The Siren Song of Online Advocacy
Nonprofits have to start thinking beyond the ways they can get people to participate in specific, curtailed campaigns to the opportunities for taking advantage of the creative thinking and passion in their communities of supporters.
In both advocacy and fundraising, it’s clear that the best resources for nonprofits are the members of that elite group of super-active supporters, but nonprofits are only tapping that resource in predetermined, well-understood ways.
An Old Friend and New Thinking about Sports Journalism
My awesome friend John, a blogger, journalist, and thinker about life’s big and small challenges, has been quietly racking up a very impressive list of news coverage lately for his new project over at Northwestern’s Intelligent Information Lab. The project is Stats Monkey, a system that takes box scores and other statistical information about sports [...]
The Groundswell of Advocacy
Today was a perfect day to be thinking about the groundswell and advocacy. At about 11 this morning, President Obama’s official Twitter page sent a tweet asking people to call their member of Congress and express their support for health reform. The goal was 100,000 calls to Congress, but they had reached their goal within [...]
advocacy 2.0
MoveOn has had phenomenal success with this strategy, and has had an impact on the public discussion of domestic and foreign policy far beyond that of much older, more experienced nonprofits. It’s possible that MoveOn’s opposition to the Iraq war fundamentally altered the political conversations about the presidential election and was a significant factor in a perfect convergence of factors that allowed Obama to win the election.
Linking for Women’s Empowerment
In India, New Seat of Power for Women – Washington Post
Women in India, where sex-selective abortion has made men disproportionately more common in the population, women are leveraging their relative scarcity and making suitors pay for a toilet in their homes, thus preventing disease and improving health in rural and poor communities. The government-supported initiative has been far more successful than other programs, including one run by the World Bank.