I grew up in a small town by the New Jersey shore in a house a block from the Atlantic Ocean that my elderly parents still live in today.       With Hurricane threatening a direct hit and potential devastating damage,  emergency officials called for a mandatory evacuation -- something that hasn't happened in many years. While my family and their home dodged a bullet, like millions in NYC, other locations  had catastrophic flooding and there was a loss of lives.    We learned that it predicting … [Read more...]

What Does the Data Say? Tweets Into Action on Prezi What Does the Data Say? Guest Post by George Weiner, DoSomething.Org Note from Beth: Last week, I wrote about SoSomeThing.Org as an example of a nonprofit with a "data-driven culture."   What initially caught my eye was the above presentation from George Weiner.   I invited him to share a guest post based on his speaking notes from this wonderful presentation he presented in NYC at the Social Media for Nonprofits event the beginning of … [Read more...]

Note from Beth: Last May, USA for UNHCR launched The Blue Key campaign as a way for U.S. residents to show their support for the 43 million refugees around the world leading up to World Refugee Day on June 20th.   I was honored when Shonali Burke invited me to be a Blue Key Champion.    She set up a private Facebook Group to facilitate our support for the campaign.     A few weeks ago, she reported back to the group some of the results of our work with some insights based on Google Analytics … [Read more...]

I've just finished co-authoring a book about measuring the Networked Nonprofit with colleague, KD Paine.   One of the concepts that we wrestled with was "Social Media ROI,"   I don't think it necessarily works for nonprofits, especially when it applied as a litmus test to see if there are financial outcomes -- cost reductions or increased revenue.   Nonprofits should focus on continuum of value that incorporates both tangible and intangible benefits to integrating social media in communications … [Read more...]

I've been reflecting on why some nonprofits do a better job of  measurement and learning, while others do not.  What is the difference?  It comes down to organizational culture.   The nonprofits that embrace measurement have a data-driven culture.  That is they make decisions based on meaningful data, rather than solely by gut. Not all nonprofits are born with the spreadsheet gene.    And it isn't simply a technical problem that can be solved through training or purchasing analytics software.   … [Read more...]