Geotagtastic Subcategoodness!

We are very excited to share a couple of new ways to view our collection, each adding a new perspective on nonprofit research. We're all big-picture-meets-devil-in-the-details over here, and a whole new meta-take on nonprofit produced research is aloft!

Subcategories - Our Research Contributors have been busy creating a tres unique tag cloud for all of us research wonks. In addition to cross-referencing research in up to three issue areas, subcats let our contributors interrelate research on a much more descriptive and nuanced level. An example: browse the subcat "at-risk youth" and you'll find listings under Children and Youth, Crime and Safety, Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor, Health and Medicine, Nonprofits and Philanthropy, and Religion. Pretty cool, no?

Access subcat information by visiting our new "Browse by Subcategory" option. As well, clickable subcats now appear on any listing page that has been subcategorized. Look for these cute little subcats in the "Related Research" area on the right-side of research listing pages.

Coverage - You can now take a look at our listings from about a gazillion feet up -- literally if you like. Approximately 1,000 research listings in IssueLab's archive now include information about the geographic area covered by the research in question. Our coverage data runs the gamut from continents to neighborhoods/points-of-interest. Two ways to get geo with IssueLab:

1) Any listing that includes coverage information now includes a Google map and clickable list of locations. Click on a location and get a drill-down view of listings with similar geographic info. Or,

2) Visit our new "Browse by Coverage" option and take a trip to your favorite locale via our clickable list of geo points.

Enjoy!

Common(s) Sense for Communications Staff

Would you password your website? Or make twitter updates private? How about hiding your facebook fan page so it doesn't appear in search results? That wouldn't make much sense. Neither does using restrictive copyrights for work you produce to further your nonprofit mission. Yet, a majority of the third sector still has difficulties using Creative Commons.

Is it because we're unfamiliar with the options? Are nonprofits worried about how their writing and research might be used by others? Beth Kanter is an avid supporter of Creative Commons (another reason to jump on the bandwagon!) and this post includes great resources, articles, and remixes that make a strong case for open licensing in the nonprofit framework.

For foundations, the choice may be a bit more difficult. As this Berkman Center for Internet and Society report notes, foundations don't usually apply open licenses to funded work (with a few notable exceptions!), since it's often produced by consultants or grantee organizations. Still, blogger and philanthropy consultant Lucy Bernholz advocates for opening up foundation content and has some good ideas on information sharing and creation.

Here at IssueLab, we're big supporters of open licensing. Whether you work for an advocacy or direct service organization, a research institute or a foundation – here is why you should start thinking about using Creative Commons (CC):

1. Increase your exposure – Share and share alike. It's a simple concept and can work wonders for your visibility online. When readers know your research (photos, website, video, etc.) carries a CC license, they know it's ok to share your work. The rules are clear, and your constituents don't have to ask for permission when they want to use your ideas, which is a huge deterrent for online sharing. Remember: the more you share with others, the more they'll use, quote, recommend, share, and reference in turn.

2. Sustain impact of your work – There are many reasons why restrictive copyrights stunt the potential impact of your work. Open licenses = open access, and this means you can be in more spaces online for the life of your organization and beyond. Publishing a report is not the end of the line; your CC-licensed work can continue to circulate and inform audiences independently of your active outreach and organizational capacity.

3. Expand innovation in your field – Depending on the CC license you choose, your audience has the opportunity to be really creative with your ideas. One of the main goals of nonprofit research, after all, is to evaluate what works and to build upon lessons learned. This is how we find practical solutions and spur social innovation. Applying an open license to your work can encourage people to repurpose or remix information into ideas, programs, events, data or campaigns that have never before existed. Imagine the possibilities!

4. Get credit – Don't we all like to get credit for our content and ideas? Creative Commons makes it easy (yes, easier than the old standard copyright) to receive proper and specific attribution for work you share. Contrary to what you may have heard, an open license like Creative Commons doesn't just make your content a "free for all," but actually requires users to credit and cite you explicitly in a manner of your choosing. The CC-image used in this blog post? Check out the citation at the bottom - it's a simple copy & paste from the "some rights reserved" link on the flickr photo page. Easy!

Not convinced yet? Agree completely? No time for licensing issues? I'd love to hear your comments!

"Common Sense" image:

simone_brunozzi / CC BY-SA 2.0

What Makes Nonprofits Laugh?

Ok, I'll admit it. I spend a lot of time, probably too much time, thinking and talking about the subject of identity. Not just any identity but specifically the group identity of the nonprofit sector. I admit it, it's a bit niche, but so is this blog. So I figure I am in safe company bringing it up. Actually I am hoping that I might even get an answer to my latest question on this topic.

The fact is I am not alone when it comes to this obsession with "nonprofitness". For a taste of just how big this question is and how active the discussion around it is you can just look at the comments elicited by Tony Wang's blog post "Where is Philanthropy's Community" from a few months ago . Or for that matter check out the 10+ years of discussion on Charity Channel's listservs for an incredible glimpse into how the nonprofit group identity has been developed and negotiated over time. There is of course no shortage of interesting writing (both academic and practitioner based) being done on this subject. When I can carve out some time in the near future I will definitely post a bibliography on the topic!

But this off-hours obsession isn't just a hobby, it also directly informs our work here at IssueLab. In many ways we are trying to walk a fine line between wanting to cross-pollinate niche communities within the sector (which most often attach to either issue areas or professional roles) and recognizing that people primarily use our site to find research on a particular topic. I have talked about the interdisciplinary nature of our work on this blog before and regularly talk to folks in trainings and presentations about how the lack of a single "water cooler" for the sector affects our strategies for knowledge sharing. And for the most part I encourage people to accept this reality while still trying to get the folks who work on housing issues to read my emails about art education.

So last night I started to wonder about the role of humor in all of this. Because, honestly I was thinking about what a nonprofit version of the Onion might look like. "Nonprofit Logic Model Proves to be Illogical" "Beth Kanter Launches Print Newsletter"?

Is the fact that the sector doesn't have a resident satirist or that the Chronicle doesn't run a regular cartoon evidence that we take ourselves too seriously (and then blog about it no less)? Or are we simply concerned that other people won't take us seriously? Or is it more evidence that we don't really have a nonprofit group identity? I mean a joke really only works when it resonates with the common experience of the audience. When I first moved to Chicago I actually interviewed for a job with a labor cartoonist. That's right - all he did was cartoons about the labor movement and people ate it up! Could we even accomplish something like this for the nonprofit sector?

Maybe this is a question for the Nonprofit Congress or the Independent Sector but I am not sure they would add it to the agenda so I thought I would ask you instead. What would your Nonprofit Onion headline be? I know it's sort of silly but I kind of think it's worth thinking about and playing around with. Because after all, those NP Onion headlines might represent the places/spaces/topics where we come together, where we cross-pollinate ideas and experiences, and er um where we might even share knowledge.

Image provided under a CC license by

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonymadrid/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Nonprofit Career Month: Discover Your Niche

Really, there's no better way to learn about the third sector than from those who know best: nonprofits. Whether you're preparing for a career at a nonprofit or just researching the landscape you're looking to change, keeping in touch with your field is important. To help narrow the search, we've put together a tagged collection on nonprofit employment that includes information on leadership development, nonprofit governance, community organizing, employment and wage data, and much more.

For more information on Nonprofit Career Month and to find additional resources, be sure to visit www.nonprofitcareermonth.org It's the pilot year for this Idealist campaign, which “dispels common myths about nonprofit work, provides individuals with entry points to the sector, and allows current and aspiring nonprofit professionals to share expertise.” There, you'll also find the full version of my post on the topic with more details on what's in our special collection and how to use it!

What's your niche? Have you found research on IssueLab that was helpful in your new job? Leave a comment to let us know!

FRPAA: an acronym we can (and should) all get behind

IssueLab just posted a statement in support of FRPAA. FRPAA stands for Federal Research Public Access Act (S.1373) and that stands for good.

In a nutshell, (and I'm swiping this paragraph from the Alliance for Taxpayer Access (ATA) folks because they said I could):

FRPAA legislation would require that any federal agency with a budget of $100,000,000 or more earmarked for extramural research develop a policy on public access to publicly funded research. Among other things, the legislation would require government funded research papers to be made available in publicly accessible Internet archives within six months of publication in a peer reviewed journal, and would ensure the long-term preservation of, and free public access to, the published research finding in a stable digital repository.

Being an open access archive of social policy research, IssueLab is very much in support of the FRPAA. Social policy research, just like scientific, technological, and medical research, builds on past attempts to dissect, understand, prescribe, evaluate, and ultimately share newly generated knowledge, which in turn starts the process of furthering knowledge all over again. Mandates such as the FRPAA encourage and strengthen this process. Improving access to publicly funded research will only help researchers from all backgrounds, including those at nonprofit organizations who work toward solutions to social ills, build on past findings, accelerating innovation that can improve countless lives.

Please check out ATA's very informative site re: this legislation and join us in supporting this cause!