The web 2.0 hype is beginning to make an impact in the political and activist sphere. Two examples are dotherightthing.com and change.org.
Dotherightthing.com is the capitalist’s approach to changing the world, relying on markets and information to make all the difference. Here, people gather to rate the impact of a company’s actions on the world. It’s an interesting approach and may work well in some cases. Then you have examples like Philip Morris getting a positive impact rating for a $50K charity project in Vietnam. Given that their core business is to kill people by selling addictive substances, I wonder whether the “let’s reward them when they do good and punish them when they do evil” approach is really applicable to all companies. Market forces also make little difference when we’re not talking about domestically mass-marketed products but, say, the international trade in land mines. At some point, the discussion needs to go to another level, political regulation and control.
With dotherightthing.com itself being a for-profit, we also have to wonder how they will behave if they do become successful, and how susceptible the whole thing is to PR. That said, it’s certainly an innovative platform, and I wish them well. The market principle is complemented nicely by change.org, a navigation tool for finding ways to make a difference — and connecting people with NGOs which are already working to do so. In true web 2.0 style, the page opens with a tagcloud, but one which is actually useful, showing the issues most people care about. For each issue, there’s a page which allows people to post blogs, videos, images — and importantly, links to relevant organizations and networks. I’m not seeing any meetup.com style features, which could make things even more exciting.
The whole thing seems pretty well thought out, with a clean UI that makes the gimmicks unobtrusive. The software itself does not appear to be open source, nor do I find any information about the organization that runs the project. But they support donations through JustGive.org and get their NGO list from GuideStar, so they seem to know what they’re doing.
These are some very important first experiments, and I think things will get very interesting soon. Once we have a good idea what works and what doesn’t, open source components to replicate the success models won’t be far off, no matter what the originators do. There are two areas where similar experimentation has yet to happen on a large scale: direct democracy, and distributed fundraising.
February 10, 2007 at 12:00 am
Another company that works for social change is Firstgiving.com. Firstgiving is a website lets anyone set up a free personalized fundraising page for any non-profit registered through GuideStar. After you set up your page you can promote it through your blog or various social networks using their email importer, fundraising widget, and Firstgiving badge. These tools can help mobilize your online network (friends on Facebook, MySpace, etc) to support you and your non-profit of choice. At the end of the campaign, Firstgiving directly transfers any funds raised to the non-profit.
February 19, 2007 at 12:33 am
Hi Erik,
I couldn’t find an email address or contact form for you, so am using the Comment field. I hope you’ll find this of interest and that you’ll blog it, as more people will see that than will spot something buried on the comment page.
You note that DoTheRIghtThing.com is a business, but may have been mislead by the .org domain used by Change.org, which is also a business (although they aren’t very clear about it on their site).
There’s another site for sharing your passions about changing the world, and that site is http://www.ChangingThePresent.org. It’s the donation site of ImportantGifts, a 501c3 nonprofit. ChangingThePresent lets you choose exactly what you want to do to make the world a better place. For just a few dollars, you can choose from among such opportunities as:
• preserve an acre of the rainforest;
• provide cataract surgery to make a blind person see;
• provide a child with her first book;
• fund an hour of cancer research;
• shelter refugees;
• feed the hungry
• and many more
Browse by cause, see what experts or friends suggest, or search by name for your own favorites. With thousands of specific donation opportunities addressing virtually every cause, you’re sure to discover something that moves you.
When birthdays, weddings and holidays roll around, donation gifts made in a friend’s name offer a wonderful way to show we care, instead of buying yet more stuff. After all, how many of us really want another fruitcake or fuzzy slippers? Imagine, for one delicious moment, how much we could accomplish if even some of the $250 billion we spend each year buying presents went instead to donation gifts that do good. Wish lists and registries ensure we get the perfect gift, while personalized, printed greeting cards announce this more meaningful way of showing our love. The site is both a tool to facilitate and also a catalyst to promote this social norm.
Profile pages with favorite causes and favorite nonprofits let us share our enthusiasm and passions with others. Giving becomes more than a transaction; it becomes a way to share your interests and passions with others.
The deep expertise behind ChangingThePresent is seen in a Board of Advisors with over 150 prominent leaders from the nonprofit sector, as well as innovators from the worlds of business and technology. Among them are the heads of:
• Ashoka
• Center for Global Development
• FINCA International
• Grameen Foundation USA
• International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
• Lance Armstrong Foundation
• Rainforest Alliance
• Sesame Workshop
• Sierra Club
Finally, be sure to visit the Stupid Gift Hall of Shame, which memorializes those gifts we hope never to receive. Submit your favorite for a chance to win a sweet prize: pints and pints of Ben & Jerry’s.
A final word on the efficiency of alternative donation portals: Donation portals need to charge a transaction fee to cover at least their credit card costs. ChangingThePresent has the lowest fees, so more of your money gets to the nonprofits you want to fund.
Change.org 4.5%
ChangingThePresent 3% and 30 cents