Please Feel Free to Continue to Post Comments!

We would like to thank all the participants in the 2009 Student Leadership Award for their outstanding work and contributions. Although the winners have already been chosen, we still welcome and encourage comments on the Student Leadership Award blog articles. We have begun accepting comments this week, and will continue to do so!

FORGE

Kjerstin Erickson

Founder and Executive Director, FORGE

www.FORGEnow.org

Kjerstin Erickson, Founder and Executive Director of FORGE, discusses how her organization is using social media to their advantage, but is more interested in how new media technologies are providing the refugees they support with a platform to share their voice. 

As the Founder and Executive Director of FORGE, an international NGO that supports social entrepreneurship among impoverished refugee communities in Africa, I’ve been blogging for more than 2 years now. Rather than use my blog as a simple platform to promote FORGE’s work, I’ve tried to use my voice to discuss the issues and difficulties of the sector, the inspiration that gets us by, and the tough choices we face day-to-day. The approach has garnered FORGE and me significant attention, including being named “The Most Important Nonprofit Blog” by Tactical Philanthropy.

And yet, FORGE’s cause is not about me – it’s about the refugees who we serve. I’m sick of having to be the face of the organization simply because our constituents lack access to the electricity, cell phone networks, and internet connections that allow voices to be heard in this day and age. We want our donors and staff and supporters to hear about FORGE from the mouths of the only people who know the true quality of our work – the tens of thousands of African refugees that we’ve been serving for the past 5 years. And yet, as the web and social media become more and more pervasive, the voices of those without access to the fundamental tools are becoming more and more marginalized.

FORGE wants to change this. And through a new technology being pioneered to great success on the web, we think we’ve found a way.

FORGE wants to use the Social Media Leadership Award to allow refugees who’ve been affected by FORGE’s work to speak directly to the more than ten thousand people who visit our website each month. Using a brilliant new technology that enables video web spokespeople to guide a user through a website, FORGE’s refugee staff and program beneficiaries who otherwise lack access to internet and technology could find their voice and tell their stories across the world.

By allowing African refugees to be video spokespersons throughout our website, we would not only be pioneering an emerging new technology for social good, but we’d be exponentially enhancing the understanding and engagement between Western supporters and African beneficiaries. Connecting constituents, despite the physical distance separating them, will contribute to not just FORGE’s outreach and fundraising, but to taking social media to the next level – beyond the bounds of access and connectivity.

A bit more on FORGE:

Believing in the power of the world’s poor to best shape their futures, FORGE works with war-torn African communities to rebuild their lives, stabilize their market systems, and reconstruct the social and economic bonds that create the conditions for lasting peace and prosperity.

An official Operating Partner of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), FORGE works hand-in-hand with refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Rwanda, Burundi and Sudan. Now in its sixth year of operation, FORGE has implemented over 60 community development projects that have served more than 60,000 refugees in the four sites in Southern Africa FORGE has worked: Meheba, Mwange, and Kala refugee camps in Zambia, and Dukwi refugee camp in Botswana. FORGE projects and programs are run by a staff of 150 refugees.

FORGE and Social Media:

FORGE’s staff are well-versed in a range of social media methods and forums. In addition the the rich multi-media functionality of our website, FORGE’s staff regularly use Twitter, Facebook, Causes and other forums to connect with supporters, partners, and the general public. FORGE Founder and Executive Director Kjerstin Erickson has been a regular blogger since 2007 on Social Edge, a program of the Skoll Foundation.  FORGE’s “Radical Transparency” efforts garnered widespread attention from social entrepreneurship experts, philanthropic consultants, nonprofit development staff, and national publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the San Francisco Chronicle.

www.FORGEnow.org

The Film Society of Lincoln Center

Amanda McCormick

http://filmlinc.com/blog

Amanda McCormick of The Film Society of Lincoln Center explains how the idea to invite students to cover their New Directors/New Films festival for the filmlinc blog (http://filmlinc.com/blog) helped to inspire the public to see the festival with new eyes and perspectives.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center: giving “new voices” a home on our blog

What happens when you are able to give your audience a voice and an ability to play an active role in your mission as a nonprofit? In the case of The Film Society of Lincoln Center “New Voices” initiative, I think the results are inspiring.

A little background on our institution: we were founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, to recognize and support new filmmakers, and to enhance awareness, accessibility and understanding of the art among a broad and diverse film going audience.

Like any nonprofit organization, we are sometimes resource-challenged, and don’t boast the most state-of-the-art technology. Yet within the emergence of social media, I think we could see fantastic potential for grass roots empowerment of our very passionate and engaged audience. Using existing social media platforms like a Facebook fan page or a WordPress blog, we can not only begin a conversation with the public we serve but also hopefully harness their passion and affinity to help reinvigorate the basic mission of our organization and ultimately grow our constituent audience.

I am a huge believer in the power of social media to affect social change and general engagement with the mission of nonprofits, and during our New Directors/New Films festival, I wanted to raise our own bar on its use to reach new audiences. So with the “New Voices” campaign, I aimed to recruit young people (many of them college students) to help cover our New Directors/New Films festival for the filmlinc blog (http://filmlinc.com/blog) and also help inspire the public to see the festival with new eyes. My requirements were simple: I was looking for engaged, thoughtful and passionate people with diverse points of view. The response I received from motivated young people was huge and inspiring. After they qualified by completing a short writing assignment, I gave these “new voices” the ability to upload their posts to the filmlinc blog. I reviewed the posts and then published them to the web.

The posts came in fast and furious during the festival, and a surprising thing happened. You can promote your mission all day long, but somehow there’s just nothing like seeing new talent engage with what you’re trying to do and express your mission via their own point of view. With the 20 or so people involved with this volunteer initiative, we received thoughtful written pieces, analysis, interviews, photographs and video diaries—far more than I ever dreamed when I thought up the idea of giving our audience a voice through social media. These achievements are especially extraordinary, I think, when you consider we spent almost no money putting together the New Voices campaign besides the $20 or so dollars I spent on refreshments for the orientation meeting.

Our foray into social media has had measurable effects in the form of increased overall traffic to our gateway site (http://filmlinc.com), a host of new relationships with other institutions, and a whole portfolio of options that help us get news and information straight to our constituent audience. But I think the most exciting results we’ve received are the intangibles.

The power of social media to grow an institution lives in seeing a trio of college students inventively bringing our institution to life through a video diary in which they travel to the festival and interview experts for context.

The power of social media to reinvigorate the image of an institution lives in discovering talented young writers who see fresh details in a venerable institution.

The power of social media to help institutions move into the future lives in a versatile and collaborative set of tools that allow an unprecedented conversation to happen between institutions and the public they serve.

With a grant from the Jenzabar Foundation, I would certainly want to channel some resources back into cultivating and encouraging young people to contribute their talents and points of view to our mission.

To read more on the New Voices campaign, please visit our blog: http://filmlinc.wordpress.com/category/new-voices/