Join us for the San Francisco Net Tuesday on September 9:
Involver: How Nonprofits Can Create Video Campaigns for Social Networks.
NetSquared is an initiative of TechSoup
NetSquared enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.
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PledgeBank
Supporting organization:
MySociety.Org
URL:
www.pledgebank.com
Project Description:
This is a tool for citizens and organizers who are willing to take action to make a difference if a certain number of others will also agree to take action. PledgeBank holds these commitments in a sort of moral (but not legally binding) escrow until the necessary number of pledges have been collected online, and then notifies the organizer and the pledgers of the outcome. Examples of commitments range from donating money to start a new nonprofit organization to volunteering time to a community project to purchasing a hybrid automobile. Pledgers can choose to become involved in both global and local initiatives.
Points of interest:
Many of us find ourselves saying, "I'd do my part if I were certain that other people would do their parts." And indeed, a lot of plans for community action seems ineffectual or just plain silly unless you know that others will join in. PledgeBank offers help in overcoming two crucial barriers to community action.
In some cases, a critical mass is needed to gather the person-power and other resources to complete a project; in others, individuals simply need to know that they are not acting in isolation. While nothing will ever completely free us from the need for hard work or from the possibility of failure in organizing community projects, this intriguing tool may be able to lighten the work by automating the process of finding out whether there's enough interest and commitment to move forward with a project.
