We all know we’re in the midst of significant change propelled by new technologies.

We’re living the change every day – with our smart phones and flat screen TVs, our Facebook and Skype accounts.

If you doubt the rapid changes in technology watch this video of Steve Jobs unveiling the Macintosh computer – it makes 26 years seem like ancient history.

So how are all of these changes affecting Philanthropy? Check out the new white paper, Disrupting Philanthropy, for a comprehensive summary of how our access to instant information and capacity for networking online is transforming philanthropy. For a quick synopsis read Working Wikily’s review.

The authors of Disrupting Philanthropy, Bernholz, Skloot and Varela, offer some advice for us on how to deal with all of this rapid change: be flexible, scalable and portable.

“Th(e) institutional structure has remained the predominant model for organized philanthropy for almost a century. Today, peer-supported, data-informed, passion-activated, and technology-enabled networks represent a new structural form in philanthropy, and the institutions that support them will need to be as flexible, scalable, and portable as the networks they serve.”

I admit it. I’ve got Flip fever.

And the fever’s growing now that I’ve won one of those slim Flip cameras! It happened at the recent Pink Magazine Empowerment Conference.

There was a session on social media and meaningful engagement, and because that’s my latest obsession, I went.

Jeannette Gibson, the speaker, was terrific. She’s Cisco’s Director of New Media, and showed some very simple examples of how Cisco has integrated mini-videos – made with the flip – into their communications plans and interactions with customers. (In March 2009, Cisco bought the maker of Flip video, Pure Digital.)

Some examples:

• John Chambers, Cisco’s CEO, answered questions on the future of the company, his vision & goals. The questions were sent through Twitter, and the result was a 4 minute video.
• A product manager sits next to a Cisco switch and talks about the product – an alternative to the printed fact sheet).
• And my personal favorite because it’s silly, surprising and gives you insight in the CEO’s character – John Chambers showing his team how to do duck calls. That video has 23,415 views!

At the Global Fund for Women, we recently made our own simple Flip video. After Christine Ahn, a Progressive Women’s Media Resource Center fellow and Global Fund colleague, came back fired up from a weekend training where she learned to make Flip videos, she and another Global Fundie, Preeti Shekar, held up the camera and asked staff one simple question.

Why do you care about violence against women?

The result is a simple, moving 4-minute video that helps viewers learn more about the people behind the Global Fund and the reasons we do the work we do. It accompanied our campaign for the 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women, and has almost 200 views.

Of course, you don’t have to use a Flip to create simple videos. The Women’s Foundation of Minnesota created a series of simple videos using a Sony camera (with video capacity) on a tripod. With these fun Happy Birthday videos as the basis, the foundation raised almost $5,000 for their girlsBest (girls Building Economic Success Together) Fund – in less than a week! How did they do it? I called their Communications Director, Mary Beth Hanson, to find out.

“With our 26th anniversary as the basis for our online campaign, I really wanted to expand our social-media tool chest to include video,” said Mary Beth. After watching the carefully crafted and scripted videos of other nonprofits on YouTube, she realized that most were too long and not very interesting.

“So, I decided that our videos had to be short and celebratory with surprising content that would get folks interested enough to return daily – for the duration of the campaign. And hopefully donate at some point along the way.”

To distribute the videos and promote the campaign, the Foundation used a daily combination of its nonprofit YouTube channel, Facebook page, website and email blasts. Not only did the Foundation nearly reach its $5,000 goal, it attracted many new donors, recharged lapsed ones, and inspired current ones. The campaign was a resounding success.

The lessons? “Short is better, fun is great! While the issues we’re working on are serious, we don’t always have to be serious in our communications. It’s really important to provide ways for people to celebrate with you.”

Instead of thinking about how hard it is to make videos and engage in social media, ask yourself what can I share? What moves me? What’s fun?

We act as if only what we can count matters.

How many (Facebook) friends or (Twitter) followers do we have?

How many donors? How many opens and clicks on our email campaigns? How many views on our YouTube videos?

How much money in our bank account?

We sometimes forget that our computers and our spreadsheets only capture a portion of our work and a fraction of our lives.

Not everything can be tracked and counted.

I told five or more (I lost count) people I know the past few weeks about a 50% off special that PsPrint was having on business cards for the month of May. These were phone, face-to-face, or personal email conversations. Nothing that can be tracked “on-line” by PsPrint via clicks or Twitter messages.

PsPrint didn’t ask me to join a Facebook Fan page or suggest that I forward a message about this great price break. (Which I wouldn’t have done. I’m not big on spamming my friends or declaring love for a corporate entity.)

Mentioning PsPrint in conversation happened naturally because their services related to a real time need. They had a good deal and because I’ve used their on-line printing with success I felt confident recommending them.

Also in the past few weeks, three people told me about “The Story of Stuff” and Annie Leonard. Two of these were “off-line” face-to-face conversations, one was an email forward of the Global Greengrants e-newsletter from a friend.

The first time I heard about “The Story of Stuff” and Annie Leonard I forgot her name and the name of the video. The second time I said, “Oh yeah, I heard about that but forgot the name of it.” The third time gave me the link to the video and more information.

I still haven’t watched the “Story of Stuff” but now I remember Annie’s name and the title of the video.

These are just two examples of the vast world of “off-the-record” conversations and activity that spread information – and (we hope) create change.

Will Annie ever know the true impact of her video and message? How many people will take the “Story of Stuff” lessons and actually implement a change in their lives? And will this change be because of the video or because of a unique-for-each-person combination of things? (Like the work of other organizations and individuals worldwide on similar issues, system wide changes, media reports, monetary incentives, peer pressure and numerous other factors.)

Who knows?

Not everything can be tracked and counted.

Do your thing. Sure, you can pay attention to the numbers but don’t get lost in thinking that “how many” of anything is what ultimately matters.

——————

p.s.

I was standing in the grocery line one day when a mom and her son, about 7 years old, came up behind me. He was touching all the candy and other treats by the checkout counter and asked his mom the price of something. After she replied with a price, he despondently said, “oh, EVERYTHING costs money.”

I smiled at him and said, “Not everything. Friendship and love don’t cost money.” And his mom said, “That’s right. All of the important things are free.”

Happy Monday!

Are you trying to figure out how best to use Web 2.0 strategies to raise money and visibility for your organization and cause?

The buzz around companies like Facebook and Twitter crescendoed recently with Barack Obama’s presidential win.

His use of social networking sites and new media has been identified as one of the top strategies securing his victory. Now, everyone wants to learn from his tactics and mimic his success.

How do we sort through the hype and the buzz?

1) Always keep in mind your ultimate goal.

A friend of mine committed suicide in January. He had over 200 Facebook friends. Did this on-line community matter when he decided to take his own life?

Web 2.0 and all of our on-line strategies are only important in how they impact off-line behavior and relationships.

None of the new social media tools by themselves can end poverty, create world peace, stop men from raping and beating women, increase tolerance, protect the environment, prevent the spread of HIV/AIDs, find a cure for cancer, reverse global warming or […fill in your cause here...]

To actualize the goals we want to achieve, on-line conversations and community building have to be translated into off-line actions and reality.

The success of Obama’s campaign, was that every on-line action was specifically geared to win him the election by using the on-line strategies for a specific off-line result: getting votes.

2) Don’t create your strategy out of fear.

A New York Times article talking about internet trends for 2009 had this to say about Twitter: “But the fact is this real-time messaging service is taking off in IT circles. And if you don’t jump on the bandwagon soon, you might be too late.”

Don’t be fooled. Our constant frenzy to keep up with everything is just an example of the scarcity mentality that pervades our every day life: There is never enough to go around and if we’re not careful we will be left behind.

Social networking, new media and all things Web 2.0 related are not going anywhere anytime soon. And they thrive on having everyone involved and participating so there is no need to worry about a closed door.

Take your time to plan your on-line strategy for off-line impact where it really matters.

The other day I ran to catch a train before it pulled away from the platform and had to laugh when I realized a few stops later, that in my rush, I had gotten on the wrong train and was actually heading away from where I wanted to go.

I was so focused on not missing the train and rushing to catch it before it left the station that I hadn’t actually looked at the destination marquee before I hopped on.

My rushing (so that I wouldn’t have to wait and waste time) cost me about fifteen minutes – just enough time for me to reflect on how, in our fear that we might miss something, we often do miss something…we miss seeing what we already have.

As a creator and consumer of social media, new media and Web 2.0, ask yourself, “What am I creating toward?” And, “What am I consuming for?” The new social media tools can help us exponentially increase our reach – but for what?

Always keep in mind your ultimate goal and don’t create or consume out of fear.