Social impact professionals are still networking. Here are 4 ways they’re doing it

Networking is a huge part of Paul Nazareth’s life. 

As the vice president of education and development at the Canadian Association of Gift Planners, he spends a lot of time at conferences, networking nights, and dinners. Nazareth once estimated he attends roughly 250 such events a year. Nearly all of them were put on hold — at least in person — as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Networking in the social impact sector has changed profoundly over the course of the pandemic. LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media platforms have, of course, hosted networking discussions among professionals for years. But in-person conferences and networking nights remained the sector’s preferred forms of making professional connections until public health restrictions made such events irresponsible. 

What’s so different about networking during the pandemic, Nazareth says, is how un-organic it feels. A conversation that blossoms into a good networking session is as much about spontaneity as it is about planning. “Now, everything in the pandemic is the opposite,” Nazareth says. “It has to be an effort.” 

What do social impact professionals need to do to keep their networks alive — and build new ones — at a time when the next conference season is TBD? Social impact professionals say the answer lies in trying to recreate the strengths of in-person conferences within the videoconferencing or social media platforms available to us. The unstructured conversations at networking nights, as well as the leveraging of existing connections and informal mentorship of accelerators or other community spaces, can be translated to the virtual world. 

What do social impact professionals need to do to keep their networks alive — and build new ones — at a time when the next conference season is TBD?

Here are some ways to make that happen:

 

Create serendipity 

Networking nights, on their surface, may not seem terribly productive. That’s the point. “You don’t want to meet someone like your next boss or your next donor or someone you’ll collaborate with — for the first time — where all the pressure’s on,” Nazareth says. Roughly ten years ago, Nazareth started a series of pre-conference conversation events specifically designed to get attendees in the same room together without all of the expectations of a highbrow networking night. 

When the pandemic struck, that serendipity went out the window. Virtual gatherings are so much more focused on specific conversations or moments. “We found that challenging, to be honest,” says Kayla Isabelle, CEO of Startup Canada. “I don’t think we’ve found an alternative that has mimicked the networking that we’ve done historically. What we’ve actually found more successful is very small groups.” During the pandemic, Startup Canada ran a series of web-based mixer events with Economic and Social Development Canada and the federal Investment Readiness Program that gave entrepreneurs the chance to network in small spaces without an overly robust agenda. 

Nazareth recommends organizing virtual gatherings specifically focused around non-work topics — or perhaps nothing in particular. He points to an idea by Mark Jordan, a friend and former executive with Kids Help Phone who Nazareth calls “the mad scientist of philanthropy”: set up a regular series of morning coffee chats. Nazareth set up his own series of morning walks, where he and a guest would stroll in their respective neighbourhoods on a networking call. Nearly a year into the pandemic, he’s also got a podcast listening club going — anything to keep in touch with colleagues outside of work.

Nazareth is also bringing these ideas to the office. The Canadian Association of Gift Planners will be running unstructured networking times during its conference next year, a moment for everyone to hop on a Zoom call and simply chat before the main event. “Yes, it’s pandemonium. But do you know what? All networking events and conferences are pandemonium,” Nazareth says. “They’re loud and crazy and there’s wine. And we need a little more of that.” 

 

Take care of your community — even if that means less networking

At the Centre for Social Innovation, members of the Toronto-based coworking space made a point of gathering for what Tara Marina Pearson, CSI Annex’s community animator, calls “rituals.” Salad club, a chance for members to bond over greens, was on Wednesdays, a chance for members to connect informally without the pressure of representing their organizations or trying to pitch. When the pandemic first forced the organization’s various coworking spaces to close in March, one of CSI’s first priorities was a virtual salad club. “Our pivot, very quickly, was to try and take care of our community emotionally however we could,” she says. 

That included scaling back on some networking opportunities in favour of supporting CSI members during the pandemic. “We went hard on social connection and networking when we moved home, which was great,” Pearson says. “But we also can’t expect that all of our members are ready to dive into that.”CSI is focusing on developing what Pearson refers to as “core competencies” — basic skills social entrepreneurs will need in the future — and trying not to overwhelm its membership at a time when many people are understandably quite burned out. 

However, CSI is still offering virtual networking opportunities for its community to connect. Last summer, CSI ran a 100 person youth incubator program focused on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Meanwhile, CSI’s Social Entrepreneurship 101 course has moved online (and on Slack). 

 

Social media is your friend

Building connections on social media has been a part of networking in the social impact world for years. During the pandemic, it has arguably become the default way to network besides videoconferencing. Amanda Kennedy, an Indigenous innovator from the Oneida Nation of the Thames, says her Twitter account is a vital place to build new connections right now. “I realized that’s a very powerful place to utilize to make more networks,” she says. 

One of the two social enterprises Kennedy runs, Kuwahs^nahawi Enterprises, offers consultations to institutions and government around reconciliation. 

Kennedy says her Twitter activity brought her to the attention of Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry for a job. “That’s where people are going to find you right now,” she says. “There’s no meetings, there’s no events or conferences happening where you usually get your network. So you’re really going to have to learn how to have a strong presence on social media.” 

This also includes younger, tech-savvy social impact professionals. Nazareth speaks to young professionals at about 20 universities and colleges every year. One of his three major takeaways for them is signing up for LinkedIn. “That sounds like par for the course in 2020,” he says. “But remember, with Generation Z, there’s a huge backlash against social media.” Encouraging these professionals to see a LinkedIn profile as a replacement for the traditional resume is important — as a way to show off one’s skills, of course, but also to network and find a new job.  

When Nazareth first joined Twitter back in 2009, he says he didn’t post anything for the first year-and-a-half. “I just listened,” he says. He encourages anyone using social media to network in these times to do so as well — to take in what the social impact sector is saying and following and discussing. “And then, yeah, get out there,” Nazareth says. 

 

Seek out mentors

Networking is not just about finding a new boss or project. For young professionals, it can also mean seeking out a mentor to guide them through the early stages of their career. At Startup Canada, the pandemic made large-scale networking events impossible, but Isabelle says her organization put together more deliberate one-on-one conversations with entrepreneurs. “Having a suite of potential advisors and mentors in an informal mentorship capacity really worked well for us,” Isabelle says. “And that’s informing a lot of our programming for next year, really rooted in mentorship.” 

Mentorship is especially important for recent immigrants hoping to build a successful enterprise or career in Canada. “The form of building the business is through relationships, and it takes time to build a relationship,” says Svetlana Ratnikova, founder and CEO of Immigrant Women in Business. Her organization has had to stop running large networking and conference-style events in Toronto and Brampton, but is still trying to provide practical advice to entrepreneurs online. “It’s really important to help engage people, but in the same format — to share their stories and to share their needs,” Ratnikova says. 

As constraining as digital mentorship may seem compared to face-to-face meetings, it could more easily allow younger professionals to ease into important conversations with potential mentors or bosses. “I think it’s probably less intimidating to show up virtually than it is to walk into a room in real life,” says Charlene SanJenko, founder of PowHERhouse Women’s Leadership Accelerator. Her organization made a point of encouraging women who participate in their virtual networking events on Mondays, many of them in their 50s, to bring along their daughters or younger women in their networks. SanJenko says these virtual meetings offer a real opportunity for young professionals. “I think this is a great training ground,” SanJenko says.