On the Changing Roles of Nonprofits
One need not work for a nonprofit to be attracted to the idea of utilizing the Net to spur social change. With increasing facility, group formation and coordinated intervention are being steered to serve the public good.
A timely example is chronicled over at the O’Reilly blog, where Joshua-Michéle Ross describes the rapid creation of Stimulus Watch, a website that enables discussion and voting on the “shovel ready” projects that are candidates for stimulus bill funding.
This capacity for “organizing without organizations,” as Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, calls it, poses a challenge to traditional nonprofits. Amidst nimble actions like Stimulus Watch, how might ongoing organizations utilize online tools to add value? How are the roles played by nonprofits evolving?
When it comes to interactions on the Net, I am reminded of the metaphor employed by student of social change Ric Young. He compares watching the online flow of ideas and networks to exploring activity under the ocean’s surface with a scuba mask. The Internet allows us to see patterns that were once hidden.
In a recent post by Amy Sample Ward and in an interview that she conducts with Clay Shirky, both don underwater goggles to examine the roles played by big nonprofit membership organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and the League of Women Voters. They discuss how these organizations might be more effective by pushing power to the edges, helping their members to connect with one another.
P&P publisher Ecotrust is a smaller organization, with client-specific projects that don’t quite fit this mold. So I was inspired to pull out my scuba gear as well. I added a comment to Ward’s post, highlighting ways that Ecotrust and others are utilizing the Net.
A couple of notes: First, I referenced the Journal of Philanthropy, when I should have written The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Apologies for the error. And while mentioning Ecotrust’s FoodHub project, I would also like to mention other regional food platforms that are in various stages of development around the U.S. They include MarketMaker, Red Tomato and Om Direct.
To follow this conversation, head over to Amy Sample Ward’s post at the Stanford Social Innovation Review. My comment is the third one down. As a follow up, here is my post on architectures of participation; and here is a description of Ecotrust’s tools for social learning. Your thoughts are most welcome.
