Non Profit

Post image for Big ideas. Big risks. Big fun.

Big ideas. Big risks. Big fun.

by admin on August 12, 2010 · 0 comments

Working on a new, still undercover, initiative.  It has the potential to be one of the biggest things I have ever pulled off.  By the same token, it has the potential to be the most colossal failure.

The interesting thing, though, to me, is the ease at which the early stage things are going.  I am crazy.  I have crazy ideas, like, at least, once a week.  Realistically, this one is far crazier than many of the other ones that have never made it past the “google to make sure I didn’t read about it and then think it was my idea because I was up way past my bedtime when I read it” stage, or the “tell my wife I think it would be cool if someone did (insert crazy idea here) and have her tell me I need to focus on the last 4 ideas that she didn’t think were WAY TOO crazy to consider pursuing, prior to even thinking about this one” stage.

So here is my theory.  I think people won’t invest time or resources in something small.  If they think it could be done alone, then they have no reason to get involved.  They wonder why I don’t just make it happen.  They wonder why someone else hasn’t already done it, if it is truly valuable and truly simple.

So lots of (I think) good ideas get cast aside simply because I:

  • cannot focus
  • do not have much capital
  • am fearful of being too far outside the box
  • am more and more risk averse
  • cannot find partners willing to tackle small side projects

Hmmm.  I guess I need to fix that.

Now, the really big take away is this.  People want to bite off more than they can chew.  They want to be inspired.  They want to tackle audacious problems with never before thought of creative solutions.  They want to go IPO in a year.  They want to stop wars, eradicate hunger and provide water to a continent. People want to be a part of something bigger than themselves, something paradigm shifting, something dangerous, something beautiful.

Small thinking does not seem to get people on the phone.  But shoot someone a huge audacious vision, prove you have a plan to accomplish that vision and you never know who you might end up on the phone with next week.

What are you working on?  Is it big?  Do you need partners?

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Unleashing Beauty Online: the power of social media for social justice

by admin on October 20, 2009 · 0 comments

Below is a presentation I gave at the Unleashing Beauty Conference in Irvine, Ca this last week.  I have embedded my slide show and put my notes, expanded and with links to various websites and webapps mentioned through out.  If your organization would like to talk about a more personalized solution lets set up a time to talk.

Unleashing Beauty Online: the power of social media for social justice

1. Welcome

A. Who Am I?

a. freelance marketer and social web developer for the last year and a                      half

b. in process of launching intersection creative strategies

c. site lead for laundry love santa ana

d. husband, father of 2 kids under 3

B. What we are not discussing

a. philosophical or theological implications of social media

b. philosophical or theological implications of social justice

c. politics

C. Presuppositions I am starting with

a. Social Justice is a good

b. Social Media is ok (moral, legal, ethical, permissible, etc.) for                                    churches, NPO’s and NGO’s to use

c. Social Media is a powerful tool for influence

d. You are here to learn HOW to use social media for social justice (ie:                       not to debate these other items)

2. Format

A. Not So Great Examples

B. Great Examples

C. Practical Steps

D. The Vision

E. Q&A

3. Not so great examples

A. Motrin

B. Social Media Gurus

C. Ning communities (w/ some exceptions)

4. Great examples

A. Invisible People

a. Mark Horvath

b. Invisible People

c. Road Trip

d. Impact

B. Twestival

C. Laundry Love Santa Ana

a. a quick mention

b. a simple website

c. a few well placed mentions

d. press, npo’s and gov’t notice

5. Practical

A. The Right Platforms

a. Website/Blog

b. Facebook

c. Twitter

d. Other

B. The Right Tools

1. Ping.FM

a. Status updates to 30+ sites

2. Posterous

a. blogs, pics, links to 10+ sites

3. TubeMogul

a. video to 40+ video sharing sites

4. Twitterfeed

a. posting of rss feeds through twitter or ping.fm

5. TweetDeck

a. multiple saved twitter searches

b. keep track of conversations on twitter, facebook, even myspace

c. multi account posting and listening

d. columns for keeping track of friends, family, best donors, etc

6. Other

a. niche sites, geographic specific sites, etc

C. The Right Content

1. relevant

a. to your topic

b. to your demographic

c. to YOU

2. funny

a. funny spreads fast

b. funny gets people talking

c. funny keeps people coming back even when the big picture is bleak                      (ie sex trafficking, gang violence, etc)

3. personal

4. unique

a. not found elsewhere

5. shared

a. point people towards orgs, links, articles that are interesting or                               useful in your space.

6. universal

a. low cost of entry. if you want to get people to rally around                                         something, make sure it is something they can rally around.  don’t                         ask them to agree to a set of theological or philosophical                                             propositions to join your movement.  Don’t make it cost too much.  6. Vision

A. Worldwide Scope

B. Little Regulation

C. Little Cost of Entry

D. Viral Potential

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Laundry Love Santa Ana

by admin on October 14, 2009 · 0 comments

Laundry Love Santa Ana is happening on Thursday.  Check it out.  Last month is was a lot of fun and pretty hectic.  Pretty sure it is going to be the same this month.

New Site Beta

by admin on April 22, 2009 · 0 comments

 

Under Construction

As you can tell, my site doesn’t look the same.  It is still a bit buggy, and a teeny bit of the design is not how I want it yet.  But I know that folks are starting to find it, Google is now crawling it and its popping up again as number one in my vanity searches.  Beyond that I will be at Catalyst West this week and know that people I meet will be checking out the site.  So here it is, in its not quite yet finished glory.  

 

Poke around and let me know what is still broken.  I know of a few things, but would love the help to make sure its great for you guys.  

And if you are going to be at Catalyst hit me up on Twitter.

The Idea Camp: Preliminary Thoughts

by admin on March 3, 2009 · 4 comments

Over the next several weeks I will be posting much less rambling abstract thoughts regarding the Idea Camp, but wanted to let you know why I threw out so many tweets about this great unconference.   

Also, for those who could not be there, there is a Vimeo channel up with videos being added every day.
 

1.  There was only one traditional presentation the whole time and it was one given at TED a few weeks ago, so who could complain?  The rest was all interview and Q&A in the main sessions. This made the focus more on ideas than on hero worship.  Difficult to do when you are sitting a few feet away from some serious thought leaders in various fields.  Also made presentations more honest, raw and authentic. Very few canned speeches.

 

2. By bringing together a lot of leaders from different fields it pushed people out of there comfort zone.  Watch the video with Dave Gibbons interviewing John Park from Google and Maxim Karp (sp?) from Yang Dang.  I went out with a lot of pastors after that talk. There minds were all blown.  

 

When you bring together interdisciplinary thought leaders the potential for Medici effect type moments is huge.  Would have liked to see more business leaders represented but social entrepreneurs, church leaders and non profit leaders is already pretty broad. Especially when most conferences only provide one of those and no breadth within a given category. 

 

There were engineers, marketers, producers, pastors, consultants, non profit executives, artists, entrepreneurs, and all sorts of other people. Oh yeah, they even let me show up.   

 

3.  The huge focus on ideas and implementation made everything super practical and actionable.  No esoteric “what ifs” or “if only’s” or idealistic theory.  

 

4. It was affordable.  Often times a conference will cater to learners who are virtually identical to the presenters.  By putting successful folks on stage and allowing the Not-quite-there-yet’s to come in (by virtue of low cost of entry) it opened the doors for a lot of folks who may not have gone to a typical progressive thought conference in any one of the many fields represented.

 

5.  It was extremely open. Text in questions all throughout. All presenters were out and about during the whole conference.  I got to hit the water fountain with Scott Harrison (Charity: Water).  Spencer Burke parked next to me in the parking lot.  Zack Hunter checked in with his mom (who is a kind of a big deal in her own right) while  I was talking to her in the hall.  There were no false gods at this conference. Everyone there was there to learn, help, network, innovate.  

 

I would love to talk more as I decompress and get in touch with all the great folks I met and promised some time to this weekend.  If you went to the conference let me know your thoughts in the comments.  If you have a favorite conference you have been to let me know that too.  What makes it special? 
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Post image for Cheesy sermon videos and some alternatives

Cheesy sermon videos and some alternatives

by admin on February 4, 2009 · 2 comments

Between having a toddler and a brand new baby, I have been neglecting my blog quite a bit lately. I apologize to all of you for this, and have been bringing back a few of my most popular posts from the archives to tide you over until things calm down a teeny bit around here.
Check out these “parody” videos being sold for almost $100 to churches. I put parody in quotes because parody implies wit, humor and smarts. These cheesy imitations of the great Mac commercials with Justin Long and that other guy who was in that movie with Tina Faye and Amy Poehler are not only really poorly produced (not every church has lots of money to invest in multi media, I know) but the acting is really bad and the scripts not that funny. A couple clever puns but by and large a scam looking to pawn some crummy “christian” movie off on some poor unsuspecting pastor hoping to be relevant.

Now I know someone out there is going to know the organization who put these together. Maybe you thought they were amazing. That’s fine. You spend the money on them. And maybe I am being overly critical but organizations that claim to be helping churches and churches themselves should be held to a higher standard. Their motives may be great, but good intentions are not enough. My point is that creativity and innovation should be hallmarks of the Church as we follow the God who invented the duck billed platypus. We need not steal someone else’s idea. We don’t always have to reinvent the wheel though. That being said. . .

Save your parishioner’s some money. Record the actual Mac commercials. Then use those clips to highlight any of the following for a sermon series.

1. Evangelism.

Mac could be represented as Athens. Windows is Jerusalem. A series on Acts17.(Updated: I specifically was thinking of the commercial where Mac talks about making movies and PC talks about spreadsheets. Some would not work because the point you should, I think, be making is that Paul’s methods were equal but specially suited to the circumstance.)

A little more topically Mac can be seen as kind of an ancient future type faith. One that maintains the time less truths of the faith but expresses them in a way that people today can get. With Windows being the stuffy “we’ve always done it that way” type.

Mac could be Paul and Windows Peter. Make sure to reference 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 to drive home the point as well as Galatians 2:11-21 (of course).

2. Doctrine

I have to be careful on this one so I don’t get my mailbox flooded with the DIE HERETIC emails again, but I would take one of three approaches on this one.

a. Correct Doctrine is Mac. Heresy (or for the ecumenical, Error)is Windows.

b. Those Focused on strong commitment to doctrines and statements of faith are Mac. Those who would cast aside doctrine on the altar of relevance are Windows.

C. Those who believe that Truth can be bigger than our intramural squabbles and thus agree to disagree for the sake of community and to spend our resources doing the work of the Kingdom are Mac. Insert your least favorite famous Christian figurehead as Windows.

I am sure there are plenty of people way smarter than me who have even better ideas.

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Book Review: Lord Save Us From Your Followers

by admin on January 27, 2009 · 1 comment

***note: I was not given this book by the publisher nor the author, but actually bought it with my own money.***

Lord, Save Us From Your Followers: Why is the Gospel of Love Dividing America?

“Christianity is turning into a bad word in American society…I figured the best way to get to the bottom of this cultural divide was to talk to the people who were already in the midst of it.”  And so begins Dan Merchant’s two year record of what he experience while shooting adocumentary also titled Lord Save Us From Your Followers.  A journey which included everything from covering his body head to toe in bumper stickers, hanging out with a transvestite nun, and setting up a confessional booth at a Gay Pride Festival to meeting with major media players like Al Franken, Michael Reagan, Ron Luce and Sheila Hamilton.

This book is going to trigger some awesome spiritual conversations for both Christians and non Christians alike.  One of its greatest strengths is that while being one of those books that can just wreck your life, really challenge your fundamental assumptions about life, faith and each other, it is very accessible.  Weighing in at just over two hundred pages an avid reader can knock it out in a day or two and the rest of us in a few weeks.  But the content is rich, poignant and important for all of us to read, share and apply to our lives.

Merchant looks at how Christians tend to dehumanize people.  People demonize certain people’s sins and never look at them the way that Christ does, as children whom He loves.  Chapter twelve is especially moving and many of the conversations he has are heart wrenching.  He sets up the confessional booth at a Gay Pride Festival, but instead of a traditional confessional, he apologizes for the Church turning its back on AIDS victims during the 80’s and for his own prejudice even today (a la Blue Like Jazz).  Because of his honesty and humility lots of people who would never darken the doors of a church have open, honest and beautiful conversations about church, God and life; moving many participants (and I would venture to guess many readers, myself included) to tears.

I was especially grateful for the amount of time he spent dealing with the politicization of the Church.  One of the great tragedies of the last several decades is that Christians have forgotten the lessons of the disciples.  The Jews had been waiting for Messiah to come and challenge the political order and then along comes Jesus.  Not only does he not conquer Rome, he allows them to crucify Him.  Not the conquering hero they were looking for.  Today we forget that Christ came to change our hearts and not the world’s morals or laws.  While not taking a side on the left or right, Merchant points out that we really cannot know how Christ would vote and to claim to is the height of hubris and insulting to everyone else on the planet who disagrees with you politically.  It is an important reminder that he brings home in a non-threatening and yet poignant way. 

While Merchant challenges the Church in a very forthright and serious manner, his love for Her shines through as well.  He seems to, like Saint Augustine, believe that, “The Church is a whore, but she’s my mother (quoted in the book in an interview with Tony Campolo).” His heart seems to genuinely break as he hears the hurts and struggles of the people he interviews who have been wronged by those claiming to be Christians.  He calls on all of us, Christians and non Christians alike to raise the level of discourse in our nation.  He calls all of us to end the partisan bickering, one sided name calling and bumper sticker slogans. He shows an amazing passion for really impacting our culture.  When it comes down to it, I think we can all agree that the Church should be seen for Christ’s love, the amazing relief work and social justice missions around the world instead of being known for Jerry Falwell’s claims that 9/11 occurred because of people who are gay and secular humanists and Pat Robertson’s calls for Hugo Chavez’s assassination.   

The book takes an honest look at how the world views the Church and what perceptions exist. It should give those consider themselves Christians a desire to truly live as disciples and really look at what that means and how it should manifest itself in culture.  It is also a great way for everyone else to get a picture of what Jesus had in mind for the Church, in an engaging, humorous and at times, very emotional way.

Book Review: The New Media Frontier

by admin on October 31, 2008 · 0 comments


The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging and Podcasting for Christ edited by John Mark Reynolds & Roger Overton

The New Media Frontier is written as a collection of essays on various topics related to new media and Christian faith (as the authors view it).  Many of the authors seem cautiously optimistic at best regarding the implications of New Media for the Church.  Author Matthew Lee Anderson goes so far as to write a chapter entitled, “Three Cautions among the Cheers: The Dangers of Uncritically Embracing New Media.”  (emphasis mine)

Needless to say, this book is definitely geared towards those who still need some persuading the “the internets” are here to stay and are not just for porn, video games and pedophiles.  As is often the case with the Church it seems a couple years behind.  No mention of Twitter, several mentions of You Tube without a single reference to Vimeo, no serious discussion of internet campuses, and a very indepth chapter on Right leaning politics (seemed out of place unless you are talking to Pat Robertson and his protoges).  For folks looking for good reasons to get into New Media as a Christian with serious reservations or doubts, this is a phenomenal book.  For folks who are already pretty well sold on the concept, the practical sections are pretty basic and the rest is just making a case for why we should be using New Media.  

The authors opinions were varied from, as previously stated, cautiously optimistic to really fully embracing and utilizing New Media.  

Rhett Smith and Mark D. Roberts both gave great arguments for and examples of fully utilizing new media for community, outreach, impact, etc.  Stephen Shields had excellent thoughts on the use of New Media for non profits, missions and churches engaged in social justice and advocacy.  

David Wayne, Roger Overton, Fred Sanders, Joe Carter, and Jason Baker, Scott Ott and Matthew Eppinette all delve into the benefits of information availability and accessibility, collaboration and sharing across such varied fields as bioethics, journalism, apologetics, theology and education.  Many also expressed the potential downside of difficulty in separating the wheat from the chaff with some much availability and accessibility.  

Bottom line, depending on your starting point and perspective, this book can come across well balanced and address all of the relevant topics you care about, or it can come across all over the map and a little mixed up.

A great read for that pastor whose church is not growing and the only communication is gossip and complaining, or for the youth pastor who can’t figure out why all of his students seem perfect to him but he hears from parents that their going off the deep end.  But if you are looking to expand an existing social media strategy at your church I would look to Chris Brogan, Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki, who spend a lot more time talking about the conversational and community building aspects of New Media.

How Can Non Profits Possibly Succeed in the Current Economic Turmoil?

by admin on October 31, 2008 · 0 comments

Seth Godin shared this on his blog and I wanted to post a bit of it as well.  Think about your church, your NGO and even your business.  How can you become a leader of passionate evangelists for your cause or brand? 

There’s this unspoken idea floating around that “fundraisers” can go about their work in a vacuum, having quiet, unimportant conversations with nameless, faceless rich people, while all the while the people who do the real work (the program folks) can go about their business, separate from and unconnected to this conversation.

What a waste.

Don’t you think that creating a tribe of 5 connected, engaged, passionate evangelists for your cause will create a positive feedback loop that will amplify the change you hope to see in the world?  It doesn’t matter if that tribe is 300 powerful, smart, wealthy people or 3 million regular folks who believe in you and the change you hope to make.  If they are passionate and engaged and you give them a way to help, you will amplify your impact.

If nothing else, then, we need a new word.  Fundraising is about a transaction – I raise funds from you, you get nothing in return.

I’d rather be an evangelist, a storyteller, an educator, a translator, a table-pounder, a guy on his soap box, a woman with a megaphone, a candidate for change.  I want to talk to as many people as I can about my ideas – whether in person or in newsletters or on Facebook or Twitter or in the Economist or at the TED conference or at Davos – and capture their imagination about the change I hope to see in the world.

Don’t you?

Read the complete post on Dichter’s blog.

Via Seth Godin.

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