Social Network Analysis and Development

We increasingly operate in a world where no one organization or individual can make the difference. Learn how to analyze and develop your network.

Social Network Analysis

We work with you to collect meaningful data from various stakeholders and partners in order to develop a visual map of the network around a particular issue or mission. The map will provide insights about connectivity that will lend themselves to asking and answering questions such as:

Who is not connected to each other but should be because they are working in complementary issues or within the same region?
Where are the gaps in activity and service that our network isn't providing?
Is the distribution of resources meeting the needs of the network?
Who are the gatekeepers or influencers that should be engaged to drive changes in opinion and behavior?
How do deepen existing relationships to make the network more cohesive?
How do we deal with conflict across different organizations with different interests?

Strategic Network Development

Such questing from the SNA can lead to pursuing a variety of network building strategies to achieve collective impact:

Develop a collective agenda amongst organizations and individuals with similar foci of concern
Create Individual network building plans for organizational staff playing a network weaver or community organizer role.
Determine how to measure collective impact across a range of civil society/nonprofit/NGO, government and private sector actors.

Learn More by Reading Our Blogs on this Topic

Technological Innovation and Networks in the Nonprofit Sector

Submitted by Stephen Rockwell on Tue, 06/08/2010 - 15:40

A growing interdependency exists between government, networks and the private sector facilitated by information and communication technologies and a networked mode of organization that encourages cross-organization and cross-organizational interdependencies. “Networks allow innovative government officials to discharge government’s important role in solving social problems, by supporting – not supplanting – functioning elements in civil society.”1

Iran's Revolution 2.0

Submitted by Stephen Rockwell on Tue, 09/22/2009 - 01:37

We often hear that technology is value-neutral. The argument goes that the new technologies and communication tools can be used for good and for evil. I actually disagree. The communication tools themselves lend themselves to the different forms of social and political arrangements. For example, the invention of the printing press fundamentally changed who had access to learning and how quickly ideas could spread.

The Role of the Online Community Manager

Submitted by Stephen Rockwell on Mon, 09/21/2009 - 23:41

Over the last couple of months, I have seen more and more job postings from innovative nonprofits that are hiring for online community manager positions. This is a welcome sign that we are fast reaching an inflection point in the adoption of 2.0 technologies. Whether creating new positions or adjusting current positions, nonprofits are adjusting their human resources to meet the growing demands of building online community.

There a number of skill sets that one ought to look for when hiring the online community manager:

online community manager