Today is the 25th anniversary of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday, to celebrate his work and legacy. One of the most powerful and lasting ideas was his belief in strengthening communities and empowering individuals. His vision helped him achieve a great many goals and he has inspired many generations of Americans.
There are many inspirational quotes from his speeches and work beyond his most famous words, “I have a dream.” Here’s a quote that I think applies to nonprofit capacity building in all areas, including social media:
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
I’m working on some initial framework for a social media/nonprofit coaching methodology for the e-mediat project that I’ll be delivering in Beirut next month with colleagues Mary Joyce, Jessica D’herre, and Mohamad Najem. and this is a good way to think about and to coach different levels of maturity in an organization’s social media practice.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday is also the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service. A part of United We Serve, the President’s call to service for citizens, the MLK Day of Service provides the opportunity to come together with friends and neighbors to address some of American’s challenges.
The nonprofit technology community provides an important infrastructure for facilitating volunteering on this day. On the United WE Serve site for MLK Day is powered by All for Good, a tool that allows for service discovery across the social graph. (All for Good was recently acquired by the Points of Light Institute).
