kyla usa trip april 2010

Kyla’s trip to the USA

When I arrived in San Francisco it was raining

I visited Eden Information &Referral

in HaywardThe organisation operates a 211 service

What is 211?

2-1-1 is an easy to remember telephone number that connects people with important community services and volunteer opportunities. In 2009, 2-1-1 services in the United States answered more than 16.2 million calls.

Every hour of every day, hundreds of people need essential human services - they are looking for training, employment, food pantries, help for an aging parent, addiction prevention programs for their teenage children, affordable housing options, support groups and ways of becoming part of their community. 2-1-1 allows people to give help and to get help.

Meet Barbara – the Director of Eden I & R

There was a squirrel at Eden I & R!

Eden Information & Referral

• Has been operating for over 30 years• Has an innovative Executive Director• Produces ‘The Big Blue Book’ a directory of

human services for the Alameda County

is this sounding familiar.....

Eden Information & Referral

• Call centre operates 24/7

• The organisation has 2 main databases– Social services– HousingBoth are ‘Filemaker Pro’ and maintained by anin-house tech guy

Eden Information & Referral

• To supplement funding Eden I & R also does lots of vetting type services

• Managing all the different contracts is an administrative nightmare, but the income is essential for organisational sustainability

Eden Information & Referral

• Operate after hours phone service for local council

• Conduct initial phone screening to determine eligibility for programs such as food stamps & tax help

• Provide phone service for ‘Bank of Oakland’ program

• Provide client lists for charity programs like ‘toys for tots’

www.edenir.org

The Hayward Public Library was nearby so I called in and said hi!

At TechSoup I met with many members of the global team and gained an overview of how the

customer service team works – it is very different to the operations at DonorTec. I also

found about TechSoup for Libraries.

• More ‘call centre’ style• No ability for customer to leave phone

message – placed on hold with recording of tips about TechSoup Program

• Team members tasks very structured

• Great posters “I’m a Nonprofit”

• Met with Sarah Washburn, Library Program Manager• Program started several years ago with a grant from the

Gates Foundation• Very keen to add Australia to the program• Could be an expansion of TS for Libraries site, or we

could run our own site• Sarah has developed relationships with many librarians

in the US• Site has resources, library spotlights, webinars and

monthly newsletter

Alcatraz

I took a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge

and undertook some more Community Information research

After my walk I headed off to Atlanta

#10ntc

• I joined a breakfast discussion “Social Media – personal & professional”– Participants expressed fear at ideas expressed via

social media haunting them in the future– Discomfort at expressing political views online– Blog posts used in court case

The trouble with Slacktivisim• "the act of participating in obviously pointless activities as

an expedient alternative to actually expending effort to fix a problem.“

• Examples of cause-oriented slacktivism are numerous, from turning your Twitter profile photos green in solidarity with Iranian protesters to short-term boycotts such as the recent Earth Hour

• Mixed emotions about “slacktivism”• Wendy Harman from US Red Cross spoke about how her

attitude to social media and “slacktivism” transformed as she watched the Haiti response unfold

What a bunch of ‘Slackers’

The Networked Nonprofit: Using Social Media to Power Social Networks for Change

• The book is coming soon!• Networked Nonprofits are defined not by

websites and software, but by the “networked” culture that they fully embrace

Seven Critical Qualities Of A Networked Nonprofit

1. Transparent2. Value networks3. Comfort with tools4. Networked ecosystem5. Courageous6. Trusting7. Athletic

That's Not Funny: Using Humour in Online Communications

• I don’t get American humour! • Presenter thought about writing a book titled

“Nonprofit Humour” and someone asked him – ‘is that a pamphlet?’

• Rules – Be nice – Be topical– Give humour a go

Don’t be mean!

The Real Housewives of Social Media

The Real Housewives of Social Media• Social media needs to be part of your

organisations communications strategy• Collaborate with others in your sector• Tools – monitor (REALLY important), be bold, add

video, analyse (there are tools 4 this)• Measurement – important to pick the right

outcome to measure• Identify influencers and get them first• Reflect – if something didn’t work give it a Joyful

funeral – then move on!

Tools

• What the hashtag – to promote #nptechau• Twitalyzer – serious analytics for social media• Viralheat – more analytics• Tweetbeep – find out what people are saying

about us on twitter

And there are many more tools

Games For Change

• Asi Burak from gamesforchange.org gave a fantastic keynote about using gaming to spread awareness of social/political issues

• Checkout the website – all kinds of games for kids and adults

• The game ‘Peacemaker’, all about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was demonstrated. You can view a game preview at www.peacemakergame.com

After all that I was ready to relax at World of Coca Cola

I also called in to the Atlanta Public Library Service

And took a stroll around the neighbourhood

Anyone need their shoes cleaned?

Before returning home I toured the headquarters of CNN