This is a topic that I have about 15 years of experience with. The Tutor/Mentor Connection, http://www.tutormentorconnection.org, was created to raise visibility of volunteer-based tutoring/mentopring, and to draw needed resources to organizations in Chicago who already were doing this work, but were isolated from each other, and inconsistent in how well, and how often, they told their story to potential resource providers. The link below shows a timeline from 1965 that led to where we are today: http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/servlet/SBReadResourceServlet?rid=1183757961687_847212265_22470&partName=htmltext

You're absolutely correct about how difficult it is to find funding for such a strategy. However, we created the Tutor/Mentor Connection as we also created a site based tutor/mentor program serving innercity teens. We call this program Cabrini Connections (http://www.cabriniconnections.net).

By operating a volunteer-based program helping kids in one neighborhood, we've always had one foot anchored in the daily realities of trying to connect youth and volunteers, while the other has been in an innovation process aimed at building a infrastructure of support that would enable all of the tutor/mentor programs in a geographic area to receive more consistent support, thus be more successful in not only building connections between youth, and adults, but in keeping these connections in place for multiple years, so that over time the adults form a network who not only help kids into careers, but who help raise the resources to sustain the program.

When we started the T/MC, it was just a vision. We had no money, and were also starting the Cabrini Connections program. Howevever, by constantly focusing on actions that would help all tutor/mentor programs grow, not just our own, we've built traction over many years and have been able to raise nearly $5 million, mostly from private donors (individuals, corporations, foundations), to fund this two part strategy.

Over the past five years's we've begun to provide assistance to groups in other cities, with a goal of earning income by sharing what we've learned in Chicago to help similar programs grow elsewhere. While we've been included in several proposals, and have some barter agreements, we've yet to earn revenue from this.

However, a partnership we started in 1994 with lawyers from the Chicago Bar Association, has finally began to result in 2007 funding for the T/MC, and more than $200,000 in funding for 30 other tutor/mentor programs in Chicago .

What I've described is a 15 year history, from 1993 to today, which actually started almost 20 years prior to that when I first began leading a tutor/mentor program as a volunteer.

What this means is that for people to take this intermediary role, they have to be able to stay engaged for a long time. Even if you are lucky enough to get someone like Al Gore to do a movie, this is only one part of the public awareness that needs to continue for many, many more years in order to put programs in place all over the world, then to help those programs be effective at solving the problem they were set up to do.

I would not be doing this, or talking to you, if the Internet had not become available to me. I can now find volunteers, and donors, and share ideas, with people in many parts of the world who share the same concerns as I do. I can also share my thinking on a web site and a blog and anyone can visit that at any time.

For those who are contemplating taking on this role, I encourage you to browse the various sections of the T/MC web sites and borrow any ideas that you think might work for you.

...or are they a naive, silly strategy that we should ignore in favor of harder, more easily measurable interventions? I realized upon re-reading that was the main question which motivated this discussion for me. It is a question I have been grappling with for years

from early work using film as a way of understanding and coming to terms with the genocide in Bosnia to recent work with the International Museum of Women. I would love to hear all of your thoughts.

And Daniel, thank you for your very thoughtful post. I love that you've taken the time to create and post a roadmap of how your organization has developed. Judging by the looks of it, you would not have been able to sit down 15 years ago and map out your future success in a linear fashion-- it seems to have grown very organically and sustainably, in response to genuine community need and interest. Brilliant that you posit developing supportive community and strong networks as an answer to the sustainability quandary.

You are absolutely right about sticking it out for the long-term. They say it usually takes a generation-- the span of an entire adult lifetime-- of concerted, repeated efforts to really turn the needle on complicated issues. And that's for the ones that actually succeed. Some pieces of the puzzle may come around faster than others, but they are all part of a very complex whole.

You're right that this has grown over time, yet, it's still focused on exactly the same goals as when we started. We've just continued to adopt the tools that are available to us.

Finding ways to tell ths story, and to get people to look at what you're doing is one of the key challenges. In the past couple of years we've begun to put youth created videos on YouTube. You can see a few at http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=cabrini+connections

We're using blogs to do this also: http://cabriniblog.blogspot.com

Hi Paula,

Fitting the pieces into the puzzle to show the whole, is exactly why stories can make a difference. It's difficult to generalise about all characters, but the fact that humans arose from a single evolutionary event makes it a safe bet to say, that underneath it all we are all the same. Creating connection is a natural part of the human psyche, so to go to the place that holds meaning together, through the construction of subjectivity, we all learn something. Awareness brings change.

The trick to storytelling is for the teller to be inside the experience while being detached and observing it at the same time. While being in the present moment storytelling is a meeting of minds. And ofcourse that's when the magic happens. Coincidently, or should I say, sychronisticly, its world storytelling day, and the theme this year is dreams....

Thanks for your post, Jo. I had never heard of World Storytelling Day before you mentioned it-- but I did some searching. Unfortunately no events in London, surprisingly, though perhaps I did not look hard enough.

I like what you say about stories allowing the meeting of the minds. I have always found this with my work-- several years back I worked on a pilot project with Active Voice using film to create bridges between Jewish and Muslim groups in San Francisco. The well-told stories provided a powerful point of entry to a conversation that would not otherwise have happened and was sorely needed.

That said, to play devil's advocate, stories alone are but one tool in a changemakers' toolkit. And awareness alone may or may not lead to change.

My next book project is about really delving into this model-- trying to formalize how increased awareness leads to concrete structural change. And it's precisely because I know the value of public education projects for turning the needle on issues... but we don't have the tools right now to really explain how such strategies fit into the overall puzzle.

With the MTV generation and now the Internet generation, we are bombarded with millions of messages and distractions everyday, mainly from advertisers. Storytellers fight with advertisers for the attention of the consumer. Stroytelling must rise above all that noise

Storytelling can play an important role in getting the message out there, including with movies, videos, music, plays, books...etc. The main problem with stroytelling is that it also needs good distribution, which is tied into marketing. If you create the best story in the world, but nobody watches it ("too few distributors"), it will lose money.

Here are some comments for your questions:

1) The profit potential of educational project depends on the project and the subject itself. The increase awareness of social issues needs both philanthropic funding, public funding and investor fuinding because to rise above the media noise, we need to confront social issues with all our arsenals at hand.

Example of a profitable project: if you make a film about organic food, which then you can spin off into a book and a mini-expo on organic foods, with sponsors; it can be extremely profitable.

I am currently developing the Green Stock Exchange (GREENSX), North America's first social stock exchange, to help provide social businesses with additional financing for such project as yours. http://greensx.com

2) Independent "public opinion polls" are the best way to measure impact on awareness. I started painting and talking about climate change and the extinction of species in 2001 via the Thinkism Art Movement ("the first fine art movement of the 21st century" - http://www.thinkism.org), when not many people heard about it. People just did not listen in 2001, but after the Inconvenient Truth came out, art galleries were a bit more receptive to my art about climate change and the extinction of species. However, there are still skeptics about climate change; during my art exhibition in 2007, someone wrote a grafitti on my painting description saying that climate change is bullshit. Therefore, more education is still needed.

3) The most effective media project I can think of is the United States Civil Rights Movement, with Martin Luthur King and the anti-Vietnam war campaigns with Bob Dylan. These campaigns included celebrity endorsements, rallies, music, movies, art, television and more.

Fascinating comments, David, thank you. I was particularly intrigued by your thoughts on profit for public education/media projects. You're right

the profit potential depends on the issue. Eight now, you're a lot more likely to be able to see a return on a film or book about the environment, than say, about questions of maternal health in the developing world.

But such an observation begs the question. When it comes to public education efforts, is profit potential inversely related to need?

The reason you can now start to see profit on media projects about the environment (or for that matter, a whole host of green business products) is because there were years of grassroots public education projects on climate change-- most of which I guarantee struggled heroically for resources. Without that foundation, the concept of environmentalism would not enjoy nearly the same profit potential and mainstream acceptance as it does now.

In some sense, the early adopter funders who gave money to the first environmental awareness projects can be said to have seen a much higher social return on their efforts (building the essential foundation for all that was to come) than those investing now. And yet, it probably wouldn't have seemed that way to them at the time--they probably felt like they weren't making much traction at all. When a social issue is still considered marginal, the gains are incremental and slow... until a tipping point is reached.

Clearly there is tons more to be done on the environment- I'd be the last to claim otherwise. But what about a huge array of issues that are not fashionable currently-- but for which a huge amount of public education is needed, and for which less profit potential exists because the issues aren't yet fashionable?

------ Also, David, can you tell us more about the Green Stock Exchange and how it works? And also (to ask an impossible question)-- what was the model and trajectory by which growing awareness and acceptance of the concept of civil rights occurred? Can you shed any light on that?

I think we are still in the early adopter stage with the environmental movement, but the Internet has been extremely helpful in the spread of the green message.

We can see this trend by simply following the health food sector because in the me generation, most people think what is in it for me. Actually health food is often the entry point to a green and sustainable lifestyle, so if something is bad for your health, then attitudes change.

If you see a lot of health foods in mainstream stores, then it has reached maturity.

I am a Chinese Born Canadian, so when we greet each other during New Year, we say "wish you good health" to your elders. If we ask people to save the planet, Chinese cannot relate to it, but if you say save the planet for good health, people will look twice. Often people purchase things at ridiculous prices if it is good for health. Just go to a Chinese medicine shop, and you can eaily drop $500.00+ to buy something for good for health.

To answer your impossible question about "what was the model and trajectory by which growing awareness and acceptance of the concept of civil rights occurred? Can you shed any light on that?"

The civil rights was one issue, with a clear agenda, to remove racial legislation. If at the time of the civil rights movement, they had the Internet, cell phones, satellite TV, and faxes, I think it would be much faster.

The environmental issue is made up of so many small and big problems, with multiple jurisdictions. This includes overfishing, GMO, pollution, the extinction of species, mining, CO2...etc. I just feel depress thinking about it. Most of my friends have just given up because they feel the problem is so huge and out of their control. This is environmental apathy.

As for the Green Stock Exchange: ---------------------------------

I am setting up North America's first social stock exchange, called the Green Stock Exchange (http://greensx.com), which will finance and trade shares publicly in social businesses, just like NASDAQ and AIM London Stock Exchange. It is a eBAY.com like system for trading shares in social businesses connected to a green social network, with a triple bottom line (economic + social + environmental). It will be ready about summer 2008. I have not made any press releases yet, so you are the first ones to know about it.

A "social business" as a profit making business that also benefits society. Example like Granneem Bank (Microfinincing), Green Energy...etc.

Since all the listed companies on the exchange are pre-screened, evaluated, and audited according to social and sustainable guidelines set by the exchange, it will make it much easier for green investors to find and support social businesses. The GREENSX provides opportunities for small green Issuers to access public equity capital efficiently, while providing early stage investors, angel investors, and venture capitalists with greater liquidity.

The Green Stock Exchange is only part of a E=MC2 Green Community Platform for social change. Sorry the description is so long below:

: the Green Stock Exchange is North America's first social stock exchange. The eBAY.COM AUCTION STYLED online bulletin board for trading securities empowers social businesses, which are more earth friendly and humanity friendly. The exchange makes it easier for people to invest in green companies ("it is modeled after AIM London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ "). Since all the listed companies on the exchange are pre-screened, evaluated, and audited according to social and sustainable guidelines set by the exchange, it will make it much easier for green investors to find and support social businesses. The GREENSX provides opportunities for small green Issuers to access public equity capital efficiently, while providing early stage investors, angel investors, and venture capitalists with greater liquidity.

green social network: the E=MC² Creative Friends Network is a green social network ("it is modeled after MYSPACE and FACEBOOK") , where people can make friends with other green revolutionaries ("includes blogs, forums, wikis, start-a-business, search engines, classified, personals, photos, jobs,art, music, movies, videos and more"); at our online social network, our goal is to help our members reach their full potential.

green ad network: AdCharity is an ad auction and ad delivery network ("it is modeled after GOOGLE'S ADSENSE"), that allows marketers to reach people interested in green living. Products that can be advertised includes: hybrid and electric cars, organic and natural food, organic and natural personal care products, yoga, tai chi, massage centers, spas and fitness products, green and sustainable building, eco-tours, hiking and wilderness trips, energy efficient electronics/appliances, socially responsible investing, natural household products (paper goods and cleaning products), natural and preventive medicine (naturopathic, Chinese medicine, etc.), fair-trade fashion, and eco-publications;

green business certification program: Green Business Certified Program is a program for certifying and auditing green businesses. Certified companies can use the Green Business Certified Logo to indicate to customers, employees, investors and stakeholders that you are a green company.

community driven brands: a "community driven brand" is a unique concept; it allows millions of members from the E=MC² Creative Friends Network to jointly-participate in the creation, the development, the selection, the marketing, and the promotion of greener products. The best ideas are selected via a democratic voting system, like reality TV show DANCING WITH THE STARS or AMERICAN IDOL, for commercialization.

greener products: from the "community driven brand" concept, the winning designs are manufactured under fair trade conditions and sold / distributed to socially conscious retailers and partners worldwide, such as Whole Foods, Wild Oats Markets, Urban Outfitters, Loblaws...etc We share a portion of the revenue with winners and charities. We make it easier for people to earn extra money or to start their own business, while benefiting society. We have seeded the "community driven brand" with the following products:

green magazine: LOHAS Magazine is an online open source catalogue and magazine created by blog journalists and citizen reporters, for LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability). Citizen journalists, movie-makers and photographers bring the stories and images. Subject include: climate change, news, health, the environment, social issues, conservation, green products reviews, videos, global warming, cooking, gossip, advice and whatever suits your taste. It is a magazine create by the people, for the people.

green charity: Green Charity is "Charity Without Boundaries". The Green Charity program is a non-profit social network that puts you in touch with thousands of non-profit organizations, volunteers, donors, and recipients from all over the world. It makes it easier for people to find and donate to charities.

Thank you so much for initiating this conversation, Paula! Right now I'm working on this very problem with the civil rights organization I helped found, Friends of Justice.

I have one idea about how to get funders and allies to value what we do. We're in the process of developing a training module for other organizations in narrative-based interventions. We want this idea of narrative-based interventions to be a common model of advocacy that provides a common strategic language for people from diverse fields (law, media advocacy, blogging). I’d love to work together with other people who want to create a new paradigm of how to implement—and value—this form of social entrepreneurship.

Friends of Justice is a grassroots organization that works to uphold due process for all Americans. Our goal is to build a public consensus behind equal access to justice and respect for human dignity in our criminal justice system. We've achieved large-scale impact because of our unique model of narrative-based intervention. We were the first organizations to get national media attention for two of the most important civil rights cases of the last decade: an historic scandal over a racially-targetted drug sting in Tulia, Texas in 1999, and a national debate over racial tension in Jena, Louisiana in 2007, after white teenagers hung nooses in the local high school.

Here’s how our model of narrative-based intervention works: Friends of Justice organizes media scandals about cases where vulnerable people are denied due process because of abusive prosecution and corrupt policing. We conduct investigation of these cases as they unfold, craft a clear summary of the facts, and persuade the media to do hard-hitting reporting on the breakdown of due process. We organize affected communities like Tulia and Jena to tell their stories, connecting them to international media and to powerful national allies.

Our strategy shifts the prevailing media and community narratives about criminal justice, flooding the public square with narratives about the need to hold our public officials to a higher standard and defend due process for all Americans.

I resonate with this conversation, because we struggle with this very dilemma of quantifying and valuing our impact to funders, since we specialize in transforming the public conversation rather than delivering a product or service. But I'm not going to give up on this, because I've seen first-hand how much impact our organization can achieve through narrative-based advocacy!

You can read more about Friends of Justice here: http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com

And more about our strategy consulting in narrative-based interventions here: http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/our-solution/new-organizing-strategy/

Lydia, thank you for this post. Looks like you are doing some fabulous work.

It is interesting that you say that you struggle with the dilemma of valuing your impact-- as it seems to me that you summarize it quite compellingly. Is the difficulty in quantifying it? In pointing to specifics?

It would be really valuable if you could share with us some lessons learned from previous attempts (successful and not) of sharing and communicating your impact as an organization. What has worked best with which audiences? What hasn't worked? What are the specific major challenges?

Misreading something above, reminds me of a favourite story and the influence that it passed on to those who really did change the world:-

Nikolai solemnly announced to his siblings one day that he possessed a wonderful secret that could make all men happy. If it became generally known, a kind of golden age would exist on earth: there would be no more disease, no human misery, and no anger. All would love one another and become “Ant Brothers.” (Moravskiye bratya - “Moravian Brothers” - of whom young Nikolai had no doubt read, was probably mistakenly transformed by the boys into Muraveinye bratya - “Ant Brothers.”)

The children adopted the idea with enthusiasm and even organized a game of Ant Brothers. Boxes and chairs were converted with shawls, and they all cuddled together in the dark within the shelter.

Nikolai had disclosed the Ant Brotherhood to them but not the chief secret - the means by which all men would become everlastingly happy. He had written this secret, he said, on a green stick buried by the road at the edge of a ravine in the Zakaz forest.

The other children soon forgot about the green stick. Tolstoy, however, traced to the Ant Brotherhood under the shawl-covered chairs his first childhood experience of love, not love of some one person, but love of love. Huddled together under the chairs, the Ant Brothers felt a particular tenderness for each other, and they talked of what was necessary for happiness and how they would love everybody. When he was over seventy, he recalled the incident in his Recollections:

“The ideal of Ant Brothers clinging lovingly to one another, only not under two armchairs curtained by shawls, but of all the people of the world under the wide dome of heaven, has remained unaltered for me. As I then believed that there was a little green stick whereon was written something which would destroy all evil in men and give them great blessings, so I now believe that such truth exists among people and will be revealed to them and will give them what it promises.”

Two years before his death, Tolstoy dictated to his secretary, N.N. Gusev, the following: “Although it is a trifling matter, yet I wish to say something that I should like done after my death. Even though it is a trifle of trifles: let no ceremonies be performed in putting my body into the earth. A wooden coffin, and whoever wishes, carry it or cart it to Zakaz, opposite the ravine at the place of the green stick. At least, there's a reason for selecting that and no other place.” When he mentioned the green stick, Gusev observed, tears filled his eyes. ……………………………………………

In his last years, Tolstoy reached what could be considered his final conclusion, that the Law of Love outweighed the Law of Violence and overruled all mans laws. His green stick remaining a consistent metaphor.

In Letter to a Hindu Tolstoy relates the principles of passive non-violence to a young lawyer, Mahatma Gandhi who in turn goes on to influence Martin Luther King.

Malcolm Muggeridge, upon whom the green stick has a powerful influence which led in the end to discover Mother Teresa of Calcutta, described him thus:

"Tolstoy wrote. Everything Tolstoy wrote is precious, but I found this final statement of the truth about life as he had come to understand it particularly beautiful and moving. That is what I have wanted to say to you, my brothers. Before I died. So he concludes, giving one a vivid sense of the old man, pen in hand and bent over the paper, his forehead wrinkled into a look of puzzlement very characteristic of him, as though he were perpetually wondering how others could fail to see what was to him so clear - that the law of love explained all mysteries and invalidated all other laws."

"Tolstoy writes somewhere about a peasant belief that a green stick had been buried in the earth and would one day be found, and then all our troubles would come to an end. I think he half believed it himself, and was always on the look out for the green stick, until at last he grew tired of looking. Never mind. The fact that a man like Tolstoy could exist amounts in itself to a green stick. It is true that today his hopes seem more remote even than when he entertained them. Yet underlying the disappointed hopes was his faith in a single infallible guide, a Universal Spirit that lives in men as a whole, and in each one of us . . . that commands the tree to grow towards the sun, the flower to throw off its seed in autumn, and us to reach out towards God and by so doing become united to each other. Such was his last word, delivered to us, his brothers, who come after him"

Jeff, your post reminded me a very common-sense piece of knowledge but one that is very often forgotten.

Awareness of social problems, and willingness to solve them, doesn't arise suddenly and out of thin air. There is a lineage which is built over time through many small (and some large) contributions. It shouldn't be surprising at all that Tolstoy influenced Gandhi, who in turn influenced King.

But we forget these things. We forget that the ideas which Gandhi made popular, ideas like non-violence, were being developed and cultivated in an Indian context by many public figures and thinkers that came before him, and some of whom were his contemporaries-- people he borrowed heavily from, ideas he re-branded as his own. We forget that blockbuster speeches like MLK's "I have a dream" were built on the foundation of thousands of smaller attempts by lesser-known civil rights leaders to place the issue on the agenda.

Very academic sounding, I know.

How does this apply to social enterprise? It means that in terms of public awareness/education/media projects, it may not always be realistic to look for the "big bang" project that will put a cause past a tipping point. When we can do that, that is excellent. But sometimes it may be more realistic to assess where the issue is in terms of public acceptance and start to build from there.

Before we begin the holiday weekend, I thought I'd throw out a few more questions for discussion. 1. Personal reflections? Can any of you think of a film you saw, a news story you heard, perhaps a book or article you read-- which really changed the way you thought about a social issue and led to action on your part? Tracing this relationship between awareness and action is the million-dollar question for many of us- and it's very tricky.

1. Best practices on impact Can any of you who are in the public education/media business share an example of a successful project, how you measured its impact, and any reflections on what made it successful?
2. Profitable social media projects? Can you help me generate a list of media/storytelling projects on social issues (present or past) that have actually made money?

First, a quick response to Paula's second question asking for specific examples of profitable social media projects. One category to consider, though it's probably a bit outside the kinds of projects thought of as "social media," is children's educational television. Adults may view a polemical message directed at them with suspicion or indifference, and the comments above suggest the kinds of static such messages need to cut through to be effective and profitable. All the same, every parent wants their child to learn not only the practicalities of literacy or math, but also social and ethical development ... and parents are willing to pay for it so long as social, ethical, and pragmatic instruction are integrated. Whether it's Mr. Rogers or Sesame Street, children's educational television has proved to be profitable in both direct media sales and spinoff products; such programs also have global reach. Children's television has done this while being one of the first mass mediums to tangle with thorny social issues. To be more concrete: Sesame Street was one of the first ( and certainly one of the most-watched and longest-lived ) television programs to feature a racially-diverse cast, and it has continued to be on the forefront ( as far as mass-media are concerned ) of broad issues like environmentalism or peace. And having children ask questions about social issues often forces adults to confront those issues themselves.

I wonder whether this combination of practical learning and consciousness-raising gives cues for campaigns aimed primarily at adults. (As an interesting aside, many proselytizing religious orders do their best to combine practical education and entertainment with social causes. From the Jesuits to the Jehovah's Witnesses, the material they produce and the institutions they found do a surprisingly good job of integrating these two.) Only a small demographic consciously wants to discover more about a social cause. Almost everyone wants to be entertained and learn new skills. It's not inconceivable to leverage one to achieve the other.

Returning to questions 1 and 2 from the opening posting of this discussion, I'd posit that a partial answer to 1 may lie in 2, in the sense that there's nothing preventing a social-impact-oriented version of Nielsen, DoubleClick, etc. from being a profitable undertaking. That rating agency can be run as a for-profit business, and the objective ratings it provides could provide those public education projects that do rely on philanthropic or taxpayer funding with tools to go back to their funders and show measurable impact. I don't know if there have already been attempts to start such an independent agency or what the outcome of such a venture was, but it seems like the measurement aspect of social media is something that could be successfully cleaved from any given organization's core focus.

I also found Friends of Justice inspiring. Lydia, to followup on Paula's question, were you able to use any technological tools to track media impact? One possibility you may have considered was using something like Google or Lexis-Nexis Alerts to track the number and placement of stories written about Jena and Tulia immediately before and after a FoJ campaign, or to look for mentions of quotes by FoJ members or linkbacks to FoJ blogs or webpages in online media to generate a before / after comparison. Those sorts of tools could provide an immediately-quantifiable number or chart to rally the organization itself and attract outside funding. I know such services exist in the purely-commercial sector

just curious if you were able to find similar tools to help you out.

I also think that predicting and measuring impact is much easier in online than in offline media, particularly if the result you are trying to measure as a result of the awareness campaign is itself a purely online action. Certainly the massive shift in private-sector advertising from offline to online media suggests so. If the goal of an online awareness campaign is to get people to sign up for a email list, subscribe to an online petition, or even buy Fair Trade coffee from one of many online retailers, then thanks to the innovations demanded by commerically-oriented marketers, it's easy enough to track the trail from first impression to action. I fully admit that there are many limitations to such purely-virtual campaigns. Online media don't make sense in places without electricity, computers, and network connections; and the ultimate real-world impact of online petitions is questionable.

At the same time, it's possible to bridge offline and online media. If the goal of an online campaign is to get people to attend a political rally or organize their own local meeting, there are many well-proven techniques from the private sector to figure out exactly who arrived as a result of what campaign. You may, for example, offer some extra benefit to those who show up to a real-world event bearing one of several coupon codes disseminated via an online campaign.

It becomes more difficult for either purely-commercial or socially-oriented media to measure impact as the message becomes more abstract; continuing to leverage the innovations driven by the commercial sector may provide additional opportunities for social media.

Really important points all around, Josh. Thanks for your post. I found particularly valuable your thoughts on leveraging commercial innovations as well as the idea of a nielsen like rating agency, which echoes David's earlier comments. (Anyone know what already exists like this? )

On the rating agency (or any other move which would help in some sense to move towards a more cross-cutting way of measurement)- it strikes me this would be really great for measuring short-term impact. Long term impact on social change is something we really need better models for, across the industry (and particularly with funders involved). Otherwise, causes that are already fashionable will show better results simply because they're already fashionable.

On leveraging commercial innovation-- absolutely. My experience developing the online museum with the International Museum of Women (in which we did just that) echoes that thrust. I started out the Imagining Ourselves project (http://imaginingourselves.imow.org) thinking it would be just a book. However, leveraging the internet helped us reach huge numbers of people, and in countries we'd never dreamed of reaching. It was also very easy for us to measure that reach. Measuring page views and time on the site, however, is only a proxy for the question of changing hearts and minds

and causing changes in behavior. (Incidentally, you're right that the more specific and short-term the campaign, the easier to measure.)

I've asked some people representing a few of my favorite social media projects to post their thoughts on effective impact definition and measurement- so hopefully we might get more perspectives on this.

In the meanwhile, welcoming more suggestions for the list of profitable social media projects-- like Josh's one on children's media/Sesame Street. To add to that list, I'd suggest that Participant Productions is today's most high-profile example of effectively making social media for profit (and no, the Skoll folks did not pay me to say that). (http://www.realscreen.com/articles/magazine/20060301/page33.html?page=1)

I agree that measures of online behavior can only serve as proxies for changes of heart and mind. However, there are a few ways to make these more accurate proxies. Several companies, of which Meetup is the most prominent, have a goal of linking online and offline behavior. Although Meetup doesn't currently do this, I'd be curious to see if there's any way they can implement something like the "coupon code" idea in so you can see who comes to the meetup as a result of what online channels.

On the short-term / long-term measurement, I wouldn't discount the effects of cheap storage and processing power. While it's true that individual websites typically have a short-term focus in terms of tracking users, ad networks like DoubleClick / AdSense have a much longer memory and broader reach. DC has been around now over a decade, and if you've got the same cookie on your machine that you had when you first viewed one of their banner ads, they

at least in theory -- can track your movements online over that entire period. So lets say that today someone views a video produced by a social media house on refugees from Africa seeking political asylum in Europe. They take no obvious action on it for three years. But three years on, they perhaps see a news program on refugees from Africa, and soon after that, they sign up for a mailing list from an organization that tries to help these refugees. An ad network or Nielsen-like agency may well be able to track path this individual has taken -- as well as seeing all the paths people have taken to sign up for the mailing list -- and provide feedback to the original social media house three years later of how their impact has spread. This sort of cross-domain long-term tracking and behavioral profiling is what networks like DC / AdSense sell as their competitive advantage -- and what has privacy advocates dogging them.

"I wouldn't discount the effects of cheap storage and processing power."

Well said, and very true-- though privacy, as you mention, will be a paramount issue in your suggestions.

This is where we came in. A decade ago there were few who fully appreciated the central role of information toward innovation in the developing world and new ways of doing business empowered by web technology. A narrative that would eventually grasp Bill Gates in his creative capitalism just recently.

http://www.p-ced.com/History/tabid/57/Default.aspx

These were early days for spreading the word via the web. Instead, it was distributed open source on paper like the pamphlets of Tom Payne.

By 2004 having introduced P-CED in the UK, we used the same kind of leverage to form Friends of Beslan and deliver minor comforts while appeal funds were tangled in banking bureaucracy. As Facebook was being conceived to monetise and profit, conversely impromptu social networking took on a lesser known compassionate form.

Profit for purpose was our aim, social return on investment perhaps the measure.

Paula, thank you so much for drawing attention to these very important topics and highlighting PMC’s work. Population Media Center (PMC) strives to improve the health and well-being of people around the world through the use of entertainment-education strategies, like serialized dramas on radio and television, in which characters evolve into role models for the audience for positive behavior change.

One of the advantages of using serial dramas, as opposed to documentaries or single-episode dramas, is that they allow time for the audience to form bonds with the characters and allow characters to evolve in their thinking and behavior with regard to various issues at a gradual and believable pace in response to problems that have been well illustrated in the story line.

Just as important, entertainment programs forge emotional ties to audience members that influence values and behaviors more forcefully than the purely cognitive information provided in documentaries. As described in the social learning theory of Stanford University psychologist Albert Bandura, vicarious learning from others is a powerful teacher of attitudes and behavior. Next to peer and parental role models, role models from the mass media are of particular importance in shaping cultural attitudes and behavior.

Serial dramas to promote reproductive health have been remarkable in that they have attracted no serious opposition in any country. This stems, in part, from the thorough research that has been done prior to the development of the programs to measure audience attitudes and norms with regard to these issues. Characters for the serial dramas can then be developed who are very much like audience members, so that the show is in harmony with the culture. Through the gradual evolution of characters in response to problems that many in the audience also are facing, serial dramas can show adoption of new, non-traditional behaviors in a way that generates no negative response from the audience.

Because of the bonds that are formed over time between audience members and characters, and because of the commonality of problems between characters and the audience, audience members tend to accept these changes, even though they may challenge cultural traditions. Because they deal with issues that are as sensitive as sexual relationships and reproduction, it is especially important that such programs are designed not to build opposition or cause a backlash.

Throughout the course of projects implemented in each country, PMC systematically collects information that allows us to monitor and evaluate the progress of each program with a particular focus on the intended audience.

PMC uses a variety of methods to monitor and evaluate its programs. To monitor programs, PMC will often create listening groups. The listening groups are asked to keep diaries recording their reactions to the characters and storylines in the program. These diaries are collected and shared with the creative teams on an ongoing basis, to ensure that the program remains engaging, relevant, and comprehensible for listeners.

Listeners are also asked to write, call, or make visits to the radio stations that broadcast the dramas to convey their reactions to the programs and how the programs have affected them. PMC asks the radio stations to document this feedback from listeners and periodically collects the feedback to monitor the effects of the programs. Since one of the goals of our programs is to motivate listeners to seek reproductive health services, we often engage with service providers to document any increases in demand for health services that they experience in conjunction with the programs. We will also ask providers to ask new reproductive health clients about their reasons for seeking services and to document the number of clients reporting the serial dramas by name. If clients do not spontaneously mention that they were motivated to come to the clinic by the program, then they will be asked if they have ever heard of the program and whether they have been listening to it. We typically collect these service statistics throughout the broadcast period, in order to track the progress of the programs in creating behavior change. PMC also conducts periodic in-depth interviews and focus groups with audience members in order to directly gather their feedback. This feedback is not only used to monitor the success of the program, but is also given to the creative teams so they can make the programs more successful.

In addition to monitoring, PMC conducts a baseline survey prior to broadcast and an endline survey post-broadcast to evaluate program effects. The impact evaluation quantitatively measures changes in knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with regard to the issues addressed in the program.

The results from these evaluations have shown that PMC’s programs have created dramatic behavior change with regard to issues related to reproductive health and family planning, in a number of different countries.

In Ethiopia, 63% percent of new clients seeking reproductive health services at 48 clinics reported that they were listening to one of PMC’s serial dramas. In Nigeria, PMC’s program Gugar Goge was reported as the primary motivation to seek health care services by 33% of family planning/reproductive health clients and 54% of obstetric fistula clients. In Rwanda, 57% of new family planning adopters reported that their decision to visit the clinic was motivated by PMC’s program, Umurage Urukwiye; similarly, 59% of people seeking HIV tests indicated that they were motivated to seek testing from listening to Umurage Urukwiye. In Brazil, where PMC acts as an advisor to TV Globo, among viewers interviewed at family planning clinics, just over a third of clients age 18-24 said that scenes in Paginas da Vida served as a stimulus for them to seek a health service.

The serialized dramas that PMC is using to improve people’s lives are highly cost-effective because of the huge audiences they attract and the strong impact they have on the public. In Ethiopia, PMC’s first long-running radio serial drama cost just 4 U.S. cents to reach each listener.

I don't know about you all but I find these results extremely striking and impressive, hence why I invited Bill to tell us a little about his work. 59% of people getting HIV tests in Rwanda because they listened to a PMC radio drama, and with no serious opposition even though these are culturally fraught issues... This is the kind of documentable change that entire government agencies and UN bodies have dreamed of for decades.

Culling from Bill's comment, I take away the following lessons for those wishing to use storytelling for social change:

1) Repeat exposure

It is a basic tenet of marketing that people need to hear about an idea or product many multiple times before they actually take action on it (or buy the product). So no surprise here that a serial soap opera would stand more of a chance of driving the message home than a one-off movie for example.

This I'd posit as a general truth-- but there is certainly room for the tipping point model of opinion changing that

2) Role models

Just as people need to hear a message multiple times before they take action, every marketeer also knows that people are more likely to use information they get from people they trust. Best then, coming from friends and families-- but before you can generally reach deep penetration into social networks across a whole country, you have to use proxies to get the message inserted into these networks. This is the role of the characters of PMC's serial dramas- people that audiences grow a bond with over time, and come to have a (removed) form of trust with, such that they'l