Nine Ways Networked Nonprofits Use Slideshare

Please join me on June 21st from 1-2 PM PST for the virtual launch of The Networked Nonprofit.

These are my notes for webinar about Nonprofits and Slideshare, a social site where community members share presentations, documents and pdfs.
For a couple of years, I’ve been an avid member of the Slideshare community, sharing, browsing, and collaborating on content and watching how nonprofits use the platform.  As I was reflecting about Slideshare and thinking about the characteristics of nonprofits featured in our book, The Networked Nonprofit, I realized that Slideshare is a haven for them.  Networked nonprofits are simple and transparent organizations. They are easy for outsiders to get in and insiders to get out. They engage people to shape and share their work in order to raise awareness of social issues, organize communities to provide services or advocate for legislation. In the long run, they are helping to make the world a safer, fairer, healthier place to live.
I drank the Slideshare kool aid in November, 2006.   Today, I have almost 200 presentations in my account, some with tens and thousands of views.   Presentations and instructional content are an important part of my content strategy and the lifeblood of my work as a trainer.    Slideshare helps set my work free and share it with nonprofit professionals all over the world.
My content on Slideshare can easily be published here on my blog or by anyone else anyplace else!   I also share my Slideshare content in my other social streams.  For example, I share them on my welcome tab on my Facebook Page and on my LinkedIn profile.   As a speaker and trainer,  Slideshare, along with wikis, Twitter, and other tools are important part of my trainer’s social media toolbox.  I’m even using it to promote my book, The Networked Nonprofit.
Although Powerpoint has a reputation for being a deadly weapon, Networked Nonprofits know that when they give their presentations (and other documents) a social life, it can brings their objectives to life.  Let’s look at the different ways they use slideshare.
(1)  Networked Professional Development and Learning
Three years ago, I wrote a post about how Slideshare supports networked learning and networked professional development.   This is what Nancy White is calling “Triangulating Professional Learning.”   It’s the ability to learn from professionals inside and outside of your field.    As Slideshare has excellent social media content,  I can view slideshows across different types of industries and networks.  I don’t have be a networked silo!
(2)  Discover, Interactive, and Learn from Thought Leaders
I love the fact that I can see slide presentations from some my favorite thinkers in the social media field, literally hours before or after they’ve given the presentation.   For  example, David Armano,  Dave McClure, and Guy Kawasaki.    But you can also find rock star thought leaders in your field publishing their decks to Slideshare.  For example,  Amy Sample Ward, Danielle Brigida, and Michael Edson.   And it isn’t just individuals.   You can grab the most recent research from the Pew Internet and American Life Center.
(3)  Informal Collaboration with Peers
One of the best experiences I ever had learning and collaborating with peers was setting up a sand box for network weavers.  We set up a group in Slideshare to share and remix our slide presentations.
(4)  Create an Archive For Conference Presentations
Perhaps the most common use of Slideshare by nonprofits is setting up groups or events to collect conference presentations in one place so participants can find them.   I like the fact that I can find the presentations from sessions I attended as well as those from sessions I didn’t attend.   NTEN set up an event area on Slideshare for the NTC 2010.    Some events have set up branded channels, like the Bar Camp Channel.
(5)  Tool For Networked Nonprofits To Share Draft Documents and Get Feedback
The Red Cross used slideshare to share its social media policy and get feedback.
(6) Training
Nonprofits that offer training as one of their programs have embraced Slideshare.   These include CanadaHelps, Npower Michigan, and Michigan Nonprofit Association.  NTEN’s WeAreMedia project has taken this a step further and uses Slideshare so trainers can remix each other’s decks.
(7)  Fundraising
I have not come across too many organizations using Slideshare for fundraising, although I’ve seen a few breath taking decks created by “free agent” fundraisers for disaster relief efforts over the years.  These include:  Nargis Cyclone and China Earthquake
(8)  Advocacy
These have come in the form of awareness events like Earth Hour and Yoga to End Poverty.
(9)  Sharing Your Organization’s Story
National Wildlife Federation uses Slideshare for its presentations, but also to promote the winners of their photo contests.  The Counterpart uses Slideshare to share its annual report information.   Monitor Institute shared a PDF of its case study on how Kaboom! is scaling its social impact. Here’s a slideshow that summarizes research interviews of donors from a local humane society.   And, a missing child alert.
How is your nonprofit using Slideshare to be a Networked nonprofit?