NTEN: Change | September 2014 by NTENorg

CHANGE A Quarterly Journal for Nonprofit Leaders 路 September 2014

ADVOCACY & VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS:

HOW TO RISE ABOVE THE NOISE FEATURES: Seeing is Believing: The Power of Visual Communications By Nicole Lampe

Win or Go Home: Lessons From the Campaign Trail By Andrew Rothman

Nonprofit Photography: Ethics and Approaches By Margot Duane

Visual Media 101: New Tools for Nonprofits By Jessica Williams

CHANGE A Quarterly Journal for Nonprofit Leaders

ISSUE FIFTEEN SEPTEMBER 2014

Letter from the Editor

Editor

Joleen Ong Marketing & Publications Director, NTEN

Design

JOLEEN ONG Marketing & Publications Director, NTEN

Philip Krayna NKD – Neuwirth/Krayna Design www.nkdesigngroup.com

Editorial Committee Members

Jeanne Allen Manager/Instructor, Duke University Nonprofit Management Program

Chris Bernard Editorial and Communications Director, Idealware

Melanie Bower Project Manager, Social Accountability Accreditation Services

Tobias Eigen Executive Director, Kabissa—Space for Change in Africa

Sophia Guevara Social Media Fellow, Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP)

Wiebke Herding Managing Director, On:Subject Communications

Josh Hirsch Director of Development and Marketing, The Weiss School

Nicole Lampe Digital Strategy Director, Resource Media

Bonnie McEwan Assistant Professor and Consultant, Milano-The New School & BonnieMcEwan.com

Rebecca Reyes Communications Manager, Everyday Democracy

Cover Art: Ashley Cecil www.ashleycecil.com

Advertising: Learn more about sponsoring NTEN:Change at nten.org/ advertising/reserve

Permissions & Inquiries: Please give credit to all referenced or re-published content according to the Creative Common license: Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. Example Attribution text: “First published in NTEN:Change (nten.org/NTENChange), September 2014, CC BY-SA 3.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-sa/3.0/).” More information about the journal can be found at nten.org/NTENChange/Press

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

This quarter’s issue of NTEN: Change focuses on the theme: Advocacy and Visual Communications. How can nonprofits get their message to rise above the noise? It can be an ongoing challenge to capture the attention of supporters, funders, and the media, especially when the issues that you’re working on can be complex and hard for outsiders to imagine. Years ago, the documentary filmmaker U. Roberto Romano gave me simple advice: Show them why they should care. U. Roberto Romano, or “Robin,” was an inexhaustible human rights activist, and the images and videos that he captured for his documentary, “The Dark Side of Chocolate,” was the first the world had ever seen – images of child, forced, and trafficked labor in the West African cocoa industry. These images and videos were undeniable pieces of evidence that helped to strengthen existing nonprofit campaigns, and provide content for media outlets, such as CNN’s Freedom Project. Robin passed away last November. This issue is a tribute to his vision, commitment, courage, and approach to changing the world. The articles and interviews in this issue examines visual communications and advocacy across a range of angles: Resource Media’s findings on the science

behind the power of images; humanitarian photographer, Margot Duane, on the ethical considerations and approaches to nonproﬁt photography; Blue State Digital’s winning political campaign strategies that nonproﬁts can incorporate into their work; an introduction to Omar Vulpinari, the man behind some of the most successful visual campaigns out there; and much more.

“

How can nonprofits get their message to rise above the noise?

”

Robin once said in an interview: “Pictures show us the world as it really is, especially when what you are trying to show is ‘unimaginable’… How can anyone not react when confronted by that reality?” We hope that these articles will inspire and reinvigorate your organization to think about how to show what your mission means, show impact, and show audiences why they should care. Thanks for reading!

20 10 12 INSIDE FEATURES: PAGE 14 Visual Media 101:

BEHIND THE SCENES:

TECH SUPPORT:

PAGE 30 Citizen Media:

PAGE 38 Using Storify to

Rethinking the New Agenda

Capture Insights at Events

Interview with Ivan Sigal, Global Voices

by Paula Jones, N.C. Center for Nonprofits and NCTech4Good

New Tools for Nonprofits by Jessica Williams, Prichard Communications

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: PAGE 32 Mama's Day Campaign

PAGE 40 Seven Tips to Build a

PAGE 16 Online Messaging

Interview with Eveline Shen, Forward Together

by Rebecca Reyes, Everyday Democracy

PAGE 34 Children by the Numbers

PAGE 42 Visualize a Successful

Year-end Fundraising Campaign

PAGE 18 The Evolution of

Interview with Limarie Cabrera and Anna Wright, Westchester Children's Association

Advertising: Best Practices for Ad Campaigns and Social Marketing

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE PROFILE:

PAGE 44 Sustainability Focus

by Megan Sigesmund, Ad Council

PAGE 37 Melanie Bower

Across Geographies: Challenges and Considerations by Cheryl Contee, Adriana Dakin, Abigail Simmons - Fission Strategy

Compelling Visual Library

by Yee Won Chong, Strategist, Trainer, and Consultant for Social Justice

Interview with Darren Heiber, Free Geek

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

AT A GLANCE

CHANGE A Quarterly Journal for Nonprofit Leaders · September 2014

NTEN:CHANGE JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2014

Seeing is Believing: The Power of Visual Communications - Page 8 By Nicole Lampe, Resource Media Attention spans and screen are shrinking, and imagery is the most powerful shorthand that cause-based organizations have in their toolkits. Resource Media shares its top five tips for effective visual communications, based on a year of intensive research and fieldwork.

Nonproﬁt Photography: Ethics and Approaches -

ADVOCACY & VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS:

HOW TO RISE ABOVE THE NOISE FEATURES: Seeing is Believing: The Power of Visual Communications By Nicole Lampe

Win or Go Home: Lessons From the Campaign Trail By Andrew Rothman

Page 10 Nonprofit Photography: Ethics Visual Media 101: New Tools for By Margot Duane, Humanitarian Photographer and Approaches By Margot Duane Nonprofits By Jessica Williams In our modern and connected world, impactful photography is a powerful way to illustrate your organization’s successes and compel your constituents to changing tide of social media, free tools, and tips on how action. Internationally-published humanitarian to create compelling images. photographer, Margot Duane, outlines ethical and legal considerations as well as recommendations for suggested Online Messaging Across Geographies: Challenges approaches to help ensure that your photography projects and Considerations - Page 16 are successful. By Cheryl Contee, Adriana Dakin, Abigail Simmons – Fission Win or Go Home: Lessons From the Campaign Trail Strategy Digital campaigns for nonprofits are often global and can - Page 12 reach audiences everywhere with the right international By Andrew Rothman, Blue State Digital messaging, visuals, targeting, and channels. This article The speed and the stakes of a political campaign demand gives nonprofits advice on running a successful visual a level of dexterity and efficiency rarely seen in the communications campaign using multichannel outreach nonprofit sector. Elements of the campaign mindset can that includes mobile texting, and understanding culture help organizations of all kinds craft digital fundraising and advocacy programs that cut through internal divisions and and syntax. move at the speed of the digital age — with a relentless focus on real results.

Visual Media 101: New Tools for Nonproﬁts - Page 14 By Jessica Williams, Prichard Communications Visual media has become vital to a strong social media strategy. It has transformed the way organizations can engage and interact with their audiences. The growth in popularity of Pinterest, Instagram, and Vine has sparked a new approach to digital outreach. Learn more about the

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

The Evolution of Advertising: Best Practices for

Ad Campaigns and Social Marketing - Page 18 By Megan Sigesmund, Ad Council From doing the research and crystalizing your message, to creative execution across diﬀerent platforms, get a peek behind the Ad Council’s curtain to learn how organizations bring their campaigns to life. Using the successful Children’s Oral Health campaign as a case study, discover the key steps to ensure that your message breaks through the noise.

Change in Action | Putting Equity on the Map -

Editorial Committee Profile | Melanie Bower page 20 Page 37 Interview with Scotty Ellis, Coalition for a Livable Future Melanie Bower, Project Manager at Social Accountability Equity is a core component to achieve sustainable Accreditation Services, answers six questions about development, but it’s often left out of the conversation. nonprofit technology. The Regional Equity Atlas transforms data into a powerful Tech Support | Using Storify to Capture Insights tool to shape the conversation about equity, and ensure at Events - Page 38 that it’s central to public policy. By Paula Jones, N.C. Center for Nonprofits and NCTech4Good Storify provides an opportunity for nonprofits to curate Change in Action | Designing for Social Change page 26 content from various social networks. Paula Jones shares Interview with Omar Vulpinari, Crossmedia Creative Director five tips that you should consider when using Storify for & Innovation Lab Leader your organization, using the recent NCTech4Good Omar Vulpinari has led the creative direction for some of Conference as an example. the most powerful visual campaigns on issues ranging from child safety, anti-tobacco use, pedestrian safety, and Tech Support | 7 Tips to Build a Compelling Visual Library - Page 40 more. In this interview, Omar reflects on his successful By Rebecca Reyes, Everyday Democracy career at Fabrica, Benetton’s Research Center, his new Using images can increase engagement and help spread path ahead as a professor, and discusses the upside of your message. Building a visual library and integrating pushing the envelope. visual content into your communications plan can help you be proactive instead of reactive, especially when Behind the Scenes | Citizen Media: Rethinking the News Agenda - page 30 unexpected events occur. Interview with Ivan Sigal, Global Voices Global Voices is a nonprofit online citizen media initiative, Tech Support | Visualize a Successful Year-end Fundraising Campaign - Page 42 where local perspectives and concerns drive the news By YeeWon Chong, Strategist, Trainer, and Consultant for agenda. With an estimated 6,000 stories published per Social Justice year that are translated into as many as 35 languages, As has been noted thousands of times, "a picture is worth Executive Director, Ivan Sigal, explains how it’s done with a thousand words." It is particularly true in this day and a small core team and global volunteers. age. Get the scoop on the tips and tools that nonprofits are using to create compelling images, and how you can Project Spotlight | Mama’s Day - Recognizing a apply them to your year-end fundraising campaign. Profound Act of Community - Page 32 Interview with Eveline Shen, Forward Together The Mama’s Day campaign is an annual event that leverages a national “Hallmark” holiday to tell a visual story of the mamas that are not traditionally honored or recognized. From technology tools to impact measurement, get the lessons learned from Forward Together about running an e-card campaign.

Project Spotlight | Storytelling with Data -

Sustainability Focus | How Recycling Computer

Equipment Can Support a Community - Page 44 Interview with Darren Heiber, Free Geek All organizations must eventually deal with old technology, but what to do with it? Free Geek recycles it all, from computers to cables and cards. But social and environmental responsibility aren’t just their mission, they deﬁne Free Geek’s internal culture as well.

A Children’s Tale - Page 34 Interview with Limarie Cabrera and Anna Wright, Westchester Children’s Association Data can inspire people towards advocacy and action. From a 300-page research report to an engaging infographic and Children by the Numbers blog, the Westchester Children’s Association has transformed their data into stories that inform, engage, and empower their audiences to understand children’s lives in Westchester County, New York.

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

ABOUT THE COVER

AS A DIGITAL PUBLICATION, IT MIGHT BE HARD TO BELIEVE THAT A LARGE PART OF IT – THE COVER – IS ACTUALLY HANDMADE Ashley Cecil is the artist who helps NTEN transform the thematic elements of the Journal into the face of the publication. These photos offer a behind-the-scenes look into the work that Ashley put into creating the cover… with not a computer in sight. This edition’s theme is “Advocacy and Visual Communications.” Coming up with the cover image for such a large topic can be daunting, but it was the power of an icon and its role in advocacy and social movements that seemed to best embody the motif. Juanita Baltodano, the president of the Fair Trade cacao cooperative in Costa Rica, continues to be a celebrated figure on NTEN: Change covers, with a touch of Rosie the Riveter’s can-do attitude – an attitude shown by so many in the nonprofit sector. To learn more about Ashley Cecil, visit www.ashleycecil.com

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

MIAMI

2014

2015

NONPROFIT TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE MARCH 4-6, 2015 AUSTIN, TEXAS MYNTC.NTEN.ORG #15NTC

Connect, learn, and change the world. The 15NTC is the largest gathering of nonprofit professionals that transform technology into social change. The NTC is the nonprofit industry’s signature technology event, bringing together more than 2,000 nonprofit staff, vendors, and consultants. Join us in Austin, Texas from March 4-6, 2015 for three days of sharing knowledge, networking, and Texas Hold’em!

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

PHOTO: JAMES BALOG, ExTREME ICE SURVEY

SEEING IS BELIEVING: THE POWER OF VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS BY NICOLE LAMPE, RESOURCE MEDIA

xford English Dictionary dubbed 2013 the year of the selﬁe. Experts predict nearly a trillion photos will be taken in 2014. With a camera in every smartphone, and the number of Snapchat and Instagram users growing rapidly, one might think that technology was fueling this photo boom. But our passion for pictures is as old as time. Selﬁes are just today’s version of the cave painting. People are hardwired to respond to imagery: The visual cortex is the largest system in the human brain. While reading is a skill we must learn, 8

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

picture processing is an ability we’re all born with, and the language of pictures is universal. Despite heaps of brain science and social media statistics pointing to the power of visual communications, many nonproﬁts still give images short shrift. I have seen countless groups agonize over every word in a brochure or blog post, and then drop a stock image into place, almost as an afterthought. You need look no further than your Facebook newsfeed to understand why this is a mistake. In this era of information overload, we’ve all

become skimmers and filterers. Words run together on the screen, but pictures draw the eye. At Resource Media, after fifteen years helping cause-based organizations get their messages right, we decided it was time to deepen our practice around visual communications. We pored over cognitive research, interviewed marketing professionals, and shared our top takeaways in a report called Seeing is Believing, available for download with many other resources at www.visualstorylab.org. Here’s what we learned: 1. Emotions rule, and photos are a great way to tap into them: Brain scans have shown that the emotional region of our brain is super active during decision-making. This explains why stories are so powerful. Any fundraising professional can tell you that stories move supporters in a way that facts and figures never will. Pictures work in a similar manner:

rather than engaging our rational minds, they touch our hearts. 2. Show the feelings you want to inspire: We’re all equipped with mirror neurons that help us sympathize with others. We see pain; we feel pain. And if we’re shown images that are too unpleasant, we will often look away to protect against the discomfort they elicit. This underscores the importance of balancing positive, aspirational photos with those that show the problems you are working to address. 3. Don’t rely on your gut, test images just as you would messages: As advocates, we are often too close to our work to be able to judge content objectively. Some photos that resonate with you and your colleagues might leave supporters cold. Consider the two wolf photos below. Wildlife groups might feel the first conveys majesty, Resource Media worked with Power Past Coal to test both messages and photos for a campaign to block coal exports in the Pacific Northwest. These photos of open rail cars and coal dust pollution drove home the public health impacts in a way words alone could not. BOTTOM ROW: Testing images is crucial. For example, testing revealed that while wildlife groups might feel the first wolf photo conveys majesty, it actually inspires fear in many people. The mama wolf and cub photo is less threatening, and more relatable.

TOP ROW:

but testing reveals it actually inspires fear in many people. The mama wolf and cub photo is less threatening, and more relatable. Based on the experience of our friends in wildlife conservation, it’s also more likely to be shared. Our method of choice for aﬀordable image testing is Facebook advertising. For $250, you can get 1,000 new fans and invaluable insights into the kinds of photos most likely to make target audiences click. 4. Pair pictures with words for maximum impact: Studies show that both comprehension and recall increase when people take in visual and verbal information at the same time. Again, consider your Facebook newsfeed. Those text-over-photo memes are catchy and memorable. And they have the added advantage of a message that’s baked right into the image. For websites and blogs, spend a little time writing descriptive captions: they tend to get read more than other copy on the page. 5. Invest in good photos, and keep them organized. Whether it’s a smartphoneography training for staﬀ, a day of shooting with a professional photographer, or a contest where you solicit snapshots from supporters, commit to building your photo library.

“WHILE READING IS A SKILL WE MUST LEARN, PICTURE PROCESSING IS AN ABILITY WE’RE ALL BORN WITH.” And by photo library, I don’t mean random folders on your personal computer. Flickr is our platform of choice for storing and sharing photos. Organize into albums by subject or event, and use descriptive names and tags. We know capacity is a big challenge for nonprofits working to build their photo libraries and develop more visual content. The good news is that technology has made it possible for communications departments to share the work. Smartphone cameras now take perfectly serviceable photos and video, which means every organizer and volunteer can help document events. Technology has also made it easier than ever to crowdsource photos, and to collect real-time data about the ones that generate the most engagement. One trillion photos in 2014 adds up to a lot of visual noise in your supporters’ online worlds – that makes it all the more important to have a strong image strategy. Remember that emotions and authenticity are the name of the game, and take advantage of click and share metrics to refine your strategy over time. NICOLE LAMPE is Digital Strategy Director for Resource Media, a nonprofit communications firm helping partners navigate the changing media landscape. We develop and implement smart communications strategies for the environment and public health. Nicole has worked in nonprofit communications for over a decade. She believes the mobile and social media revolution makes visual communications more important than ever.

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

THE GIRL POWER PROJECT IN UGANDA. PHOTO: MARGOT DUANE/MARGOTDUANE.COM

NONPROFIT PHOTOGRAPHY: ETHICS AND APPROACHES BY MARGOT DUANE, HUMANITARIAN PHOTOGRAPHER

he ﬁrst moon landing. The Vietnamese ‘napalm girl’, running naked and in agony. The World Trade Centers falling. As we know, photography carries the power to inspire, educate, horrify, and compel its viewers to take action. Images evoke strong and often public emotions, as people frequently formulate their opinions, judgments, and behaviors in response to visual stimuli. Because of this, photography can wield substantial control over public perception and discourse. Moreover, photography in our digital age permits us to deliver complex information about remote conditions which can be rapidly distributed and eﬀortlessly processed

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

by the viewer. Recently, we’ve witnessed the profound impact of photography coupled with social media: together, they have fueled political movements and brought down a corrupt government. Photography can – and has – changed the course of history. Ethical Considerations Those who commission and create photography of marginalized populations to further an organizations’ mission possess a tremendous responsibility. Careful ethical consideration should be given to all aspects of the photography supply chain: its planning, creation, and distribution.

When planning a photography campaign, it is important to examine the motives for creating particular images, and their potential impact. Not only must a faithful, comprehensive visual depiction of the subjects be created to avoid causing misperception, but more importantly, the subjects’ dignity must be preserved. Words and images that elicit an emotional response by their sheer shock value (e.g. starving, skeletal children covered in ﬂies) are harmful because they exploit the subject’s condition in order to generate sympathy for increasing charitable donations or support for a given cause. In addition to violating privacy and human rights, this so-called ‘poverty porn’ is damaging to those it is trying to aid because it evokes the idea that the marginalized are helpless and incapable of helping themselves, thereby cultivating a culture of paternalism. Poverty porn is also detrimental because it is degrading, dishonoring, and robs people of their dignity. While it is important to illustrate the challenges of a population, one must always strive to tell stories in a way that honors the subjects’ circumstances, and (ideally) illustrates hope for their plight. Legal Issues Legal issues are more clear cut when images are created or used in stable countries where legal precedent for photography use has been established. Image creation and use becomes far more murky and problematic in countries in which law and order is vague or even nonexistent. Even though images created for nonproﬁt campaigns aren’t being created or published for typically commercial applications, it’s strongly recommended that precautions are taken around permissions. If creating images, one should obtain model releases whenever possible, especially if there is a chance that the person pictured may experience negative

consequences as a result of having their photo used. If the subject isn’t able to read the release or sign his/ her name, an interpreter should be made available to explain the intended use of the photography. If stock photos are being used, one should conﬁrm that the proper releases are in place; make no assumptions. Approaches to Successful Photography Creation First, it is recommended that those who commission or use imagery should create a policy to guide their organizations. You may wish to refer to the International Guild of Visual Peacemakers’ Ethical Code for inspiration – see box below. Also, adequate planning and an intimate understanding of the conditions on the ground are essential. Following are some considerations and suggestions: 1) Will sending a photographer to document potentially delicate situations negatively impact the reputation of your organization? 2) What if your subjects aren’t willing to have their photographs taken? Can you illustrate your messages with imagery that doesn’t identify them? 3) What is the most compelling way to tell your story? Should you create a series of hard-hitting, beautiful portraits, day-in-the-life moments, a combination, or another approach altogether? Engage the photographer in your planning; their input could be invaluable. 4) It may be vital to have a “ﬁxer” on the ground who can overcome language barriers, make introductions, explain the intention for the photography to the subjects, facilitate the signing of releases, and, ultimately, help your team establish trust. Trust is a critical element in making great photography happen. 5) Is the environment safe for a photographer? What would they need to be protected and secure? 6) For many marginalized people, having their photo taken

professionally may only happen once in their lifetime. It is a big event to them! If you’re able to print images on the spot for them, this will go a long way in gaining their trust and inspiring their cooperation. 7) The way that the photo sessions are conducted should also be carefully considered. One should never bribe subjects to feign despair, anger, or other emotions, or seek to inﬂuence the “slant” of the photography in any way. Also, sometimes it works well to photograph subjects from behind so that only their activities, and not their faces, can be seen. For example, the face of the doctor who is performing an eye exam may be shown, but not the patient’s face. This not only prevents the patient from getting distracted, but also protects their privacy. It is important to be humble, considerate, and respectful, especially during private moments of grief. In this case, one should try to capture images from afar without being intrusive. One should not to be an aloof stranger, but rather attempt to foster a relationship of mutual understanding with the subject. 8) It is important to ensure that the captured images document what you

believe is the real situation of your subjects. Photos must be carefully and faithfully edited (there should be minimal digital manipulation and no fancy embellishments) to avoid misrepresentation. Also, the photography should not stereotype or make false generalizations. For example, a single photograph of a starving African child is not representative of the situation throughout the continent. Use captions to properly contextualize visual images. Careful consideration of the media used to deliver the imagery is also recommended, as this can aﬀect its intended message dramatically. Photography gives us the power to connect people from all walks of life through the language of visual understanding. We must never forget that it is an honor and privilege to be in the position where we can represent the underrepresented, and give voice to marginalized. MARGOT DUANE is dedicated to making an impact through humanitarian photography. Her images of people and modern culture have been published worldwide. Visit: www.margotduane.com

ETHICAL CODE FOR VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS 1. We research and respect the culture we are documenting. 2. We value our subjects by taking measures to interact with or involve them, and by treating storytelling and image-making as a collaboration. 3. We use discernment in candid photography and videography, and all published material, because another’s dignity and honor matters to us. 4. We inquire about how others are impacted by our images, examining the actual results of our best intentions. 5. We are intentional about highlighting common humanity through images and storytelling. 6. We explore both macro and micro factors that affect a place or people in an effort for multidimensional coverage. 7. We refrain from making an image if asked not to. 8. We foster the courage to delete some images that may reinforce destructive stereotypes, or publish them only along with other images that tell a more complete story. 9. We refine and upgrade our own vision, because well-crafted images have greater potential for effective visual peacemaking. 10. We live generously by helping others around us, wherever we are, and by volunteering to support the visual peacemaking movement with our talents and resources. Source: http://visualpeacemakers.org/about/ethical_code/

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

WIN OR GO HOME: LESSONS FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL BY ANDREW ROTHMAN, BLUE STATE DIGITAL

Joe Rospars, the CEO of my firm and the chief digital strategist for Barack Obama’s two presidential bids, often says that a presidential campaign is a billion-dollar organization built to go out of business after 18 months. The same can be said for all political campaigns. They’re complex but ephemeral. Right from the start, the clock ticks down to Election Day, when success is defined in the starkest terms: you win or you go home. The speed and the stakes of a political campaign demand a level of dexterity and efficiency rarely seen in the nonprofit sector. So for the past seven years at Blue State Digital, I’ve worked to impart elements of the campaign mindset into organizations of all kinds, helping them craft digital fundraising and advocacy programs that cut through internal divisions and move at the speed of the digital age – with a relentless focus on real results. When applied thoughtfully, this “win or go home” mentality can go a long way for a nonprofit, so here are three lessons from the campaign trail that will help your organization use new technologies to make the most of your limited time and resources. 1. USE DIGITAL TO BREAK DOWN SILOS

In 2004, Howard Dean’s presidential campaign revolutionized politics by using the Internet to organize, recruit volunteers, and raise lots of money. Ever since, digital has been at the center of successful political campaigns, helping everyone from field organizers to finance directors do their jobs more efficiently. The most successful nonprofits are following suit. They’ve moved beyond repurposing print newsletters as eye-glazing

ANDREW ROTHMAN is Director of Communications at Blue State Digital. His team designs and executes strategies across email, social media, web, and mobile. With artful storytelling and tactical optimization, they craft resultsoriented programs that build communities and mobilize them to take action. Andrew was an early member of Barack Obama’s digital team during the 2008 primaries, and since then he’s served as a bridge between the campaign’s revolutionary digital program and dozens of nonproﬁts, causes, brands, and cultural institutions.

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e-blasts and treating their websites like online brochures. Instead, they’re connecting online and offline donor files to optimize the donor experience. They’re using online video to tell vivid stories about their volunteers and the people they’re helping. They’re reinventing their business models based on peer-to-peer fundraising and online recruitment. And they’re creating powerful, digitalled initiatives that let people contribute to the substance of their work – for example, visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. But to be effective, a digital program can’t be bolted on to existing efforts. It needs to be infused throughout the organization, from marketing to development to programming. It should inspire (and sometimes force) collaboration among disparate departments, generating new ideas and joint initiatives that weren’t possible in the traditional, siloed nonprofit world. For one of the most successful digital programs I’ve worked on – in which we’ve grown online fundraising by 60% and brought in thousands of new donors – my team meets weekly with representatives from the marketing, development, membership, and programming departments. Before we partnered with them, these people rarely worked together, but today they’re in constant contact and doing better work than ever before. 2. GET ALIGNED AND BE DIRECT

On the campaign trail, the finish line looms large: Election Day. Campaign staff understand the ultimate goal and coordinate their efforts accordingly. The most successful campaigns develop a clear narrative that distinguishes the candidate from the field and ultimately leads to victory at the

polls. Supporters also get this singular message and mission – so the campaign can communicate in a very direct, action-focused way. Nonprofits can be a different story. While mission statements help align everyone at a high level, the precise goals are often missing. This leads to internal confusion, which reflects itself in their publicfacing programs. So ask yourself: What story is your organization trying to tell? What are you ultimately trying to achieve? Articulate your objectives, then develop and constantly reinforce your organizational narrative. Don’t be afraid to talk directly with your supporters about what you’re trying to accomplish and how you’ll get there. At the ground level, this means two things: 1. engage your supporters with a simple message, repeated often but in dynamic ways; and 2. activate them at key moments with direct, goal-focused actions. At the end of June you likely received a flood of political emails citing the urgent need for donations before the end-ofquarter deadline. It’ll happen again at the end of September. They do this because it works. Directly asking for donations – with deadlines, goals and other transactional tactics – consistently proves to be the best fundraising tactic. Virtually every test we’ve run has supported this approach. For one nonprofit client during the 2013 year-end season, a single goalfocused email raised more than two story-focused emails sent during the same week combined. That’s because we were being direct with our audience, and they understood that at that moment, fundraising was our singular priority. 3. TEST AND RESOLVE

Election season is no time for

hand-wringing. Decisions need to be made quickly, and they need to be based on results. That’s why iterative testing is so critical – and pays off so immensely. Develop a few smart ideas, use digital technologies to see which one works best, and then turn those learnings into new ideas to test again. Sometimes that cycle can happen in a matter of hours or even minutes. Everything a campaign does must bring tangible results; otherwise, it’s wasting precious time and resources. Nonprofits are typically filled with deep and deliberate thinkers. In many ways, that’s a huge asset, but that deliberation needs to be tempered by a willingness to test and evolve – to let the data make the decisions. It’s about being open and nimble, taking advantage of the speed of these amazing new technologies at our disposal. Of course, this doesn’t mean veering off-brand. The brash formatting of some political emails wouldn’t fly at most nonprofits. It’s important to maintain the right organizational voice, but within those bounds there is still enormous opportunity to try new ideas and learn what works. The success of digital campaigning, led by Barack Obama’s game-changing efforts, has reset people’s expectations about how organizations of all kinds, from campaigns to nonprofits to brands, communicate with their audiences. As the population grows more comfortable with these technologies, it’s critical for nonprofits to keep up – not just to maintain their status quo, but to take advantage of the limitless potential of digital to help them reach new audiences and grow their impact.

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IMAGE VIA UNSPLASH.COM, BY JAY WENNINGTON

VISUAL MEDIA 101: NEW TOOLS FOR NONPROFITS BY JESSICA WILLIAMS, PRICHARD COMMUNICATIONS

isual media is revolutionizing the way we do social media across all platforms from Facebook and Twitter to Instagram and Pinterest. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a visual on social media can be the diﬀerence of thousands of people seeing your content instead of only dozens. For these reason, in order for your mission to rise above, it is vitally important that you understand how to use visual media in a strategic way. Social Media 1.0 When you think of visual media, it’s

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likely that YouTube comes to mind, and rightly so. YouTube is at the forefront of video sharing and with its connection to Google (Google owns YouTube), it remains king of video. However, while YouTube is a great platform for uploading and sharing video, it lacks the social media prowess of Facebook. The founders of social media – Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn – have something that YouTube will never have – the power of social networking. For example, Facebook,

Twitter, and LinkedIn are built for social networking. It doesn’t matter what you share – a status update, a photo, or a video – these platforms are meant to make it easy to engage through the use of sharing, commenting, and posting whatever media you choose! At Prichard, we consider this kind of social media, social media 1.0. Social Media 2.0 If you combine the power of YouTube AND Facebook, you would have each network’s individual best characteristics – compelling visuals combined with active communities. The birth of platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Vine is the dawn of a new approach to social media–one in which visual is prized above text, information is easy to digest, and target audiences are

“INCORPORATING YOUR BRAND STYLE AND COLORS INTO YOUR VISUAL MEDIA CONTENT IS A GREAT WAY TO BUILD BRAND AWARENESS.”

compelled to take action by visual asks, not just words. This is social media 2.0 – mobile based, highly visual, and easily sharable. Video Just Got Simple The cool thing about these pioneers of visual media is that they make visual media easy, in part because they use mobile platforms to connect with users. It’s so much easier to make and share video on Instagram or Vine than YouTube. All you need is to download the app to your phone and from there you can create, post, and share the content across diﬀerent platforms. Once you’ve published the video on your Instagram or Vine proﬁles, you can share directly to your Facebook or Twitter feeds. It’s that simple.

Create Compelling Visuals A single image can be just as powerful as well. Take this example from charity:water (a nonproﬁt pioneer in using visual media to advance their mission). Adding simple text to an image can convey a powerful message, it’s easy to create visual media like this, using the app Over. Take a photo on Instagram and then use Over to overlay text and fun images to create a compelling visual. From there you can share it on networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Brand Your Images Incorporating your brand style and colors into your visual media content is a great way to build brand awareness and to take advantage of social media platforms like Pinterest.

You can brand your photos with your website address or company name, and even use your brand’s font and colors to overlay text. For example, when Mac’s List, a service of Prichard, posts images on its blog, they’re branded with the website address and company name in the bottom corner. Then these photos are uploaded to Facebook, Twitter, and Google +, and pinned to the Mac’s List Pinterest boards. Tips to Remember • You don’t have to be a professional photographer, researcher, or designer to create compelling visuals – capitalize on third-party tools like those listed in the sidebar to help you deliver top-notch results without years of experience. • Authenticity is the key to growing a thriving community that gets excited by the information you share, be it a service you’re providing or an idea you’re trying to advance. • Engage! Visual media networks are exactly that – networks, not oneway news delivery services. Communication on these networks should be two-way. • Don’t do visual media for the sake of doing visual media…do it because it makes sense for you, your brand, or your organization. Think

strategically and ﬁgure out which tools work best for you before you take on new endeavors. • Adhere to the individual conventions of each community. Pay attention to what the best practices are around hashtags, tagging, sharing, and creating content for each platform. Free and Low Cost Tools Below are some tools to help you create compelling visual content that can set you apart from other organizations on social media and online. • Over: For just $1.99, you can download this app and create compelling text over your images. • Canva.com: This is a great Photoshop substitute to easily create images for free or as cheap as $1.00 and download straight to your computer. • Unsplash.com: This Tumblr has tons of Creative Commons licensed photos for you to download and use. The best part is that these are crisp, artistic, and professional photos for free. JESSICA WILLIAMS, an Account Director at Prichard Communications, leads work on social and digital media for grantees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and for “Mac’s List,” a service of Prichard. Jessica has a B.S. in Communications from Wake Forest University and an M.S. in Strategic Communications from The University of Oregon. She has over 10 years experience working for a variety of brands and clients and was the 2012 recipient of the Marketing Awards of Excellence Rising Star Award. You can ﬁnd Jessica on Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest @JessicaJoEllen.

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

IMAGE VIA UNSPLASH.COM, BY SYLWIA BARTYzEL

ONLINE MESSAGING ACROSS GEOGRAPHIES CHALLENGES & CONSIDERATIONS BY CHERY CONTEE, ADRIANA DAKIN, ABIGAIL SIMMONS, FISSION STRATEGY

igital campaigns for nonproﬁts are often global and can reach audiences everywhere with the right international messaging, visuals, targeting, and channels. Challenges may arise with outreach to diverse populations due to diﬀerences in languages, cultures, and practices in technology. How can organizations succeed in messaging to an international audience? Let’s look at the example of a live campaign that we’re working on at Fission – the Varkey GEMS Foundation’s Global Teacher Prize. This Prize hopes to do for K-12 education what the Nobel Prize has done for science & human rights. One special nominated teacher

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will be selected for an award of $1 million. Visuals are Vital When targeting an international audience, images are vital to help bridge the language gap. Fission’s Creative Director, Martha Ormiston, says: “Images have become a necessity for successful online engagement. Users are turned oﬀ by huge walls of text and image posts do the best in social media. Basically, to put it even simpler: the internet is boring without pictures.” However, organizations often do not have a stockpile of great images needed to run a whole campaign. Luckily, you can source images

through Creative Commons (see our blog post on this to learn about attribution licenses so that you make sure you are sourcing visuals legally.) Your narrative arc and timeline for a campaign should have images planned for moments that touch the wider cultural zeitgeist beyond your organization. In these Creative Commons-sourced visuals below, we celebrated Malala on Malala Day, and World Cup coaches and players during the 2014 games – the largest volume of social traffic ever. On a technical note, make sure you include the image attribution in small text, and overlay text (a quote, for example) short enough to fit inside Facebook’s 20% grid rule for promoting visuals. You’ll make the most of the work on your images by promoting them from your Facebook timeline or with Power Editor, where you can even target by role (such as “teacher” for the Global Teacher Prize campaign), and on Twitter via promoted posts. Perhaps you’re already making the most of online ads and want to go further – using a tool like ActionSprout can help you engage visually while also offering your audience one-click easy engagement. This tool also creates high quality email lists – every time someone likes or comments on an action, their email is captured. Once you have a great email list, upload it to Attentive.ly (disclosure: our sister company!) to see whom your strongest influencers are, what they care most about, and to ask for their help! Multichannel Includes Mobile Texting How can nonprofits effectively create a campaign that is appropriate for an audience that may have low media skills or for populations with varying Internet access? The use of social media in one region may be vastly different in another, so balancing the right messaging channels is essential

in outreach strategy. Since the Global Teacher award is for teachers from all over the world, we have taken a multichannel approach. In order to ensure that people around the world apply, we have launched international outreach through social media, online ads including a Google Grant, blogging, individual blogger pitching, inﬂuencer outreach, interaction on social media with the prize’s prominent Academy members, and email messages. In this campaign and others, strategic use of mobile outreach via SMS and texting apps can increase the participation and virality of content for a nonproﬁt’s campaign, especially in areas where Facebook and Twitter are not used widely, or outside of Twitter’s limited advertising geography. Mobile messaging in the developing world is on the rise, making it particularly important in international campaigns – e.g. Africa has more mobile users that the US or all of Europe. Mobile messaging apps like WhatsApp, Line, and Wechat, are still relatively unpopular in the U.S., but are popular in Asia and Africa because this messaging is simple,

instantaneous, and not dependent on a good internet connection. Mobile is becoming more important in content sharing than Twitter worldwide: across many different countries, views of Twitter timelines declined while “usage of mobile messaging apps exploded between the end of 2012 and the end of 2013” with many of these messaging apps thriving particularly in Asia. There are some simple ways to make the most of mobile messaging. Set up an account on each of these recommended mobile apps (e.g. WhatsApp, Viber, WeChat, etc.) and platforms to understand how each works in your target audience. Harness the goodwill of voluntary localized leadership of digital evangelists who can reach their own networks on the platforms they use already. Grow this cadre of volunteer evangelists by reaching out to their networks, and provide outreach materials. Culture and Syntax Another challenge that nonprofits face in reaching international audiences includes differences in language and culture. Humor in social

Most engaged post by being willing to stand up for a contentious issue – education for girls in Pakistan and elsewhere – with a visual, quote, and paid boosting.

Highly engaged post by showing a player photo with his quote at the right moment during the 2014 World Cup games, the largest social media event in history.

58k reach, 2000+ likes, 20+shares, 80 comments

50 likes, 16 shares, 20+ comments

media or other outreach content to promote an issue can be powerful and viral. Everyone loves to laugh! Yet humor that is easily translatable to one audience may be confusing, bizarre, or even offensive to another audience. In order to navigate culture and syntax, organizations often choose to allow local staff and/or cultural natives to take a strong role in directing culturally-specific and effective internet strategy. Alternatively, they may entrust their messaging to translators and wellinformed consultants who research details about the messaging geography. Despite this, some organizations experience difficulty finding team members who both understand how to ensure that your message is translated well, while also keeping the integrity of the nonprofit’s brand. You may run into some fails, but that’s quite alight. Borrow some tips from Silicon Valley’s startup culture: fail fast, test aggressively, and learn quickly. In order to better understand how to connect with audiences across global language and cultural barriers, it’s often helpful to work with agencies that have the experience of designing and implementing campaigns that span multiple audiences. Marketing analysis shows that regionally customized content will statistically reduce the risk of having messaging that is not well received by 30%-40%. How is your nonprofit navigating its message across multiple cultures? What are some of your challenges? CHERYL CONTEE (@ch3ryl) is CEO of Fission Strategy & Co-Founder of Attentive.ly, and ADRIANA DAkING (@apdakin) is VP of Digital Strategy & board member of Young Women Social Entrepreneurs. Written with ABIGAIL SIMMONS, New Media Intern. Fission Strategy works with the world’s leading nonprofits and foundations to create the tools & campaigns that help them win on today’s most important issues.

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

THE EVOLUTION OF ADVERTISING: BEST PRACTICES FOR AD CAMPAIGNS & SOCIAL MARKETING BY MEGAN SIGESMUND, AD COUNCIL Since I first joined the Ad Council in 2008, I’ve seen the world of both paid advertising and social marketing evolve exponentially. While this growth has resulted in countless opportunities to spread the word, increase engagement and drive social change, it can be challenging at times to break through all of the noise and clutter. We follow best practices to help ensure that our campaigns will have the greatest impact, which may be helpful as you implement your own communications programs. DO YOUR RESEARCH – KNOW THE ISSUE AND TARGET

Before developing a communications strategy, make sure you understand the issue at hand. Be as comprehensive as possible (within reason and budget, of course) and work as much of the following into your initial research phase: • Conduct an audit of issue-related data and past campaigns addressing the issue (including any research findings from previous campaigns); consult with experts throughout the audit. • Conduct interviews with the target audience to get a better sense of their current mindset, existing barriers, and potential motivators. • If possible, also conduct interviews with experts. This is a great opportunity to hear from those close to the issue who may have varying perspectives. Take our Children’s Oral Health campaign for example. Our assignment was to develop a national public service campaign that would educate underserved parents about the importance of good oral care, and motivate them to help their kids have healthy mouths. Through our initial literature review of the issue and discussions with our campaign partners (the leading dental organizations throughout the country), we learned key background information that spoke to the breadth of the issue. For example, there are currently an astonishing 16 million children in the U.S. suffering from untreated tooth decay. Our challenge was to find a way into the lives of these extremely busy, overwhelmed parents, and get this issue on their radar. In addition to doing an extensive audit of the issue, we conducted comprehensive exploratory research to learn more about the target, which included: • One-on-one interviews with lower income parents • Quantitative message testing • Interviews with pediatric dentists 18

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IDENTIFY ONE SIMPLE MESSAGE

While the world of advertising and marketing has changed significantly over the years, the fundamentals that are the foundation for driving social impact remain the same – take an extremely complex issue like fighting obesity or reducing the high school dropout rate, and create a single-minded message that motivates people to change their behaviors. Using key learnings from our research, we work with our volunteer agencies to develop creative briefs for each campaign that ultimately leads us to that one simple message. For Children’s Oral Health, we identified a clear call-to-action that was backed by our partners, the oral health experts – “make sure your kids brush their teeth for two minutes, twice a day” or “2min2x.” DEVELOP COMPELLING CONTENT– USE HUMOR WHEN APPROPRIATE

We find that “fear” tactics aren’t always motivating. Don’t use shock for shock’s sake. But the creative needs to be compelling in order to be memorable. With our Oral Health campaign, our ad agencies Grey and Wing came up with a few different creative approaches. We ended up delivering the Oral Health message by driving home a key insight that’s both entertaining and highly relevant to parents: Kids spend time doing all sorts of silly things like watching goofy online videos or dressing up their dog, Spike. If they have time for this, then surely they have the time to brush their teeth. These charming PSAs acted as the foundation for a fully integrated campaign. TEST! GET FEEDBACK FROM EXTERNAL CREATIVES AND YOUR INTENDED TARGET

Again, the more research and input, the better. Try leveraging your organization’s board members who may have contacts in the advertising or creative industries to gain outside feedback during the creative development phase. And, if budget permits, conduct focus groups or one-on-one interviews with the target to ensure that the creative idea is clear and motivating. In the case of our Children’s Oral Health campaign, the creative idea and messaging were all backed by an advisory panel of creative executives in the advertising industry and by consumer qualitative testing. So, we were confident that our creative would resonate. LEVERAGE PLATFORMS THAT REACH AND ENGAGE YOUR TARGET

With the growth of digital and social media, opportunities to communicate your message are

endless. Determine whether you want to go far and wide, or narrow and deep – or both! We have found that surrounding the main target so they are consistently exposed to the main message gives us the greatest chance to move people. With our core message, “Brush 2 minutes, twice a day,” we expanded the Children’s Oral Health program to various touch points ideal for generating broad exposure as well as reaching our core target. These have included developing in-school curriculum, creating a mobile game app called “Toothsavers,” an SMS program, working, and with celebrities. who resonate with our target, such as Laila Ali. In addition, parents are having a dialogue about children’s oral health every day on our Facebook and Twitter communities, and we’re continually developing and sharing content that both educates and inspires them. ESTABLISH KPIS AND EVALUATE REGULARLY

Our evaluation framework includes measuring exposure, recognition, engagement, and impact. While the framework is consistent across campaigns, the KPIs are unique to the goals and objectives of each initiative. There’s a ton of data out there, but we do our best to identify the most relevant, and establish a regular review process that meets the needs of each campaign and allows us to apply learnings in a timely manner. We look at a number of variables for Children’s Oral Health, including results for each individual program within the campaign. Our ultimate goals are to increase the duration and frequency of brushing – which tie back directly to the call-to-action. We field pre and post wave tracking surveys to measure these key goals. And the good news, in just one year, we’re already moving the needle. Our campaign website has received over 1.6 million visitors, and people are spending almost 6 minutes on the “Watch and Brush” page where they can play 2-minute videos for their kids while they brush. Over half of all parents we surveyed had seen or heard our ads. And, most important, we’ve significantly increased the percentage of parents in our target who report that their child is brushing at least twice a day and for 2 minutes. MEGAN SIGESMUND is a Campaign Director at the Ad Council, responsible for overseeing the development, implementation, and evaluation of several fully integrated PSA campaigns, websites and social media programs. In her position, she works with the campaign team, federal government agency or nonproﬁt sponsor and volunteer advertising agency to guide strategic and creative development and the day-to-day management of each campaign.

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CHANGE IN ACTION: COALITION FOR A LIVABLE FUTURE

PUTTING EQUITY ON THE MAP Equity is a core component to achieve sustainable development, but it's often left out of the conversation. The Regional Equity Atlas transforms data into a powerful tool to shape the conversation about equity, and ensure that it's central to public policy.

Interview with SCOTTY ELLIS, Equity Program Manager, Coalition for a Livable Future 20

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CHANGE IN ACTION: COALITION FOR A LIVABLE FUTURE

How did this project get started? The Portland region is widely recognized as a leader in sustainable development. Deserved as this reputation may be, it has a soft underbelly: like most places, the Portland region’s planning approach tends to focus on places rather than people. The consequence? Too often, “success” results in physical improvements – pretty buildings, great parks, new transit, places to gather and so forth – that some people can enjoy, while other people get left behind. In other words, questions of equity get ignored. The Coalition for a Livable Future (CLF) initiated the original Regional Equity Atlas project in 2002 in response to its members’ assessment that equity and its relationship to sustainable development was not generally understood by the public and policymakers. Yet, all agreed that equity is a core component of sustainability and should be a prominent element of our regional approach to managing future growth and development.

Who are the key audiences for this project? How do you define success, and how do you measure impact? The target audience for the Regional Equity Atlas is diverse and multi-faceted. It includes government agencies, elected leaders, advocacy organizations, and community-based organizations. With such a wideranging audience, CLF had to make the Regional Equity Atlas relevant and accessible to lay people as well as a useful tool for

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technical experts. The original Regional Equity Atlas was the first of its kind in the United States. Many groups around the country are using it as a template to develop an equity atlas for their own areas and communities. To support these efforts, we have provided guidance and technical assistance to various groups over the past years. Currently, there are four equity atlases in the U.S.: Portland, Atlanta, Denver, and Los Angeles, with one more currently under development (Washington D.C.).

What was the strategy behind the shift from a 200-page book to an online atlas? Can you discuss how this decision links to the project’s overall sustainability? The first Regional Equity Atlas was a book with maps and analysis. It received national attention for its groundbreaking analysis of disparities affecting the Portland metro region. The maps revealed pervasive disparities in historically disenfranchised populations’ access to the resources necessary for health and well-being. By illuminating the region’s “geography of opportunity,” the Equity Atlas transformed local conversations around equity and provided concrete information to guide local advocacy and policy making to promote greater regional equity. Since the Regional Equity Atlas’s publication in 2007, CLF and its partners have used its findings to secure concrete changes in regional planning and investment decisions, and local governments have relied on the Equity Atlas maps to shape their understanding of the region’s needs.

With advances in technology, CLF wanted to build on this success by developing the second iteration of the Regional Equity Atlas on a platform that would provide greater analytic capabilities. Moving from the book to the online format allowed CLF to create a foundational mapping tool that can be sustainably maintained and improved over time. Because the core functionalities of the mapping tool have already been developed, CLF can focus future efforts on improving usability and functionality. For example, the current mapping tool does not function on mobile devices. We are now working to ensure that the next iteration of the Regional Equity Atlas is compatible with mobile devices. The online mapping tool gives the users the capability to create maps to strengthen their own equity conversations. Not only can users create their own maps, but they can also generate graphs and charts, download data, zoom in and out to specific locations, and statistically analyze levels of access for different geographies and communities.

What are some project milestones? The second iteration of the Regional Equity Atlas has been used to shift policy and practice on a wide range of issues in the Portland metropolitan region. CLF has provided strategic guidance and technical assistance on some of these projects, and in others, the organizations have used the Regional Equity Atlas independently. Here are just a few examples:

• Institutionalizing an equity lens within local government: Portland’s regional government, Metro, is using the Regional Equity Atlas to help it incorporate equity considerations into its planning and decision making related to regional transportation, regional growth management, and climate change. • Shaping investment priorities: The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) used the Regional Equity Atlas data to inform the development of East Portland in Motion. This fiveyear implementation strategy for active transportation projects and programs is focused east of 82nd Avenue, home to nearly 165,000 people where active transportation features like sidewalks, bikeways, and frequent transit are harder to find. • Guiding program and system design: Multnomah County’s Schools Uniting Neighborhoods system is using the Regional Equity Atlas maps to assess shifting demographics in the county in order to guide the system’s planning and design of wrap-around services to meet the needs of low-income families. • Informing location decisions: The Washington County Women Infants and Children (WIC) department used the Regional Equity Atlas transit and demographic maps to inform the location of a new WIC office to ensure that low-income mothers and children have access to nutritious food. • Supporting advocacy campaigns: OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon is using the Regional

Fast Facts • Project Name: Regional Equity Atlas • Project Budget: Approximately $800,000 • Funders: The Bullitt Foundation, Kaiser Permanente Community Fund, Meyer Memorial Trust, Northwest Health Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, with in-kind contributions from PSU’s Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies and Metro • Full-Time Staff Members: 3.5 staff members • Coalition Members: Over 90 • Cities That Have Replicated the Project: Los Angeles, Denver, Atlanta, Washington D.C. (in progress)

Equity Atlas maps and the products of their work with the Equity Stories project to support their communications and advocacy work to increase access to public transit. • Changing organizational culture: Oregon’s Health CO-OP, a new member-driven nonprofit health insurance plan, is using the Regional Equity Atlas as a training tool with their customer service staff to raise awareness of the impact of the social determinants of health on their members’ health status. • Tracking change over time: The Cully Park redevelopment project is using the Regional Equity Atlas maps to track

chronic disease, compare neighborhood outcomes over time, and educate community members and leaders about health disparities.

What are some of the challenges with collecting data, and how do you address this? While maps can play a powerful role in illuminating disparities, there are important aspects of equity and opportunity that are not effectively addressed through maps because the data is not available at a high enough level of geographic resolution, the information isn’t mappable, or because the issues are not spatial in nature. Therefore, CLF complemented the second Regional Equity Atlas project with other elements, including: • Storytelling: CLF worked with partner organizations to engage community members who are personally affected by the disparities shown in the Equity Atlas 2.0 maps in using photos, videos, and personal narratives to tell their equity stories. The stories provided the qualitative substance that maps and analysis alone are unable to provide. • White papers: The Equity White Paper Series provides a platform for local issue experts to examine key equity issues in greater depth, incorporate additional information beyond the data that could be mapped, and place the Equity Atlas within a broader policy context. • Links to other research: The Regional Equity Atlas website includes links to external research reports, case studies, and other relevant projects that

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CHANGE IN ACTION: COALITION FOR A LIVABLE FUTURE

many to start the discussion with other departments or partners on how to begin this joint effort.

CLF worked with partner organizations to engage community members who are personally aﬀected by the disparities shown in the Equity Atlas 2.0 maps.

ABOVE:

provide insights into the Regional Equity Atlas findings as well as indicators that couldn’t be mapped.

How does technology play a role in supporting the coalition to meet its mission? CLF works to unite a diverse array of organizations and individuals to promote healthy, equitable, and sustainable communities in the Portland-Vancouver region. Technology is key to enabling us to engage and succeed in this work. The Regional Equity Atlas is the best example. From urban planning to education, equity is a critical component of all fields and departments. The Regional Equity Atlas is the linchpin that brings these diverse communities together to unite them in the common cause of addressing regional disparities. By providing an online source for regional data, groundbreaking mapping capabilities, and data analysis, it provides the tools necessary for

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Version 3.0 of this project is coming soon. What should audiences expect? We are very excited about the next iteration of the Regional Equity Atlas. It is currently in its infancy but we expect it to have a more streamlined online mapping tool. It should be easier to use and available on mobile devices. The challenge is creating a mapping tool that is very cutting edge and powerful while keeping it simple and accessible for our wide variety of users. I think we are well on our way toward finding that balance. To complement the next online mapping tool, we are working to build a regional data hub where local partners (governmental, nonprofit, academic, and private) can upload data that would feed directly into the Regional Equity Atlas, allowing all users to access and download it. This hub would essentially democratize data, saving time and money by allowing for greater data sharing and less duplication of data. Scotty Ellis, Coalition for a Livable Future – Equity Program Manager: Through his background in both community planning and public health, Scotty has developed expertise in public participation and health advocacy. Over the past three years, Scotty has collaborated with several agencies and organizations on public engagement efforts that have focused on issues of equity, health, and planning. He has also worked with the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Public Health Institute in statewide and national efforts to expand the incorporation of health considerations into all levels of policy. Scotty is a graduate of Portland State University’s School of Community Health and School of Urban and Regional Studies as well as the University of San Francisco. Learn more about the Equity Atlas on NTEN's blog: http://bit.ly/equityatlas

Sample maps from the Reqional Equity Atlas project website: Single parent families (top); Proximity to supermarkets in Portland, (bottom); minority home ownership gap (page 21)

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

Interview with OMAR VULPINARI, Crossmedia Creative Director & Innovation Lab Leader

DESIGNING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE 26

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CHANGE IN ACTION: OMAR VULPINARI

fter a successful career as the Creative Director of Visual Communications at Fabrica, Benetton’s Research Center, where he worked on countless campaigns for the likes of UNICEF, Amnesty International, and more - he’s chartered a new path. Currently, as a professor at the IUAV University of Venice-University of San Marino, he focuses on social impact, design agitation, and new technology related strategies. Omar shows us how it’s done, and the upside of pushing the envelope.

Can you tell us more about your story, and what you’ve been up to? My first important socially-driven project with my University students goes back to 2005 when I guided my students in designing a multi-author series of stamps celebrating the International Day of Planet Earth. San Marino is globally famous for its stamps and coins, so I thought that would have been a very interesting medium to get an important social message out to the world. Recently, I was nominated President of the Content and Design Advisory Committee of the Bureau in San Marino, and will continue to give young creatives this rare visual advocacy learning opportunity. In my most recent course, we collaborated with BBM, a Berlin-based art collective. We worked together on their ongoing ENQuETE ART project, which is

an EU-funded initiative focusing on the global financial crisis. The project engages artists from around the world to create awareness on the causes of the crisis, but also to develop creative solutions. Social media plays a big role in terms of advocacy and creating highly valuable usergenerated media.

Given your long roster of visual campaigns – you must have this down to a science. What would you say is your core approach? The primary functions of visual campaigns are first, to fight indifference by informing and raising awareness, and second, to induce a positive action or change individual behavior that’s damaging to society. Nonprofit visual communication must be direct, with message components (images and text) highly focused on a central theme. It must also have an emotional impact: The message should catalyze strong emotional reactions like fear, disturbance, surprise, and laughter, which will then lead to reflection and memory retention. Nonprofit campaigns very often address broad target audiences – opinion leaders, legislators, and the general public – which is another reason to be direct, simple, and clear – which doesn’t mean cliché and obvious. If the message is distributed globally, it must be translatable and effective across all cultures.

After the core creative concept and message are nailed down, but also during the creative process, we use nonconventional technology- related solutions (local guerrilla interventions, internet viral videos, online/offline participatory user-generated initiatives, action kits) to integrate with traditional strategies. Unfortunately, given the budget restraints of nonprofits, often these proposals don’t go beyond the presentation even if the ideas are appreciated.

At the same time, so much of this boils down to art and creativity. In your work, how do you guide your students and clients to think creatively? Millennial students are not fans of hierarchal structures, they prefer transparent, horizontal settings. First they need to “own” the context inside and out, meaning they have to have all the information there is on the project ecosystem. So in the initial research phase I start by giving them all the resources possible, along with advice to help them find their own voice. After that, it’s about stewarding them through a learning-by-doing process on both real and speculative projects. Together we have sessions where we do mindmapping, brainstorming, brainwriting, visual brain dumping, as well as critique meetings where we analyze all these processes in order to make informed decisions.

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CHANGE IN ACTION: OMAR VULPINARI

The client is very important from the start, especially if they’re dealing with complex humanitarian matters. I make the client become part of the team because they can also be very creative, and at the same time give us actionable insights about the end-user that we cannot reach directly.

You’re not shy about pushing the envelope. Can you describe one of your favorite visual campaigns, and how it met its intended impact? In May 2013, when I was still at Fabrica, I was the Creative Director for the Pedestrian Safety campaign for the UNWHO World Road Safety Day. Five posters were dedicated to the 270,000 pedestrians that die on the world’s roads each year. This was a global awareness-raising campaign on the five crucial issues regarding pedestrian safety: magnitude of deaths; positive environment and health impact; safety infrastructure; visibility; and enforcement of laws related to speed and alcohol. The posters were based on photographs of life size pictograms of the pedestrian in different situations. The most interesting surprise came from Azerbaijan during the UNWHO Road Safety Week, where groups of supporters created their own life-size pictograms to carry out public street performances. It was fantastic to see how the audience was activated by our creativity and took inspiration from it.

Is there a common thread that you see across each successful campaign?

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“Technology has also enabled visual communication to become a shared discipline for participatory engagement, enabling user-generated content that has an enormous value in terms of social impact.”

sophisticated campaigns across a range of devices and channels, reaching audiences in infinite ways based on their personal behaviors and preferences. Google Ads is a great example. In terms of creative media, video is increasingly the most popular visual communication form, because of its high storytelling potential. This translates into the viral video phenomenon, the success of YouTube videos, and recently Vine’s 6-second looping video channel. Technology has also enabled visual communication to become a shared discipline for participatory engagement, enabling usergenerated content that has an enormous value in terms of social impact.

The common thread is visual and emotional impact. From my experience working with UNWHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, Reporters without Borders, Teachers Without Borders, and many more to raise awareness, the success came from the high visual and emotional impact of the message. This was always intentional because nonprofits do not have enormous marketing budgets, so success depends a lot on virality (audience viralty and media coverage), which can easily follow when you’re deploying powerful image strategies.

How has technology changed the way you work? Technology has blown open the windows of strategic and creative opportunity. Multichannel communication and big data are probably the biggest gamechangers. These factors make it possible to create different and

How do you see visual communications shaping the nonprofit world in the near future? Images are universal – we’re all born with the ability to understand images. They’re very powerful in creating awareness, changing behavior, and moving people to action across cultures. While nonprofits may hire visual communication professionals to conceive a specific media campaign, they can overlook the costs of staff time to maintain the campaigns via social media. This is a big mistake that makes for a great loss of impact and growth. The “infographic” is a form of visual communication that is becoming very popular and compelling as well. While images inspire, infographics can convince because it taps into the left side of the brain that processes data. Infographics can condense hard to

Images, clockwise from top left: Keep Kids Safe campaign For: UNWHO, UNICEF Agency: Fabrica Art Direction: Valerie Gudenus Creative Direction: Omar Vulpinari © Fabrica 2008 Show the Truth campaign For: UNWHO Agency: Fabrica Art Direction: Namyoung An, Gabriele Riva Creative Direction: Omar Vulpinari © Fabrica 2009 Make Walking Safe campaign For: UNWHO Agency: Fabrica Art Direction: Matteo Di Iorio Creative Direction: Omar Vulpinari © Fabrica 2013

digest numbers into one clear visual. For a nonprofit, being able to show complex figures in one beautiful image to a busy potential donor can make a great difference.

For nonprofits getting started, what piece of advice would you give to them? Pinning down business objectives, goals, KPIs, targets, metrics, and knowing your target audience is crucial. From my perspective as a communicator, getting your branding right is an important issue because people are still moved by brand perception. Going to the extreme here, I’d suggest to look into realtime content design, also known as “reactive design.” This requires a “war room” setting where a community management task force generates content in anticipation and reaction to community engagement.

Omar Vulpinari is a crossmedia creative director, innovation lab leader, and academic. He is dedicated to integrated communication design that develops nonconventional creative strategies for business, culture, and social change. At Fabrica, the Benetton communications research center in Italy, for 16 years he directed multidisciplinary teams of artists and technologists exploring new hybrid forms of creativity related to emerging technologies on projects for UNWHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, The World Bank, Witness, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, Teachers Without Borders, and many more.

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

BEHIND THE SCENES: globAl voiCes

Citizen Media: Rethinking the News Agenda Interview with Ivan Sigal, Executive Director, Global Voices

How is Global Voices (GV) structured, and how does this approach support your broader mission? We are a virtual organization with legal registration in the Netherlands. We have a small core team, roughly 20 part-time editors, and a large community of volunteer writers and translators. Our editorial structure is driven by local perspectives and concerns. Community members who know local issues and stories find stories that they think should matter to

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

global audiences. Having a distributed community with different kinds of expertise and part of many networks around the world mimics the structure of the Internet, and helps us to find and amplify stories that deserve more attention.

Can you describe GVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s newsgathering process? Local writers will find stories that matter to them or are part of the public discourse in their countries and regions. These stories might

Journalists protesting in front of Myanmar Peace Center. Photo by Kyaw Zaw Win, Kyaw Lwin Oo. From the Facebook page of RFA Burmese.

not get much attention globally, or might be misrepresented. Our goal is to explain why those stories deserve attention, and bring them to the world in a compelling way. We also translate those stories into as many as 35 languages. Volunteer translators decide which stories are likely to be interesting to their linguistic community, and translate on that basis.

As the GV team works remotely in virtual offices â&#x20AC;&#x201C; what technology tools are central to getting the work done? We are constantly experimenting with different tools and technologies to facilitate our work. We have come to understand that people are our focus, and technology is there to serve our

needs. Each sub-community (language, topic, region) will use tools that they like, and that also varies over time. The site itself is Wordpress. We use Google and RiseUp lists and groups, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, and other social media. We pick up the phone/ VOIP all the time. We use Google Hangouts for community conversations, a range of security tools for private talks (TOR, GPG, Adium, Jitsi, etc). We use Kanban/ Trello boards for project workflow, and Podio for scheduling.

What is the potential of citizen media for advocacy, and do you think Global Voices has reached it? Citizen media – we define this, broadly, as the use of media for civic ends. Our approach is empirical, and we do not believe that there is a functional distinction between online and offline worlds. We experiment with different kinds of advocacy efforts, evaluate their success or failure in different contexts, and seek to understand whether specific kinds of advocacy can be used elsewhere. We recognize that because the underlying technology is changing and communities are also dynamic, that it is difficult to establish models that will work over time.

“Having a distributed community...mimics the structure of the Internet, and helps us to find and amplify stories that deserve more attention.”

compelling is the work of our What are some citizen Tunisian community members in media lessons that 2011, who were instrumental in nonprofits could integrate into overthrowing the censorship their organization? regime of President Ben Ali and An important lesson for us is that were active participants in the our network is relatively open. We get many people joining every year, digital activism in the years leading up to the and they introduce Arab uprisings. The us to their worlds. narrative that we This allows us to know about those grow on the basis Fast Facts events is very of a network • Annual Budget: different than the structure rather Approximately $1 million mainstream – as the than through a • Number of Core Team communities of centralized Members: 10 activists had been hierarchy. Many of • Stories Published Per working in some our best ideas for Year: 6000 cases for 10 years to projects have, over • Stories Translated Per affect change. More the years, come Year: 15,000 broadly, we’ve from people • Number of Volunteer written more than outside the core Writers: 800+ writers 10,000 stories about team, and and translators in 2013 digital activism sometimes people • Number Budget: 35 since our inception who aren’t even in 2004. part of our network. We try to remain open to Is there anything that we the idea that no one of us is likely didn’t ask that you’d like to have the answer to every to share? problem, and to seek ideas and One of the greatest values of solutions through our networks. working with Global Voices, for A second idea that is very me, is starting with the idea that powerful is that we operate on the every person deserves to be basis of volunteerism. Because of treated equally, regardless of that we know that when people language, country of origin, or contribute it is because they are other identifier, and then trying to self-motivated. This keeps our build a news agenda to reflect that community focused and active, worldview. Starting with that and also creates an incentive for frame forces you to challenge the core team to always be many assumptions you might have responsive, humble, and available had about power, equity, and how to the community – because they constantly condition human without volunteers GV wouldn’t relations. exist.

You’ve come across a lot of stories in your daily work – is there one story that is/was particularly meaningful to you that stood out? If so, why? Hard to say that there is one story. One I can point to that’s especially

Ivan Sigal is the executive director of Global Voices, a nonprofit online global citizen media initiative. He is a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. He is a media producer who works on long-term photography, multimedia, and writing projects and is the author of “White Road” (Steidl, 2012), based on eight years of photography and writing about Central Asia and Russia.

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: MAMA’s dAy

To advance this culture shift strategy, Forward Together has worked with more than 20 artists in the past two years to create original, customizable e-cards to celebrate loved ones. In addition to the cards, our Mama’s Day campaign includes digital strategies to disseminate Mama’s Day memes, individual stories, and experiences of “mamahood” on our blog, media placement of OpEds and articles, and collaboration with policy advocacy groups to use the images and memes to further policy shift campaigns.

Mama’s Day: Recognizing a Profound Act of Community Interview with Eveline Shen, Executive Director of Forward Together, on how their partnership with artists helps to shift culture through a “Hallmark” holiday.

Tell us about the Mama’s Day campaign – what’s the project’s core message? For the past four years, Forward Together has led an online Mama’s Day campaign with our partners in Strong Families, a national network of over 125 organizations and thousands of individuals changing policy and culture so that all families can thrive. Strong Families is staffed and led by Forward Together. Through our Mama’s Day campaigns, we leverage a national “Hallmark” holiday to build a new story – one that explodes a culturally narrow, white, straight, and middle class narrative with

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

stories and images by and for the mamas in our lives who are not traditionally honored or recognized: young mamas, immigrant mamas, mamas of color, low-income mamas, and queer and transgender mamas. Our goal is to shift culture by replacing the idea that mamas need to change, with the reality that the system needs to change. We are lifting up mamahood as a profound act of community. So we want to celebrate the many ways that mamas “lean on” their networks of support and build momentum for policies that create the conditions for all mamas to thrive.

Who are the target audiences for the project, and why did you use the e-cards, images, and memes as the format for communication and engagement? For Mama’s Day, we have two main audiences. The first is the Strong Families network of individuals and organizations that participate in Mama’s Day through e-cards, social media, and blogs. In doing so, they connect not only with the campaign itself but also with their family and community networks. Our second audience is broadly defined – i.e. potential individual and organizations would be supporting us if they knew we were here. Mama’s Day has been our most successful outreach tool for three years running.

At the center of this project is the artwork – how is it selected? How do the artists play a role in the project? We are committed to recognizing artists as critical actors in creating meaningful social change. As a result, we pay for the art and we respect the vision and skills of the artists we work with. We have

built relationships with artists whose work aligns with the values of Strong Families. As we develop our themes for Mama’s Day, we convey these to the artists and in turn, the artwork they create influences our final campaign messages and memes. To support our communication with artists on both the content and the technical aspects of the project, we contract with Micah Bazant as our designer and art director. He is the primary designer of Forward Together’s collateral as well as a Mama’s Day artist himself.

not only building Strong Families, but that we are supporting the overall movement for social change at the same time.

What technology tools are you using to run this campaign? The mamasday.org custom PHP/MySQL website was built for Forward Together by Radical Designs and is the primary tech vehicle supporting the campaign. We drive traffic to this site by using a range of digital platforms (Facebook, Twitter, eblasts) as well as through earned media.

How do you track impact Looking at the past two each year when your campaigns, what are targets keep shifting? some lessons learned (good and We set goals that measure both bad) that’ll be integrated in next breadth and depth of engagement. year’s campaign? While we value quantitative data Over the past two years, Forward such as our social media reach, Together has learned a lot about media circulation, number of the trade-offs between utilizing e-cards created, the growth of our various online tactics. In 2013, we list – we also assess the ways in noticed that we had a significant which the culture shift collateral gap between the number of unique that is created for Mama’s Day is visitors to the mamasday.org site utilized by individuals and and the number of cards made. We organizations to lift determined a up their own couple of reasons stories, to celebrate for this, including: their chosen a high percentage families, and to of visitors in 2013 articulate the were accessing the Fast Facts policy changes that site through mobile • Project Name: Mama’s are required for Day devices – yet, the mamas to thrive. In website was not • Project Budget: $25,000 2014, 81 mobile friendly; • Full-Time Staff organizations and, creating eMembers: 16 utilized the cards cards took multiple • Number of Artist in some way to steps so we were Partnerships: 20 raise the visibility likely losing some • Number of of the issues they people in the Organizational work on – from process. So in 2014 Partnerships: 81 immigrant rights, we made the site • Number of E-cards to health care mobile friendly and Created (2013-14): 6,000 access, to LGBT added a point and • Facebook Reach equality. Setting click feature for (2013-14): 425,000 these types of goals sharing e-cards ensures that we are

with pre-determined memes that drastically reduced the number of actions that visitors needed to take. These decisions clearly increased the overall reach of the campaign – but decreased our ability to build our list as visitors were not required to provide an email or other contact information. This will be a major decision point in terms of our tactics for future online campaigns.

What is a key piece of advice that you’d share with nonprofits interested in a holiday e-card campaign? It is critical to invest in the technology that is necessary to allow the true heart of the campaign to shine through. For Forward Together, the true heart is art and stories. Our communities are hungry for beautiful and vibrant art that communicates the beauty and strength of our lives and relationships, and the creative and resilient diversity of our families. Each year, we are deeply moved by the responses to the images we share and the stories we tell during the campaign. Here is one response to Mama’s Day: “I adopted my daughter from foster care; I’m the fourth woman she’s called mom. So huge loss – not just love – are always part of our Mother’s Day. But after seeing the incredible images that reflected her life, my daughter brought tears to my eyes when she said, ‘I felt inspired to be myself.’” Eveline Shen is the Executive Director of Forward Together. Since Eveline’s leadership began in 1999, Forward Together has become widely recognized for its innovative role in the Reproductive Justice Movement. Women’s eNews named Eveline one of their 21 Leaders for the 21st Century. She was a 2009 Gerbode Fellow and holds a Masters in Public Health from UC Berkeley in Community Health Education.

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: CHildreN by THe NuMbers

using it. We get requests all the time from organizations to send copies to their boards, and schools are posting the flyers on their walls.

What are some of the most interesting or unexpected findings you’ve observed from examining the data? Anna Wright (AW): The A conversation with LIMARIE CABRERA and ANNA WRIGHT differences in communities within Westchester County. For example, from the Westchester Children’s Association about how College Readiness Rates range they take a data-based approach to identifying children’s from 7% to 89% within the county. needs. I feel that residents don’t really know just how vast those The Westchester found that when people are faced differences are within their Children’s Association’s with many tables and charts, aka community. (WCA) Children by the “number vomit,” they frequently LC: Sometimes familiar Numbers project has come a shut down, so we started indicators, such as poverty rate, long way since it first published transforming our data into don’t do a great job of addressing its data in 2008. What was the infographics, which were at the some of the inequalities that exist impetus for this project? time an emerging communications across Westchester because of its Limarie Cabrera (LC): WCA has tool. Luckily, the software to create high cost of living. For example, always used data to understand them became affordable: When here it takes an income of about children’s needs and track their ESRI started releasing licenses for $57,960 (National Low Income well-being. We realized, however, ArcGIS, a powerful mapping tool, Housing Coalition, 2014) to afford Westchester County data as a through TechSoup, I did the happy the rent on a two bedroom whole wasn’t telling the full story dance in my office. apartment, and the federal poverty of how children were doing in The blog was established as our level for a family of four is at about each of our 43 municipalities. Data communication platform to $23,850 (2014 HHS Poverty disaggregated by community, by explain why we thought the data Guidelines). Other indicators, such age, or by race and ethnicity was was important, and as median family hard to find. Our goal was to to share it. We income, can better deliver current, accurate, and didn’t abandon our demonstrate areas disaggregated data to our offline efforts, but of need. That said, audience: social service we significantly while the Fast Facts organizations, school district reduced its cost. countywide • Project Start: 2006 administrators, local governments, We reduced our poverty rate is • Project Name: Children and other child advocates. We 300+ page book about 10%, we have by the Numbers produced a 300+ page book in down to a six-page neighborhoods • Funders: Westchester 2008, and a searchable online accordion flyer where the poverty Community Foundation, database with 300+ indicators in that was all rate approaches Curran Foundation 2009. infographics. The 45%. • Full-Time Staff Soon after we launched the feedback has been AW: One of the Members: 1.5 database, we realized that our great, and we’re greatest advantages • Number of Children efforts confused our stakeholders noticing that of the increasing Represented: 225k instead of informing them. We people are actually accessibility of data

Storytelling with Data: A Children’s Tale

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

BY THE

IN PERTAINS TO ALL DATA HERE

DEMOGRAPHICS by Child Demographics Family Type

e 18 children under ager. live in Westchest

225,231

Asian White rican Black or African Ame Two or more races Other Race eholds In Married-Couple Hous 5.9% 8.0% 6.2%

COUNTY WESTCHESTER

/factfinder2.census.gov ates, Table B09001, http:/ unity Survey 1-Year Estim y, 2012 American Comm ican Community Surve Amer u; Burea s Censu U.S.

ldren Westchester Chi

Race/Ethnicity

Age

Black or African Ame

Asian

rican

Other Race

Two or more races

6.0% 73.9%

In Sing

6.1%

34.8%

16.5% 2.1%

d Households

12.0%

71.3% Non-Hispanic

62.7% White

4.8% 14.4%

28.7% Hispanic

are ages 6 - 11

16.5%

In Single Female-Le 6.8%

6.1%

are ages 12 - 17

34.1%

41.2%

1.4%

35.4%

30.6% are under age 6

ds le Male-Led Househol

,109). in households (224 to children living e percentages refer to rounding. Thes p quarters. up to 100% due s.gov as living in grou ges may not add .censu ified enta nder2 class Perc /factfi E: are NOT g in households ates, Table S0901, http:/ Children not livin unity Survey 1-Year Estim y, 2012 American Comm ican Community Surve U.S. Census Bureau; Amer

38.2% PO VERTY ECONOMICS

Median Income sehold Type % of Children in Hou ALL DATA HE REIN PE RTAINS TO WE K+ Married $140STCHESTER COUNT Couples %

36.4%

76%

“Childhood p overty anic liNon-nHisp ke 68 Children d to many un is in Poverty 2008 ds ehol 18 ouple Hous -2012 In Married-Cou tcomes, inclu desirable 16 d in g 14 Single red21.9% uced academ $60K+ Children 12 Father 6% in 78.1% e attainment, poic liv under 5 years n re 10 ild ch or higher Children 8 . es rates of nonof ili m fa nt re 5-1 7 yea pa 6 -mng arle ds si Single Male-Led Househol $37K+ All Adultsrs In Singlech 4 ildbearing, an ital Mother % 26 da 2 greater likeli 0 hood of All Children 48.7% 2008 h51.3% ealth problem 2009 All People 2010 s.” 2011 2012 Younger POPULATION d Households es ili CREDITSChildren und m In Single Female-Le fa 201.2 Data Analysis of nt ch ctor er re ildren are ProjectChil 5 years WCA Dire Single pa Yannaco by Limarie Cabrera, leddre adi and Claudia16.4 0% 5-17 yeainte l rs rns Kevin Kimi WCA al Median Incomes ksn to of than ial m % Spec or 30 e by Census Tra likely for theiAllr assi Adustan 11.00% lts (18 ce.years and m ct ake up (for fam ilies wit41.9% over) 58.1% Design. h children under er Fram Tara of es er 18) toilibe poor. DesignAllbyChilJamdreesn Protano and Tara Fram 9.30% Westchester fam the 12.70% All People (Ch on was provided by . the Poverty Leve

Hispanic

% Living at or Below

How does WCA use technology to keep the project going? AW: Most of the technology tools that we use are free! As you get further into data visualization, you may decide that purchasing a program with more advanced features is worth it, but we’ve been pretty happy with the tools we use: •ArcGIS: ArcGIS is helpful for producing printed and custom geography maps. It’s the only tool we use that isn’t free, but you can get a discounted version through TechSoup. • Google Fusion Tables: All of our interactive maps are made using Google Fusion Tables. Google provides useful resources to help you learn the ropes, and there are a number of tutorials on YouTube. • Infogr.am, Datawrapper: These free, easy-to-use tools enable you to create visually appealing, interactive charts and graphs that you can embed on your website or blog. • Social Media: Data visualizations are well suited for social media – people love to share images and infographics. Right now we’re focusing on Facebook and Twitter. LC: I’ve also used R, which is a free statistical software, along with R Studio, which makes it easier to navigate the R environment. Although it’s free, the learning curve is quite steep. It took a couple MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) to get myself acquainted with R. And although graphic design isn’t technology, utilizing the

Children Numbers

2014

or below the people living at “poor’ refers to rmined by the U.S. NOTE: The term Level (FPL) as dete (HHS). Federal Poverty Human Services and th Heal of Department unity Survey y, 2012 American Comm ican Community Surve Amer u; Burea s s.gov .censu U.S. Censu B05010, http://factfinder2 1-Year Estimates, Table

unity Survey 1-Year y, 2012 American Comm ican Community Surve U.S. Census Bureau; Amer S0901 http://factfinder2.census.gov and Estimates, Tables B19126

Magnuson, Katherine A., and Elizabeth poverty.” Universit Votruba-Drzal. “End y of Wisconsin-Mad uring influences of childhood ison, Institute for Research on Pove rty, 2008.

ican Community U.S. Census Bureau; Amer unity Survey Comm Survey, 2012 American S0901, 1-Year Estimates, Table s.gov http://factfinder2.censu

der 18 with children un

ildr andicati Adults) r support for thisenpubl

Majo Source: U.S. Cens dation. 10.10% us Bureau; American ster Community Foun tche http://factfinder2.c CommunWes ity Surv ey, 2008, 2009, 2010 ensu , 2011, and 2012 Ame ican Community s.gov rican Community unity Survey, 2012 Amer Comm ican Amer u; Survey 1-Year Estim U.S. Census Burea /factfinder2.census.gov http:/ ates, Table DP03, 3, B1100 Table Survey 1-Year Estimates,

1 in 8 $19,324 - 46,10 0 $46,101 - 63,19

1 in 4

children in W es live in families tchester below the po at or verty level.

children in W es live in families tchester 200% of the at or below poverty leve l. U.S. Census Bure au;

Magnuson, Katherine influences of child A., and Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal. “End hood poverty.” Univ uring Institute for Rese ersity of Wisconsin arch on Poverty, -Madison, 2008.

$63,191 - 100,0 00

American Commun Community Surv ey 1-Year Estimates ity Survey, 2012 American , Table B17024, http://factfinder2.c ensus.gov

$100,001 - 200, 000 $200,001 - 249,9 99 $250,000+

U.S. Census Bure au; American Community Surv ey, 2008-2012 American Commun ity Survey 5-Year Estimates, Table B19125, http://factfinder2.c ensus.gov

LOW HIGH

$19,324

$250,000+

The federal pove rty a family of four is level for at or below 2012 HHS Poverty Guidelines. US Depa

$23,550

rtment of Health http://aspe.hhs.gov and Human Serv /poverty/12poverty ices, .shtml

The est. income ne to live in Westche eded ster is Bravve,

$63,200

Elina, Megan Bolto n, Linda Couch, Forgotten Housing Crisis. National Low and Sheila Crowley. Out of Reac h: America’s Income Housing

From 2008 to 2012, the pe rcentage of ch increased fro ildren relying m 9% to nearl on Food Stam y 15%. ps Children & Youth Receiving Supple mental Nutrition 16 Assistance Progra (SNAP - aka Foo m Benefits d Stamps) 14

% Relying on Foo d Stamps

visualization tools is that smaller organizations can start conversations about local data. People are more likely to engage with the data at a local level.

12 10 8 6 4 2 0

11.5%

13.3%

14.3%

14.9%

2008

In 2012, 1 out of 7 children received Food Stamps

2009

NYS Office of Temp 2010 orary and Disability 2011 Supplemental Nutr Assistance; Bure au of Data Managem ition Assistance 2012 Program Benefits.” ent and Analysis; Data accessed thro Welfare Managem ent ugh New York Kids’ Well-Being Indicators System, “Children and Youth Rece iving Clearinghouse, http: This upturn co //www.nyskwic.org rresponds

with the natio receiving Food nal increase Stamps/Supple in the number benefits. The mental Nutri of people tion Assistan Congressiona ce Program (SN l Budget Offic to the recessio e attributes AP) n, as well as this increase to changes in easier for pe pri marily the applicatio ople to apply n process that and qualify. Congressional Budg ma de it et Office, “The Supp lemental Nutrition Assistance Program, ” April

2012.

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT: CHildreN by THe NuMbers

aesthetic decisions of our graphic designer, Tara Framer, for the initial infographics streamlined the generation of our own later visualizations while strengthening our brand.

which data can effectively tell a story, and that’s especially important for infographics. Just as important, we strive to efficiently tell that story with less data as opposed to more.

Can you describe the internal process behind how staff collects the data within your organization? AW: We rely on community partners to help identify the most essential data points they need for writing grants and planning programs…. LC: However, people are usually asking us what matters instead of the other way around. In the beginning, we wanted to remain very neutral, and we didn’t want to prioritize one data point over another. We soon realized that people don’t have the time, resources, or knowledge to make that judgment call. Since we do work with this stuff daily, we’re more knowledgeable about 2014 Children

What would you say is the biggest impact the project has made thus far? LC: We just issued a City Snapshot series, which features some of the Westchester municipalities, and people have been eating them up. The traffic generated in one blog post equals, or even exceeds, the six month traffic on our old data site. Our traffic reports for the entire website show a 300% increase, and it’s exciting to see the number of Facebook shares/ retweets generated – we were never able to do that on our old data site. Even as we’re jumping up and down over website statistics, we must remember – how can we leverage this increased traffic to achieve our goal, namely, better outcomes for children? In the end,

Numbers

BY THE

R COUNTY INS TO WESTCHESTE ALL DATA HEREIN PERTA

CHILD WELFARE

ed This decline has been attribut child to greater awareness about n of abuse and the implementatio er, preventive programs. Howev stricter some experts suggest that parameters for substantiated CHILD HEALTH child abuse case and budget have may ons reducti staff cutting g of produced an under-reportin child abuses cases as well.

ter 2007-2011 Rates in New York vs. Westches 30.4%

30.9%

29.1%

29.8% 24.6% 21.6% 15 10 5

Westchester

York State Kids’ Well-Being Indicators

2007

of sions and the number as Both foster care admis Foster Care Admissions declined in recent years to children in care have favor other approaches that es Foster Children in Care polici of result nction. a treating family dysfu and en childr cting prote skwic.org Indicators Clearinghouse. http://www.ny NYS Office of Children and Family

Services; CONNECTIONS as obtained

through the New York State

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Young adults face the oyment highest rates of unempl

up jobs are often forced to take Young people who do find Historically, workers who face s. low wage, low skill position at the beginning of their careers wages unemployment and low expectations. lower and s earning lower end up with a lifetime of Table S2301, Community Survey 1-Year Estimates,

A., Kahn, S. A., Gestring, M. L., Sangosanya, young drivers in New York Cheng, J. D., Schubmehl, H., involving driver’s license law on crashes (2012). Impact of a graduated 457-461. and Acute Care Surgery, 73(2), State. The Journal of Trauma

tion Rate, Ages 15-24 Motor Vehicle Crash – Hospitaliza (Three-Year Average) Rate/100,000

150 132 108.3 95.3

87.3

91.2

50 0

2009-2011 2007-2009 2008-2010 2005-2007 2006-2008

as obtained through NYS Department of Motor Vehicles, NYS Department of Health; skwic.org Clearinghouse. http://www.ny State Kids’ Well-Being Indicators

hestergov.com/images/stories/pdfs/databook_vitalstats 2011.pdf

More ER visits due to Asthm 2012 a occur in lowincome communities.

8.4%

7.8% 6.8%

3 0 White

Black

Hispanic

the New York

The number of children relying on public health insurance has increased steadi ly over 5 years.

Group, Unemployment Rate by Age 34.3%

Asthma ER Visit Rate per 10,000 Ages 0-14 by Zip Code (2008-2010)

20 to 24 years

16 to 19 years

7.3%

7.2%

6.4%

5.7%

4.9%

25 to 44 years

45 to 54 years

55 to 64 years

65 to 74 years

75 years and over

16-21 Young Adult Arrests, Ages

1000

871

840

883 Drug Use, Possession or Sale

816

807 800

Violent Crimes

67,679

70,419

73,831

77,085

61,198 ONE THIRD of Westchester’ children rely on public health insurance.

40 30 20 10 0 2009

2010

2011

2012

Top Three Reasons for Hospitalizations by Age Group

400 Driving While Intoxicated 2010 2009 2008 Services as obtained through

60 50

Child Health Plus Enrollment by Insurer, New York State Department of Health. http://www.health. ny.gov/statistics/child_health_plus/enrollment/ Medicaid Enrollees and Expenditures by County, New York State Department of Health. http://www.health. eligible_expenditures/ ny.gov/statistics/health_care/medicaid/

Property Crimes

NYS Division of Criminal Justice http://www.nyskwic.org

2008

600

200

Number of Westchester Children Relying on Public Health Insurance, 2008-2012

15.2%

2012

2011

the New York State Kids’ Well-Being

Indicators Clearinghouse.

Rates per 10,000 population

Under Age 1

Ages 1 - 12

Ages 13 - 17

Respiratory System (other than Asthma)

Congenital Anomalies Conditions Originating in Perinatal

Mental Disorders Digestive System Injury & Poisoning

Digestive System

0 - 46.10 46.11 - 96.80 96.81 - 165.60

LOW

HIGH

10597

10550

in Lewisboro

in Mount Vernon

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C. S., & Mercy, J. A. (2012). The Fang, X., Brown, D. S., Florence, in the United States and economic burden of child maltreatment & Neglect, 36(2), 156-165. Child Abuse implications for prevention.

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NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

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New York State Department of Health, Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS), as cited by Westchester County Department of Health, http://health.westchestergov.com/images/stories/pdfs/d2011 Annual Data Book: Hospitalizations, Table 5, Page 47. atabook_hospitalizations2011.pdf

the increased web traffic and social shares are proxies we use to assess our ability to raise awareness about our children. AW: Data visualization helps us keep our audience engaged. It keeps us and the children of Westchester County on their radar. It also builds our reputation as a resource. People know that they can turn to us for data about a particular children’s issue, and that means that we can bolster the efforts of our nonprofit and government partners as they continue to make a difference for children. From a fundraising perspective, the data project adds another tool to our development staff’s toolbox as they communicate our mission to our donors. Many supporters are excited about our data work; this project has increased our credibility. Our efforts demonstrate that we have a reliable, data-based approach to identifying children’s needs. Keep in mind that we’ve been able to do all of this with just 1.5 staff people – so you don’t need a large staff to have a real impact! Limarie Cabrera has been the Director of Data Analysis at WCA since October 2007. She has led management, training, and marketing initiatives in the private, nonprofit, and government sectors. Previously, she worked at the public health organization, Public Health Solutions, in New York. Limarie received her Bachelor’s of English from Bryn Mawr College, and her MPA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Anna Wright is the Research & Administrative Assistant at WCA. She joined the WCA team in 2014 to provide support to the Directors of Data and Development. Anna holds a bachelor’s degree in Intercultural Studies from Houghton College and lives in Mount Vernon, NY with her husband. Anna holds a bachelor’s degree in Intercultural Studies from Houghton College and lives in Mount Vernon, NY with her husband.

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE PROFILE

Melanie Bower Project Manager, Social Accountability Accreditation Services What is your connection with the “nptech” (nonprofit technology) community? In 2003, my first job out of college was working at the Museum of the City of New York. The museum was exploring the ways in which technology could change many aspects of operations, but there were still a lot of folks who didn’t quite understand how technology had anything to do with history! For years, the Museum’s collections were documented using old-fashioned card catalogues. We transitioned to a web-based collections database, and this really changed things! It meant that information about the museum’s collection could be accessed by anyone, anywhere, at any time. It allowed the museum to curate online exhibitions, and draw in virtual visitors. It broadened the museum’s audience considerably. It was exciting to see how history and technology worked together seamlessly. Why do you think it’s important for nonprofit leaders to think about technology strategically? I believe that technology can help nonprofits maximize limited resources. But it’s crucial to take a strategic approach, I think many nonprofits think of technology as the domain of the IT department, while in reality all staff should be engaging

with technology and thinking about how it can empower them in their jobs. But taking this approach requires leadership to be committed to embedding technology throughout the organization. Was there an “ah-ha” moment for you when you learned something new or realized something about the role of technology in the mission-driven work that you do? I currently work for a small organization that oversees several widely used social auditing systems to improve working conditions in factories worldwide. The scope of the organization’s work has grown exponentially over the past ten years, but our technological systems have not. I think the a-ha moment for me

“

Technology has sped up nonprofit communications and has blurred boundaries. Today’s nonprofit leaders need to understand effective systems and networked, open approaches to engagement.

”

was when I realized that technology would not only make it easier for us to do our jobs; it would increase our credibility with external stakeholders. But at the same time, we weren’t engaging with technology because we were all too busy doing our jobs. I think this is a paradox that many small nonprofits face. How has nonprofit leadership changed (if at all) as a result of technology, from your perspective/experience? Technology has sped up nonprofit communications and has blurred boundaries. Today’s nonprofit leaders need to understand effective systems and networked, open approaches to engagement. In organizations with broad or blurry missions, this can be a huge challenge as complexity increases. New organizations often excel by focusing their contributions and building in data-informed decision-making from the get-go. Why are you serving on the Editorial Committee – what makes you want to volunteer? I think the Change Journal is helping technology break out of the silo of the IT department. Successful nonprofits understand that technology is not the exclusive domain of the CIO or the IT manager, but that technology should be central to all aspects of operations. NTEN: Change provides nonprofits with tools and knowledge to use technology effectively. What’s the one technology tool that you wouldn’t want to go without in your daily work? Probably Skype – I work close with about a dozen field staff that are based in different parts of the world. Skype is a simple tool, free, and invaluable tool that allows me to stay in touch with my colleagues.

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TECH SUPPORT

Using Storify to Capture Insights at Events By Paula Jones, N.C. Center for Nonprofits and NCTech4Good The way you interact with your audience has changed forever. The days of the monologue have passed. People expect to be engaged in real world collaboration and conversation through the social web. It is in these conversations that you discover trends, and gain an honest understanding about your audience’s experience with you or your organization, such as what people like about an event, how a speaker made them feel, or what they think about your services. All of these honest interactions and reactions are important, not only because you’re better able to serve them, but because you’re also building relationships and creating exposure for your organization. This “user-generated content” can tell a broader story that’s needed to help you better serve and meet your mission. The question is: What do you do with this user-generated content? How can you interpret it? Whether or not you capture or listen to this content, people will create it. Tons of it! That’s where tools such as Storify come in.

What is Storify? Storify is a free online tool that allows you to tell stories by

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curating content from your social networks and from the web. You can use searches and hashtags to find the most important tweets, posts, videos, links, and other relevant online media to create a visual story with context to why it’s important for your story. It captures the voice of the community by compiling people’s reactions to a speaker at an event, news story, disaster, trend, or other shared experience. Additionally, Storify offers flexibility in how you share your curated story. In addition to sharing it across social media channels, you can also embed it on your website or blog, which is a great feature if your audiences are not on social media.

Case Study – NCTech4Good Conference After this year’s NCTech4Good Conference, our organizers were determined to find an easy way to

curate the greatest moments from the annual conference. The goal was to collect the conversations that happened around the conference so they could be shared with participants and those who were unable to attend. We hoped to preserve the authenticity of the attendees, the spirit of the conference, and the passion of those involved in our nonprofit technology community. Participants were encouraged to use the Twitter hashtag, #nct4g, when they posted content relevant to the conference. This helped us to streamline all content in one channel by having one location, which we could tap into further with Storify. We chose to use this tool because of its ease of use and ability to curate content across multiple platforms. It was the first time we used this tool for an event, so we sought help from Ryan Boyles, Global Social Media Strategist and Digital Marketing Lead at IBM (@therab). After his demonstration of Storify to our 501TechClub, I created these five tips to help as you consider Storify for your organization.

Encourage online engagement: You must provide a way for participants to share pictures, tweets, posts, or status updates in an easily identifiable way. Prior to the event, establish the hashtag and include it on all materials such as slide

“This ‘user-generated content’ can tell a broader story that’s needed to help you better serve and meet your mission.”

decks, program guides, and signage to encourage attendees to use it. You can also plan ahead to have designated volunteers who are responsible for live tweeting throughout the conference to encourage engagement and to help create content.

Be selective when choosing content: You’ll need to determine a way to pick out the rich content because it’s unlikely that you’ll include everything that was shared throughout the event. If you have a lot of content, you can do keyword searches to help identify tweets or posts that are most relevant to include. When choosing between items, be sure to include the content that clearly communicates what the event has to offer. Pick a variety of elements (status updates, pictures, videos) that will best illustrate your story.

Organize the information: Inventory the content that’s available and think about how your audience will consume the information you plan to share. Should it be in chronological order? By session? Or, would it be better to group by type of content? Storify allows you to decide what is best for you, so think about the goals and key messages that you’re trying to tell.

Build your story: In Storify, simply connect to the social networks you’d like to curate your content from, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, blogs, or other webpages. You’ll see available content and you can then drag and drop it into your story. It’s important to remember that some content, like tweets, are only available for a limited time. So it’s best to begin building your story

during the event or soon after before the content expires. The story is editable at anytime, so you can continue to add new content as it becomes available.

Add narration and write for Search Engine Optimization: If it’s important for your Storify to rank high in search results, then be sure you add text that includes keywords or phrases that are important. You can do this by adding a sentence or two of text above videos or pictures that you include in your story. This narration will help provide context and perspective to the items you’ve shared and will fill any gaps for the reader.

Learn from What You Created What good is the content from your event if you don’t do something with it? So, what can we learn? NCTech4Good is using our story to gain significant insight about our conference and evaluate the conference experience as a whole. We can identify topics that resonated with attendees so we can plan future meetings that will be useful to our community. And, our leadership can use it to debrief on what worked or didn’t to help with planning and logistics for next year’s conference. The conference is a springboard for people to connect and build relationships. But, we want them to engage after it’s over, too. The posts and pictures in our story will hopefully encourage our attendees to connect with each other and continue the conversations they started in person. Our story will help with post event engagement to encourage folks to participate in other

NCTech4Good programs that take place throughout the year. We can use conference wrap-up emails to attendees and those who were unable to attend to share the conference experience, engage them in conversation, and promote the value of the conference to our community. The story also serves as a permanent, historical record for attendees and the public to reference year round – long after Twitter search content has expired or the data has been deleted.

Conclusion Nonprofits are successfully engaging their communities on social media. But, it’s how nonprofits use that data that will have the greatest impact on their ability to serve their community. Whether you choose to use Storify or a similar tool, I encourage you to listen, engage, and learn. It’s my hope that you have a better understanding of what Storify is, how it can help your organization curate content around your events (or other programs), and how you can use the content to further your mission and serve those in your community. Check out the Storify created at our NCTech4Good meetup to dive deeper. It includes video of Ryan Boyles demonstrating how to build your own story for those looking for additional help. Paula Jones is director of technology at the N.C. Center for Nonprofits. She has more than ten years experience in nonprofit technology. Paula serves as an organizer for NCTech4Good and is a board member for PIN, Inc./RTPnet. Paula has also served on the editorial board of NTEN: Change. Follow her on Twitter at @pgjones00.

NTEN CHANGE | SEPTEMBER 2014

TECH SUPPORT

7 Tips to Build a Compelling Visual Library By Rebecca Reyes, Everyday Democracy Think about the last time you shared something on social media. Maybe it was a photo of your hiking adventures, the latest celebrity selfie or photobomb, or an infographic related to an issue you care about. Chances are it was something visual. You’re probably already aware that visual media is dominating the web: Posts with visual content receive more visits and engagement. Images are easier to process than text alone, and they’re easier and more fun to share. With so much information streaming in from many different sources, images can help cut through the clutter. Having visual content on your nonprofit website, blog, and social media pages is critical to getting your message out, and should be part of your communications plan. The key is to be proactive instead of reactive. Taking the time to build and utilize a visual library will help to increase engagement online, and will also make you more prepared to respond to unexpected events like a natural disaster or the death of a leader in your field.

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First, create an organization system and take inventory: Gather all your photos, graphics, publication cover designs, video screenshots, and any other visual content you have. Think about how to organize your content. At Everyday Democracy, we work across the country so we sort our images by location. That may work for you as well, or you could organize them by other categories such as program type, year, or event.

Use tags to make searching easier: Since we organize our photos primarily by state, it’s difficult to find specific pictures like a staff member presenting unless we memorized all the content in our library. This can be resolved by tagging, which is a way to categorize content into multiple categories. We use Picasa’s desktop application, which I recommend if you have a shared network drive and if it’s important to tag specific people. You can also use Flickr, which is a good option if you frequently upload photos from mobile devices and if you want to quickly share your images. To make tagging useful, go

beyond obvious tags like people or location. Also include tags like “looking at the camera” or “smiling,” which can help further sort your images. Make a list of common tags so you and your fellow teammates use the same terms. For example, if one person says “pair” and someone else says “two people,” then you’ll only see a fraction of the images when you search one of the terms. Additionally, use tags like “edited,” “collage,” or “illustration” to help distinguish between different types of content.

Make sure your photos are up-to-date: You may have a lot of photos in your library, but if the photos look particularly dated, with fashion or hairstyles from a different decade, you probably won’t want to put them in your new promotional materials. However, they can be great images to demonstrate how far your organization has come, or for a #ThrowbackThursday series on Facebook.

Think about what kinds of images you need for each of your communication channels: You may want images for your website articles, donation pages, social media pages, or print promotional materials, but it’s

RESOURCES FOR FINDING FREE IMAGES: • • • • •

Freeimages.com Dreamstime’s free images IconFinder Flickr Creative Commons Wikimedia Commons

Each website has instructions for attribution when necessary, so be sure to give credit where credit is due!

important to be specific – do you need updated pictures of a certain initiative? Do you need horizontal images for your Facebook banner, or vertical ones for Pinterest? Thinking this through in advance can help your staff prepare for photo opportunities during a big event or program visit, with the medium in mind.

Identify areas where you need more images: Compare your list of images needed with your current visual library. Where are the gaps? For example, we help people talk and work together to create inclusive communities. We have plenty of photos of people sitting in circles and talking to each other. However, it would be helpful to have more photos of people working on action ideas after the dialogues such as planting community gardens, talking with their mayor, or establishing after school programs. Since we know where the gaps are, we can focus our efforts on gathering specific images instead of capturing every moment at every event. Ideally, when you have an event or visit a program, there is one person whose only job is to take

photos. Due to budget or staff capacity, this is not always possible, so it’s important to set realistic goals. Choose 2-3 times during these occasions to take pictures, so you can focus on other tasks the rest of the time.

Hone your photography skills: You don’t need to be a professional photographer or have an expensive camera to take photos. In fact, in delicate situations an expensive camera can make people feel uncomfortable and unwilling to be photographed. Whether you’re using top-of-theline equipment or your smartphone, remember to practice basic skills: • Pay attention to lighting: Fluorescent lighting isn’t very flattering, so use natural light from windows or go outdoors if possible. Make sure your subject is facing the light source from a window or the sun. This helps avoid backlight, which causes your subject to appear dark. If it’s a bright sunny day, take pictures in the shade to avoid squinting and to create a more evenly toned photo. • Think about how to frame the image: Including the background can show context,

while a close-up of one person can show emotion. See the example on this page for different ways to frame an image. • Watch out for clutter: A table with half-eaten food or a busy background with piles of papers can make a great shot look messy. Pay attention to your surroundings and zoom in, remove the clutter, choose a different backdrop, or take the picture from a different angle to create a cleaner image. • Take a variety of photos: It’s easy to get comfortable taking pictures from one spot in the room, but if you don’t move around all your photos will look similar. Get close to the action: take photos of groups, individuals, people in action, people posing for the camera, and written materials such as flyers, signs, or information packets. It’s easier to tell the story about your event or program if you have different kinds of photos to work with.

Use tools to edit and remix images: Once you have your library, you’ll probably find that there are a small group of photos you use frequently that show off your projects. Be careful about overusing them – that’s exactly why you need to continue building your visual library. Free tools such as Canva, PicMonkey, or PixlrExpress are easy-to-use tools to create collages or edit photos.

Rebecca Reyes is the Communications Manager at Everyday Democracy, using technology and tools to connect people, build relationships, and make everyone’s life easier. She has experience building and managing websites, leveraging social media, developing online outreach strategies, and creating online trainings.

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TECH SUPPORT

Visualize a Successful Year-end Fundraising Campaign By Yee Won Chong, Strategist, Trainer & Consultant for Social Justice More and more, nonprofit organizations utilize multichannel fundraising strategies for successful year-end campaigns. Images are essential in making your messages stand out in most of these channels and can powerfully convey your impact that will convince people to donate. As has been noted thousands of times, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” It is particularly true in this day and age. Consider this fact: 93% of the most engaged posts on social media contain visuals. In August 2014, close to 700 grassroots activists and organizers converged at the Money for Our Movements (MFOM) conference organized by the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training. Chris Tuttle of Tuttle Communications, Joleen Ong of NTEN, Nadia Khastagir of Design Action, Tomas Aguilar of Progressive Technology Project, and I presented the panel, “Visual Communication: Create Pictures, Videos & Presentations Quickly, Easily and Affordably.” We shared some of our favorite tools and tips on how to use them well. Here are

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ways you can apply these visual communication tools to your yearend fundraising campaign.

Prime your audience for the ask: Be sure that your donors and prospects know about your impact and achievements. Design

Action used online image searches, free fonts, and vector programs to create a poster of transgender activist, Cece McDonald, when she was released from prison. Many activists, from Laverne Cox to Marc Lamont Hill, worked on exposing the unjust treatment of McDonald during the legal process and her imprisonment. This image (with permission from the organizers) was posted on social networks to celebrate this victory. Public domain and Creative Commons license images like the ones Design Action used can be found on websites such as Google Images, Noun Project, Compfight, Flickr, and Think Stock. FontSquirrel.com is a good source of free fonts. Design tools such as Pixlr, VectorSnap, and Inkscape are good alternatives to expensive tools like Adobe Design Suite.

s i e C e C

! e e r F

Design Action used stock images, free fonts, and vector programs to create a graphic of transgender activist, Cece McDonald, when she was released from prison. Credit: Design Action

Phoster, an iPhone app, is also a great poster creation tool. And don’t forget to add your message or call to action, hash tags, and URL to your organization when creating sharable social network images.

Teach your peer-to-peer fundraising volunteers: Online tools are making it easier for organizations to mobilize volunteers for peer-to-peer fundraising. But getting all your volunteers in the same room at the same time is difficult and downright impossible if they live in different parts of the country. Progressive Technology Project used video screen capturing tools such as Screencast-o-Matic and Jing to create tutorial videos for their PowerBase CRM users. These kind of videos enabled grassroots groups such as Justa Causa to guide 40 volunteers to create individual fundraising pages. They successfully raised $40,000 in five days, exceeding their goal by $10,000!

Make your ask via video: If you have not considered making a video ask, perhaps the fact that six billion hours are spent on watching YouTube videos each month around the world is a convincing argument. With the rise of mobile usage, creating short videos is easier than ever. Heather Mansfield of Nonprofit Tech for Good captured 15-second long Instagram videos of 11 different nonprofit professionals to share social media and technology advice with their followers. Instead of sharing tips that you’ve written, you can use this video format to ask for donations. Other easy to use and affordable video recording and editing tools include Vine, Animoto, and iMovie.

“Images are essential in making your messages stand out...and can powerfully convey your impact that will convince people to donate.” After creating your short video be sure to add an URL hyperlink using YouTube annotation. The convenience of one click at the end of the video is crucial in converting video viewers to donors as it prompts them to take action right in the moment, without any delay.

Update donors and prospects about your progress: A fundraising thermometer is a tried-and-true visual image that shows the progress of your fundraising compared to your goal. By using Google Spreadsheet and Dataviz, you can embed a thermometer chart into your website, which will update the visual as you update your spreadsheet. Whether it is a profile or cover image on Facebook or a header in Twitter, these places in your social networks are prime real estate. An online graphic design tool, Canva, has made it very easy to create images to the various dimensions of these social networks. Other online image editing and cropping tools that makes this task a breeze include Be Funky, Pic Monkey, and Social Image Resizer Tool. As you try these visual tools and techniques for your year-end fundraising, keep in mind that 65% of emails are first opened on a mobile device. Attractive visuals that load quickly on relatively small screens mean the ability to grab and keep people’s attention when they read your message.

Mobile users are also twice as likely to share social media posts, and 30% of traffic to all websites comes from mobile devices. What does this mean to the way we fundraise online? Having responsive design websites and emails, where the design of the website responds to the size of the device, make it easier for donors and prospects to interact with your message, but switching to responsive design takes careful planning. If you do not utilize responsive design, here are two tips to consider for your year-end fundraising: • Use donate buttons in your message instead of using only “click here to donate now” hyperlinked text in fundraising messages. • Create donate buttons that are at least 44 by 44 pixels, the size of an average thumb, so that potential donors don’t have to pinch and zoom in just to get to your donation page. With these easy to use, affordable, and time saving tools, I hope that you can visualize a more successful year-end fundraising campaign than the year before. For more information, view the slides from this panel presentation at bit.ly/mfom14visual. Yee Won Chong is a strategist, trainer, and consultant specializing in creating more inclusive and integrated organizational culture. Follow Yee Won on Twitter at @YeeWon.

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SUSTAINABILITY FOCUS: FREE GEEK

Technology's second life. Images, clockwise from left: Mac Classic II repurposed as a donation collection station; Free Geek’s logo; recycling sign; former ﬂoppy disk holders help to sort tested RAM. Credit: Darren Heiber.

A lot can happen in the technology afterlife. In this interview, Free Geek’s Darren Heiber explains how recycling computer equipment can support an entire community. INTERVIEW BY EILEIGH DOINEAU, NTEN Free Geek’s mission is to recycle technology and provide access to computers, the Internet, education, and job skills in exchange for community service. How is this mission reflected internally with your team? Walking around the various parts of Free Geek you’ll see how staff and volunteers find ways to reuse all sorts of donated materials in fun and interesting ways. We’ll use cables that would otherwise be recycled holding up signs, floppy disk holders to sort

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tested RAM, and the plastic shells of older Macintosh systems as donation collection stations. When someone gives us a printer with paper inside, we’ll often set that out for our volunteers to use for smaller print jobs or art projects. Sometimes we’ll receive large materials that don’t fall within our normal refurbishing and outputs, like a smart board or server rack. Rather than default to recycling the materials right away, staﬀ will send out an organization-wide call for likely grants recipients or buyers who

might be interested in reusing these. What are some social and environmental practices that Free Geek has adopted? I like to point out that our Sorting area, where volunteers help us decide what, of the massive piles of material donated daily, will be reused, ethically recycled, or sent to the landﬁll, has the smallest trash can in the entire organization. Any garbage can that is near recyclable material, including printers, photocopiers, and our kitchen, also has a recycle bin right next to it, to encourage best practices. We also have a considerable compost bin in our kitchen that we have to empty at least once a week. Because almost every area of Free Geek has volunteers who may only spend a few hours with us, we try to ensure there’s signage that encourages recycling over landﬁlling.

We are currently examining the advantages of taking many of our paper-based tracking systems, like volunteer onboarding and HR materials, digital, so we can reduce paper waste. A local tech company has an inspiring sign-in board and visitor standards sheet that’s built right into a scanner. After a person signs to show consent with the organization’s expectations, they scan the transparency overlay, erase the dry-erase signature, and are ready to process another guest without using any paper. Of course, increasing our use of digital options like these, and the considerable testing we do every day, requires a lot of energy output. Our closing procedures in all areas include shutting down any and all equipment that doesn’t need to be on overnight. What can you recommend for folks in cities that do not have a Free Greek equivalent? You have a few options to ensure that any e-waste you bring to a recycler is handled ethically and environmentally. If they have Responsible Recycler (R2) or eStewards certiﬁcation, you can be pretty sure they’re adhering to the

“ANY GARBAGE CAN THAT IS NEAR RECYCLABLE MATERIAL, INCLUDING PRINTERS, PHOTOCOPIERS, AND OUR KITCHEN, ALSO HAS A RECYCLE BIN RIGHT NEXT TO IT, TO ENCOURAGE BEST PRACTICES.”

highest standards when it comes to their target materials. We’re also currently going through the process of getting R2 certified ourselves, as we understand how important this certification is becoming for individuals, businesses, and government entities. One of the main reasons we first started was because people didn’t know where they could bring items to be ethically recycled, so you know we’re committed to handling hardware at the highest standards. What advice would you give to nonprofits on how to create sustainable change in their office, especially if they don’t have the environment in their mission? So many individuals in organizations, nonprofits especially, understand that we need to do everything we can to be responsible environmental stewards. I would recommend that organizations find ways to make it as easy and fun as possible for reticent community members to get involved. Rather than make a person walk an extra few feet to find a recycle bin, or a place to reuse an item, give them the receptacles they need right in the same place where they were already going. Like any new direction, decision-makers need to engage their staff in the beginning and throughout the process of implementing the program to get feedback about what’s working, as well as encourage new thinking about those things that aren’t being achieved. How can people outside of Portland get involved with your mission? We’re not the only nonprofit organization focused on decreasing ewaste and increasing access to technology. I recommend searching for a local e-waste nonprofit to see

FACTS & FIGURES: • Annual budget: $1.4 million • Funding Sources: 13% contributions from individuals and large and small institutions; 65% - refurbished equipment sales; 20% - sale of recycling materials; 2% - other sources. (2013) • Number of full time staﬀ members: 27 • Number of computers recycled: 18,174 (2013) • Number of computers given back to the community: 2,958 in distributions to volunteers and nonproﬁts, 3,496 in sales to the public. (2013) • Number of volunteers (in 2013): 2,886 over the year

what they’re doing, and how you can help. If you can’t find one in your area, it may be time to talk to your local government entities or larger businesses about starting up something that can provide many amazing benefits to the community. Our Director of Operations, who has been with Free Geek almost since day one, says: “We would recommend finding a partner who can seed your organization with plenty of hardware while you get started, and then striking out to make the biggest and best impact you can.” Of course, as a self-funded organization, monetary donations help as well! DARREN HEIBER, the Director of Public Services, oversees Free Geek’s education, hardware grants, outreach and sales departments. He started his professional life as a high school English teacher and then pursued a career in libraries before joining Free Geek as Education Coordinator in 2011. He is deeply committed to inspiring all forms of literacy in others.

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