Craigslist Foundation: Nonprofit Boot Camp

One part conference, one part Craiglist, and a few hundred changemakers: Welcome to Boot Camp.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending the Craigslist Foundation’s Nonprofit Boot Camp at NYU. While the conference dealt with a broader range of topics than just fundraising and grantmaking, the passion and electricity of the crowd made every topic feel relevant. The theme of industry-wide, non-profit collaboration arose again and again.

As I walked into Schimmel Auditorium, a giant sign read: “Craigslist helped you get a job, buy a sofa, and find a date… now they’re helping you build your nonprofit.” At that moment, amid a marching drum salute, Darien Rodriguez Heyman, Executive Director of the Craigslist Foundation, took the microphone, and Boot Camp began.

The day featured four educational tracks for nonprofit leaders and future leaders, as well as speakers, receptions, and networking. The mission of the Craigslist Foundation, just like its namesake, is to bring people together. In his opening remarks, Mr. Rodriguez Heyman was quick to acknowledge the leadership potential in the crowd. As a fundraiser, I always feel somewhat removed from program staff, but at Boot Camp it was clear that we all do our part for the common good.

When I spoke with him after the conference, Mr. Rodriguez Heyman told me that the Craigslist Foundation wants to do more than host industry mixers. In the long-term, the Foundation will serve to introduce non-profits to each other, to services, and to volunteers and employees. The keynote speakers for the day, Sheena Wright and Ami Dar, explained the importance of these introductions.

Ms. Wright is President and CEO of the Abyssinian Development Corporation (ADC), a non-profit organization dedicated to building the human, social and physical capital of Harlem. Ms. Wright was born in the Bronx, graduated from Columbia University and went on to graduate from Columbia Law School. Ms. Wright left a lucrative career to run ADC, in order to give young people a chance to do what she did, and beat the odds themselves.

Ms. Wright inspired the crowd by telling the story of her own childhood. As the daughter of a teenage mother, she was disregarded as one of thousands of children who will never make it. Not content to be a statistic in a testament to a failing neighborhood, Ms. Wright overcame the odds, but many of her peers did not. She entered the non-profit field in order to help more people “make it”.

While Ms. Wright has devoted herself to community development in Harlem, she acknowledged that we each have our own causes. In order for us to have an impact on our specific cause, Ms. Wright urged us to wage war, rather than just a battle, on our specific issues. Waging war means that our efforts must be coordinated, we must be well equipped, our “troops” must be trained, and others must be inspired to join us. “Vision isn’t enough to win the war,” she says; we have to meet and work together.

Later in the day, the second keynote speaker drove home the importance of collaborating and sharing ideas. Ami Dar founded Actions Without Borders, which runs Idealist.org, the leading world’s non-profit job site. Its mission, a natural match to Craiglist’s, is to connect people, organizations, and resources.

Mr. Dar spoke to the theme of collaboration by saying, simply, that when he hires a carpenter he makes sure they have a hammer to work with. In the non-profit world, that’s a simple idea, but one rarely carried out effectively. Mr. Dar views Idealist.org as a means for non-profit staff and executives to be connected with the tools, which are often the ideas of others, that will help them do their jobs. In a way, Idealist connects non-profit “carpenters” with the hammers and nails of non-profit work.

Mr. Dar focused particularly on the idea that people have always been innovative. However, until recently, it was nearly impossible for a person with an innovative idea to connect with the tools and resources needed to carry out that idea. Ten years ago, it was only possible to propose a new idea through an article in a journal, or an editorial in a newspaper. Today if you have an idea, all you need to suggest it to the world is a blog with well-placed technorati tags.

So take advantage of this technology, and collaborate with your peers. If you have an idea, see who else is working in your field, and how you can work with them to better address your issue. To paraphrase Ms. Wright, by coordinating our battles, we have a much better shot at winning the war.

Special note to readers in San Francisco, the Craigslist Foundation is running the 3rd annual Bay Area Boot Camp on August 19, 2006. Check it out at:

http://craigslistfoundation.org/index.php?page=Bayarea

Comments

[Kate Golden]

Will - This conference sounds wonderful. I'm wondering if it would be possible for the editors (and readers?) of FLiP to post conferences of interest prior to their happening, so that we might sign up for them too.

[Will Schneider]

Thanks for the suggestion, Kate. As a matter of fact, we're working on a way for FLiP's to share information about upcoming events. We should have more information on that soon!