Resources+-+Case+Studies+-+RWJF—PreventObesity.net

//Overview://
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) was looking for a way to dramatically grow the reach of their program on Childhood Obesity. The foundation’s goal is bold: to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015. To get there they needed a strategy for scaling from the hundred or so communities that RWJF can directly support to engaging //thousands// of communities. The foundation is testing an experimental approach in partnership with Marty Kearns/Netcentric Campaigns to massively grow their reach. They’re creating a strategy and online infrastructure (__ PreventObesity.net __) to grow and connect a national network of activists working on obesity prevention.

PreventObesity.net is making it possible to “bring together a greater number of people who seek to improve the health of children, families and communities… to create a network that becomes smarter and more helpful as more people use it" (PreventObesity.net). Cultivating the PreventObesity.net advocacy network will give policy leaders in this space a sizeable and resilient network to draw on when they need to. **PreventObesity.net is not just a website; rather, it is a set of services, and those who use these services get hooked on the network. **

//What they’re doing://

 * //Figuring out the workflow of (potential) network participants//, to determine what tools / services are needed to help individuals who work in the obesity advocacy space do their job more efficiently (e.g., press lists and software to broadcast messages).
 * //Providing tools / services that cater to this workflow and increase network capacity//. By doing so, network members are motivated to engage for self-serving purposes.
 * //Monitoring how these tools / services are used//, and acting on this data to strengthen the network. While RWJF did not previously share or gather data on individuals involved with their initiatives, with PreventObesity.net they are actively collecting and mining user data. This is making it possible to gauge interest in certain topics, to inform individuals of opportunities, to make connections between network members with similar interests, etc.

//Results://

 * Results are tough to gauge at this point. Nonetheless, it seems as though the movement – which has reached some milestones on the “map of the movement” feature, hitting 1000 organizations and 1000 individuals signed up – is experiencing modest but steady growth.

//Lessons Learned://

 * Put the network, not the foundation, at the center. Rather than organizing around RWJF’s programmatic objectives, PreventObesity.net focuses on network participants and their needs, providing them with the tools they need to do their day-to-day work—and ultimately, helping to increase the capacity of the network to create change.
 * From the get-go, there needs to be clear management support from the top. This was been facilitated at RWJF by their Web 2.0 Philanthropy initiative, which engaged staff across the foundation, including communications, policy, and management, in an exploration of how the foundation could embrace Web 2.0 principles and increase their reach and impact (e.g., by operating in ways that are more open and decentralized).
 * Be open to challenging and changing current foundations practices and protocol. RWJF had to rethink its privacy policies to enable collection of user data on PreventObesity.net.

//Questions Addressed://

 * // What roles should the funder play? //
 * // How to support distributed action? //
 * // What is the network’s carrying capacity? //
 * // What network management tools are needed // ?

//Sources://

 * Initiative Website: [|www.PreventObesity.net]
 * Notes from 14 Jan 2011 discussion with Marty Kearns, available at: http://networksguide.wikispaces.com/Conversation+with+Marty+Kearns+on+Where+Network+Theory+Meets+Reality