Friending and Funding & Governing Through Networks

Chapter ten opens with a story of a man named Scott Harrison who utilized friending to fund his creation, charity: water. It is apparent by the actions of this one man that the social aspect of "friending" ultimately leads to "funding" for an organization. Scott was able to utilize a number of personal characteristics to help him accomplish his goals such as:

• Being Transparent: operating an organization out in the open including annual reports, financial statements, and audit reports. Also includes how money is used by an organization and contact information for staff. All of this information should be available to the public via some sort of online medium (an organization's website, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Being Simple: an organization need to have a simple message and set of goals so as not to confuse the public. This is particularly true with social media outlets including status updates, tweets, etc.
• Listening, engaging, and building relationships: it is crucial for organizations to reach out and engage as many people as possible. This is made possible by listening to the thoughts and opinions of the public, and adpating to suit them.

Many of these aspects are reminiscent of topics I studied in a leadership seminar several semesters ago. Most of the curriculum focused on effective leadership and included characteristics like being a good listener, adapting to followers/subordinates, and building strong relationships with those who support you. This will lead not only to effective leadership, but success of the group as a whole. The same is true for nonprofit organizations.

In regards to funding, I thought it was important that the text pointed out that donors to the organization should be treated with respect. This includes an organization refraining from hounding people for money and not treating them like ATM machines. I think the success of many companies who depend on their donors for survival relies on these practices. No one likes to feel as if they are being harrassed for money, and more organizations would be wise to remember that.

Chapter 11 focuses on governance within organizations. The three boards discussed are the Rubber Stamp Board, Muddle-Through Board, and Fiduciary Board. There are a variety of characteristics held by each group that can be applicable to a variety of nonprofit organizations. Governance determines how recruits for support are gathered.

I thought that the aspects of governing a network of individuals was very interesting and relevant to the ever-changing face of job positions. Making sure that people who deal with social media actually know what they're doing is crucial to a company or organization's reputation. A very recent example of a social media slip-up happened last week with the South Africa branch of Durex Condoms (see this link). This is an ideal case study where governance of social media training fell through and the company had to scramble to pick up the pieces of their reputation.