Shows
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit PodcastSeth Godin on Unlocking Positive Auctions for Fundraising with GoodBids.orgThis episode is also available as video on our channel youtube.com/wholewhale
In this episode of the Whole Whale Podcast, host George Weiner sits down with Seth Godin, bestselling author, entrepreneur, and founder of GoodBids.org, to discuss how nonprofits can innovate their fundraising strategies and engage donors more effectively.
Seth introduces the concept of positive auctions, a new approach to fundraising where every bid is a non-refundable donation, creating a gap between the winning bid and the total amount raised for the charity. GoodBids.org, Seth's latest venture, is a platform that facilitates the...2024-05-2245 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit PodcastHow to turn $89m in Donations into Robocall scams (news)New York Times Investigation Finds Nearly $89 Million Raised Via Robocall Self-Enriching Scheme
A New York Times investigation has found that a circle of conservative nonprofits, consultants, and shell companies together formed a self-enrichment scheme. Nonprofits loosely construed around conservative causes including The American Police Officers Alliance used aggressive robocall tactics to solicit small-dollar donors that raised $89 million. However, the investigation uncovered that a mere $826,904 of the amount raised went to the organizations’ purported campaigns—the rest went to the companies and consultants that ran the robocalls. The detailed investigation zeroed in on 3 Republican political consultants who together appeare...2023-05-1628 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast262: Fundamentals of Copywriting for a CauseTraining conversation with Whole Whale team about copywriting best practices for nonprofits. Maura Paxton, Digital Optimization Manager and Sarah Homet, Digital Marketing Associate share approaches to writing ads and useful frameworks.
Resources:
AIDA: https://www.truesense.com/ringer/aida-essential-direct-response-fundraising-truths
ACCA: https://learnlandingpages.com/landing-page-design/ (lots of formulas, starting with AIDA and ACCA)
Questions in headlines (Marketing Experiments study): https://marketingexperiments.com/value-proposition/optimizing-headlines
Fogg Behavioral Model: https://behaviormodel.org/
keyword + benefit: https://www.invespcro.com/blog/elements-effective-ad-copy-benefits/
keyword question : https://www.acquisio.com/blog/agency/6-ppc-ad-copy-formulas-for-highly-clickable-ads/
emotional matrix: https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/clickbait-works-can-use-good/
Plutchik's Wheel of Emotion...2021-10-2142 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast243: Ann Nguyen Exit Interview Podcast
An exit interview with Ann, Technical Creative Director of WholeWhale.com reflecting on lessons over 7 years with the company.
Ann Nguyen
Technical Creative Director
On Social
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nguyenann
https://twitter.com/annnnnguyen
Ann joined Whole Whale in 2013 and has been making splashes since then in the areas of design, development, and A/B testing.
She keeps the New York team afloat and works directly with clients on using design and tech to scale their impact. During her time at Whole Whale, Ann has overseen site builds that include DREAM, the LAMP...2021-07-0244 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast222:(news) Restrictive Voting, #StopAsianHate, & DAFSWeekly summary of nonprofit news.
Restrictive Voting Legislation In Georgia Indicative of Larger, Concerning Trend
Last week, Georgia governor Brian Kemp signed into law a restrictive voting bill decried by voting rights advocates and the President alike as “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” The new legislation comes less than three months after Raphael Warnock was elected as the first black U.S. Senator from the state. A legal complaint filed by multiple voter activation and progressive advocacy groups says that the new law levies “unjustifiable burdens disproportionately on the State's minority, young, poor, and disabled cit...2021-03-3119 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast221: Making sense of Facebook Tracking vs IOS 14Interview with Meghan Daly, Whole Whale's Paid Social Manager about the changes that will impact digital advertisers on Facebook.
Simply put, iOS14 is Apple’s most current iPhone operating system. iOS14.5 is an update to this operating system that will include many things (including 200+ new emojis!), but the specific update that’s generating a lot of buzz is the launch of an in-app prompt. This prompt essentially asks users to opt-in and “allow” apps and websites to track their activity.
Once the update goes live (currently projected for early Spring) this means an iPhone user wi...2021-03-2927 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast220: How Issue Voter is shifting the focusGeorge Weiner interviews Maria Yuan, the CEO and Founder of Issue Voter. Issue Voter is an online service that according to their site helps people:
"Track your rep's activity. We tell you how your rep voted, how often your representative agrees with you, and whether or not they’ve attended a vote.
Encourage open discussion. You can share an issue on your favorite social network, without revealing your personal opinion.
Act on issues that don’t make headlines. We don’t only tell you about what is breaking the news; we check for updates e...2021-03-2441 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast219: (news) NYC and ICE need to spend millions for nonprofit supportWeekly NonprofitNewsfeed.com summary with hosts Nick Azulay and Kariesha Martinez from digital marketing agency WholeWhale.com.
NYC Owes Homeless Nonprofits Millions In Unpaid Invoices
The City of New York owes its homeless nonprofit organizations over $150 million in unpaid invoices, according to a survey of homeless shelter operators. Catherine Trapani, the executive director at Homeless Services United, the umbrella organization that represents shelter operators, says “there needs to be a recognition of just how on the precipice of a system’s failure we are.” The crisis comes as the city faces its own struggles with cash flow...2021-03-2216 minUsing the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast218: (news) $1B Stimulus for AmeriCorps + Rise in Giving TrendNonprofit News for the week of 3/15 summarized by Kariesha and Nick from WholeWhale.com.
2020 Saw 10% Jump In Giving
According to the Quarterly Fundraising Report, nonprofit fundraising was up 10% overall in 2020 compared to 2019. While this represents the highest volume of donations in 5 years, donor retention continues to drop (approximately by 4%), even after new donors are acquired or re-activated. A decline in retained, repeat donors is a trend the industry must be aware of in 2021.
Read more ➝
Americorps Receives $1 Billion Influx of Stimulus
The Biden Administration’s new stimulus relief bill includes a $1 b...2021-03-1620 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast217: Managing Cash Flow Through Crisis - GrowthForceKariesha Martinez interviews Stephen King, CEO and President of GrowthForce. They discuss how to manage cashflow in crisis with their 5-Step Framework.
Managing Cash Flow Through Times of Crisis - Having successfully navigated five recessions as an entrepreneur and fundraiser, Stephen knows how to read the numbers to make data-driven decisions - and this unique vantage point has helped him develop a framework for getting through a recession.
2021-03-1543 minUsing the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast216:(news) $61k for a tent and what $1.9T stimulus means for nonprofitsWhole Whale discusses current nonprofit news from NonprofitNewsFeed.com
$1.9 Trillion Stimulus Bill Passes With Expansion Of Unemployment Benefits And PPP
The Biden administration’s new COVID Relief bill has passed the House and Senate, clearing the way for approval of an expansive new bill designed to expand unemployment benefits, the federal PPP, as well as support for vaccine distribution and fiscal relief for states. This critical piece of legislation expands the definition around non-profit entities entitled to PPP loan assistance, while providing additional protections and relief around housing, paid leave, and access to healthcare.
Read...2021-03-0918 minUsing the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast215:(news) Are billionaire gifts really gifts, and how nonprofits may be the future of news.WholeWhale.com Hosts Kariesha and Nick discuss the week in nonprofits to kick off March.
CEO Calls Billionaire Philanthropy A ‘PR Scam.’
Dan Price, founder and CEO of credit-card payment company Gravity Payments, says that billionaire philanthropists who donate lots of money in return for glowing reviews and good press is “one of capitalism’s biggest PR scams.” In Washington state, billionaires pay 3% of their income on taxes while the poor pay 18%, says Price. In response to a proposed wealth tax, Price adds that “the amount [billionaires] donate is a fraction of what they would pay if th...2021-03-0315 minUsing the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast214:(news) Nonprofit Revenge Giving for Rush Limbaugh & Nonprofit Job TrendsHosts Kariesha and Nick discuss nonprofit news highlights from 2/22/2021.
Revenge is a powerful emotion when used for giving and forgiving?
Viral Fundraiser Highlights Real Impact of Revenge Giving
Rage giving is all the rage. When Tommy Marcus, a 25-year-old University of Michigan graduate learned of Rush Limbaugh’s death, he felt it appropriate to donate to Planned Parenthood. After a screenshot of his donation to the organization went viral, the fundraiser generated more than $1.2 million from more than 44,000 donors.
Read more ➝
Nonprofit Jobs Not Expected To Recover for Two Years
Acco...2021-02-2317 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast213: (news)GoFundMe Charity shutting down, CEOs resigned and removedNonprofit News Summary from NonprofitNewsFeed.com
Hosts Nick, Kariesha, and George from WholeWhale.com discuss a week in nonprofit news.
GoFundMe Charity is being shut down
GoFundMe Charity will end support for third-party integrations and the public Application Programming Interface (API) after March 31, 2021. "The shuttering of GoFundMe Charity is concerning for many nonprofits, said Megan Anhalt, chief strategy officer at consultancy WholeWhale. The move “makes us question whether GoFundMe will be a reliable home for nonprofits moving forward,” she said."
Read more ➝
Open CEO positions
Following the sexual haras...2021-02-1813 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast212: (news) Abuse At Homeless Shelter, Racketeering, and Puppy Bowl helps sheltersWeekly nonprofit new summary with hosts Kariesha and Nick from Whole Whale, a social impact digital agency.
More info on how donor-advised funds work from our podcast.
Reminder: just because an organization is a 501c3, doesn't mean it is scandal-free.
New York Times Reporting Spurs Investigations Into Abuse At Homeless Shelter Nonprofit
After a New York Times investigative report revealed allegations of sexual assault and harrassment against a prominent homeless shelter CEO, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio has ordered a formal investigation. The allegations against Victor Rivera, CEO of the...2021-02-0914 minUsing the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast211: (news) Nonprofit Job losses, Giving Blck and Money making mittensNonprofitNewsFeed.com
Hosts Kariesha and George talk through the top Nonprofit industry stories of 2/1/2021
Nonprofit Sector Still Seeing Net Loss of Nearly 1 Million Jobs
The Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies has released a new report that shows that nonprofit employment is still well below pre-pandemic levels. While the sector has recovered from its losses of nearly 1.64 million layoffs last spring, the industry is still facing a deficit of 929,000 jobs compared to before the pandemic. In fact, nonprofits lost 50,000 jobs in December, signaling that recovery will be a long time coming.
2021-02-0210 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast210: Human-centered Design - teenyBIGHow do you strike the balance between qualitative data and quantitative data for your marketing efforts? This week on the pod, we talk with Emily Taylor, Principal of teenyBIG, about how she defines human centered design and striking the balance between qualitative and quantitative data to make sure you're engaging your audience.
Emily Taylor, Principal of teenyBIG, coaches nonprofits to meaningfully engage their audiences. She uses her experience with both the nonprofit and for-profit worlds in human-centered design, a process that digs into a user’s experience and perspective, to turn their lackluster followers into passionate supp...2021-02-0137 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast209: Giving Tuesday results, Coercive Control language - NonprofitNewsFeed.comThis week on the podcast we talk about the most recent nonprofit news for the week of 1/25/2021.
Whole Whale has created a weekly newsletter and article board for people in the industry interested in staying up-to-date with the sector's most important news. Pulling from over 100 sources, NonprofitNewsFeed.com is a free way to stay updated about nonprofit news.
Top articles:
GivingTuesday Generates Garganutan Giving
GivingTuesday saw its biggest single-day fundraising amount since its inception, generating $2.47 billion in revenue from donors. This represents a 25% increase from 2019, which saw $1.97 billion in total donations. Online giving in the United Sta...2021-01-2617 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast208: How to Make Meaningful Media Content - FirstStage.orgHost Kariesha Martinez interviews Antonio L. Davis, Jr. Digital Marketing & Content Manager of FirstStage.org. Organic social can feel like the unsung hero of audience engagement. It feels almost random what content works and what doesn't. This week on the pod, we talk with Antonio Davis about how he is able to listen to his audience and create content that engages his audience and represents them at the same time. Listen as he walks us through his strategy for utilizing user-generated content for his organization while making sure the audience his organization serves is heard and represented.
2021-01-1939 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast207: Flexible Work and Job Sharing Strategy - Marathon KidsHost Kariesha Martinez interviews Cami Hawkins, CEO of Austin-based non-profit, Marathon Kids, to talk about her experience creating a flexible workspace and how other organizations can implement one for their employees.
Cami discusses:
Job share: For increased flexibility, Cami has hired people on a job share basis which entails hiring two people to do one job, each working 20 hours a week.
How she adapted during COVID: Marathon Kids already offered a flexible work culture, but she has made it even more flexible by letting people take off during the day to help their k...2021-01-1144 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast206: The V-Shaped Volunteering Outlook - VolunteerMatchOur guest Greg Baldwin, CEO of VolunteerMatch discusses the historical drop in volunteering in 2020. Overnight listings and attendance to in-person volunteering events fell off a cliff as stay-at-home orders rolled across the country in March. VolunteerMatch has released Quarterly updates on the state of US volunteering that we discuss.
There were some spikes in virtual volunteering but as Greg puts it "You can't build a house over ZOOM". There are many reasons to be optimistic for a V-shaped recovery as vaccines roll out and a potential surge of people ready, willing, and able are more motivated than e...2021-01-0432 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast205: Building Small Homes for the Holidays - Smalltimore HomesHost Kariesha Martinez interviews LaQuida Chancey, the founder of Smalltimore Homes. Baltimore, like many cities, struggle with housing insecurity which has been made even more dangerous during COVID and now the winter. LaQuida's solution is simple: build homes, small ones. These micro-shelters offer protection from the cold and allow social distancing for people experiencing homelessness.
Smalltimore Homes, is driven by a single goal; ending homelessness. This simplistic goal can be reached by creating more affordable housing through micro shelters and tiny homes. Their approach is informed by comprehensive research studies and high-quality data evaluation. They strive to bu...2020-12-2336 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast204: Spotify Ideas for Social ImpactKariesha Martinez and George Weiner exchange ideas for using Spotify playlists to increase the impact of nonprofits. Public playlists can be completely customized and embedded on websites and across social. This medium can be used to thank donors, motivate volunteers or even educate stakeholders. There many was to start playing with this tool for free and they are explored on this episode.
2020-12-1419 minUsing the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit PodcastWhole Whale Holiday PlaylistA quick fun holiday intro for our seasonal holiday Spotify playlist. Enjoy: https://wholewhale.com/playlist
2020-12-1400 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast203: Hiring Robots to Write Donor Letters - AddressableThis week's interview with Adam Szarzynski, founder of Addressable walks through how their writing robots are helping thank tens of thousands of supporters. Adam created the company around a writing robot created by his father and then created a service for nonprofits to retain and re-engage donors.
Their work has shown supporter lists that receive these personal handwritten notes have had response rates as high as 19%. Adam discusses strategies and timing for preventing lapsed donors.
2020-12-0741 minUsing the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast202: Donor Thank You IdeasOur host George Weiner, founder of Whole Whale, a b-corp nonprofit focused digital agency shares creative ideas around thanking donors.
Only 1 in 5 first time donors return as donors in the following year. Would a thank you maybe help improve this?
How to thank donors article.
2020-11-2510 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast201: Creativity: The Key to a Remarkable Life - Author InterviewOn episode 201 our host Kariesha Martinez interviews Firdaus Kharas the author of Creativity: Key to a Remarkable Life. With great nonprofit examples of how creativity has been used to save lives in public health, Firdaus shares some of the key lessons from the book.
Buy the book on Amazon
About Firdraus Kharas
Hailed as the "modern equivalent of Dr. Seuss," Firdaus Kharas is a master global communicator and humanitarian who has influenced hundreds of millions of people's lives for the better. Desmond Tutu calls his creative work, which has been vie...2020-11-1755 minUsing the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast200: What is coming in 2021 for Nonprofits?On the 200th episode of the podcast George Weiner, Chief Whaler and Megan Anhalt, Chief Strategy Officer discuss what a Joe Biden and Kamala Harris America mean for nonprofit giving.
They also discuss five major trends across the technology landscape that will impact the way nonprofits need to plan for 2021.
2020-11-0926 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast199: BUILDING SMART NONPROFITS: A Roadmap For Mission Success - Author InterviewOur host Kariesha Martinez interviews the authors of Building Smart Nonprofits.
BUILDING SMART NONPROFITS shows how nonprofits can improve sustainability by highlighting organizations and leaders who are taking advantage of cutting-edge trends in the sector, operating in smart, innovative ways. Through practical, real-world examples based on interviews with a cross-section of more than sixty industry leaders representing foundations, nonprofit organizations service providers, and philanthropists, readers will learn how to best position their nonprofit organization for a sustainable and long-term future.
O’Brien and Craig provide examples of nonprofits deploying best practices and emerging industry trends – such a...2020-11-0248 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast198: The Philanthropy Revolution - Author InterviewOur host Kariesha Martinez interviews Lisa Greer, entrepreneur and author of PHILANTHROPY REVOLUTION: How To Inspire Donors, Build Relationships, And Make A Difference.
The largest wealth transfer in the history of mankind and world crises is creating an
existential threat to the 1.5 million nonprofits in the United States. In her book, Lisa Greer provides practical, urgent guidance on how to cultivate meaningful, lasting relationships with the new generation of philanthropists to not only survive but thrive.
2020-10-2647 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast197: Is Your Nonprofit Getting to the Damn Point?Our host Kariesha Martinez interviews Lewis D. Chaney, Business Storytelling Consultant / Public Speaking Coach.
Most of the time, people think this soft skill is just about speaking on stage and it's not. Or it was something for C-suite and managers, it's not. It's for every person on your team because they are ambassadors for your organization, which includes your volunteers.
Not to mention how effective this is in saving time in meetings and encouraging ideas from people who otherwise might be too afraid to speak up. It's giving them the tools to be able to do...2020-10-1935 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast196: Is a full MBA worth it? Talking through the optionsOn this episode, George Weiner interviews Marielle Sumergido, Digital Marketing Whaler about her early career journey and the role a micro-MBA from Rutgers University played.
We talk through whether full programs are worth it in our agency and nonprofit industries and what students actually get from an MBA.
Full episode article.
2020-10-1229 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast195: Giving Tuesday Tips and Predictions for 2020This week Kariesha Martinez and George Weiner discuss ideas and factors impacting Giving Tuesday, the day of giving on Dec 1st, 2020 this year.
They also talk through the annual Whole Whale prediction for funds raised. Based on our analysis that incorporates an adjusted linear regression, trends in Google Search terms around “Giving Tuesday,” and national giving trends, we predict that $605 million will be raised on Giving Tuesday 2020. This will be a 18% or $94 million increase over 2019’s record-breaking estimated pull of +$400 million.
Giving Tuesday 2020 Predictions and Statistics, courtesy of Whole Whale
2020-10-0521 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast194: How to Build a Cryptocurrency Donation campaign - Giving BlockThis week we dive into the world of cryptocurrency donations with The Giving Block. Pat Duffy, the Co-founder of The Giving Block shares how and why the cryptocurrency owners are interested in donating.
Setting up donation pages that accept cryptocurrency can open the door to new donors. Pat also shares how they are working on BitcoinTuesday to increase giving around #GivingTuesday.
2020-09-2838 min
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast193: (2 for 2) Impact ideas: Smart speaker donors, Marketplace for giving days, Donor Thank you service, white label GoFundmeThis week's 2 for 2 episode of Whole Whale's podcast focused on social impact ideas invited Tim Sarrantonio, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Neon One. These ideas are evaluated based on their impact, financial viability, and reach.
Impact ideas from Tim: Smart speaker donor management and giving, Marketplace for giving days to be created and listed.
Ideas from George: Donor Thank you service, white label GoFundme.
2020-09-211h 15
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast192: (2for2) Impact ideas with Joe Magee - Kids media channel, UGC child symptoms, Family podcast historyOn this 2 for 2 series, we share and evaluate social impact business ideas with Joe Magee. The ideas are evaluated across Impact, Financial viability, and Scalability.
Ideas
Modern day, digital first PBS: A direct to consumer education “channel” delivered via app
Crowd-Sourced Children symptoms platform to help parents understand the conditions/dynamics kids are dealing with during this pandemic.
Daily Digest on Media consumed by kids with conversation talking points.
Personal Family podcast history in-a-box
About Joe
Joe Magee is a serial entrepreneur. He has created multiple businesses and recently exited his last ventu...2020-09-141h 00
Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast191: (2 for 2) Under Profiled day, Homeless donation marketplace, and shower Social Impact IdeasThis week we trade social impact ideas with Adam Soclof, senior Brand Marketing expert.
We exchange 4 social impact/b corp/nonprofit ideas. We thrash on the idea, 'why would this fail', 'why would it succeed', the difficulty of execution. Not being precious with the idea, knowing that others may take it and run.
We then score the idea based on Impact, financial viability and scalability. The loser donates to the winner's charity of choice.
This week's ideas:
- Sponsored shower stations in cities.
- Under Profiled day, helping underserved peo...2020-08-3153 min
Tech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale117: Using Local Podcasts for a PurposeWe interview Lucas Griffin about how he is using the Bushwick Podcast to share stories and news happening in Bushwick. The series celebrates local culture, explains the factors driving change in the community, and shares resources to help people in the neighborhood shape the future of Bushwick for the better. Lucas shares how they use the communities voices to tell the larger story of the neighborhood.
Resources
We talked about a lot of tools, here is a summary:
Follow on Instagram
Blue Yeti – recording equipment
Anchor – podcast hosting software
Blubrry – podcast hosting vi...2019-03-0639 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale116: The logic of good IA to improve websitesWe interview Sam Raddatz, CEO and Lead Information Architect of the Logic Dept. about the importance of information architecture (IA) and the process of doing user testing to improve websites. Sam explains how we can avoid the ‘curse of knowledge’ and see our websites through the eyes of others and then make changes necessary to improve UX/UI.
Resources
Logic Dept. Website Blog
LastPass – security management tool mentioned
Curse of knowledge – a concept discussed
Logic Dept. on Twitter
About Samantha Raddatz
CEO and Lead Information Architect
With a background...2019-02-1421 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale115: Breaking into the $100B inside Donor-Advised Funds (DAF)
Sue Schwartzman, an expert in advising family philanthropic dollars shares her insight into Donor-Advised Funds. A market that currently controls over $100B in assets earmarked for charities. Sue is the founder at Schwartzman Advising and has years of experience understanding this market and how to position your organization for those larger dollars.
Resources
Schwartzman Advising
Stats about Donor Advised Funds in the US
About Donor-Advised Funds
A philanthropic giving vehicle administered by a charitable sponsor. A donor-advised fund allows donors to establish and fund the...2019-02-0239 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale114: Understanding Lean Impact for Nonprofits
We interview Ann Mei the author of Lean Impact. She is a leading advocate for social innovation and the former Chief Innovation Officer at USAID. She draws on her rare experience as an executive across the tech industry, nonprofits, and the U.S. government to offer a unique perspective on tackling the most pressing social challenges of our times. We discuss how value, growth and impact work together in driving Lean Impact for nonprofits.
Resources
Ann Mei’s site and Lean Impact Book
Ann Mei on Twitter
The Lean Startup for social good...2019-01-2337 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale113: Startup using bottles to save the environment We interview Patrick Boadu, a partner at Soul Bottles, a B-Corp making custom glass water bottles in Germany that also gives a portion of sales to water-focused nonprofits. Their work has prevented 800kg (1,760lbs) of wasted plastic and given 42,000 people access to clean drinking water.
Resources
Soul Bottles – order custom brand glass bottles
Soul Bottles on Twitter
On Facebook
2019-01-1624 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale112: One Billion Messages for Good with Twilio.orgWe talk with Meghan Nesbit, Director of Nonprofit Development at Twilio.org about how they got to 1 Billion SMS messages and how the larger company thinks about impact. Twilio is a leader in SMS and flexible messaging solutions and their approach to impact involves grants, volunteering, and in-kind use of their powerful product. We also have some fun coming up with rapid fire ideas to help organizations think about the many applications of SMS for impact.
Resources
Some of the links to resources discussed in the...2019-01-0744 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale111: How Box.org Works – founder interviewWe hear how Box.com, leading online cloud storage and content management tool has grown it’s CSR program in a novel way. Bryan Breckenridge, the Founding Executive Director shares the approach and story of how Box.org became an embedded social enterprise within Box.com. He also shares great case studies of how nonprofits are leveraging the power platform.
Resources
Register your nonprofit for the Box.org platform
Box.org training materials and case studies.
2018-12-1942 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale110: (short) How we spent $13k on a vitaminA short episode talking about the creation and termination of AllGoodText.com, a product by Whole Whale.
AllGoodText.com was a product we launched in 2014 that pulled data from YouTube and Google Analytics and turned it into a weekly text message summary. After four years and thousands of data texts we’re closing shop as of Nov, 2018.
We spent a decent amount of time and money on building this tool and it was a great proof of concept using Twilio, Drupal.org, and Google APIs to simplify data. Honestly, I was sure it was going...2018-12-1310 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale109: Play That Pays at Playworks – Interview With the PresidentWe interviewed Elizabeth Cushing, the President of PLAYWORKS about how they have built a model of healthy play to schools at scale. As a part of the journey they have innovated, creating earned revenue streams through the PLAYWORKS programs and open models with RECESS LAB.
Resources
RECESS LAB
PLAYWORKS on Facebook
PLAYWORKS
Impact
(From Playworks)
In partnership with teachers, principals, and parents, we build a culture of play that enables kids to feel a real sense of belonging and have the opportunity to contribute on the playground, in the classroom...2018-11-2935 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale108: The Creation of #GivingTuesday by the 92nd Street YThe Chief Innovation Officer, Asha Curran shares the story of how the 92nd Street Y created the epic day of #GivingTuesday. This day of giving follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US and has been adopted on various days across the globe. In 2017 it raised over $300M and there is no way it would have grown to this level if the 92nd Street Y hadn’t done one critical thing when they designed it…
Resources
Register your nonprofit for GivingTuesday and find resources
Information about the 2018 Facebook and PayPal $7M matching grant
...2018-11-1436 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale107: Raising +100k Coats and Dollars From the Rising Generation at New York CaresGary Bagley, Executive Director of New York Cares, shares how the organization has achieved the milestone of distributing 2 million winter coats for New Yorkers in need as well as plans for growing impact further. Gary shares how the organization aims to use text messaging and other technologies to improve volunteering engagement. We also discuss how they’ve built a strong young professional’s board, called the Rising Leaders Council, that contributes big dollars and impact to the organization.
Resources
Text “Coat” to 41444 to see the Coat Drive SMS in action
Twitter.com/newyorkcares and Face...2018-11-0636 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale106: Using Digital Campaigns at the USOWe interview Adam Faircloth, Senior Digital Strategist and Beth Palmisano, Director of Integrated Fundraising about how they used a digital campaign to drive impact and fundraising outcomes at the USO. Their Campaign to Connect drove over a million messages of support to troops and helped build a substantial base of support for their integrated fundraising program.
2018-10-2637 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale105: (short) Don’t build that app!We make the case for not building an app. When you balance the cost and facts of app usage it is probably the worst technical investment your organization can make. Consider that about 20% of apps are used once then deleted (flurry + Statista), and 80% apps don’t make it 30 days (Quettra mobile analytics).
We talk through the argument in the hopes you can share it with any team talking about building an app. If your app strategy can survive this rant, go for it, otherwise, save your money!
Resources
DOn't...2018-09-2212 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale104: Keeping your Nonprofit Brand CurrentSarah Durham, author of the book Brandraising and CEO and founder of Big Duck shares current trends in nonprofit branding and communications. We discuss how much has changed since the company’s founding in 1994 and what has stayed the same. The question of whether to evolve a brand or rebrand entirely is also discussed.
Resources
Books by Big Duck
Events by Big Duck
Big Duck nonprofit podcast
2018-09-1735 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale103: Understanding Facebook FundraisingFacebook’s donation tool charges 0% and has raised hundreds of millions for nonprofits that know how to use it. Digital fundraising strategist, Julia Campbell walks us through how your organization can use this powerful platform. Julia is also the author of – Storytelling in the Digital Age: A Guide for Nonprofits!
Resources
Free and low-cost apps
Video on a shoestring
Facebook fundraising strategy
Julia’s Courses
Follow Julia on twitter
2018-09-0439 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale102: Crafting a digital strategy for TFAA case study of how Teach For America implemented a digital strategy across the organization. This case study goes through the process that Peter Petralia, Partner at Modern Craft led. We learn the key elements involved in steering an organization of this size.
Resources
Modern Craft TFA case study
Episode 12: Teach For America Podcast interview
2018-08-2032 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale101: Lyft-ing up Social Impact: Inside CSR at LyftWe interview Lisa Boyd, Senior Manager of Social Impact at Lyft. This ridesharing company is setting a standard for social impact that includes the largest carbon offset programs in history, direct donations and offering free “relief rides” that make a difference for thousands.
Resources
Relief Rides Program
Lyft Round Up and Donate
Atlantic article about Lyft’s carbon credit purchase
2018-08-0928 min
Tech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale100: Seth Godin on Nonprofit StrategyAcclaimed author, marketer, and teacher, Seth Godin, whose mentorship inspired the birth of Whole Whale, joins us for our 100th podcast episode.
While there is more knowledge accessible today than any other time in human history, Godin contends, we’re spending our time watching cat videos instead. (Hey, some of those cat videos are trying to cure lung cancer.) The biggest enemy, beyond competition of failure, is fear, which leads to this inertia that keeps people and organizations stuck in a status quo and afraid to move forward.
Seth talks with us about ho...2018-07-2533 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale099: Earworms for good – Music branding for social impactWe talk with Greg Thomas, Whole Whale’s campaign strategist and professional musician about the use of music and jingles for impact. How does your organization use or think about music branding, theme songs, or jingles when creating the brand image? Organizations spend tons on visual branding, videos and storytelling but all too often outsource the music, using whatever the popular tune of the day is.
We had a ton of fun finding these epic clips and consequently got a lot of bad tunes stuck in our heads. So, we apologize in advance for this...2018-07-2139 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale098: Crisitunities & other story telling campaign tacticsThis week on the podcast we talk with Megan Anhalt, a digital campaign expert who has worked with DoSomething.org, CZI, and Purpose. Megan shares her research and training around the elements of storytelling for campaigns and what it takes to “go viral”. We explore how nonprofits can and should take advantage of ‘crisitunities’, moments when the news and world events create an opportunity for a message.
Resources
Megan Anhalt
Everytown video referenced:
What is a Crisitunity?
In the Chinese language, the word “crisis” is composed...2018-07-1133 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale097: How GuardianX is leveraging tech for social changeIt’s Friday night. You’ve left a bar, said goodbye to your friends heading in the opposite direction, and are walking the 8 blocks home. Or perhaps you’ve worked late and are making your way to a different subway station to get home because your normal train isn’t running. Maybe you’re in a new town at a conference and figuring out the best way of getting back to your Airbnb after a night of networking and negronis.
That last part is how we met this week’s podcast guest, Founder and CEO of GuardianX, M...2018-06-2627 min
Tech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale096: How to #win at Facebook advertising for nonprofitsThis week on the podcast, we talk about the website that Shall Not Be Named: Can we still use Facebook advertising for good (could we ever use Facebook advertising for good?).
tl;dr — yes.
Our own Digital Advertising Whaler Jasmine Cordew joins us to talk about navigating the Social Network for social impact.
There are several advantages for nonprofits because of Facebook’s recent drop in trust, be it their now fee-free donations, their promotion of fundraisers, and the ROI for Facebook advertising.
It’s no secret that you have to pa...2018-06-1530 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale095: How Cystic Fibrosis Foundation builds online communitiesThis week on the podcast, Chief Whaler George Weiner chats with Emily Dulcan, Online Community Experience Lead at Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Joining CFF after 3 years as Digital Director at the Peace Corps, Emily knows from community building.
She talks with George about how the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation overcomes the challenge of in-person interaction for CF patients (who generally cannot be in proximity to one another) through the ability to be close-from-a-distance online while ensuring privacy in an increasingly un-private world.
Consider this with your digital strategy: Is it all about building the quantity...2018-06-0839 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale094: How Fair Trade Certified is building on 20 years of impact with lean digital practicesIf you’ve ever bought coffee from Whole Foods, chances are you’ve seen the Fair Trade Certified logo.
The organization has been helping consumers to make the right choice the easiest choice by identifying thousands of products that are made and harvested in sustainable and ethical manners, protecting land and waterways in nearly 50 countries and improving 8 million lives in the process.
How did they go from making sure coffee beans came from a good home to leveraging $440 million worth of impact to farmers, workers, and fishermen (and women) over the short span o...2018-06-0536 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale093.5: (Short) Phishing for Cyber SecurityWhat is the point of a firewall when you’re employees leave the back door open? This short rant from Chief Whaler George Weiner discusses some super simple things your employees can to protect against 90% of the cyber attacks out there.
Many of the emails about privacy policy invading our inboxes are little more than reactions to the GDPR policy updates rather than an actual increased investment in the protection of user data (yes this is a broad generalization). However, based on some of our tested spot checked privacy controls it has been true for ma...2018-06-0213 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale071: Email Fundraising with the Environmental Defense FundThis week we get an inside look at how the Environmental Defense Fund manages their email fundraising campaigns with tremendous success. Emily Stevenson, Manager, Online CRM Fundraising at EDF shares data and tactics that have worked to raise millions of dollars via email campaigns.
Resources
EDF on twitter
EDF on Facebook
More about EDF
With world attention focused on both the environment and the economy, Environmental Defense Fund is where policymakers and business leaders turn for win-win solutions. This leading green group, founded in 1967, has tripled in size over the past...2017-07-1253 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale067: Myth Busting Nonprofit Marketing with ScienceWe debunk myths about burst advertising, branding, and customer retention with Dr Margaret Faulkner, Senior Research Associate, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science at the business school, in the University of South Australia. Margaret’s primary areas of expertise and research are in measuring consumer-based brand equity and advertising effectiveness, with a focus on tracking brand health and the effectiveness of marketing efforts. Her research in the not-for-profit sector shows the importance of the laws of growth for all brands.
Resources
Marketing Science Institute
How brands grow – Byron Sharp
TEDx How Brands Grow presentation
&nb...2017-04-2850 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale040: Bots don’t donate, so don’t pay to reach themAn article from Bloomberg Business this September, “How Much of Your Audience is Fake” caught our eye because it highlighted how much money is being wasn’t on robot (bot) traffic. We tracked down our friend and ad fraud expert Dr. Augustine Fou to talk with us about the article and some of his new research on bots and how to avoid them.
Eleven percent of display ads and almost a quarter of video ads were “viewed” by software, not people. According to the ANA study fake traffic will cost advertisers $6.3 billion this ye...2015-10-1627 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale039: How to win online voting competitionsNonprofit voting competitions are like fads that come and go. They pit nonprofits against each other to see you can get the most votes in order to win the prize. Mark Horvath, the founder of invisiblepeople.tv, and CMO of The Rescue Mission has participated and won some of these competitions but the greatest tip he has is actually not to play them at all.
Mark talks about the true cost behind burning your list to ask potential donors to vote for you.
'The best way to win online vote competitions is to not play' podcast...2015-09-2522 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale038: Stop apologizing and start volunteering with @NewYorkCares
Gary Bagley, the Executive Director of New York Cares discusses how they use data and technology to increase the amount of New Yorkers that volunteer. New York Cares is the city’s largest volunteer management organization, running volunteer programs for 1,300 nonprofits, city agencies, and public schools.
The conversation reveals how NY Cares deals with conversion to volunteering, how they weigh the importance of different volunteering activities, and why the nonprofit sector should stop apologizing when they ask people to take action.
Stop apologizing when asking your stakeholders to take action. Podcast w...2015-09-0137 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale036: Where to start with online course creation for your organizationThe world of elearning and online courses is growing by the day, so how can your nonprofit begin to play with this growing tech? Hear how Julie Leary, the Digital Strategy Whaler at Whole Whale, has created an online course that has trained over 200 students about the Google AdWords Grant in 3 months.
How we created an online course that trained over 200 students in 3 months Click To Tweet
Online Course Resources
Here is the Whole Whale University – AdWords Grant course this episode was about. The following is a list of different learning...2015-08-0120 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale035: Should you go out of business to achieve the greatest impact?In depth conversation with the founders of ChangeBetter.org about their journey starting and how they approach the sector. Sometimes you need to merge with larger organizations to achieve the true mission of your organization. Founder Amanda Ashton and Ellie Zietlin discuss their approach to helping nonprofits discover their impact model and talk through tough questions.
150 new nonprofits are started every day. But over 25% are considered ineffective. And the problems they attempt to solve remain unsolved... @changebetterorg Click To Tweet
Resources
Find ChangeBetter.org resources
Follow @changebetterorg on twitter
Find the podcast on:2015-06-2318 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale034: What should nonprofits stop doing?We discuss what nonprofits should stop doing and other fun rapid fire questions with Brian Reich, Author of Shift & Reset and founder of little m media. In his book he asks us to ‘imagine that there is a meteor headed toward earth/your cause’, given this urgency how can we test solutions that actually work, solutions that have a chance to knock this meteor off course.
This is part 2 of 2 of our in-depth conversation with Brian.
Be more curious and close the imagination gap. Advice for #nonprofits from @brianreich Click To Tweet
Resources2015-06-0922 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale033: Shift & Reset your thinking about social impactHow should we be setting goals and measuring success in the nonprofit sector? We discuss this with Brian Reich, Author of Shift & Reset and founder of little m media. In his book he asks us to ‘imagine that there is a meteor headed toward earth/your cause’, given this urgency how can we test solutions that actually work, solutions that have a chance to knock this meteor off course. How should we think about our mission if we ACTUALLY want to change how the world works?
This is part 1 of 2 of our in-depth conversation with Brian.2015-05-2629 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale030: Doing MAS with your Latino audienceMatt Addler, founder of MAS strategies, a marketing firm that helps nonprofits reach and speak to the right Latino market discusses why we need to think differently about this growing audience. Currently there are 53m Latinos in the U.S. according the last census numbers.
Matt explains that Google translate doesn’t cut it and that for a real outreach strategy you need to consider the nuances of the audience, language, and culture. Identify who you are or want to be talking to by region, age, culture and then design your communication plan.
...2015-04-1023 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale029: What’s the role of games in making social change?Games are fun and social change is serious. Right? We talk with Asi Burak, the president of GamesForChange.org an organization that leads the sector in thinking about the intersection of games and social change. Their annual Games For Change conference brings together the leaders in the gaming and social sector fields to learn about cutting edge advances in the field.
Our conversation covers some examples of successful games and how nonprofits can start exploring gaming for social impact. Creating games can be very expensive, though there can be great upside when it comes to engagement with...2015-03-3025 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale028: Rockefeller Foundation hatches storytelling platformWe talk with Jereme Bivins, Digital Strategist at The Rockefeller Foundation and RJ Bee, SVP of Hattaway Communications.
The platform they created is called HatchForGood.org
Hatch acts like a concierge, connecting you to a suite of tools and a growing community to help you leverage storytelling to drive social impact and improve the lives of the poor and vulnerable around the world.
Stories with purpose don’t just materialize—they’re strategically planned, they’re creatively crafted, and they’re designed to achieve measurable outcomes.
Our conversation covered some of these question...2015-03-2427 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale027: Making Malaria No More with Text MessagesJosh Tabb is the Global Digital Strategist at Malaria No More. In the US, Josh is using web analytics and assisted conversions to drive increased donations. In Africa, Malaria No More is leveraging text messaging to keep medication stocked and to fight the spread of fraudulent medicine.
Resources
Fight the spread of Malaria
Learn more about assisted conversions
How text messages are saving lives in the US
Consider subscribing our nonprofit podcast covering stories of data and tech!
Transcription
2015-02-1823 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale026: Is bot traffic clouding your analytics and wasting your money?The nonprofit sector is increasingly depending on web analytics to measure impact outputs. However how do we know that the numbers we see are accurate, even when we pay for them through online advertising?
Dr. Augustine Fou , Group Chief Digital Officer; Ad Fraud Researcher, knows and studies bot activity and believes this issue will continue to plague the industry. He also warns that “Nonprofit advertisers are some of the most vulnerable to ad fraud as they frequently receive remnant ad inventory with higher levels of fraud.” In the coming years, nonprofits need to “beware of vague reporting of w...2015-02-0932 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale025: The Rebrand Effect – should your nonprofit rebrand? Sarah Durham, the president of the nonprofit digital branding agency Big Duck, discusses the results of a rebranding survey of over 350 nonprofits. If your nonprofit is considering a rebrand of the logo, website, or communication materials it is important to understand the key ingredients that can make the difference for success.
Download the full report at Big Duck. Learn whether rebranding can help a nonprofit increase revenue from individuals and other supporters. Find out if it creates a boost to fundraising, recruitment, activism, or media attention.
Consider subscribing our n...2015-02-0230 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale23: Panel – Maximizing Your Return on Fundraising with Big DataRecording of the Wake Up Your Fundraising Breakfast: Maximizing Your Return on Big Data hosted by Joe Boland from FundraisingSuccessMag.com.
An interesting panel discussion about using data inside nonprofits to boost fundraising with:
Emily Moyer, VP, Marketing and Digital Strategies at The Michael J. Fox Foundation
John Mix, Director, Digital Fundraising and Marketing at The IRC
George Weiner, Chief Whaler, WholeWhale.com
2014-12-1650 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale022: How Workplace Giving Works and Why it Matters – America’s Charities Workplace giving enables companies to setup reoccurring donation systems for their employees and support a culture of corporate giving and purpose. Steve Delfin, the CEO of America’s Charities discusses the importance of unrestricted funds for nonprofits and how a change to an all online system will harm giving in the federal campaigns.
Transcription
Episode 22
Speaker 1: This is Using the Whole Whale, a podcast that brings you stories of data and technology in the nonprofit world. This is George Weiner, your host and the Chief Whaler of wholewhale.com. Thank you...2014-12-0129 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale021: How Kiva.org deals with barnacles and loan biasThe Kiva.org platform has to deal with many challenges. One of them is how to support the platform over time as it collects ‘barnacles’ or bugs that come from time and the other is how they avoid playing favorites on the platform. We talk with Sam Mankiewicz, the CTO of Kiva.org about he navigates these challenges.
Transcription
Episode 21
Speaker 1: This is, “Using the Whole Whale”, a podcast that brings you stories of data and technology in the non-profit world.
This is George Weiner, your host and the...2014-11-0421 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale020: How impact goals are tested and used at Kiva.orgWe talk with the CTO of Kiva.org, Sam Mankiewicz about how digital goals are measured and used in the development process. Kiva.org, a leader in the micro finance world, has loaned over $60 million to date and they are still growing. With this growth come many challenges that must be balanced by the tech team to manage an aging platform with increasing demand for innovation and measurement.
Transcription
Episode 20
Speaker 1: This is Using the Whole Whale, a podcast that brings you stories of data and technology in the nonprofit world. This...2014-10-2130 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale019: Get to school or else Kinvolved will text your parents Kinvolved is helping schools and teachers change the game around attendance. Their system uses an online attendance tracker in classrooms that allows teachers to log late/absent students. Then their system triggers an immediate text message to the student’s parents with amazing results.
Resources
Sign up your school for Kinvolved’s service!
The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries
Lean Impact, Great organization focused on applying these principles to the NGO sector
Textmarks.com, simple text messaging service you can play with for text messaging
Twilio.com, super powerful and flexible text messaging API...2014-09-1529 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale018: How Crisis Text Line is saving lives with text messages and dataCrisisTextLine.org is a text message hotline that connects teens with counselors at any time of the day. They are now opening up their data to help professionals and politicians understand more about teen crisis. To date they have handled over 3 million texts and are now opening up this information for people to explore. We talk with Bob Filbin, the chief data scientist at CTL about how their system works and why it matters to open up their data.
Resources
Find CTL and Bob on twitter
Crisis Text Line Trends on teen crisis
Volunteer...2014-09-0329 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale017: GreatNonprofits.org deals with the courtesy biasPerla Ni, the founder of GreatNonprofits.org took a risk and organized a Stanford student group called Statistics for Good to figure out if their platform was suffering from a courtesy bias. Sometimes we don’t get the complete truth when we ask people to give us feedback especially when we know we are being judged or if we think we might lose a free service in the future. GreatNonprofits.org aggregates real feedback from the people that nonprofits seek to help, the question is are these people just being nice when leaving reviews and exhibiting a courtesy bias?2014-08-0222 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale016: How DonorsChoose.org drives classroom donations through emailDonorsChoose.org is the leader in classroom giving in the U.S., they make it an easy, fun, and rewarding experience to find a classroom to support. We talk with Oliver Hurst-Hiller, the CTO about how they have made breakthroughs in the way they use transactional emails to engage and reengage donors. Transactional emails – emails that are triggered automatically through the site (think ‘you have a new comment’ or ‘welcome to the site’ emails)- account for 10x the amount of donations that are driven from scheduled eblasts from the marketing team.
Listen to how DonorsChoose.org...2014-07-2529 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale015: Text messaging to prevent deportation with United We DreamUnited We Dream works for the 11+ million undocumented immigrants in the US and they are using text messaging to help do this. We talk with Adrian, the data and technology manager about how they are using text alerts and communication to help immigrants keep up with the requirements/deadlines of the US Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
Resources
Mobile Commons – text service used by United We Dream
Musical Thanks to…
Baifan, a Brooklyn based band, whose bass guitarist is Whole Whales’ Front-End Whaler, Simon Glenn-Gregg.
Transcription
...2014-07-1722 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale014: Turning Mobile Ads into Impact with Charity MilesCharity Miles is an amazing fitness app that is also raising money for non-profits through ads. We learn about what it takes to create an app for social change from Gene Gurkoff.
Resources
Charity Miles – great fitness app that supports charities
Phone Gap – open source mobile app framework
Google Analytics Mobile Dashboard – understand your mobile traffic
Transcription
Episode 14
George: This is using the Whole Whale. A podcast that brings you stories of data and technology in the nonprofit world. This is George Weiner, your host and the chief whaler...2014-06-0525 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale013: Using data to make voting easierDemocracy Works & TurboVote, Co-founder Seth Flaxman talks about using data and technology to help people vote via mail. Their main product, TurboVote has had great success due to their team’s ability to gather the most accurate list of election locations in the country. They have made voting via absentee ballot as easy as getting a movie from Netflix, which is the first step of their larger plan to make voting easier in the US.
Resources
Mechanical Turk – you can use this service for large, repetitive tasks that require a human eye.
Odesk...2014-05-2826 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale012: What TFA can teach us about YammerLearn how Teach For America has been able to use Yammer to increase communication, knowledge sharing, and deepen relationships across the country. Aaron French, who runs internal communications at TFA shares his insight on what worked in rolling out this platform. We focus on the people, process and products that went into adoption of this technology.
Resources
Yammer – private social network used by TFA
View Do Labs – Yammer analytics tool.
Trust Agents Book – great book about how trust is built on social networks
Musical Thanks to…
The Freak Fandango Orchestra, a...2014-05-2226 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale011: Why pagespeed matters to DoSomething.orgPagespeed is an important metric to DoSomething.org because it impacts usability, SEO and the overall health of the code. We talk with Matt Holford, the CTO of DoSomething.org about how they are working to reduce page load time. Learn which tricks they have for launching a new Drupal site and optimizing for speed.
Resources
Find Matt on twitter and ask him questions.
New Relic – best pagespeed monitoring
Test your load time with Pingdom – see how you compare with DoSomething.org
Pagespeed suggestions and ranking direct from Google pagespeed insights
Google...2014-05-1121 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale010: DoSomething.org About Managing a Tech Team (Part 1)George talks with Matt Holford, the new CTO of DoSomething.org about how he approached his role and improved their tech development process. Matt discusses his three step approach of learn – plan – execute, using a faceted feature analysis (FFA) process at DoSomething.org to manage and prioritize products.
Resources from the podcast
Github Issues
Trello project management tool
Drupal.org
Agile project management
Transcription
Episode 10
Speaker 1: This is Using The Whole Whale, a podcast that brings together stories about data and technology in the nonprofit world. My name is...2014-05-0721 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale009: Quality Assurance Testing that Changes LivesThis week we talk with Andy Aczel the CTO of the SpecialistsGuild.org about how they use quality assurance (QA) testing to change the lives of people on the Autism Spectrum. The Specialist Guild is able to train, place, and employ people on the spectrum while also doing great work to improve how websites and applications work for organizations.
Web QA testing involves checking a site against the defined project scope with the goal of identifying and documenting bugs. The tests span across major devices, browsers, and operating systems to make sure functionality is consistent. This...2014-04-1723 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale008: Feeding Hungry Children with Text MessagesWe talk with Jason Wilson from No Kid Hungry about their unique text messaging program and how it is connecting families with free lunches for their children over the summer. A fun story that goes beyond text-to-donate campaigns and thinks about programmatic impact.
Additional Resources
According to Pew Internet Research – 90% of Americans have a cell phone, 60% of those have access to the internet. Many nonprofits hear these numbers and glaze over or feel that they are too resource constrained to do much about it. This is evident when you consider that only 16...2014-04-1125 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale007: Using Big Data for Big Impact at Sumall.orgInterview with Stefan Heeke the CEO of the Sumall Foundation. How can we think about using big data and analysis to predict homelessness and other amazing projects? Big data is term that continues to increase and for us it can be misleading because it may not focus on the right data. It is easy to think about using data just to analyze our donors (tech tends to follow the money), so we love hearing about stories that drive impact from big data.
Trend of Big Data
It doesn’t seem to be stopping…2014-04-0120 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale006: What Poetry, Prison and Algorithms have in commonWe talk with Roland Legiardi-Laura the ED of PowerPoetry.org about how they became the largest teen poetry site in the US. Find out what the literacy gap has to do with incarceration in the US and how we can use algorithms to begin to quantify poetry.
To Be Heard – Documentary that inspired PowerPoetry.org
Please check out the full documentary of To Be Heard – it’s incredible.
Additional resources
Poetry Wars – Twitter App that rates tweets
Blog covering Power Poetry Data
Sumall Foundation details about the poetry algorithm
...2014-03-2619 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale005: Water into Wine – World Water Day HoaxThe Miracle Machine turns water into wine in just three days! The only hiccup, it’s a hoax, a hoax that garnered over 500m impressions for the non-profit Winetowater.org. We talk with Chris Noble of Cause Media & Studio Good, about what we can learn from creating the press wave and how to gather usable data.
Video of Wine To Water Product
The True Miracle from The Miracle Machine on Vimeo.
World Water Day Trend
Example of Google.com/trends showing searches for “World Water Day”.2014-03-2217 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale004: A/B Testing with Global Giving and ObamaWe talk to Kevin Conroy, Chief Product Officer of Global Giving about A/B testing with Optimizely and discuss how to think about testing your site. Then discuss how the Obama digital team used A/B testing to drive an extra $60 Million in donations.
More about the Behavior Model from Dr. BJ Fogg
Show notes
Story of Obama A/B testing
Optimizely.org – non-profit discount for A/B t
Unbounce.com – A/B testing
http://www.behaviormodel.org/ – Dr. BJ Fogg
Globalgiving.org – great crowd funding platform
Transcription
...2014-03-2011 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale003: 2014 NTC interview with CEO, Amy Sample WardWe talk about the 2014 National Technology Conference with the CEO of NTEN, Amy Sample Ward. Find out their tricks to create surveys and listen to an awesome pirate band.
More resources
5 tips on how create surveys for your organization.
Transcription
Episode 3
This is using the whole whale, a podcast that brings you stories of data and technology in the nonprofit world, my name is, George Weiner, your host and chief whaler of wholewhale.com. thanks for joining us.
So it’s March in DC and I...2014-03-1815 minTech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale002: Data Culture in the non-profit world
Big Data is revolutionizing the way we live, communicate and do business. However, harnessing the full power of Big Data has only begun to be realized by those who can afford it.
/data-culture/
Transcription
Episode 2.
This is using the whole whale, a podcast that brings you stories of data and technology in the nonprofit world. my name is george weiner, your host and the chief whaler of wholewhale.com, thanks for joining us.
George: Hello this is name is George Weiner, your host, its march 7...2014-03-0810 min
Tech & Tactics for Social Impact: Using the Whole Whale001: Using the Whole WhaleThe concept of using the whole whole is an idea that looks at how we can treat data and technology the way that the Inuit used the whole whale as compared to the whalers of the 1900’s. More about creating a data culture in your organization.
Transcription
Episode 1
This is using the whole whale, a podcast that brings you stories of data and technology in the nonprofit world. my name is George Weiner, your host, and the chief whaler of wholewhale.com, thanks for joining us.
George: Hello this is...2014-03-0108 min