a requirement for using facilities. The centers are informal in setup. They primarily serve both educational and observance purposes. Effort is made to provide an atmosphere in which the nonobservant will not feel intimidated by any perceived contrast between their lack of knowledge of Jewish practice and the advanced knowledge of some of the people they meet there.

Mitzvah campaigns

Chabad aims to attract non-Orthodox Jews to become Orthodox, and believes this is part of the process of bringing the Messiah. This practice is called “mivtzoim” - meaning “campaigns” or “endeavors.” At one time, Schneerson issued a call to every Jew: “Even if you are not fully committed to a Torah life, do something. Begin with a mitzvah - any mitzvah - its value will not be diminished by the fact that there are others which you are not prepared to do”. Schneerson also suggested ten specific mitzvot that he believed were ideally suited for the emissaries to introduce to non-observant Jews. These were: lighting candles before Shabbat and the Jewish holidays by Jewish women; putting on tefillin; affixing a mezuzah; regular Torah study; giving charity; purchasing Jewish books; keeping kosher; kindness to others; Jewish education, and keeping the family purity laws.

Camps

Chabad has set up an extensive network of camps around the world, most using the name Gan Israel, a name chosen by Rabbi Schneerson for the first overnight camp. There are 1,200 sites serving 210,000 children—most of whom do not come from Orthodox homes. Of these, 500 camps are in the United States.

Campus

In recent years Chabad has greatly expanded its reach on university and college campuses. Chabad Student Centers are active on over 100 campuses, and Chabad offers varied activities at an additional 150 universities worldwide. Professor Alan Dershowitz has said that “Chabad’s presence on college campuses today is absolutely crucial”, and “We cannot rest until Chabad is on every major college campus in the world”.

So what we have here is a group that is mission driven. They have created a vast network of people able to carry their message out to the world. And they are investing in young kids and college kids.

I must mention that the Chabad are not without controversy. Rav Eliezer Shach, who was the patriarch of some of the largest ultra-orthodox communities around the world acerbically called Chabad the “sect closest to Judaism” because of the movement within Chabad to proclaim their late Rabbi Schnerson the messiah.

In addition Chabad has been active in the right-wing of Israeli politics, while at the same time taking a non-Zionist stance (meaning the modern State of Israel is not a theologically consistent phenomenon and that “the only thing that unites Jews is the Torah, not a secular state that happens to be planted on holy land.”

And while I have a serious problem with both of those issues, there is no arguing with their success in building communities of active supporters all over the world. There is no arguing with their success in getting secular Jews to take on some aspects of Jewish observance (a high priority among those who believe intermarriage and assimilation are the biggest threats to Jewish continuity). There is no arguing with their success in getting high-net-worth individuals to part with their money. And there is no arguing with their success in getting people who don’t even believe in their world view to support them every year with donations large and small.

And don’t think that they have this massive centralized fundraising machine that makes it all happen. More from Wikipedia:

Fundraising

Funds for activities of a Chabad center rely entirely on the local community. Chabad centers do not receive funding from Lubavitch headquarters. For the day to day operations, local emissaries do all the fundraising by themselves. The monies fundraised in the local community is invested in that local community. The emissary takes a minimum salary and seldom goes on vacation. Sue Fishcoff writes, “Emissaries in the field may sink millions of dollars into their center, synagogues and Mikvahs, but their own homes are modest, again patterned after their Rebbe’s lack of personal ostentation.”

So how have they done it? How have they been able to get people who will never adopt their lifestyle or world view to support them financially? How are they able to send ultra-Orthodox rabbis to places like Boise, Idaho and expect – know – that they will make it somehow? How are they able to bring non-religious Jews into their synagogues and to their events when their world view and lifestyle is so foreign? And finally, what can their success teach us about fundraising generally and online social networks specifically?

A Theory of Acceptance – Or At Least Tolerance

If I went into a typical Orthodox synagogue in a t-shirt and jeans during the Sabbath service, I would likely have someone ask me to leave. They would tell me that, while they mean no offense, that my clothes are not appropriate for the day or the place and that I am welcome to return in more appropriate attire. If I walk in to a Chabad synagogue on the Sabbath in a t-shirt and jeans I am likely to be given an Aliah – a special honor when you are called to participate in the Torah service. From the Chabad perspective, the one who doesn’t know enough to wear the right clothes is just the person who needs to be brought in and cultivated, not turned away.

Another example. Most Orthodox synagogues close off their parking lots on the Sabbath. Why? You are not allowed to drive on the Sabbath according to Orthodox rules, so having the parking lot open is an tacit invitation to drive, an invitation to break the Sabbath. Makes sense, no? While the Lubavitch take their Sabbath observance very seriously, their parking lots are open and they won’t tell you not to drive. If you drive, drive. Just come.

When Conservative or Orthodox synagogues have group Friday night meals (the beginning of the Sabbath), the evening will include rubber chicken that you most likely had to pay $35 (in advance) to get in the first place. In a Chabad House, you will often get a more elaborate and home-cooked meal (usually prepared by the Rabbi’s wife) and a side order of rousing singing and flowing alcohol. It’s a lot of fun. In fact, the feelings of camaraderie are infectious. No one will ever be made to feel that they are bad or wrong for not taking the Lubavitch path. And no one will ever be asked to pay!

In these three examples we get the core of Lubavitch success that I will try to distill into a few principles:

· Show acceptance and understanding for where people come from
· Never make people feel bad about what they don’t know
· Make them feel welcome in your space
· Teach them by first by example and only explicitly when they ask
· Give them small, non-threatening steps to advance their connection

The most secular person in the world can have a terrific time at a Lubavitch event or even attend their services on a regular basis. They can enjoy speaking to a rabbi whose life is light-years removed from the secular world. And they routinely go out and tell anyone who will listen about the amazing soul that accepts the visitor and gives of themselves without asking for anything in return. That’s magic. Imagine people talking about your organization like that!

Taking the Lessons to Our Fundraising

The lesson I take away from their success for organizational fundraising is that guilt is a losing long-term strategy. Yes, it can work in the short-term. But instead of making me feel bad about what I haven’t done or what I need to do, make me feel good about what you are doing. Inspire me with your dedication. Allow me to participate in a small way, but don’t treat me like a small person for it. Cultivate those who take the first step as if they can become the biggest donor you have and make them feel important for whatever it is they have chosen to do.

The number of organizations that use guilt is staggering. It’s an easy strategy to implement and we see it a lot in direct mail. I recently received a mailing with a nickel in it. “Don’t let this nickel go to waste” they begged me. The same is true with mailing labels. Here are these things with your name on it and you will surely feel guilty is you use them and don’t pay us. This is not how you create deep connections and long-term supporters. (Here is an article in Fundraising Success Magazine that looked at and ranked emotional motivators for fundraising. Guilt was near the end of the list.)

Another lesson that organizations can take from the Lubavitch is in having people on board who are passionate about what they do. Now I don’t expect that most organizations can get to the level of passion of the Lubavitch. These folks believe that their lives, all of our lives, and the future of the universe is at stake. That’s strong motivation and most people who work at your nonprofit won’t come with that level of dedication. But if you are choosing between two employees and one is deeply passionate about your mission and the other one, though more qualified, is seeing it as just another job, pick for passion. (You can see this dedication at work in many organizations. I am seeing it more and more with environmental group staff who are genuinely scared for our collective future and energized by the change that is possible. You can see this dedication in the staff of the New Israel Fund — those in Israel in particular — where I was once a fundraiser. The Israel staff wants desperately to live in a democratic Israel and so they live the change they want to see every day.)

Lessons for Social Networks

The reason I wrote this post was because of a eureka moment I had in connecting the Lubavitch success with social networking. I had this moment last week when I was in Manhattan and I passed the Chabad Mitzvah Tank in Midtown. I had my handy-dandy video camera with me, so you can see:

(I have to pause thank Beka Economopoulos here for planting the seeds of this idea. Beka works for Greenpeace. I saw her speak at the Yearly Kos conference and then suggested that we at See3 invite her to co-present with us at the Craigslist Foundation Nonprofit Boot Camp in New York a couple weeks ago. Beka runs the Greenpeace online organizing program and has seen some amazing success with it and we are grateful for her participation with us in what turned out to be a terrific and well-attended session.)

The average organization, if they have a social network strategy at all, think of social networks as a way to meet people, with the goal of then convincing those people to give the organization their email address, go to their donation link or otherwise become members/donors/activists of the organization in the same way everyone else is. Meaning, they will get the same emails, see the same website, and take the same path to further activity as other prospects. They are using the social networks to meet people, but only see their outreach as successful if they can get those people to do what everyone else is doing.

Part of the problem here is that organizational management hasn’t yet internalized social networking metrics. For Greenpeace, those 68,000 friends on MySpace are just like 68,000 email addresses. For most organizations that would not be true. You are looking at email opens and average gifts from your online donations and these metrics are not really reflective of the potential you have in social networking. (Allan Benamer, a big believer in these tools, writes about this problem on his blog. You should also be reading Beth Kanter and Ruby Sinreich on these subjects.)

Now think of the Lubavitch philosophy. You are a MySpace person. You are comfortable on MySpace. I build a MySpace page to show you I can speak your language. This is where you live. Acceptance means I have to stop trying to get you to leave. Acceptance means creating things you can do right there on MySpace. Acceptance means treating my ability to message you on MySpace the same as if you are on my email list – without forcing you to change.

When you start to care enough you might come on over to our site. When you are impressed with how we “walk the walk” you might get out of your comfort zone by doing something offline. I am not going to force you to change. I am not going to limit your access or the information you can get because you live this “alternative lifestyle”. I am going to respect you for who you are! (Or at least I am going to pretend to.)

All of this is connected to the permission-based marketing society we are in today. Top down advertising is working less and less. Word-of-mouth is more important than ever.

Showing people what you do and why it matters is critical to capture people’s attention. Getting your supporters to recruit others is becoming a central strategy. Your content and your passion are what will carry the day and bring people to your cause. Social media marketing is not about tricks or techniques as much as it is about finding your authentic voice and inviting people to share in your passion at the level they are most comfortable in the venue of their choosing.

[The irony of all of this is that Chabad-Lubavitch does everything wrong on their own MySpace page, which I assume is run by one person in a decentralized way. They don’t follow their own script for offline engagement, which would also bring them online success. On MySpace they seem insular, political and shrill – everything they don’t seem in person.]

In Sum

Be passionate in your work and be grateful to those who come and take interest – at every level. Meet people where they are without judgment or condescension. Make your programs and your content accessible to those who come from a different place than you do. This philosophy is the core of what you need to be successful in social networking strategy.

Tell me how you do or don’t apply these principles to your own online and offline marketing by leaving a comment.

Seeing is believing… but what if it’s not. We’ve known about “Photoshopping” for a long time — you can manipulate photos. But this manipulation is going to become much more accessible. Have a look at what some Israeli academics have cooked up:

Thanks to TechCrunch for the link.