Building community in your area? Check out the Community Organizers Handbook. Includes everything you need to start and grow a NetSquared Local group or any other community-powered program.
NetSquared is an initiative ofTechSoup
NetSquared enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.
DonorsChoose | Charles Best, CEO
What's *really* new on the Web, as opposed to buzzwords and soundbites?:
I love the websites of two other eBay charity models, Modest Needs and Global Giving.
Modest Needs is an online forum where individual needs for assistance are posted, and individuals can find and support those needs, which range from helping with monthly apartment rent or car payments.
Global Giving is a website that presents discrete inernational aid projects which donors can support. Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) workers or other international works can directly post microneeds project and citizen philanthropists can choose which projects to support.
Which tools best embody the new opportunities from your point of view and why?:
I love the "tell a friend" engine that many websites have -- it's a web tool which allows people to notify their friends of any given website via a web interface. DonorsChoose has one that helped spread the word to 21,000 people, who in turned learned about our organization and submitted online votes for us to win an Amazon.com Nonprofit Innovation award!
To date, we've raised $4.5 million with over 9500 proposals. The average project costs about $500; about half fully funded while the other half are funded by multiple donors.
Who's doing the best work with the new tools (technically or in terms of social benefit or both)?:
One thing that i should admit about DonorsChoose is that we have yet to figure out to how create community. we do not have discussion groups of donors, teachers, or online mechanisms to take place. right now students and teachers
We look to Meetup as an ideal commuity building vehicle and would be psyched if we could have a fraction of that organization's success.
What's the bad news? What are the greatest barriers preventing web-based technology from producing social change?:
I see web security and issues of protecting one's identity, especially over financial and data transactions (security of one's credit card information, etc.) as being of greater concern to the public.
Specifically about DonorsChoose: the challenge is that DonorsChoose constitutes a much more involved way of giving which involves a commitment of time. We do not operate the traditional way, by sending out letters in the mail and receiving checks in response; donors have to go to our website and spend some time doing research before selecting their project of choice to support. This brings a much richer experience for the donors, who may feel such a deeper sense of connection with the classroom and the giving process.
Subscribe
NetSquared Newsletters:
>>Subscribe to NetSquared News and other email updates.
NetSquared Community Blog:
>> Subscribe to the Community Blog RSS feed.
>> Subscribe to the Community Blog comments RSS feed.
