Editor’s Note: We challenged The Chronicle’s Twitter followers to assess whether the new social-networking site Jumo —started by the Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes—will succeed or fail. Nick DiColandrea, who works at a North Carolina nonprofit, (@NickDiCo) took on the challenge and offers the following guest post. You can also read an opposing argument about why Jumo will fail.
By Nick DiColandrea
When I was asked whether the new social network Jumo will succeed, my knee-jerk reaction was, “Of course, it will succeed as its social ancestor, Facebook, has.”
But just because it copies a successful model does not mean Jumo will offer instant results for nonprofit groups that are looking for an influx of new supporters.
However, it also does not mean it will fail. If anything, Jumo will be set apart by not trying to reinvent the social-networking wheel.
Here is why Jumo will succeed: There’s a need, it is easy to use, it offers unprecedented access for nonprofits, and it offers networking capability.
Facebook has been wildly successful because it created a seamless interaction for people to connect with friends and family in a creative way. Jumo will be successful because the nonprofit world needs one place where the public can connect with multiple nonprofits without leaving one Web page. Jumo will succeed where Causes (a Facebook application) falls short. Jumo will be more personal and provide a better experience for users who have true philanthropic passions.
The site will also succeed, in part, because nonprofits need help reaching the millennial generation (those born on or after 1981). These adults are connected online and are looking for ways to reach out to others. But the Internet and technology have failed to grab them in giving back to their community despite efforts like VolunteerMatch and Crowdrise, the social network started by the actor Edward Norton to help inspire young people to donate more. Crowdrise, after all, is less about charities than it is about the people who are helping the charities.
Jumo provides a service that Causes and Twitter do not—the ability to view all the charities and issues they support on one home page. While Jumo will not be most people’s daily home page (nor should it be), it will transform where people go for news on nonprofits and philanthropy. Through its personalized home page, Jumo provides recent news and discussions from dozens of your selected charities, all without having to dig through dozens of tweets and Web pages. As a result, Jumo will prove useful for encouraging volunteerism, donations, and networking as it grows in popularity.
Will Jumo help most charities raise significant sums of money for their operations? No, it will not. Instead Jumo will succeed in building communities and promote long-term relationships between charities and supporters.
While it is truly too early to tell if Jumo will succeed wildly—it’s only been live since Tuesday, for goodness sake—its popularity can be seen in the level of interest it has received from the media. A New York Times story on Tuesday about Jumo’s launch was one of the five most e-mailed stories on the newspaper’s Web site.
With the arrival of Jumo as a potential heavyweight in supporting the missions of nonprofits throughout the United States, maybe, just maybe, the dog days of the Great Recession will end sooner than expected.
Nick DiColandrea works at nonprofit in Raleigh, N.C., and writes a blog about the nonprofit world.
7 Responses to Guest Post: Why the Social Network Jumo Will Succeed
vmguest - December 1, 2010 at 8:39 pm
Nick — Great thoughts on the Jumo launch. At VolunteerMatch we’re definitely hoping to learn from Jumo’s approach to social networking around volunteer engagement, and we’re delighted at the prospect of innovation in the nonprofit technology space.
There are so many unknowns about the role of online social networking volunteer engagement and online social networking communities. Along with Jumo, the soon-to-launch update to Idealist.org, some innovative social media campaigns from HandsOn, and a few planned releases we have up our sleeves at VolunteerMatch, 2011 is looking to be a breakthrough year on the subject.
One thing I do want to clarify is that hundreds of thousands of young people do use VolunteerMatch right now to discover great new volunteer opportunities — and some 9 million others will visit our network this year overall. They’re definitely not Facebook numbers, but it’s still a fairly large audience when you consider that only around 64 million Americans said they volunteered in 2009.
Leaving aside the numbers, what our research shows is that technology isn’t really the driver of volunteer engagement… instead innovative volunteer opportunities and great volunteer experiences are. While we’re doing our part to help individuals discover those opportunities, the real need (in volunteer engagement, at least) is for investment in capacity building and training for nonprofits. And there’s a huge hunger for that. Last year, for example, some 6,000 people attended our free online trainings for organizations that work with volunteers. (You can see these here: http://www.volunteermatch.org/nonprofits/learningcenter/)
Anyhow, it’s always an interesting discussion when new start-ups take off. Keep up the great work!
Robert Rosenthal/VolunteerMatch
(Twitter: @volmatch)
destiny - December 2, 2010 at 5:07 am
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nddicola - December 2, 2010 at 10:53 am
Hey Robert! Thanks for your insight and your comments as they have always been wonderful to me.
I by no means meant this as a slight towards how VolunteerMatch is a success for the volunteer/nonprofit sector. If you remember, I helped start a small nonprofit in Mississippi (VolunteerStarkville) that really based its creation around the success of your organization.
Jumo is obviously out to achieve something entirely different than VolunteerMatch. Where VM is looking to connect people with volunteer opportunities, and allow those organizations to develop their own relationships, Jumo is going to complement those efforts. VM is not a social tool that Jumo will be. Fail is a harsh word to use in that sentence, but from a perspective of need for networking, Jumo will be what VM is to recruitment for social networking.
And it is always an interesting discussion with start-ups aiming to revolutionize the nonprofit sector. There is no silver bullet to solve our collective goals, but hopefully with each innovation (Crowdwise, VM, Causes, Great Nonprofits) we get closer to it. We do not have a choice in the matter. We must continue to try new things, with each failure or success building our collective knowledge on how to cure our world’s ills!
miratelsolutions - December 2, 2010 at 11:40 am
Peter,
I enjoyed your post and agree with much of the content. I think the key question is how do you define Jumo being a success? If it reaches and connects to new donors and creates further involvement is has succeeded, if it shows nonprofits that social media isn’t optional but mandatory it is also worthwhile.
The internet is changing things so rapidly that Jumo might be very different in 2 years time but I think it has huge potential. People seek impartial views and evaluations – especially when donating and I feel Jumo opens up that window to a greater extent also.
Tim
schindehette - December 2, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Peter and Nick,
MiWorld.com http://www.miworld.com/ was mentioned alongside Jumo in Kiplinger back in April. http://miworld.com/site/KipLetter.html.
Then, as now, I remain perplexed that while so many similar efforts focus on groups, causes, and the latest cool web petition– none of these efforts focus on the stories of REAL HUMAN BEINGS on the receiving end. Despite all of our sophistication and good intent, 3 billion people in the so-called third world are still being relegated to the same kind of objectification that women in the US back in 1950 were. Fine in the aggregate, but let’s not see them as individuals, for heaven’s sake.
I’m the former top human interest writer at People (43 million weekly audience), and know the power of professional-quality (that’s the key) storytelling. A single 6-pager that I did on a San Leandro pediatric hospice brought in $1 million in unsolicited donations. Sure, that’s the magazine’s tremendous reach, PR and marketing. But not EVERY do-good story brought in that kind of cash. It also has something to do with the quality of the story– and storytelling.
Again, my entry into the fray is MiWord.com. http://www.miworld.com/ We’re in beta, starting to get serious traction, and I’d love to know what you think of it. Here’s an 8-min. presentation to the recent US Center for Citizen Diplomacy summit in DC:http://www.miworld.com/site/pages/video_usccd.html
Thanks and albest.
nddicola - December 5, 2010 at 8:45 am
MiWorld – that is a fantastic website. I spent some time going through it and you guys have some great ideas with your Beta. I’ll have to check out your presentation now.
And you are right, nonprofits need to do a better job of identifying the real human beings that are being fought for, more than just statistics. However, I think many places do that, however it is hard to maintain that constantly as a main focal point in public relations. I know where I work we always highlight an individual story, but its not always our main point.
Thanks for the insight!
schindehette - December 12, 2010 at 10:45 pm
Nick– thanks, and I appreciate the kind words so much!
Also, believe me– I’m not knocking non-profits in ANY way. They’re absolutely our heroes– and they have their hands full already.
That’s precisely how we’d like to help– by running professionally-produced stories suggested by NGOs– which include direct links to the NGOs themselves.
As I always say, we’re just the PT Barnum who gets the folks into the tent. A “funnel” portal to get more eyes to the sites and stories that deserve to be seen– using the power of top-drawer, professional-quality storytelling for NGOs who don’t have the budgets or resources to do it themselves.
The goal is to serve as a global PR portal for many, many NGOs– in an ongoing way, at little or no cost to them. We place their stories on a global aggregator portal that will have top-quality editorial staff– and big corporate advertisers– as part of the mix.
People Magazine for the Next 3 Billion. Again, many thanks, and albest…