TechEDge | California Community Colleges

tech grants: Social Networking Paradigm Shift For Future Proposals

Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 December 2011 Written by Juri Brilts Tuesday, 13 December 2011

As an email list subscriber to TechEDge, you probably subscribe to at least a couple of other email lists as I do. One that I happen to be on is the North Valley Nonprofit Council, which is part of the North Valley Community Foundation.

The North Valley Nonprofit Council recently hosted a workshop by Michael Redman, founder and CEO of Half a Bubble Out. Michael’s presentation was entitled “Social Media’s Old Hat: Now What?—How to incorporate social media into your strategy with a more discerning eye.”

Normally, the council’s presentations draw a relatively full room. This time it was almost standing-room only. Small and medium non-profit organizations and larger educational institutions were present. Everyone wanted to use social networking as a fundraising tool for their groups. I was busily taking notes of the themes Michael Redman was discussing, which I assumed would get me up to speed with the latest tech innovations related to social networking and how they could be applicable to my community college.

Whoa, not what I discovered! Redman quickly pointed out his definition of social networking: “being social and being able to network online.” Social networking is a ‘fuzzy’ word which has multiple meanings. Twitter is not social networking. Yahoo used to be the king of search engines. These are all just tools. Do you remember Myspace? Almost everyone has now migrated away from there to Facebook. He inferred that social networking is a concept, not a platform.

Redman described his ‘Seven Piece Model ‘for developing your organization’s web site:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO);
2. Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertisements;
3. Social Media;
4. YouTube;
5. Analytics (Free);
6. Web Page Conversion;
7. and Messaging.

Michael then handed out a “Social Media Comparison 2011” chart which was in the form of a horizontal-vertical axis. The vertical listing the Players: Facebook, Twitter, Google, Historical players, New comers, and Local competitors. The horizontal axis had their specialties: Publish, Discuss, Share, Game, Location, Network, Search, Events, Identity, Plugin and Payment.

So, how does Social Media make a connection to proposal writing and grant funding?

1. As I scanned how these Players in the Social Media Comparison 2011 chart cross-indexed to their specialties, it occurred to me that the Players were in fact analagous to proposal reviewers and the Players' specialties were analagous to the individual biases of the proposal reviewers. In order to successfully reach proposal reviewers, you have to anticipate who they may be. It would be like jury selection: Who do you want sitting in the Prosecution’s corner or in the Defense’s corner? You are the Proposal Submitter (Defense) and the Proposal Reviewers are the Prosecutors. They want to send you to jail (not get funded), but you sure hope your defense attorney will prevail and you will get the multi-million dollar judgment in your favor (win the grant award).
2. Almost all grant submissions are online these days. Proposal Reviewers no longer meet in Sacramento or Washington, D.C. to review government grant proposals. Likewise, foundation grant reviewers work at home, virtually, and review your electronically submitted documents via internally closed Web networks. Use the latest technology to make your Defense. Hyperlink to important sources and use your own website to make a compelling argument for funding. Use technology as a creative tool to woo your proposal reviewers.

As in the board game “Monopoly,” you don’t want to “Go to Jail,” but rather land on “Boardwalk!”<>