We're pretty sure we have the best Salesforce team around, but it was nice to hear it from the big guys. Salesforce recently released its list of Salesforce MVPs and Groundwire's CRM Program Manager Dave Manelski made this select team.

A Salesforce MVP is exactly what you think it is - that special person who goes above and beyond in the Salesforce community, demonstrating leadership, expertise, responsiveness and advocacy.

If you have ever worked with Dave on a project, you know he is the best at what he does. If you have ever worked with Dave at work, you know he's one of the best guys out there. We couldn't be more proud.

Several years ago, we developed the Groundwire Engagement Survey tool to help the organizations we work with determine where they should be investing their (limited) resources. We've used it enough to know that it provides useful, actionable diagnostic information, and decided to make a DIY version that anyone could use. You, maybe.

There are ten questions in our survey. Over the next ten months, we'll present one section of our survey and related resources to help you improve your engagement foundation.

This month, we're looking at Section Number Four: Action Opportunities.

Groundwire Engagement Survey Section Four: Action Opportunities.

The key question we ask when we do engagement pyramid planning with an organization is this: What can someone do to help you achieve your mission besides writing a check?

Now, don’t get us wrong, checks are groovy and important. Credit card numbers and cold, hard cash, too. But there is a 99.9% chance that the people who agree with your worldview and support your mission have a lot more to offer than what they can spare from their pocketbooks, and if you don’t provide them non-financial opportunities to participate, you lose out in two ways:

1. You don’t get the benefit of their other skills, personal relationships, expertise, and institutional connections
2. You are less likely to deepen their commitment to, and engagement with, your organization, and less likely to develop advocates and evangelists and leaders

Writing a check is empowering for some people, but for most of us, deep engagement comes from investment of more personal capital like our special skills, ideas and time. Hands-on equals hearts-in, and for the hard work we do in the social change sector, we need as many hearts as we can get.

Connecting with others who share the same interest and convictions in support of an issue can also pull people into deeper commitment, and that rarely happens through check-writing. 

Volunteer, advocacy, education and recreation opportunities are all ways to connect your constituents with each other while achieving your program goals. An army of supporters who know and work together and support each other will always be more powerful than an army of isolated individual donors, even if those donors have deep pockets.

So – when you think through your campaign strategy and your goals and objectives, it’s critical to determine what roles can and/or should be played by supporters rather than staff. You should also determine which of those roles are best suited for the different subsets of your supporter base. Identify the value proposition that is going to make the role attractive. Is it power and authority? Related to someone’s personal interest? The opportunity to learn new skills? A chance to meet new and interesting people? Is it fun?

Finally, it is critical to track which roles your supporters are playing, how often, and for which campaign or issue. When you review the activities you’ve asked people to participate in, you should be able to see how many people participated, and who, individually, those people are. You should be able to track what issue interest and/or past roles led those folks to want to participate. You should also have a plan for identifying or building your supporters’ skills and interests for the next role you need them to play.      

One more thing: when you ask people to play a role in your work, make sure the role is needed. There are few things more loathsome than a request to sign an online petition that you know will have no impact on a campaign’s success (read about Felix Warneken’s study on how even altruistic toddlers are unwilling to help when the help is not needed).

The contacts in your database can do a lot more than send the occasional check. Make sure you aren’t wasting those resources. 

Resources

The Engagement Pyramid: Beefing up the Middle, Groundwire

Want to Fundraise Like Charity:Water? Develop Engaged Advocates, not Donors, Bright+3

Donors and volunteers: More alike than different, Energize Inc.

Balancing Tasks and Relationships: The Art of Engagement, Alchemy of Change

Did you miss the first three articles in this series?
DIY Engagement Survey Tool: Section 1 Theory of Change

DIY Engagement Survey Tool: Section 2: Websites

DIY Engagement Survey Tool: Section 3: Email

*Early Bird rates for 2012 all over the place!  Make sure you take advantage of the better rates!

**More excellent conferences calendars at CivicActions and Socialbrite.

FEBRUARY

TED2012

Feb 27-March 2, 2012 in Long Beach, CA is SOLD OUT. But, you can follow the conference here.

TEDActive in Palm Springs is still open but you better hurry up.  

There's a lot of other stuff going over there, check it out.

MediaThat Matters | Center for Social Media

Washington, DC
Feb 10-11, 2012
This year's theme, "Change for Good," features conversations about how independent social change filmmakers can execute integrated campaigns that are strategic, action-oriented, and have enduring impact.
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/

RootsCampDC | New Organizing Institute

Washington, DC
Feb 18-19, 2012
This year marks the 6th anniversary of Rootscamp “Unconference” where organizers set the agenda, share lessons learned and drive the conversation about best practices in organizing.
http://2012.rootscamp.org/

MARCH

2012 Washington Nonprofit Conference

Washington, DC
March 1-2, 2012
Learn innovative strategies and creative approaches to fundraising that will help you identify and develop new initiatives for your programs, as well as increase donations.
http://www.the-dma.org/conferences/dmanonprofitdc/index.shtml

South by Southwest Interactive | SXSW 2012

Austin, TX
March 9-13, 2012
SXSW Interactive features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events... whatever. Dwight from The Office will be there.
http://sxsw.com/interactive/talks

April

Innovative Giving Conference

San Francisco, CA
April 2, 2012 8am-5pm
Communicate, evaluate and fundraise your way to mobile giving success.
http://www.innogive.org/events.html

Nonprofit Technology Conference | NTEN 12

San Francisco, CA
April 3-5, 2012
Register by Feb 17 and get $100 dollars off!
This popular three-day gathering brings together nonprofit professionals from around the world to collaborate, innovate, and maximize effectiveness. With a wide mix of social events, seminars, trainings, and resources, the 2012 NTC will help you put technology to work to further your cause..
http://www.nten.org/ntc?source=frontpage

GoGreen Seattle

Seattle, WA
April 25, 2012
The GoGreen Conference is a unique opportunity to learn the latest in sustainable practices for your business. This one day conference is designed to educate, motivate and inspire you - the aspiring or established business owner or professional - to take your green quotient to the next level and to give you actionable next steps to make your business more sustainable.
http://seattle.gogreenconference.net/

LCV State Capacity Building Annual Conference

Dates and Location for 2012 TBA
http://fscvl.org/

May

Scrum Alliance

Atlanta, GA
May 7-9, 2012
You'll find plenty of ways to participate as you share experiences, exchange information and collaborate with fellow Scrum users.
http://www.scrumalliance.org/events/421-atlanta--global-event

Media that Matters

Hollyhock, Cortes Island, BC
May 16-20, 2012
Media that Matters is a retreat and collaboratory for digital visionaries who are building bridges to broader audiences and new possibilities.
http://www.mediathatmatters.org/

BALLE Business Conference (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies)

Grand Rapids, Michigan
May 15-18, 2012
Join hundreds of entrepreneurs and business owners, BALLE network leaders, economic developers, local government representatives and community connectors and explore innovative best practices to increase community health and wealth.
http://www.livingeconomies.org/conference-2012

June

Association of Fundraising Professionals
Rewire to Inspire TechKnow Conference

Orlando, FL
June 4-5, 2012
Fundraisers and nonprofit professionals need to stay up to speed with today's technology and techniques, plain and simple. New web tools, apps and social networks can bring you up close and personal to your supporters in ways we never thought possible.
http://www.afptechknow.org/

Social Change Institute

Hollyhock, Cortes Island, BC
June 6-12, 2012
http://www.hollyhock.ca/cms/SCI.html

Netroots Nation

Providence, RI
June 7-10, 2012
Win the internet people. Also, a training track on new media and organizing that's 30 sessions over the conference.
http://www.netrootsnation.org/

Personal Democracy Forum

New York, NY
June 11-12, 2012
Never underestimate the power of a group of thoughtful, committed people to change the world. Personal Democracy Forum explores and analyzes technology's impact on politics. Take part in the conversations that are driving real changes in technology, governance, and the nonprofit world.

http://personaldemocracy.com/conference-landing-page/personal-democracy-forum-2012

Open Source Bridge

Portland, OR
June 26-29
Open Source Bridge is a conference for developers working with open source technologies and for people interested in learning the open source way.
http://opensourcebridge.org/

Allied Media Conference

Detroit, MI
June 28-July 1, 2012
The Allied Media Conference is the central project of the Allied Media Projects (AMP) network, which emerged out of ten years of organic relationship-building. Since the first conference (then the Midwest Zine Conference) in 1999, people have been compelled by the concept of do-it-yourself media. With the shift toward Allied Media, the AMC has attracted more and more people who are interested in using participatory media as a strategy for social justice organizing.
http://www.alliedmediaconference.org/

July

OSCON 2012
Open Source Convention

Portland, OR
July 16-20, 2012
There is big change in technology and society, and open source is making it happen.

http://www.oscon.com/oscon2012

August

BlogHer

New York, NY
August 2-4, 2012
BlogHer '12 will bring over 3,000 attendees together from all over the world to share hands-on learning, rich discussions, opportunities to meet with the brands that support them and plentiful networking opportunities.
http://www.blogher.com/blogher-12

SEPTEMBER

Dreamforce 2012

Sept 18-21, 2012
San Francisco, CA
All things Salesforce.
https://www.salesforce.com/form/dreamforce/dfearly12.jsp?d=70130000000s0Rq

Web of Change

Hollyhock, Cortes Island, BC
Sept 5-9, 2012
This will be the 12th year of the Web of Change conference at Hollyhock. It has grown both in size and scope but always looking for ways to harness the power of the internet to effect social change.
http://webofchange.com/web-of-change-hollyhock

OCTOBER

SOCAP12

San Francisco, CA
Oct 1-4, 2012
http://socialcapitalmarkets.net/

November 

Independent Sector Annual Conference: Game Changers

San Francisco, CA
Nov 11-12, 2012
Using their collective energy and expertise, members of the nonprofit and philanthropic community examine how to develop lasting solutions to current conditions and create brighter futures for organizations and the people they serve.
http://www.independentsector.org/

Other conferences to keep an eye on

Plone Conference 2012

All things Plone.
http://plone.org/news/plone-conf-2012-gets-two-proposals

Social Venture Network (Fall and Spring Conferences 2012)

http://svn.org/

Bioneers 2012

http://www.bioneers.org/

SXSW ECO 2012

http://sxsweco.com/

Vance Open House, aka Tour de Vance, aka Vance Party

1402 Third Avenue, Suite 500, Seattle
Thursday, January 12, 5:30 PM
RSVP on Facebook

Participating groups include:

CARE
Cascade Bicycle Club
Climate Solutions
Environment Washington
Fuse Washington
Groundwire
GuentherMedia
HARRISON architects
Housing Development Consortium
League of Conservation Voters
Milepost Consulting
NatureBridge
Northwest Sustainable Energy for Economic Development
Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center
Progress Alliance of Washington
Progressive Majority
See Your Impact
Sightline Institute
Spectrum Development Solutions
Stockholm Environment Institute
SurveyMonkey
Sustainable Seattle
Vance Building Management Office
Washington Conservation Voters
Washington Environmental Council
Washington Public Interest Research Group
Washington State Budget & Policy Center
Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition
Win/Win Network

Highlight features in this version include:

• Shift Calendar
  See all of your volunteer shifts on a single easy to use calendar. This feature addresses the challenge of seeing in one place all the shifts you have created. With the Shift Calendar you can have a month, week and day view of all shifts with additional filtering based on Campaigns and Jobs.
• Repeating Shift Replication
  For organizations running lots of regular repeating volunteer jobs this feature will help. Now in Volunteer Wizard the "Clone Existing Campaign" feature supports replication of shifts with a specific date offset. This allows you to completely clone a weekly or monthly volunteer campaign (including volunteers!) and have all the shifts assigned to the correct days of the week or month.
• Volunteer Roster
  This new custom button can be added to the Volunteer Campaign Layout, Volunteer Job Layout, and Volunteer Shift Layout. It will load a new dynamic report that shows the volunteers for a given campaign, job or shift. You could print this report and use it as a check-in sheet!

For a complete list of what's new, please  check out the release notes. Or better yet watch the video below for a detailed walk through of the app.

The latest version is 2.x and you can get it now on Appexchange. The Install Guide and User's Guide are also updated so you can get help on working with these new features.

Several years ago, we developed the Groundwire Engagement Benchmarking Survey tool to help the organizations we work with determine where they should be investing their (limited) resources. We've used it enough to know that it provides useful, actionable diagnostic information, and decided to make a DIY version that anyone could use. You, maybe.

This month, we're looking at Section Number Three: Email.

Groundwire Engagement Benchmarking Survey Section Three: Email

Facebook, Twitter, and SMS may be the cool kids on the block, but email is still king when it comes to communicating with your constituents. 

With few exceptions, email is how you get your people to make contributions online, RSVP for events, sign up to volunteer, and send messages to decision makers. 

But as anyone who has been responsible for clicking the big red send button knows, running engaging email campaigns is a major investment of time, energy, and creativity. So how do you make sure it's paying off? Here are some things you can do to get the most out of your email program.

Put someone in charge. Running a good email program takes planning, focus, and time, all of which are often in short supply in resource-challenged nonprofits. It's critical that a single person is empowered and responsible for your email program. That doesn't mean they have to (or should be) doing everything themselves -- it means that one person is responsible for making sure emails get out the door on schedule. But if there's not one person ultimately responsible for getting an email out the door, it's too easy to let things slip.

Build an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar includes a schedule of upcoming email campaigns. It should include everything from your monthly newsletter, emails around established events or holidays (i.e. your big annual fundraiser and your end-of-year fundraising). Then use your calendar as an organizing tool to ensure you're budgeting enough time for staff to come up with ideas, write content, load and test the email, and review results. An editorial calendar also opens up more space to quickly respond to events as they arise.

Tell a good story (with a killer opening). Good storytelling should be the foundation of all of your communications – if you want to read more about what makes a good story, start here and here.

Like any medium, email brings its own unique set of storytelling challenges and it can take some practice to get the hang of. The primary challenge: you have just moments to catch and hold someone's attention against dozens of competitors as they work their way through their overflowing inbox. If the subject line grabs their attention, you may get them to read your first sentence or two. But the point is, you have to hook them in quickly to have a chance at getting them to take action.

The good news? You’ve got mounds of data to help you figure out what works and what doesn’t. And the more you practice, the better you’ll understand what motivates your audience.

One ask per email.  This one is hard for many organizations to stick with, but it's really important. If you want your constituents to respond to an action request (with their donation or their time), the data shows that including multiple action items in an email reduces the overall response rate to the email. If you have two important asks that are part of the same campaign, consider sending two separate emails instead of one email with two asks. If the campaign and the actions are really important, you can even send them on consecutive days.

Test. Analyze. Repeat. Broadcast email is a data nerd's dream -- you can track open rates, click though rates, unsubscribes v. new subscribers, and generally produce enough numbers to fill a very large spreadsheet with every click of the send button. This provides a lot of opportunities to improve your program, but you have to invest some time in setting it up. A few good places to start:

A/B testing means sending out two versions of your email to a test group. The easiest way to start is by sending identical emails with different subject lines. Give it a few hours, check your click-through and open rates, and then send the winning email out to the rest of your list. You’ll be amazed at how much this will improve your response rate – and how quickly your ability to craft a great subject line and opening will improve as well.

Start compiling an ongoing email stats report. Keep it simple at first: open rate, click through rate, actions completed, donations made, new subscribers, and unsubscribes are good stats to start with. Every week, add the stats for that week’s emails to the spreadsheet. Then schedule a standing meeting to discuss the numbers with your colleagues – data is useless without analysis.

Resources:

Writing Email Newsletters: Best Practices, Groundwire

2011 Email Service Providers Report, Groundwire

2011 Nonprofit Benchmarks Study, NTEN and M + R Research Labs

Storytelling and the Art of Email Writing, M + R Research Labs

Experiments in Online Advocacy Research, New Organizing Institute

Adventures in Email Fundraising, Idealware

Perfect Your Emails With A/B Testing, Salsa Labs

A/B Testing A Web Ad: A Case Study, Robert Blakely, The Direct Marketing Association

Seven Tips To Boost Your Email Open Rates, Frog Loop

Lisa Simpson for Nonprofits, What Science Can Teach You About Fundraising, Marketing, and Making Social Change, Katya Andresen, Alia McKee Scott and Mark Rovner

Did you miss the first two articles in this series?

GW Engagement Benchmarking Survey Section One: Theory of Change

GW Engagement Benchmarking Survey, Section Two: Website

Here in the Northwest, we have been lucky to live in Ecotopia where our environmental nonprofit community is powerful and progress has been made. The community is strong in part because foundations like Bullitt, Brainerd, Wilburforce, Russell Family, Campion, Social Venture Partners and others have invested not just in programs but in nonprofits' infrastructure and capacity.  Our 2011 Connector Award recipient Washington Trails Association is one of these nonprofits.

Over the past five years we have worked with Washington Trails Association to build the very best online engagement technology. At the center is their incredible database of 3,000 hiking trails that include over 35,000 trip reports from their community of hikers – who can quickly find out if roads are closed, if wildflowers are out, if trails are crowded or if animals are welcome.

Listen to Neal share a sweet story of using the WTA hiking guide to get outside with his three year old son.



WTA website traffic has tripled since the launch of their new online hiking guide. It now receives more than two million visits annually from nearly one million unique visitors. The more than 35,000 trip reports from the user community and the exceptional WTA staff writers and editors keep the content fresh and relevant. Integration with Facebook allows stories to be told not just within the local community of hikers but with a global community of friends and accounts for more than 100,000 visitors to the site each year.

All of these online numbers really make a difference when hikers engage offline by volunteering for trail maintenance programs or by advocating for trails both locally and nationally.

We are proud to honor WTA with our 2011 Connector Award for Engagement Leadership. Listen to this great acceptance for WTA by Communications Director Lauren Braden:



To celebrate our Connector Award, we were honored to have Outdoor Afro’s Rue Mapp as our keynote speaker. Rue is a program officer at the Foundation for Youth Investment where she oversees funding to support California organizations that are connecting underserved youth to the outdoors. She is the mother of three and an active outdoor enthusiast. She was named the National Wildlife Federation’s Wildlife Champion of the Month in September, is on the National Parks Services Committee on relevance, participated in the White House conference on America's Great Outdoors and on Mrs. Obama’s Let’s Move campaign. In short, she is super busy.

In 2009 Rue founded Outdoor Afro, an online community that reconnects African-Americans with natural spaces and one another through recreational activities such as camping, hiking, biking, fishing, gardening, skiing and more. Like Washington Trails Association, Outdoor Afro has fostered a community that has voice, strength, and power. 

Listen to Rue’s inspiring keynote:




Thanks to all of you who made this event and our Connector Fall email campaign such a success. Thanks to the generous support of our event sponsors, an incredible matching gift from Gideon and C.J. Rosenblatt, and individual donors like many of you reading this we raised almost $75,000.  We are so excited to get to work engaging even more people in the fight for thriving communities and a healthy planet.

1. Turn your experts into expert communicators

One of the best ways to help people learn about complicated topics is to send them right to the experts.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s Armed with Science project uses web technology, such as blogging, podcasting, and Twitter, to create one-on-one dialogs between its scientists and members of the public. The project aims to demonstrate the value of science and technology, while making scientists first-hand communicators of their own work. Rather than rehashing mission statements, scientists share their personal experiences and provide insight for those who might be interested in pursuing similar careers.

For the Dispatches from Antarctica series, Air Force Lt. Col. Edward Vaughan blogged for 50 days during his deployment to Antarctica, providing an inside look at scientific research conducted by the U.S. Antarctic Program. During his time on the ice, he took photographs, conducted video interviews, and even fielded questions from children at elementary schools around the world.

Identify a few subject matter experts in your organization who are interested in engaging stakeholders on important issues. Then, choose the appropriate forum to create authentic discussions with your community. If you’re feeling adventurous, try a real-time Facebook Q&A or a video chat in Google+ Hangouts.

2. Provide opportunities for people to contribute

As much as we all love textbooks and lectures, it’s certainly a lot easier to learn about something when you’ve got a stake in the outcome.

For decades, scientists have looked to volunteers from the public, known as “citizen scientists,” to contribute to real scientific studies -- from frog monitoring to comet hunting to measuring noise pollution. Scientists are able to gather information that was previously unavailable, and volunteers have the opportunity to learn about and participate in scientific endeavors that are important to them.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Nestwatch project uses citizen science to help study the relationship between nesting birds and climate change. Volunteers collect important data on bird nesting behavior, which scientists use to study population trends and breeding behaviors across different landscapes. In return, volunteers learn to make observations and collect data, an important part of the scientific process.

Identify opportunities to get input from your community. This can include simple feedback about your website, observations of certain phenomena, or user-generated videos and images. Acknowledge these contributions on Facebook and Twitter, and write a blog post that demonstrates how input from your community has improved the way your organization does business.

3. Collaborate with like-minded organizations

Though scientific research papers may not be the most palatable reading material, they do represent one of the core values of the scientific community -- collaboration. For your average scientific paper, it’s not uncommon to have six or more authors, each with different skills, training, and expertise. By combining their resources and investing in common goals, scientists are able to answer questions and solve problems that might otherwise have been out of reach.

In the same way, collaborations can play an important part in achieving your communications goals. Small or emerging organizations can partner with large organizations to share their accomplishments and messages with a broader audience. This can be an effective way to build more awareness, while improving brand credibility through association with a better-known organization. Conversely, large organizations might partner with smaller organizations to communicate with local or niche communities. By highlighting their synergies, the collaborating organizations can provide the appropriate context to engage people on related but perhaps unfamiliar topics.

Identify organizations that have similar goals or work in a related field. This could include non-profit partners, potential donors, community groups, or a local newspaper. Demonstrate your interest in collaboration by mentioning them on your social media accounts or linking to their website in your newsletter. Determine how your resources, employees, and brand can be used to support their interests, and vice verse. Initiate a meeting to discuss how to collaborate in ways that benefit both organizations.

1. Get Organized. Are you staring at a blank sheet of paper / word document? Organize your thoughts with an A, B,C thread approach to help you get started. An A paragraph is the nut graph or lead, telling the value of the story to come or the who what why and where of your organization. Then move onto paragraph B, telling the laser-focused story of one person or one community with lots of juicy details. In paragraph C, tell how the work can't get done without donor support. Then, go back to the story and insert another B paragraph. You can finish off with another C paragraph. Alternate between paragraphs to keep the reader engaged. A,B,C,B,C.
2. Think About Your Words. Don’t write for yourself, write for the reader. Don’t use tons of pretty adjectives, or overuse the word "very," or use words to show how smart you are but will send some people looking for a dictionary. Don’t sound too literary fiction, and don't overwrite. Keep it simple. Write tight and write clean. Tight and clean means every word is doing something in the sentence. Tight and clean means the omission of blob words (problem, situation, nature, planet). Be precise to resonate with your readers.
3. Paint A Picture. Detailed descriptions help paint a picture in the readers mind. That in turn makes your story memorable and perhaps even evokes emotion with the reader. That in turn can help you raise money. Talk about people and places. Inject humanity everywhere you can.
4. Keep it Conversational. Lose the third person. It's you and me. Take your program director or a team leader or a volunteer out for coffee and ask them what they love most about your organization. Write down their informal responses, how they describe their work, what makes them passionate about it, a story that touched them. Bring these phrases into your writing.
5. Mix It Up. Make your writing fun to read. Extra-long, English-teacher-irritating, insider-joke hyphened modifiers can keep the reader’s attention. (Whisper a joke on the side. Or not.) Go short. Go long and change up subject-verb order. Repetition can be good. Comics tell jokes three times to make it funny. Three times. So it will be funny. Really super funny.
6. Make A Connection. Find a common emotion or experience to connect with your audience: feeling like one person can’t make difference, help for those most in need, trends from the past, comfort food, what it means to be human, all for one and one for all. Go all Elizabeth Warren if you have to:
   
   "There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you!
   But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea — God bless. Keep a big hunk of it.
   But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."
   
   

References:

"The Art and Craft of Feature Writing," William E. Blundell, 1986, Plume, New York.
"Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies, A Guide To Language For Fun & Spite," June Casagrande, 2006, Penguin Books, New York.

November, 2010
Subject: Our Thanksgiving Turkey

Approach #1
Me: Do you know how most turkeys are treated in this country? That they cut off their beaks and crowd them in tiny little places and pump them full of growth hormones? That they never get to see their mommies or feel the warmth of the nest? Do you know how miserable those birds' short lives are until they reach their inhumane death? DO YOU? DO YOU?

MTBF: You're scaring me.

Approach #2
Me: Do you know the carbon impact from the way we are growing corn feed in this country? Do you know that turkeys don't even eat this kind of corn? Did you know they are feeding carbon-heavy corn to salmon? Corn! To Fish! Do you? DO YOU?

MTBF: Why are you talking about salmon right now. I thought we were talking about turkey.

Approach #3
Me: Do you want to enjoy the best bird you've ever had in your life, raised by our neighbors, that tastes like the old-timey turkeys our ancestors ate?

MTBF: I have no idea what you're talking about. But it sounds great babe.

Check out Local Harvest, an awesome website for finding local food and farms near you. (MTBF enjoys interacting with the map on this site.)
________________________________________________________

February 2011
Subject: Transportation

Me: I really, really want an electric car.

MTBF: Look. I want you to be safe. I want you to get a car made out of actual steel. The kind of car you can jump up and down without the slightest dent. I was actually thinking this would be the perfect car for you.  All class, baby.

Me: Yeah... umm.

MTBF: Look at the lines on it! And it's recycled, right?

He had a point. So I started thinking about pretty lines, real craftsmanship, with a lot of class.

Me: I'm thinking about going with this.

MTBF:  I, have no words. Hmmm. What's the engine like on that thing? How far can that go on one charge? What kind of battery pack is that?

To be continued. For awhile. But I really want that bike.

________________________________________________________

April 2011
Subject: Lower Impact Trucking

Me: Hey! Truck drivers are featured in Carbon Nation the movie. You can be part of the climate solution babe!

MTBF: I turn my truck off at night.

Me: They said..

MTBF: Our trucks are certified clean idle.

Me: Did you know...

MTBF: We are EPA partners and have late model "green" trucks.

Me: But what about...

MTBF: If this country consumed less, we wouldn't need so many trucks.

Me: Shutting up now.

_________________________________________________________
May 2011
We went hiking.

_________________________________________________________

July 2011
Subject: Farmers' Market

MTBF: Don't make me go to another Farmers' Market.

Me: Really? I love them so much! All that organic produce and honey from much-loved bees and handmade soaps and free-range meat and cage-free eggs and homespun mulled wine...

MTBF: Exactly.

Me: Okay, well on your way to the auto-parts store / shop / hardware store / it's an episode of Tool Time, will you please pick up some fruit using this awesome guide from EWG to know when its esp. important to go organic (peaches berries!).

MTBF: Pie!
_________________________________________________________

September 2011
Subject: Food Waste

MTBF: If we're going to have a slop bucket under the sink, we're going to have to empty it every once in awhile.

Me: (Peering inside) OMG! Look at what happens to peaches, tomatoes and noodles when you leave them in a bucket for (more than) a week!

MTBF: Okay. Here we go.

Me: All waste is food! All energy is from the sun! All life is diverse!

MTBF: So cool! And it smells like waste, too! And no magic environmental elves are going to take it out!

Me: Magic environmental elves! Yay!

MTBF: dear lord.
________________________________________________________

October 2011
Subject: Smog

Me: I failed the emissions test! Expletive! I need a new catalytic converter.

MTBF: Smog tests are stupid.

Me: How can say that?! Do you remember the '70s? Do you remember acid rain in L.A.? Yeah, well, me neither but I heard it was bad.

MTBF: We can just remove the catalytic converter, put in a piece of pipe and get the gizmo that will trick the computer and let you pass the test.

Me: I can't believe you are saying these things out loud to me.

MTBF: Pretty involved being an outlaw.

Me: Absolutely not.
________________________________________________________

November 2011
Subject: Holidays

MTBF: Okay, I have some ideas on going green this year for the holidays.

Me: Is it get a jug instead of a case of Rainier?

MTBF: Well, that's one of them. Also, organic cranberries from Long Beach, WA. Also, if we buy any rings or jewelry, they should be from an antique store. Also, we can only wrap our gifts with old stuff found in my shop.

Me: I like it. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Go back to that middle part about rings.

MTBF: Just hypothetically speaking, of course.

Me: Of course. (!)*

(*PS: It's official. MTBF is soon to be MTH. As in ball and chain.)

________________________________________________________
January 2012
Subject: How MTBF is actually more enviro than me.

He fixes things with duct tape and uses them over and over again.

He uses a 64 ounce cup to drink his White Russians in. No paper cups for MTBF.

He also uses a big water jug. No plastic water bottles for MTBF.

He wears three things: Carhartts, Ben Davis pants, and a fleece. Not a lot of carbon-heavy shopping going on with MTBF.

He lives 1 mile from work.

He drives an old pickup that he can fix if it ever breaks down, no new "throw away" cars for this guy.

He goes to the local butcher for bacon.

We are awarding the Groundwire Connector Award for Engagement Leadership and holding a big old party to celebrate.

Join us tomorrow, Wednesday, November 9th at Benaroya Hall, downtown Seattle for our 2011 Connector Award Event. We’re proud to present the Connector Award to the incredible Washington Trails Association.

We’re also super excited to welcome Outdoor Afro’s Rue Mapp as our keynote speaker. Rue uses online community to get African Americans reconnected to nature. She’s on the National Parks Department Advisory Committee on Relevancy and participated in the White House conference on America’s Great Outdoors and Mrs. Obama’s Let’s Move campaign.

General Program Tickets to the Groundwire Connector Award Event are $100 and include unlimited (safety first!) drinks and snacks.

VIP Reception Tickets are $350 and include hobnobbing and all the small plates and drinks you’re up for.

Hope to see you tomorrow night!

Fall Fundraising Campaign happening right now

Want to support Groundwire's online tools and strategy for the environmental movement but watching Top Chef tomorrow night? (We know, this new Texas season is awesome.)

Donate today during our Fall Fundraising Campaign and your gift will be matched thanks to longtime Groundwire supporters C.J. and Gideon Rosenblatt.  

And, if you've NEVER donated to us before, today is the day. We've got a 3:1 match going for all first-time donors to Groundwire. Maybe you’ve been reading the newsletter, downloaded some free software, downloaded a special report and thought, “Hey, I should give to those guys.” Today is the day – every dollar you give turns into four dollars with this 3:1 match for first-timers. Give $30 and it turns into $120 -- we know, crazy.

If you've donated before to Groundwire, well first of all, thank you so much, and second of all - CJ and Gideon will match your gift as well!

Donate today during our Fall Campaign and take advantage of C.J. and Gideon. Go ahead. They want you to.

As always, thanks so very much for your support of Groundwire. We've just hit 7 billion on this earth. A gift to Groundwire helps environmental organizations create a planet that can support us all.

Of course, being me, I thought of nature – the outdoors, and found it almost ironic how Occupy protestors in my hometown of Oakland, and in every urban hub, were also making themselves sustainably visible in protest by camping outdoors in public plazas all over the country. An ironic twist on the Great American Campout!

As I sat at home with my children following on Twitter the frightening turn of events happening in Oakland, I also contemplated what alternatives we might find to affirm (Occupy) peace in our everyday lives. How might we balance the economic pain that has touched us all in some way?

With African American participation clocked as low as 1% in the National Park System, I thought of the 99% of people who look like me; those who do not benefit from this public and important resource that holds the possibility of personal enrichment and sustainability in ways hard to quantify in dollars.

Therefore, though Outdoor Afro, it is my goal to help generate a future where people of every hue know that not only public plazas, but also parks and wild spaces are their inheritance, and theirs to benefit from and support.

What might that look like?

Continue the conversation with Rue Mapp at our Connector Award Event this Wednesday, November 9th at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. Click here for general program and VIP reception tickets and more information about the event.

Like the tens of thousands of high-schoolers learning about climate change through Alliance for Climate Education's assemblies. Or the new generation of environmentally responsible business leaders with a desire to challenge the status quo through the Net Impact network. Or a family looking for fresh, healthy, planet-friendly food at school with the help of FoodCorps.

For Groundwire's Fall Fundraising Campaign this year, every gift will be matched thanks to the generosity of long-time supporters C.J. and Gideon Rosenblatt. That's how much they believe in the work Groundwire does.

First-time donors to Groundwire get a triple match! That is for real. You give a dollar, C.J. and Gideon will give three more. Maybe you've been enjoying the Groundwire newsletters, attended a knowledge share or speed geek, downloaded a special Groundwire report or just simply love the idea of getting new, sophisticated digital tools in the hands of those doing good. Maybe you've thought about donating to keep this good work going but never have. Well this is the day. Triple match for all our first-time donors.

And, there's more! Next week, Groundwire is holding its First Annual Connector Award Event, celebrating the incredible work of Washington Trails Association with a keynote address by Outdoor Afro's Rue Mapp.

Any gift of $20 this week will be eligible for matching funds AND you'll also be entered to win two VIP tickets (worth $350 each) to the Connector Award Event on November 9 in Seattle.

VIP tickets include a private reception with Rue Mapp, all the food and drink you can consume responsibly, and a chance to hobnob with the many exceptional leaders in the Seattle technology and environmental community.

Donate today and help us on our journey toward thriving communities on a healthy planet. We've just hit 7 billion on this earth. A gift to Groundwire helps the many environmental organizations working hard to create a planet that can support us all.