The Networked Nonprofit Ch. 1 and 2

So today I started our next book “The Networked Nonprofit”. I have to say that it was pretty good, the first two chapters were as expected more like an introduction telling a lot about social networks and nonprofits and how in today’s world they work hand and hand.  

In chapter 1 it starts off by telling about the organization called Surfrider Foundation and how they have used their networking to better their nonprofit. On page 3 the book tells about Networked Nonprofits when it states, “They engage people in shaping and sharing their work in order to raise awareness of social issues, organize communities to provide services, or advocate for legislation”. They also tell how these groups use social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, or Blogs, to spread awareness. This chapter really relates to the work that we have been doing for Safe Harbor and domestic violence awareness, by using our social media groups and other networks. One why that we have done this is through our Chick-Fil-A page that we made on Facebook, by doing this we were able to use our classes networking groups. The book also tells how our work with Safe Harbor is what they like to call “social change” which means any effort by people and organizations to make the world a better place.

Chapter 2 tells about the Millennials and how they are the generation that is bigger and more diverse than the Baby Boomers (I thought this was cool). They book tells how the Millebbials are what they like to call “free agents” these are people that work outside of organizations to help are raise awareness. The free agents use social media to their advantage to spread awareness to mass amounts of people. The chapter does tell of rules that organizations want to follow when working with free agents to adapt to the change of working with a younger crowd, such as:

• Get to know the free agents 
•  Break out of silos 
•  Young people and free agents need to explore and learn about issues and sort out their feelings about them.
• Don’t ignore the newcomer

Overall this chapter is showing how nonprofits need to change their way of thinking and start working with free agents to insure that they keep up with social change. I feel that this is what Safe Harbor is doing, they know that our class has the age generation that is always growing in social media and with our help they will be able to spread awareness on a very touchy subject.