Using the Whole Whale - A Nonprofit Podcast

098: Crisitunities & other story telling campaigns tactics

This 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.

097: How GuardianX is leveraging tech for social change

It'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. 

After his wife witnessed one of the above everyday situations gone terribly wrong — she was the one to call the police as a sexual assault unfolded before her eyes — Finnish lawyer Marc-Johann Kavantsaari began to explore the ways the phones we carry with us (and their tracking devices) could be used for safer commutes home. GuardianX was born and the former lawyer became a tech entrepreneur. 

But what's the best way of using our everyday, back-pocket tech to combat social issues? And is the tech actually the solution? We asked Marc about this, as well as finding the metrics that matter for a startup social impact organization like GuardianX, in this week's episode of Using the Whole Whale. 

096: How to #win at Facebook advertising

This 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 pay to play in order to get meaningful social media engagement these days, and Facebook advertising is consistently one of the cheapest and most targeted ways to drive brand awareness, engage your followers, and build traffic and conversions on your website. 

095: How Cystic Fibrosis Foundation builds rad online communities

This 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.

Emily 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 of your followers? What about the quality? (Spoiler alert: There's room for both.) 

094: How Fair Trade Certified is building on 20 years of impact with lean digital practices

If 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 of 20 years? Account Strategist Olivia Marlowe-Giovetti asks Bennett Wetch, VP of Technology Innovation at Fair Trade USA, just that. Learn how your nonprofit, regardless of the size, can aim for the same scale in this week's episode of Using the Whole Whale. 

093.5: (Short) Phishing for Cyber Security

What 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. 

 

093: All about GDPR with Stanford PACS

How are we using private information for public good? The General Data Protection Regulation (aka GDPR) goes into effect in the European Union next week, so now's a good time to be asking that question. This is more than the click of a button: This is a fundamental reevaluation of how we protect and manage our data footprint online.

We talk through the baseline of GDPR with Lucy Bernholz, Director of the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford PACS and Senior Research Scholar at Stanford PACS (Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society).

 

In addition to being an expert on the impact of GDPR for social impact, Lucy is the author of the annual Blueprint Series on Philanthropy and the Social Economy, Disrupting Philanthropy, and Creating Philanthropic Capital Markets: The Deliberate Evolution. She is a co-editor of Philanthropy in Democratic Societies, and writes extensively on philanthropy, technology, and policy on her award-winning blog, philanthropy2173.com.

 

But first, a disclaimer

We're not lawyers. Lucy is not a lawyer. We can't give you legal advice (on GDPR or anything else). This is an opening exploration of the known unknowns of this new regulation.

092: Saving the Internet with the Mozilla Foundation

We talk to Craig Wiroll, the Gigabit Portfolio Manager with the Mozilla Foundation, about the Foundation's work to save the Internet… and maybe all of the people that use it? 

If Mozilla is new to you, we won't say you live under a rock, but you live nearby… Their work in the Open Source community to connect and amplify the work that should be done to build a better Internet is unparalleled, and their programs have probably touched you in some way, shape, or form (Firefox? That's them). We talk with Craig about how Mozilla is working to increase connectivity and improve education both in the United States and through their work globally. 

091.5: Things We Learned from #18NTC

Bonus episode! George and Olivia talk through some of the highlights from #18NTC, the 2018 Nonprofit Technology Conference, including the state of play for Facebook, what we can look forward to with GDPR, and how we can apply lessons from a digital newsroom for nonprofit communications. We may have also had a few sazeracs.  

091: Sasha Samochina on how NASA fuses science and art (Live from SXSW)

In our final Live from SXSW episode (for 2018 at least), Olivia speaks with Sasha Samochina of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. While everyone else was at Westworld, Olivia talks about the Wild West of VR with Sasha, one of the JPL's Immersive Visualization Producers in Pasadena, CA.

As the former head Media Producer at the Field Museum of Naural History, Sasha joined NASA full of content, GIFs, and videos for both @NASAJPL and @MarsCuriosity, before entering the world of 360 video, VR, and AR, which she has pioneered for NASA while also creating immersive experiences scientists and engineers on Earth to further NASA's work in space. In short, she's Olivia's kind of people, and she's our kind of people, inspiring nonprofits and social impact organizations to think: How can we attach a camera to our own Mars Curiosity Rovers?