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Come on in. The water’s fine.
An Exploration of Web 2.0 Technology and Its Emerging Impact on Foundation Communications. (excerpt)
By David Brotherton and Cynthia Scheiderer
Taking the Conversation Outside
As noted above, interactive communication means less control over what is said, and it
also means that the boundaries are blurring as to where the conversation takes place.
On virtually any issue—from animal rights and childhood obesity, to climate change
and global development—there are Web communities, forums and virtual gathering
places where lively discussions play out on a daily basis. In these networks, thought-leaders hold court, pundits post and community activists exchange effective strategies. It is also where misinformation, unpopular viewpoints and petty squabbles get aired. These are the places where foundations (and grantees) increasingly find themselves needing to congregate.
This shift in mindset may seem obvious to some, but it is hugely consequential. As Claire Baralt, communications officer for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation,
said, "We've realized it's not about drawing people to your Web site anymore; it's about
getting your content out there in the Web wherever people are or wherever the conversation happens."
Michael Hoffman, founder and CEO of See3 Communications, explained it another way: "One big mistake foundations often make is thinking they have to be the convener of the discussion, or that they have to be the hub where the best thinking takes place," Hoffman said. "In truth, the success of many good Web 2.0 projects starts with their willingness to give up control. It's so much better to seed the conversation, or feed it, than to try and control it. If you want to control it, you are going to become quickly and sorely irrelevant."
Alfred Ironside, director of communications for The Ford Foundation sees the positive
side of this communication transformation, "The ceding of control is not about losing." It may in fact be the best way to reach some audiences, and sometimes the only way to
reach them.
The Daniels Fund is a case in point. The fund provides scholarships to college-bound
high school graduates with financial need from Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and
Wyoming. Peter Droege, Daniels' vice president of communications, discussed the
challenges of communicating with them once they're in college. He explained that
not only were their scholarship recipients bypassing the Daniels Fund Web site, they
also weren't responding to foundation-generated e-mails. "For them, e-mail is kind
of the 8-track player," he said.
While Daniels Fund staff wanted to share information with their young scholars about
their scholarships, they also hoped to create a sense of community among the cohort.
The Daniels program team recognized that scholars who had been in the program for a
while could be helpful to new scholarship recipients, and anticipated that a sense of
camaraderie might foster student success. After investigating various social networking
options, the Daniels team created a dedicated network on Facebook.
The Roles of Foundations and Grantees
If people will participate in an online community for an issue they care about, what is the role of the foundation compared to the role of grantees? Nonprofits can usually provide more of an action step for the general public (donating, volunteering, even lobbying). Foundations have often stayed in the background in favor of the grantees getting the spotlight.
This seems to be borne out by a recent survey by the Philanthropy Awareness
Initiative which found that more than half of engaged Americans (individuals who hold a
leadership, committee, or board-level role in an organization working on community or
social issues) surveyed could not name a foundation on their first try.
Several participants noted that many nonprofits are ahead of foundations in
using Web 2.0 technologies to advance their goals.
Mitch Hurst of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation said, "It's my view that granteesare well ahead of their funders when it comes to Web 2.0 because they (the
grantees) have other motivations that force them to think about how to use these tools
strategically: to raise funds, find volunteers and fill other sorts of bottom-line needs that
foundations just don't have."
Michael Hoffman agreed. "There isn't a fundraising pressure, or a membership pressure on a foundation the way there are on nonprofits or membership organizations.
And absent that, foundations have been slower to move and adapt. Foundations do
have communication goals though. And these new technologies—if applied strategically—can help meet them."
Some described this as a branding or identity issue. Amanda Rounseville, grants officer of communications and public affairs for The California Endowment put it this
way: "There is a personality question, in terms of where foundations want to be. How
important is the role of the foundation, and how important is the role of the work? Most
foundations realize that it's critical to support the work by taking risks and investing in new communication strategies. On the flip side, they are also realizing that they can use innovative platforms to better leverage their own voice to advance an issue."
William Hanson of the Skillman Foundation took the argument to this conclusion: "Would it be better spent if communications professionals that work for foundations got a pot of money to help nonprofits communicate about the work they're doing?" Maybe it's less important that people recognize foundations by name and more important that they are aware of and engaged in the issues foundations care most about and are trying to change.
Many of the challenges of using new tools are best addressed by being strategic.
Alfred Ironside of the Ford Foundation describes their process this way: "We are using research to back-up and guide the decision-making. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Just make sure tactics make sense to the strategy at hand. The Web is a place and 2.0 is a tool where a lot of good things can happen. But we're not going to just jump into that blindly or put up a blog because blogs seem to be a cool thing to do."
Taking this kind of strategic approach can help a foundation balance the opportunity
for greater influence with the challenges of resources, prioritization, internal advocacy
and measuring return on investment. After all, these challenges are always present—
whether a communications professional is innovating with Web 2.0 technologies or
spreading the word in more traditional ways.
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"See3's level of experience shows through in the quality of the work they produce."
Barbara West Stone
Vice President for Development
Uhlich Children's Advantage Network (UCAN) |
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