ROUND EIGHT: No Cost To Nonprofits

Here's yet another offer our cerebral palsy--neurological disorders--brain research--special needs nonprofits SHOULD NOT refuse:

MobileWorks, a crowdsourced virtual assistance platform, is looking to take on and churn out three to five "big projects that can be broken down into smaller tasks"-- exclusively for nonprofit organizations. For free. Nothing. 

The requirements? Projects should:

• involve data entry, data validation, research, photo editing, and /or short writing tasks

• contain at least 1,000 entries, e.g., 1,000 companies to research

• have roughly a 2-4 week turnaround time.

Here's a chance for a relatively smaller budget organization to amplify its impact. For more information, contact me here or at www.facebook.com/parents2projects. You may also contact MobileWorks directly by e-mailing Anna-Lisa: annalisa@mobileworks.com.

Please put your thinkin' caps on!

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Project examples:

• Find the name, address, and founder of a list of 1,000 businesses 

• Digitize a 200-page scanned list of conference attendees 

• Convert 1,000 receipts from different stores into a typed spreadsheet

ROUND EIGHT: My Rx For CP

Not that anyone gives a hoot...

Here's what I believe we could and should generally be doing to KO CP: 

ROUND EIGHT: Everything's Peachy

Here's what I take away from 99% of the online communications I see from organizations operating in and around the cerebral palsy / neurological disorders / brain research / special needs arena: 

Everything's peachy.

You had a great 2013. 
You're right on track for 2014. 
You know just what you're doing. (You're "collaborating.") 
Sure you could use a ton of money -- for what, you rarely say -- but outside o' that?

Peachy.

If I'm reading you correctly that means:

• Your operations are going like gangbusters and need no improving. Your processes are smooth and efficient. As for your programs, products, and services? They're all grand slam home runs.

• The dozens of projects to which you've committed are being broken down into smaller task-chunks and getting checked off -- on time, in every department, to great effect. (That you selected the right projects based on the right strategies in the first place goes without saying.) 

• You're adequately addressing all the "look into" things you and your staff have been hoping and meaning to explore or pursue but haven't had the time to. 

If that's what you're telling me, I'm sorry but --  

I don't buy it for a minute. 

For a variety of reasons. Not the least of which is the fact that so few organizations are as well oiled or productive as they could be. 

I believe you could use all kinds of help. 

Curiously enough, though, your communications never say so explicitly. You show no signs you're in the market for any of the kinds of help I alluded to above. You never say you don't know. You never acknowledge you need more expertise or resources. You never discuss things that flop.

You never let 'em see you sweat. 

That's par for the management and organizational-communications course historically. Remember earlier web sites? 100% PR-filtered and one-way. ("This is what we decided to say about ourselves after we had a chance to deliberate.") I'm not surprised that many of your sites still are. But the fact that I'm seeing the same sorts of patterns with regard to your blogs and Facebook pages concerns me.

How come?

Well, I tend to go along with an observation Dan Pallotta made in his much circulated TED speech from March of 2013, that "Our problems are massive in scale [and] our organizations are tiny up against them."  

Our problems are massive. 

Current conventional CP therapies offer only a 4-10% average gain for any particular individual.* One in eighty-eight children is being diagnosed with autism. We can't afford for our organizations, individually and /or collectively, to be tiny up against our challenges. Not everything's peachy.

What's social media got to do with it? 

I wouldn't go so far as to say that our social media approaches and practices are keeping us tiny. I would say, however, that they're not doing much to make us bigger up against our challenges. And I believe they could.  

And must.

What makes social media special is its two-way-ness. The ability to use it to "engage with" (as opposed to "broadcast to") others. Especially w/ lots of others. A general formula that seems to be emerging for using social media to advance one's mission? Help others help you. Improve your performance by helping smart and passionate others improve their own performance.

Practically speaking, the idea is to (1.) put your true organizational self out there, (2.) tell the world what, specifically, is important to your future success, and (3.) invite people to apply their talents, creativity, and skills to it. How to do these things, e.g., what inducements to offer would-be participants, depends on you and your context. 

My response /call to action:

I'm experimenting with something that could conceivably help your organization "open itself up" to additional help from the outside. Via my Parents2Projects Facebook page and "Calls 2 Action" map (below) I'm trying to get the word out to potential workers / helpers / service providers that there's much important work to be done in our community. 

You may be able to help your organization by telling me what help you want or need. Tell me about projects, would-be projects, or specific tasks you could use some help completing. From the profound to the mundane. Of any size or scope. Shoot 'em my way and I'll see what I can do to connect you with low- or no-cost "people power" to get them done. Please contact me here, or through Facebook.

What's there to lose? Who's to say we couldn't drum up a critical mass of participants and amplify our productivity and impact beyond our wildest dreams?

Create your own mind maps at MindMeister 

*per Dr. Iona Novak from CP Alliance in Australia

ROUND EIGHT: I Commend You

I don't know these days if people are still handing out kudos, or even props for that matter, but I want to -- to RespectAbilityUSA.

How come?

Based on first impressions only of its Facebook activities, I see an organization using social media for more than just fundraising or marketing communications. I see it using social media strategically, too, for doing important, mission-driven work.

In the past 4-6 weeks, for example, RA has issued at least 4-6 unique calls to action. (I know in at least two cases its calls were answered.) It has invited constituents to: 

• participate in a conference call 

• complete a survey 

• submit photos 

• provide pro bono camerawork, and 

• be interviewed. 

Could this mean it actually gets what it means to "be digital" and why things necessarily start and end with the constituent? 

In any case, RespectAbility's Facebook page strikes me as a good environment for knowledge; a good environment for learning. There's a working community in the making there. And since at this point I can only imagine giving its leaders a "smartie" award for productive Net behavior -- I wish 'em well. 

I hope other nonprofits working in and around the CP and special needs realm take note.

ROUND EIGHT: Perturbed

An open and off-the-cuff letter to anyone who's "in the know" about the innermost workings of any of the following: 

• One Mind 4 Research 

• The New York Stem Cells Foundation 

• Institue for Community Inclusion 

• The Allen Institute for Brain Science 

• American Brain Coalition 

• Cerebral Palsy International Research Foundation 

•  American Association of People with Disabilities

• Weinberg Family Cerebral Palsy Center* 

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Dear Sir or Madam:

Whenever I visit your organization online -- either at your site or on Facebook or Twitter -- a part of me gets perturbed. 

Irked. 

The reason being? 

I'm either a constituent or would-be constituent of yours. And you're not asking me to help. 

You're not: 

• gathering demographic info about me, having me take surveys, funneling me into focus groups, or designing your processes around me; 

• building online platforms that might enable me to help you address your key challenges and opportunities; 

• taking advantage of whatever professional skills I may be able to share (for little or no remuneration) in service to your cause. 

What you are doing, on the other hand, is asking for money. And telling me about your accomplishments. 

Me and at least 14 million others like me.**

What should I make of all this? My getting perturbed -- is this just a me thing or could it be that you:

• have a more inside-out than outside-in perspective, and "being digital" in, say, the Mark McDonald or John Seely Brown sense isn't your m.o.? 

• are already hitting your goals and accomplishing all you want or need to accomplish?

• want to hit home runs and the one- or two-base hits you believe could result from more fully engaging with constituents isn't worth it? 

• see us only as walking wallets? 

• are the expert and you intend to keep doing the same things that got you there? 

• don't possess the know-how you'd need to move your organization in these directions, or the time to learn? 

• are managing under a board of trustees that's asleep at the wheel? 

I hope to find the answers in 2014. The earlier the better. Until then, I'll "make of all this" an opportunity to: 

• keep learning 

• raise more questions like the ones above

• encourage the leaders of our neuro disorders /special needs organizations to think about delivering more value this coming year.  

I want things to go faster. 

I want all us to solve our problems -- pronto. But by the same token I'm with Dan Pallotta when he says:

Our problems are massive in scale. Our organizations are tiny up against them. And we have a belief system that keeps them tiny.

He has his own interesting ideas about how nonprofits might scale up and become less tiny. 

What's my answer-in-the-making?

I happen to believe that there's a lot of latent talent, creativity, and energy out there, i.e., brainpower, that our organizations could and should put to productive use to amplify their impact. Marketers of basketball shoes, online booksellers and reality TV shows do it. Shouldn't our community be able to do the same?

So, specifically to the leaders of the above mentioned orgs: 

I hope you'll be mindful of the fact that you /we need to do more, and be open to the possibility that you /we may actually be able to deliver it. I challenge you to look at your own management-belief systems. These are management challenges I'm talking about. These are management answers I'm alluding to.

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*The list could go on and on.

**According to Children's Neurobiological Solutions Foundation, there are "more than 14 million children living in the US with one of more than 600 different neurological conditions."