Wokai Adventures

Online Giving Marketplaces Conference at Stanford

Leslie Forman

Leslie is Wokai's Online Social Media Director.  She lives in San Francisco. 

This week Casey and I had the great fortune to spend four days at Stanford, learning about online giving marketplaces.  This has been such an amazing opportunity to learn from other organizations, in a very personal way. 

For the first three days, we met with the leaders of 16 different marketplaces from India, Colombia, South Africa, Argentina, Germany, Canada, and the U.S.  As the youngest organization (and youngest participants) in the group, we felt especially honored to be included.   A huge thank you to the Omidyar Network for making this possible!

The organizers brought in professional illustrator named Susan Kelly to transform these discussions into clear and colorful pictures.  Here is her record of our presentation on Wokai's chapter network, part of a session in which each marketplace shared a best practice.

Over the next few weeks, we'll post more here to share what we learned about diaspora, trust, technology, communities, and so much more. 

The final day the Stanford Social Innovation Review hosted a larger public conference  on the same topic. 

I had never heard the term Online Giving Marketplaces before this week.  It's a term that can be defined in many ways, and I really like this list of common characteristics by Lucy Bernholz, who hosted one of the sessions and is writing a book on the topic:

1:1 transactions between donor/lender and NGO/entrepreneur
Transparency
Feedback loops
Donor choice
Aggregating individual transactions (sometimes for intelligence)
Two flows in the markets - financial resources and information
Financial transactions are based on trusted information

In other words, online giving marketplaces transform philanthropy, making it more accessible and more like online shopping. 

And I sure hope that Dean Takahashi from VentureBeat is right when he says that "Social start-ups may prosper in downturn." 

OREO: More than just a cookie

Courtney

At 8:30pm last night, I found myself sitting in a room full of WAM microfinance professionals listening to Melinda Henning's discussion on "How to Give A Good Speech."

The talk started at 6:30pm, but I planned to leave at early at 7:15pm as I had practice for a company soccer tournament w are playing in this upcoming Saturday. But 7:15pm came and went without me even noticing. Melissa's talk was spot on. Just what the doctor ordered. 

My favorite take home was the OREO. The OREO stands for Opinion Reason Evidence Opinion. You use the OREO when you are asked a question after a speech or when you are responding to a comment on a panel discussion. 

Here is an example: In Winter 2007, I spoke at Stanford on a China Microfinance panel with April Rinne (Director of Development at Unitus), Cliff Tan ( Stanford Visiting Professor) and Dan Chao (Former Head of Bechtel China). Someone asked an interesting question: "Why should I give $25 dollars to China when I can help impoverished Chinese immigrants in my own community?"

Using the OREO, I would say:

O: In my opinion, one does not need to choose one over the other. You can do both.

R: My reason for thinking this is has to do with technology. The P2P lending platform allows you to do a lot with a little.

E: For example, I am a huge supporter of China Microfinance. Therefore, I can go onto Wokai and give $25 to a microentrepreneur in Sichuan Province. But just because I support China Microfinance does not mean that I cannot support other causes. I can also support Africa Microfinance. I can go to Kivaand give $25 to a microentrepreneur in Africa. The wonderful new world of P2P lending platforms allows you to diversify your interests and do much more with much less.

O: In summary to your question, I am not asking you to forego giving to organizations locally that support Chinese immigrants. I am merely suggesting that because of our online platform, you can diversify your distribution network.

Melissa also gave some other great points about giving an Advocacy Speech:

1. Pause - Do not be afraid to pause in your speech. You will find you actually say a lot more by saying a lot less.  Deliver your point: "The number of people living below the poverty line is equal to the population of the United States..." Then pause. Pause until it feels awkward to you. Thats when you know you have paused long enough.

2. Give one message- And repeat it at the beginning, middle and end of your speech. For Wokai, this is hard, but I think it would go something like this: " Wokai empowers individuals." We empower contributors and we empower individuals (I can't take the credit. Melissa gave that one last night. I love it!)

3. Combine anecdotal and analytical evidence- You need a combo. For Wokai this means hitting on the science of microfinance (95% return rates; what makes up that rate; growth over time) and the stories (Zhang Rong from Sichuan Province who is saving up money to send her youngest to high school).

4. Keep control of your emmotions- There should be an emmotional flow to your speech. In the beginning wake them up. In the middle, shake them up. In the end, give them a hug. For Wokai, this means shocking them with statsitics they don't often see about China in the beginning. Then, showing talking to them about microfinance and putting a human face on the issue by sharing stories with them. Finally, make them feel as though they can change the situation by visiting www.wokai.org

Melissa gives consultation for big speeches for about $250 per hour for corporates and non-profits. If you have to give a good speech, she can help you in just a few hours. You can send her your chicken scratch. She will help you organize it into a speech. Then you can do live phone calls with her via Skype where she will record you speaking to show you areas to improve. (And I know $250 is steep, but for an important speech, this is totally worth it. If your not convinced. Think about MLK and his speech on the Lincoln Monument when he said: "I have a dream...")