Greetings givers! My name is Jeff Achen and I’m the newest addition to the GiveMN team. I was hired on Jan. 4 as an interactive media strategist supporting GiveMN.org, the Minnesota Community Foundation, and The Saint Paul Foundation.

I’ll be managing the day-to-day operations, communication efforts and social media strategy for GiveMN. For the Minnesota Community Foundation and The Saint Paul Foundation I’ll be responsible for developing and executing social media strategy, print publications, and helping to build new marketing partnerships. I’ll also be heading up our communication team’s video projects, an aspect of our overall communication strategy that we’re very excited about.

Prior to joining the team, I was the online editor and multimedia producer for Thisweeklive.com. If you’re interested in hearing more about how I came to work for the Foundations and GiveMN, you should check out MinnPost.com blogger David Brauer’s blog. It’s a pretty interesting story.

It’s exciting to join the team in a time of such change, particularly in how we communicate and connect. Technology is playing an increasing role in our day-to-day lives, particularly in how we socialize, share opinions and information and form communities.

I can’t help but think about the implications of technology on philanthropy in the wake of the Haiti earthquake. Text message giving has really taken hold (with all of its pros and cons). But, none of the online and mobile giving could have been possible without the technology infrastructure. I’m talking about the high percentages of people with smart phones, the proliferation of text messaging across demographics and age groups, and the saturation of social networks into our daily lives.