Category Archives: Community Building

Designed Good a New Millennial Initiative

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Guest Blog Post By Katy Gathright, Co-Founder @ Designed Good

Designed Good is a new community where we curate the best in design and social good. We hand-select and sell clothing, artwork, gear, gadgets, and accessories, and provide the stories about how they’re making a difference. We want to showcase this exciting intersection between design and social responsibility, and we want to start by sharing this idea: that every product that we wear or see or use can actually be designed for good.

Our ideas for building this kind of community came out of a thousand conversations. My best friend and brilliant co-founder, Imran Khoja, came up with Designed Good over the course of our junior and senior years in college; he asked me to join him in entering the first Williams College Business Plan Competition last January. I was drawn to his vision and interested in ways we could reach people through his passion for products. When we won in April, our amazing third co-founder and Williams 2001 alum, Joe Bergeron, had also already agreed to join us.

When I graduated from Williams last month, I was excited to start working full time on Designed Good. But I was scared to lose the experience of being with my peers all day, every day. They are the people who inspire me, the people who have helped me come up with my favorite ideas, and the people for whom I want to create things.

To pick the right products and tell these stories about change, we depend upon that collaboration with our classmates, friends, and networks. They are the people who told me about their summer adventures volunteering, who bounced around ideas about designing our dorm rooms, and who got groups of people together to sit around talking about changing the world.

Last week, we featured an interview with Kari Saratovsky, who created Social Citizens and is co-writing a book on millennials with Derrick Feldman of Achieve Guidance. She talked about how millennial leaders are not hierarchical and work with more of a work-life blend than a work-life balance.

That kind of framework is exactly how I think about Designed Good. I spend every day working with great friends and talking to other awesome people about what we can do better. Sometimes I think about how separating work and life might make things less messy. But in trying to build a business about something I really care about – and partnering with causes that mean something to me and picking products that help real people – it helps me to stay close with those family members and friends who taught me what it means to care in the first place.

The exciting thing about launching Designed Good this summer is that all the friends I was scared of losing on graduation day don’t feel very far away at all. Some of them are tweeting at us, lots of them are sharing us on Facebook, and all of them have been happy to answer our random questions about their favorite blogs and checkout systems and products.

And the best part is, this isn’t just for our friends. It’s for the friends of our friends, and absolutely everyone that anyone wants to join this community where we think design and social change can intersect.

Millennials are interested in sharing. It makes sense that we should create and offer each other things worth sharing. That’s my goal this summer at Designed Good.

Designed Good will begin selling products in the final week of July! They are excited to offer free membership now with access to their blog and product pipeline at www.designedgood.com. 

Crowd-sourcing Cause for Change

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Derrick Feldmann, Achieve CEO and Kari Dunn Saratovsky, KDS Strategies have partnered together to write a book and need your help! Read on to see how you could be part of their book Cause for Change: The Why and How of Nonprofit Millennial Engagement.

Ever wanted to be published in a book?

For the past six months we have been on a journey eating, breathing, reading and writing everything, Millennial. You know, that 20-33 year old segment of our population that’s roughly 80 million in size and tends to be the topic d’jour for those in sales, marketing, and just about any industry that’s thinking about the future. The nonprofit sector is no different as CEO’s and executives are coming together to build “Next Gen” strategies within their organizations, and are doing what they can to crack the code of Millennial engagement.

After writing nine solid chapters on the subject we were able to convince our publisher to let us go out on a limb and crowdsource the final chapter of our book, Cause for Change: The Why and How of Nonprofit Millennial Engagement. That’s where you come in. It’s not that we’re tired of writing (well, maybe a little) or out of words (rarely a problem if you know us well) – but really, it’s about capturing the voices that are shaping and influencing the social change space, many of which we have yet to uncover. We think we’ve done a pretty good job weaving together stories with new research, articles and personal experiences that help showcase how Millennials – our peers – are driving much of the change within nonprofit institutions and beyond. However, the story can only be complete if we ensure that others are able to collectively influence it – and that’s where the collaborative nature of Millennials kicks-in.

Whether you are a Millennial yourself or you are managing Millennials, or you’re simply fascinated or dumbfounded by the generation, we’d like to hear from you. How are Millennials influencing structures in your organizations? Has your senior leadership bought-in to the fact that they need to adapt in order to attract the next generation? Are you changing your communications approaches and outreach efforts to appeal to younger constituents? Have you given up on institutions altogether and started your own venture?

We hope you’ll take a few minutes to submit your stories, strategies and sage advice via comments, quotes, blog posts on your own sites (which we’ll link to on our Facebook page) or by sending an email to causeforchangebook@gmail.com.  Let’s get this book finished together!

You Get More With Facebook Than You Give – Is Your Organization Stepping Up to the Challenge?

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Earlier this month, the Pew Internet and American Life Project released their findings on the effect of Facebook “Power Users”.  The researchers analyzed 269 Facebook users and their activity over the course of one month.  In that month of analysis, it was discovered that 20-30% of the survey sample represented “Power Users” – users who sent friend requests, added content, and liked content of their friends at much higher rates than the rest of the sample.  The heart of the research details one important finding: because of these power users, “there is a consistent pattern” that Facebook users receive more from these individuals than they give to others.  This means that users will get more friend requests, be “liked” more than to “like”, and receive more messages than they send.  In addition, it was even discovered that more users comment on a friends post/update than they update their own statuses.

What does this mean for nonprofit organizations?  Here are three applications.

Work harder to use conversational engagement on Facebook
Organizations need to spend more time developing conversational content through Facebook rather than typical blast message approaches.  If we know that users are more willing to comment than update their own status, we should be prepared to create conversational updates that focus more on pulling the user to comment rather than inform.

Draw in users with comments to create better feedback mechanisms
Organizations should be spending more time working to engage users within the content.  Organizations should be searching for Facebook user content and comment/provide feedback on conversations relevant to the issue of the cause.  This will help to encourage more commenting and Facebook interaction among the community.

Understand “Power Users” and their effect on your cause
The study also discovered that the more friends a user had, their activity within Facebook increased.  These “Power Users” increased commenting, posting, liking, and other forms of engagement within their network.  As an organization, you should determine the effect of the “Power User” on your cause.  Although their actions within Facebook has increased, it does not necessarily mean their influence has climbed to new heights.  This would mean that some “Power Users” may not be influencers.  This is evident in the main finding that these “Power Users” are driving activity but users are not reciprocating at the same rate.  Therefore, nonprofits must understand “Power Users” in their network and whether or not activity will generate action, awareness, and/or conversation on the organization’s behalf.

Ultimately, organizations have to remind themselves of the conversational power of Facebook.  It is a medium of conversation and engagement.  As an organization, is the reach or virility important, or the engagement of the community in your conversations?

To download the full report, visit pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Facebook-users.aspx

Millennials Keep Their Friends Close, and Strangers Closer When It Comes to Big Purchases

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By Kari Saratovsky, Guest Blogger, KDS Strategies

Having grown up in a society where “never talk to strangers” was ingrained into the heads of Millennials from a very early age, it may be surprising to learn that today Millennials aren’t just talking to strangers, they are relying on their opinions even more than those of their friends, family and colleagues. This comes into play when making decisions about purchasing everything from cars and electronics to vacations and even insurance plans.

As companies and institutions try and make sense of a generation with 80 Million voices and a collective buying power of $200 Billion, a new study is making it’s way into boardrooms and advertising agencies across the country. And there are many reasons that nonprofits may also want to take note.

Bazaarvoice, in partnership with The Center for Generational Kinetics and Kelton Research, recently released survey findings which indicate that over 30% of Millenials will not make a big ticket purchase without first checking on what others had to say about it. What’s more, through User Generated Content (UGC), the study found that 51% of Millennials say that consumer opinions of complete strangers found on a company’s website carry more weight than what their friends and family have to say.

Continue reading “Millennials Keep Their Friends Close, and Strangers Closer When It Comes to Big Purchases” »