Future of Volunteers: Adapt or Die

(03/10/2008)

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Hello everyone! This session will start in 12 minutes.

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This is a session at SXSW 2008.

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"Future of Volunteers: Adapt or Die"

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Moderator: David Neff Director of Web and Interactive Strategy, American Cancer Society

Ford Cochran Director of Mission Programs Online, National Geographic

Patricia Goldman VP or eBusiness, March of Dimes

Randy Moss Manager of innovation based strategies, American Cancer Society

David Neff Director of Web and Interactive Strategy, American Cancer Society

Fay Foley-McDunnough Event Chair, Second Life Relay For Life

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Session starting in 2 minutes!

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Welcome to the session - thank you for joining me virtually.

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Moss: What's the future engagement of people: virtual volunteerism

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Moss: we are trying to engage the volunteers where they are. It is not a replacement, but complementary

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Moss: ACS and relay for Second Life

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Cochran: National goegraphic wanted to send people out into the world, come back, and share stories... all around the planet.

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Cochran: people were going to the ends of the earth to take pictures - which used to be very difficult and inaccesible to people.

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First space shot, first underwater shot, etc...

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Cochran: giving people as muchs as possible to give people first hand experinece to those who can't be there. They have used all kinds of media to do that since their inception.

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C: capture the people's stories in an authentic way. But with new technologies, their mission has expanded.

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C: Now people are story tellers. They are sending their photographers out to train other people to tell stories (at Photocamp).

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C: NG are helping people to tell stories. Looking at NG as a platform.

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All Roads film project

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C: NG are really empowering people to engage in their environment and invest in their world by giving them tools on their websites.

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The Genographic Project - putting yourself in the 'story' by contributing your genes to tell the history of our world. Get a tool kit and send in your genes.

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C: NG also works in Second Life - volunteers talk about getting things done about things they are passionate about wildlife, etc...

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Goldman (March of Dimes): we are looking for new ways to engage volunteers - we have been around for a long time, we've had to adapt. And story telling is a big part of engaging people.

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Gold: our stories are about babies - having a healthy baby, talking to moms, research, etc.

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G: one way MofD do this is "Every Baby has a Story" project.

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Check out March of Dimes campaign here. Parents helped spread the message and mission of MoD.

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Goldman: one of the way they promoted this is offline with a BUS. by going to different states, from football games and museums, etc.. and people told their stories and uploaded it to YouTube.

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Goldman: everyone has a story page - full of mashups and comments, tell a friend, donation - all from the story page.

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G: they found that people REALLY want to tell a story about their babies.

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G: majority of the people who are engaged, are only engaged online... not as much offline (interesting).

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G: They also have something called "Volunteerland" for people who want to volunteer online.

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G: They have tools online for volunteers - widgets, logos, badges to advocate and educate people through social networks online.

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Shareyourstory.org

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Neff (American Cancer Society, Austin Texas): asks how many people are developers versus non-profits

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95% of the room is non-profits, very few developers

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N: key ideas are micro-volunteering, micro donations, and UGC (user telling their stories)

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N: Rate of changing is so high, if we don't change our ways how we recruit our volunteers, our organizations will fail/die.

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N: No one over 60 wants to stuff envelopes - they don't consider this volunteerism anymore!

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N: Not listing all of your opportunities can impact an organization.

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N: Idea of donating little time, but a lot of good happens - campaign.

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N: ACS shifted our expectations

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N: Online team Chairs for events

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N: Facebook Volunteer Recruitment (Building application that let volunteers recruit other volunteers - they do it, not us)

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N: Explore Second Life virtual communities

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N: All non-profits should enable people where and when they want.

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N: asks "how many people are on Twitter" and how many people have heard of Twitters "Frozen Pea Fund"

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(Looking around in a room of about 200 people, about 10 people had heard of Pea fund)

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2:58	Do you know about the Frozen Pea Fund? Yes ( 100% ) No ( 0% ) Monday March 10, 2008 2:58

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N: Every Friday everyone who is supporter of the Frozen Pea fund change their Twitter Photo to "pea"

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frozenpeafund.com

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N: he notes, frozen pea fund was not an ACS initiative - it was the community. Message in this is "enable your audience"

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N: avg donation is $10 or less

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N: most donations are recurring.

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N: Frozen Pea fund got a lot of press, especially in the blogosphere.

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N: SharingHope.TV - this is a new web Community from the ACS

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N: this video/TV community was created so people could share their cancer experience online.

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N: As broadband increases, people will be telling their stories via video.

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N: in 2007 22% of Americans shot their own video, 14% posted it online (PEW)

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N: They know their target market may not know how to upload video or photo - so they have created "how-to" videos for their audience. (aka - this is a USB cable, etc)

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N: Be honest, be responsive, spot trends, speak up.

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N: (Gives props to all the non-profits in the room who get technology and apply it to their organization)

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N: Technology and non-profits go hand-in-hand.

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Moss: Thanking the panel.

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Moss: We're never going to have 25 million profiles. So when you buil your sites, what level activity are you looking for? Are you okay with 14K "stories"? What is your level of expectation?

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Goldman: (Answers Moss) I think you have to convince organization that time spent has value to your organization. Members on your site are deeply involved because they've experienced these illnesses/diseases.

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Goldman: they have also brought in thousands of investments.

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Goldman: members are passionate and organizations can mobilize their audience. I.E. Passing the preemie legislation.

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Goldman: MoDimes put one comment on their site about calling their legislators on this issue, and boom - offices were flooded with calls - legislation eventually passes.

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Goldman: Involvement and engagement in the virtual world, translates into engagment in the real world.

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Goldman: people want to engage at a higher level than just stuffing envelopes or preparing an event 'wrap up' party.

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Neff: it's hard to manage or measure this impact... how an organizations' efforts translate across the web - in Facebook, YouTube, etc...

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(Open to the audience for question)

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Goldman: one guy created a Facebook page with over 100,000 people because MofDimes has given their community badges, widgets, FB apps, etc to empower their members

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Moss: Where do you find yourself the most active? Go there to engage.

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Audience Members: http://www.mobilevoter.org/ using new media to recruit, engage, and mobilize youth.

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Neff: People will be in an environment where you are most happy - and email use is going down. People are in other places - like Facebook. Email get lost - try to avoid depending on emails.

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Neff: it's about conversation in advocacy spaces.

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Goldman: You want to have a multi-tier strategy.

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Goldman: if you want to look at how to use online spaces - look at the political campaigns.

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Audience: Do you have any resources for people in organizations who are hesitant about being online?

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Neff: Educate.

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Cochran: develop parallel non-profit organization.

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Audience Member: How did you advocate to your 'higher-ups' about second life

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Moss: Second life with ACS was started by volunteers.

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Moss: We did it as a pet project and it raised a lot of money. And show that it increases funding, raise awareness, etc.

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Moss: in the virtual world, there are metrics - measure something. Money raised, number of cancer survivors in SL, and number of people who show up to events.

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Locate a Local 501c Tech club in your community.

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Audience: if you were to invest in one place - where would it be?

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Moss: invest in people (young people), invest in time, invest in volunteers, and set up metrics accordingly

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Goldman: Facebook indexes higher on causes. So, invest in Facebook