Various groupings of stakeholders—including donors, members, staff, and constituents—have staged revolts against decisions made by nonprofit leadership. Although social media may have aided the revolts, we think they have emerged from a changing attitude toward the accountability of institutions, including nonprofits.
What do the worlds of fashion and speculative fiction have to do with nonprofits? Well, our sector has its own version of black tchotchkes—black people as clients and victims, not partners for a more human future for all. The exploitation of powerless identity narratives drives us still.
FROM THE ARCHIVE: “There is no single ‘correct’ strategy for leveraging digital media into movement power. There is, however, a set of practices that, when properly instituted, helps activist organizations adapt to the rhythms of the digital age,” writes David Karpf in this discussion of activism in today’s media landscape.
Nonprofit advocates allege that Facebook, by allowing purchasers of housing ads to select racial groups in ad targeting, has aided and abetted landlords wishing to engage in discriminatory practices that violate the federal Fair Housing Act.
This article is from the Nonprofit Quarterly’s Winter 2016 edition, “Social Media: The New Nonprofit Nonelective.” We’ve brought it forward today since the US Senate just voted to overturn the FCC’s revocation of net neutrality. Net neutrality, of course, aims to safeguard democratic access to the Internet where many nonprofits spend and accumulate social capital. While the Senate’s action is a positive step, the effort to restore net neutrality still faces many hurdles.
Internet-based rating sites may be highly imperfect indicators, but nonprofits and foundations ignore low workplace ratings at their peril. As the Silicon Valley Community Foundation is belatedly finding out, sometimes when you see smoke, there may be fire.
This partnership joins the social media giant, academic researchers, and several large foundations in an attempt to radically reshape the state of research on social media, civic engagement, and political participation. With that comes some risk.
This story suggests that ordinary people had a skeptical relationship with electronic media long before the Facebook fiasco. What kind of conscious resistance will it take to foster honest democratic dialogue?
The Hewlett Foundation is primed to finance studies on how social media platforms have helped weaken and polarize public discourse by facilitating the spread of misinformation.
Former employees of tech firms such as Facebook, Mozilla, Google, and Apple are saying that our overuse of technology is harming the fabric of our society.
