#SWDay Update… Featuring Percival! May 10, 2012

We are up to 54 teams joining us for a day of service and celebration on Sat 5/19!  We still have a ways to go until we reach 1,300 volunteers – but we have faith in our last minute city and know that “if you build it, they will come.” And build it we have!

For those of you that haven’t met Percival yet, say hello! Percival is our SWD mascot and generally the most incredible unicorn you’ll ever meet.

Join Percival for Seattle Works Day! There’s still time to sign up for a team, or sign up for the Seattle Works team and you’ll be serving at an elementary school in Fremont.  http://www.seattleworks.org/swd

Board Retreat… SW Style April 17, 2012

Every year our smart and hilarious Board of Directors ventures onto a ferry boat and heads out for a weekend away.  Not a weekend of relaxation, but a weekend of work.  Down and dirty, hard work… ok, and some fun too.

This year’s retreat goals?

1. Innovation Hub: inform the development of a two page snapshot due to HandsOn Network 4/15.

2. Build relationships.

3. Deepen board understanding of current programming, most notably HandsOn Leadership.

 

This year we returned to Camp Burton on Vashon Island.  The weather cleared up and so did the somewhat cloudy picture in our heads about what the Innovation Hub proposal would be.

We achieved many goals on this weekend away – including a ton of staff/board bonding time, a very entertaining role play on what our next program could look like and beating the heck out of a darth vader head shaped piñata.  Stay tuned!

      

So you’re thinking about starting a group to engage the young people?? April 4, 2012

I just sent an email to a really fantastic organization that is starting an advisory board targeting younger people. It’s not the first time we’ve been asked for advice in this area (and hopefully not the last! ask away!) so I figured I might as well take those same thoughts and put them up on the blog.

A lot of these start-up “young professional” or “20-something” groups start with good intentions and then fizzle out. Here’s how to build a group that creates value….

1) The group must have buy-in and support from the organization in a real way. It can’t be some young staff member’s pet idea and they get given the green light to move forward without any real commitment from the organization.

2) Younger people care about more than happy hour. Some groups mistakenly think all you need to do is host a “happy hour” and you’re relevant. Sure, fun social activities can be a draw, especially if there’s free or affordable booze, but groups that don’t have any real content or connect to the agency mission are short-lived.

3)  Younger people care about more than social media. A few years back, several groups thought that if they just got some young people together and threw some happy hours, they would be set. This still happens a little, but the thing I hear a lot is now – we just need a Facebook group, or we just need to start up on Pinterest, because that’s what the young people do. It’s the exact same mindset as the happy hour mindset. Sure, younger people like those things. But they are not any type of magic bullet. Social media can be a great element of your strategy, but it’s not the strategy itself.

4. What DOES work is identifying people in the demographic who care about your organization’s mission, bringing them together, listening them, valuing their opinions, and then building a program. They should have a real voice in the organization, and you should identify ways they can have both an independent identity as this younger group, and legitimate interactions with other stakeholder groups in your organization. This may take a little longer to do, but you’ll wind up with something real and that can last, rather than a flash-in-the-pan.

5. You know what works in terms of cultivating donors, engaging volunteers, building relationships and developing strategy at your organization. (And if you don’t, it’s worth thinking that through before you start a new group.) Rely on those skills first and then layer on what you know and what you are learning about younger people.

Growing the presence of young people in your organization is about diversity. Start with the basics of person-to-person engagement. Respect and value differences. Listen, and hear from people directly what they want, rather than assuming you know what they want. Be open to learning. Be open that you may need to be doing something differently at your organization itself, not just marketing to a new audience and plugging them into your organization exactly as it currently exists. Be honest with yourself and with your new group about what you would like for their participation to bring to your organization. In short: take it seriously.

Thus endeth the lecture,

T

Making some news, getting a mug February 27, 2012

Oscars, schmoscars – Seattle Works is hitting the screen via Comcast Newsmakers!

The interview is available on YouTube and has been showing on tv in conjunction with CNN Headline News. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKeLz4igQSU&feature=youtu.be

It’s five minutes of big picture perspective on Seattle Works, including a shout-out on being selected as an Innovation Hub.

Thanks Comcast for the opportunity (and the mug!)

- Tara

News Flash: Innovation Hubs Share Ideas, Inspiration February 7, 2012

From the Points of Light Blog…

“Leaders from HandsOn Network’s 10 Innovation Hubs recently came together for a five-day summit near Atlanta to share creative ideas, develop new strategies to engage volunteers and create cutting-edge community engagement models that can be replicated across the network.

“The summit was an intentional and strategic deep dive into innovation and how it is applied to community challenges in a rapidly changing world,” said Tara Smith, executive director of Seattle Works. “I think it ignited a conversation that would have otherwise not happened and will yield powerful results for our role in community transformation across the country.”

Read the rest of the article: http://pointsoflightblog.org/2012/02/06/news-flash-innovation-hubs-share-ideas-inspiration/

Want to see the best giraffe impression ever? December 20, 2011

Tara makes us laugh… and she’ll make you laugh too.

http://youtu.be/3S6Mcs9gXDw

 

But the real point of all this is to support Seattle Works! When you give a gift today, you’ll be entered to win two tickets to Swank 2012! One of, if not THE BEST, party of the year!

 

Make a gift today: https://seattleworks.ejoinme.org/RockStar

#iHubs – Better Together December 17, 2011

Home. A week at HandsOn Network‘s Innovation Summit in Palmetto, GA was an incredible gift. And today, I’m happy to be sitting on my couch, alone with my own thoughts and a cup of black coffee.  Not a buttered biscuit or other trace of Southern breakfast in sight.

I went to the Summit to learn, and to more clearly define the next steps for Seattle Works. Going in, the idea of being there with nine other cities was a cool bonus, but not the point. Like our peers, Seattle Works received the Innovation Hub designation based on the great work we’re doing locally – for our own leadership and our own programs. We got invited to this Summit to start thinking about what OUR next innovation would be. I was probably not alone in this mindset going in.

Funny thing is, when you give a bunch of smart, caring, community-building types an entire week to think together, they start seeing a lot further than their own backyards. With each passing day, it became less about what each of us would create, and more about what each of us could learn from one another, what we could co-create and what we might leverage across cities.

What’s next? In terms of the specifics, I still don’t know. It will involve building a stronger network of Seattle Works volunteer leaders. It will involve a deeper of understanding of community issues and how to affect those issues in multiple ways – with volunteer time, with advocacy, with money. It will be developed in partnership with and in response to the Seattle Works community, not handed down on high from me or anyone else on staff. I also knew those things going in.

What I did not know, is that it may be something that Seattle and one or two other cities co-create and try out at the same time. It may involve a combo of new things built from scratch here, and importing things that are working elsewhere but not yet happening in Seattle.

I’m home from the Summit with three important things: 1) an even stronger conviction that Seattle Works’ strategic direction is the right one 2) a bigger set of tools and resources to keep us moving in that right direction and 3) a deeper sense of appreciation and admiration for our partners in this effort.

Long story short – we’re  better together.

Seattle Works as a “networked nonprofit” #ihubs December 12, 2011

Sigh. Writing you from a beautiful room on a beautiful farm where I am calling airline baggage service every 10 minutes until they pick up the phone. Wish I was strolling these lovely grounds instead of calculating whether I’m going to have to catch a ride into town and buy a week’s worth of underwear before the Summit starts.

In the meantime… might as well blog.

I’m excited for Sarah and I to not only spend this time with the nine fellow iHub organizations and some of the HandsOn Network staff, but for the power-house combo of partners HON is bringing to this retreat. I’ll try and spotlight some them during the week. Today:

Alison Fine (@afine), co-author of “The Networked Nonprofit” http://www.allisonfine.com/

This book has been on my reading list for a few months now, and the news that I would be spending this week with one of the authors was the kick I needed to actually START READING IT (I’m halfway through so far.)

Wish I would have done this sooner! While I’ve been hearing that this book is the go-to foundation for nonprofits and social media (a great topic, but not necessarily one that would jump to the top of my priority list), I now understand that the book is really about big-picture organizational change.

Networked Nonprofits are simple and transparent organizations. They are easy for outsiders to get in and insiders to get out. They engage people to shape and share their work in order to raise awareness of social issues, organize communities to provide services or advocate for legislation. In the long run, they are helping to make the world a safer, fairer, healthier place to live.

Networked Nonprofits don’t work harder or longer than other organizations, they work differently. They engage in conversations with people beyond their walls — lots of conversations — to build relationships that spread their work through the network.

http://www.allisonfine.com/publications/networked-nonprofit/  (emphasis added by me)

WHOA! All the things I have been thinking about Seattle Works and our future – some of which only live right now as gut-level, semi-articulated concepts in my brain – spelled out clearly.

Our board has laid our a fantastic vision in our Strategic Plan, and as I work to operationalize it, I’ve been thinking and saying things like:

“flat”

“transparent”

“more integrated across teams”

“even more participant and partner-driven”

“giving our volunteer leaders more responsibility and more say”

“building deeper relationships with our nonprofit partners”

It turns out what I’ve really been saying is “Let’s make Seattle Works even more of a Networked Nonprofit“.

AHA!

Now if I only had a toothbrush…

Innovation Hub Summit: making time to think (#ihubs) December 12, 2011

With all the do, do, DOING at Seattle Works, I’ve been trying harder lately to take make sure I’m taking enough time to step back and THINK. It’s important to take a break from the everyday hustle and bustle (of which there is plenty!) and really consider how Seattle Works can be the most amazing resource possible for our community.

HandsOn Network’s Innovation Hub Summit couldn’t be coming at a better time. A week of uninterrupted thinking and planning with smart people… for FREE? This does not often happen in the nonprofit sector. At least not to me! If I weren’t so tired from heading to the airport at 4am, I’d be downright giddy.

The Summit kicks off Monday, just outside Atlanta. I’m going to make an attempt to share my thoughts on our blog throughout the week, as well as on Twitter via #ihubs. Stay tuned and if you have any questions, thoughts, ideas – let me know!

best, T

Tara Smith, Executive Director

p.s. Board Chair Sarah Haeger and I are here because Seattle Works was named one of ten national Innovation Hubs by HandsOn Network. More info at: http://www.seattleworks.org/SW_News

What makes planning fun? Post-its, red dots and Gaga! November 17, 2011

It was all hands on deck this week, which for Seattle Works means three full -time AmeriCorps team members (Jenna, Page and Ellen), two full-time staff (Tara and Bevin) and two part-time staff (Tyler and Andy) and for a 12 month planning session.

We call it the Great Calendaring Session of 2012 and it happens with background beats from Gaga.

 

Everyone is responsible for identifying their own programs, events, meetings, grant deadlines, what have you dates on post-its and then placing them on the ginormous calendar sheets.  Once that happens we looks at the year quarter by quarter as a team and see how the dates overlap/intersect.  It was seriously the most productive two-hour discussion we’ve ever had around our calendar!

You might be asking yourself, “Why should l care about your calendar?” Because it’s going to make hanging out with Seattle Works easier on you!  Team Works rounds will be kicking off consistently, year after year in the same months, we’ll have one training course, either The Bridge or HandsOn Leadership, offered every month (for the first six months of the year) and major events like Seattle Works Day is already set (mark your calendars – Sat 5/19/12).  Plus we’ll be publishing all these dates for you at the beginning of the year in case you’re a planner.

You. are. welcome.