Our friends at GlobalGiving have a few career openings which we're sharing here. GlobalGiving is a really innovative online marketplace which connects "donors to doers", the doers being some 450 pre-screened grassroots charity projects around the world.

Online Marketing Director
Are you an innovative web marketer who knows how to attract highly-qualified visitors? Do you have a passion for connecting others to something meaningful? Would you like to go home at night knowing that you helped make the world a better place, versus driving people to LOLCats.com, working for an organization described by the Washington Post as “(facilitating) foreign aid at the speed of light?”

This is a senior position on GlobalGiving’s marketing team, which is responsible for recruiting and retaining donors, supporting business partnerships, continuing to grow awareness of the GlobalGiving brand, and executing and tracking effectiveness of our marketing strategies. If you don’t have a genuine interest in applying business-like rigor to changing the world, as well as legitimate experience in sophisticated online marketing, this probably isn’t the job for you. The Online Marketing Director will lead our efforts to attract new donors to our platform via all relevant and appropriate strategies.

GlobalGiving is growing fast, but not fast enough for our tastes. This role entails:

Owning our stretch goals for new online donor acquisition and growth in our platform
Developing strategy and managing execution of all online marketing campaigns; identifying and executing new online/viral marketing efforts that maximize traffic and donor conversion
Producing dynamic, donor-centric and community-focused online marketing initiatives and execute them in a rapid-learning style
Utilizing user and other market data to prioritize and drive improvements to overall UI, landing pages, features, and activation triggers on globalgiving.com, in conjunction with tech and marketing teams
Creating and managing multi-channel acquisition strategies in conjunction with Directors of Business Development and Marketing Communications
Overseeing, monitoring and leveraging metrics tracking and strategic evaluation of marketing initiatives (e.g., paid search) for optimal success.

Skills and attributes required:

7+ years of experience in marketing, including 4+ in online marketing, preferably for a B-to-C “marketplace” type website; strong grasp of, and demonstrated success in, online viral & acquisition marketing
Hands on experience managing campaigns across multiple online channels, including working with partners
Demonstrated strong analytical skills and ability to quickly assess “ROI” of strategies
Comfort in an entrepreneurial, growing environment (aka, high levels of experimentation and fluid priorities)
Some experience in the non-profit/social sector would be a plus
Experience with web analytics such as Omniture, Webtrends, or other high-end tool
Ability to “play well in the sandbox” – everything is done in teams…and a sense of humor and love of music would be helpful
Our open-space office is located in the historic “U” Street area of Washington DC, and is two blocks from Metro.

So, if you are an overachiever who loves to work with other fun people in a small, dynamic, and fast paced environment, then send a resume and a cover letter to jobs@globalgiving.com as soon as possible. Please indicate “Online Marketing Director” in the subject line.

Marketing Communications Manager
Are you high-energy? Team-oriented? An awesome writer and communicator? Into the internet? Ready to change the world? Got some legitimate work experience? GlobalGiving may be looking for you, if you're interested in applying those attributes to helping grassroots projects around the world get access to funds they need to do their inspiring work.

We were founded by two ex-World Bankers who woke up one day and said, “Hey, let's do something more entrepreneurial, like an e-bay for international philanthropy.” And a few years later over 500 social entrepreneurs around the world have received funding from thousands of donors... all through www.globalgiving.com.

This position is part of GlobalGiving's marketing team, which is responsible for recruiting and retaining donors, supporting business partnerships, establishing the GlobalGiving brand, and executing our always-brilliant marketing strategies. If you don't have an interest in international philanthropy and development, as well as excellent verbal and written communications skills, this probably isn't the job for you. The Marketing Communications Manager will play a key role in enhancing and promoting the GlobalGiving.com website, so experience in online marketing (especially paid and organic search) and design tools (e.g., PhotoShop), is super desirable.

Things you'd be responsible for:

Managing GlobalGiving's external communications - including writing and publishing newsletters, e-alerts, and donor communications.
Making copy improvements to our Web site and supporting online marketing activities, including search.
Leveraging our CRM system to customize and target outbound communications (online and off).
Supporting PR efforts - research, outreach, and crafting press releases.
Collaborating with BD team to develop materials tailored to different customer segments.
Managing marketing campaigns and special projects as needed.
Making sure all the marketing administration stuff gets done right.
Skills and attributes that will come in handy:

3+ years of experience in communications, particularly online-related.
Comfort in an entrepreneurial, growing environment (aka, high levels of experimentation and fluid priorities).
No man or woman is an island, especially at GG - so you must like people to join our team.
A sense of humor and love of music.
Our open-space office is located in the historic “U” Street area of Washington DC, and is two blocks from Metro.

So, if you are an overachiever who loves to work with other fun people in a small, dynamic, and fast paced environment, then send a resume and a cover letter to jobs@globalgiving.com as soon as possible. Please indicate “Marketing Communications Manager” in the subject line. No phone calls, please.

Undergraduate Supply Internship - Fall 2007
GlobalGiving seeks a fun, motivated, self starter with an interest being part of a small, fast moving organization that is at the cutting edge of international aid and philanthropy.

GlobalGiving directly connects social entrepreneurs in the developing world with individuals, corporations, and institutions that have an interest in funding projects that fuel positive social and environmental change.

Founded in 2000 by two ex-World Bank executives, GlobalGiving is growing the overall international development market by leveraging current international aid and philanthropy resources and engaging donors and social entrepreneurs who have historically been marginalized by the international aid and philanthropy system.

The candidate should have an interest in international development and be eager to help GlobalGiving better support social entrepreneurs working around the world. He or she will work with GlobalGiving's supply team to improve and grow the GlobalGiving project network of project organizations. Excellent verbal and written communications skills are required.

Possible tasks include:

Researching potential GlobalGiving partner organizations to increase the thematic and geographic diversity of GlobalGiving projects
Reviewing and submitting projects for posting on the GlobalGiving site
Communicating with projects about due diligence and progress reports, and reviewing submitted materials
Investigating and designing tools to help social entrepreneurs market their work and maximize donations for their projects
Because GlobalGiving sits at the intersection of the corporate, foundation, and NGO worlds, the intern will gain from significant exposure to all three sectors and will learn about on-the-ground development work.

Internship is 30-40 hours a week, for a minimum of 8 weeks, although hours and start date are somewhat flexible. Our office is located in Washington DC's vibrant U St. neighborhood at 1816 12th St NW and is convenient to the U St metro.

Interested Applicants should send their resume and a cover letter to jobs@globalgiving.com (attention Dana Ledyard) by 8/20/07. Please indicate "undergraduate intern" in the subject line. No phone calls, please!

We look forward to hearing from you!

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This year's "Knight News Challenge" award contest is open - and they are looking to give away as much as $5m for innovative ideas "using digital experiments to transform community news." I love innovation contests like this one and they have in the past rewarded and funded some great work.

They say "(t)he goal is to spur innovation in the delivery of information and news using digital media." And in answer to the question "(w)hat kind of projects will get funded?" they say:

If you can say yes to every one of these, then your idea qualifies for submission:

* Digital – Your idea uses digital technology (computers, the internet, cell phones, that sort of thing).
* Innovative – Your idea is new and original. It’s different from what people have done before. You are, in some way, breaking new ground.
* News/information – Your idea is about giving people access to what they want to know.
* Timely – Your idea delivers news or information while it’s still fresh.
* Community-building – Your idea helps create a sense of community among some group of individuals.
* Limited geographic area – Your idea affects people in a specific area, which could be as big as a state or province, or as small as a city block. (If your idea is national or worldwide in scope, it must work at a regional level.)
* Open Source – The inner workings of what you create will be visible to the world, so that others can take it and improve upon it.

Past winning projects included some innovative folks we know like Ethan Zuckerman and Steven Clift, and projects covering:
* Open-source software that will let citizens find public information about their neighborhoods.
* Young journalists covering the 2008 presidential election on cell phones, for cell phones.
* Online games to inform and engage players about key issues confronting New York City.
* Digital newscasts for Philadelphia's immigrant community distributed through a new citywide wireless platform.

(Anyone want to partner on developing an innovative online service, we at Forum One would be interested to talk!)


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A little cross promotion of our latest Online Community Report newsletter, which has come great stuff about trends in social networking, the public release of a report we did on "Online Community Metrics", and marketing to online communities (including an event we're hosting in NYC on "Marketing & Online Communities" on November 8, 2007.) Many of the trends we track in the OCR are more on the private sector side, but with interesting lessons and implications for organizations in the public sector - policy, research, advocacy, government, etc. Interesting stuff - and nice work by our Bill Johnston.

I also want to plug our new "Online Community Research Network" - a research-based network of online community pros studying best practices for building and managing communities. Memberships now available, and read more at http://www.onlinecommunityresearch.com

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There is a compelling use of YouTube being launched by the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) with the support of YouTube and in collaboration with the Find Madeleine Campaign, at www.youtube.com/dontyouforgetaboutme. I think this again shows the power of online video to help make progress on key issues - building on the emotional and compelling nature of video, peoples' increasing facility in using the web to post and share video, and the wide reach of YouTube.

The YouTube channel will feature videos of missing children for public viewing, with the intention of speeding their location and recovery. The title of the channel, "Don't You Forget About Me," is named after the hit song by the Scottish Rock group "Simple Minds," and is featured in the video of 4-year-old Madeleine McCann who went missing on May 3, 2007.

ICMEC writes:

"Videos can be submitted by parents, guardians, or other sources verified by ICMEC prior to posting. Case information must be certified by the appropriate law enforcement agency or Hague Central Authority and the parent, guardian, or other designated representative must sign an Authorization and Release Form before ICMEC can post a video on the channel.

The channel also includes safety and educational materials in different languages as well as Public Service Announcements (PSAs) and messages of support. We encourage law enforcement, government agencies, and child advocacy organizations from around the world to submit safety and educational materials for inclusion on the channel.

Videos can be submitted in any language."

I think and hope they will have a lot of success in this.

FYI - I've written previously about the use of YouTube for video contests on policy issues and to showcase the rarely seen but amazing work done by NOAA ocean scientists

Note: Forum One developed in 2002 the information architecture and graphic design still in use (through somewhat modified) by ICMEC and its US counterpart, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). These organizations do amazing work here in the US and around the world. They are also located in our home town of Alexandria, VA.


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