David and Goliath?

Well, my mother would have been so proud.

She always taught me to stand up for the little guy, and to stand up for what I truly believe in. So although my organization is the little guy in this scenario, although we typically would never publicly call out a corporation, I felt pretty strongly that we needed to have our voice heard.

Basically we launched a "text-to-connect" campaign the day after the Haiti earthquake because that is the only option for mobile we were currently set up for. Users would text in to the short code and get a call back where they would hear a short recorded message from our president detailing the situation in Haiti, and then they would be connected to our call center where they could get additional information or make a credit card donation - just like they would if they had simply used their cell phone to call our 800#.

For some reason Sprint decided that by doing things this way, we were not in compliance with their terms, but I still don't completely understand their reasoning. We never heard from them directly, but were told the bad news that they were threatening to shut us down from our vendor, Mobile Commons.

We signed a letter, explaining that we are a nationally recognized charity, listed on Guidestar, given an A rating from the American Institute of Philanthropy, ranked 22 in the NonProfit Times Top 100 and ranked 32 in the Chronicle of Philanthropy Annual Top 400 List. The letter went on to detail exactly how our program worked and explained how we were not collecting donations on the short code, but simply using the channel as a conduit to deliver people to our call center - the call center is where the donation transaction happened. We were certain it was all a big understanding and as soon as we explained everything Sprint would back off. But we were told a few days later (by Mobile Commons) that our appeal was rejected by Sprint.

I was asked by Mobile Commons to agree to be interviewed by the New York Times, and I felt strongly enough that we were on the right side of the argument that I was willing to do so. After all, we were trying to raise money to help innocent people in Haiti, not using this campaign to fill our own pockets. Read it for yourself, and tell me what you think.

Catholic Charity and Sprint Tangle Over Texting

By JOHN SCHWARTZ

Published: March 24, 2010

A Catholic charity is still seeking answers after Sprint discontinued a fund-raising effort by text for Haiti.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/technology/25texting.html

Where does the time go?

Been a rough, rough winter. Sadly, two major earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, a death in the family, two blizzards and endless ear infections between my two kids. The last few months have been pretty much a wash.

But Easter is a time of renewal; a time of wiping the slate clean and starting over. I am trying to get my head back in the game and finding new focus. So much to do.

The Haiti earthquake response was like nothing I've ever witnessed - of course, I wasn't working in my current job during the Asian tsunami. Everything happened so fast there was no time to write about it - it was hard enough to keep ahead of it all. I'll be unpacking stories and examples over the next few weeks. But in the meantime, my apologies for abandoning this blog.

I'm back.

Great advice to stay safe on Facebook

Let's face it. You are on the front lines.

If you are your organizations' Facebook Fan Page administrator, you are no longer just yourself, independent citizen on Facebook. You are representing your organization and often become the public face for your online network. And it's weird.

Technically, you are not allowed to create a second "professional" profile, and technically you are not allowed to create a profile as if your organization is a person. I say "technically", because many, many admins have pulled this off. But that would help solve much of the problems.

With some of the recent changes to Facebook Fan Pages, things have gotten better. For instance, it used to be if I posted content to my org's FB page, it would show up as coming from me, personally. Now it shows up as coming from my org. That's good.

But before the change, I was frustrated because this meant anyone could click on my profile and see information about me. I would also get numerous friend requests from our supporters and although I hated to turn anyone down, I had to make a hard and fast rule: I never accept friend requests from anyone I don't know personally. I post pictures of my kids on my personal FB page, so I had to draw the line somewhere. Plus some of my own personal opinions and thoughts might not jive too nicely with some of my org's more conservative members. If I had a "professional" second profile, I could accept those requests and maintain my privacy. But no.

Again, tough but important choices in a ginormous gray area. I suspect we'll be hearing much more about this as time marches on. But back to my point.

The changes have improved much of this, but there is still an element of privacy invasion when you need to communicate directly with a supporter (that asks a question, or if you interact with them on Facebook Causes.) There is also the uncomfortableness of what to do when you inevitably get a friend request from your boss. They really don't need to know how you are progressing in Farmville. During work hours.

I suggest changing all of the Privacy settings to "Just Friends" and in your Friends section, create lists. I have one list for "work" and one list for "family" and they don't get to see too much of what I post (you go back into your privacy settings and choose "Customize" from the dropdown and you can choose to limit information to be viewable to all friends except an individual's name or a list.) Everyone not on those lists gets to see everything.

More info here, in a great article I read in The New York Times, titled "5 Easy Steps to Stay Safe (and Private!) on Facebook." (Originally from ReadWriteWeb)

Still not sure you've done it correctly? This page has a really cool feature where you can type in one of your friends' names (or your boss') to see exactly how your page will look to them.

Say it isn't so!

What the WHAT??!! The recent changes to Facebook's terms and conditions now prohibit contests...this has been the one tried and true method for building your community on Facebook!
Read them here:
http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php

Highlights:

These Promotions Guidelines govern the publicizing or administering of any sweepstakes, contest, competition or other similar offering (each, a "promotion") on Facebook by you. For clarity, a "sweepstakes" is a promotion that includes a prize and a winner selected on the basis of chance. A "contest" or "competition" is a promotion that includes a prize and a winner determined on the basis of skill (i.e., through judging based on specific criteria).

You cannot: Condition entry in the promotion upon a user providing content on Facebook, such as making a post on a profile or Page, status comment or photo upload.

You cannot: Administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a fan of your Page.

You cannot: Notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages.

This new development has left me speechless, as I am at a loss to develop another technique that has the same effect but falls within FB's terms. I've been meaning to write about it for a week now, but I am stuck. Any good ideas out there?

Ammo for winning the argument for social media: 5 tips

I had the true honor of speaking at a morning educational session at the AFP National Philanthropy Day in Maryland. It is always so great to get out and talk to folks at other nonprofits who do what I do and can feel my pain on everything from fundraising in a down economy to dealing with well-meaning but technology-adverse executives who think the whole social media thing is just frivolity.

I spoke about using technology and new media to extend the reach of our appeals. Most of the attendees wanted to hear about social media. I don't blame them - it's new, it's a powerful awareness and engagement building tool, and it's free (of course, with the exception of manpower.)

But I was asked by more than a few people how we were able to start a social media program at a Catholic agency. (What? Is there a stereotype of Catholics being stuck in the dark ages? Of being extremely conservative?) Can't say I completely disagree, but my organization is an incredible place to work, with an infallible mission, and hundreds of some of the best and the brightest staff who break that stereotype every day. What I usually explain to people is that I was lucky enough to have a savvy manager who was willing to let us give it a try. Once we had built up some success stories we started letting everyone in our agency know, and they were excited to know we were on the leading edge - and successfully meeting our goals - in this new space. The Ever-Brilliant-Chris-Brogan smartly calls this the "Middle Up Down Approach."

But if you are looking for some facts to put in your arsenal to face down your ED or manager, here's a few to pack in the old cannon:

1. It's "free." Although stress that you must be able to devote time on an ongoing basis or it will be a waste of time, and that "you get out of it what you put into it."
2. It's viral. Let your supporters help with the heavy lifting and help spread your message into a deeper audience than you currently have.
   
3. Critical mass. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and MySpace are all in the top 15 most visited sites in the US. Might as well be where the people are.
   
4. Increased awareness. Awareness precedes engagement. Engagement precedes conversion. If you want more donors you need to get out there and chat people up, get friends to introduce you, build relationships - these things take time. It sounds like I am talking about dating, doesn't it? I am, kind of. My organization doubled our "unaided awareness" in one year. I can't take all the credit and say it was solely social networking - but it was unarguably a contributing factor.
   
5. Increased engagement. Time will tell if our most engaged supporters will be our most loyal donors in the future. But in the meantime, harness the power of an engaged constituency: ask the to take advocacy actions, ask them to help spread the word about the work you do, if you enter a contest, ask them to vote for you. These little actions add up.

Good luck. I'd love to hear some stories about how you got permission to bring your organization into the world of social networking.

AFP: CRS Fundraising And Technology102609

Slide deck for the presentation I am giving for the Association of Fundraising Professionals(MD) Philanthropy Day Morning Educational Session...

AFP: CRS Fundraising And Technology102609

View more presentations from Laura Durington.

H1N1 is no joke!

Okay, enough with the excuses, but MAN my family has been through it! All four of us got it and for all the blase attitude I had about it in the beginning, this thing really kicked my ass. I still sound horrid, coughing and wheezing, but I no longer feel like I've been hit by a truck. My poor baby girl Georgie had a 105.7 (!!!) fever...THAT was scary.

We are all on the mend, slowly but surely. I've missed a whole week of work and I feel really disconnected from the world. But tomorrow morning I have a presentation at the AFP-MD Philanthropy Day in Baltimore and I am keeping fingers crossed that I can get through it without a coughing fit. Yikes.

Once I get back in the saddle, more senseless ramblings about social media. But for now, just a thought...what the HELL is facebook thinking with their little guilt-trippy suggestions of people I should "Reconnect with"? (over in the section that used to be reserved for "People you might know"). It feels really icky, even though I know it is just some algorithm telling the Facebot to show me people I have friended but never actually interacted with. Oh, come on...you know what I mean. You get a friend request from someone you can't diss, but you really aren't crazy about so you accept the request - and if you are me, you place them on a restricted list so they can only see certain types of information about you. I shouldn't get a little pang of guilt from facebook of all places. It's like in elementary school and your mother insists on inviting the whole class to your birthday party so no one feels left out.