Toys for Trees, a project from ALLWoood.org

Posted on February 7, 2012 by ecodesigncenter

Toys for Trees, a project from ALLWoood.org

After 22 years of designing and making wooden toys for export worldwide, Ferdinand Swart decided that it was high time to act on what is perceived of real important:
Lord Nicholas Stern: The two defining challenges of our century are climate change and poverty. And if we fail on one, we will fail on the other. 2009
to promote community based “food” forestry and especially the @treecredits ‘pay per tree’ concept that would guarantee a small monthly income to those planting + caring for tree world wide. Also to benefit the climate and biodiversity.

With SriToys´ sales are not what they should be, we decided to combine the two and start a e-shop with a difference.
“We” are Ferdinand Swart (57), Abel Swart (20), Elsbeth Smit, Thomas Albers, all from the Netherlands, but now, beginning of 2012, together in SriLanka.
The difference is that the shop is non-profit and that design, art and humor will play a role not only in the looks but especially in the wittiness of the campaigns. Also it will work “open source” and work with volunteers/shareholders.

The business model is loosly based on the “drop ship” model in that the importer/middleman will be avoided and the country representatives never touch the goods and only have to operate a bank account and participate in organizing the online community. Produce will be shipped from the SriToys/ACTI warehouse by sea, already individually packed and labeled, so that the parcels can be delivered directly from the harbour by parcel-post to the consumer, shop or school. Final delivery is free from $100 value. Even personalisation of each product will be viable.
Grouping together the production and shipping of the products vital for the economy of scale so we will start with one Christmas action and might end up with a monthly shipment to the major countries/continents.

Trees will be sold with most products and seperately. They will be planted twice a year, at first by our counterpart OARM…….in B. but later we have firm contacts in N+S India and M.
Each tree could be geo-tacked and linked to a planter-carer as well as donor.

SriToys was founded in 1990, by FS and PMJ and since 1992 attend the great Nurnberg Toy Fair where we have presented a new collection, often developed by Dutch students, ever since. Besides these 1000s of models available, mainly wooden toys, soft toys and children furniture, we have resently designed a more design oriented AllWood collection.
Also we plan to sell other tropical products, like thee, coffee, copra etc., ayurvedic products and handicrafts through our Trading House, ACTI.
Problem Analyses

Goals in short:

Sell toys and plant trees
Build an online community and platform to implement tree credits system
To educate children and to link up schools, North/South

Means in short:

Back up of SriToys-ACTI production, warehousing, export, business and accountancy routine
SriToys/FS designs and copyrights
New brandnames, website, e-shop, blogs
Auto-responds to automatically build the mailing list
Social media, f, t, in, .., y, p , W,…….
Personal networks
Networks of Promoters
links with OARM, Anisha, MFF, etc.
Treecredits´ innovative concept
Help of volunteers and students

Problems

how to organize legally

how to reach target groups
how to generate great content
how to design a marketing plan, so that it turns into art, branding
IT, what, how and who, timing
Logistics of export
Financial: bankaccounts, administration, cashflow, profit, investors
Personnel

Solutions

Legal: For the meanwhile we will operate under the umbrella of the STI/ACTI export companies and use their offices, if founds are available we will register the organisation elsewhere like Singapore or London.
Market penetration: Under means I listed most of the online resources of the actual team. This team seeks help of volunteers and specialists to design and implement the perfect market strategy.
Content: Most of us are designers and photographers, but for perfect texts, especially in English we relay largely on outside help, although we have no lack of wit 🙂
Branding: Need partner like ProPortion
IT: investor needed?
Logistics: SriToys´ accountancy and export section are preparing a client-parcel registration system, SriToys´ expedition section can easily reorganised to prepare the parcels. There is more than enough place, more people are needed to increase capacity of the expedition. SriToys has its own forwarding company with office near Colombo Port, the container hub of South Asia.
Bankaccount: For our first action in NL, I asked my brother HA (and Abel´s father) to open an account. HA already manages our shared stocks account for years and can be well trusted to make monthly payments to SriToys and OARM; and for clearing and expedition of shipments. Further administration and exporting will be done by STI. Payments to STI will be made early, to ease there cashflow constrains.
Profits: Although we are a non-profit, it is necessary to reward all involved: founders, new partners, volunteers and investors in case of success. The income generated will first be used to repay claims all those involved have build up, if there is more it will go to our good causes.

11 Qualities of an Effective Social Media Manager

Posted on February 7, 2012 by ecodesigncenter

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

tags: Social Media, Social Media for Social Good

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The following is an excerpt from the newly released Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits and was published in the September 2011 edition ofFundraising Success Magazine (@frsuccess). However, do to word count constraints the content below is not in its full entirety. In the book, this section (taken from Chapter 2) is twice the length seen below. Just a FYI.

11 Qualities of an Effective Social Media Manager

Despite all the buzz about social media, the reality is that your social media campaigns are only as good as the human being(s) behind them. Going “viral” on social media sites is extremely rare, and instantaneous success is a myth. Being an effective social media manager is both an art and a skill. Some personalities are more inclined to be successful at managing and inspiring online communities, but the vast majority of practitioners will need months, if not years, to learn to produce social media success through a process of trial and error. For your nonprofit to succeed on social media sites, make sure that your social media manager (a.k.a. new media manager, digital marketing manager, etc.) has most of the following qualities:

1. Has a passion for the cause and for social media

You can hear it in his voice and read it in his tweets. A good social media manager has passion for his cause(s) and enjoys participating in social media. The best social media practitioners express their personalities with a dash of attitude and a bit of flair, and are comfortable articulating their opinions online. They don’t need to be brash or controversial in their opinions, but they do not shy away from asserting their viewpoints on behalf of your nonprofit, its mission, and its programs.

2. Is friendly, patient and responsive

Effective social media managers enjoy engaging with and responding to comments on social media sites. They relish discussing ideas and issues online, and they do it with patience and kindness. They are attentive to their communities on an almost daily basis. They express gratitude for support, and they acknowledge questions and concerns. They have the unique ability to defuse troublesome (and sometimes obnoxious and rude) personalities with kind, but firm commentary. It’s a real skill to navigate and guide the online commons and know how and when to react.

3. Is creative and detail-oriented

Creativity is what makes exceptional social media campaigns stand out from the rest. Doing something different with a set of tools that tens of thousands of other nonprofits also use is the trademark of an exceptional social media manager. Her brain is constantly at work dreaming up new campaigns, and rather than shying away from being different and taking risks, she embraces it. Creativity combined with the ability to multitask is the winning combination of skills for an effective social media manager.

4. Has experience in online communications

Just because someone is 19 and came of age using Facebook in his personal life does not mean that he can manage and implement your online communities on social media sites successfully. Untrained interns were fine two or three years ago, when the Social Web was still in its infancy and everyone was experimenting. But that era is over. The truth is, in terms of results in social media, you get what you pay for, and if you want the best person for the job, you need someone who has at least a year or two of professional experience in Web 1.0. He needs to have written content for the Web, published an e-newsletter, blogged, and experimented with various online fundraising campaigns. It’s rare that someone with no background in online communication or fundraising instinctively understands how to use social media to build an online brand.

5. Reads blogs about social media and mobile technology

A good social-media manager is a regular reader of Mashable, TechCrunch, Social Media Today, Social Times, Mobile Marketing Watch, All Facebook, About Foursquare,Nonprofit Tech 2.0, Beth’s Blog, TechSoup, NTEN, and other such blogs. Social media moves very quickly, and your nonprofit will fall behind or miss opportunities to explore the “Next Big Thing” if your social media manager is not regularly browsing these blogs for breaking news about tools, upgrades, and emerging trends.

6. Is an early adopter

The nonprofits that are the most successful in social media today were on Myspace andYouTube in 2005 and 2006. They have time on their side. Online communities grow in number over time, exponentially. The earlier you start, the more likely you are to be successful. Not only that, but online communities also tend to grow the fastest during the early adoption phase. They’re not interesting or buzz-worthy once thousands of other nonprofits are using them. In fact, in the era of the Social Web, and even more so on the Mobile Web, early adoption in and of itself is a strategy. Those who do it first tend to do it best.

7. Is not overly confident about her social media skills

Overconfidence about their social media skills prevents most social media managers from getting the necessary training. Every second of every day, nonprofits on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,Flickr, WordPress, Foursquare and other social media make obvious mistakes that are counterproductive to their presence on these sites. Please get training! Take webinars, attend boot camps or workshops, or go to conferences that focus on the how-to of social media. The most valuable advice should be practical and come from someone who actually manages online communities and works with these tools every single day. Be skeptical of the self-proclaimed social media mavens, rock stars, or experts who have no practical experience running, maintaining, and building online communities around causes or nonprofit brands on social networking sites.

8. Thinks like a journalist

Well-written, timely content is what drives the Social Web. Old news is not share-, like- or retweet-worthy. Increasingly, nonprofit communicators and social media practitioners need to consider themselves reporters for their causes and nonprofits — always listening, responding rapidly, and sometimes even “Live! On location!” This is why blogging has become so central to a successful social media strategy. It allows social media managers to respond to breaking news by quickly and easily creating content that can be posted and shared by others on the Social Web.

9. Is mobile

Social media managers should be comfortable with the idea of posting status updates and tweets from any location at any time, when necessary. Whether we like it or not, the news cycle is now 24/7, and as a journalist for your cause, you need to be, too. Mobile technology enables that. Increasingly laptops are becoming cumbersome in comparison to smartphones and tablets, and as the Mobile Web continues to expand, so will the tools that have been uniquely designed for smartphones and tablets. The best social media and mobile technology practitioners embrace these new tools, experiment with them and are willing to sacrifice some of their free time outside of traditional office hours in order to be available to their communities 24/7.

10. Is willing to mesh his personal life with his professional life online

It’s a whole new Web. It’s social. It’s mobile. It’s public. You have to be willing to be on Facebook personally or LinkedIn professionally. You have to be willing to merge some of your personal life with your professional life online. For a good social media manager, privacy is a concern, but it is not a crippling one. He takes responsibility for his own privacy and takes steps to protect it where and when he wants to. He is educated about privacy settings on various social networking sites. He doesn’t post anything he doesn’t want his boss or his parents to see, but beyond that, mixing his personal and professional lives online is something that he is willing to do in order to be the best advocate he can be for his cause and his nonprofit.

11. Takes steps to prevent social media burnout

For all the social good it can do, social media does have a downside. Nonprofit practitioners are bombarded with messages all day long on social media sites. It can be too much for the brain to process sometimes, especially since much of the content coming out of the nonprofit communities is related to sad, depressing news (war, rape, poverty, depletion of environmental resources, animal cruelty and extinction, and so on). A good social media manager knows when to draw the line and takes time away from her communities when necessary.