Philanthropy411 List of Foundations and Funder Networks on Twitter

Since publishing my first list of “90 Foundations That Tweet” in July 2009, I’ve been sporadically keeping track of foundations, foundation staff, and funder networks that are joining Twitter.  I’ve created the Philanthropy411 List of Foundations and Funder Networks on Twitter (Part 1 and Part 2), which at the time of this post publication has 607 Twitter users. I’ve kept this list private and am now making it public for anyone to follow.

There are other resources for finding foundations on Twitter that you should definitely check out. This includes:

• The Foundation Center’s fabulous Glass Pockets site, which provides links to foundations that seek to be transparent using social media and other tools, such as their Facebook pages, blogs, Twitter accounts, etc.  It is continually updated by the foundations themselves.
• @OnlyFoundations, which is a twitter feed from Cindy Bailie, Director of the Foundation Center Cleveland. It is a continuous stream of content from foundations and corporate grantmakers.
• 17 More Foundation Resources on Twitter is another post I authored which provides links to Twitter accounts of some useful philanthropy resources, such as the Foundation Centers, media outlets covering philanthropy, and organizations such as Charity Navigator and Guidestar that help donors find excellent nonprofits to support.
• The Foundation Center’s report “Are Foundation Leaders Using Social Media?” which highlights the social media activities of over 650 foundations.

I will continue to add to this list, and will occasionally update this blog post with the latest number of list members.  It includes the “official” twitter feeds of grantmaking foundations; foundation staff who identify themselves as working at a foundation or tweet a lot about their grantmaking, grantees and causes; staff at funder networks (e.g., national and regional associations of grantmakers, funders who come together to address a particular issue); and the occasional foundation board member such as myself. One caveat: since this list was started in 2009, there are likely people who have changed jobs and no longer work for a foundation. Unfortunately, I don’t know of an efficient way to continually review the list and remove those who no longer fit the criteria.

It is my intention that this list only includes foundations and other organizations that give grants (or affinity groups and networks of such organizations). However, this list does not include United Ways. I have much respect for United Way organizations and their contributions to communities, but there are so many of them on Twitter that it makes more sense for someone else to create a separate United Way Twitter list. I have also excluded foundations that raise money for only one particular organization, such as the foundations of hospitals and universities.

If you think you should be on this list, or if you know of a foundation who should be, please contact me with the name and link to the Twitter profile. And if you see an organization that should not be on this list, let me know too!

If you found this blog post useful, please subscribe. On Twitter? Follow me @Philanthropy411.

Posted by Kris Putnam-Walkerly © Kris Putnam-Walkerly and Philanthropy411, 2011.

15 Tips for Effective Communications Planning

I’ve helped dozens of foundations to develop and launch new grantmaking initiatives. One of the lessons I’ve learned is the importance of communications planning – early and often. As one colleague advised me, “Communications begins the moment you open your mouth and start talking about the idea of your initiative.”  Yet communications planning often gets overlooked.

To help one of our clients prepare for communications planning for a new initiative, I conducted brief research to identify recommended components of a communications plan, and approaches to communications planning. I wanted to share some of the key findings with you, in hopes that it helps you with communications planning for your philanthropic initiatives and programs.

A Strategic Communications Plan Should Have Internal And External Components

An internal communications plan is for everyone who has ever been involved in the planning of your initiative. This includes people such as all of your foundation staff and board members who have been involved conceptualizing and developing the initiative, planning team members, advisory council members, the community members who have ever participated in planning meetings, and other involved stakeholders.  Internal communications strategies for those most closely involved in current planning efforts, such as an e-newsletter to keep all the planning team members appraised of what each other is doing, will be very different from strategies to connect with broader stakeholders who don’t yet know about your efforts, such as policymakers, media, and community members.

The external communications plan is for anyone who hasn’t been involved, but who needs to be.  This might be the people who will benefit from your initiative, business, schools, policymakers, other funders who have not yet committed funds, community providers who have not yet been involved, the media, etc.  It also includes those who might be opposed to your efforts.

13 Components of a Communications Plan

A strategic communications plan should include the following:

1. Measurable goals and strategies – The communications plan should include clear and measurable goals and strategies. These goals should be as specific as possible. Avoid generic goals such as “raise awareness”, and make sure communications goals are realistic and can be accomplished with the human and financial resources available.

2. Target audiences

• You will want to have agreement about who are the key internal and external audiences, what they key messages are for each audience, and what you want each audience to do as a result of hearing those messages.
• Be as specific as possible about what you want to accomplish with each audience, and how communications can help. For example, communications with state policymakers will differ if you are trying to create policy change, or if you are trying to get a new line item in the state budget.
• Think about audiences in two groups: those who will support your effort, and those who will be against it. Be sure to have strategies that address those who will be barriers to success (e.g., to see if you can turn some of them into supporters, or “frame the debate” to prevent their negative messages from taking hold)
• Delineate the different sectors of audience (public, private, nonprofit, etc) as well as the different levels (local, regional, state)
• News media is both an audience and a vehicle, so you should be clear on the role of media for each.
• The “general public” is not a target audience.  You need to be more specific.

3. Identification of the message “frame” – The plan should describe how the initiative should be framed (e.g., “education will lead neighborhood residents to economic opportunity”). It should also identify what people’s current frame is (e.g., “schools in this neighborhood are horrible and students are getting a terrible education”), how you can communicate with them within their current frame, and how you will move them to the new frame.

4. Key messages and persuasive strategies – As mentioned above, while there might be one overarching message, different audiences will need different key messages. You will also want to identify the readiness of each audience to hear and act upon these messages, their core concerns so that you can ensure your messages are meaningful to them, and the messenger to share your message.  Additionally, there are different types of persuasion, and the plan should address how each persuasive strategy will be used to gain support. For example, rational persuasion uses technical data and logical arguments, while emotional persuasion uses values and emotion, such as photographs of happy children, to convey messages.

5. Opportunities and barriers for reaching key audiences – The plan should identify different strategies for and opportunities to reach key audiences with your messages. It should also identify barriers and how those barriers can be overcome.

6. Communications activities – For each goal and strategy, there will be a series of communications activities, or tactics, identified. Each activity/tactic should have a clear timeline, communications vehicles, people assigned to them, and a budget.

7. Communications vehicles – Within each goal, strategy and tactic there will be different communications vehicles to use to carry your message to your audience.  This includes face-to-face meetings, telephone calls, e-newsletters, blogs, grassroots mobilization, policy reports, op-eds, community meetings, etc.

8. Crisis communications – The communications plan should include how to manage and communicate about any crises that might arise.

9. Implementation plan – The communications plan should be accompanied by an implementation plan. This should be a very clear road map that lays out specific timelines, deadlines, activities, who is responsible, etc.

10. Monitoring and evaluation – You will want to track and measure success, so each communication goal and strategy should be measurable and evaluated. That way you can also make adjustments if certain strategies and tactics aren’t working.

11. Timing considerations – A realistic time horizon for a strategic communications plan is three years.  However, the communications plan should include immediate-, short-, and long-term goals and strategies. The implementation plan should help in determining how to prioritize and roll out the different communication components, strategies and tactics. Since your initiative will have immediate communications needs, you should identify what needs to happen immediately and what are some “low-hanging fruit” tactics that could be implemented to meet those needs, even before a full communications plan is developed. Some ideas include:

• Initial materials
  • Fact sheet – This would be a simple document outlining the aim of your initiative, the timeframe, and who is involved.
  • PowerPoint deck that describes your initiative and conveys key messages. This can be used for both larger presentations, and also to “talk through” the initiative during one-on-one meetings. There might be slightly different versions of this for different audiences.
  • Talking points to ensure internal stakeholder leaders are conveying the same, clear messages.
• E-newsletters or email updates to key stakeholders (brief)
• Conducting a series of individual meetings with key stakeholders who have not yet been engaged to inform them about and begin to involve them in your initiative.
• Identifying “ambassadors” who can help tell the story about your imitative. This can be helpful when many one-on-one meetings or group presentations are needed (so one person is not burdened with conducting them all).

12. Staffing – If a foundation has internal communications staff, it is very helpful for them to begin participating early in planning conversations. This enables them to understand the initiative so that they know how to communicate about it, and also ensures that planning happens with a communications lens. You might need to retain a communications consultant.  It will be helpful to have one person/firm responsible for creating a communications plan, and that this could be in-house staff or a consultant.  Whoever creates the plan should be someone with experience conducting strategic communications planning, preferably with complex, community-based initiatives.

One communications consultant is unlikely be have the skills, experience and capacity to meet all of your communications needs. The foundation could hire a consultant to develop the plan, and that consultant will likely be able to implement some parts of the plan but not all of them. That consultant should be able to help the foundation identify other vendors to help with specific pieces, such as media relations, advertising, community outreach, etc. That consultant could even serve as a coordinator/implementation manager of all the communications-related work.  Someone needs to be identified to manage the implementation of  the communications plan. You can find communications consultants who specialize in philanthropy and nonprofits through the National Network of Consultants to Grantmakers and the Communications Network.

13. Budget – There should be a detailed communications budget developed as part of the plan. This way, choices can be made regarding where to focus limited resources.  Like anything, communications can get very expensive, and the plan needs to match the resources available.

If you found this blog post useful, please subscribe. On Twitter? Follow me @Philanthropy411.

Posted by Kris Putnam-Walkerly © Kris Putnam-Walkerly and Philanthropy411, 2010.

10 Insights on Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy

As you know, Philanthropy411 recently covered the Council on Foundations Annual Conference in Philadelphia with the help of a blog team. I learned from my blog team mentor, Sean Stannard Stockton of Tactical Philanthropy to give the team very simple instructions:  Write a blog about any aspect of the conference. I also instructed our team that this could include any of the dozens of pre-conference meetings, trainings and even gala events that were held by foundation affinity groups.

I am very intrigued that out of the 36 blogs posted by our team, 10 of them addressed the needs of emerging leaders in philanthropy.  Although I did purposefully invite younger and newer philanthropy professionals to join the team (to help ensure a diversity of perspectives), and although two of these posts were co-authored by me (summarizing our recent impact assessment of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy) I wasn’t expecting so many members of our team to write about this topic.  I think it speaks to need for philanthropy to focus on intergenerational communication and leadership, so I decided to highlight these posts here.

Fountain of Youth
by Richard Woo, CEO, of The Russell Family Foundation

Letter to COF Conference Attendees
by Holly Wolfe, Environmental Sustainability Program Associate at The Russell Family Foundation

Promoting Intergenerational Leadership & Racial Justice in Philanthropy
by Sterling Speirn, President and CEO of the WK Kellogg Foundation

Caught in the Headlights
by Christi Tran, Program Officer for Blue Shield Against Violence at the Blue Shield of California Foundation

Another Multiplier Effect: Invest in Talent Development – Part One and Part Two
by Daniel Jae-Won Lee, Executive Director of the Levi Strauss Foundation

The Experiences of An Emerging Leader at National Philanthropy Conferences
by Maisha Simmons, Program Associate at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Reflections from a Millennial
by Chanelle Gandy, Program Associate at The Funders’ Network

Advancing the Next Generation: EPIP’s Impact on Philanthropy
by Rusty Stahl, Executive Director of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy, and Kris Putnam-Walkerly, President of Putnam Community Investment Consulting, Inc.

EPIP Provides Support and Opportunity for Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy
by Rusty Stahl, Executive Director of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy, and Kris Putnam-Walkerly, President of Putnam Community Investment Consulting, Inc.

36 Terrific Blog Posts Covering the 2011 Council on Foundations Conference

The Philanthropy411 Blog Team recently covered the Council on Foundations Annual Conference, as well as some of the pre-conference affinity group events such as Asian American Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy Annual Meeting and the Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy National Conference. Below please find a list of and links to all posts published for this event.  The Council on Foundations also had a blog team, and you should definitely check out their blog coverage too.

1. Your Blog Team at Council on Foundations 2011
By: Kris Putnam-Walkerly, President of Putnam Community Investment Consulting

2. EPIP Provides Support and Opportunity for Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy
by Rusty Stahl, Executive Director of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy, and Kris Putnam-Walkerly, President of Putnam Community Investment Consulting, Inc.

3. Mutual Frontiers: Social Change, Storytelling and the Blogosphere
by Daniel Jae-Won Lee, Executive Director of the Levi Strauss Foundation

4. Bringing A Narrative Eye to Philanthropy – Part 1
by Jorge Cino, Social Media Fellow, at the Levi Strauss Foundation

5. Fountain of Youth
by Richard Woo, CEO, of The Russell Family Foundation

6. Letter to COF Conference Attendees
by Holly Wolfe, Environmental Sustainability Program Associate at The Russell Family Foundation

7. Three Examples and a Prize
by Daniel Silverman, Communications Director at the James Irvine Foundation

8. Promoting Intergenerational Leadership & Racial Justice in Philanthropy
by Sterling Speirn, President and CEO of the WK Kellogg Foundation

9. How AAPIP is Building Democratic Philanthropy
by Danielle M. Reyes, Senior Program Officer at The Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation

10. Advancing the Next Generation: EPIP’s Impact on Philanthropy
by Rusty Stahl, Executive Director of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy, and Kris Putnam-Walkerly, President of Putnam Community Investment Consulting, Inc.

11. What Gives?
by Richard Woo, CEO of The Russell Family Foundation

12. The Multiplier Effect: Invest in Fundraising
by Roger Doughty, Executive Director of the Horizons Foundation

13. Gratitude and Wonder in Philly
by Rob Collier, CEO of the Council of Michigan Foundations.

14. Get Some Sleep!
by Ash McNeely, Executive Director of the Sand Hill Foundation

15. Nonprofits, Social Media, and ROI
by Beth Kanter, author of The Networked Nonprofit and co-founder and partner of Zoetica.

16. Go See the Murals!
by Daniel Silverman, Communications Director at the James Irvine Foundation

17. Committee Orientation
by Mark E. Neithercut, founder and principal at Neithercut Philanthropy Advisors

18. Trust is Cheaper than Control: Social Media Adoption Challenges
by Beth Kanter, author of The Networked Nonprofit and co-founder and partner of Zoetica

19. Caught in the Headlights
by Christi Tran, Program Officer for Blue Shield Against Violence at the Blue Shield of California Foundation

20. Gardens Inspire “Roots to Reentry”
by Danielle M. Reyes, Senior Program Officer at The Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation

21. D5 Initiative – Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
by Roger Doughty, Executive Director of the Horizons Foundation

22. Be at the Policy Table (or be on the Menu)
by Robert Eckardt, Executive Vice President of The Cleveland Foundation

23. Grits Ain’t Groceries. They’re Hope.
by Vincent Robinson, Managing Partner of The 360 Group

24. Spending Up, Spending Down, Spending Out: Alternatives To Perpetuity
by Lee Draper, President of the Draper Consulting Group

25.  Another Multiplier Effect: Invest in Talent Development – Part One
by Daniel Jae-Won Lee, Executive Director of the Levi Strauss Foundation

26. Another Multiplier Effect: Invest in Talent Development – Part Two
by Daniel Jae-Won Lee, Executive Director of the Levi Strauss Foundation

27. Philanthropy and Pluralism: Diversity That Does Not Divide
by Lee Draper, President of the Draper Consulting Group

28. Conference Theme Should Unify and Call Us To Action
by Lee Draper, President of the Draper Consulting Group

29. Bringing A Narrative Eye to Philanthropy – Part 2
by Jorge Cino, Social Media Fellow, at the Levi Strauss Foundation

30. Bringing A Narrative Eye to Philanthropy – Part 3
by Jorge Cino, Social Media Fellow, at the Levi Strauss Foundation

31. Fabulous Plenaries at the Council on Foundations Annual Conference
by Lee Draper, President of the Draper Consulting Group

32. Law and Dis-Order
by Richard Woo, CEO of The Russell Family Foundation

33. The Experiences of An Emerging Leader at National Philanthropy Conferences
by Maisha Simmons, Program Associate at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

34. Reflections from a Millennial
by Chanelle Gandy, Program Associate at The Funders’ Network

35. Leadership Under Duress
by Richard Woo, CEO of The Russell Family Foundation

36. 3 Lessons on Evaluation in Foundations
by Mayur Patel, Vice President of Strategy and Assessment at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

3 Lessons on Evaluation in Foundations

Philanthropy411, is currently covering the Council on Foundations conference with the help of a blog team.  This is a guest post by Mayur Patel, Vice President of Strategy and Assessment at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

by Mayur Patel

On Sunday afternoon at the conference, I had the chance to participate in a panel discussion on the intersection between strategy and evaluation. The conversations that followed with participants from private foundations, corporate philanthropy and local community foundations was fascinating. Here are three key themes that emerged:

• Where you sit matters: Over the past few years, new foundation titles have increasingly emerged to describe the position of individuals involved in evaluation. We now have strategic assessment officers, performance managers, knowledge management officers, and even learning and listening directors! The list goes on. Aside from being an amusing word game, the trend speaks to a larger recognition in the field that how you label and house the roles and responsibilities of evaluation affects its use. Many participants shared the organizational efforts they’ve made to link their evaluation teams directly to program development, strategy and planning.

• Creating Demand for Learning and Evaluation: Integrating an evaluation function into a foundation, invariably results in more work for program officers and staff, regardless of how you structure it. The challenge then is how to create demand for this function and how to demonstrate that it helps make a foundation’s work smarter and more effective. Participants shared their practical advice on approaches they’ve used to highlight the value of evaluation, including dedicating evaluation resources to support grantee capacity, leveraging assessment findings to enhance a program’s leadership through external publications and providing support for landscape studies that provide program teams with the broader context to inform their work.

• Indicators versus Conversations: Evaluation discussions can often become singularly focused on metrics. However, unlocking the intersection between strategy and evaluation is much less about indicators and data, than it is about using insights to support conversations and decision making. Participants shared the view that if one of the primary reasons we engage in evaluation is to support course corrections and adaptation, then greater focus is needed on how we use evaluation to help facilitate conversations about learning and program improvement.

If you found this blog post useful, please subscribe. On Twitter? Follow me @Philanthropy411.

Posted by Kris Putnam-Walkerly © Kris Putnam-Walkerly and Philanthropy411, 2010.

Leadership Under Duress

Philanthropy411, is currently covering the Council on Foundations conference with the help of a blog team. This is a guest post by Richard Woo, CEO of The Russell Family Foundation

 by Richard Woo

My board chair and I attended a very provocative seminar for CEOs & Trustees the weekend prior to the COF conference. The session entitled—Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis—was facilitated by Marty Linsky, a faculty member at the Harvard Kennedy School and co-author of the book, Leadership on the Line. Here are some memorable nuggets that captured my attention during the workshop and highly-interactive exercises between CEOs and trustees. Both my board chair and I are feeling our frames of reference shifting.

• You have to stand in your purpose. If you’re not, you’re certainly standing in someone else’s purpose.

• The only way you know you are exercising leadership is when you are meeting resistance. In organizational life, when you meet resistance you are on the right track. It’s a sign of addressing really important work. Often we think that resistance is a sign of being on the wrong track—and we back off for the sake of keeping the peace.

• Leadership is the art of disappointing your people at a rate they can absorb. When you are pushing against what people expect, they can only absorb so much. If it’s a win-win situation, then it’s a sign that nothing important is at stake. Leadership is about the distribution of losses.

• The push back and resistance comes not because people don’t get it. It’s because they do get it and they don’t like it. Before you push people out of their comfort zone, make sure you have built up enough social capital that makes it more difficult for your board to fire you than to listen to you.

If you found this blog post useful, please subscribe. On Twitter? Follow me @Philanthropy411.

Posted by Kris Putnam-Walkerly © Kris Putnam-Walkerly and Philanthropy411, 2010.

Reflections from a Millennial

Philanthropy411, is currently covering the Council on Foundations conference with the help of a blog team. This is a guest post by Chanelle Gandy, Program Associate at The Funders’ Network.

 by Chanelle Gandy

As a newcomer to philanthropy and Council On Foundations (COF), I departed the COF annual conference in Philadelphia with a renewed sense of purpose and urgency for my work.  But what’s more, I sincerely enjoyed myself while interacting with some of the best and brightest practitioners our field has to offer.

When I was employed in a different sector, I attended my share of conferences that weren’t so Millennial-friendly, as evidenced by low attendance by the “under 30” professionals, a clear lack of programming and networking receptions designed for emerging leaders, and a “wait your turn” mentality.

I actually began to think that this was the norm and continued to attend conferences every subsequent year thinking that someone eventually would pay attention to my evaluation feedback, which was essentially a plea for more programming tailored to the needs of new practitioners in our sector.

The COF conference was a different experience. Aside from the conference program, I had very little information from which to form my expectations for the COF conference.  There’s no doubt that I looked forward to making new connections, expanding my learning, and matching names with faces, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that this conference made a genuine effort to be Millennial-friendly.

The Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities has been intentional in its inclusiveness efforts, including designing ways to further the development of new professionals both internally and programmatically. My experience at COF shows me that philanthropy as a field also understands the importance of preparing the next generation for leadership.

During a pre-conference session, I was greeted by two Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP) members who quickly brought me up to speed on the events they’d be sponsoring in conjunction with the conference.  I was sold after I heard “young people.”

What I learned the following evening was that EPIP is the best kept secret in our field for aspiring practitioners and senior and executive foundation staff who are committed to cultivating the next generation of foundation leadership. Since beginning my career in philanthropy, it has been quite refreshing to interact with senior program staff who embrace the mentorship role, and most importantly, challenge my thinking about the issues we care about.

If you found this blog post useful, please subscribe. On Twitter? Follow me @Philanthropy411.

Posted by Kris Putnam-Walkerly © Kris Putnam-Walkerly and Philanthropy411, 2010.

Fabulous Plenaries at the Council on Foundations Annual Conference

Philanthropy411, is currently covering the Council on Foundations conference with the help of a blog team.  This is a guest post by Lee Draper, President of the Draper Consulting Group.

by Lee Draper

Fabulous.  I attended all the plenaries at the Council on Foundations annual conference, and there was not a one that was not provocative, spirited, and engaging.  Wonderful experimentation with the format.  We loved the TED Talks-style offering of three dynamic challenges to our assumptions at the onset.  And we laughed and reflected on the powerful arguments of the mock Philanthropy on Trial that closed the conference.  In between we soared with Jim Joseph’s vision and call to the core challenges of our day, and we ran the gamut of emotions at Arianna Huffington’s embrace of mind and body, innovation and reflection, plug in and give room to unplug.

Many thanks to the organizers of the conference for these capstones for the annual conference.  Take note, Los Angeles.  We look forward to 2012 and the California twist on experimentation, inspiration, and candor.

Bringing A Narrative Eye to Philanthropy – Part 3

Philanthropy411, is currently covering the Council on Foundations conference with the help of a blog team.  This is a guest post by Jorge Cino, Social Media Fellow, at the Levi Strauss Foundation.

by Jorge Cino

Note: You can access the first part of this post here, and the second part here.

Throughout the recent annual conferences of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP) and the Council on Foundations (COF), I noticed that grant makers are placing striking emphasis on how to communicate our stories in new and better ways. While many leaders are still (understandably) looking for ways to measure the impact of their organization’s social media efforts (Beth Kanter discussed this in a recent Philanthropy411 post), content quality remains a non-negotiable pillar of communication.

In the social media landscape, blogging presents both an opportunity and a challenge: the opportunity to tee up your organization’s work with more depth and color than the 140-character- Tweet allows, and the challenge to unlearn some of our instinctive approaches to communication.

Abandonment can be difficult. Especially when it comes to the long paragraphs, jargony language, dense sentence structures and dry prose that often characterize philanthropic communication.

At the Levi Strauss Foundation, we believe storytelling is a crux part of our efforts to convey the work of our grantees in original and better ways. As a creative writer, I offer these five tips from the storytelling world as lynchpins to successful blogging about philanthropy—communication that keeps in touch with our times and preserves the integrity of our rich and multifaceted work:

1. Lead with the human element of a story. Make the reader care about your cause by drawing their attention to the people at the core of the issue. Also, you only get one beginning—give the reader an appealing hook to “enter” the story. When we profiled Lateefah Simon, the executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in the Bay Area, we opened the story with a personal quote about how historic advances in social justice intersected with her life. This grounded the piece at a personal level—and  answered the “so what?” of the story right away.
2. Don’t miss “teachable moments”—but keep them accessible. As a general rule, avoid subjecting the reader to technical terms unless you can explain them in vivid, concrete ways. The beauty of the blog medium is that specialists and casual readers alike may access content at any given time. There are always new opportunities to bring awareness to an issue your foundation cares about, and to the role your foundation plays in addressing it.
3. Stimulate the reader’s senses. Keep the prose crisp, shorten paragraphs to a couple of sentences each, and appeal to the reader’s sensory palette. (When in doubt, split the sentence in two!) Condense denser passages into digestible “nuggets” of information. Whenever possible, accompany your pieces with vivid imagery or video: in the digital age, appealing to the senses helps sustain the reader’s attention and provides multiple entry points to your story.
4. Keep in mind the intended audience for each post. Underlying the previous points is the imperative that your message should adapt to your audience. Although I earlier used the word “lynchpin,” I would choose a different word if I were addressing a field that doesn’t use it often.
On the flipside, remember that your intended reader is likely reading your story online. Whether you’re a baby boomer, a Gen-X or a Millenial, your online content exists in the social marketplace—many other blogs, videos and podcasts compete for your reader’s attention. Keep this in mind as you consider what kind of information you want to include in a single post.
5. Anchor the story to the organization’s history, hallmarks and values. A crisp, well-placed sentence about your foundation’s role in tackling a given issue can go a long way toward building reputational awareness. For example, this is how our guest blogger explained her role in eradicating discrimination against Filipino migrants living with HIV/AIDS.

With these tips, I conclude this series of posts about my experiences bringing a narrative eye to the Levi Strauss Foundation’s communication efforts. I hope these posts provide useful insights and practical tips about the art of blogging. I also hope they inspire other leaders and emerging practitioners to think creatively about how they might best leverage social media tools.

I thank Philanthropy411, as well as EPIP, COF and Daniel Lee, for giving this “emerging practitioner” a voice.

If you found this blog post useful, please subscribe. On Twitter? Follow me @Philanthropy411.

Posted by Kris Putnam-Walkerly © Kris Putnam-Walkerly and Philanthropy411, 2010.

Bringing A Narrative Eye to Philanthropy – Part 2

Philanthropy411, is currently covering the Council on Foundations conference with the help of a blog team.  This is a guest post by Jorge Cino, Social Media Fellow, at the Levi Strauss Foundation.

by Jorge Cino

Note: You can access the first part of this post here.

While in Philadelphia for the national conferences of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy and the Council on Foundations, I shared the Levi Strauss Foundation’s social media strategy with other emerging colleagues. Most were surprised to know we focused our efforts on blogging and not on “viral” tools like Twitter and Facebook. I explained that, like Beth Kanter suggests in her book, “The Networked Nonprofit,” we prefer to narrow our focus on one element of social media and concentrate on using it to its full potential.

To develop the unique and challenging art of blogging successfully, bringing program staff aboard and acclimating them to the process of storytelling has proven key.

I will expand on this format’s particular demands in my next post. In the mean time, I wanted to share how I helped grant makers look at their grant portfolios with a narrative eye.

I proposed the following method:

Which stories?

Which five grants in your portfolio immediately stand out to you? Focusing on a discreet number of grants served to reduce the intimidation factor.  By allowing us to examine each story opportunity in greater depth, it made the project more manageable. 

What makes each grant resonate with you? To help them think through this question, I suggested that grant makers consider the following lynchpins: 1) the people they met at the organization, 2) the personal stories they encountered on the ground, 3) the unique value or contribution offered by the organization involvement, and 4) the impact the grant or organization generated.

What story angle?

When you are able to convey: “Why does this grant matter to me, and why does it matter to people on the ground?” you have implicitly honed in on the “so what?” of each story.

The storytelling process has thus begun.

As you talk about a grantee, think about: 1) the particular work it is carrying out, 2) the persons who are making this happen, and 3) one or two revealing moments you witnessed while on-site.

******

At the Levi Strauss Foundation, our goal was not to morph everyone into a natural storyteller; rather, it was to foster a collective sense of ownership and accountability over this project. As program staff participated in this culling process, we made it clear that it was my role to develop an original frame for each story, filter out jargon and connect the narrative to the organization’s core values (originality, integrity, empathy and courage), rich legacy (spanning 157 years) and pioneering spirit.

In the third and final part of this series, I will outline five guiding principles to bring a narrative eye to foundation storytelling.

Is your organization blogging? Who in your staff is encouraged to blog? Has your organization designed guidelines to maximize the use of this new media outlet?

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