Great panel at the Washington Post yesterday, as America’s Charities convened its #GivingUndertheInfluence symposium to discuss trends in workplace giving and growing roles of millennials and digital networks. I was honored to join Marc Johnson, vice president of digital strategy in the Studio/Online division of APCO Worldwide; Heather Lofkin Wright, national director of community service for PwC; and George Weiner, president of digital cause consultancy WholeWhale along with moderator Marcia Bullard, chairman of America’s Charities and a founding editor of USA Today.

It was a wide-ranging discussion that touched on generational issues, demographics, giving patterns, online marketing, philanthropic trends – and some common sense advice and solutions. In prepping for the panel I was struck with the quality of America’s Charities’ white paper, Snapshot, which reveals some of the latest research on trends and strategies around employee engagement and giving. Two years ago, Howard Greenstein and I authored a white paper plumbing some of the same trends under the auspices of New York University’s Heyman Center for Fundraising & Philanthropy, Wired Workforce, Networked CSR. The new report advances the ball significantly and shows just how much younger workers – particularly so-called millennials born after 1980 – are changing the world of workplace giving and networked philanthropy. I highly recommend Snapshot to CauseWired folks.

Meanwhile, here’s the excellent Storify stream created by America’s Charities to capture the #GivingUndertheInfluence conversation yesterday:

]]> http://www.causewired.com/2013/04/millennials-networks-philanthropy-and-giving-at-work-givingundertheinfluence/feed/ 0 http://www.causewired.com/2012/06/how-to-develop-sustainable-fundraising-employee-engagement-plans-using-social-media/ http://www.causewired.com/2012/06/how-to-develop-sustainable-fundraising-employee-engagement-plans-using-social-media/#comments Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:10:13 +0000 Tom Watson http://www.causewired.com/?p=863 Here are some excerpts from the speech I gave at the America’s Charities annual membership conference at Georgetown University in Washington DC two weeks ago:

Howard and I debuted the white paper at JK Group’s Forum on Philanthropy in Princeton, NJ, where we led discussions on millennial generation workers, socially-wired CSR, and new trends in media and corporate philanthropy with attendees from Fortune 500 companies.

In preparing the paper, we studied several large American corporations who are using social media and who have found ways to involve employees, customers and stakeholders as they seek to achieve their CSR goals. We found that:

1. Companies are more comfortable using social media tools internally, but they’re waiting for external adoption by marketing before moving ahead to use them in CSR type efforts.
2. Employees seek choice and appreciate democratic participation.
3. Leadership is required to ensure continued participation in corporate giving campaigns, since employee participation is decreasing.
4. Both social media and traditional communications methods are used in employee giving campaigns and external outreach to communities.
5. Formal feedback loops for social media are the exception rather than the rule.

We also noted that there are different levels of commitment companies can make to using social media. As an example, some are taking advantage of intranet tools to allow employees to share and attract others to their causes on one end, while others actively encourage employees to alert their online connections of campaigns and request participation. Companies that are in what are traditionally regulated industries such as healthcare and finance are actively using social media as part of their CSR outreach, carefully finding the line between compliance and campaign. And some are stretching the boundaries – finding ways that their CSR efforts are part of their marketing, branding and core business efforts.

We invite you to read and comment on this paper. We know we are just scratching the surface of the efforts of companies across the world, and we consider this paper the beginning of a conversation around this topic, and not the definitive final word on the subject. Already, some interesting comments from our friend Allison Fine:

The report has terrific case studies of efforts by Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft, Pfizer, Western Union and many others. The efforts involve story telling through social media, fundraising match efforts, employee voting for donations. What I found most interesting about this report is what the authors call the rise of “citizen employees.” Employees using their passion, voices, votes, dollars to not only support causes but push their companies to be engaged and philanthropic. One thought I have: I wonder if or how these “citizens” extend their engagement into advocacy and even politics. We’ve seen companies push their employees into political giving in the past, might these employees do the same to their companies?

You can view or download the report here – Wired Workforce, Networked CSR

Not everything will make it into the 30 minutes I have to speak (plus a follow-up seminar for experienced fundraisers later in the day) but I wanted to share my notes with readers here, so as not to let any of the great projects and resources go to waste. All links recommended.

The Easter-time Orange Day organized by the United Gospel Mission of Vancouver hoped to raise $12,000 to feed and care for people in Metro Vancouver – but hit a total of $23,069.59. This gorgeous campaign blended a simple premise – get outdoors, buy an orange for someone in need (only 32 cents!), and get active in the community. Great photos, a Twitter feed, blogs, video and regular updates organized around the #orangeday tag with a reachable goal – and a really simple ask – made it go. And you just know that the Orange Day social media effort will pay long-term dividends for the UGM beyond the money raised this year. [Thanks to Joe Solomon for this one.]

A related effort unfolded on Twitter in the form of the TweetupHeatup campaign after a homeless woman’s body was found burning in a makeshift shelter built around a shopping cart, a victim of the long winter just past. Almost overnight, the tweets got folks into the streets with blankets, hot soup, and just the basic offer to help a neighbor – and bring attention to a serious issue.

Another winter/holiday effort was the widely-heralded HohoTO campaign, which used Twitter and other social media to unite Toronto’s sizable tech community and raise money for the The Daily Bread Food Bank. The site seems to be down now, but you can read about it at Adele McAlear’s excellent blog, check out the Twitter page, or watch the video. The effort raised $25,000 and more than a ton of food. [H/T to Stacey Monk.]

Not surprisingly, the great team at Social Actions sent me a buncha links – since it’s one of the great Canadian social start-ups ever! And three of the Social Actions’ aggregated platforms – CanadaHelps, GiveMeaning, and PincGiving hail from Canada. [Thx Peter Deitz.] Many of the social entrepreneurs who tend to gravitate to efforts like Social Actions will be attending Net Change next month in Toronto, “a week-long event designed to explore how social technology can bolster social change. Presented by the Social Innovation Generation team at MaRS (SiG@MaRS), Net Change Week will tap into the potential that exists when new methods of communicating, organizing and mobilizing are brought to bear on chronic social issues. ” One of the leading sponsors is the aforementioned CanadaHelps, which has facilitated more than $85 million in donations to Canada’s 83,000 charities since 2000. [Gracias, Christine Egger.]

TakingITGlobal is a wonderful social venture aimed at getting “youth everywhere actively engaged and connected in shaping a more inclusive, peaceful and sustainable world.” That’s a heck of a goal, but the Toronto-based organization has signed up 245,552 members in 261 countries at 1,154 schools in less than a decade – tremendous social impact. I’m also taking a look at BettertheWorld, a browser-based campaign to shift online ad revenues to the charity of your choice. [H/T to Romina Oliverio.]

More stuff to take a look at in the next few days: Global Agents for Change, Save Our Net (Canadian net neutrality), One Million Acts of Change, ChangeCamp, WarChild, and Urbantastic.

Obviously, these are just a small sampling of what’s going on in Canada – I’m hoping to hear more in Toronto on Thursday.

I was pleased to moderate the panel “Social Media: Philanthropy in a Connected World” at last week’s 2008 CECP Corporate Philanthropy Summit at the Time Warner Center in Manhattan. Terrific group: Allison Fine, author of Momentum, Fortune Magazine senior editor David Kirkpatrick, and Sean Parker, co-founder of Causes on Facebook (and MySpace). The discussion centered around how companies and their employees can use social networking to support causes and philanthropic initiatives. I think there may be video up soon, and will pass it along.

• Micah Sifry, Co-founder & Editor, Personal Democracy Forum and co-founder of techPresident.com
• Jason Paez, CEO, Party 4 A Purpose
• Allison Fine, Senior Fellow at Demos and author of Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age
• Charles Best, CEO & Founder, DonorsChoose.org
• Robert Tolmach, president of WellGood LLC founder and founder of ChangingThePresent.org

The Summit, which I created with onPhilanthropy.com editor-in-chief Susan Carey Dempsey, is an invitation-only conference of approximately 300 CEOs of leading nonprofit organizations; corporate, foundation and individual philanthropists; and leading companies serving the nonprofit sector. It’s sponsored by our company, Changing Our World, Inc. and also includes a keynote speech by Robert C. Orr, Assistant Secretary-General for Strategic Planning and Policy Coordination of the United Nations.

Other speakers will include Susan Smith Ellis, CEO of (RED), Frank Kurre of Grant Thornton, Nancy Mahon, Executive Director of the MAC AIDS Fund, Mario Morino, the co-founder & Chairman of Venture Philanthropy Partners, Chronicle of Philanthropy editor Stacy Palmer, Sam Daley-Harris of the Microcredit Summit Campaign and Contribute Magazine editor Marcia Stepanek.

I’m looking forward to the panel, the first public roll-out of the book’s title and premise. And it’ll no doubt add to the text, which remains very much an intensive work in progress.