2 Youth and Tech Speaking Gigs This Spring

Before I started working for myself, I worked for six years as a program director and teacher for Streetside Stories. Streetside uses written, oral and digital storytelling to teach young people in the most underfunded Bay Area public schools how to write autobiographical stories.

I miss working with young people, so I'm excited to be participating in two conferences for youth, and young adults this spring!

Sex :: Tech Conference - Focus on Youth
Using Technology for Social Change (Keynote Moderator)
Monday, March 23, 2009
San Francisco, CA

Over 400 public health experts, technology innovators, and academic researchers will come together to discuss technology, youth and sexual health. Sex :: Tech is presented by ISIS (Internet Sexuality Information Services).


Global Engagement Summit 2009
Working with the Web (Advanced): Blogging for Social Change
April 8-12, 2009
Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement
Evanston, IL

A select group of 70-80 young social entrepreneurs from over 40 countries will come together for a week-long capacity building summit. Ill be teaching a blogging class and doing some mentoring.

Wahoo!

youth
technology
public health
social entreprneurship

Win a copy of Being the Difference: True Stories of Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things to Change the World

In his address to Congress last night, President Obama said,

"But in my life, I have also learned that hope is found in unlikely places; that inspiration often comes not from those with the most power or celebrity, but from the dreams and aspirations of ordinary Americans who are anything but ordinary."

Darius Graham is giving away a copy of his book, Being the Difference: True Stories of Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things to Change the World to a lucky Have Fun * Do Good reader!

To enter the raffle to win a copy of this Indie Excellence Award winning book, leave a comment below about an "ordinary" person you know who is doing extraordinary things to change the world. Please include your email so I can contact you if you win.

If the person you write about has a website, or someone has done a story about them in the local paper, it would be great if you included that link as well. The winner will be chosen at random and announced on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009.

Darius is currently a law student at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is Editor-in-Chief of the Berkeley Journal of African-American Law & Policy, and an Editor of the California Law Review.

In 2006, USA Today named him one of the Top 20 College Academic All-Stars, and the Governor of Florida awarded Darius with a Points of Light Award for his community service. While in Florida, Darius created Books All Around, Inc. , a nonprofit organization that promotes youth literacy. Darius currently serves on the Board of Directors of the McCullum Youth Court in Oakland, CA, and on the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Responsible Citizenship in Washington, DC.

You can learn more about Darius, and his book at www.beingthedifference.com.

ordinary
heroes
book

Be Bold Podcast: Create a Career with Impact Episodes 7 & 8

A new episode of Echoing Green's Be Bold Podcast: Create a Career with Impact is up for your listening pleasure. Lara Galinsky, the Senior Vice President of Echoing Green offers advice for 4 listeners' questions. (I'm the show's host).

You can listen to the show online on Echoing Green, or subscribe via iTunes.

Episode 7

1. What does it mean to be a leader working for social change, as a community organizer, where the emphasis is on collaboration, to build upon the natural skills and talents already present within the community and to share power?

In other words, describe leadership models that support social change organizing.

2. I am 41 years old and work as a nonprofit ED and grant proposal writing consultant. I will start courses towards an MBA in October, and would like to earn a CFRE (Certified Fundraising Executive). I really want to advance into a CEO realm, and lead a large organization, but I am not sure if I am positioning myself correctly.

What advice would you have?

Episode 8

1. I'm launching a CPA/consulting firm dedicated to advising and helping organizations and individuals who value people and planet. I'm interested in locating highly qualified business partners, but so many people want the guarantee and stability of a firm paycheck.

How do I locate and entice dreamers, risk takers and do-gooders to collaborate in an entrepreneurial venture and share some of the risk?

2. I am passionately interested in the future, and in cutting edge ideas and solutions. I would like to empower women, youth and seniors (underserved people) by providing easy to understand information and resources on alternative energy, sustainable living, green jobs and old and new conservation practices.

Do you have any suggestions on where I can amass extensive information on these subjects on my own? Are there government agencies, nonprofits, individuals, trade organizations, or businesses providing this service now?

Some of the conferences are quite expensive. and as a single parent, often a six-day-a week full time employee, I am unable to attend a college courses, or a university at this time

Echoing Green
podcast
career
advice
nonprofit
green
social+entrepreneurship

8 Benefits of Having a Nonprofit Blog

Should all nonprofits have a blog? Nope.

Can having a blog benefit your organization? Yup.

Below are eight benefits of having a nonprofit blog.

1. Blogs help provide quick, up to the minute news about your organization and cause.

If you've worked for a nonprofit, you know how painfully long it can take to put together a newsletter. Blog posts, on the other hand, can be written in 15-30 minutes. Not only can you share organizational news as it happens, you can also comment on how breaking news in the world relates to your cause, or organization.

Tip: If you're going to use your blog as a regular communication tool, please allow readers to subscribe by email as well as rss. Many, many people do not know how to subscribe by rss. Use a service like Feedblitz or Feedburner Email to facilitate readers' subscribing by email.

2. Blogs can help you work faster.

Just because you have a blog, doesn't mean you should stop having an e-newsletter, or print newsletter. In fact, it can help provide content for both. If you've been posting on your organization's blog regularly, you'll have lots of content to pull from when you sit down to write your newsletter. If you're writing an e-newsletter, you can point back to the original blog posts, which will also drive traffic back to your organization's website.

3. Blogs can help you reach more people.

It's been said that people need to see an advertisement seven times before they will buy. Below are eight ways someone might read one of your blog posts more than once:

• As the original post on your blog.
• As an excerpt in your e-newsletter, and clicking through to read the rest.
• As a mention in your Twitter feed, and clicking through to read the rest.
• As an excerpt on your Facebook feed, and clicking through to read the rest.
• When someone emails it to them.
• When someone shares it with them using an AddThis like button on the bottom of the post.
  
• When they find it saved by someone on a social bookmarking site like del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Digg
• When another blogger links to it on their blog.

4. Blogs can increase the search ranking of your website.

Search engines like sites that update their content regularly and have lots of incoming links; consequently, they like blogs!

For more information about nonprofits, blogs and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) check out Organic Non-Profit SEO, The Nonprofit SEO Guide, Blogs and Search Engine Optimization, and 2009 NTC Preview: Kevin Lee on Search Engine Optimization

5. Blogs can give you the press you seek.

Rather than crossing your fingers that a reporter will cover a story about your work, blogs can help you create your own coverage. For example, Community United Against Violence used a blog to cover the trial of men accused of murdering Gwen Araujo, a woman they killed after they discovered that she was biologically male. CUAV's blog eventually drew media attention to the trial when the blog was covered by the news.

Also, if you are writing about the same topics repeatedly on your blog, when a reporter is searching online for an expert on your issue, your posts may come up at the top of their search results.

6. Blogs can help your supporters and potential supporters get to know and trust you.

As important as branding is in marketing your organization, it is also important to step out from behind your brand, and show your supporters and potential supporters that there are real people, like them, running your organization. In an overly branded world, people are looking for ways to figure out who to trust. The personal, human tone of a blog can help.

7. Blogs facilitate conversations with supporters and potential supporters.

In my book, there are two things all blogs must have: a way to subscribe and comments. Now, I know that many organizations have a fear of being overrun with negative comments.

Thing is, if you want to build relationships through your blog, you have to have conversations. Think of the comment area of your blog like a cocktail party. There are going to be superficial commenters, sad commenters, funny commenters, deep commenters, thoughtful commenters, commenters you don't agree with, and once in a while, commenters you need to ask to leave.

For now, just worry about getting people to come to your party, not how to throw them out.

8. Blogs can be fun!

When choosing who is going to blog for your organization, please don't assign it to someone who looks at it as another thing to check off of their to-do list. Writing for a blog is a creative and social experience. It involves not only writing posts, but also reading and commenting on other blogs. Again, it's like going to a party, and no one wants to chat with the person at the party who'd rather not be there 'cause they were forced to attend.

What do you think? How has having a blog been beneficial, or not beneficial to your organization?

Cross-posted from BlogHer.com. Britt Bravo is a Big Vision Consultant.

blog
nonprofit
net2
nptech

Interview (with Me!) on the Professionally Speaking Podcast

After my presentation about blogging and podcast at the San Francisco Writers Conference last Sunday, Ian Griffin asked me to do a quick interview for his Professionally Speaking Podcast.

Ian is the President of the Northern California National Speakers Association and a freelance speech writer with Executive Communications.

You can listen to the interview on the Executive Communications blog, on iTunes, or on the player below:

blog
podcast
writer

Interviews with 38 Social Changemakers: 3rd Anniversary of the Big Vision Podcast

February 18, 2009 was the 3rd anniversary of the Big Vision Podcast! Wahoo! A big thanks to everyone who listens to the program, and reads the interview transcripts here on Have Fun * Do Good.

I've listed all of the interviews below with links to the audio and the transcripts. Please note that because the interviews take place over three years, some people's work has changed. They may have new job titles, or be working somewhere new now.

If you're not a listener, you can listen to the show on the Big Vision Podcast site, or subscribe via iTunes or another podcatcher.

2006

Alli Chagi-Starr, Co-Founder, Art in Action / Art & Media Director, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights’ Reclaim the Future Program. (Alli is now the Business Partners & Events Manager at Green For All and Art in Action Youth Leadership Program).
Listen
Read

Eric Fenster & Ari Derfel, Co-owners, Back to Earth
Listen
Read


Brahm Ahmadi, Executive Director, People's Grocery
Listen
Read


Mei-ying Ho (now Williams), Co-Director of SOUL. (Mei-ying is now the Operations Director for the Asian Pacific Environmental Network).
Listen
Read

Abby Rosenheck (now Jaramillo), Founder and Executive Director, Urban Sprouts
Listen
Read



Ilyse Hogue, Global Finance Campaign Director, Rainforest Action Network. (Ilyse is now the Communications Director for MoveOn.org)
Listen
Read



Steve Williams, Co-founder and Executive Director of POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights)
Listen
Read

Anna Lappé, co-author of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen and co-founder of the Small Planet Fund.
Listen
Read


Nola Brantley, Parenting and Youth Enrichment Director, and the Coordinator of the Sexually Abused and Commercially Exploited Youth Program at the George P. Scotland Youth Program in West Oakland. (Nola is now the Executive Director of Missey: Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting and Serving Sexually Exploited Youth).

Listen
Read

Lisa Russ, Associate Director of the Movement Strategy Center
Listen
Read


Jonah Sachs, Principal of Free Range Studios
Listen
Read



Jessica Jackley Flannery, Co-Founder and Board Member of Kiva.org
Listen
Read


Ingrid Severson, Lead Organizer of the Rooftop Resources Project, a project of Bay Localize
Listen
Read


Melinda Kramer, Founder & Director, Women's Global Green Action Network (Melinda is now the Founder and Director of Women’s Earth Alliance).
Listen
Read

Kevin Danaher, Co-founder of Global Exchange and Executive Director of the Global Citizen Center
Listen
Read

2007

Reem Rahim, Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Numi Tea
Listen
Read


Jodie van Horn, Campaigner for Rainforest Action Network's Freedom From Oil campaign, and the Coordinator for Plug-In Bay Area
Listen
Read

Priya Haji, CEO and Co-founder of World of Good.
Listen
Read



Paul Rice, founding President & CEO of TransFair USA
Listen
Read


Van Jones, co-founder and President of the Ella Baker Center (Van is now the President and Founder of Green for All)
Listen
Read


Chris Messina of Citizen Agency and Ivan Storck of SustainableMarketing.com and SustainableWebsites.com talk about how to start a green coworking space based on their experience with Citizen Space in San Francisco, CA.
Listen / Read


Elizabeth Pomada Co-Founder of the Writing for Change Conference
Listen
Read





Marsha Wallace, Founder of Dining for Women
Listen
Read




Shalini Kantayya, Filmmaker, A Drop of Life.
Listen
Read




Paola Gianturco, photojournalist, Women Who Light the Dark
Listen
Read


Andre Carothers, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Rockwood Leadership Program
Listen
Read

2008

Christina Arnold, Founder of Prevent Human Trafficking
Listen
Read


Cristi Hegranes, Executive Director and Founder, Press Institute for Women
Listen
Read




Kavita Ramdas, President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women.
Listen
Read





Anisha Desai, Executive Director of the Women of Color Resource Center.
Listen
Read




Janessa Goldbeck, Director of Membership at the Genocide Intervention Network
Listen
Read


Ari Derfel, Co-founder of Back to Earth Catering and Outdoor Adventure, talks about his year of saving trash.
Listen
Read


Martin Fisher, Co-founder and CEO of KickStart
Listen
Read



Marisa Handler, author, Loyal to the Sky: Notes from an Activist
Listen
Read





Cami Walker, Founder, 29-Day Giving Challenge
Listen
Read








Marianne Manilov, National Team Leader, The Engage Network
Listen
Read




Favianna Rodriguez, Political Digital Artist and Printmaker. Co-Editor, Reproduce and Revolt!
Listen
Read



2009

Jennifer Lee, Founder, Artizen Coaching
Listen
Read





Coming soon . . .
Bryant Terry, author of Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine.

Thanks for listening and reading! If you have suggestions for people to interview for the Big Vision Podcast, email me at britt@brittbravo.com or leave a comment.

podcast
visionary
nonprofit
activist
social change