Miss Jones

Last month I attended the "Twenty-Something Meet Up at the BlogHer Conference, facilitated by the fabulous andria. Julia Smith, who blogs at the idealist and was in the room asked "Where are the twenty something/millennial bloggers writing about social change, activism, and nonprofits?" I left room inspired to compile a living list. The next logical step, of course, is to start to get to know some of these bloggers by doing interviews.

Meet Miss Jones who blogs about what she is learning as a recent college graduate with her first full
time job in the nonprofit sector and as a young woman of color living in a new city trying to find herself.

1.) Tell me about you

I'm from Brooklyn, NY but left when I was 17 to attend Haverford College, where I graduated with a degree in sociology and education last year. My college granted me a fellowship after college to live and work in Philadelphia to learn more about the non profit sector. It was a challenging year but I learned a great deal about myself and became more interested in blogging.

I'm back in NYC which has been great thus far. The city is changing so much and there are so many people to meet and talk to, not to mention being close to my family. I'm the oldest out of 6 and grew up with my mom and grandmom. My experiences growing up have demanded that I be open to new ideas and constantly move forward while never forgetting the past.

2.) Tell me about your blog

I started Entry Level Living so that I could share my thoughts and experiences as a newbie in the nonprofit world and in the "real world" in general. I cover work related issues like generational differences, leadership among gen y and race related issues as it pertains to nonprofits; and personal issues like defining success and most recently dating people of a different generation.

The response has been wonderful so much so that I started a new blog GEN Y NY as a rescource blog of sorts for people my age looking to move to NYC and work in the non profit field in the city. Im open to suggestions and contributions for this blog!

3.) I understand you work for a nonprofit as the director of development and marketing and you're looking for ways integrate social media. How do you get other people in your organization on board with social media? Is there resistance? Any tips?

I just started this position and am still getting adjusted and assessing what changes (if any) need to happen to keep moving forward. I'm always brainstorming and am fortunate in that I have a great deal independence at work so unless it costs money my organization is ok with it :-) At the same time, Ive never been comfortable with just doing things that impact the entire organization without, at the very least, having the organization understand what is going on. So what I do is map out what my idea is in a detailed yet straightforward way and emphasize the benefits.

4.) What makes for a successful social media and fundraising integrated strategy for a nonprofit? What doesn't?

I cant speak from first hand experience on this one, but I do know from conversations with other schools and parents that keeping social media efforts donor/community centered is key. As well as being simple. For example, people use the website to get tangible info about the school like costs, location, classes, and programs. So emphasizing this is important. The mission is nice, but I cant honestly say how many people read it!

5.) You're a Gen Y - working for a nonprofit and represent the next generation of leaders in nonprofits. What's the most important thing for people in my generation who work with nonprofits to help support you?

Give us room for leadership development. I recently blogged about a great trend I notice at a lot of non profits: creating young professionals networks in order to get young people involved in various aspects of the organization from fundraising to marketing to outreach. The same kind of training and involvement offered to young people outside of the organization should be offered inside.

6.) As a Gen Y, who uses social media and social networks, what advice would you give to nonprofits about interacting successfully with people of your generation on socnets?

As I mentioned above non profits are starting young professionals networks which are great approaches to allowing young adults to get involved while connecting with like minded people. But honestly, I would have an excellent website before branching onto facebook or myspace. Your website is your first impression so make it a great one!

Beth Kanter, BlogHer CE for Nonprofits and Social Change, writes Beth's Blog.