The Georgia Center for Nonprofits really knows how to put on a show. After walking through a huge exhibitor hall with folks representing companies from Coca-Cola to Opportunity Knocks to Bank of America, we were guided into a large meeting hall that was set up like Kanye West was about to perform on stage. I couldn’t tell if I was here for a conference or a concert! But all the fancy lighting and sound was set up for the keynote, Karen Beavor, President/CEO of the Georgia Center and Allison Fine, author of Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age. Karen first shared the impact of the Center’s programs on nonprofit leaders in room who came up to give testimonials about how their work has been affected. Then Karen said something that absolutely blew me away:
Allison Fine was a real treat to hear her talk about the challenge of nonprofits in the connected age – this time of increased technology & web tools. She assured us that we don’t need to know about every facebook, Myspace, Twitter new thing that comes out, but we need to understand the importance of using the internet to work in more networked ways and leverage exisiting online communities to get our mission and message out there. Unlike our traditional mode of operating, we should not seek to control the flow of information, but encourage two-way conversation to “push power to the edges.” She explained that nonprofits typuically have a “listening deficit” – meaning we push information out, but don’t allow ways for people to connect or engage with us in the process. Many organizations have blogs, but for some reason do not allow comments, fearing that someone will say something negative about them. But this is what nonprofits need to get used to in this new era of everything being so open online – go with the fow instead of fighting it. We need a new kind of nonprofit leadership that is embraces transparency and dialogue because top-down just doesn’t work anymore.
