A sold-out crowd of more than 150 members and guests came to Hewlett Packard for Full Circle Fund's Inspiring Leaders Series Event to network, learn more about our work in the community and listen to an inspiring talk about the power of online networking from Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes. After leaving Facebook, Chris was the Director of Online Organizing for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and has recently launched a new venture, Jumo.com.
First, members and guests enjoyed an hour of networking while sipping wine, beer, and tea, and tasting appetizers from Chaac-Mool Yucatecan Food, a La Cocina-incubated caterer. Full Circle Fund Founder and Board Chair Josh Becker kicked off the program by touching on how involvement in Full Circle Fund has helped many leaders build skills and advance to roles with greater responsibility, such as at the White House, and the Federal Communications Commission. He shared that he is personally embarking on a political career, and credited his involvement with Full Circle Fund as a key inspiration for wanting to participate as a leader on a state-wide scale. Josh then introduced Amy Lesnick, Full Circle Fund CEO, who expanded upon the connections between online networking and Full Circle Fund's use of the power of networks.
Amy welcomed our host and Member, Camilla Nelson of Corporate Partner HP, who spoke about HP's continued involvement with Full Circle Fund and its grantees. Global Economic Opportunity Circle Member Michelle Branch shared her personal experience as a new member of Full Circle Fund, and encouraged potential members to get involved. Finally, as is our tradition, our newest members were were officially welcomed.
Representatives from our three circles then addressed the group next with highlights from their recent work. Sarah Wigglesworth shared updates on the three projects the Global Economic Opportunity Circle is working on: La Cocina, SIRUM, and Self-Help Credit Union.
Chair Melanie Nutter announced that the Environment Circle recently chose four new grant projects, working with the organizations Imagine H2O, The Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry, Green Schools Initiative, and Rising Sun Energy Center. Last, Jeff Camp spoke about the Education Circle's work to promote systemic change in the California Education System, and encouraged the crowd to check out EACH, the new policy platform published by the Ed Circle.
Then, Full Circle Fund Board Member Mike Anders welcomed our keynote speaker, Chris Hughes. Chris focused on the four main lessons he learned from his work the Obama campaign and Facebook, the first one being, people want to learn. As Chris explained, "People want to know what others are up to; we all want to be in touch." He also found that people really want to know what’s going on in the greater world around them, and how to help and engage.
Next, Chris continued, people want to share. Using Facebook is one way that we define ourselves in a social context. The more comfortable people are online, the more they are willing to share and discuss their interests, values and more. And, the better the information we share, the greater our social capital becomes. For instance, Chris pointed out, Facebook created highly controlable privacy settings to ensure maximum comfort sharing.
Third, people usually take the path of least resistance. "In other words," he smiled, "people are lazy." The less friction presented, for example through a user interface, the more likely we are to act. On the Obama campaign, Chris's team tested and tested to see what interface design would most likely convert site visitors to donors.
Finally, people will engage meaningfully if you take them seriously. In other words, expect a lot and you’ll get a lot. The Obama campaign aimed to build long term relationships with all supporters. Chris shared an interesting finding: of all the videos the Obama team shared with their audience, the most watched was NOT any of the fun two minute videos, but rather the 40 minute long speech Obama gave on race. His conclusion: if you give your audience substance and expect them to handle it, they can and will.
Chris is taking these learnings and applying them to Jumo, his new start-up, which is about connecting people with causes, giving us the opportunity to engage in “real relationships of responsibility” as he describes it. Jumo means “Together in Concert” and helps people discover organizations and build real relationships with them. Chris's goal is to create a “chorus of individuals across world with a sense of personal responsibility and a compulsion to act.” (Thank you to member Amie Vaccaro who provided content for this recap, a portion of which was originally posted on TriplePundit).
About the Speaker
Chris Hughes
Co-Founder, Facebook Founder, Jumo.com Former Director of Online Organizing, MyBarackObama.com
Chris Hughes has spent his career developing technologies to make social communication and political organizing easier and more efficient. After co-founding Facebook in 2004, Chris worked first as the site's spokesperson and later as a product manager specializing in user experience. In 2007, Chris left Facebook to work on President Barack Obama's presidential campaign as the Director of Online Organizing, where he was charged with developing web technologies to engage and empower supporters. Chris oversaw the development of the on-site network My.BarackObama.com along with the campaign's distributed presence on all other networks across the web like Facebook and Twitter. After working in 2009 in venture capital for the firm General Catalyst Partners, he is currently embarking on a new initiative, Jumo.com, to apply his knowledge and skills to the field of global development.
Sponsors & Community Partners
Special Thanks
To Chris Hughes for being an inspiring speaker and to Mike Anders for introducing us to Chris, Camilla Nelson and the entire team at HP welcoming us to the HP space and coordinating the details, La Cocina for the wonderful catering and tasty food…Margaret Baggerly and Norma Kropelnicki of Tenuta Vineyards for the delightful wine…Thomas Minczeski and Julie Blaustein for capturing the evening's excitement on camera …Aili Ice Designs for creating the beautiful florals...Dan Curran of Devil's Canyon Brewing Company for the refreshing beer...Galaxy Desserts for the yummy treats...Christopher Kilday for the music...to Eventbrite for being our registration sponsor....and to all our awesome event volunteers: Lisa Bruggeman, Emily Jones, Levent Bas, Lindsay Norcott, Kirstyn Bay, Samantha Scherrei, Heidi Smith, Misty Carillo, and our wonderful volunteer leader, Ritu Sharma.
If you cannot see the photo slide show at the top of the page, view the photo set on Flickr.
