Steve Shu's Blog

Double Teaming Non-Profits Into Blogging

Michael Stein recently shared some of his thoughts on resistance to blogging in not-for-profit environments (source in comments section here):

I have met a lot of resistance when I encourage my not-for-profit clients to blog. I think one aspect of that resistance is that a relatively small number of people enjoy writing and do it easily. I think that "blogging evangelism" needs to include a component that demystifies writing as a skill and provides resources to make new bloggers feel competent about their writing.

I thinks Michael's right on here. He also has a lot of good information on non-profit stuff at his site. One post that caught my eye was a post here that addresses non-profit bloggers and creating content.

I also resonate with Michael's comment about the need for "blogging evangelism" within a non-profit organization. For example, even though 21Publish is deeply rooted in the core blogging platforms for Amnesty International US and Amnesty International Germany, significant ongoing evangelism is needed. Stefan recently posted a presentation he gave to a broader audience of Amnesty International webmasters here. This presentation is an example of the ongoing evangelism that is required to get the various Amnesty organizations blogging successfully.

So I encourage folks interested in the non-profit space to continue to double team on getting those non-profits to blog. That goes for you too, Future MBA Girl (a blogger for two years now making a move to go to a management consulting firm focusing on the non-profit sector). People with your background can add value to non-profit endeavors while also increasing the number of management consultant bloggers out there.

Disclosure: I am a gun for 21Publish, a turnkey provider of group blogs and blog communities.

Learnings On Facilitating A Blog Community

Blogging about group and blog communities is directly related to my job. If you are interested in facilitating a blog community, here are some of my musings and learnings at my 21Publish blog having looked at a number.

Update (10/19/05): I was prompted to write about this based on a post by Beth Kanter - she covers the non-profit space quite a bit.

Update (10/19/05): Beth has an update here. Feel free to join the discussion.

Update (10/21/05): Beth summarized and consolidated here. Thanks!

Technorati Tags: blog_communities, blogging, nptech

Church Blogging

Some good links and articles on church blogging over at my 21Publish blog.

Field Use Of Blogs, Wikis, Etc. And The Importance Of Getting The Context Right

Dr. Biren Saraiya, MD has a good, detailed post on his experiences with using blogs, wikis, and other technologies in a non-profit context. See my post over at my 21Publish blog for more.

Sharing My Presentation On Introducing Blogging To Social Entrepreneurs and Non-Profits

Thought I'd point people to a presentation I gave tonight entitled, "An Introduction to Organizational Blogging and Blogging Communities for Social Entrepreneurs and Non-Profits". The Powerpoint version is not quite ready (which contains hyperlinks to the sources of info, etc.). I will update this post once I post the Powerpoint file.

Update (6/30/05): The Powerpoint is uploaded.

More On Virtual Teams And Collaboration

Ken Thompson has added some additional thoughts to the virtual teaming topic (which is a highly-related topic and undercurrent to the work I am doing at 21Publish with respect to blogging communities). His point about exploring opportunites for sponsors and donors in the non-profit sector is at the back of my mind at all times, especially when I learn of non-profit endeavors such as this one (I've mentioned SAHRI before in the evidence-based medicine space).

Giving Executive Roundtable Talk On Organizational Blogging For Social Entrepreneurs And Non-Profits

This post has been reproduced from my 21Publish blog.

I've been invited to give an executive roundtable talk (30 minutes plus 10 for Q&A) at the Crescent in Dallas about organizational blogging and blogging communities for social entrepreneurs and non-profits. I may eventually leverage some of this stuff for a more extensive mini-course or seminar in business school settings. The audience is unlikely to know much about blogging.  Here's my rough thoughts on title and outline so far:

• Title - "An Introduction to Organizational Blogging and Blogging Communities for Social Entrepreneurs and Non-Profits"
• Outline
  1. What's the opportunity?
  2. What's the technology and medium about?
     • Blogs
     • Blog communities
     • Pertinent technologies surrounding blogs (pseudo-stack)
     • Macroeconomic dynamics
  3. Musings on challenges in social entrepreneurship and non-profit settings
  4. How real social entrepreneurs are using blogging
  5. How barriers can be overcome using blogging
  6. Q&A, open discussion, & potential opportunities

Thoughts and feedback? Note that I eventually plan to post this presentation for others to benefit from.

In Search Of My Social Entrepreneurship

Social Entrepreneurship. This is a term I have never heard of before until last month. I must be living in a shell. I'm still not quite sure what the term "social entrepreneur" means, but I believe it is a fairly widely used term that refers to adopting entrepreneurial behaviors in non-profit organizations.

Read the full post at my 21Publish blog to get some briefs on what I found after some light Google research on the subject of social entrepreneurship. At 21Publish, I have been spending more time thinking about how to apply my MBA and entrepreneurial experiences in different ways to organizations in the non-profit, education, etc. sectors.

When Collaboration And Leadership Are More Important In Non-Profits Versus For-Profits

Ventures or new organizational initiatives, whether in the profit or non-profit sector, face tough mortality rates early on. Luck clearly plays a role in the success of new initiatives, but I find that many times it has to do with a combination of tackling too many items, lacking organizational skills or resources, and not working out important issues of collaboration and leadership.

Non-profits bear a bigger brunt in my opinion:

• People tend to be naturally (and rightfully) more altruistic in non-profit endeavors -  This creates a large appetite, but it must be tapered with some discipline and a devil's advocate mentality to say that "we should first bite off a smaller goal".
• Non-profits may have greater tendencies to lack optimum organizational structures - As I mentioned in a prior post outlining how MBAs can apply skills in a non-profit environment, many non-profits I've seen have more diverse demographics than corporations. This is great, but it may also mean that a non-profit is getting contributed (pro-bono) support where one can't control the quality or goals of the resource as one would with an employee of a commercial entity. Non-profits may also lack resources in the way of $$ or specialized help on-staff.
• Non-profits may lack collaboration mechanisms more widely used in the high-tech space - Some of the team members may be working virtually from the organization (e.g., if contributed pro-bono work). Given that virtual teams have "amplified collaboration needs" (term coined here by Arienna Foley), it is worthwhile to figure out how to get the people to actively collaborate and get quick wins. Some bootstrap tools that may help in the greater effort of getting the team to work together include things like free conference calling (www.freeconferencecall.com), instant organizational intranet (note whitepaper PDF file)  and communication platform (e.g., using free configuration of 21Publish group publishing service), and Skype (free voice over IP, e.g., for international team members).

In any case, I hope that these items and pointers above may help give some ideas to those working for non-profits. This post was motivated by a portion of a broader discussion I had with Dr. Saraiya regarding  the South Asian Health Research Institute (SAHRI). Dr. Saraiya asked me to write down some of my thoughts in starting a new endeavor.

Steve Shu

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A 21Publish Blog In Process

Biren Saraiya, MD, a good friend of mine from back in the days in New Jersey, has just started to develop a 21Publish blog around the South Asian Health Research Institute. I have some personal goals of tuning my life a little bit more into non-profit-related stuff with entrepreneurial bents to them. Thus, you will likely see more non-profit-related posts here and at my 21Publish user-level blog. The center of posts around here will continue to be entrepreneurial and management consulting as I still perform fractional management services for other companies & engage in a limited number of traditional consulting assignments (like one I am doing in the industrial operations and energy space ... a bit outside of my sweetspot, but the project leverages concepts from Little's Law and a book I referred to in the past here). Even though he's still working through the dust, congrats to Biren for starting his site!