Sarah Francis of MomsRising.org and Loren Drummond of the Washington Trails Association shared their experiences and practices moving fans to real world action at the Nonprofit Technology Conference April 13th. The session was a mesmerizing, fascinating peek into how two brilliant organizers recruit, motivate, inspire, and engage online fans to drive change. This blog post captures their advice on how to offer value to fans, move them up the ladder of engagement, bring them into the organization, and develop a successful real world campaign.

If you work for, volunteer your time for, or consult to a mission-based organization, you are already thinking about using social media channels to promote it. Authors Amy Sample Ward and Allyson Kapin bring together how organizations can utilize social media channels cohesively to raise money, promote organizations, and create killer advocacy campaigns.The book is full of digestible information, appropriate for anyone working in communications, fundraising, programming, volunteer management, and leadership at an organization. This post offers an overview of the key points in the book, who should read it, and what you'll get out of it. In the a follow-up blog post, to be published Wednesday, April 10, co-authors Amy Sample Ward and Allyson Kapin answer six follow-up questions about the book, including "what inspired you to write the book," "what assets should an organization have in place before planning a multichannel campaign," and "what does it take to raise money online using social media."

Israel Loves Iran, the Facebook meme started by an Israeli graphic designer, does something unique: in one sentence it challenges historical thinking about the relationship between Israel and Iran, and at the same empowers citizens of both countries a way to make a difference. It is a campaign to prevent war based on hope and goodwill. What is so refreshing about this is the positive spin on a very serious subject: nuclear and conventional war. It's storytelling at its best, and begs the question posed by Stacey Monk and Vanessa Rhinesmith in their excellent South By Southwest Interactive session: Can positivity change the world?

I participate in To Mama With Love because Epic Change founder Stacey Monk has created one of the most incredible online campaigns in which I've ever had the honor of participating. Epic Change, has taken every principle of great community organizing and integrated it into To Mama With Love. Epic Change is also an organization that embodies the culture of social media, which is the culture of inclusion.

Follow the Leader is the second of three interactive service challenges sponsored by the Points of Light Institute to inspire people to become involved in community service. FTL integrates social media and game dynamics to move people to make commitments to service. In this interview with Michael Nealis, Interactive Strategy Coordinator for HandsOn Network, he outlines the goals, social media elements, and potential learnings from this unique social media activism campaign.

Tweetsgiving 2010 is all about Epic Thanks. It includes some great features: gratitude cards, online evangelists, and community organizing. It's also one of the great online fundraising campaigns of 2010.

November 14 is World Diabetes Day. In honor of World Diabetes Day, I'm spotlighting the Diabetes Hands Foundation, one of the most nimble, experimental organizations around. They've just launched Big Blue Test and the video challenge. In this post, I discuss what makes DHF so experimental, its successes and learnings, and how the Big Blue Test was conceived and executed.

Estrella Rosenberg, founder of Big Love Little Hearts, came up with the idea for the #100x100 Foursquare campaign nine days before the launch. This is the story of how she promoted awareness of CHD through Foursquare, leveraged $25,000 in the meantime, and laid the groundwork for lasting legislative change.

To create a great online fundraising campaign, combine the principles of community organizing with fundamental social media principles. The mashup will guide your campaign strategy and map. Presentation includes a slide show of essential elements of social media fundraising, and uses 2009 as a case study.

How important are bloggers to online social media campaigns? What is the value bloggers bring, and how should campaigns best use bloggers before and during their social media campaigns? In this blog post, I consider how four social media campaigns used blogger influence during the campaign, and the degrees of effectiveness: a micro finance campaign for Opportunity International, Visible Government's Beers for Canada, and Tweetsgiving 2008 and 2009.