SocialChangeCamp: Coming to NYC

Posted on August 1, 2009 by Gradon

For a little over a year now, Matt Knell, Meg Fowler and I — as Social Media for Social Change (SM4SC) — have been using the social web to raise awareness (and funds!) for charities. In that time, we’ve noticed a sharp increase in social media being used for good causes, whether by organizations or through grassroots efforts like Danny Brown’s 12for12K and Twestival.

For this reason, we’ve created SocialChangeCamp, a BarCamp-style event to bring together non-profits, NGOs, community organizations, corporate responsibility teams, museums, schools, and other public interest organizations together with new media and technology professionals to talk about the new state of giving and review techniques and solutions that have worked.

SocialChangeCamp is happening Saturday, September 26 at the Roger Smith Hotel in New York City.

We’ll be ironing out the details over the coming weeks, but for now, you can help us in three ways:

Tell your friends about us! Retweets, reblogs, etc are welcome. Everyone is welcome to attend, but we’re going to stick to the overarching theme of “Social Change 2.0″ – how social causes can better use technology to reach their fundraising goals. The event is best suited to those who work for non-profits, NGO, museums, schools and other organizations who are looking to bring their fundraising / advocacy to the next level.
Volunteer! If you’d like to help us put on the event, drop us a line at socialchangecampny[at]sm4sc[dot]com. We’ll be holding the first meeting of the organizing committee soon.
Sponsor or underwrite us! We’ll be keeping to the BarCamp spirit with a maximum donation of $250, which means to keep the event free or inexpensive, your contributions are welcome. We also need a 501(c)3 organization to underwrite the event so we can make sure the donations are tax-deductible. If you want to sponsor us in cash, or in-kind donations or can help us underwrite the event, please contact us at sponsors[at]sm4sc[dot]com or drop us a line.

By all means, keep up with us. You can find us on Twitter at @socchangecamp, on the SM4SC site & blog, and on our Wiki page at http://www.socialchangecamp.com.

Thanks, and we’ll see you in New York in September!

8k Facebook Fans Raise $40k for City Harvest

Posted on July 25, 2009 by Gradon

City Harvest, the New York-based food rescue organization — and beneficiary of the Social Media for Social Change NYC fund raiser this past spring– has a Facebook Cause. With just over 1,000 members and $1,669 raised, it’s not the worst-performing Cause around, nor is it the best.

When Facebook recently made changes to the Fan Pages, giving brands (including nonprofits) the ability to better interact with their supporters, City Harvest knew this is where they needed to focus their energy. But how were they going to people — both current and new supporters — to sign up for this new profile?

An anonymous donor challenged City Harvest: For 30 days, from June 15 and July 15, City Harvest will receive $5 for every new fan, up to $20,000.

City Harvest responded, reaching out to their existing community and empowering them to recruit fans for City Harvest. The community reacted enthusiastically: Within three weeks, 4,000 people signed up as fans of City Harvest, hitting the $20,000 limit.

Impressed at the results, City Harvest looked for ways to capitalize on the momentum.

On July 8, Dan, City Harvest’s community manager, posted a video to Facebook announcing a second donor offered $5 per new fan, up to $20,000, added by July 15 – just like the first campaign. This time, time was of the essence: There was only a week to go to achieve the goal.

Within six days, the goal was reached. On July 14, Dan posted the following:

The momentum was impressive. City Harvest gained 1,758 new fans from July 13th to 14th. They hit 10,000 fans on July 17th. Today, eight days later, they have 11,269 fans.

It was an impressive demonstration of the power of community promotion — friends asking friends to join them in supporting a good cause — and a win-win for City Harvest and its community. Fans were able to donate to City Harvest without touching their wallet, and City Harvest was able to increase their social media outreach exponentially.

Congratulations to City Harvest on a successful fundraising campaign, and in gaining so many new fans!

My talks from #SMCRVA and #SM4SG

Posted on July 24, 2009 by Gradon

I’m sitting at JFK airport. My flight from Richmond was delayed for some mechanical reason, so we departed just late enough for me to miss my connecting flight. While I wait for the next flight to Boston, I’m taking advantage of the free wifi JetBlue offers throughout the terminal.

I spent the last day and a half in Richmond, speaking at the third Social Media Club Richmond event last night, and giving the keynote presentation at the Strategic Leadership and Social Media for Social Good conference at the University of Richmond.

I’ve given a number of talks about using social media to benefit social causes since we started SM4SC, but these were my largest audiences yet: over 150 at SMC Richmond, and nearly 200 for my keynote address.

The University of Richmond streamed video of the entire conference. Here’s a video of my keynote presentation:

Also, here’s a SlideShare of my presentation:

Social Media for Social Good: Progress and Predictions

View more presentations from Gradon Tripp.

I want to thank both Social Media Club Richmond and the Jepson School of Leadership Studies for the opportunities to speak in front of their audiences. I had a great time, and hope people were able to learn some new ways for using social media for social good.

Richmond has a number of smart, friendly social media people, including Doug Meacham, Kira Siddall, Nathan Hughes, and many, many more. It was great to meet everyone, and I look forward to visiting Richmond again in the near future.

Want me to speak at your event? Take a look at my speaking page, and contact me to for details.

A Fine Misread?

Posted on June 14, 2009 by Gradon

Allison Fine, social change blogger and author of “Momentum: Igniting social change in the connected age”, recently wrote a post criticizing Mashable’s Summer of Social Good (full disclosure: SM4SC is a partner in the SoSG) for its claim to be “the first large scale online charitable campaign to raise funds strictly online through the power of Social Media and the Internet.” She cites America’s Giving Challenge, a 50-day campaign sponsored by the Case Foundation that raised $1.7M from 80,000 donations, as one such campaign.

What Allison, and a few of her commenters, seem to have missed is the part about using only social media and the internet.

For America’s Giving Challenge, Parade magazine made a huge push for its readership, both on- and offline, to donate, resulting in 48,711 donations totaling over $1.2M. With its 33 million-unit circulation, Parade has the kind of direct marketing reach that nearly any social campaign would be happy to have access to. Without such a push, America’s Giving Challenge would have looked considerably different. (I look forward to a full review of the campaign that Allison and Beth Kanter have written that the Case Foundation is releasing next month).

Mashable has no such offline help.

What the Summer of Social Good has going for it the nearly 1.9 million visitors that go to Mashable.com each month; its network of followers and fans on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere online; and the networks of its partners and of the beneficiary charities – Oxfam Internation, the World Wildlife Foundation, the Humane Society of the United States, and Livestrong: the Lance Armstrong foundation.

What I really question, though, is why there even needs to be an argument over who did what first.

Sure, Mashable borrowed from America’s Giving Challenge, and they could have heeded a few things from that earlier effort, but in the end, shouldn’t we simply celebrate groups – whether blogs or magazines or groups of friends – who work to motivate their networks to give of themselves?

Twitter Got Me a Girlfriend, Now It Got Me a Job

Posted on February 11, 2009 by Gradon

When’s the last time you heard a guy give his two-week notice?

Over the last several months, I’ve heard countless stories of friends getting laid off. From every industry imaginable. Both of my friends that write DesignBoston with me were let go in the last few weeks (Joyce is on vacation in Aruba, so I don’t feel too bad for her). I even attended a pink slip party after one particularly rough week in early January.

Several of these people told me just be happy I have a job right now. Especially with one that is still making money (thank goodness for Big Pharma, huh).

So I feel I was going a bit against the grain (which reminds me of another “Bands That Help Brands” post, but I digress) when I decided now was the time to find a better opportunity.

After working in customer relations and post-sale account management for the past few years, I decided it was time to get back into true sales. Keeping business is important (It’s easier to keep an existing customer than to find a new one), but growing a business is more fun.

So, one night a few weeks ago, but not really expecting much, I sent out a tweet.

Surprisingly, several people replied (which proves, especially in a bad economy, companies are always looking for good sales people). I talked to a few of them, some more than others, and one in particular.

Which is why, this past Monday, I put in my notice at my current job.

As of February 23, I will be joining the team at FirstGiving. FirstGiving is a five-year old startup that helps charities raise money online via fundraising pages, blog widgets, a Facebook app and more. Sounds similar to what I do for charities with social media, huh?

As I’ve told anyone that’s asked, I’m excited. I look forward to working with Frank Days, David Karp and the rest of the FirstGiving team to help every non-profit possible get the full benefit of online fund raising.

First, Twitter got me Meg. Now, a job. What’ll Twitter give me next?

My iBook Won’t Work… But I Will!

Posted on February 4, 2009 by Gradon

I’ll admit it: I love my iBook. That dinosaur of a laptop is like my little-engine-that-could.

It’s over 4 years old. It’s harddrive is small enough that I have to do the what-can-I-delete-what-can-I-save game. It’s not the fastest, or the prettiest. The neck of the power cord has been slowly falling apart for some time. But no matter what, the iBook’s been a little workhorse (just like Meg Fowler’s, which is just as old).

Until yesterday.

Starting yesterday, it stopped charging the battery. Whenever it was plugged in, the power indicator flashed between charging and battery, slowly draining the battery until it hit 0% and going to sleep. After that, it’d wake up, run for a minute or two, and go back to sleep. That’s how it sits now. Asleep.

It’s time for a new MacBook. I don’t need a Pro model. A regular 13″ version will do just fine.

The only thing is, I don’t have the money to buy one. So I need to work and save for it.

In order to do so, I’m offering my skills and hard work on behalf of your organization. What can I help you with?

Community management
Corporate blogging
Nonprofit fundraising
Strategic Consulting
Making coffee?

I work full time at this point, but I have many freelance hours to give. If I can help your organization get a leg up, please feel free to contact me at gradon AT gradontripp DOT com.

And in closing, I’d like to offer you a haiku (compliments of Meg):