 Before we begin at this event, I want to acknowledge with respect the honor and agonization by our keepers of the Haudenosaunee, the indigenous people on KUSA's ancestral lands, Syracuse University now stands. Welcome everyone to the first and hope many high school insights with alumna and friends around issues that affect our information bill. I also wanna mention that we will have a little bit of time at the end of this is presentations for you to ask questions. So before, so I just wanted to let you know that you have that opportunity. Now, I have to say, I never knew I could be saying that we have a pandemic of catastrophic, of pandemic proportions and actually be living through one. And why am I saying this? This is because we are in the middle of a pandemic and many of us and our organizations have been forced to change our models of branding. And while it has been a painful transition, it might also be an opportunity for innovation. What are the opportunities this pandemic has opened when some have been closed? And I feel that you will be delighted about the way LISC has found ways to make organizations stand out. I recently met LISC and I felt that I have known her for years. She's scary, knowledgeable, and I have tremendous experiences. She has helped leaders in many organizations to share their stories and the mechanisms to increase their impact and potential. She has a long career as entrepreneur who has helped many non-for-profits to her consulting film firm, which is one of only four Nenson Mandela and those organizations. She's also an invited member to the US Speaker Program of the Department of State and she has shared her expertise through her trainings to many organizations worldwide. So thank you everyone for joining us and without further ado, help me welcoming LISC and Gosi. Go ahead, LISC. Thank you so much, Marta. I'm so excited to be here. I'm very grateful to SU, to iSchool for making this opportunity possible. I'm thrilled to be back, even though I'm not physically back, I'm thrilled to be able to address an audience made up of our community. And so I'm gonna go ahead and go into my PowerPoint presentation. I'm gonna share my screen and I want to go ahead just let me know if you can see the presentation. Okay, great. Let me just minimize everybody else. Okay, so today we're gonna talk about tech for good, how to leverage your digital skills to facilitate social impact. I'm LISC and Gosi and I graduated in the class of 1992 from what was then, now it's the iSchool, but then it was the School of Information Studies. And a funny fact is I actually went to Syracuse as an art student. So I was in VPA and it was through a bunch of different sort of relationships that I discovered the School of Information Studies and I never went back. And so I'm really thrilled that I had the opportunity to go through the program. I'm gonna first talk to you a little bit about how I'm currently creating impact with my digital skills. So I have a consulting firm through which I provide coaching, executive coaching and speaking services to nonprofits as well as impact led either entrepreneurs or executives and really helping them to craft their stories in a way that enables them to most effectively engage with their various stakeholders, to be able to access opportunities and to be able to grow their businesses. And so I'm gonna talk a little bit about storytelling. So it's storytelling in general but it's also digital storytelling as you know we're living in a virtual world right now effectively. So being able to convey what you're doing and what you're about and what's unique about what you have to offer online is very, very critical. I also recently founded the International Social Impact Institute which is an entity of its own but I'm partnering with different academic partners to develop courses and as well as by consulting services and training to not only traditional nonprofits but to social enterprises, foundations and the like really addressing some of the challenges that they're going through right now with a great emphasis on increasing digital skills, accessing funders and the like through digital platforms as well as really becoming very clear about the importance of really connecting or diversifying the sector so that you're really getting new voices and the potential to innovate much more greatly by doing so. I'm gonna tell you a little bit my story. For those of you who are in the iSchool physically this was taken in iSchool a few years ago and I love this photograph because it was part of the ITGirls program it's at the iSchool that I love very much. I won't go into great detail about it but it basically is a program that's designed to provide high school girls with an opportunity to learn about the careers within the tech sector and how they can really advance and so this was taken at iSchool and I love it. Anyway, so I'm gonna tell you a little bit my story very, very briefly. It's been a 25 year journey but let's go ahead and see what I can get through right now. So my journey starting from Syracuse to corporate America starts when I graduated in the second class, IST class in 1992. On the left is a photograph with my very, very, very dear and hearted mentor Marta Dosa. In fact, she's the one who really introduced me to what, you know, when we talk about the internet it wasn't like anything like you see right now there's no user, your graphic user interface or anything but I did a lot of research with her and so that really was very, very fundamental to my ability to really create a lot of impact through my digital skills. So I wanted to recognize her. Soon after that, I wanna also mention because many were going through this pandemic and were also in a recession. What's really important is I graduated in a recession and I have to tell you that the majority of my friends who were in other programs at SU were not able to get jobs at that time. In fact, many of them ended up having to take, waiting, they needed to, they had to take jobs like waiting tables and so on and so forth, but I had five job offers because the program was coming out of and I subsequently chose to go with Digital Equipment Corporation which at the time was the number two company, computer company in the world. It's now morphed into I believe Hewlett Packard. So as a marketing specialist and what's really important about that is that I actually hated programming. And so I remember Susan Bonzi was my professor and I said to her, I said, look, I really don't like programming. I have a job where I'm in marketing. I don't really wanna do this course, but anyway, I made it through and what was really important about the program for me was that I was able to take my understanding of technology, my understanding of how information flows through companies to apply it to this company that was really at the forefront of technology in a marketing capacity. Subsequent to that, I went to go work as a sales executive for a smaller company, Microsystems Inc. that sold technology to the hospitality industry. And so you can see these are point of sales systems. If you see them today, they're touchscreen, they're very flat, very sleek, but that's what we had to work with at the time. And then I then went to Cornell to get an MBA focus in hospitality at the hotel school and subsequently left there to go work for Arthur Anderson, which is no longer, but I was a manager there and I worked on lots of different projects. A very important thing about this is that I was hired to help build a hospitality practice, but I was hired maybe the fall before I started and I started the subsequent fall and the partner who had hired me actually left. And so all of a sudden they needed to find a new place for me, but what helped me is that I had a tech background. I had these digital skills, so I was able to be integrated into the telecommunications media and entertainment practice and I did a little bit of hospitality work. So that's really important that, again, the degree really came in handy for me. Fast forward to 2001 to 2018, that's my entrepreneurial journey. And so I had a consulting firm that eventually really focused on helping nonprofits, both here in the US and as well as internationally, to raise funds and to rebrand and to brand themselves with a special emphasis on digital branding. We didn't call it that and I didn't think of it that way, but that's what we did. And so this first one is a screen grab, a screenshot of an online auction that we introduced for an organization called Susan G. Coman for the Cure that's involved in breast cancer research and it was for the Ping-Tai Ball. We were hired to rebrand their event, which is a multi-million dollar event. And I said to them, we've got to go digital. So one of the things we incorporated was an online auction, which is very, very, very common now, but this was back in 2007 where you really didn't have that. And so that was really a great advantage for us being able to deliver those kinds of services to nonprofits they didn't previously have. Fast forward to 2013. We secured a contract with Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration as for their major fundraiser, which is the Icon and Innovator Awards. And we provided marketing and fundraising strategy. And this is actually a screenshot of an app that we introduced for the event so that there could be a lot more interactivity during the event leading up to the event. And so that's just an example of how we integrated that sort of digital element into a fundraising event that raises millions of dollars in scholarships for the school. In 2014, I was hired by Africa Tikkun, which is an organization based in South Africa and has the distinction of being one of only four nonprofits in the world for which Nelson Mandela served as chief patron. So Nelson Mandela endorsed organization. And my job was to build its presence in the US to be able to attract funders, partners and the like. And one of the things I did was I created a partnership with Facebook and Facebook invited us to participate as one of eight organizations around the world in its International Day of the Girl Child campaign. Really looking to celebrate girls providing them with opportunities and celebrating organizations that provide opportunities to girls. And what's important about this is that when I first started with the organization and even up until the point, the week before the campaign, the organization had about 7,500 followers on its Facebook page. As a result of us participating in this campaign and really having the opportunity to partner with Facebook on a campaign on Facebook, we grew organically in one week to 175,000 followers. And so that really was really incredible for us because all of a sudden we went from being a South Africa-based organization with Outposts in the US and the UK to being really truly global brand and we're able to leverage that to fundraise online and to really get our message out there. So that was, again, thank you to this high school. Following that in 2017, I had an opportunity to go to, actually in 2016, I had an opportunity to go to the Con Lions International Festival of Creativity in France. And I met with McCann World Group, which is like my number two ad agency in the world. I met with their chief, I guess, creative officer. And I told him about our organization he loved and he said, we wanna create a campaign for you. And so we partnered with them and we created the LinkedIn campaign. And basically what we did was the organization, I work for, works in South Africa with in very, very, very challenging environments and townships which are known, I guess you'd say that some of them are inner cities or they're really, really poor rural areas where kids really oftentimes don't have access to opportunities that some of them are seen as throwaway kids and yet through the community centers that the organization I work for has developed from the time that kids are toddlers all the way into becoming young adults, they have access to a lot of really great opportunities to become leaders, to be able to really realize their potential. And so what I decided was really important about this was that we were gonna celebrate these young people. So we found 12 of our young people in South Africa from the ages of 13 to 20. And we created LinkedIn profiles for them. We asked them to help us figure out like which leader do they wanna become? And so we created these LinkedIn profiles with obviously their current title was student but we decided that we wanted to show that they're aspiring to something greater. And so if you see this example, surprise, we made him indicate that he wanted to be the future NASA administrator at the time the NASA administrator was Charles Bolden. And so we created this whole profile for him and interestingly enough, a bunch of former astronauts and NASA employees connected with him. But the purpose of this was to help people understand that these kids have potential that showing their projects are the working on what they're trying to create in the world. And this has resulted in over half a million dollars raised for the organization. And so that campaign ran in 2017. All right, so now let me talk a little bit about my current story but on the educator and speaker side. So I've been teaching for a very long time at New York University. I teach in the currently in the Center for Global Affairs and we have a fundraising program which I teach. And my courses are related to basically digital storytelling for nonprofits. This is when we had to go online in March. And so that was a fun transition. And for me, it was actually very seamless transition because when I do teach online and to, you know, for whereas a lot of faculty really felt uncomfortable going online. It was very seamless for me again with this back technology background. In 2012, I had the opportunity to create a panel with Tia Marouche who's one of my collaborators and our panel was on Africa Tech and Women. And so this is just us at South by Southwest and we're able to really actually it's for the Standing Room only event and we were able to really help people to understand all the technological developments in Africa and really kind of change the perspective on what Africa brings to the table. Particularly given that in Kenya, you've got EMPESA mobile payment platform which is really the leader in mobile payments around the world. So that was a great opportunity. Fast forward to last summer, I went to Denmark with my speaking partner and we trained a number of nonprofit organizations around digital storytelling, how to use human and digital strategies to access US foundations. So that's another example. And then just recently last month, I delivered yet another webinar for Candid which is a leader in our space for sort of information exchange around the sector. And so this was on digital storytelling. We had 300 people participate on this webinar from all over the world. All right, now that you've gotten a sense for how I'm able to use my digital skills to really create an impact, I'm gonna go into how you can create an impact with your digital skills. So this is what I'm assuming about you based on the information I received. You're either a prospective student or parent and you're considering the iSchool where your current student, you're thinking, okay, where am I going next? What should I be? What are some of the moves I should be making? What should I be considering? And then you might be also an alum who's considering a career pivot or as a result of whatever's been going on, you're forced to re-examine where you move forward or where you go from here on out. And or you're a nonprofit professional who's really looking to create, to have some kind of a digital boost. So whether it's your skill sets or being able to bring digital engagement in within your organization. So that's who I'm speaking to today. I apologize if there's anyone else, but that's really what my focus. What's really important about this topic and why I chose to discuss this is because as you can imagine with the economic devastation that the pandemic has created, organizations that are already on the verge of collapse or just really who are constantly having to raise funds, that kind of fundraising was definitely impacted. So a number of organizations raised their funds primarily through events. And as you can imagine, events were canceled. So for the majority of your budget is being raised through an event and it's canceled. That means that you're really, really gonna be in a very, very challenging situation right now. And so really looking at how to bring digital to the forefront, how we can really get the sector to understand the importance of bringing your events virtually, right? You can deliver your events virtually. You can actually deliver your services virtually in some instances and really kind of building your brand that way because in the past people could probably go and visit your organization and maybe learn about and meet your beneficiaries and so on and so forth. But in current state, that's not a possibility. And so that's why I really wanted to talk about that. And then I also consider the fact that, this time that we've had these six months that people have had at home or they really had an opportunity to reflect and not quite a number of people who I've been coaching and I've been speaking to, what they've been saying is like, I have this great job or I had this great job but I realized that I really wanna make some kind of a difference with the skillset that I have or the experience and so on and so forth. And so that's really what brought about this topic. For those of you who are really not that familiar with the sector, I really wanna show you the breadth of it in one graphic. So let me go ahead and show you basically the business model spectrum for social impact. So at the very, very, very left, you've got traditional nonprofits, right? So they're funded primarily by charitable giving. So whether it's grants or donations through Facebook or individual gifts, that's really what, that's the very end of it, which is what you're most likely to hear about. But then you've also got nonprofits that have earned income. So those might be organizations like Oxfam that has an arm that actually generates income that then goes into the nonprofit. So it's not only reliant on charitable giving, but it's also generating income. And this is really a push that I'm making for a lot of nonprofits right now is thinking about how you can create that secondary income streamer in another way to remain very, very viable. So for instance, if you think about, there's an organization called CARE.org. They are the originator of the CARE package, huge, you know, a hundred million dollar nonprofit organization based out of Atlanta, but they would have a global footprint. What they decided, and this was pre COVID but I thought was really smart, was they decided they really have great know-how in terms of how to work with corporates. They understand really how they have certain skill sets around like crises and so on and so forth. And so they built a whole consulting arm that would go out into the market to sell those services either to nonprofits or to corporate social responsibility arms of corporations. So that's an example of nonprofit with earned income. And then in the middle, you've got a social enterprise. And so those are social businesses that, you know, they are mission driven, you know, they are social impact driven, but financial return is part of the mix. And typically what happens with these in this bucket, they're reinvesting those profits into the community. So for instance, you've got like Greystone Bakery, which is out in the West Coast, provides job opportunities to formally incarcerated people and it's a social enterprise that, you know, they bake things, right? So there's a bakery and so they generate income through that and then that money goes back into training and providing support to those people they're working with. And then you've got, you know, after that, you've got a mission not driven for profit, which is a B Corp or B Corp. And basically that's a company that makes, you know, it doesn't receive any kind of charitable giving and it, you know, and it makes money directly. But what it is is that in order for it to qualify as a B Corp, it has to adhere to the triple bottom line. So it's got to show that it's creating impact for people, for planet. And of course it's generating a profit. So that's what you've got there. And then to the very right, you've got a corporate social responsibility or corporate philanthropy within a corporation. So it could be, for instance, like the Hilton Foundation is the corporate giving arm of the Hilton Corporation. And so they disperse grants widely. And then you've got on the very end purely, you know, profit driven corporation. So that's the full spectrum. Marta, I'm going to pause for a second and you find out if there are any questions that have come in before I continue. So far no. Okay. Okay. And I just want to make sure that people are getting the PowerPoint presentation because I have their links to, you know, this section coming from here on out has links to additional information that would be useful to everybody. All right. So let's talk about storytelling and digital storytelling. So stories are really, really important because that's how we learn through them, right? You know, so when I was a little girl, I used to watch Sesame Street. I know younger people watch Dora the Explorer or, you know, they read the books and then you have Cinderella and the like. And so stories are very fundamental to who we are as people. So when we're organizations or even when we're as individuals trying to get jobs or for trying to attract funding and so on and so forth, we really need to understand how to tell a story. So I'm going to go ahead and give you a little bit about, you know, how stories really help attracting funders. So stories can express what makes the nonprofit unique and worthy of attention and support enables audiences to, you know, identify with them, right? Because sometimes you're working in a situation like, for instance, Africa to Coon, you know, we're working in an environment that's 10,000 miles away, you know, in a township. People don't know what townships are here in New York City. So you've got to be able to create a story and a way for them to be able to relate to what you're doing so that it brings them in and it helps them to identify with what you're doing. And then also you have to provide the case for the response you want, right? So are you looking for a grant? Do you want an online donation? Do you want them to volunteer or sign a petition? So it's really important to, you know, kind of be clear about what you're trying to do in your story. So therefore every nonprofit needs a well-crafted story. So let me go ahead and give you a basic storytelling framework. There are, you know, stories are a bit more complex in this but this is the easiest way for me to really sort of share with you. So whether it is you're creating a social media post or you're applying for a grant or you're sending some kind of communication to a corporation or approaching an individual donor, you need to frame your story in this way. So there's some kind of problem, right? You know, the problem talks about, you know, why you do what you do. So it's basically, this would really be related to like your mission. Like, you know, what is it that you were created to address? And then you've got the solution and that's, you know, what do you do and how do you do it? So like I said, with Africa, when we had community centers, we had a cradle to career holistic development model through which we're able to help these young people to access their access opportunities and reach their potential. So that would be an example of the solution. And then the impact is really important because a lot of organizations speak about impact in terms of their results. And that's one piece of it. But impact is really ultimately, what are the implications of those results? So let's say you as an organization are maybe helping kids to access educational opportunities. And so this year, you were able to get 10,000 more kids to access education, but that's a result. But the implication or the impact of that is, you know, kids off the streets or more people, kids being able to reach their potential, becoming productive citizens, being able to add to the tax base and so on and so forth. So that's impact. And then finally, you want to make an ask. You always have to ask what it is that you need. So are you looking for funding? Do you want someone to share your post? You know, do you want them to like and so on and so forth? So that's the basic storytelling framework. I'm not gonna show you this video, but it's an excellent video. And I've given you a link to watch it. It's from an organization called Charity Water, which is based right here near me. I'm in New York City in the financial district. This organization is based in Tribeca. And it's a phenomenal organization. And the interesting thing is it's basically marketing and fundraising organization, then it partners with organizations around the world to deliver clean drinking water to communities that don't otherwise have it. So whether it's installing, you know, digging wells or different kind of water purification systems, that's what they do. And they've somehow convinced over 44,000 individuals to fundraise on their behalf. I think anyone from a five-year-old who says, I'm giving my birthday or my piggy bank money to the organization, to an eight-year-old saying, you know, I want to bring all my people to support this organization. So it's a really great organization to learn about. But more importantly, they do a really great job of telling stories. And this is by far the best one I've seen. And this video came out in 2011. And I've seen thousands of other videos. But in terms of illustrating this point, this is the best one I've seen thus far. So some of the challenges that nonprofits have to overcome online, now that we've talked about storytelling basics, let's talk about digital. You know, there's a tremendous amount of fraud and even more so now that, you know, with COVID, there are a lot of sort of organizations that are popping up that are actually organizations, or there are a lot of scammers out there. So it's really important that organizations, that nonprofits understand that that's the space in which they're operating. The other is that, you know, we always have a limited budget to execute, but it's even more so the case now. I want to share a really important point with you. It's been estimated that within the next 18 months, upwards of 40% of nonprofits in the US as well as worldwide are going to cease to exist. So this is a time where really coming, you know, understanding the strategies and the tactics that can make you, give you that competitive advantage and help you to not only to survive, but to thrive is really, really important. The next thing is once you're online, you have worldwide competition. So whereas in the past, if you're located in a small town, you're located in Syracuse or whatever, your competitors would be around that physical space where you're located. But once you go online, you know, I as a donor, I as a potential, you know, volunteer have so many different options. So that's another challenge you have to overcome. And then there's also the lack of visibility online. And I refer to those as limited digital footprint. So as a nonprofit, you definitely, you know, unless you're like UNICEF or you're, you know, United Way or organizations that just have a much larger footprints and so they can, people have multiple ways of finding them and have the budgets be able to attract folks. You know, you're really gonna have a challenge really differentiating yourself and attracting the funding and the support that you want. And then of course when you're online, you're physically distant from the donor. So they don't even have the opportunity to meet you, to get to see how wonderful the environment you've created is or to really meet the people that you're benefiting or the communities that you're serving. So that's another challenge that you have to overcome. And therefore you have to overcome or those challenges, your organization must remove fear through reassurance. And so I'm gonna share this with you. Now I have to tell you, this is the talk that I deliver like, you know, over several hours. So I'm just gonna give you the highlights. I'm not gonna go into the nitty gritty detail, but I'm gonna give you links at the end so you can actually watch a webinar when I go into this much, much greater detail. But the key things you have to think about are, you know, when you're online, as you know, reassuring your audiences, you must be very transparent. So transparency would refer to like, you know, having your financials, audited financials veritably available on your website. It's, you know, sharing any kind of, you know, sharing who's behind the organization. I can't tell you how many times I go to a website and I'm like, who are the people behind this? And you don't get to see them and you don't have a way of reaching out to them. And that's really, really important when you're talking about funders, we're talking about people who wanna support the work you're doing. So it's really important to do that. The other thing is authenticity. And what I mean by authenticity is that, you know, I can say a lot of great things about me, but what's more important is someone else talking about me, right? So that sort of third party endorsement. So as an organization, it's very important for you to seek out any kind of sort of third party endorsement, whether it's having a blogger write about you or having a presence on your funder's site and the like. So that's a really important piece. And then clarity. When you're telling the story, don't make it complicated. I can't tell you how many organizations write pages and pages and pages and pages of content and no one has time for that quite, primarily because first of all, people are reading off of their reading on their phones. And so, you know, you've gotta get really, really clear. So it's very clear. And it's gotta be very, very targeted. So, you know, I encourage the use of videos of images and really limited text if you can. And then it's also really important. And of course, another example that is using the storytelling framework. And then relevance. Relevance really speaks to if you've got, you know, Google as your funder or partner or you've got like, you know, your Gates Foundation grantee, you should list that. Because when someone's coming to your site, they wanna see who, who is it that you're kind of, you know, who's already, you know, supporting? Who is, you know, whose ecosystem are you part of? Because they wanna see whether you're not, you know, you relate your, the people that support you are, or the organizations support you are similar to theirs. And so really, really important. That's one example of relevance. Another example of relevance is being able to, you know, really speak to the current issues. So two pieces, two things that are really important right now for grant makers, for foundations is the focus on helping nonprofits that are not only been, they not only have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but they're also creating services or have the ability to create services to address that, whether it's addressing populations that have been impacted or, you know, providing different types of products and so on and so forth. So that's an example of relevance. So being able to demonstrate and to create things that are in line with that. And then another example of relevance is we've got this sort of social justice movement going on right now. And so quite a number of organizations and quite a number of funders have said, look, you know, we wanna see that nonprofits and, you know, other social organizations are either demonstrating that they're inclusive in terms of their leadership, in terms of bringing in new voices to kind of, you know, create services. So in the past, you know, it's the nonprofit or the funder that's determined what services are delivered. But quite frankly, if you're working with communities, the communities are in best position to tell you what they need. And so really creating that collaboration. So funders are looking for that. So that's again, an example of relevance. So this is a digital, this is your nonprofits, ideal digital storytelling ecosystem. I won't go into great detail because I wanna be mindful of timing. But, you know, so the very center of it, you've got your nonprofit organizations. Oftentimes what I've found is, you know, you spend so much time developing website. And in fact, with me, I'm currently in the development of two websites for my organization, so my company. So I understand the challenge you go through so much. It requires a lot of effort. And so we feel like, okay, I've created it. So now people will come, right? If you build it, they will come. That's how it works. It's very important to create all of these footprints. I spoke about digital footprints before that point to your website and point to one another. So for instance, you know, at this point, virtual events are really important. It's something that I added to this ecosystem, you know, as a result of COVID. So organizations really need to think about, you know, whether it doesn't have to be a full-fledged Gallup, it could just be speaking engagements. You know, if you're, for instance, working in the health space, you know, letting people learn here from your researchers and what kind of research they're doing, like bring the organization out through a virtual event. Very good way to create that engagement. Another thing is to, you know, external partners. Like I mentioned before, if you are, you know, Ford Foundation funds you or whoever it is funds you, you want to make sure that you have a presence on their site, maybe you're even listed in there annual report and so on and so forth. And then then it points back to your website because again, it creates, it adds to their credibility. And then influencers, so you've got media, you've got even, you know, bloggers, you've got, you've got, you know, social media influencers, right? So are there any people that can really share your story and can point people to your website and talk about everything that you're doing really, really important online so that they can bring their followings to, their followers to support what you're doing. And then, you know, email and mobile is another thing to think about email. I always say to people, you know, that the signature of your email, you know, that section of your email is really, really important because that's where you can have links to your website if you've got a campaign going on or anything that you want to promote. It's a really easy place to put because people are reading through your emails and at some point they're going to look at your, they're going to look at your signature so it's a great place to showcase. Then mobile outreach is also important. So I recently wrote a piece about how nonprofits can leverage WhatsApp, the messaging app that's owned by Facebook to not only engage with their supporters during COVID, but also to fundraise and so on and so forth because there are a bunch of new services that WhatsApp now offers for you to facilitate doing so. And of course you want to be able to drive people back to your site. Then you've got peer-to-peer engagement platforms. So if you've ever had to sign a petition or anything like that on behalf of an organization, you want to make sure that that petition that drives the person back to your website. Then you've got social media, which is obvious, search engines and then charity rating platforms are really important. So you've got GuideStar, you've got Charity Navigator. It's important to invest the time in building out those profiles that you have on there because, you know, as a nonprofit, if you have a 501c3 status, you have a nonprofit status, they automatically generate some kind of a profile for you, but you want to be able to take it over and really create it the way you need because it's actually just, it's even more important than your own website because it has greater traffic. And so if a funder, if a foundation is looking to figure out, you know, if you're compliant financially and so on and so forth, they're going to go there first. And so it's important for you to be able to invest in that. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about some trends and opportunities. So it's important to understand, like there right now, there's so many things going on around the world, but specifically that apply to nonprofits that not actually need the skill set to be able to leverage. So one of which is artificial intelligence. So I recently read a piece about how you can actually now make a donation through Google, so Google Assistant. And so really understanding people who have the ability to understand how to leverage artificial intelligence to not only raise funds, but also to help deliver services. So for instance, there's an organization called the Trevor Project that is basically an organization that's set up to address LGBTQ youth who are suicidal. And so they have like a suicide line, like a hotline or call in line. But what they've done is they just received a grant from Google, $5 million grant, to be able to add some AI in there so that they can understand what some of the key issues are they're coming through or the calls that are coming through so that they're able to have the computer, the chatbots kind of address some of the issues at the beginning and then eventually go out to people. But so that's the thing to think about. Cryptocurrency is also very important. A lot of organizations haven't really taken great advantage of this, but really one great example is UNICEF. UNICEF has really been at the forefront and their innovation team is incredible. And what they recognize is that say, if you're getting currency, if you're getting donations in multiple currencies, oftentimes what happens is then you have to pay, you know, there's a loss when you're converting from currency to another. When it's cryptocurrency, there isn't any conversion loss. And then it also opens up opportunities for a lot of new funding that you wouldn't have known about. So again, organizations need people who understand this and can support them around this. And then cyber crime, as I mentioned, you know, with the pandemic, there's even greater crime going on. And so, you know, you're having, you know, in the same way that companies and hospitals and so on and so forth are, you know, are being attacked by these cyber criminals and even having their data held hostage. That's happening to nonprofits too. And so it's a really, really important piece that certainly people coming out of this high school would understand how to address. And then an interesting thing is that gaming. Now gamers, people who, you know, I'm not a big gamer person. The last time I was a gamer was someone I used to play Pac-Man when I was 10. But gamers have very big followings. And so some nonprofits have started to engage with them to have a gamer play. And then as they're playing, they have all these people viewing them. They can talk about the organization that they're sort of, you know, sort of playing on behalf and get people to donate and so on and so forth. So the folks who can actually create those partnerships and understand how to integrate all of that are really, really valuable to nonprofits. Really looking to expand the support base that they need. Then GDPR or general data protection regulations came out of Europe. And these are really, these are rules or regulations that govern how you use user data and how you kind of engage with people. So I won't go into great detail about it, but basically it's, if let's say I give you, I would sign up on your website and I say, yeah, I'm willing for you to write to me. And then all of a sudden, like you either give my email to someone else or use it for a different purpose. In Europe right now, that can generate millions of dollars in fines for a nonprofit organization or for any kind of organization. And so it's really important to be mindful of how you use people's data, giving people the opportunity to be forgotten and so on and so forth. And so now what that's creating is organizations needing to create sort of data policies and the like. And so GDPR right now is mainly in Europe, but it actually is now in California as well and it's going to be rolling out in the US. So it's something to really think about. And then finally, and then next is messaging apps. As I mentioned, WhatsApp is an opportunity. You've got messaging through Facebook messaging and other applications. So that's something to think about. And then virtual reality, if you can see me here, I was at a fundraising, large fundraising show and virtual reality is really important piece, particularly now given that people can't come to you. And I had someone come into my course two years ago and he spoke about how when someone learns about your organization or the experience organization or whatever you're doing through virtual reality versus being in person, they actually experience it on two different levels. So it actually is embedded much more deeply for them. And so it really is very, very effective in converting. Now in the past, the cost of it's very significant, maybe like $150,000 to create a virtual reality video, but the cost has come down. And quite frankly, at this point, it's not nice to have, it's really an important piece to be able to integrate. So folks who understand that and I'm sure in the iSchool people do, that's gonna really be a very important opportunity. Job sources, let me just check my time. Job sources, we wanna make sure that you're leveraging the iSchool and General Circus University Network, really, really important. I've gotta tell you that you don't wanna be a musician where you're blindly applying for a job, wherever you may be. It's important that you really try to work relationships and work through the networks that you have access to. I also say LinkedIn and I'm giving you a screen grab of my LinkedIn profile and I'm gonna give you later on, you'll be able to LinkedIn with me, but LinkedIn is a very, very, very important part of your digital story as a professional right now, more so than in the past, because one, you can't really see people, but this is really like your homepage, right? This is where you get to tell your story of the work that you're working on. You're able to share, like if you see here, I posted about speaking today and a lot of people are really interested in it. In fact, one of my friends from high school saw it and she just signed up, hi, Nana. And so it's important to do that. And then when I'm speaking and so on and so forth, I also am a LinkedIn, I guess, webcaster or podcaster, webcaster and so I do LinkedIn webinars and that's also drawn a lot of opportunities to me because those are publicly available. So really figuring out how to create a very robust LinkedIn profile and then connecting to folks through your Syracuse University network and so on and so forth to really drive opportunities to you. And then you've got social impact events or tons of events going on online, some of which are free, but when you have a speaker who is literally just on Zoom with you, you have the opportunity to connect with them and kind of say, I'd like to learn about your organization. This is what I bring to the table and so on and so forth versus in the past when you really didn't have that access. So I really encourage you to look at, whether it's nonprofits or foundations or social entrepreneurship event, you wanna take advantage of those. Indeed, it is a website where you can get, you can access jobs in the traditional way. Like I said, it's better to go through a network but that is a resource. And then of course, I know high school folks are very entrepreneurial. So obviously another source is to create your new venture and maybe building in some kind of impact element. And so that's what I would encourage you to do. Some resources I put together for you. I wrote a blog post on how to digital storytelling to inspire and attract funders in time crisis. So that should be useful because I go into greater detail than I was able to on this call or in this webinar. And then I wrote a blog post about four ways to boost your nonprofits digital storytelling with WhatsApp. So I talked about that. You have a link to my public speaking schedule. So if you wanna attend one of my other events, you see them there on my YouTube channel. I've done a lot of all of the LinkedIn webinars that I deliver. I actually see them on my YouTube channel. So anything from funding to just sort of personal branding and things like that, I've got really, really great resources for you. Then my LinkedIn, I'm always sharing resources whether it's around funding or it's around job opportunities and the like. And then Twitter, I do the same. All right, get in touch with me. You can get on my website, you can email me. You can go on my website as well as connect with me on social media. If you're interested in executive coaching and speaking, executive coaching service, happy to talk to you about that and how I help individuals to really get their story to a point where they're able to attract new opportunities. And then I also do speak engagements. So if you're looking for a speaker, happy to come on board and on my website, you'll see the different topics I cover. And then through the Institute, I develop courses and I deliver consulting. So currently we're about to start a consulting opportunity with a university in South Africa around their rebranding. And then I also do training. All right, so let's go ahead and open up for questions. Thank you. Should I stop sharing or do you want me to stay on here? What should I do? Yeah, stop sharing. And then, so thank you very much for these insights Les. I was particularly amazed as to the manner in which you told your own story as an example for people to tell their own stories when they start a conversation about themselves. But having said that, I want to not take any more time myself because we do have a few comments. So Nicole, do you want to ask Les your question? Go ahead, unmute yourself. You're muted, Nicole. Hi, Nicole, you're muted again. Can you hear me now? Yes. Okay, so hi, my name's Nicole. I graduate from the Maxwell School in 2015 and I'm currently my last semester doing the information management master's program at the iSchool. So just want to thank you for your commentary and your work in South Africa really resonated with me because I'm the chair of the board of directors for a nonprofit that's based on the Eastern Cape. Oh, wow, okay. We're in Western, we had a community center in Western Cape, in Flennie. Okay, very cool. So I've been there, yeah. Yeah, so I definitely understand like what you were saying about the townships and trying to communicate the differences obviously just like culturally and geographically and economically toward different audiences in the US and internationally. My question is around communicating student success stories. So just trying to understand or if you have any advice on balancing sharing individual student success stories versus like data-driven overall like performance outcomes of students. So last year we developed a mobile application that students can log on to and they input their grades like their marks from each quarter and then that and their attendance like in our program and then that feeds into a Power BI dashboard and like workflow. Right. So we're like starting that data collection process but also just trying to understand a little bit more about like how do you share like those actual numbers and student stories and balance not sharing individual stories so much that they have like this Western savior like mentality or like focus when it's kind of like seen as an anomaly when students from the township go on to university. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. It does. It makes a lot of sense to me. So first of all, I just want to make a note of something for your data project. You might want to also look at contrast with the Soweto Cares database. That's Soweto Cares. Are you familiar with it? So that's data that's collected throughout the country around township education performance like achievement. So you might be able to compare and contrast just that that's in the side note. But beyond that, what I would say to you is that yeah, there's some audiences that are going to want the data. They're going to want that in aggregate because you have to be able to show the scale, right of your impact. And so that's important and I think and I'm very much like I love infographics. I don't like, like I said, I'm not a lover of tons of text. Some people need that, but you know, you want to be very succinct there. I also believe it's important to share the stories of individuals, but in a way that is respectful of who they are. And it's not about like, you know, this kid, you know, who eats out of a garbage and you know, they're the kid with the snot and all that. Now that's very disempowering. And that's why if you noticed, I talked about that future leaders campaign that we created specifically because I wanted people to understand that this kid's surprise is living in a township. This is his reality, but here's his report card. I didn't mention he added his report. Well, his report card, like his drawings and things that he are interesting to him and he did a video, he created a video. So you can learn that you can get the human story behind that individual so they're no longer just one of 20,000 kids in a township. It's this individual whose life you're potentially impacting through the work that you're doing. So I think it is important to balance the two and in a way that is empowering and not disempowering to that individual. Thank you, Liz, and thank you, Nicole, for the question. Thank you, Nicole, for the question. So I just wanted to acknowledge Carly who has mentioned that she works for Fortune 500 company and she's doing plans around impact and impact was the way you describe it was quite useful for her given that impact in the business world is always around business issues. But anyway, let me now give the opportunity to Carlos to ask his question. So go ahead, Carlos, unmute yourself. I can't see. Hi, thank you. Let me just put the video. Perfect. See you. Okay, thank you very much. It's been a very wonderful talk. I mean, it's like the first one. I actually had a positive response to the ones that have been sent by Sarah Q. So thank you very much for the talk. Thank you for joining us. I'm honored that it's the first one that you joined. Yeah, I mean, it's more because of the type of job I do. I currently live and work in Costa Rica. I'm a Maxwell grad from 2008 from the master's degree program. And I've been working in nonprofits and consultants since about the year 2000 when I came out of BA out here in where I am. And my question is the following. What, because I, you mentioned a lot of tidbits of what should be part of your storytelling. I wanted to ask you, for instance, our organization, which I work with it, which is a, we are sort of like an NGO which works more like a consulting firm, but has the ambition of becoming a think tank because over the years we've accumulated a lot of expertise and a lot of work doing work for US government, Canadian government and other donors. What is your opinion about podcasting and how is it worth it? And how do you try to get it worked in to your strategy if you want to do it? So podcasting as an audio or are you talking about video? I mean, what, because I know- I mean, I would like a comment on both because I mean, I like podcasting, but I like it for my things. Like for instance, listening to sports, following some things on politics, et cetera, et cetera. So I want to just to hear your comment regarding that. So I think it all depends on the audience, right? So I think that like outside of the US, people tend to listen to radio. So podcasting, podcasts are very, very big. So I think that podcasting is good for that audience. But I think in more of the, in the US and you know, Western countries, I mean, in the global North, there tends to be an emphasis on video. So I feel like what I would do if I were used, I would record video and then pull out the audio for the podcast, right? So you do two for one. But it's very important because those are assets that, you know, like if you think about it like Ted, like Ted, you know, the Ted Talks, those are huge assets, right? That you can then monetize, you know, in the future that you wouldn't as easily be able to monetize the podcast. So I would say that I would go ahead and go with the video and then pull out the audio. In terms of frequency, it really depends on, again, the audience you're speaking to, the kind of the work you do, but I would say at the very least, you wanna be doing this maybe once or twice a month. And then, you know, and you said that you have quite, basically a tremendous amount of content from the past. So I would even say bringing, you know, kind of commenting on some of the work that you've worked on in the past that may be relevant today. So one of the things that I've been talking about is like, you know, with the nonprofits, when this whole, when the pandemic hit, I said, well, you know, when I was thinking about how to help nonprofits, I remembered back to 2009, when we had that global economic downturn, right? So this is not the first time we've been here, right? So what do we do then? What are some lessons we could apply from then that we could use now? So I say that to say to you that there might be content you've generated and I have no idea what the context is, but that might be relevant now. So you can always remix it. So you don't always have to create original or new content that you can actually repurpose what existing content you have. And, you know, so if it's written form, then you can, you know, share it in audio or video. Thank you, Carlos. Does anybody have one last question? We are like three minutes from the end of this event. And I want to make sure that the audience has no opportunity yet, instead of me. And I don't know what timeline you guys are on, the iSchool folks, but I'm happy to stay on if anybody wants or, again, I've given my contact details. So if you want to get in touch with me, please feel free. They do have the presentation, right, Marta? Okay, great. Adrienne just sent it for the chat, so. Okay, thanks. Hi, I just want to say hi to Heather. Heather's my friend from the iSchool, Nana. And of course, Christine, who works with me and my mom. My mom knows is on here too. Hi. Okay. So we, as Liz indicated, she will stay a little bit longer for those of you who want to interact a bit further with Liz. For those of you who have other responsibilities to take care of, I do want to mention this is the first of our insights, iSchool insights. And we are planning for the next one around our career-related issues and hoping to experiment a little bit with networking among those of you who will be attending. So having said that, thank you everyone for attending and for those of you who are going to stay here. And I do have a question for Liz. And Liz, you have indicated that there are many technologies that we could be taking advantage of to continue to tell our stories. And I was just wondering, because of course some of them are kind of expensive. And I was wondering if you have come across some inexpensive new technologies along the ones that you have mentioned like gaming or crypto or artificial intelligence that you have successfully seen the ploying any of the entities that you work with? I'm going to tell you the thing that I'm telling everybody to do is LinkedIn. Because that's where the professionals are. So if you're looking for money, if you're looking for board members, if you're looking to build your thought leadership and gain that credibility, that is the number one platform that you need to be on. If you can't invest in anything else and you can have a free version, but if you get the upgraded version, which by the way, you can just try it for months to see what it's like, it gives you an opportunity to really recruit board members. If you're looking for board members, it gives you an opportunity to showcase the work you're talking about. So when Carlos was saying about, whether they do a podcast or sharing video or an audio, that's a great place to share that rate because people are there professionally, right? Whereas on Facebook, it's different, but it's the place that you really want to be able to build that credibility. Another thing I want to say that's really important that as an organization, everybody, all of your stakeholders should be connected to that page. So whether it's your staff, it's your, if you have beneficiaries, your board members, even funders, you want to make sure they're all connected because when someone goes to search you, so if a foundation or wherever it goes to search you, then they get to see, oh, you're connected to so-and-so. So I'll give you an example when I was with Africa to Coon, we were a member of WeWork and WeWork has a social networking platform that you can engage with the various members all over the world. And I look for everybody with the word Africa in their profiles and I found this one guy who had a company base in Midtown. I was interested in connecting with him and I sent him a message and then he's like, sure, let me check it out. And then he happened to look on LinkedIn and he saw that on our LinkedIn page, my board chair was connected to it. And his board, my board chair and his, my board chair's daughter and his daughter went to the same school. That resulted in significant donations from him and a partnership he helped us create with Delta Airlines. So really important. Thank you. I can't underscore how important that is. That is really helpful, especially because we're always thinking about the bills and whistles of innovation and sometimes at the most affordable and easy accessible tools can be actually quite powerful. So that's really nice. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, just run, run to LinkedIn. Does anybody have any other question? By all means, feel free to unmute yourself and ask your question to us. But of course, you can always do it on the chat. I'm trying, I'm also trying to see like the, because people wrote and I'm trying to go through to see if there's anything someone asked. They're sharing the LinkedIn profile. That's what they're doing. Oh, they are. Well, so just connect with me. If you connect with, because I don't know how, if we can get access to the chat, if you can give it to me later, then I'll be able to connect there. But okay, see the Glenn Allen, please connect with me. I will, I will, I will add you on. I'm very good about that. Brianna, please go ahead. And then, okay, so it looks like, okay, I think these people needed to leave early. So let me, let me, I'll connect with them afterwards. And Liz, just to share an update. Hi everyone, this is Adrienne from the Isquiz Alumni Office. So we are gonna send an email to everybody with the link to Liz's presentation, which will go out tomorrow. And I'll also be sure to link to Liz's LinkedIn profile that way. If you would like to connect with her, I'll make it very easy for you. Awesome. And let me know what you're working on. Tell me your story. I challenge you to use the storytelling framework to tell your story or that of your, and or your organization. Definitely. And you know, just a follow up too for that email that's going out tomorrow. If you have any topics you'd like to learn more about in the future or any feedback for us, please reply directly to that email and share your thoughts with us. We're always looking to improve and looking for content that our alumni and our students really wanna learn more about. So please let us know. And Liz, I wanna say on behalf of the whole iSchool, thank you so much for hosting this. I think that your content was so refreshing and informative. And I think that, you know, I personally got a lot of great ideas. Thank you. Thank you. It's quite an honor. Really excited. The last time I spoke at the iSchool was in 2011 or, no, 12 during homecoming weekend. And so it's nice to be able to do this, you know, several years later in this context. And I'm really excited. I actually, when I was there that time when we took that photograph that I showed it with the iGirls t-shirt, I said, wow, I wish the school looked like this when I was a student because I wanted, I want all these cool technologies that they're, you know, involved in. You know, there's such an emphasis on entrepreneurship and I'm very entrepreneurial. So I love that students have that access. And it's really, you know, it's such a wonderful program. And I think that a lot of people, you know, they kind of think of, when they think about technology they think like computer science, which is one side of it. And I definitely wouldn't have been into that because I told you I hated programming and all that. But certainly this is a great program. It's for you to be able to understand how to apply technology to address human challenges, right? And so whether it's on the business side of things or on the social side of things, it's really, really important. And you know, and I graduated 20 years, 20 more, over 20 years ago when, you know, we weren't really, we were talking about technology as a side thing. Now it's integrated in everything we do, right? And so it's such a great opportunity for alums, for students, prospective students who don't eventually do come into the iSchool to really be able to have their impact felt or to create impact throughout society by just simply using what they're taught in the school. So thank you. And I appreciate everyone joining us today because I'm sure you had other things you could be doing but it's wonderful to have you and I'm glad that we had some people joining us from outside of the US as well. So one more opportunity for anyone to ask a question if you so wish, okay? Well, thank you again, Liz, for your insights and that you are the inaugural speaker. We're looking forward to continue to working with you, me personally. Like one. Thank you everyone for attending. Have a good rest of the afternoon and keep safe. Yeah, please keep safe everyone.