Meet the Giving Gurus

We wanted to give everyone access to some of the best-known experts on leveraging social media for social good out there. Learn more about these "Giving Gurus" below, check out their websites, and view recordings of their livestreamed Q&A sessions.

Allison Fine

Author and Activist

Allison is a Senior Fellow on the Democracy Team at Demos: A Network for Change and Action. She is the author of the award-winning book, Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, and has also published a paper on young people and activism commissioned by the Case Foundation, Social Citizens, co-edited a collection of essays of transformative ways to reinvent 21st century democracy using new media tools, Rebooting America, and co-authored an assessment of the Case Foundation's Giving Challenge with Beth Kanter. She and Beth are also co-authoring a book on the use of social networks for social change to be published in early 2010. Allison hosts a monthly podcast for the Chronicle of Philanthropy called Social Good and writes on her own blog, A. Fine Blog. Her articles have been published in the Boston Globe, San Jose Mercury Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, and she is a frequent contributor to Huffington Post, Personal Democracy Forum, Alternet and the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Beth Kanter
 

Beth is the author of Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media, one of the longest running and most popular blogs for nonprofits. A frequent contributor to many nonprofit technology web sites, blogs, and magazines, Beth has authored chapters in several books, including Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission: A Strategic Guide for Nonprofit Leaders, edited by NTEN and published in 2009. A much in demand speaker and trainer, she was the keynote speaker for the Cambodian Bloggers Conference, Connecting Up Conference, Minnesota Council on Nonprofits, Making Media Conference and others. She has presented about nonprofits and social media at some of the leading social media industry conferences including O'Reilly's Graphing Social Patterns, Gnomedex, SWSX, Blogher, and Podcamp. She is curating NTEN's "We Are Media: Nonprofit Social Media Starter Kit," an online community of people from nonprofits who are interested in learning and teaching about how social media strategies and tools can enable nonprofit organizations to create, compile, and distribute their stories and change the world. In 2009, she was named by Fast Company Magazine as one of the most influential women in technology and one of Business Week's "Voices of Innovation for Social Media." She is the 2009 Visting Scholar for Social Media and Nonprofits for the Packard Foundation.

Geoff Livingston
 

Geoff Livingston has worked as a public relations strategist in the Washington, D.C. region for more than 16 years. Dubbed a “local blogging guru” by the Washington Post, Geoff’s award-winning book on new media, Now is Gone, was released in 2007. The book has been cited by the Wall Street Journal as a valuable resource for social media. He sold his social media boutique Livingston Communications to CRT/tanaka in April of 2009. Some of his experiences include United Way of America, Save Darfur, the Goodwill of Greater Washington, Environmental Defense Fund, ChildFund International, the Campus Kitchens Project, the Philanthropy 2.0 Project, Network Solutions, Sully Erna (Godsmack lead singer), and many others.

Holly Ross

Executive Director, NTEN

Holly has spent more than five years at NTEN, combing through all the technology fads and listening to the NTEN community to line up the webinars, conferences, and research that will help members use technology to make the world a better place. From ubiquitous access to technology leadership to social media trends, Holly brings the wisdom of the NTEN crowd to the nonprofit sector. Holly is also editor of the book, Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission: A Strategic Guide for Nonprofit Leaders. Holly came to nonprofit technology after working for social change at CALPIRG and during her college days at UC Berkeley. In between meetings and emailing, Holly tries to raise her 3 year old daughter and occasionally pays attention to her fabulous husband.

Katya Andresen

COO, Network for Good

Katya Andresen is Chief Operating Officer of Network for Good, as well as a speaker, author and blogger about nonprofit marketing, online outreach, fundraising and social media. In addition, she is an adjunct professor of communications at American University’s Key Certificate Program and serves on the board of EarthShare. Katya has trained thousands of causes in effective marketing and media relations, and her marketing materials for nonprofits have won national and international awards. She is the author of the book, Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes and was featured in the e-book, Nine Minds of Marketing. She is also a co-author with Network for Good CEO Bill Strathmann of a chapter in the book, People to People Fundraising - Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities. Fundraising Success Magazine named her Fundraising Professional of the Year in 2007.

Marnie Webb

Co-CEO, TechSoup Global

As Co-CEO at TechSoup Global, Ms. Webb is the driving force behind the organization’s efforts to continuously innovate its services to help social benefit organizations around the globe better fulfill their missions. Under her leadership, TechSoup Global’s NetSquared initiative is in its fourth year of helping nonprofits worldwide use innovative web tools to increase their reach and impact. Having been with the organization since 2001, Ms. Webb most recently held the position of Vice President of Knowledge Services. A sought-after speaker and writer on nonprofit technology, Ms. Webb understands both challenges and technological possibilities facing the sector. She is one of the founding members of the Nonprofit Emerging Technology Exchange and an organizer of the NPTech tagging experiment. In 2008, Ms Webb won the prestigious NTEN “Person of the Year” award, and she was included in the Nonprofit Times’ list of the 50 most influential leaders in the U.S. nonprofit sector.

Sarah Koch

Nonprofit Coordinator, Causes

Sarah Koch is a Nonprofit Coordinator for Causes and focuses on helping nonprofits develop effective and impactful online campaigns. She received her B.A. in Sociology and Spanish from Luther College, looking specifically at the effect of acculturation and integration on Latin American immigrants in the Midwest. Since that time, she worked in the nonprofit sphere as a community health educator and grant writer for a local DC community clinic and transitioned into a fitting position leading communications and development campaigns on Causes.