The Future Has Arrived
When the Communications Network first came up with the idea for a report about how foundations are using new communications technologies, we had an internal working title: High Tech Tools or Expensive Toys? By even suggesting a hint of frivolity in the rush by foundations to embrace these new things, we were letting our bias show. We were signaling that maybe there wasn’t more there than met the eye, or at least not yet. And if there was something significant underway, we felt a responsibility to approach it with caution. Still, our deeper wish was that our concern—even skepticism—about the value of using the new tools would be proven wrong.
Well, wrong, we were. And we couldn't be happier.
As this report shows, many foundations are embracing new communication tools—from interactive Web sites to podcasts to blogs and wikis to social networking applications. Early evidence suggests that these tools and applications are extending and enhancing the ability to communicate more effectively with a range of audiences. But the more important finding is that we're just on the cusp of the real promise the technology offers.
And it’s not just the promise of getting messages out the door more effectively that matters. It’s also about engaging more people in the work foundations do. As you’ll read, these new tools and applications, which are loosely bundled under the heading of “Web 2.0,” enable foundations to invite people inside their organizations. And the invitation is to do more than just to take a look around. When used well, these interactive, two-way communication tools enable online visitors to be part of the larger discussions that foundations need to have if their work is going to have lasting influence beyond the grants they make.
Those like myself, who have been in the field long enough to remember when the Internet was in its infancy, can also recall when we first greeted the idea of foundation Web sites as novelties, with comments like: “Isn’t that interesting,” “Does your foundation have one yet?” and “What do you do with yours?”
Back then, Web sites were more or less just a new way for repurposing what we’d already said in print, recreating digital versions to post online for easy access or reference. Later, we added e-mail newsletters, spiffier versions of annual reports, videos, and the like. But it was still the same way we'd always communicated: “us” telling “them” what they “needed” to know.
What we are seeing, or being offered, today hardly compares. To put it simply, these new tools are ushering in more than just a change in what we distribute and how we distribute it, but how we communicate. The old “tried and true” methods are giving way to new experimentation, greater openness, and an understanding that the best communication is two-way...or multi-directional. The field is beginning to acknowledge that success is not measured in how much we say, how often, to whom, how many clicks our Web sites receive, or how many publications are downloaded. Today effective communication is measured on what it is that people are actually hearing (from what foundations are saying), what are they doing with or about the information they’re receiving, and how this more circular process is changing not only the words, but the actions of foundations as well.
This is not a time to be cautious, but instead to be welcoming and embracing. As we all know, the world of communications, notably commercial print and broadcast media, is changing rapidly. As new forms of media keep springing up, where and how people get information is morphing by day. Foundations that have relied on traditional media—or even their own Web 1.0 sites—to effectively communicate now face increased competition for mindshare. Failure of foundations to hold on to—or more importantly, expand—their audiences can only compound the well-documented challenge they already face in failing to convince many influential Americans about the value of philanthropy to our society.
But rather than approach the use of technology as a way to address a deficit in what the public knows about foundations, the work they do, and the underlying missions and issues that drive their grantmaking, there is a far greater opportunity—an opportunity to build meaningful relationships with audiences that matter.
As others who are studying the changing media landscape have pointed out, people are becoming less and less dependent on traditional media for their news and information. They are turning to other credible places and sources. There is no reason foundations cannot be part of that mix and use that development to their advantage. But to do so requires that foundations play by the new rules and model their offerings after those organizations and entities that are attracting growing and engaged audiences.
Ernest James Wilson III, dean and Walter Annenberg chair in communication at the University of Southern California, suggests that to master and make the best use of what the technology offers, foundations should concentrate on three things:
• Build up the individual
“human capital” of their staffs and provide them the competencies
they need to operate in the new digital world
• Make internal institutional reforms to reward creativity and innovation
in using these new media internally and among grantees
• Build social networks that span sectors and institutions, to engage
in ongoing dialogue among private, public, nonprofits and research stakeholders
As Wilson also says,
All of these steps first require leadership, arguably a new type of leadership, not only at the top but also from the “bottom” up, since many of the people with the requisite skills, attitudes, substantive knowledge and experience are younger, newer employees, and occupy the low-status end of the organizational pyramid, and hence need strong allies at the top.
This report is our contribution
to helping stimulate progress toward those goals. It is a beginning step,
not an end point. Our aim is to stimulate discussion, foster robust debate,
spotlight new and emerging practices, and serve as a place where people
can learn from and share with
each other.
The rest is up to you. But don’t wait too long.
Bruce S. Trachtenberg
Executive Director
Communications Network
September 2008
|
|
|
Related Links
|
