Come On In. The Water's Fine.
An Exploration of Web 2.0 Technology and its Emerging Impact on Foundation Communications

Produced for the Communications Network
Made possible by support from The California Endowment, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Project Overview
In September 2007, the Communications Network commissioned Brotherton Strategies to explore how emerging Web 2.0 technologies are changing the way private grantmaking foundations interact with grantees, community members, policy-makers and other audiences.

We focused our investigation on several key questions: How is the digital landscape changing the nature of philanthropic communication? What role do social networks, wikis, video and audio podcasts, RSS feeds, blogs and other participatory technologies currently play for private grantmaking foundations? What Web 2.0 tools are grantmakers embracing (or avoiding), and why? What are they learning in the process? And, most importantly, how are those lessons helping to advance organizational or programmatic objectives?

By seeking answers to these questions, this report examines the challenges and opportunities inherent in the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies. This report is not intended to be an inventory of all Web 2.0 initiatives being undertaken by grantmakers everywhere. Rather, it samples, describes and shares what the field is generally learning in the early days of these technologies.

This study has been prepared for The Communications Network and its members. The research and reporting was made possible through the generous support of The California Endowment, Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Methodology
Brotherton Strategies began its research by surveying the breadth of available literature on philanthropy and Web 2.0 technologies including popular print and online media, trade publications, reports, Web sites, blogs and books. We cataloged more than 150 references, articles, studies and other citations.

Based on our literature review, and in consultation with the Communications Network’s executive director, we then selected a group of foundations and organizations from the network’s membership that we believed could best inform our research and data collection. Senior communications professionals from the group were then invited to participate in one-on-one telephone interviews with the Brotherton Strategies team. Our overall response rate was high—nearly 80 percent. Only a handful of those invited were not responsive, and a few others declined to participate for internal reasons or because they felt they were unable to speak knowledgeably on the subject.

Interviewees included representatives of foundations large and small that have embarked on high-profile social media or Web 2.0 initiatives. We also spoke with several foundations which are moving more slowly into this arena—those taking a “wait and see” approach and others that have made small, incremental forays into the Web 2.0 space.

We focused our interviews with limited exceptions on endowed, private grantmaking foundations (rather than community foundations or operating foundations). We interviewed more than 30 senior-level communications professionals in all, representing 23 different United States foundations. Interviews were also conducted with five consultants familiar with the fields of philanthropy and technology.

Our interview protocol was structured to allow for ample open-ended dialogue and accommodate the unique circumstances or perspectives of each respondent. We asked interviewees to describe their individual/organizational experiences with Web 2.0 technologies; we sought details about the organizational attitudes that drove adoption of these tools; and we identified common experiences, opportunities and challenges across organizations.

The results described in this report represent the informed opinions of the study’s authors based upon all of the information collected over five months of research. The findings are by no means conclusive or absolute. Ultimately, what is reported here represents a “point in time” assessment of a sector in transition. Not surprisingly, some foundations have chosen to leverage the powerful new tools and technologies for increased organizational effectiveness, while others remain hesitant to upend the status quo.