Sparked Blog

Jeff De Cagna is a leading voice for innovation in the association community, and the chief strategist and founder of Principled Innovation. We chatted last week about how associations could use mobile volunteering and crowdsourcing to achieve their missions.

De
Cagna feels that associations are in a period where they need to create
new business models, and that those new models need to involve
increased levels of voluntary engagement.

He explained, "It's
going to require being able to tap into the intelligence of a much
broader set of stakeholders, and a much broader set of distributed
networks of potential contributors. In that sense, this is a strategic
challenge for associations: how do we engage a greater number of
people, yet make it a manageable process for them, and also a
satisfying and meaningful process?"

On the other hand, De Cagna
points out that the people associations need to engage are busier and more tired than
ever before. Their attention
is fragmented from information overload, and they are under pressure in
the workplace, and at home. He sees what was once a tension, becoming a
conflict: organizations need volunteers, but sustaining volunteer
engagement over time is becoming increasingly difficult because of
people's busy and stressful lives.

De Cagna says mobile
volunteering is a "powerful option" to work through this challenge. "If
we can leverage a mobile platform that just about everyone has access
to, and is using, and if we can do it in ways that are meaningful, yet
convenient, then I think that has real potential to change the rules of
the game. The aggregate result of that is something that can actually
have a huge impact on our organizations, if we can really tap into it
more deeply. It is a strategic imperative, and a human imperative."

He
feels there is a distinction to be made between volunteerism, in the
traditional sense, and what he refers to as, "voluntary engagement." De
Cagna says associations are very good at creating ways for people to be
volunteers in a structured, conventional way (i.e. serving on a board,
committee, or a task force), but that they often end up using the same
volunteers over and over again.

What associations are less
practiced at, but which wasn't an issue until the recent social media
explosion, is engaging someone who, "gets up in the morning and says,
'I want to make, on a voluntary basis, a contribution of some kind, of
my passion, energy, intellect, and experience, to an organization, a
professional association, or any group I belong to.'" "Voluntary
engagement" is more challenging for associations to manage and
coordinate than volunteerism because it doesn't fit within the conventionally defined
boundaries of what they usually do.

"Mobile volunteering and
crowdsourcing gives us a really powerful way to manage the two sides of
that coin," says De Cagna, "on the one hand, we can more effectively
manage a greater number of people being involved, and we can support
this idea of people being able to voluntarily engage when they choose
to, and when it's meaningful to them, and when it's convenient for
them, rather than having to do it in the ways that we define it."

One
specific way he could see associations using crowdsourcing would be to,
instead of surveying potential conference attendees, asking them
to review and comment on session proposals using their mobile device.

De
Cagna says The Extraordinaries is, "one of the most important
technologies that I've been connected to in my career, and I think
it really has disruptive, in a really good way, potential for our
space."

He would recommend it to associations because it,
"increases the surface area of attraction," and, "gives anyone who is
connected to the organization an opportunity to make an immediate
impact on something that is important, whether that is reviewing a
conference proposal, or tagging a photo, or taking a picture."

—–

Britt Bravo also blogs at Have Fun * Do Good, BlogHer.com, WE tv's WE Volunteer blog, and the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship blog. She is a Big Vision Consultant.

Last week I chatted with Carole Baskin, the CEO of Big Cat Rescue,
about the organization's experience using The Extraordinaries over the
last few months.  Big Cat Rescue is an educational sanctuary home to
more than 100 big cats (i.e. lions, tigers, wild cats) in Tampa, Florida. 
In addition to taking care of their 100 + animals, Big Cat Rescue also
works through education and legislation to end the conditions that
cause big cats to be abandoned and abused.

Big Cat Rescue is using The Extraordinaries to empower individuals to
report big cat abuse by asking people who are at a circus, a zoo, or in
any situation where a big cat is being abused (i.e. in small quarters,
is pacing, has untreated sores), to use The Extraordinaries to take and
upload a photo.

Although they haven't had many photos uploaded yet, they have had a
positive response to their other microvolunteer
opportunity, tagging the photos Big Cat Rescue already has.

Baskin says best thing about using The Extraordinaries is how easy it is to use:

"The fact that they do it step-by-step; people can't get
lost in the process.  . . . People
are looking for things that they can do very quickly, and this is
something that they can do very quickly, without a lot of commitment,
and yet still be doing something very valuable." 

She particularly loves how when you complete a microvolunteer
opportunity, you can click to get credit for it.

"It appears that they
are thanked by the application, or presumably by the organization," said Baskin, "and
I think that is a wonderful way to make them feel acknowledged for what
they've done without taking more of our time and resources to be able
to thank them."

Baskin is excited to test out The Extraordinaries' new custom micro-app builder, and feels that The Extraordinaries has the potential to help Big Cat Rescue meet its goals:

"I
think this application could really help us reach our mission, which is to end the abuse and abandonment of these cats, because
as the public knows about these situations, they aren't going to stand
for it, and now you've empowered everybody with an iPhone in their hand
to help put an end to that."

Let us know about your experience using The Extraordinaries in the comments or contact a member of the team.

—–

Britt Bravo also blogs at Have Fun * Do Good, BlogHer.com, WE tv's WE Volunteer blog, and the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship blog. She is a Big Vision Consultant.

A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of talking with Nathan Hand, the Development Associate for Christel House, about his organization's experience with The Extraordinaries.

Christel House's goal is to end poverty with a holistic, long-term approach.  They have five learning
centers around the world that serve children in extreme poverty.  The children they work with receive education, health care,
nutrition and, "everything they need to break the cycle of poverty." 
The organization serves a little over 3,000 children worldwide, and has been
around for 11 years.

Christel House started using The Extraordinaries a few months ago, and
is offering two microvolunteer opportunities.  The first is photo
tagging images taken at their school in Bangalore, India.  Hand says
that the photo tagging is helpful for marketing purposes and, "it
actually really does save our staff some valuable time."

The second opportunity is writing a good luck message and study tip to students who are about to take standardized tests.  According to Hand, "All these kids around the world have at some point,
in every country, some sort of standardized test that they need to
pass.  Sometimes it makes or breaks graduation, sometimes it makes or
breaks them getting into the next grade level, it depends on the
country, but no matter where the child is, it's a lot of pressure, and
they spend their whole life preparing for it.  What we're trying to do
is basically crowdsource the pat on the back."

Hand says that The Extraordinaries is an effective tool for Christel House
because, "We are a relatively small organization, but it's a way to get
people to not only hear about us, but to truly engage with us right
away. When you talk about the engagement model for nonprofits, people
can donate, or people can volunteer, things like that, but it just cuts
down so many of the barriers. People literally, in a matter of seconds,
can have a meaningful engagement with a kid in need through us. They
have the warm glow, then they remember us, and they remember those
kids, and that's what it's about."

He said he would recommend The Extraordinaries to other nonprofits
because, "It's easy. Those folks are accessible. It's new and exciting,
and
if we don't dive into new and exciting nobody else will. It's working.
From this end, as part of the pilot, it did everything that they said
it would, and we're starting to get some good stuff from it, so it can
only get better, and flow more smoothly, and engage more people." 

He's looking forward to when The Extraordinaries will be available for
additional platforms (i.e Blackberry, Droid), and not just the iPhone.

"I
have done a lot of volunteer management kind of work," said Hand, "I
think people have been looking to see how the VolunteerMatches of the
world, and some of those sorts of places, HandsOn Network, and the
volunteer management sector, how they are going to adapt themselves to
a mobile-on-demand world, and I think The Extraordinaries is doing it.
It's been a long time coming. We appreciate the work"

Let us know about your experience using The Extraordinaries in the comments or contact a member of the team.

—–

Britt Bravo also blogs at Have Fun * Do Good, BlogHer.com, WE tv's WE Volunteer blog, and the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship blog. She is a Big Vision Consultant.

Daniel Phelps, Office Manager at the Wikimedia Foundation, first heard about The Extraordinaries during Penguin Day
in San Francisco this spring, and downloaded it the first week it came
out.  He was excited to have something "useful" to do on his iPhone.

"There's a lot of time where I'm either waiting in public transit, or
you go on a trip and there's nothing to really do," said Phelps, "Do
you play with some app that's not really going to do anything for you,
or do you do something that might actually help someone?"

Phelps said he also downloaded the app because, "There are so many things that could come out of The
Extraordinaries that have the potential to be very, very good.  I
wanted to make sure I had it so that when those things come along, and
I'm sitting there with 10 minutes in front of me, I can give 10
minutes, and do something that is hopefully going to help somebody."

He has contributed mostly to the Bibliothèque de Toulouse
project by helping to catalog historic French photos. He also played
with the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress image
tagging projects, and has been watching the progress of KaBOOM!, where
you can help build a map of places where kids can play.

He
thought it would be great if in the future people could fill out a
profile and match their particular skills with microvolunteer
opportunities. For example, he'd like to be able to easily find
opportunities where he could use his ability to speak French.

"Not that I wouldn't go
in and kick the tires and find out what is interesting and what is
exciting," says Phelps, "but having certain skills, I think, is really
important for being able to help different places. My job is very
organizational and administrative based, and I think there is a lot of
good that could come out of somebody who has that skill set helping
somebody who might not."

*****

Since my original conversation
with Phelps a couple weeks ago, he has also contributed to GoodDogz, where
you can help build a database of dog shelters, share information about
dogs who need a home, or take a photo of your favorite dog.

He would also like to spend some time on Heal the Bay (where you can
report pollution in your neighborhood, storm drain, or at the beach),
and on Breakthrough (where you can record a 30-second audio clip
telling the government what immigration means to you).  He's also
figuring out how he can contribute best to wdydwyd where you can take a
self portrait answering the question, "Why do you do what you do?" ask a friend
wdydwyd?, or call a voicemail line and record your answer to wdydwyd?

Let us know about your experience using The Extraordinaries in the comments or contact a member of the team.

Photo by Lane Hartwell on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Britt Bravo also blogs at Have Fun * Do Good, BlogHer.com, WE tv's WE Volunteer blog, and the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship blog. She is a Big Vision Consultant.

Lauren Bacon, a Partner at Raised Eyebrow Web Studio, took a little time out of her busy day last week to tell me about her experience using The Extraordinaries iPhone application.

She
has contributed to the Smithsonian Institution's and Library of
Congress's image tagging projects on The Extraordinaries, and wants to
contribute to the KaBOOM! map of places where kids can play, but hasn't
yet.  She also checked out Bibliothèque de Toulouse (they need help
cataloging historic French photos) because she is bilingual.

Overall,
her experiences with the Smithsonian Institution and Library of
Congress were positive because their needs were simple and
straightforward.  She did say that many of the images were already
tagged so it would have been nice if the "skip" button was higher up in
the window so that she could have skimmed more quickly through images
that were already completed.

When I asked Lauren why she contributed to the Smithsonian Institution
and Library of Congress's projects, and not others, she said that she
would contribute to more organizations' projects more often if:

1. They were causes she was passionate about like arts education, gender quality, LGBT rights, and homelessness.
2. They were based in Canada (she is Canadian).
3. They had international impact.  She sited MoveOn.org and Avaaz
   as organizations that do a good job making international users feel
   like they have something to contribute, even to local causes.

She also had some great ideas for how to encourage people to keep using the application after they download it.

1. Send email reminders to users to keep the application at the top of their' minds, and to let them know when new projects are added.
2. As more organizations get involved, create ways for people to search
   for projects by their areas of interest, and their expertise. 
3. Provide time estimates for projects.
4. Allow people to email themselves a reminder to contribute to a project if they can't right at that moment.
5. Facilitate users' sharing projects with friends via email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Let us know about your experience using The Extraordinaries in the comments or contact a member of the team.

Britt Bravo also blogs at Have Fun * Do Good, BlogHer.com, WE tv's WE Volunteer blog, and the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship blog. She is a Big Vision Consultant.

"On one level, everything MoveOn.org does is crowdsourced activism."
–Peter Koechley, MoveOn.org

Last week Peter Koechley, MoveOn.org's Campaign Innovation Director, gave me 3 great examples of how MoveOn.org has used crowdsourcing:

1. They recently created a We Can't Afford to Wait Photo Petition.

MoveOn.org
emailed all 5 million of their members and asked them to download a
poster template, take a photo of themselves holding their poster, and
upload it to MoveOn.org.

A smaller group of particularly active
members, about 5,000, were asked to vet the photo entries and sort
them as appropriate, inappropriate, or excellent using a custom-made
online tool.

Using crowdsourcing in this way helps MoveOn.org
keep its staff small. They have 5 million members, but only about 20
paid staff. Combing through the 9,000 We Can't Afford to Wait photos
would have taken a lot of time for one staff person, but it only took
30 minutes for all of the photos to be sorted by members. Wow!

"It's
super simple, but incredibly useful," said Koechley, "And the action of
doing it is actually pretty fun. You find that you plan on doing three
photos, and you end up doing 20."

2. During the 2008 Presidential campaign, MoveOn.org held a 6-week Obama in 30 Seconds video contest.

Although
MoveOn.org has paid ad makers they work with, according to Koechley,
"You get a different caliber of ad, and a different quality of
storytelling, and a different feel when it is
member-created-advertising."

Similar to the We Can't Wait photo
petition, MoveOn.org used members to sort and vet the 1100 video
entries. 5.5 million votes were cast by MoveOn.org members in order to
select the 15 finalists. The winning video was chosen by a panel of
judges.

3. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, MoveOn.org created HurricaneHousing.org.

HurricaneHousing.org
connected displaced people with MoveOn.org members who were offering a
place to stay in their homes. "With crowdsourcing in general, said
Koechley, you think, 'What time, efforts, or assets does this big group
of people have, and how can they use them to the most effect?' In this
case, it was an extra room." Nearly 30,000 people were housed through
connections made on HurricaneHousing.org.

Success stories like
these can make you think that crowdsourcing can solve all of our
problems, but as Koechley observed, "Just because there is a bunch of
work, it doesn't mean that people want to do it." Two key elements to
successful crowdsourcing campaigns are:

1. Choose tasks that are fun, interesting, and/or meaningful
2. Make the system people interact with easy to use

According
to Koechley, the biggest challenge in setting up a crowdsourcing
project is creating the systems people will use to participate. "It's
not worth building the process and setting it up if you aren't going to
use it multiple times," he advised.

When I asked him how
MoveOn.org could use a tool like The Extraordinaries' iPhone app, he
said that MoveOn.org needs help with political and legislative
research. As an advocacy organization, MoveOn.org requires knowledge
and understanding of everyone in Congress, and they don't have enough research staff to be constantly updating information.

He wasn't
sure how the research could be crowdsourced though, "There is probably
some clever way to crowdsource it, but we haven't cracked that nut yet.
There is a constant monitoring of what is going on in Washington. It is
a little bit hard to figure out how to break that down into
crowdsourcing tasks, but it's also hard to keep tabs on every issue
from every department and agency when you have a tiny staff."

He also had some kind words for The Extraordinaries:

"The
reason I think that the Extraordinaries is cool is just because it
kinda comes from where MoveOn.org comes from which is, 'How do you make
it possible for people whose hearts are in the right place to take
action in politics easily?' How do you make being engaged in politics
in a powerful and impactful way easy for regular people? It seems like
for a wider pool of interests, that is what The Extraordinaries is
doing, making doing good in just a few minutes in a busy life easy."

What
do you think are key elements to successful crowdsourcing campaigns?
How do you think MoveOn.org's political and legislative research could
be crowdsourced?

Britt Bravo also blogs at Have Fun * Do Good, BlogHer.com, WE tv's WE Volunteer blog, and the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship blog. She is a Big Vision Consultant.