Nonprofit Encounters of the In-Person Kind

Last August was pretty hellish, and a similar forecast is on the horizon for this year's summer wrap. July, however, provided ample opportunities to bond with lovely people over things that matter. I get so much more out of relationships when there's skin on them.

• Friends Andre Blackman and Social Butterfly Alex Rampy (and me) joined Jonny Goldstein and Scott Stead for the July episode of Jonny's Par-tay. It was the first time the Par-tay dug into social marketing issues, and a chance for us guests to break it down from our perspectives. I brought champagne, too, because social good is worth celebrating, right?
  
  
• The Bridge Conference, now with an eye towards Web 2.0, brought together great nonprofit marketing minds for two days for its annual affair. I was only there for Day 1, but that was all I needed to be reminded how desperate nonprofits are for solid social media strategy. And the fact that Facebook is really just a brand awareness tool for the moment.
  
  Case in point: the Nature Conservancy, Save Darfur and Humane Society of the US case studies captured on the Buzz Bin by Geoff and me (here and here). This recap of RIMS' efforts (by Elizabeth Weaver Engel @ the blog Thanks for Playing) might offer additional insight as well.
  
  (I also met a woman named Kieu, pronounced "Q." Fun for me, because everyone either calls me Q, even though my name is Qui prounounced "key.")
  
  
• NetSquared featured Idealist.org. Amigo Jake Brewer shared some of the ways that Idealist is rethinking what it means to be a connected community servant. A new Idealist website will be launched in about 6 months.
  
  Did you know: Idealist's content is currently 40% jobs and 40% volunteer opportunities. Idealist serves 77,000 nonprofits in 200 countries, has more than 65,000 site visitors a day, and sends 250,000 email alerts every night. Everthing on the site is user generated. You can get it in Spanish (Idealista) and French (Idealiste).
  
  
• Nedra Weinrich was in town and several of us met up to watch the screening of Call+Response (which is a new movement to end modern day slavery and going to require another post all together). Nedra's local fan club convened when she was in town in June, too.
  
• Twin Tech with Peter Corbett and the usual suspects. We have such a dynamite digital community in D.C. (I keep wanting the term "iDistrict" to take off but it hasn't.) There'a a lot of promise for nonprofit marketers having a higher profile in this space. We need women, too!
  
  
• And speaking of women, last but not least, spending quality time with solid broads who are making this world a better place in their own ways: Minjae Ormes, Sara Strope, Leslie Bradshaw, Alison Byrne Fields, Virginia Miracle and Kaitlyn Wilkins, and my mom - among others.

Will make a valient effort to maintain this momentum in August!