Stanford Social Innovation Review

Mobile Volunteers

NYU new media professor and Here Comes Everybody author Clay Shirky likes to tell the story about a recent day when two of his friends were sitting with their 4-year-old daughter, watching a DVD. “In the middle of the movie, apropos nothing,” Shirky says, the girl jumps up off the couch and runs behind the screen. Her dad thought she was going to see if Dora (the explorer, from the kid’s cartoon show) was hiding there. But no, the girl was rooting around in the cables. “What are you doing?” her father asked. Sticking her head out from behind the screen, the girl said, “Looking for the mouse.”

For Shirky, it’s a tale of the times. “Four-year-olds know a screen that ships without a mouse ships broken,” he says. “Four-year-olds know that media that is targeted at you—but that doesn’t include you—may not be worth sitting still for.”

No question: All social media innovators today are “looking for the mouse”—working to find new ways to let those who use, hear, read, and watch media participate more fully. The most innovative enlist the use of mobile phones for a cause: The nonprofit National Democratic Institute uses text messaging to spot vote fraud in elections around the globe; Witness.org asks its supporters to photograph human rights abuses with their cellphones; the Zumbido project in Mexico created a mobile social network for people living with HIV/AIDS.

But nobody has cracked the challenge of “on demand” volunteering—until now. Social media entrepreneur and activist Ben Rigby, author of Mobilizing Generation 2.0, thinks he’s “found the mouse” for it with Volunteer NOW, his on-the-spot, GPS-aided mobile application that directs people who suddenly find themselves with some free time on their hands to a list of short-term volunteering opportunities near to their present location—be it an airport, an office building, a local Starbucks, or a city park. Rigby’s goal: to transform volunteering into an “impulse activity” that, for the cause-wired not otherwise looking to tune out or cat-nap, could be done on the fly. (Got 20 minutes? Review a contract for a nonprofit. Translate a document for a non-English speaker. Or, text for the nearest beach or park clean-up drive and spend your lunch hour in the sun.)

“Projects like SETI@Home showed that massive computational problems can be solved when a distributed group of people donate their computers’ spare CPUs to crunch data,” Rigby says. “(Volunteer NOW!) explores the possibility that this same theory can be applied to spare human ‘CPUs.’ We believe it will reveal a massive, untapped capacity to do good.”

Rigby is not the only social media innovator intrigued by the idea of spare-time, mobile volunteering. Leaders of Do Something, a New York-based nonprofit, started using mobile phones in March to recruit volunteers. The Beta version of its Do Something NOW! mobile program, funded in part by the Sprint Foundation, invites young people to sign up for volunteering through a form on its Web site; Do Something then sends them one or two text alerts each month with volunteer opportunities that fit their locations and preferences. So far, more than 1,000 people have signed up for the text alerts: Do Something hopes to have 10,000 signed up by year’s end. Opt-out rates, says Chief Marketing Officer Aria Finger, are running less than 5 percent.

Look for more examples of mobile volunteering in the months ahead. Katrin Verclas, founder of MobileActive.org, will be showcasing some at her global summit on cause-mobile technology in Johannesburg, South Africa, October 13-15. Google’s recent entry into the mobile phone market will add fuel to the mobile advocacy movement in coming months.

For more on how cell phones and other social media are dramatically changing society’s notions of free time, check out the Blip.tv video of Clay Shirky’s wildly popular talk at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco this past spring. It’s about 10 minutes long but well worth the cognitive surplus—Shirky’s term for free time—that you carve out to watch it.

Reprinted with permission from Cause Global

Marcia Stepanek is Founding Editor-in-Chief and President, News and Information, for Contribute Media, a New York-based magazine, Web site, and conference series about the new people and ideas of giving. She is the publisher of Cause Global, an acclaimed new blog about the use of digital media for social change. She also serves as moderator and producer of New Conversations for Change, Contribute’s forum series highlighting social entrepreneurs and new trends in philanthropy.

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Career Empowerment as Co-Creation

Recently, I wrote a series of posts to really target the theme of career empowerment:

• Take Back Your 9 to 5: Develop a Personal Mission Statement
• Take Back Your 9 to 5: Cultivate a Slash Career in the Nonprofit Sector
• Take Back Your 9 to 5: Ditch the Martyr Lifestyle

Each of the posts talked about an aspect of improving or enhancing your nonprofit career. But those are just some ways you can become empowered in this field. During this Saturday’s Women Rule Meet up in DC, seven awesome ladies sat around a table in a tea shop talking about so many ways we struggle and succeed in our work. I wanted to share one thread of our conversation that came from Gabriela Cadena, who is one of the most positive people I know.

Gabriela said that we need to see ourselves as co-creators in our careers. Our employers and even the nonprofit field itself are only one part of the relationship that we enter into when we come to work. And we should seek to take responsibility for that relationship. I took a step back in my mind when I heard that, because I meet so many young nonprofit professionals through my blog, at conferences, through my day job...and we have a lot of gripes with the nonprofit sector. Most of the time, our attitude is that our bosses are doing us dirty with these low salaries, our supervisors give us projects that are impossible to complete during regular working hours, and our clients need so much more than we can provide. No wonder so many talented people end up quitting before they’ve had a chance to make a difference. We give up because we don’t think about the other possibilities. We forget that everything is negotiable

Gabriela reminds us that we have to stop blaming other people or institutions or the culture of our sector for what we don’t like about our careers. If we can start to think of ourselves as co-creators of each relationship that we are a part of, it can lead us to more creative ways of structuring the way we work, so that it works for us.

Rosetta Thurman is an emerging nonprofit leader of color working and living in the Washington, DC area.  She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management and blogs about nonprofit leadership and management issues at Perspectives From the Pipeline.

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Take Back Your 9 to 5: Ditch the Martyr Lifestyle

“I’m worried about you,” my grandmother said. I could hear her worry vibrating over the phone lines hundreds of miles away. “You never call your grandmother anymore, and you’re always working. Are they paying you overtime?” I chuckled. “No, Grandma, nonprofits don’t pay overtime. Besides, I’m on salary and I’m leading this big new leadership project. I need to work late so I can get it all together.” She clucked; you know, that disapproving sound that only a grandmother can make. “Well, you can’t do nothing if you’re in the hospital, and that’s what’s going to happen to you if you keep working so much.” A few weeks later, I found myself doubled over in my bed, too sick to go to work for a week. In an instant, my fast-paced world had come to a halt. Through the fog of all the medication I was taking, I could hear my grandmother’s words ringing in my ears.

That’s when I knew I was playing the martyr role for my nonprofit. I had neglected to take care of my body, and overworked myself for the sake of the cause. Many of us are stuck in this rut. We love our jobs and our organizations so much that we let our passion consume us and forget about taking care of ourselves. I changed some of my habits after getting hit with illness, but it really is a daily effort to set boundaries with myself, and to value my inner life over my professional life. Asia Hadley shares some of her self-care practices on her new blog, Beacons on the Frontline:

• Meditate daily in the mornings
• Pray with my husband, recite our marriage pledge, and read an inspirational daily thought in the morning and evening
• Maintain a gratitude journal
• Practice yoga
• Exercise daily (2-3 times per week at gym/other times at home)
• Spend time with friends
• Read
• SAVY Sister Circle with my mother and sister each Sunday over the phone (Prayer over the phone)

Here are some other ways to ditch the martyr lifestyle as a nonprofit professional:

Ask For a Raise
As nonprofit workers, our biggest beef is with our notoriously low salaries. But that doesn’t have to be the case. We don’t have to live in near poverty. Everything is negotiable, whether you believe it or not. If you’re doing a good job, there’s no harm in asking for a salary adjustment. I’ll take you back to my post on how to negotiate a higher salary. If what you really need for your own peace of mind is more money, by all means you should ask for it. You may not always get it, but at least your employer will know that you know your own worth. If you don’t place a value on the work that you do, your boss won’t value it either. It doesn’t have to be all about money either. You can negotiate a work-from-home arrangement or ask for more vacation time.

Take Care of Your Body
Exercise is a neglected part of our health, no matter what career field you’re in. But when you are dealing with a stressful position in a nonprofit, be it fundraising, counseling, or job training, you need to take care of your body much more than anyone else. Getting in regular exercise and eating healthy is essential. Springing for a relaxing massage every once in a while is a good idea, too. And if you can’t get motivated to exercise, try hiring a personal trainer or joining a group fitness class. I’ve learned a ton of other tips about staying fit and eating well from my mom’s blog.

Feed Your Spirit
Sometimes our spirituality can suffer when we’re focused on helping others. Regular prayer or meditation can be helpful not only in times of high stress, but to keep you centered and balanced during each day. I’ve just started going back to church for morning worship after years of taking all my Sundays for sleep because I stayed up late working all of the other days of the week. I also meditate and pray in the mornings.

Let Your Light Shine
Be a positive influence on others, even if you’re stuck in what you feel is a bad career situation. You may be overworked, but you don’t have to complain about it to everyone who asks you how you’re doing. Chances are, if you’re feeling the negative vibes, everyone else is, too. Break out your smile and ask your co-workers how they’re coming along. When you radiate positive energy, it tends to spread to others around you.

Quit Your Job
I know, it feels like a cop-out, but sometimes, you just need to let it go. Your nonprofit job may be noble and important to the community, but let someone else have that role if it is not working for you. Find another job that is a better fit for your personal and professional needs. It is not the end of the world, and quitting does NOT make you a failure. On the contrary, it can spare you from years of unhappiness with your career just because you feel obligated to the mission.

What are some other ways that YOU sustain yourself and prevent burnout in your career?

Rosetta Thurman is an emerging nonprofit leader of color working and living in the Washington, DC area.  She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management and blogs about nonprofit leadership and management issues at Perspectives From the Pipeline.

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Arts Play Critical Community Role

Arts and culture make a big impact on local communities and economies but can fall below the radar of citizens, government, business and civic groups.

Now, building on their traditional role of raising operating support for arts groups, local arts councils are working to raise awareness about the social and economic role the arts play, to engage the arts in social change and economic growth, and to help arts groups develop endowments to sustain them for the long-term.

A study a year ago by Americans for the Arts found nonprofit arts and culture in 2005 generated $166.2 billion in spending in the U.S., up from $134 billion in national economic activity in 2000.

The study also found the nonprofit arts industry generates $26.9 billion in annual federal, state and local tax revenue throughout the U.S. and accounts for 5.7 million jobs.

Beyond the economic impact those numbers reflect, the nonprofit arts industry is critical to our communities’ quality of life and their prospect for economic growth.

To better tell the arts’ story, and to gear the arts to play a more active role in shaping public policies that affect our communities’ future, arts councils are retooling themselves.

In North Carolina, for example, the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro is working to help the arts play a more strategic role in strengthening the local economy, improving education and attracting visitors.

The council also is working to generate the investment, participation and attention the arts need to play that strategic role.

The neighboring Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County is spearheading efforts to better promote the arts, raise money for arts groups and facilities, and boost the arts as a force in downtown growth and economic development.

And in Charlotte, The Greater Charlotte Cultural Trust, housed at Foundation for the Carolinas, advises partner groups of the Arts & Science Council on setting up planned-giving programs, and also handles the management of gift pledges, as well as investment services for endowments that arts groups create at the trust.

To compete effectively in a global marketplace, particularly in the face of a looming recession, the arts need to tell their story better, and communities need to embrace the nonprofit arts and culture industry as an important partner in building a promising future.

Todd Cohen, a veteran news reporter and editor, is editor and publisher of Philanthropy Journal, an online newspaper published by the A.J. Fletcher Foundation in Raleigh, N.C. Cohen has taught nonprofit reporting and media relations at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at Duke University, and regularly speaks on the topics of nonprofit media relations and trends in the charitable world.

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