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At the Case Foundation we believe strongly in taking risks, pushing the envelope and experimenting with technology in order to better understand how it can be leveraged for social good. Yesterday was an experiment in all of these things as we opened the “virtual” doors to the Millennial Donor Summit.

Conducted exclusively online, the conference set out to engage some of the most forward thinking voices in Millennial giving and engagement. We will be sharing a lot of take-aways from our event, both in terms of sharing the rich content and discussions that came out of the sessions, as well as the logistical back end work involved with conducting an online convening.

Our thanks go out to all who made the day a success -- our speakers, our participants from across the country who tuned in from coffee shops, conference rooms and hotel lobbies, and of course, to our partners at Achieve and JGA.

Here’s a quick round up of some of the stories and posts from around the web that covered the event and discussion topics. And the conversation continues on Twitter using the hashtag #MDS11.

• How To Get Fire in Your Organization’s Belly: Key Insight from the Millennial Donor Summit (Beth’s Blog)

• 7 things I learned about Millennial Engagement from Mr. Youth (Katya’s Nonprofit Marketing Blog)

• Live blogging from the 2011 Millennial Donor Summit: Exploring the Latest Millennial Research (Amy Sample Ward's Version of NPTech Blog)

• A fireside chat with Jean Case at #MDS11 (Nonprofit Nate)
• Microvolunteering: Small Jobs on Your Own Time #mds11 (Kivi’s Nonprofit Communications Blog)

• Live blogging from the 2011 Millennial Donor Summit: The Generational Divide (Panel Discussion) (NTEN)

• Philanthropy’s Community: Observers, Fans, Evangelists & Ambassadors (Tactical Philanthropy)

• Applying Social Storytelling to Strategic Online Fundraising (Geoff Livingston)

If you missed out on the Summit, don’t worry – you can still catch all the action by registering for post-Summit access to all of the videos on www.mdsummit11.com.

If you’re a Trekkie, you’ll remember those words from the best episodes of the best version of Trek: The Borg on TNG. The folks at NTEN are doing a terrific job with a great new wiki called We Are Media, a hub of discussion on ways to use social media for social change. Last week the topic was how to overcome organizational resistance to using social media, a dilemma often faced by tech-savvy younger staff swimming upstream in organizations led by older folks who are wary of new tech.

Elliot on the NTEN Techsoup blog has a great summary of the discussion that ensued about ways to overcome organizational resistance to using social media. And here’s a great nugget from Erin:

Some boards and EDs only understand numbers; they want to see something that is effective and has some kind of return on investment. So – educate yourself on the numbers. Look at case studies, and talk to other nonprofits who are using social media effectively to find out how it worked for them. When you can show examples and facts with numbers attached, it ups your game quite a bit. Also, remember that social marketing is not about having a good MySpace page (argh). Get away from saying things like “we should be on MySpace” to start a conversation, and instead approach it strategically, with something like, “Social media is a powerful tool, and if we think strategically about it, we can leverage that tool to build relationships with people who will give more money and take more action on our behalf.”

There’s lots more there to click around and learn about how other folks are inching their organizations forward.