Small charities may get a leg up on social media over the nation’s biggest nonprofits if Chris Hughes has anything to say about it.
The co-founder of Facebook and the online architect of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential run says that his highly anticipated social-media platform for the nonprofit world, Jumo, will not necessarily promote organizations that are the most followed or the most popular.
“We’re all really sensitive about not just promoting the most popular organizations or the organizations that have a lot of name recognition,” Mr. Hughes, Jumo’s executive director, says in an interview with The Chronicle. “The reason we got into Jumo in the first place is we saw literally millions of small to medium-size organizations all across the world, and they had a much harder time struggling to adapt to the social Web than large organizations that have brand recognition, larger budgets, more capacity to invest.”
Mr. Hughes says Jumo, which is set to make its public debut on November 30, is designed to give donors the ability to discover and connect with charities or causes they may be interested in–and give charities a way to easily manage and develop relationships with potential supporters. In a way, Jumo seeks to be an organizational dashboard to help people get involved in the nonprofit world, Mr. Hughes says.
They can easily pull from Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, and blogs and have information from all those sources appear on their own Jumo page. “It’s built to go in tandem with existing services—not replace them but offer the opportunity for people to use Jumo for their home base,” Mr. Hughes says.
One thing that won’t be easy, at least not right away: donating money to a charity you learned about on Jumo.
Mr. Hughes wants everyone to first get used to the new online platform and to learn about the charities on Jumo.
“We don’t expect people to come in and start by donating and end by donating,” Mr. Hughes says. “We expect people to be curious about a cause or an organization, and then over the course of a few weeks or a few months get to know that cause. Then at a point where they feel inspired or compelled or they feel that sense of responsibility, then we hope that they will take real action on behalf of those causes and for those organizations.”
Mr. Hughes says that the vetting of organizations that appear on the site will be done mainly by Jumo’s followers, who can flag any groups that don’t conform to the community’s culture, such as potential scammers or organizations that use inappropriate or offensive content. “I feel a personal responsibility to make sure that any user on Jumo, particularly when it comes to donating, knows that their money is going to a legit group,” he says.
Jumo will rely on donations from the people who use its site as well as sponsors to generate revenue, Mr. Hughes says.
But will organizations and individuals gravitate toward yet another form of social media? That should become apparent in a few weeks or months.
To learn more, view The Chronicle’s interview with Chris Hughes, founder and executive director of Jumo.
4 Responses to Small Charities Could Get Big Lift From New Social Network
howardlake - November 16, 2010 at 2:25 pm
I do wish Jumo well as I do any digital infrastucture initiative that has the potential to improve the effectiveness of nonprofit staff.
I do wonder however whether another social network is going to be useful. Yes, the nonprofit sector is huge, especially if you consider all its stakeholders – beneficiaries, donors, advisers, staff, volunteers etc.
But will enough of them invest the necessary time and trust in a new network, even one dedicated to them? They will probably already have invested time and effort in learning the nuances of several such services over the last few years, and are likely to wish to make sure they are getting the best value and returns from those, rather than spreading themselves further and more thinly.
Yes, if Facebook had been nonprofit-focused from the start, that would have been wonderful. But I’m doubtful about whether Jumo can now take on that mantle successfully. Others like Ammado.com and seethedifference.org have tried and continue to try.
Or have I missed something about Jumo?
vmguest - November 17, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Robert from VolunteerMatch here – so cool to see the finish line nearing for this much-discussed new member of the nonprofit tech world!
I’m *really* intrigued by the decision to leave vetting to individuals. To date the services that have built the strongest networks of cause-caring consumers and organizations have provided a framework built on vetting and approval of those nonprofits and NGOs. The alternative is something like the Craiglist model — that is, economies of scale plus tools to let users do all the vetting. But as any user of Craigslist knows, it can be a jungle out there!
If Jumo can create high levels of engagement with such a relaxed policy, it could lead to others in the field relaxing their approval policies too. Would this be a good or a bad thing? That’s hard to say. At VolunteerMatch, we put a lot of time and energy into organization approvals. While it would be nice to put that money into other areas of our work, we also know that many of our stakeholders (individuals, companies, sponsors and donors) see this as a priority.
Robert Rosenthal
(Twitter: @volmatch)
jmilenthal - December 10, 2010 at 3:13 pm
I agree with you, @howardlake. I’m a little confused over why we need another platform. So many non-profits and causes already have a foothold in Facebook, why do they need to migrate to another platform or introduce another tool? Plus, isn’t the beauty of Facebook the fact that all the passions in your life can be integrated in one place – hobbies, work, philanthropy, etc. Why do I want to manage my philanthropic passions on a separate website? I want it all together in one place so my friends/family get the complete picture of me (and me of them).
To me, Jumo is like having a whole separate social media tool to express my love of my favorite hockey team or favorite hobby. It’s just too niche!
jmcmahon8191 - January 4, 2011 at 12:01 pm
It seems that Jumo is a good outlet for those small non-profit organizations that nobody knows about. As Hughes has said it allows people to really see what these organizations are about. I think that is most important because once you have seen it your passion grows and allows your interest to grow as well.