One of the biggest mistakes that international organizations make is not taking enough time to explain to journalists why thing are complicated and take a long time. But taking that time and investing into communications pays off.
Archive for the ‘Recommended’ Category
I’m currently meeting loads of really interesting people. One of them is the author of the blog “Good Intentions are Not Enough“, subtitle “an honest conversation about the impact of aid.” I think it’s great and I think we need more blogs like this. Not only to make agencies accountable but also to educate individual donors about why certain things are just really, really bad ideas and why some well-meant initiatives can actually cause harm. Check it out: http://informationincontext.typepad.com/
Wired magazine just published an excellent article about the Red Cross Red Crescent relief operation in Haiti. Author Vince Beiser takes 13 pages to describe the inner workings of the operation. And while he is not shy on criticism, it is well balanced and fair.
I find it’s pretty rare that you come across good, fresh case studies of how non-profit organizations are using social media. And I’m not talking about “we use Facebook, too.” I mean something that shows how an NGO actually managed to get a concrete, measurable result with the help of social media. “10 tactics for turning information into action” from Tactical Tech is such a rare example. 10 tactics is first and foremost a one hour long movie, but it’s also[...]
I just finished reading Joel Hafvenstein’s “Opium Season“, a book that has absolutely nothing to do with social media but which I’d like to recommend to anyone working in the aid-business. Opium Season is about Hafvenstein’s time in Afghanistan in 2005, when he was working for a USAID funded cash-for-work project that was supposed to supplement the income of people who were due to lose money because of a poppy-eradication campaign. The problem with donor driven programmes What makes this book[...]
I know many NGOs who produce feature-length advocacy films to state their case against e.g. climate change, human trafficking, dragnet-fishing etc. And I am certain that many of them could be greatly enhanced by an approach like “Us Now”.
Given how obsessed everyone was with how social media helped elect Barack Obama, I’m surprised that I haven’t read more reviews of this book: “Yes We Did – An Inside Look at How Social Media Built the Obama Brand” by Rahaf Harfoush, which gives an excellent overview over how the Obama campaign used social media to mobilize people to donate time and money. Harfoush (@rahafharfoush) was a volunteer with Obama’s new media team. She describes the different tools that the campaign used[...]
One of my projects over the last few months was to write and get approval for social media staff guidelines for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). I’m sharing them because I hope that they will be useful to other organizations who are working on similar documents.
