Global corporations continue to grow in influence: according to World, Inc., 51 of the world's 100 largest economies are now corporate.

Fortunately, global corporations are simultaneously increasing their commitment to social issues: traditional corporate philanthropy is being augmented by corporate "Social Good" initiatives which both consider the corporation's own behavior and also offer social good programs for consumers.

Here are four organizations with model "social good" initiatives (each attended Forum One's recently completed Online Community Summit):

• Yahoo for Good: providing services across a range of topics for their 500 million+ users;
• AIM for Good: AOL's initiative linking their popular AIM service to charity and advocacy efforts;
• LinkedIn for Good: social networking and publicity services for non-profits;
• YouTube Nonprofit Program: providing a customizable channel, publicity and fundraising services to non-profits.

These efforts, and many other corporate efforts like them, provide wonderful opportunities. There is one major shortcoming, however: non-profits by and large don't know about them. At Forum One we've completed 1000 projects for over 300 non-commercial organizations, and corporate social good initiatives are almost never on the radar (the two most frequent exceptions are Google's Grants Program, which provides free online advertising, and Salesforce's Donation Program, which provides free CRM solutions to non-profits).

How can this situation be improved? First, it would be useful if there were a good accounting (and updated directory) of corporate social good initiatives. This would be a fine project for any organization which spans sectors (the Omidyar Network comes to mind), or even for one of the corporate initiatives themselves. Second, non-profits need to think more aggressively (and less defensively) about corporate partners, and corporations need to turn to experienced non-profits to further their efforts. As government funding shrinks and most foundations are tapped out, corporate social good initiatives represent a huge opportunity for the social sector.

LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Upcoming: a year ago these were novel web sites that every organization needed to know about. Today they are powerful web communications allies that every organization should be using. Forum One's recently completed Online Community Summit focused extensively on these (and other) social media properties, reflecting their recent rise.

As organizations ponder these influential sites, they confront an immediate set of questions:

• Which sites should we participate with?
• How do we staff efforts?
• How do we monitor success?
• Do we lose control of content or brand?
• How do we experiment without causing problems?
• What are key pitfalls if we use these sites?
• What are pitfalls if we neglect these sites?

In acknowledgement of these questions, organizations from large to small should assemble their social media strategies for 2008. At the very least these strategies should prioritize sites to monitor and potentially engage with, with associated staff allocations and metrics systems updates. Extra credit for groups that recognize real opportunities, for example:

• Wikipedia's updated and extensive editing policies, and how organizations can most productively interact with this hugely influential site;
• Facebook's new open APIs, allowing organizations to tailor Facebook offerings to their needs;
• YouTube's new, free, "nonprofit channel" which provides longer clip lengths, internal publicity, associated fundraising, and other advantages.

Social media management will quickly grow into a big deal for all organizations. We'll soon see job openings for "Social Media Managers", probably followed in a year or so by "Director of Social Media", "VP - Social Media", or even "Chief Social Media Officer". The days of worrying about only your own web site ended in 2007.

Traditional grant competitions request proposals, review them in private, and announce winners. It is an effective and proven formula, but it neglects one major opportunity: the proposals themselves contain great ideas, but most are never made public. What if all proposals were posted online, either after the competition, or even during it?

Ashoka, the non-profit organization that promotes social entrepreneurship around the globe, has conducted grant competitions that do just that. The Changemakers grant series, for example, posts all proposals online for all to see as soon as they are submitted. Ashoka calculates that the social value of broadcasting good ideas outweighs either proprietary or competitive concerns that this approach can raise. Cooperation is good. Competition is good. Sometimes the best balance is "coopetition", as evidenced in this innovative approach to grant applications.

As organizations turn towards online communities and collaboration to further their interests, they confront a problem: it is difficult to learn about these topics except from other practitioners.

To assist organizations with this problem, Forum One is hosting on May 25th in San Francisco the Online Community Camp 2006, a gathering of online community practitioners for a day of networking and information sharing. The Camp will follow the novel "open space" conference format, in which much of the agenda will be finalized the day of the conference based on participant input.

For more information about the Camp, see the Forum One event home page.

When your target audience is suffering from information overload, how can you get their attention? Sometimes a little whimsy may help.

SAGECrossroads, a Forum One client, was having difficulty interesting people in medical research involving aging, an admittedly arcane topic. Together we decided to produce trading cards of the "hottest" medical researchers in the field. Industry insiders took quickly to the idea, as has the press. Even the current issue of Wired Magazine ran a feature on the idea. Sometimes a little whimsy pays off!

How can a non-profit, public-spirited organization grow to huge prominence using only volunteers online? You can now learn firsthand: Forum One is hosting Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales for a talk December 1st in Washington DC. Space is limited, so be sure to RSVP.

Technorati Tags:wiki, nptech, International Development

What happens when a non-profit's website grows in reach and effectiveness to the point where it eclipses all other activities of that organization? This isn't a hypothetical question: many non-profits, if they took a dispassionate survey of their various activities (web, books, conferences, meetings), and truly weighed the effectiveness of the web (which routinely reaches tens of thousands) and other programs (which generally reach far fewer) would come to the conclusion that the web is possibly the only thing the organization should focus on.

So what does a dot-org look like that focuses only on the web? It looks like a dot-com: eBay, for example, has an entire organization built up to care for and feed a web site. Sure, eBay hosts conferences, and prints publications, and holds meetings, but the principal identity of eBay is the web. Similarly, the principal identity of most non-profits should be (and likely will be) the web. This will represent a dramatic psychological transition for organizations, but any review of web metrics and trends makes it clear -- most non-profits will be eaten by their websites, if they haven't been already.

In years past, global knowledge was captured in books. Educated people with access to a library could tap that knowledge.

Now, global knowledge is mostly captured in the "knowledge cloud" of cyberspace. Anyone with access to a computer (or, increasingly, other devices) can tap in. The knowledge cloud comprises digital forms of all types of content -- web sites, papers, articles, audio files, video files -- all in formats that are easier to search and access.

The content "odd man out" is books. By and large the content in books remains trapped in books with little access in cyberspace. Google is trying to access that trove of information with their Google Print initiative. Yahoo and MSN have signed onto a competing open source venture. Because of technical and legal obstacles, both ventures are at least a decade away from offering comprehensive results.

This means that, at least for the time being, books are one of the worst vehicles for global communications. With respect to the global knowledge cloud, books are "information prisons". They might be great for credibility or appearance, but in 2005, they are not a good choice effective communications.