Weekend Link Roundup (December 4 - 5, 2010)

Our weekly roundup of new and noteworthy posts from and about the nonprofit sector....

Communications/Marketing

After explaining on her Getting Attention blog why "doing doesn't move your marketing agenda forward," Nancy Schwartz shares a few recommendations "for productive reflection" from Havas Media Lab director Umair Haque.

Fundraising

Future Fundraising Now blogger Jeff Brooks explains how "too much thinking can do as much damage as not enough...."

Philanthropy

The Chronicle of Philanthropy's Holly Hall looks at a new survey by London-based Barclays Wealth which found "substantial differences among the wealthy depending on where they live." Not surprisingly, the survey found that U.S. millionaires were the most likely to make charitable giving a priority -- though they were not No. 1 in volunteering.

In an excellent article on the Alliance magazine site, former Ford Foundation program officer Christopher Harris offers seven reasons why those who are committed to social justice philanthropy should be "encouraged" by recent developments.

On the Social Citizens blog, Emily Yu shares some takeaways from a recent NextGen:Charity conference that underscore why Millennials are likely to "play a key role not only as the next generation, but also in forming and shaping the next generation of charity."

Seattle Times reporter Kristi Heim shares a video on her blog in which Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen discusses why he is giving $26 million to the School for Global Animal Health at Washington State University.

"By relying on our networks of friends to advise our donations we're hardly taking a step forward in the use of data, comparative metrics, or outcome based analysis of charities," writes Lucy Bernholz on her Philanthropy 2173 blog. "We're actually taking something of a step back...."

On the Philanthropy Potluck blog, Chris Murakami Noonan looks at a new report from the Minnesota Council on Foundation which found that "giving by individuals, foundations, and corporate giving programs [in Minnesota] totaled $5.4 billion for the 2008 research year, a decrease in overall charitable giving of 5 percent from 2007."

Social Media

Beth Kanter announces the launch of Zoetica Salon, a new learning initiative designed to help nonprofit leaders "share best [social media] practices at no charge." Each month, the Zoetica team -– Kanter, Geoff Livingston, Kami Huyse, and Julie Pippert –- will share resources and answer questions related to a particular theme on Beth's Facebook page. This month's theme is social media measurement.

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes dominated the nonprofit news at the end of last week, as his latest startup, Jumo, an online community for and about "individuals and organizations working to change the world," launched. After sharing some early thoughts on things he liked, and didn't like, about the site, Stanford University associate professor of political science Rob Reich concluded: "[T]he real worry is that the value proposition of Jumo will be negative," adding that "The site threatens not to help users connect but to present users with a bewildering array of flotsam and jetsam...."

What are your toughts about Jumo? Early beta pains aside, is it something that's likely to catch on with a large body of people interested in social change? Does it have the potential to be the Facebook of the nonprofit sector? Or is it destined to become another online giving platform in an already fragmented online giving universe? Feel free to use the comments section to share your thoughts, frustrations, etc.

And let us now if we missed something. Drop us a line at [email protected].

-- Regina Mahone

Comments

[Kamichat]

Thanks so much for mentioning the Zoetica Salon. There are already some great conversation going on there.

[Katy]

I was only just able to sign up on Jumo (seems they got very overwhelmed by traffic which is surprising that they weren't prepared) and am still figuring out how it works. I get that it's meant to supplement Facebook, not replace it, but I'm not yet seeing any reason to activate both Jumo and Facebook.

[Regina Mahone]

No problem! We look forward to following the conversation.