Online Engagement, "Der Fisch" and the Nervous Foundation

CEO Chris Wolz and Managing Director Andrew Cohen attended the Fall 2011 Communications Network Conference this past week to connect and learn about communication tools and best practices. This post was originally published online at ComNetwork.org, and is cross posted below with permission.

Two observations from Communications Network yesterday: exciting opportunities to effect social change using online engagement make many foundations nervous, and the old German expression “Der Fisch stinkt vom Kopf her” has new applicability in this online age.

Dan Brady from the Forum of the Regional Association of Grantmakers led a session “Learning to Act as a Network,” building on the “Connected Citizens” project of the Knight Foundation. That project is focused on, “How might our grantmaking respond effectively to a world in which loose networks of individuals, not just formal organizations, are becoming powerful creators of knowledge and action?”

Dan discussed the “traditional mindset” of how many organizations - and foundations – function: firmly controlled and planned, decision-making is concentrated, insights come from individual expert actors, etc. And in contrast, he discussed what the networked approach embodies: weaving connections and building networks, loosely controlled and emergent, collective intelligence, etc. Some examples of the value of the (online) networked approach to create tools, services, insights and social action are seen in:

• Crisis Mapping Standby Task Force
• Pink Chaddi Campaign
• Open Source Software, like Linux
• Wikipedia
• Ashoka’s Changemakers
• PreventObesity.net
• EDF’s Innovation Exchange

In the session, I heard the repeated theme that foundations were too risk averse to engage in network building approaches – online or
offline – as the outcomes are uncontrolled and unpredictable. One person mentioned how the funders with which he routinely met were very guarded in sharing information and challenges - even in face to face meetings among peers. Another mentioned how his organization had ventured into blogging as a way to expand engagement, but only after they first mapped out a detailed multi-leveled response plan to deal with negative comments on the blog (which, by the way, never came).

In Marc Fest's session on “Letting others do the talking: tactics for decentralizing communication without inviting chaos,” he encouraged people to find ways to get program staff communicating – online – about their work. Again, people commented on the risk aversion of foundations to experiment with online engagement – with blogging and social media and online network building. Marc spoke of how the Knight Foundation has had success with getting staff blogging, by emphasizing that blogs posts did not need to be like carefully written white papers, and were better if they were short, casual, timely, and personal. See their blogs here: knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog. Marc also spoke of how it was valuable to get the head of an organization paying attention to online efforts, maybe even blogging, in order to give the organization’s online efforts some legitimacy and focus, because “Der Fisch stinkt vom Kopf her” (a fish stinks from the head down).

So, what’s a progressive communications director at a nervous foundation to do? After all, they don’t want to have some gaffe on their watch, like a program officer saying “We” (the royal we) “passed health care.” But they may want to position their foundation — online — as a thought leader, network building, and generator of big impacts. Here are some ideas about practical steps in trying online engagement — and surviving to tell about it:

• Evangelize! share with your colleagues new online approaches and success stories – because if you don’t, where are they going to learn about new online innovations?
• Get your "message house" in order on an issue have your colleagues use it, and relax!
• Pilot projects: try small, time limited, online engagement “pilot” projects. There is a reason Google (e.g. Google Chrome Beta) and others call new initiatives "Beta" to great success!
• And follow the guidance of the Connect Citizens in network building: 
  • Listening to and consulting the crowds: Actively listening to online conversations and openly asking for advice.
  • Designing for serendipity: Creating environments, in person and online, where helpful connections can form.
  • Bridging differences: Deliberately connecting people with different perspectives.
  • Catalyzing mutual support: Helping people directly help each other.
  • Providing handrails for collective action: Giving enough direction for individuals to take effective and coordinated action.