OTOH, I’ve joined two networks on Ning in the last week. Seems to me that gives non-profits & campaigners a no-overhead way to experiment with niche networking.

So it’ll be interesting to see if any distinctly ‘activist’ type emerges.

dan

Dave, thanks for connecting and for your ‘response’. Pleased that what we have seen so far is just the beginning. I’m 100 percent behind you.

Kerri – thanks for giving me the initial tip-off about the LinkedIn initiative. Interested in your plans for your daughter’s daycare centre. I’m also a parent governor (as we call them in the UK) at my daughter’s infant school. I’ve created a blog for the school… and am considering a fundraising widget / badge.

Steve

Thank you for the link to kk’s blog.

I posted a comment over on my blog about this: I think the Linked In badge program is a great start, but I like the model where you can generate your own badge on the fly, like the other services (as long as it’s an official 501c3. I’m toying with launching something for my daughter’s daycare center, which is a nonprofit. They need money to replace playground equipment, to take field trips and add programming like music.

Not exactly Doctors Without Borders, so I doubt it has the critical mass to make sense for Linked In to offer to it’s members. But it matters a great deal to me and I’ll be leveraging my personal network to support it.

In any case, great to find a new great blog to read.

Cheers,

Kerri Karvetski
http://www.CompanyKMedia.com

“I help nonprofits and businesses communicate online and in person.” -kk

SEE HOW WE’RE CONNECTED
http://www.linkedin.com/in/companykmedia

LinkedIn for Good (a working title) evolved out of conversations some of us were having here at LinkedIn about how we could better leverage LinkedIn’s amazing platform – almost 10 million professionals 50% U.S/50% international, full of influencers and powerful professionals – for social good.

Beyond simply raising funds, we view the ability to add a badge to your profile as a critical part of the program – in addition to raising funds. In fact, we’ve built a viral loop into the profile badge: when someone views the MSF/Doctors Without Borders badge on a profile, for example, clicking on the badge will take them to the page where they can then add the badge.

The reason the badge is where it is (and also the reason people are referred to as “members”) is due to the fact that we’ve re-purposed our LinkedIn for Groups functionality to get this out the door quickly. We’re now working on giving the nonprofit initiative a more formal place within LinkedIn.

I’m working with several other outstanding organizations, so there should be more causes to choose from soon! Funny that you mention Kiva and Omidyar…(suggestions from readers encouraged, btw).

Thanks again both for your feedback and your support!

Dave Sanford
Product and Business Analyst
LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/in/bigsanford

I would be surprised if all but the largest organisations (or the most entrepeneurial) have the funds to invest in the time to create a brand presence and effective campaigning/fundraising/marketing strategy with each of these emerging campaigning social networking sites. I think that most organisations will be more eagre to create their own social networking spaces, where people will campaign under their banner. (This will also give organisations more control over brand and message – something that I think most marketers are loathed to lose!). This obviously goes against the grain of social networking – the point is not to get people coming to you, but to diseminate your message.

That got me thinking about the whole idea of campaigning social networking sites. I think it is perhaps a bit misguided to develop a whole campaigning social network. People will very rarely identify themselves purley as campaigners. Surely it is better to integrate campaigning and causes into the social networks that people already operate in. The causes need to be adapted into people’s lives, it needs to be integral, not something that is tacked on top. Widgets obviously do this to some extent, but for it to be truely effective, organisations need to develop ways of bringing inspiring content into these exisiting networks with specific and achieveable calls to action.

The use of network facilities and time to connect individuals who are willing to loan to potential borrowers could have, no does have an enormous impact and I’m proud to have become a lender within minutes of visiting http://kiva.org

Thank you for spreading this knowledge in your interesting analysis of social networking.

Our network allows users of Blackbaud products to:

- network with each other (www.blackbus.org/forum)
- exchange tips and tricks to get the best value out of the software we have already purchase
- find recommendations for Blackbaud and other products to help our orgs
- provide a funnel of communication for what we want the products to do (www.blackbus.org/ideas)

We are completely seperate from Blackbaud, charge no fees for membership, and welcome just about everyone.

Our niche is clearly those who already use Blackbaud products. Based on growth over the last year, lots of people think it is the best place to get their information – perhaps even over gettting it direct from Blackbaud.